African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1021 Overseas Territory Construction
The position of the Lan Fang Overseas Province in the geographical map of East Africa can be said to be relatively important. It is close to the Strait of Malacca, and the island of Kalimantan where it is located is also known as the crossroads of Southeast Asia. Although it cannot compare with the Straits Settlements controlled by the United Kingdom (mainly parts of Malaysia, including Singapore), it is considered to be the most impressive among the overseas territories in East Africa and Southeast Asia.

The initial development conditions were far better than those of the Mindanao Colony and Balabac Island. Mindanao had too few plains and its population was even sparser than that of the Lanfang Overseas Province.

Although there are many indigenous people in Mindanao, these indigenous people are considered barbarians who refuse to submit to the rule of the East African government. East Africa is still carrying out a purge and suppression of the local people, and the cost of ruling remains high.

It can be said that the East African rule in Mindanao and the American rule in Luzon in the north are both equally powerful. Both countries are doing the same thing to suppress the indigenous people in their region.

Moreover, due to religious and other reasons, East Africa's purge of Mindanao was far more bloody than that of the United States, and the local indigenous people's determination to resist far exceeded that of Philippine colonial areas such as Luzon in the north.

Therefore, the cost of East Africa's rule in Mindanao remains high and will continue for a long time, and it is naturally impossible to enter the construction phase.

As for Balabac Island, it only has certain military uses for East Africa. The island is small in size and is mainly mountainous, so it has no development value.

Therefore, compared with the two East African overseas territories in Southeast Asia, the Lan Fang Overseas Province is the most suitable for large-scale development and construction at this stage.

As for the future, the value of Mindanao may be greater than that of the Overseas Province of Lanfang. After all, the resources of Mindanao are far richer than those of the Overseas Province of Lanfang.

……

"According to the document, the main task of this immigration is to build two state-owned farms and a timber processing plant around Pontianak City. There is a lot of land available in Lan Fang Overseas Province, but it is not easy to develop. It is necessary to destroy the forest first. At the same time, the forest resources are very rich, and timber export is also one of the important industries of Lan Fang Overseas Province at present."

"During the reclamation period, the provincial government will send troops to protect your safety. You don't have to worry. There are only some wild animals that may pose a certain threat. However, the probability of this happening around Pontianak is very small."

There are many wild animals on the island of Kalimantan, especially in the sparsely populated area of ​​Lan Fang Overseas Province, where rhinos, pythons, monkeys, etc. live.

As for human threats, if it were in other areas of Lan Fang Overseas Province, there might be some illegal border crossers among the indigenous people, but this situation is unlikely to happen around Pontianak City.

"Pontianak has abundant water resources and a flat terrain, but the soil is relatively poor, which is a common problem in tropical rainforest areas. Unless there is rich volcanic ash soil like in Java, it is still difficult to carry out agricultural production in Pontianak."

"But you don't need to worry too much. If the quality is not enough, we can make up for it with area. There is a lot of usable land around Pontianak City, and the total population of Pontianak City is only over 50,000. If it were in the mainland of the empire, the population density would probably only be similar to that of the desert and rainforest areas."

"And with the help of local people, we have secured a large share of farm tools and fertilizers, so it is relatively easy to open up wasteland locally."

"Currently, the population of Pontianak is mainly Chinese, and only a small part of them can speak German, so there may be some difficulties in communication, but we have also built several schools here, and those of you who have ideas can also participate in teaching."

Most of the native citizens in East Africa have received compulsory education, so some people can barely teach German, and this is the talent needed by the Lan Fang Overseas Province and Pontianak Municipal Government.

The real difficulty is that German teachers must have a certain foundation in Chinese. After all, teaching entirely in German is like speaking a different language for most local Chinese students. And under the strong German promotion policy in East Africa, there are probably not many local new generations who can retain spoken Chinese. As for people who can master Chinese characters, they are even rarer in East Africa, after all, most of the Chinese immigrants in East Africa were illiterate.

Moreover, there are other difficulties in education work. Although the local population is mainly composed of Chinese, the Far East Empire has a vast territory, a large population and many dialects. In the small overseas province of Lan Fang alone, there are six or seven dialects of Chinese, mainly dialects from the southern region. There is also a part of Chinese groups with indigenous accents. This is mainly because many Chinese in Southeast Asia have lived together with local indigenous people for too long, which has caused alienation in language habits.

After all, Kalimantan Island, known as Borneo in the Far Eastern Empire, has many local Chinese residents who have lived here since the Ming Dynasty, so it is impossible for it not to be affected.

Therefore, even the job of a teacher is not something that everyone can do, and the Lan Fang Overseas Provincial Government will definitely conduct an assessment.

……

The East African native immigrants who immigrated to the overseas province of Lan Fang in this round actually have limited occupations that they can engage in. If it were a general colony, perhaps the East African government could arrange for them to manage the locals, or engage in some mid- to high-end jobs.

But the Lan Fang Overseas Province is special. It is not a colony in the East African territory. Most of the local indigenous people have been expelled by the East African government. Colonization is a kind of parasitic governance. Obviously, the Lan Fang Overseas Province does not have the basic conditions to parasitize the local indigenous people.

As for the Chinese residents in the Lan Fang overseas province that have not yet been fully planned, for East Africa, they may in some sense be a kind of local "indigenous people". After all, a large part of them have a long history in the local area. However, after more than ten years of screening by the East African government, these Chinese residents have become East African citizens. However, due to the scarcity of educational resources and the slow popularization of compulsory education and German, most of them have retained their traditional characteristics.

However, for the East African government, this is only a matter of time. The longer the East African government rules, the more likely it is that the local residents will be assimilated.

This means that the Lan Fang overseas province is indeed governed in the model of the native provinces of East Africa. Although it is subject to constraints and has a low level of development, and its economy cannot be compared with that of the native East African provinces, it is no different from the native provinces in terms of system and government.

This also determines that the East African government will not rule the local area in the form of a colony. Although East Africa has been established for a long time, there are still a large number of indigenous slaves in East Africa. So in a sense, East Africa is more like a colony than Lan Fang's overseas provinces.

Therefore, what the East African government said about building and developing the Lan Fang overseas province is completely in line with the facts. These native immigrants are pioneers sent to the local area by the East African government just like the Soviet Union developed Siberia. This also determines that their future path will be more difficult.

However, although the conditions in Lan Fang's overseas provinces are much worse than those in East Africa, this is only true for East Africa as a whole. In the backward areas of the north, southwest, southeast, etc., there are also a group of people who work hard in harsh environments for national construction.

Therefore, there is no essential difference between going to the overseas province of Lan Fang to carry out reclamation and construction and supporting construction in backward areas from the mainland. This is also the price that generations of East Africans have to pay.

At the beginning of the 20th century, people in all countries, whether industrial or agricultural, had to participate in heavy physical labor, and East Africa was no exception. Therefore, in order not to be eliminated by the international community, the East African government had to pay more blood and sweat than European and American countries.

Including the overseas territories in East Africa, these overseas territories can actually provide very little economic value to East Africa, so the construction of overseas territories requires more assistance from East Africa. However, at this stage, East Africa can only promote the construction of the Lan Fang overseas province, the territory of Madagascar Island and the royal territory of Alaska, and the investment is very limited.

(End of this chapter)