African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1034: Automobile Capital
1905 12 Month 3 Day.

Rhine City.

As the capital of a country, Rhine City has developed rapidly, and what is particularly eye-catching is the cars that are no longer uncommon on the streets of Rhine City.

Although cars have appeared widely in major cities around the world and have become a symbol of industrial civilization, the more developed the city, the more cars there are.

This kind of rarity can be seen to varying degrees on the streets of Berlin, Paris, London and New York, but in the Rhine the number of cars is a bit excessive, with the number of registered cars alone reaching an astonishing 33,000.

At that time, the total population of Rhine City was close to 400,000, which means that there was one car for every dozen people. Cars have completely become the mainstream means of transportation in East Africa.

At the same time, the number of urban rail vehicles and buses has also increased significantly, and the density in the region ranks first in the world. As a medium-sized city in the world, the level of development of Rhine City is evident.

Before the First Five-Year Plan, the East African automobile industry was already well-known in the world, and the output of East African automobiles was still within the comprehension of diplomats from various countries. However, after the end of the First Five-Year Plan, the annual output of East African automobiles had become difficult for diplomats from various countries to understand.

Of course, diplomats from European and American countries can also find reasons to explain the scale of Rhine City's automobile industry. For example, French Ambassador Thomson said: "East Africa did start early in the automobile industry, but this does not mean that East Africa has surpassed European countries. In fact, centralized countries like East Africa can easily concentrate resources in the capital. I am afraid that the East African government has given priority to allocating most of the country's automobile production to Rhine City, which is impossible in France."

"We in France cannot use political means like the East African government to gather the whole country's strength to build our own political center. This is a very wasteful political achievement project. If it were in France, as long as you are capable, even citizens outside of Paris can afford to buy a car. In East Africa, I am afraid that except for a few developed cities such as Rhine City, it is completely the same as Tsarist Russia."

Even if they saw it with their own eyes, Europeans would not admit in a short time that East Africa has surpassed them in some areas. This is a kind of arrogance. In fact, both East Africa and the United States enjoy this kind of "discrimination". How could Europe, as the center of world civilization, be surpassed by East Africa and the United States, two barbaric countries? This is unacceptable to those who currently hold Eurocentrism.

Of course, there are people with insight who have noticed the rapid development of East Africa and the United States. There are still traces to follow in the United States. As the "chosen land", the basic conditions in the United States are not inferior to those in Europe, so it is reasonable that it can develop.

However, when they want to explore the internal reasons of East Africa, they will encounter various setbacks. Take the automobile industry as an example. It is well known that the East African automobile industry is in the first echelon in the world, but the reasons for the success of the East African automobile industry are difficult to find.

Because East Africa is a closed country, the seven major automobile factories in East Africa are all located in inland areas, which are not accessible to foreigners. The coastal areas are relatively open, but only a few small automobile factories of the same type as those in Europe and the United States can be seen along the coast. There is essentially no difference.

The nearest automobile production base to the diplomats from various countries is the city of New Frankfurt, but the "barrier" of Rhine City prevents them from crossing a distance of only a few dozen kilometers.

Fortunately, East Africa's automobile industry is relatively restrained. If it were to connect with the international market, it would definitely be a disaster for the automobile industries of other countries.

Compared with European and American diplomats, diplomats from backward countries such as the Far Eastern Empire naturally do not have such a "discriminatory" filter. Even though the level of industrialization in East Africa is still relatively low, looking at the world, it is also the top industrial power after Britain, the United States, and Germany. For now, French industry no longer has much advantage over East Africa.

France is equivalent to the industrially developed central and eastern parts of East Africa, but East Africa has a large land area and many regions are not highly developed, which has dragged down the level of industrialization in East Africa, rather than saying that France's industry is stronger than East Africa's.

If we exclude the concept of per capita, East Africa's industry has surpassed France in both scale and quality, and the gap with Britain is not too big. Of course, East Africa is different from the two countries in terms of light industry. The rapid rise of East African industry is actually closely related to the Second Industrial Revolution. East Africa, like Germany and the United States, is a leader in the Second Industrial Revolution.

It’s just that Germany and the United States had laid a solid foundation as early as the first industrial period, which is also the main reason why East Africa finds it difficult to compete with Germany and the United States in traditional industrial types.

In fact, Japan is also a major beneficiary of the Second Industrial Revolution, but its industry is still far from being "amazing" in the eyes of other industrial countries.

The Second Industrial Revolution had a very strong impact on the world pattern. Germany and the United States surpassed the two old powers, Britain and France. Japan also rose rapidly in the Far East and created the "African monster" of East Africa.

As long as the latecomer countries seized the opportunity of the Second Industrial Revolution, they basically achieved a leapfrog growth in their own strength. Otherwise, they continued to crawl forward slowly in front of the powerful countries.

From the colonial era to the present stage, East Africa is closely related to the Second Industrial Revolution. The Second Industrial Revolution originated in the 1970s, when East Africa had completed initial colonial construction activities and had a certain economic scale and size.

The 1970s was an important opportunity period for East Africa to introduce industry on a large scale with the help of the European and American economic crisis. Although industrial construction in East Africa was difficult at that time due to talent constraints, East Africa's industry still completed the construction of the framework by relying on the spillover educational resources from the German region, that is, the per capita primary education level. In the 1980s and 1990s, this framework was continuously improved.

At the same time, local education in East Africa continued to develop, and finally in the late 1990s, East Africa finally reaped fruitful results in the fields of scientific research and talent.

On this basis, East Africa's First Five-Year Plan was successfully implemented, and East Africa's industrial capacity expanded rapidly, making East Africa now officially one of the leading countries in the Second Industrial Revolution.

At the end of the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa had completely formed a domestic circulation in important areas such as talent, industry, scientific research, and market. Even if other countries imposed sanctions or blockades on East Africa at that time, it would not be possible to stop East Africa's rise.

Through decades of hard work, East Africa has turned itself into a semi-industrial power. Although this achievement has been questioned by European and American societies, it is enough to make countries outside Europe and the United States envious.

Ambassador Li Ling of the Far East Empire said, "Thirty or forty years ago, we had all kinds of misunderstandings about East Africa. At that time, our country knew very little about overseas, which led us to think that East Africa was no different from other Western countries. But later we learned that East Africa is just the country with the shortest history in the world, even shorter than the United States. But in less than fifty years, East Africa, even if it was an uncivilized land, has become a world power with a considerable area, a large population, and a strong industry."

"The development experience of East Africa is of great reference significance to our country. This country was able to quickly complete its transformation in a very short period of time. Although it was due to Africa's wealth, at the beginning of its establishment, it could not even meet the basic population needs and still needed to introduce a large number of immigrants to our country."

"So the East African model cannot be simply summarized in a few words. It is far from the systems of European and American countries, but it is able to stand out and undoubtedly has important implications for my country's rejuvenation."

It was normal for the Far Eastern Empire's diplomats to be interested in East Africa. At that time, the Far Eastern Empire was still a monarchy, so government officials naturally tended to continue to maintain the monarchy.

(End of this chapter)