Chile's copper reserves were far richer than East Africa's. As early as the Spanish colonial era, small-scale copper mining had already emerged in Chile. After entering the twentieth century, stimulated by international market demand, Chile's copper mining expanded in scale, with East Africa serving as its most important driving force.
Thanks to its excellent physical and chemical properties, copper was widely used in electrical engineering, light industry, machinery manufacturing, construction, national defense, and many other fields.
Without question, copper was a common metal that held its value remarkably well and could even serve as a reserve asset. Chile was one of the countries relatively close to East Africa, so importing copper ore from Chile was highly cost-effective for East Africa.
As for nitrate, before synthetic ammonia technology emerged, it had been one of the world's most important strategic materials.
Naturally, Chile, which possessed these two vital mineral resources, became one of the South American countries East Africa valued most. By the same token, since East Africa could develop trade with Chile, it naturally could not overlook its neighbor Peru, which was likewise exceptionally rich in mineral resources.
As East Africa's bridgehead among the West Coast South American countries, and as the holder of the vital sea route of the Strait of Magellan, Chile's priority naturally came before that of the other West Coast South American countries. Of course, there were only four such countries: Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia.
Yet all four nations lay against the Andes Mountains and were rich in mineral resources. Their trade with East Africa had also grown rapidly, making them East Africa's principal sources of imported silver, copper, coal, iron, nitrate, and other resources.
Since Britain entered the First World War, the only country capable of competing with East Africa in this region had been