Chapter 22 Colonial Development
Hechingen Consortium, the first town in Tanzania, rows of sisal seedlings that have just been buried in the soil are planted on the low hills in the southwest, and agricultural workers are plowing the soil.
On both sides of the aisles, the natives pulled iron plows purchased from Europe to turn over the soil in the aisles, while the Chinese were responsible for the soil around the sisal seedlings. This was a delicate job. If these natives were allowed to come, they might be injured. The root system of sisal can only be dug bit by bit with a hoe by experienced and meticulous Chinese agricultural workers.
On the completed land, the Germans, under the guidance of Hispanic agricultural experts, directed and supervised the indigenous digging of drainage canals.
Spreading from the high slopes to the flat areas are wheat seedlings that have been planted. In order to ensure the water supply for the wheat, new aqueducts are being built.
With the arrival of more and more Chinese immigrants, the scale of agriculture has become considerable. These newly arrived immigrants will be assigned by the company to old people who have already arrived here and have some experience to participate in the reclamation work. The Germans are the leaders and are mainly responsible for Oversight management and force.
In order to prevent some blind indigenous tribes and slave hunting teams, the remaining German mercenary groups will patrol the surrounding territories in groups.
The large forces continued to explore inland and draw maps. Sometimes when they came back to rest, they would grab some laborers and clear the land around the first town.
The entire First Town is expanding to the west at a speed visible to the naked eye. As long as follow-up personnel are in place, new strongholds will continue to appear in the interior of Tanzania.
The entire colonial team has begun planning for a second stronghold, located on the banks of the Little Rhine, thirteen kilometers southwest of the first town. In order to facilitate statistical management, the name this time is as unpretentious as before. The second stronghold is Town (Lufu), in addition to the third town is also planned.
The third town (Kitunga) is located in the north of the first town, about ten kilometers away in a straight line. Construction will start when the follow-up personnel are completed.
The prototype of an East African colony appeared with the First Town as the center, connected to the port of Dar es Salaam to the east, and radiated and expanded to the west, with an area of approximately 150,000 acres.
Sisal likes a high-slope environment with high temperature, humidity and uniform rainfall, especially a climate with high temperature, dryness, sufficient sunshine during the day, and fog and dew at night is the most ideal.
East Africa just meets the above conditions. During the day, the sunshine is strong and the temperature is high. At night, because it is located on the plateau, the atmosphere is relatively thin, the insulation effect is poor, the heat is lost quickly, and the moisture in the air is easy to condense. Therefore, the daily temperature difference in Africa is greater than the annual temperature difference.
The suitable temperature for sisal growth is 27-30℃, with an upper temperature limit of 40℃ and a lower temperature limit of 16℃. The temperature difference between day and night should not exceed 7~10℃, which is in line with the temperature conditions in East Africa.
The suitable annual rainfall is 1200-800mm. It has strong adaptability, is resistant to barrenness, drought, and waterlogging, but has strong growth ability and a wide adaptability range. It should be planted in loose, well-drained, fertile sandy loam soil with low water table, poor drainage, and often wet places. It is not suitable for planting. It has low cold tolerance and is prone to physiological leaf spot disease.
These are data provided by agricultural Hispanic experts Ernst invited from Mexico. Sisal is native to the Mexican plateau and was later brought to the world by Europeans.
This Hispanic expert is a farmer engaged in sisal cultivation in Mexico. Although his cultural level is not high, his grandmother is from the German region, so he can also speak German, which is why the East African colonies hired him. reason.
The Mexican Plateau is similar to the East African Plateau. They are both located near the equator and have similar environments. The difference is that East Africa is closer to the equator and the equator passes through the middle. Mexico is between the Tropic of Cancer and the equator.
The distribution of precipitation in Mexico is uneven. Some areas are tropical rainforests, while other areas are tropical deserts. The conditions in East Africa are better, and the south of Ethiopia and Somalia is basically savanna.
The East African colonies adopted corporate management. The Chinese who immigrated here were nominally workers of the Hechingen Consortium. This was also true in practice. The land belonged to the Hechingen Consortium, and the consortium would arrange for these agricultural workers to work collectively.
All immigrants are divided into different working groups to develop the land in East Africa in a planned manner. In the end, the work efficiency of each group determines the supply of food. The management of the colony will send people to inspect the labor results of agricultural workers. The acceptance criteria include the workload and time used, the quality of farmland development, and the subsequent growth of crops.
Theoretically, these agricultural workers can get wages, but currently no one does, and the Chinese agricultural workers don’t care. The main purpose of coming to work here is to make a living. Most of the people in the Far East It was because they lost their fields or went bankrupt due to force majeure and had no way to survive that they traveled across the ocean to East Africa.
The East African colonies encourage such people to come to East Africa to make a living, because what is most lacking now is people. After comparing the use of Chinese and indigenous people, the colonial leaders also found that the Chinese work efficiency is much higher than that of the indigenous people and they are easier to manage.
Most of the natives needed the colonial team to send someone with a whip to supervise them, so they would work lazily, although they were affected by the factors of oppression by the Hechingen consortium.
But we are afraid of comparison in everything. The Chinese on the other side are working hard without complaining, and obeying the arrangements, doing whatever they are told, without any sign of reluctance. Why can't you local lazy guys do it? arrive.
As a result, the colonial leaders gradually "understood" the boss's painstaking efforts. These Chinese are indeed naturally high-quality workers, not inferior to the Germans.
However, these Chinese workers do have a lot of food to eat. Ordinary Germans who can make ends meet in Europe find it difficult to understand the Chinese's desire to have enough to eat.
The more work you can do in the East African colonies, the better, and the more food you can eat, the better, so you naturally work hard.
Because of colonial reclamation, the animals on the East African grasslands suffered a great disaster. Wildebeests, lions... all large animals were hunted by colonial teams.
Most of the meat from these animals goes into the stomachs of Chinese workers. For many Chinese workers who have not seen the smell of meat all year round, it is simply a new year.
Even in this era, many people at the bottom of the Qing Dynasty did not see any oil stars during the New Year. Unlike now, as long as they work hard, they can make a living and occasionally eat meat. Although it is very hard every day, but Happiness and contentment appeared on these people's faces for the first time.
After the basic survival problems were solved, some families have already started the business of making babies. Yes, there are Chinese families in the East African colonies.
East African colonies encourage family immigration. After all, forming a family is a stable condition for maintaining rule. Of course, large families and clans are not included in this. Large families and clans are factors of instability in Ernst’s eyes. After all, behind the scenes Relying on big families and clans will lead to cliques, which is no fun and unfair to the development of society.
Therefore, Ernst strictly prohibited large families and clans from intervening when recruiting people in the Far East. Maybe these families and clans would not want to come to East Africa, but Ernst still had to be on guard against the slightest possibility.
As for small families of two or three, Ernst strongly welcomed them. Not to mention other things, as long as they formed a family or already had a family in the East African colonies, they would be assigned separate residences. As for the bachelors, Most of them can only live in Datongpu.
At present, the ratio of men to women in the colonies is seriously imbalanced. There are only a few people who start a family, and they have already started a family in the Far East, and there are even fewer female workers recruited individually.
In the future, it will fall on Ernst's shoulders to solve the marriage problems of these bachelors, but now Ernst has no energy to do these things.
Ernst is now paying more attention to the development of industry and changes in the European situation.
(End of this chapter)