African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1020 Reverse Immigration
1904 4 Month 11 Day.

Pontianak Port.

Before Russia's Second Pacific Fleet set out, a fleet arrived at the port of Pontianak, which was an immigrant fleet from East Africa.

As the fleet sailed along the river towards Pontianak Port, the immigrants on the ship began to get familiar with this strange land for the first time.

"Pontianak looks pretty good, with a wide river and fast currents, but the environment is a little bit uncomfortable. The forests on both sides of the river are dense and lush, which is very different from the mainland."

Although East Africa also has a tropical rainforest climate, the main population is still distributed in savannas or subrainforest areas. Therefore, when East African immigrants arrived in Pontianak, it was the first time they saw the typical tropical rainforest climate type and vegetation.

"The equator passes through Pontianak, and Pontianak is located on the coastal plain of Kalimantan Island, so the tropical rainforest climate here is very typical, which also means that the development of Pontianak is relatively difficult. Fortunately, the history of foreign civilizations here is slightly longer than that in Africa, so we don't have to start from scratch."

In fact, it is difficult to define civilization. Take the indigenous people of Africa for example. You say they have no civilization, but they also have their own language. In addition to developing tribes and slave kingdoms, their level of civilization is too low, resulting in the entire southern Africa being almost undeveloped.

So East Africa was able to develop and build its domestic economy, in a sense, truly starting from scratch, and achieved amazing results.

There is no doubt that the fundamental reason why East Africa has achieved amazing results is that the East African colonists brought advanced agricultural civilization, and now it is slowly transitioning towards industrial civilization.

Although the overseas province of Lan Fang was also relatively backward, its level of civilization had reached that of an agricultural civilization after more than a dozen generations of development by Chinese immigrants.

However, under the governance of East Africa, the Lan Fang Overseas Province experienced a period of sharp decline in population and economy, and cities and villages also declined sharply. Until now, the population of the Lan Fang Overseas Province has not recovered to the level before the East African rule.

After all, land nationalization was too advanced for the people of the Lan Fang Overseas Provinces at that time. East Africa encountered relatively fierce resistance in the Lan Fang Overseas Provinces. In the end, physical suppression also led to a large outflow of population from the Lan Fang Overseas Provinces to the surrounding Dutch and British colonies, or to the indigenous power areas on the island.

The city of Pontianak in the Lan Fang Overseas Province was an exception. Although it experienced population loss in the early days, in the 1990s, Pontianak entered a period of rapid development and provided the basis for the incorporation of East Africa into the Mindanao colony.

Because it is the political, economic, cultural and foreign exchange center of Lan Fang Overseas Province, its special status made Pontianak the only continuously developing area in the early days of East African rule in Lan Fang Overseas Province.

It is no exaggeration to say that Pontianak currently ranks first among the many towns on the island of Kalimantan, surpassing some colonial towns on the island that were painstakingly built by the British or Dutch.

In the 20th century, due to economic development, Pontianak began to attract lower-class Chinese from Southeast Asia or the southern coast of the Far East Empire to immigrate here. The East African government called this phenomenon "population return."

But by the same token, the increase in the number of Chinese has also aroused the vigilance of the East African governments. Although a large part of the original population of East Africa are Chinese immigrants, the East African governments have integrated Chinese immigrants into the main ethnic groups in East Africa through compulsory education, forced marriage, cultural transformation and other means. However, most of the Chinese in the overseas province of Lanfang are completely different.

Moreover, the overseas province of Lan Fang is far away from the mainland of East Africa, and there are not enough white immigrants to hedge, dilute and reconcile. Therefore, there is a great hidden danger of independence tendency in the overseas province of Lan Fang. Now under the strong rule of the East African government and the stage of rapid economic development, the contradiction cannot be revealed, but the future is uncertain.

Therefore, in order to deal with the "irrational" population structure of overseas territories such as the Lanfang Overseas Province, the East African government put forward the political slogan of "accelerating the construction of overseas territories" since 1900. This included an immigration policy of importing a large number of native populations to the Lanfang Overseas Province, the South Ryukyu Islands, the Kingdom of North Hawaii, the Royal Territory of Alaska, and the Mindanao Colony.

At that time, the population of East Africa was no longer as scarce as before, and it had exceeded 80 million, making it one of the most populous countries in the world. This also provided the basic conditions for East Africa to transport population to its overseas territories.

In the past, East Africa was like a Pixiu, all eating and no poop, due to the lack of population. Now East Africa is troubled by the rapid population growth, and this trouble is caused by industrialization. If industrialization cannot keep up with the population growth, East Africa may become a clown like Tsarist Russia in the future.

In addition to alleviating the pressure of local population growth, sending immigrants overseas can also consolidate East Africa's rule in overseas territories.

Fortunately, the territories in East Africa are vast and sparsely populated. Among them, the royal territory of Alaska, the overseas province of Lan Fang, the colony of Mindanao and the island of Madagascar can absorb a large population.

According to the final plan of the East African government, in order to effectively develop these colonies, East Africa will send at least one million people to these areas starting in 1904.

The immigration to Pontianak is the first demonstration site for this policy. As the most developed overseas region in East Africa, Pontianak has some significant advantages.

First of all, it has convenient sea transportation, and secondly, it has the most developed economic foundation in the East African overseas territories. In the future, East Africa will use coastal cities in the Lan Fang Overseas Province, such as Pontianak, as bases to gradually transport immigrants inland, establish a number of farms and plantations, and develop certain industries in Pontianak, making it a model of governance for the East African overseas territories.

As the ship docked at the port of Pontianak, the first large-scale non-military immigrants from East Africa officially arrived in Pontianak. Many of these immigrants were young people.

"Warmly welcome everyone to Lan Fang Province!" The Lan Fang Overseas Province and Pontianak City Government showed a very enthusiastic attitude towards local immigrants.

"You are all talents of the empire. Although our Lan Fang Overseas Province is a remote and poor area of ​​the empire, we will definitely provide you with the best conditions to build our home together!" Chris Sean, a senior official of the Lan Fang Overseas Province, said excitedly.

It is really not easy for Chris Sean and other Lan Fang overseas province officials. Although it is an important overseas territory of the empire and is incorporated into the empire's provinces, the treatment of Lan Fang Overseas Province can be said to be unique among the many overseas territories in East Africa.

However, no matter how loud the name is, it cannot change the reality of poverty and backwardness in the overseas province of Lan Fang. In fact, its economic development is only slightly better than that of Arras, which has even worse climatic conditions.

As for the Overseas Province of Lan Fang, it is now lacking everything, especially population. Until now, the population of the Overseas Province of Lan Fang has recovered to 200,000, a large part of which is concentrated in Pontianak City. The area of ​​the Overseas Province of Lan Fang is more than 120,000 square kilometers, so the importance of population to the Overseas Province of Lan Fang is self-evident.

"Senior Officer Chris Sean, our fleet has brought more than 2,300 people this time. The importance of these young volunteers is self-evident. Many of them come to places where the motherland needs them with a passion to help you build, so you must take it seriously. In addition, according to the instructions of the central government, at least 100,000 local immigrants will be imported into the Lan Fang Overseas Province in the next ten years. You must do a good job in the preliminary work. You cannot manage these immigrants in the same way as you would a colony, but you must follow the local model."

In response to the immigration official's words, Chris Sean solemnly assured: "Don't worry! Even if I, Chris Sean, have a bite to eat, I will not let these domestic volunteers go hungry. For our province, these immigrants are the most valuable assets, and the province's resources will be tilted towards them first."

"Very good. The importance of the Lan Fang Overseas Province in the empire's overseas territories is self-evident. The central government and the royal family are committed to building it into the future economic center of the Nanyang region. I believe that under the leadership of Mr. Senior Official, the Lan Fang Overseas Province will be able to make further progress in the future." The Immigration Bureau official said politely.

(End of this chapter)