African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 912 Luanda Merchants

“In ten years, we will surpass the new Hamburg Port, in twenty years, we will catch up with Mbeya, and in thirty years, we will become the new Dar es Salaam.”

“Work hard for 50 years to build a world-class city.”

“The economic bridgehead of the West and the future industrial city of East Africa.”

.........

Such red slogans can be seen everywhere on the streets of Luanda. As the largest city on the west coast of East Africa, Luanda has the greatest ambitions among the cities on the west coast.

In terms of geographical location, environmental climate, transportation conditions, etc., Luanda's conditions are no worse than Dar es Salaam. The difference between the two is that Dar es Salaam was developed more than 20 years earlier than Luanda.

This time is naturally calculated from the time when the two cities were incorporated into the rule of East Africa. If this factor had not interfered, it would be hard to say which one had a better development level, Luanda or Dar es Salaam.

Before the emergence of East Africa, Dar es Salaam was the main city of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, while Luanda was the capital of the Portuguese colony of Angola, and their strengths were only comparable.

However, after so many years of governance in East Africa, Dar es Salaam has long lost the charm of an "African" city. Even in the international community, Dar es Salaam is a "metropolis" that can be ranked, so Luanda's pursuit seems to be as difficult as climbing to the sky to many people.

After all, Luanda has developed well, but Dar es Salaam is also making progress. Dar es Salaam’s goal is to become the most prosperous cities in various countries, such as New York, London, Paris and Berlin.

Moreover, the development speed of Luanda in East Africa is currently not as fast as that of Beira, and it is even overtaken by Cabinda, which has a "harsh" environment in the region.

Seeing these red inspiring slogans, Hull felt uncomfortable for some reason. Hull was a German businessman who came to East Africa to look for business opportunities.

His destination was Luanda, because after the Port of Luanda fell into the hands of East Africa, it became an important port for exporting resources to Western Europe. In addition, with the opening of the Luanda Railway, the freight volume here was no less than that of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.

"East Africa is a very strange country. Although you originated from the German region culturally, you have your own characteristics, which is different from any country or region in the world. Even the Far East Empire, which is the source of the largest immigrant group, cannot find this characteristic." Hull said to Maxim, the East African who was responsible for receiving him, while looking at the Luanda city slogan.

"How can Mr. Hull be so sure?" Maxim asked curiously. He was wondering how Hull came to this conclusion, which required not only an understanding of Germany, but also an understanding of other countries in the world.

Hull shook his head and said, "Perhaps I am not well-informed, but I have been to many places in the world and have never seen a country as different from East Africa. Take Germany for example. Although Germany is also a big government country, it is a military power. Its national management reflects military characteristics everywhere. But we all know that Germany does this to maintain its security. After all, we are surrounded by wolves."

"What about East Africa?" Maxim asked.

Hull thought for a moment and replied, "To be honest, my impression of East Africa before was that it was a militaristic country that was even more ruthless than Germany. But after coming here, I found that I was wrong. Even in Angola, which is temporarily under control, there are not many troops. Instead, everywhere is vigorously developing the economy and showing a vibrant scene."

Of course, there is one thing Hull did not say, that is, this kind of development is like being whipped to move forward, just because the East African government's administrative intervention in the economy is too crazy, but it must be said that this method is very effective. He also saw Luanda under Portuguese rule when he was young. At that time, the Suez Canal had not yet been opened, so most ships had to pass through here.

In just five years since East Africa took over Luanda, the urban area and population of Luanda have expanded several times, and East Africa has also set up industries here, so Luanda is considered a relatively good small city in European countries.

At this point, Hull suddenly remembered something, and he said to Maxim: "These slogans remind me of them! They are the recruitment slogans in Germany before, but the content of the two countries is different."

Maxim said: "After the South African War, the external threat to East Africa basically ceased to exist, so the military expansion naturally stopped. In fact, although the number of troops in East Africa was large before, it was not reflected in East Africa. After all, the land area of ​​East Africa is more than ten times that of Germany. To be honest, it is fair to compare East Africa with Europe, but there are many European countries, and each country has a large army. Naturally, the total number of troops is much more exaggerated than that of East Africa, especially the great powers have much more troops than East Africa."

The population in Europe is concentrated, and each country is small in area, so any news can spread easily within the country. For example, conscription can easily cause panic among the people.

It would be different in East Africa. East Africa recruited soldiers in the east, but other areas did not feel it at all. Only residents along the railway could feel the oppression of military mobilization during wartime.

"Moreover, we in East Africa are also a peace-loving country. In the early days, we did mobilize all the people to fight as soldiers, but that was a special measure for a special period. Think about it, there were a large number of indigenous forces and wild animals in Africa before. If we hadn't adopted this measure at that time, there would be no peace and stability in East Africa today."

The peace and stability of East Africa was built on the bodies of the indigenous peoples, Arabs, Portuguese and British, and of course, wildlife across the country also suffered a devastating blow.

Hull was rather envious of this. He said, "Your East Africa is in a great location. There are oceans on both sides, there is only one Cape Town in the south, and the north is mostly uncivilized. As long as the country is developed, the threat of war will basically be eliminated. Germany, on the other hand, is located in the heart of the European continent, and there is no peace on all sides."

Maxim could only console him by saying, “This also makes Germany the crossroads of Europe and the center of Europe. So as long as Germany remains strong, this is an advantage.”

Although they are East Africans, East Africans are also Germans, so Maxim did not hesitate to praise Germany. After all, the main civilization of East African society still originated from the German region. Similarly, if it were an Austrian in front of him, Maxim would say the same.

Germany and Austria are both important economic partners of East Africa. Austria and East Africa are even "allies" on the surface. In addition, East Africa's current industrial development needs the support of Germany and Austria. Maxim will also express some "respect" to people like Hull.

Of course, it is hard to say what Hull is thinking. Although East Africa calls itself a German country, it is questionable whether it can gain the recognition of the people of Germany and Austria.

In fact, the theory of East Africa being non-German is very popular in Germany and Austria, especially before the South African War. Many people simply rejected the "German" identity of East Africa. After all, East Africa has two layers of negative factors in terms of bloodline and geographical location.

However, after the South African War, this argument basically disappeared. If the Germans could defeat the British, then they must be "Germans" to become powerful.

After all, France had been defeated once, and Tsarist Russia was a backward and barbaric country. Only Britain could arouse the interest of the German angry youth. As a result, the South African War directly broke this filter. Since Britain could not even defeat East Africa, then shouldn't its world hegemony also change hands?

(End of this chapter)