Chapter 834 Railway Situation in Various Countries in 1890
“At present, Mbeya and Dar es Salaam are the main research and development centers for internal combustion engine tractors. Harare is deeply inland. The training of technical talents is still relatively weak, and it is not conducive to academic exchanges. Therefore, in the future, if central cities such as Harare want to innovate in the field of education, they must develop both external and internal channels," said the Minister of Education for East Africa. Delic said to Ernst.
Currently, East Africa's cutting-edge field technologies are being vigorously pushed inland. As a late-developing country, most of the sources of knowledge in East Africa are "imported products" and the local talent training system is not yet complete.
Mbeya City, which has an earlier development history, is the end point for East Africa to absorb the world's advanced cultural knowledge and technology. As for Harare City, it is too deep into the center and has a short history. Although it is developing rapidly in industry, It has surpassed the city of Mbeya in size, but it lags far behind eastern cities such as Mbeya in terms of cutting-edge technology and scientific education.
“Actually, Harare is not too far from the ocean. It’s just that Mozambique was in the hands of the Portuguese before. Now Mozambique has been included in East Africa, so we must open up the fastest external channel in Harare to promote the central part of the country. The speed of urban development, especially in the field of high-end industries, said Liu Yidewei, Minister of Transport.
The names of East African ministers are quite peculiar. Of course, as a country with integrated foreign populations, this is normal. Just like the Minister of Transport is an older generation of Chinese immigrants and was born at the Hechingen Military Academy.
Ernst asked Liu Yidwell: "Then what do your Ministry of Transport think?"
"Your Royal Highness, the Port of Beira is now quite large, so we believe that it will not be built now. Railway conditions from Harare to Beira have improved Mature, the Ministry of Railways and we all agree that it is very necessary to build the Habe Railway. Only about 450 kilometers of railway is needed to give Harare the fastest access to the sea and at the same time promote the development of central Mozambique. "Liu Yidwell said.
The railway system is obviously also part of transportation, but in East Africa in the 19th century, the railway system was divided into a separate government department, at the same level as the Ministry of Transportation. Of course, the close ties between the two parties made the two Departments must communicate and collaborate with each other in the development of East African countries.
“The Habe Railway can solve the problem of Harare’s sea entrance. If completed, it will only take one day to travel from Harare to Beira, which is only longer than traveling from Dar es Salaam to Dodo. It is more than ten kilometers longer than the journey from Mbeya to Es Salaam, and the time taken to reach Es Salaam is even shortened by half," said Railways Minister Andrei.
The speed of the East African Railway is between 30 and 50 kilometers per hour, so if the Habe Railway is built, it will only take less than a day to reach it. At present, given the conditions in Mozambique, it is impossible to set up too many stations along the route because the railway is nearby. There are no cities at all, and even villages are rare, which means that the completion of the Habei Railway can greatly save time and cost.
The reason why the West African export line for black people in East Africa is slow is because there are many cities and strongholds along the way, and the black slaves have to deal with food, drink and diarrhea, so a lot of time is wasted in stopping and going.
Ernst nodded and said: "The value of the Habe Railway is certainly undoubted. It is very necessary for the development of eastern cities, but it is far from enough. We are in the newly occupied areas of Mozambique, Angola and the Boer Republic. , it will all be passed in the future On the railway, the current pattern of railways in East Africa is that there are more railways in the east, the center and the north are equal, and there are less in the west and south. Your Ministry of Railways must plan this carefully."
Andre replied: "As of last year, it was also the same. That is, in 1889, the total mileage of my country’s railways It is 19,000 kilometers. In 1889, the railway construction was slightly delayed for a year due to the war. In the past 20 years, an average of more than 1,000 kilometers of railways have been built every year. Therefore, the specific situation of railway construction in the west and south depends on the land conditions and economy, as well as National Defense Requirements.”
The construction time of the East African Railway was actually around 1873, and it did not last twenty years. However, in the 1970s, affected by the economic crisis and the world's steel production capacity was overcapacity, the construction of the East African Railway was very fast. In the 1980s, On the contrary, it has declined.
Of course, this also promoted the healthy development of East Africa's industrial structure. In the 1970s, most steel products and equipment were mainly imported from Europe. By the end of the 1980s, the localization of East African railways had reached more than 70%.
“my country’s railway construction has achieved brilliant results in the past two decades. Among non-powerful powers, only Argentina can compare with us. However, although Argentina’s railway growth rate is fast, it does not exceed 10,000 kilometers. , we are twice the size of Argentinian Railways and currently The country with the most road mileage is the United States, which should be more than 200,000 kilometers, followed by Tsarist Russia, which is more than 40,000 kilometers, Germany's railway mileage should be about 40,000 kilometers, then the United Kingdom is about 30,000 kilometers, and France is close to 30,000 kilometers. , Austria-Hungary is about the same as France," Andre said.
Needless to say, American railways were already number one in the world before the economic crisis. Argentina's railways developed rapidly. In 1870, the country's railways were only 740 kilometers, in 1880 they were 2,133 kilometers, in 1886 they were 5,964 kilometers, and in 1890 they had reached 9,254 kilometers.
Although East Africa is twice the size of Argentina, when it comes to density, East Africa is no match. After all, Argentina's territory is only about a quarter of East Africa's.
Of course, although the world's hegemon, the United Kingdom, only has 30,000 kilometers of railways, this is only in its own country. In the past two decades, the construction of railways in the United Kingdom has also been exaggerated. For example, the Argentine railway mentioned earlier was mainly built with British capital. In addition, there are American and Indian railways, and British capital are all involved.
In 1890, the length of India's railways exceeded 25,000 kilometers, which if taken alone would exceed most countries in the world.
The length of the Tsarist-Russian railway is at the same latitude as East Africa. The Tsarist-Russian railway is also twice as long as East Africa. However, the area of Tsarist Russia is almost 10 million square kilometers larger than that of East Africa, so the two countries are basically the same.
And the construction of the Siberian Railway has not yet started. The Russian-Tsarist railways are basically concentrated in the European region. Within the European region, many railways are distributed in Poland and Western Ukraine. Therefore, the railways in the Russian region alone are not necessarily better than those in East Africa. How much stronger.
As for France, it was obviously affected by the sequelae of the Franco-Prussian War, so railway construction was quite difficult. In fact, throughout the 1970s after the Franco-Prussian War, the French government worked hard to restore the economy, but it failed Unfortunately, we encountered an economic crisis.
Therefore, it was not until the late 1970s that France ambitiously proposed the "Frecinet Plan", which was to build a large-scale railway network, roads and water transportation. For this purpose, the French government allocated 5 billion francs in special funds.
It is planned to build 30,000 kilometers of railways, 200,000 kilometers of roads, and 200 kilometers of canals within 20 years. At the same time, new ports such as Nantes, Bordeaux, Rouen, and Dunkirk will be opened and dredged.
This amount of money is exactly the same as the war reparations for the Franco-Prussian War, which means that the Franco-Prussian War directly cost France at least "twenty years."
However, this can also reflect the tenacious vitality of France. It took only ten years to basically eliminate the negative impact of the war on France.
As for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it is basically on the same level as France. After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire itself is much behind France.
In addition to these countries, some small countries in Europe are also developing extremely rapidly, especially the low-lying countries of the Netherlands, Belgium, and the three Nordic countries.
Except for these countries, the rest are not ideal. For example, Japan's railways in 1890 were only more than 2,700 kilometers, and the Far Eastern Empire was only about 400 kilometers.
So although the East African railway construction is exaggerated, it is not particularly outstanding when viewed from a global perspective.
(End of this chapter)