African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 965: Germans' Shock
Therefore, the lack of precious metals in the coastal areas of East Africa made traditional European colonists uninterested in the region, allowing the Hechingen royal family to take advantage.

The most typical negative example is West Africa, which is close to East Africa. The term "Gold Coast" implies that the place is doomed to be unsafe.

……

Tirpitz eventually had to take a train from Dar es Salaam to the interior of East Africa, and this trip inland further strengthened Tirpitz's idea of ​​cooperation with East Africa.

After the capital was moved in East Africa, the original diplomatic work was naturally transferred from the First Town City to Rhine City. This meant that diplomats from various countries, who could only travel as far as the First Town City, could now go deep into the interior of East Africa for observation.

Foreign diplomats can basically only travel from Dar es Salaam on the coast of East Africa to the new capital, Rhine, by rail, but the entire railway from Dar es Salaam to Rhine is more than 1,500 kilometers.

The cities, villages, farmlands and other reference points along this 1,500-kilometer journey will allow these diplomats to have a clearer understanding of East Africa's national strength.

This is exactly what Tirpitz did. Since boarding the train in Dar es Salaam, he has been "greedily" observing East African intelligence along the Central Railway.

"Since we left Dar es Salaam, we have passed through twenty-three towns and more than fifty villages. The larger ones include the First Town City, Morogoro City, Dodoma City... Nearly five or six of them, judging from their size, may be cities in East Africa, and the rest should be towns and villages." Tirpitz said to his entourage.

It was not difficult for Tirpitz to know the names of the towns in East Africa. Every time he passed a station, there would be a sign for the station, which was usually the name of the local town.

Tirpitz's assistant, Moedef Kielan, was also quite shocked and said, "Your Excellency, we obviously underestimated the country of East Africa. So far, many areas where our train has passed through have obviously been developed by East Africa. There are a lot of farmlands, towns, cities, roads... All these show that East Africa's development and governance of the inland is extremely successful."

"Their farmland is neatly built, and there are some perfect supporting water conservancy facilities, ditches, windmills are very common, and if I am not mistaken, there may also be large machinery such as tractors. I even suspect that farms in the United States and Europe are at this level."

Tractors are important equipment for agricultural mechanization in East Africa, but their penetration rate is currently very low. Even so, Modfukilan still discovered and identified them. It must be said that as a naval personnel, his eyesight is very good.

Of course, Modfukilan didn't think much about it. Even though the tractor transitioned from a steam engine to an internal combustion engine, its specific shape did not change much, so he didn't know that all the tractors in East Africa were powered by internal combustion engines.

Tirpitz added seriously: "At present, our train may only travel a few hundred kilometers, but the development of the railway line shows that East Africa's development of the interior is far beyond the comparison of those colonies in West Africa. If this is the case throughout East Africa, then we must pay more attention to this country."

Modfukilan shook his head and said, "Your Excellency, it is unlikely. Regions like Mozambique and Angola have not been occupied in East Africa for a long time, so they should not meet this standard. In addition, the eastern part of East Africa should be the most developed region in East Africa. From the name of the country, it can be seen that this is the birthplace of East Africa and the earliest development time, so it is completely reasonable to reach the level of Europe and the United States."

Assistant Tirpitz had a point. Eastern East Africa was indeed at the leading level in the country, but Central East Africa was even better than Eastern East Africa. The economy and population of the two regions were comparable, but other regions were far behind them. Tirpitz and his team had already arrived at Iringa City in the East African Plateau Province by train. The train had traveled about 500 kilometers, which meant that it had just transitioned from the East African Coastal Plain to the East African Plateau region.

There is still more than half the journey to the final destination, Rhine City. Although the current situation along the railway line can give the Germans a certain shock, it is still within everyone's expectations. After all, during the South African War, various countries inferred that the population of East Africa at that time should be more than 20 million. For a large country with a population of tens of millions, it is reasonable for the coastal and surrounding areas to develop well, but it cannot represent the development situation of East Africa as a whole.

Tirpitz said: "Based on our current observations, East Africa's inland development, especially along the railway, is relatively complete. After all, the economic conditions of the areas where the railway passes are generally good, and it is normal for there to be many towns along the railway. I just don't know whether the same is true for areas outside the railway."

There are definitely more towns along the railways. As for outside the railways, unless it is along a river or a highway, the population cannot be so dense. Of course, the farmland area in the eastern region is still very considerable. The eastern coastal plains and the southern part of the East African Plateau are both important grain production bases in East Africa. The number of large-scale farms is similar in density to that in Eastern Europe.

Compared with Central Europe and Western Europe, Eastern Europe has a much lower population density. Although the entire Tsarist Russia has a population of over 100 million, the total population of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany in Central Europe alone is nearly 100 million. Therefore, the more densely populated Eastern European part of Tsarist Russia is similar to the central and eastern regions of East Africa. At that time, Tsarist Russia included territories such as Ukraine and Poland.

Next, Tirpitz and others were amazed along the way. When passing through the city of Iringa, they determined that this was also a small or medium-sized city in East Africa. Compared with Dar es Salaam, the first town, Dodoma might be slightly inferior, but it was also much larger than an ordinary town.

They then encountered two cities of similar size to Iringa until the train entered the city of Mbeya along the Central Railway.

As soon as they entered the urban area of ​​Mbeya, the Germans realized the extraordinary nature of this city. Just by observing with the naked eye, its level was actually higher than that of Dodoma and the First Town, and it was probably not inferior to Dar es Salaam.

So much so that Tirpitz and his companions mistakenly took this place as the new capital of East Africa, "Rhine City". After all, at this time it was nearly a thousand kilometers away from the inland of East Africa, and Tirpitz and his companions had difficulty in understanding the distance.

"Mbeya is one of the five largest cities in East Africa. It is currently the second largest city in inland East Africa, but it is not the capital of East Africa. Rhine is more than 600 kilometers away from here." The reception staff on the East African side could only explain to Tirpitz and his party.

"Mbeya is the capital of the same province as Dodoma, and is located in our country's industrial zone, where the industry is relatively developed. It is not inferior to some big cities in Europe, so it is not surprising that it was mistaken."

Tirpitz asked, "Then wouldn't the Rhine City be even bigger?"

"Not really. Although the built-up area of ​​Rhine City is not small, its current population is far from comparable to traditional East African cities such as Mbeya. After all, Rhine City is a completely new city."

Tirpitz was speechless about the East Africans' explanation. To him, any city in East Africa was "new". After all, the history of the East African countries was no more than 40 years. The so-called "traditional big cities" were even more puzzling. According to East African standards, more than 90% of German cities had a long history.

(End of this chapter)