Chapter 56 Balance
Ernst returned to his home in Hechingen from Austria and spent the Christmas of 1866 with Prince Constantine.
The East African colonies also developed step by step.
January 14, 1867.
The first immigrants from the Austrian Empire arrived at the port of Dar es Salaam.
The immigrants who first arrived in East Africa have long been tempered by the bumps on the sea, and now they are very happy to see land.
Because it is within the Sultanate of Zanzibar, the environment here looks pretty good to the immigrants. After all, Zanzibar has been developed for many years and the urban construction is barely up to standard.
People of all colors can be seen in Zanzibar, Germans, Arabs, Portuguese, blacks, Indians and Chinese...
Having always lived deep in the interior of the Austrian Empire No immigrant has ever seen this. The architectural style of Zanzibar is also different from Europe, and is full of strong Arabic style.
Coupled with tropical beaches and coconut trees, everything is so novel to these immigrants.
...
After three days on the road, these immigrants were brought to the first town. Officials from various regions of the East African colonies had been prepared and had come to pull the immigrants in early.
The first batch of immigrants arriving today turned out to be white! Colonial officials who were accustomed to accepting Chinese immigrants in the past were a little surprised.
However, this group of people soon came to their senses. Colonial officials are currently all Germans. Students at the Hechingen Military Academy generally serve as translators and assistants, or in the colonial army. Junior officer.
In fact, these Germans were also worried. After all, what would they do if their yellow people rebelled? It was fine in the early days, with a small population, but in the last few months of last year, tens of thousands more Chinese immigrants came out, while the number of Germans was still the original 2,000.
It is still possible to suppress tens of thousands of people with two thousand people, but the number of Chinese immigrants is increasing too fast. This year it will be tens of thousands, next year it will be hundreds of thousands, and the year after that it will be hundreds of thousands.
This is to say the least. No one knows whether Ernst will increase the number of ships to transport more people.
Although Chinese immigrants are more obedient and have a stronger labor force, the development of East Africa has greatly accelerated since the restrictions on Chinese immigration were relaxed.
But for German officials, being able to rely on their own people (white people) makes them feel at ease, because German officials do not speak Chinese, and many of their tasks need to be completed by students from the Hechingen Military Academy.
The German officials who have tasted the sweetness of power are naturally uneasy. After all, these Hechingen Military Academy students are loyal to Ernst and have a monitoring role for German officials in the colony.
German officials believed that they were Ernst's reliance. Ernst's over-reliance on the Chinese would lead to instability in the East African colonies.
Compared to the Germans hired with money and the students of the Hechingen Military Academy trained by himself, Ernst certainly trusted the students he trained more.
But people's hearts are unpredictable, so Ernst did not dare to hand over the colony to them. He would rather use Germans who were not very high-level (mostly veterans who retired from the army and mercenaries who were living overseas). A small number of senior executives are managers of the Hechingen Consortium).
The purpose of relocating people from the Austrian Empire this time was also to prevent Chinese immigrants from becoming one family.
Ernst was just a feudal aristocrat with the ambition to open up new territories. There are always people who doubt that Ernst has a white skin and a yellow heart.
In fact, Ernst had never thought about it this way. In addition to fulfilling the great ideals of his previous life, building a strong country in East Africa and preventing the indigenous people from wasting the great land in Africa, Ernst always put the interests of the Hohenzollern family into consideration. Put it first.
In Ernst’s own opinion, Africa can support at least two world-class powers, one is West Africa and the other is Southeast Africa.
West Africa is a densely populated area with mixed forces from various countries. Colonists from various countries have their own spheres of influence on the Gold Coast, while in East Africa there is only one top player, the Portuguese.
Cape Town, South Africa has been controlled by the British, and the Boers are not easy to mess with, so it is not a good place to start.
In East Africa, Portugal is basically the only country that has gone downhill. Ernst, the Sultanate of Zanzibar next door, has not yet taken it seriously (the colonial military strength has exceeded Zanzibar.).
The development of East Africa must squeeze out all the indigenous people, and the best way to squeeze out the indigenous people is to use immigrants to occupy the Indian land like the Americans.
For example, in the previous life of German East Africa, local officials wrote when reporting to the German government: It is impossible for white people to settle in Tanganyika on a large scale, and large-scale land must be used for planting by local labor. to complete.
So it’s not that Ernst didn’t want to use Germans, but that there were too few Germans, and the population of the German region was just enough. There were constant wars in Germany, so many people chose to go abroad and immigrate overseas. Now Germany is basically Stabilized under Prussian control.
With no threat of war, the Germans naturally choose to stay in Germany. Prussian industry, which already has a unified foundation, is developing rapidly, which makes the cake bigger and can better solve the unemployment problem.
In addition, the living standards in the German region itself are first-rate in this era, so Germans would rather wait than go abroad easily.
Even Germans in Austria will give priority to German regions when choosing where to work and live.
So if you want to develop Africa, you must have a large amount of surplus labor. The countries with the most abundant labor force in the world are the Russian Empire, India and the Qing Dynasty. It's not easy for Russians to think about it. After all, Russians live in the temperate, subarctic and frigid zones all year round, where they can withstand the African environment.
Indian Ernst is even less likely to be used. Not to mention the poor reputation of Indians in the previous life, India will still be a rare powerful opponent in East Africa in the Indian Ocean in the future. Ernst’s ambitions are To dominate the Indian Ocean.
A unified India has the ability to interfere in all countries around the Indian Ocean. Later generations of Indians relied on the Indians who stayed in Africa during the British colonial era to influence the politics of African countries.
The Qing Dynasty did not have the capabilities of India, and its furthest reach was the Strait of Malacca. The problem was that Ernst in his previous life did not see the Imperial Navy break through the first island chain until his death, let alone Malacca.
To be honest, India can kill half of the empire's economy as long as it strangles Malacca. First, the main channel of oil energy is interrupted. Second, the European market must be transited through the Americas, so Pakistan's status is So important, even if everyone knows that the two countries are superficial brothers, the common threat prompts both sides to stand together. If anyone has true feelings, that is stupid.
Weakening India in the future is East Africa's long-term strategy. There can only be one hegemon in the Indian Ocean, and East Africa's goal in the future is hegemony in the Indian Ocean.
A passage like the Strait of Malacca is also the goal of future East African colonies.
If the first two cannot be used, the only option is to immigrate from China. Ernst was Chinese in his previous life, so he naturally has a good impression of Chinese people, and Chinese people are really easy to use.
Now Ernst is an out-and-out German. When it comes to identity, Germany comes first. After all, his German identity cannot be changed in this life. Being German first means putting himself first.
As for the development of the East African colonies, which German who took advantage of them would be willing to come if they were not developed? You can't use high salaries to bring them over, and Ernst's money didn't come from strong winds. The two thousand Germans hired at the beginning accounted for a lot of Ernst's investment in East Africa.
Even the immigrants who were tricked into Austria were just the ancestral farmers of the Hungarians and Slavs.
The population of the Austrian Empire can only be regarded as the second level, and the composition is complicated. Ernst does not care. After all, the Saxons in the United States in later generations ruled immigrants from all over the world. The largest immigrant group was German. Later, the rise of Latinos in the United States did not change the fact that the Saxons in the United States were the ruling class, and English was the basis for maintaining American rule.
The country that Ernst wanted to build was naturally a German-speaking country, and all cultures were aligned with Germany. After Tanzania became independent, English was still used as the official language. Therefore, race was secondary, and language and cultural identity were the most important. The basis of domination.
Otherwise, there would be no need for a country like Brazil to exist at all. It is the Portuguese language and cultural identity that maintains the unity of Brazil.
Moreover, even if Ernst wants to recruit people from Germany on a large scale, it is currently impossible. It will not work if he imitates the United States and recruits fraudsters and robbers.
The United States relies on its big family and big business, and its comprehensive conditions rank first in the world. Otherwise, the crime rate in the United States is basically the same as that in South America. The only difference is that Americans are really rich, while South America is really poor.
The fact that Germans cannot be recruited now does not mean that they cannot be recruited in the future. When the East African colonies are developed in the future, there will naturally be people willing to come and develop. Moreover, there will be two world wars and economic crises in Europe. It's a good opportunity to make a move, so there's no need to rush.
On the other hand, if East Africa cannot be developed, even if we go to Europe to beg them to immigrate, they will not come.
Therefore, the current East African colonies focus on developing wasteland and improving agricultural construction. Only when construction is completed will there be a future.
When agricultural conditions mature and the country enters the industrialization stage, it is really time to introduce European immigrants on a large scale.
As for the problem of too many Chinese immigrants, it is not a threat at all until the East African natives are cleared, and Ernst has begun to seek European immigrants to balance the number of Chinese.
European colonists and Chinese immigrants are both latecomers to the invasion of East Africa. They are just the relationship between masterminds and accomplices. If the indigenous people are cleaned up, there will be no peace of mind between the two races in the future. This is the effect Ernst wants. , it’s hard to mention racial conflicts if they all have a guilty conscience, just like the vast majority of Americans ignore the Indians with a tacit understanding.
And Ernst did not follow the example of the United States and South Africa in practicing apartheid. The current East African colonies are following the model of Brazil and Cuba. In the final analysis, cultural identity comes first.
Naturally, cultural identity must be inculcated from an early age. Don’t look at the colonial immigrants as uneducated. In fact, they are well-educated in their hearts! They have not received any education, but they have social experience passed down from their ancestors.
It is basically a thankless task to change the minds of the first-generation immigrants through education. As long as Ernst ensures that they can have a good meal, they will be grateful.
After all, the current Chinese people do not have any political ideas in their minds. Unlike the unscrupulous people in Europe who still pursue political demands, before the Republic of China, the Chinese would only rebel if they really had no food to eat, even if they had a mouthful of food. I will also hold on to my death.
But if the Republic of China really came, Ernst would not recruit immigrants from the Far East. At that time, instead of recruiting immigrants, he recruited unruly people who participated in rebellion every day. All foreigners miss our Qing Dynasty. He really , I cried to death.
Ernst thought.
...
The criminal enterprise of colonization cannot be cleansed. Ernst chose to drag the Chinese into the water. As an accomplice, the future of Chinese people in East Africa will enter modernization, and the descendants of the Chinese in East Africa will not be able to speak out.
Everyone learns from the tacit understanding of the Americans and just pretends that there are no natives in East Africa. The integration of the German and Chinese ethnic groups is the way to go.
Ernst did not choose to deal with the natives like the United States treated the Indians. Even if he did not choose to treat the natives like the United States, he was a benevolent mother. None of the colonists in the world is nobler than Ernst.
(End of this chapter)