Cabinda.

As an important Portuguese port in Angola, Cabinda was founded too late to compare with the cities of Luanda or Benguela.

At present, Cabinda is actually a small village on the Atlantic coast left by the Portuguese, or a small military fortress, not to mention the small area, and the infrastructure is not perfect.

Luanda and Benguela have been developed for more than 100 years, while Cabinda is a northern coastal fortress that the Portuguese only started to build in the 80s, and the Portuguese would not have been interested in this coastal rainforest if it had not been for the Berlin Conference and the establishment of the Belgian colony.

Of course, Cabinda also has an important role, that is, to curb the mouth of the Congo River, before East Africa and Portugal were in hostile relations, so the Portuguese developed Cabinda also had the purpose of blocking East Africa from the Congo River to the sea.

Now East Africa has decided to expand and rebuild this military powerhouse on the west coast, the size of a fishing village.

"The Portuguese stronghold in Cabinda is less than 300 meters long from east to west, probably more than 5,000 square meters in area, and there are only less than 300 buildings in this area, and there were about 1,000 people living in the past."

"So the demolition of Cabinda is not difficult, the difficulty is that there is a huge rainforest around it, which is not conducive to urban construction, so it needs a lot of people to cut down and destroy the rainforest before we can make room for the construction of the port of Cabinda," Deskar, an East African urban designer, told Cabinda's military governor, Barco. ”

At present, Cabinda is the station of the 2nd Brigade and 4th Regiment under the 331st Division, Balko is the commander of the regiment, during the South African War, the 331st Division captured this place, but Cabinda is too small to accommodate a small number of troops, so the 4th Regiment remained here.

In fact, the strength of a regiment is a bit reluctant to garrison here, because it is really difficult to transport supplies here.

Previously, the 331st Division's capture of Cabinda was by land, which can be said to be a forced path, but now this trail has been completely covered by vegetation and restored to the original appearance of the rainforest.

The main supplies of the Fourth Regiment were now transported mainly by sea, bypassing Cape Town from the Port of New Hamburg and then to Cabinda.

In fact, this transport route also includes ports and strongholds in Southwest Africa, mainly because sea transportation is more convenient and the freight volume is large.

Luanda was more convenient, but Luanda destroyed all the ships before the Portuguese evacuation, and it was not convenient to transport them by land, especially on the Congo River, where every crossing was an adventure.

Of course, the fundamental reason is that the lower reaches of the Congo River have not been developed at all, and East Africa can only use local materials to build simple rafts if they want to cross the river directly, and there is no problem with this kind of raft temporarily, after all, time is tight during the war, of course, of course, the 331st Division has completed the crossing of the river in Kinshasa, and there is actually no difficulty in going from Kinshasa to Brazzaville.

Of course, Kinshasa can also transport supplies, but Kinshasa itself has limited capacity, and the cities of Bangui and Kisan upstream are remote areas of East Africa, and East Africa wants to build Cabinda, which cannot be achieved by relying on these cities.

Therefore, the development of Cabinda ultimately depends on Luanda, and then relies on the sea freight between Luanda and Cabinda.

But now the land route between Cabinda and Luanda is not accessible, and the sea conditions are not met, so East Africa can only go around in a big circle.

In peacetime, there was no need for East Africa to take the risk of crossing the river on rafts, and during the war, many soldiers who went south were washed into the Atlantic Ocean by the Congo River with their rafts.

And although Luanda now has direct access to the interior of East Africa by land, the lack of railways does not take as much time and effort as it is by sea.

"The geographical location of Cabinda is very important, it is the beginning of the western coastline, the border between our country and the Belgians, from Cabinda to Pointe-Noire, the capital of the Belgian Congo, only 90 kilometers by sea, and only 600 kilometers from the port of Güntil in French Gabon." Balko said from a strategic point of view.

The capital of French Gabon is Lipoville, which is also the largest port city in Gabon, and the port of Chintil is an important port in the middle of Gabon's coast.

As an old colonial empire, France had an impeccable eye for choosing its colonial location, and the geographical conditions of both the ports of Lipoville and Hintil far exceeded those of the Belgian Congo and the west coast of East Africa.

Located at the mouth of the Como River and backed by a natural harbor, Lipoville is a typical dual-attribute port of bay and estuary, which can not only undertake maritime transportation, but also connect to Gabon's inland shipping.

Most ports in East Africa, such as Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, are bay ports and are built on the bay, similar to Libauville in Bagamoyo.

But Lipoville and Bagamoyo are not at all on the same level, and the Como is not a small ditch that can be compared to the Lower Rhine.

Of course, in terms of economic attributes, Bagamoyo is far more valuable than Lipoville at present, and the large area of tropical rainforest in the colony of French Gabon is difficult to develop even if there is a good port and inland waterway value.

Bagamoyo's economic value is based on the premise that the interior of East Africa has been effectively developed, and Cabinda on the west coast is clearly not comparable to the port of Lipoville or the port of Chintil, in all respects.

The Portuguese did not have this problem before because Portugal itself was a sea power, and most of the inland area was already occupied by East Africa, and only the development of the coast could meet their needs.

The purpose of East Africa is to connect Cabinda with the interior of East Africa, and to build Cabinda into a bridgehead for the future economic development of East Africa and the Atlantic countries.

"In the future, this will be the center of communication between East Africa and the Belgian colonies, and if we want to open up this node, we must renovate the current Cabinda in all aspects, especially in terms of transportation."

"The easiest thing to achieve in Cabinda now is to resume sea transportation, and as for land transportation, there are many difficulties to overcome, especially the Congo River, which is a trench between Cabinda and Luanda, but Kinshasa can be used as a temporary option for the time being, and the difference between Kinshasa and Cabinda is only a road."

At present, Brazzaville, on the other side of Kinshasa, is a small military stronghold, and only one platoon is deployed there, which is under the jurisdiction of Kinshasa, so the road that Balko is talking about is the construction from Brazzaville to Cabinda in the previous life, which is the only condition that can be considered for land transportation at present.

When the conditions are ripe, a road or even a railway between Luanda and Cabinda can be built, and as for the Congo River, it can be temporarily solved by ferry.

This requires East Africa to first build shipyards and other facilities in the lower reaches of the Congo River, or directly introduce small ships to establish ferries.

This will take a long time for the poor and white Angolan region, which has been under Portuguese rule for hundreds of years, and Angola has not been developed at all except for a small part of the plantation industry, especially the transportation problem, which is the most headache for East Africa.

When Angola and Mozambique were fighting, the East African army had the most headache for transportation, but fortunately, many parts of these two regions were grasslands, which alleviated this problem.

However, the typical tropical rainforest climate around Cabinda is the biggest problem in the development of Cabinda in East Africa.

(End of chapter)