African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 1335 Primary Industrial Power

East Africa has also caught up with a good time. In addition to the multi-polar structure, it has also caught up with the last train of colonialism, the concentrated outbreak of capitalist crises, the outbreak of conflicts among imperialist groups, etc. East Africa is at the forefront of the times. The foundation for a successful takeoff.

Langfulte continued: "Currently, our country's population is mainly concentrated in areas around the equator, including the central (mainly Zambezi and southern Congo) and Bohemian industrial areas (mainly Zimbabwe), and the eastern coast (mainly along the coasts of Tanzania and Mozambique). Mainland) and the western coast (mainly along the coast of Angola), accounting for 60% of the country’s population.”

"The next most densely populated areas are the Great Lakes and the South, and finally the North and Southwest."

"The industrial population is concentrated in the central and southern plateaus and coastal areas of the country. With the Rhine City as the center, there are multiple economic and industrial core areas across the country."

The problem of economic development in East Africa is generally manifested as an imbalance between the north and the south. This is also the main reason why the Great Lakes region was focused on developing during the Fourth Five-Year Plan period.

Of course, taking into account factors such as geographical location, climatic conditions, and economy, strictly speaking, the Great Lakes region does not really belong to the north, but is the place closest to the north with development potential.

This is also easy to understand. Just like the western development of the Far Eastern Empire in the previous life, in fact, the government really attaches great importance to economic development in the Guanzhong and Sichuan and Chongqing regions.

As a country with a huge land area, East Africa certainly cannot learn from the current model of European countries, especially Germany, in terms of economic development, where all regions receive rain and dew equally, nor can it learn from Russia, which concentrates resources on a few places such as St. Petersburg and Moscow. regional pattern.

European countries are economically developed, and the economies between regions are relatively balanced, but this is determined by factors such as history and politics.

Take Germany for example. Although Germany has become a unified country, the states and free cities unified by Germany still have great rights. In addition, Germany's terrain restrictions, especially the basins and valleys in the southern region, can easily cause the concentration of resources. Therefore, Regional economic and industrial centers such as Munich and Stuttgart were formed.

Moreover, the proliferation of countries in Europe has also resulted in a waste of public resources. Regardless of European countries such as the United Kingdom, France, or Germany, their construction centers on their own countries.

As a result, Europe's railway, road and water networks have formed multiple systems, resulting in a certain degree of waste, especially for Europe as a whole.

Especially in the border areas of various countries, only one railway or highway is originally needed, but due to different strategies of each country, duplication of construction may occur.

The urban development model of Tsarist Russia obviously has no learning value for East Africa. After all, except for the areas around St. Petersburg and Moscow, and eastern Ukraine, almost all other places in Russia are poor rural areas.

Development is very uneven, which is also an important reason for the collapse of the Russian government. Russia is indeed developed and powerful, but this was established when most regions and populations did not benefit. Not only did they not benefit, but they were used to support industrially developed areas. For the development of backward areas, further efforts should be made to extract the bones and marrow from backward areas.

In reality, the bottom workers and farmers in Russia can hardly survive, and are naturally easily incited by the Labor Party.

Therefore, although East Africa is also developing large cities intensively, other regions must also be able to get a share of the soup to achieve a balance.

This is the case with the multi-economic core of East Africa. East Africa has not only formed five national industrial regions of "three large and two small" across the country, but also improved the utilization efficiency of public resources under the unified market.

Langfulte said: "It can be seen from the distribution of registered population in our country that our country has formed multiple key industrial and market gathering areas under a unified market."

"Just like a big tree and its branches and leaves, under the leadership of the government, we have built a developed and efficient transportation network, with railways, highways and waterways forming the overall framework of the national economic development."

"Relying on this nationally developed transportation system, the current industrial and economic development pattern of 'three big and two small' has developed, thus driving the development of the national economy. This illustrates the overall rationality of my country's current population distribution."

The so-called three big and two small is a concept within the East African government. It refers to the five national economic and industrial center areas that are key to construction in East Africa. They are the Central and Bohemian Industrial Zones centered on the Rhine City, and the Eastern Coastal Industrial Zone. belt, the western coastal industrial belt, the Great Lakes Industrial Zone and the southern group development area.

The first three have basically taken shape, so they are called the three majors, while the latter two are in the development and construction stage, so they are called the two small ones.

These five regions, which are the most suitable areas for urban, industrial, and agricultural development in East Africa, have superior basic conditions, including energy, minerals, arable land, water sources, and climate.

Therefore, these five regions will inevitably become the "five poles" of the East African economy in the future. This is also the future long-term plan made by Ernst and the East African government for the balanced economic development of East Africa.

Of course, how does East Africa develop beyond these five places? This problem is also easy to solve, because except for these five economically key areas, the population in other places is not large. This means that the overall economic data in non-"two big and three small" areas is not good, but if As for per capita, that's another story.

This is similar to the northwest of the Far Eastern Empire in the previous life, or today's Siberia of Russia. The conditions may seem difficult, but they are only reflected in the climate. In an era of low productivity, it is indeed unexplainable. However, after the advent of the industrialization era, their lives have changed. The quality is not necessarily worse than elsewhere.

Take the current Siberia of Russia as an example. Siberia is indeed a "bitter cold land", but the living conditions of the people in Siberia are much better than that of Ukraine, which has the most fertile land and the warmest climate in Russia.

After all, Siberia is vast and sparsely populated, which provides Siberia with rich products. However, when the products are rich and the population is sparse, the population will become a valuable resource.

Moreover, Siberia's remoteness and harsh climate also kept Siberia away from wars before.

Those who are truly dissatisfied with the environment in Siberia should be said to be the "political prisoners" who were previously exiled here by the tsarist government.

The ridicule of digging potatoes in Siberia is indeed miserable for them, but for the bottom farmers in Russia in the past, having a stable piece of land to dig potatoes was a luxury.

Of course, in Russia, Siberia can only be regarded as inadequate, but more than adequate. Russia has actually implemented a colonial policy in Siberia for a long time, and the living conditions of non-Russians must be miserable.

This is similar to the early days of East Africa. The living conditions of the people in early East Africa were actually not bad. The reason was that there were a large number of black slaves under the East African people at that time.

Lasting until East Africa initially completed the industrialization stage, that is, approximately before the completion of the Second Five-Year Plan, the slave economy has always been an important way to ensure the living standards of East African citizens.

After the end of the slave economy, the remote areas of East Africa, such as the northern region, have completed the construction of developed transportation. Coupled with the vast land and sparse population, although the economic data in northern East Africa are not very good, the living standards of the people are at the national average. above. Although the land in the north is relatively barren, the population is small and the per capita arable land is more, which can offset the environmental disadvantages. The same is true in terms of resources. The north is relatively lacking in minerals, but the per capita occupancy is higher and there are more jobs. Stable, it is not difficult to maintain a normal standard of living.

If you want better treatment and living conditions, you can only go to the city to get involved. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, and it mainly depends on personal pursuits.

The preliminary population census data in 1918 gave the East African government reassurance that for a country with a short history like East Africa, the current population growth will not put much pressure on the government, but is an important driving force for economic development.

Moreover, based on Ernst's experience, the pressure that the East African government will face in the future is likely to be the problem of declining population fertility. After all, the urbanization level in East Africa may have reached 40%.

And this means that East Africa can get rid of the hat of a "semi-industrial country" in the past, because the urbanization level of 40% has exceeded the urbanization level of developed countries in this era, which is about 37%. By around 39, East Africa had passed the threshold, and the world's average urbanization level was less than 20 percent.

The so-called developed countries at the beginning of the 20th century included, in addition to several powerful countries, small powerful countries with relatively developed economies such as Belgium and the Netherlands.

Of course, East Africa becoming a developed country does not mean that everything will be fine. On the contrary, there is still a long way to go, especially the four major countries ahead of East Africa: Britain, Germany, the United States, and France.

Among them, France’s urbanization rate should be closest to that of East Africa. France’s urbanization rate is about 46%, while the United States is around 50%, Germany is close to 60%, and the United Kingdom has almost no growth. Space and urbanization are basically completed.

France's urbanization level is relatively low among major countries. After all, France has long been a traditional power in Europe and even the world.

However, this is understandable. Since the Franco-Prussian War, France's industrial development has been relatively slow. Of course, this is mainly due to comparison with other industrial countries, especially France's rival Germany. France has not slowed down so far. This can also be seen that France Why is there so much hostility to Germany.

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It can be said that the Franco-Prussian War interrupted the national destiny of the entire France, so much so that France's urbanization level is now even close to that of East Africa, a country with a history of only more than half a century.

In addition to several major powers, there is a high probability that a few small European countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden are also in East Africa. However, there is no specific data for them, so we can only speculate.

Of course, Sweden should be regarded as a medium-sized country in Europe, and the reason why East Africa judges that Sweden has higher urbanization and industrialization than East Africa is that since the 1970s, Sweden's economic development has been higher than the average level of Western Europe, and itself Sweden had a good financial background in the past, and going back further, it could even compete with Russia, so Sweden must have a certain industrial base.

In addition to the above-mentioned countries, the reason why East Africa can pass the urbanization level is naturally inseparable from other countries, such as Japan, Spain, Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, etc.

Among these countries, the pre-war Austro-Hungarian Empire had the highest level of urbanization, but it only reached about 25%.

Japan is quite special. At present, Japan's urbanization level has reached about 18%. Before 1910, Japan's urbanization level was only less than 10%. In less than ten years, Japan's urbanization rate has increased by nearly 10%. Eight percent is a very scary number.

The reason why this number is scary is that Japan's population has exceeded 50 million. Judging from the population alone, Japan's strength is even greater than that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire has many ethnic groups, and Japan is almost all Yamato. Only Hokkaido is home to a pitifully small number of Ainu people (also known as Ezo).

In the last century, Japan's population was only over 30 million, so Japan has greatly improved its industrialization while maintaining high population growth. If French citizens had the same fertility level as the Japanese, they would probably have a headache now. Germany.

Of course, the so-called developed countries were a concept that was only proposed in the 1960s. Today, countries around the world do not use this term. They generally use the term industrial power.

If we look at industrial powers alone, as early as the 1990s, East Africa should be considered an industrial power, and Russia, the weakest link in imperialism, could also be dubbed an "industrial power."

Of course, this so-called industrial power is mainly aimed at countries outside of Europe. If Russia and other industrial countries in Europe said that they were industrial powers, they would probably be laughed at.

Therefore, Ernst told East African government officials: "Judging from population data and our country's industrial development, our country has now become a primary industrial power."

"Among the big countries, we still need to maintain a humble attitude and actively catch up with the four countries of Britain, Germany, the United States and France."

"Although our country's industrial volume has reached the first place in the world and has further consolidated this position, the quality of industrial development is still far behind that of other major countries."

"Take the United States as an example. The size of the empire is not much larger than that of the United States, but the urbanization rate of the United States is about ten percent ahead of ours."

"You must also be aware of how difficult it is to shorten this 10 percent gap. In the past, our country was in a stage of rapid development for a long time, which led to a substantial increase in the level of industrialization."

"However, as the empire has developed to this day, and we want to go further, every step will only be more difficult than the past."

At the beginning of the 20th century, the urbanization rate in East Africa had reached about 20%. Today, nearly two decades have passed, and the urbanization level in East Africa has almost doubled.

This is a very astonishing "miracle", and if East Africa wants to repeat this "miracle" in the future, it will be almost impossible to achieve it unless it encounters another major historical opportunity like World War I.

The level of urbanization increased by nearly 20% in twenty years. This speed is not without examples, such as the Soviet Union or the Far Eastern Empire in the past.

Of course, the Soviet Union’s Third Five-Year Plan was interrupted by World War II and did not last for twenty years. However, it entered a period of rapid urbanization after the war.

Therefore, it can be said that the East African government under the leadership of Ernst has maximized its capabilities and achieved today's results by taking advantage of the opportunities of the times, turning East Africa from a semi-industrial country into a primary industrial power.

(End of chapter)