The arms trade was a business of enormous profits. If a monopoly could be achieved, the returns would be exceedingly substantial, and East Africa's industrial powers naturally hoped for fewer competitors. Yet among these industrial powers, the Soviet Union stood out like a crane among chickens. The Soviet arms trade had two defining traits: low prices, and a fondness for "giving things away."
Compared with economic returns, the Soviet Union valued political gains more highly, thereby disrupting normal market prices. This had been displayed to the fullest in the arms markets of the Far East Empire and Central Asia.
The Soviet Union's strategy of "low prices," even "free goods," became even more pronounced during the Cold War. In order to compete globally with the West, the Soviet Union often made loss-making deals, pouring away its capital until nothing remained. This imposed a tremendous economic burden on the Soviet Union and planted the seeds for its later economic troubles.
Moreover, this model won little goodwill. Even countries that had received Soviet military aid would not necessarily remember the Soviet Union's "kindness." Some African nations had been like this in his previous life.
The Soviet Union had made many ineffective investments in Africa; the moment aid was cut off, its allies often switched sides.
Melilla was a small city on the Mediterranean coast, facing the Spanish homeland across the sea. In 1497, Queen Isabella I of Spain dispatched Duke Pedro to occupy Melilla. From then on, it remained under Spanish rule for a long time.
By the end of the nineteenth century, Spain's influence in the area had expanded. Melilla became the sole official trade center along the Rif Coastline between Tétouan and the Algerian border, so its commerce was relatively prosperous.
Melilla was also one of the core garrisons of