Chapter 1346 - 355: The Year 1919

Chapter 1346: Chapter 355: The Year 1919

When East Africa occupied Qatar, the United Kingdom, the nominal sovereign country of Qatar, chose to turn a blind eye as East Africa had anticipated.

In fact, the process and outcome of East Africa’s invasion of Qatar had already spread around, especially among those third-party personnel leaving Qatar, mainly merchants and diplomats from various countries, including diplomats from the United Kingdom in Qatar, who all tacitly retreated to countries like Bahrain after East Africa captured Bedha.

Previously, the Ottoman Empire did have a small garrison in Qatar, just two or three hundred men, but they had returned to their country long before the war between the Ottoman Empire and the United Kingdom broke out, so when East Africa invaded Qatar, there were no military personnel from other countries on the island.

Thus, the process of East Africa annexing Qatar was remarkably smooth, but this did not mean Qatar was unimportant. As soon as East Africa completes its series of military and strategic deployments in Qatar, it will become one of the most influential nations in the Persian Gulf region.

Although East Africa itself is a world great power with formidable military strength, coupled with previously having a foothold in the Beibu Gulf as a wedge into the Middle East, its influence in the Persian Gulf is increasingly growing.

However, this influence is insufficient for East Africa to stand on equal footing with the United Kingdom and Russia in the Persian Gulf region, and the most direct reason is East Africa’s lack of military deterrence in the Persian Gulf.

This military deterrence is similar to when unfavorable situations arose for Americans in the former Middle East; just moving an aircraft carrier fleet into the Persian Gulf could exert a strong psychological pressure on the countries in the Persian Gulf, such as during the Iraq War when the number of aircraft carriers in the American Fifth Fleet was directly increased to five.

In this era, the most intimidating naval armament is the battleship, but the Third Fleet did not have a large home port for battleships, so the deterrence of the East African Navy in the Persian Gulf naturally decreased by a notch.

The British, who own important Persian Gulf naval bases like Bahrain, do not have this worry; the Qatar Peninsula compensates for East Africa’s shortcomings in this area.

Although battleships do not necessarily represent the entirety of the navy’s combat capabilities, in this era, any country that is not ignorant recognizes this most powerful naval warship.

Just as in the previous era, Iranian missiles might threaten American aircraft carriers, but the deterrence of an aircraft carrier is more tangible and possesses greater deterrent power.

On the army front, previously, Russia’s deterrent power to the Middle East obviously exceeded that of East Africa, given that Russia directly borders the Middle East, creating a sense of overwhelming pressure.

Of course, this land-based deterrent power is lesser than that of the navy, especially for countries along the Persian Gulf coast, so previously, Russia’s influence in the Persian Gulf ranked second, but the gap with the United Kingdom was significant.

With the Indian Ocean lying between East Africa and the Persian Gulf, ultimately, the intimidation of the local area must primarily rely on naval forces.

...

Time rapidly shifted to 1919.

In the former era, World War I had long since ended by this time, but now, despite the United States joining the war, Europe and the Middle East still remain ablaze with conflict.

In the latter half of 1918, the Allies and Central Powers each won and lost battles. With the United States joining the war, England and France stabilized the Western Front and successfully resisted the offensives of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

However, on the Southern Front, the Allies’ situation was not optimistic, especially with Austria-Hungary leading the Central Power camp in achieving a series of military victories in the Balkan Peninsula and the Middle East.

The Central Powers successfully opened and further consolidated the land route between the Balkan Peninsula and the Anatolian Peninsula, thus making the railway from Berlin to Baghdad once more passable; as long as they defeat the Allied forces along the Persian Gulf coast, the Persian Gulf shipping routes will be restored.

Greece and Albania, in late 1918, were ultimately defeated, causing the Allies’ influence to shrink from the Balkan Peninsula to the Mediterranean line.

At the same time East Africa occupied Qatar, the Austria-Hungary and Bulgarian, Romanian coalition also reached Iraq, greatly boosting the morale of the Ottoman Empire.

This meant that the focus of the Southern Front shifted to the contention along the Red Sea coast and Persian Gulf coast, and the importance of the Persian Gulf for the Central Powers now far exceeded the Red Sea coast.

On one hand, the Central Powers do not have large ports available for use along the Red Sea; on the other hand, communication from the Red Sea to the core regions of the Central Powers is not convenient and could be subject to harassment from the England and France navy direction from the Mediterranean.

The wars in the Western and Southern Fronts make the balance between the Allies and Central Powers difficult to break, and under such circumstances, only one country benefits, and that is Russia, where the Russian Labor Party is actively consolidating power.

With the arrival of 1919, the East African Government gets closer to 1920, which means a new round of government census work must fully commence.

This includes data from every aspect, such as population, industry, and economy, starting to be aggregated to Rhein City, providing multifaceted data support for the formulation of East Africa’s government policies in the next economic cycle.

At the government meeting in Rhein City, Ernst emphasized: "Today the world is at a turning point, and the next two or three decades will likely determine the position of our country in the world."

"Therefore, this time’s population census and economic census must be conducted with rigor and detail, especially we must eliminate the falsification of performance data in the past. Each department must be practical and realistic."

"Supervisory teams will be dispatched by the Central Government across the country to conduct random inspections and manage the authenticity and error situation of data statistics, which will be recorded in archives and affect personal records and the future promotion or demotion of officials."

It can be said that the East African Government, including Ernst, attaches great importance to this nationwide data collection effort.

Besides hitting the significant 1920 time node as per tradition, East Africa will conduct statistics of the country’s population and other important data, interconnected with the sudden change in international situations, and the comprehensive explosion of East Africa’s economy amidst the European war.

In fact, some of the government’s statistical work officially began in mid-1918, which means this census will span over a year, and all the census results need to be completed before the arrival of 1920.

Ernst continued: "Additionally, this time we must solicit opinions widely, especially through forms like the national parliament, to accept the people’s critiques and suggestions toward government decisions, correcting some issues in our economic development from the past. Solving the problems we previously overlooked or accumulated."

"Holding accountable the officials who have exhibited poor conduct or neglect in justifiable work in economic development, examining the economic issues of some officials under market economy, summarizing the market and social ethos issues, and further promoting healthy market development."

East Africa is a government that emphasizes the role of governance in the economy, so there is inevitably an artificial correction and rectification in market economy. After all, under market economy, it is impossible to avoid corruption within power institutions and departments, issues of market malicious competition, monopolies, etc.

Ernst naturally does not expect to solve all these problems, as no nation in the world can achieve this goal, even a country like Russia under the Russian Labor Party that has completely abandoned the market cannot stop the existence of the black market.

For the East African Government, resolving most of the problems is already commendable, and this "most" is evidently a vague term; how much proportion constitutes "most," Ernst believes over fifty percent would suffice.

Following Ernst’s remarks, several officials within the East African Government subsequently fell into a state of tension, given the accumulation of problems over the years, and no one dared to guarantee their total innocence. Of course, minor issues are manageable, but some definitely outrageous examples will be selected as archetypes to serve as warnings, thus naturally making a few guilty parties nervous.