Chapter 421 The Great East African Railway Plan
February 22, 1873.
Svet Palace.
Ernst convened all the top officials of the East African government and the East African Railway Company to discuss the issue of railway construction in East Africa. Taking advantage of the economic crisis, the construction of railways in East Africa can also be started.
Ernst described the preliminary construction blueprint of the East African Railway in detail to everyone at the meeting:
"The railway planned this time is divided into four parts. One is an extension of the First Railway. After completion, it will be renamed the 'Central Railway' to connect the East African coast, the East African Plateau, the Katanga Plateau, the Lunda Plateau, and Mata. Plateau of Pele, South Africa"
"The Central Railway is in the shape of a 'T', with a total mileage of more than 4,600 kilometers. It starts from Dar es Salaam and passes through the first town, Mbeya, Lubumbashi, Lu Saka City, Harare City, Bulawayo City, Pretoria City”
"The second one is the 'Northern Railway', with a total mileage of more than 1,000 kilometers, starting from Mombasa, passing through Nairobi, and ending in Kisumu."
"After the completion of the two sections of railway , the East African railway mileage is approximately 5,600 kilometers miles around, effectively connecting the territory of East Africa. The Central Railway is responsible for the cross-regional passenger and freight exchanges between the eastern, western and southern regions of East Africa, and the Northern Railway is responsible for the connection between the Great Lakes region and the coast. ”
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Ernst said to the chief technical advisor of the East African Railway Company: "Mr. Nordin, please describe the specific construction conditions and plans in detail. If you have any difficulties, you can tell us directly!"
So Nordin Said: "Everyone, before the construction of the First Railway, we carried out The survey of railway lines in East Africa took almost three years to select relevant routes and try to avoid sections with complex terrain. However, there are still some swamps and wetlands along the route. This is also the biggest problem faced by the Central Railway. Compared with Under this situation, the Northern Railway does not have this problem.”
” Let me simply take the Pacific Railway in the United States as an example. The total mileage of the Pacific Railway is about more than 3,000 kilometers, and the planned length of our Central Railway is far longer than that of the Pacific Railway. At the same time, the amount of construction projects within the same unit distance is also higher than that of the Pacific Railway. ”
The issue of construction volume is Ernst It was self-inflicted, because Ernst believed that the construction of the East African Railway had seized the best section of the entire East African Kingdom (avoiding mountainous sections, and there was no need to develop tunnels). It would almost certainly be the main artery of the East African Railway in the future, so he simply built a third line. Railways, while Europe and the United States were mostly dominated by single-track railways and double-track railways during the same period.
“Taking the industrial base of the two countries as an example, the United States has a complete industrial system that can almost fully meet all the needs of railway production, while East Africa has zero foundation in this area, even the most basic rail production Neither can be completed.”
This means that railway construction in East Africa still relies on imports. However, East Africa has calculated that imports are currently cheaper than East Africa’s own production. This is certainly not the case in normal times, but after the economic crisis broke out in Europe and the United States, a large amount of excess railway production capacity just satisfies East Africa’s appetite. Now Ernst is waiting for the European and American railway industries to completely hit the bottom before he is ready to take action.
So Ernst added on the side: "Don't worry about this problem. Next, we will purchase relevant materials in large quantities from Europe. Currently, Austria and Germany have abundant excess steel production capacity that can fully meet the needs of the East African Railway. Demand, even if the German region is not enough, there are still Britain, France and the United States..." Nordin: "Your Highness, this is just one item. , then there is the problem of lack of skilled workers. Maybe black people can solve more than 85% of the needs, but some technologies are impossible for black people to solve and require professional railway workers.”
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Ernst: "This is not a problem. I can tell you a clear message, that is, when Austria has already experienced a serious economic crisis. More than a dozen railway companies have gone bankrupt, and this number is still rising. At the same time, the economic crisis will spread to other industrial countries, especially the United States, Germany and France, which have also over-built railways in recent years. This also means that many railway workers are unemployed. I have telegraphed Austrian companies to recruit a large number of Experienced railway workers can effectively solve this problem when they arrive in East Africa."
Nordin: "As for the construction period, according to your request, the construction of the Central Railway and the Northern Railway Main Line will be completed within three years. , after comparing the data of the Pacific Railway, we believe that at least more than 60,000 workers are needed.”
The Pacific Railway took four years from construction to completion, and the total number of workers remained at about 15,000.
This time the construction length of the Central Railway in the East African Kingdom alone exceeds that of the Pacific Railway by nearly 1,500 kilometers. Including the Northern Railway, the project volume is almost twice that of the Pacific Railway, and the conditions in the East African Kingdom are worse than those in the United States. It is far away, especially in terms of transportation, and the construction period is short, so a lot of manpower is needed to fill it.
Ernst: "Don't worry about this. In order to support the railway construction work, the government has recruited 100,000 indigenous laborers from all over the country to complete this work."
100,000 people Aboriginal labor, it sounds like a lot, but in fact it is not as good as The Central Canal being excavated in East Africa has a large number of workers. The number of workers on the Central Canal currently exceeds 250,000. In this regard, it has actually not surpassed the Suez Canal. Egypt has paid 120,000 lives for the construction of the Suez Canal. East Africa The kingdom is still far away!
It can be seen that the engineering volume of railways and canals is completely incomparable. However, the advantage of canals is that the technical difficulty is not high. The work of digging earth can be commanded by an ancient monarch like Emperor Sui Yang thousands of years ago. Completed, and thousands of years later, the Suez Canal still maintains such a high casualty rate. It can only be said that the French who presided over the construction of the canal really treated the lives of Egyptians as cattle, no, not as good as cattle.
Although the East African Kingdom is more conscientious than the French, they are limited to treating black people as livestock. Animals also need to eat fodder, and they are not like the French who don't even want to pay for this fodder.
One hundred thousand indigenous railway workers are completely enough for East Africa. You must know that in the Far East in the previous life, in the 1930s, there were only 230,000 railway workers in the country. Russia's Siberian Railway employed a total of 90,000 workers. , and the total length of the Siberian Railway is nearly 10,000 kilometers, which is almost twice the current railway construction plan of the East African Kingdom. It is also the most difficult to construct in the frozen soil zone. That is to say, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the Far East will be more difficult than the Siberian Railway in the future (alpine and hypoxic plus frozen soil), at least in the summer the Siberian Railway The construction conditions are much better.
To sum up, everyone found that the only problem in East African railway construction is the weak industrial base, and other problems are minor problems.
So Ernst continued: "While building the railway, we must also take advantage of the trend to complete the preliminary industrialization construction in East Africa. Before 1880, we can achieve complete independence and get rid of the need for steel from Germany and Austria. Dependence.”
This is why Ernst asked for three years to complete the Central Railway. The important reason for road construction is that if East Africa wants to develop industry, it can also develop Zimbabwe's coal mines and iron ore, and all of this needs railway support. The number of coal mines and iron ore resources in the East African Plateau is still too small. As for South Africa We still have to wait. That location is on the border of East Africa and we don’t have absolute strength. So we should not develop it yet.
Moreover, after developing Zimbabwe, East Africa will be able to take control of its territory to a higher level, and its ability to control the south and west will be greatly strengthened. It will not be as top-heavy as it is now, relying only on the army to maintain regional security.
(End of this chapter)