Chapter 458 The “Pearl” of the Pacific

Archduke Ferdinand received a warm welcome in East Asia. In fact, it is not difficult to understand. Archduke Ferdinand's most important identity is actually the Archduke of Austria and the younger brother of Emperor Franz. This identity even without the East African Fleet Bonuses will also be received courtesy of East Asian countries.

The East African Navy also took advantage of the opportunity to complete the purpose of this visit and showed its face in East Asia, which let East Asians know that there is a country in East Africa in the world. After all, there are only a few countries in this era that can send ironclad ships to East Asia.

After completing this mission, the East African Navy could turn back. However, Archduke Ferdinand thought that he should visit Alaska. After replenishing supplies in East Asia, he headed to the royal territory of Alaska.

…

Alaska Crown Land.

As the isolated overseas territory of the Hechingen royal family, it has a total population of more than 90,000 people, of which 30,000 are the army alone. It is an area truly controlled by the army. And this state may continue for a long time until the East African navy is really capable of law enforcement across the ocean.

The population of the Alaska Crown Territory is mainly distributed in the southern temperate marine climate area. The climate type is the same as that of Western Europe, but in fact it is very different.

The temperature in southern Alaska is lower than that in Western Europe, and the precipitation is extremely high. The annual precipitation is more than 1,500 mm. The reason for this is that Alaska is mainly mountainous, while Western Europe has vast plains, the terrain is elevated, and the water vapor is more abundant. Easily condenses to form rainfall.

"A few years ago, I transited here to go to East Africa. Now it's really emotional to visit this place again!"

Archduke Ferdinand will never forget that day when he was put into a sack and carried on horseback. The bumpy journey made Ferdinand faint. When he opened his eyes again, he had already woken up on the way to Alaska. On the ship, so Alaska can be regarded as the turning point of Archduke Ferdinand’s fate.

In Alaska in August, the temperature is around ten degrees Celsius, which is generally relatively cool, and the coastal areas are full of life.

The agriculture in Alaska is mainly based on potatoes and wheat, so you can see a large number of developed farmland near the settlements in Alaska. The development of these farmland is not as easy as in East Africa, because the main residents of the Alaska royal territory are immigrants, and there are no East African "laborers". Cheap labor is available.

There are some Eskimos in the royal territory of Alaska, but the number is almost negligible. Moreover, the Eskimos live in an environment of ice and snow and have almost no interaction with the residents of the royal territory.

In this way, the development of the royal territory can only be completed by immigrants themselves, which is not as efficient as East Africa. However, it also makes the sparsely populated Alaska royal territory gain some popularity.

At the same time, Alaska’s fishery resources are also relatively rich, so Alaska’s fishing industry is also very developed. This is different from the situation in East Africa. The ships in East Africa are almost dominated by Ernst's private fleet, while the fishing boats in Alaska are all built by Alaska immigrants themselves.

Because fishery resources are one of the important sources of livelihood for the residents of the Alaska Crown Territory, private boats are very common in Alaska, and almost every household has a small fishing boat.

The civilian shipbuilding industry in the Alaska Crown Territory is more developed than that in East Africa. Of course, this development is only due to activity. In fact, the fishing boats in the Alaska Crown Territory are not very technical. They can go out to sea for fishing, but have no other capabilities.

The coastal areas of the Alaska Crown Territory are well developed, but Alaska is not keen on developing the interior. In addition to not developing it itself, it also needs to prevent outsiders from entering Alaska. From the establishment of the Crown Territory to this year, the Alaska Royal Guard has a total of More than 20 groups of foreign expeditions who wanted to enter Alaska were driven away.

Some people want to pursue Alaska, but most of them are private groups. As a result, the Hechingen royal family's largest investment in Alaska is the military, so the number of Alaskan troops accounts for 30% of the total population.

This is also a helpless move. As the weakest force in the region, it can only focus on military technology. However, the defense pressure of the Alaska royal territory is mainly at sea, so the Alaska royal territory has a small fleet, mainly small gunboats. , used to expel illegal fishing boats from Canada and the United States and prevent them from landing in Alaska.

Of course, the Alaska Crown Territory is relatively restrained. As long as it is not in the offshore area of ​​the Alaska Crown Territory, they usually turn a blind eye and close one eye and fish on the "high seas". The Alaska Crown Territory has no objections.

After all, if these foreign fishing boats are really not allowed to get some seafood in the Gulf of Alaska, then these foreign fishing boats themselves are not easy to mess with. They also have their own interest groups behind them, but that's all.

Every step in the Alaska royal territory must be taken with caution, but don’t worry too much. The United States and Canada are not too interested in Alaska. In addition to Alaska’s good armed forces, there are also correct decisions. They gave the Russians the southernmost territory in the first place. A piece of land was left so that other countries in North America that wanted to invade the Alaska royal territory from land had to pass through Russian territory first.

The only way to enter Alaska is from the interior without passing through Russian territory. However, the terrain of Alaska's interior is already steep, and the snow that does not melt all year round makes it possible to pass such a dangerous climate environment. The difficulty is no different from the German attack on Siberia in winter.

Therefore, it is an impossible task to organize a large-scale army to attack the royal territory of Alaska through the interior. The threat mainly lies at sea.

However, as the East African Fleet circled the Gulf of Alaska, ordinary people really cannot underestimate the strength of the Alaska royal territory.

In September, Archduke Ferdinand inspected the conditions throughout the Alaskan Crown Domain.

"The royal territory of Alaska needs more advanced communication equipment. If possible, it would be best to lay a telegraph line directly to the Jiaozhou area."

"The area of ​​the Alaskan crown territory is too large. Even if the population is mainly distributed in the south, the land in the south is too large for 90,000 people. The distance between each settlement is too large, so it is best to use telegraphs to connect these settlements. , to facilitate the unified management of the Alaska Royal Territory Military District.”

"Connecting with the telegraph line to the Far East can increase East Africa's control over the Alaskan crown territory. Relying on mail ships to deliver messages is too slow."

This was the suggestion given by Archduke Ferdinand after his inspection. In fact, if conditions did not allow it, Ferdinand would have wanted to set up a squadron for the navy in the royal territory of Alaska.

The Alaska Royal Guard has its own separate naval system. This is because the Alaska royal territory does not belong to the East African Kingdom, but only belongs to the Hechingen royal family. In theory, it is on the same level as East Africa. This is not surprising. To this day, Constantine is still Where is the monarch of the Princely Kingdom of Hechingen! If he wanted to, Constantine could return to Prussia and become his own prince, but there is no need now.

"At the same time, the navy of the Alaska Crown Territory should be merged with the navy of our kingdom, so that they can receive more systematic naval training, and at the same time, they can effectively link up to ensure the global interests of East Africa."

Mosquitoes are still meat no matter how small they are. Archduke Ferdinand was very interested in the Navy of the Royal Territory of Alaska. Although this small navy with small gunboats as its main combat vessels is not of great use now, the future is uncertain because of the excellent quality of Alaska. There are many harbors and it controls the Bering Strait, so Archduke Ferdinand believed that the strategic value here would be of great use in the future.

Moreover, the Alaska royal territory is very likely to be East Africa's largest territory in the Eastern Pacific in the future, so it is not an exaggeration to call East Africa the "pearl" in the Eastern Pacific.