Chapter 843 "Black (East), German Economic Cooperation and Development Agreement"
Of course, Germany's losses are government investment, and actually have little to do with the development of local colonial groups in Cameroon, and early colonial losses are also normal The situation is that in the past few years, the Hechingen Consortium still had to import funds into East Africa, thus slowing down its own development. Otherwise, a large amount of its market share in Germany would not have been absorbed by the German Electric Corporation and reduced to the third position.
Although the climate of Cameroon is similar to that of East Africa, the savannah area is located inland, and the coastal area has a tropical rainforest climate that is not suitable for development. This is very different from East Africa. The land of Longxing in East Africa is Tanganyi. Even along the coast, Cairo has a savanna climate, making it an area suitable for human habitation.
This can be well reflected in the royal territory of Sigmaringen. The royal territory of Sigmaringen is located in the transition zone between savanna and tropical desert, which is the famous "Sahel zone" in Africa in the past life. ".
The Sahel Zone was also a suitable area for the development of civilization in ancient times. For example, the African black empire of Ghana, the Songhai Empire, and the Mali Empire were all nurtured in this area. In fact, there are also some in the royal territory of Sigmaringen. Many civilizational remains.
Sigmaringen also lacks a natural outlet to the sea, otherwise the conditions would actually be much better than those in Cameroon.
The development of tropical rainforest cities is actually quite difficult. This is something that East Africa is well aware of. The typical tropical rainforest cities in East Africa are actually only Kinshasa and Cabinda, but the population of both places (non-blacks) is not Over ten thousand.
Although Hesse Province and the provincial capital Kisan City (Kisangani) are located in the Congo Basin, they belong to the transition zone between tropical rainforest and savannah. The eastern mountains and southern plateau areas are actually very livable. If If it were not livable, Kisangani would not have briefly become the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in its previous life, becoming a large city with a population of nearly 700,000.
There is almost no population between Kisangani westward and Kinshasa. The reason why Kinshasa became an East African city is because of its important geographical location and it is an important transportation hub on the Congo River.
In the previous life, the Belgians used this place as the capital of the Zaire colony, which was developed from a military station. You can go directly upstream from Kinshasa.
But even in the 21st century, Kinshasa has developed into a large African city with a population of over one million, and it is still surrounded by lush tropical rainforest, which is similar to Cabinda.
So the difficulty for Germany to develop Cameroon can be imagined. In fact, before Germany, the Portuguese, British, and French all expanded in Cameroon, and Germany's ability to catch up from behind and occupy this area also shows that Cameroon's Value is not particularly important.
Of course, for Germany, especially for the new government of Wilhelm II and Capli, Cameroon's position is very prominent.
First of all, both of them support Germany's overseas colonial activities, and Cameroon is now Germany's largest overseas territory.
Moreover, to the east of Cameroon is the royal territory of Sigmaringen and East Africa, which further enhances Cameroon's status.
Anyone with a discerning eye knows that if the communication channel between the three countries can be opened up, it will be of huge benefit to Germany in developing Cameroon. After all, Germany's outlet is mainly in the Atlantic Ocean, and Cameroon is in the South Atlantic Ocean, which is the fastest area that Germany can reach East Africa. The only pity The key point is that the main economic entities in East Africa are in the central and eastern regions.
But even so, East Africa's strength around Cameroon is not comparable to that of Germany. East Africa's northern railway goes directly to the western city of Bangui, which is only more than a thousand kilometers away from the coast of Cameroon.
In fact, in addition to Bangui, the capital of Eastern Azand Province, East Africa also controls the Shari River (the main river that flows into Lake Chad) and the eastern part of the Adamawa Mountains (the watershed of the tributaries of the Shari River and the Ubangi River) ) part of the region, so geographically East Africa actually borders Germany.
It’s just that Germany’s development of Cameroon is too slow. For example, due to transportation problems, it cannot effectively connect East Africa and the royal territory of Sigmaringen. Therefore, cooperation between Germany and Cameroon is essential if it wants to develop Cameroon, East Africa, and Sigmaringen. , can greatly accelerate this process. Compared with the two countries, Germany's main population in Africa is too small.
Of course, Germany has naturally thought about introducing people from the Far Eastern Empire to develop Cameroon, but Germany is not Sigmaringen after all. Sigmaringen’s development of Chad actually completely copied the East African model. Based on East Africa. On the other hand, East Africa's support for the royal territory of Sigmalingen is actually subject to conditions.
It is obviously difficult for Germany to accept these conditions. For example, the introduction of Chinese immigrants is not as good as going directly to the inland to capture black indigenous people and then develop Cameroon. After all, even Chinese immigrants need to spend money. Time and money
Furthermore, Germany's colonial activities in Cameroon were achieved by supporting local black forces, which was very different from East Africa and Sigmaringen.
In East Africa and Sigmaringen, the overlord forced his bow and conquered every inch of land. Of course, the royal territory of Sigmaringen was quite special, so the East African Defense Force was invited to fight on his behalf.
Furthermore, the three countries have completely different positions on Africa. East Africa regards African land as its territory, and the royal territory of Sigmaringen is no less generous. After all, Leopold does not have the Spanish throne to inherit, so he can gain in Africa. A foundation is not bad, and Germany's positioning of Cameroon is a colony. Development is greater than plunder. However, the conditions for plunder are not yet mature, so the returns are not as good as the investment.
There is no big problem if black people are used for mining and setting up plantations, but it is certainly unrealistic to rely solely on black people to further develop Africa. The cost of re-education is obviously not as convenient as that of Chinese immigrants.
Of course, it would be best if Germans could be introduced. The problem is that with the economic development in recent years, Germany has ended its history of large-scale population emigration. After all, Sigmaringen cannot recruit people in Germany. people.
In this way, Cameroon is naturally at a level that is neither above nor below, and is not much different from the West African colonies of other countries.
As the promoter of Germany's "new line", Caprivi believes that the key to breaking the situation is East Africa, and if you solve East Africa, you will also solve the royal territory of Sigmaringen.
This is also one of the purposes of Caprivivi coming to East Africa. He himself wants to build Cameroon into a colonial model, and this requires the Cameroon colony to make achievements. Of course, the Cameroon problem is a trivial matter, and Cooperation in East Africa is the big one.
Next, the two governments launched a heated discussion on the economic cooperation between the two parties, which was nothing more than opening up the market in East Africa in exchange for Germany's technical, financial and talent support for East Africa.
The key thing East Africa needs to obtain is technical support in the chemical industry, because Germany is currently unique in the chemical field. Without large-scale changes in German land, German agriculture has developed rapidly, and its output is even equal to that of Tsarist Russia. The chemical industry plays an important role, and this is what East Africa lacks the most.
Secondly, Germany also has its own technological advantages in industrial fields such as steel and railways, and East Africa still has many factories in traditional industrial fields that use German technology from the 1970s.
Finally, it is the academic exchange and talent cooperation training mechanism that Ernst values most. German higher education is in an explosive stage. This is the part that Ernst covets the most.
As a price, East Africa mainly liberalized the entry of some German industrial products into East Africa and exported some important industrial raw materials to Germany, especially non-ferrous metals and rare metals.
On December 13, 1891, East Germany officially signed the "Black (East) Germany Economic Cooperation and Development Agreement" with Germany to carry out limited cooperation in the economic field.
The main reason why there is limited cooperation is that the differences between the two countries are not small. Firstly, East Africa is relatively conservative in the political field. Secondly, East Africa and Germany have competitive relationships in some fields, especially agricultural products. field, you must know that the Junker aristocracy is the most important political force in Germany. They oppose unrestricted access to the German market by such a large agricultural country in East Africa, just as they oppose the cooperation between Tsarist Russia and Germany.
However, the cooperation between the two countries has achieved great results. After all, East Africa has many options. In the field of food, East Africa does conflict with the Juncker aristocracy, but East Africa is also the world's most important producer of cash crops, such as rubber. , cotton, coffee, tea and other (sub)tropical cash crops are Germany's shortcomings.
(End of this chapter)