Chapter 965 The Shock of the Germans
That’s why the lack of precious metals in the coastal areas of East Africa made traditional European colonists uninterested in this region, allowing the Hechingen royal family to take advantage.
The most typical negative example is West Africa, which is similar to East Africa. The term Gold Coast means that the place is destined to be unable to live in peace.
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Tirpitz will eventually take a train from Dar es Salaam to the interior of East Africa, and this inland trip will strengthen Tirpitz and East Africa. The idea of collaboration.
After the capital was moved in East Africa, the original diplomatic work was naturally transferred from the first town to the Rhine City. This meant that diplomats from various countries could only travel as far as the first town, but now they can go deep into the interior of East Africa. observe.
Foreign diplomats can basically only travel by rail from Dar es Salaam on the coast of East Africa to the new capital Rhine, but the entire railway journey from Dar es Salaam to Rhine is a long one. More than 1,500 kilometers.
The cities, villages, farmland and other reference points along this journey of more than 1,500 kilometers can give these diplomats a clearer understanding of the national strength of East Africa.
This is the case with Tirpitz. Ever since he boarded the train in Dar es Salaam, Tirpitz has been "greedily" observing the East African intelligence along the Central Railway.
“Since we left Dar es Salaam, we have passed through twenty-three towns and more than fifty villages, the largest of which is the first town, Morogoro City , Dodoma City... nearly five or six of them may be cities in East Africa in terms of size, and the rest should be towns and villages," Tirpitz said to the entourage.
It was not difficult for Tirpitz to know the names of towns in East Africa. Every time he passed a station, there would be a sign for the station, which was usually the name of the local town.
Tirpitz's assistant Mordford Kiran was also quite shocked and said: "Your Excellency, we have obviously underestimated the country of East Africa. So far, in the areas our train has passed, many places have obvious It has been developed in East Africa. A large number of farmland, villages, towns, cities, roads... These all show that East Africa's development and management of the inland is extremely successful."
"Their farmland is built in a regular manner. And some perfect supporting water conservancy facilities, ditches, and windmills are very common, and if I read correctly, there may be large machinery such as tractors. I even suspect that farms in the United States and Europe are at this level.”
As an important piece of equipment for agricultural mechanization in East Africa, tractors are currently very low in popularity. Even so, Modford Kilan still discovered and judged it. It must be said that as a naval personnel, his eyesight is very good.
Of course, Modford Kilan didn’t think much about it. Even if the tractor transitioned from steam engine to internal combustion engine, its specific shape did not change much, so he did not know that all tractors in East Africa were powered by internal combustion engines.
Tirpitz added solemnly: "At present, our train may only cover a few hundred kilometers, but the development along the railway shows that East Africa's development of the interior is far from comparable to the colonies in West Africa. If the whole country of East Africa This is the case all the time, Then we must pay more attention to the country of East Africa."
Medford Kilan shook his head and said: "Your Majesty, it is unlikely. East Africa has not occupied areas such as Mozambique and Angola for a long time. time, should not be reached According to this standard, East Africa should be the most developed region in East Africa. It can be seen from the name of the country that this is the land of Longxing in East Africa and has the earliest development time, so it is completely reasonable to reach the level of Europe and the United States. "
What Assistant Tirpitz said makes sense. Eastern East Africa is indeed at the leading level in the country. However, compared with central and eastern East Africa, it is even worse. The economy and population of the two places are similar, while other regions are not. There is a big gap between these two regions. Now Tirpitz and his party have followed the train to the city of Iringa in the East African Plateau Province. The train has traveled more than 500 kilometers, which means that it has just transitioned from the East African coastal plain to the East African plateau area.
There is still more than half the distance to the final destination, Rhine City. Although the current situation along the railway line can shock the Germans, it is still within everyone's expectations. After all, during the South African War, various countries concluded that the population of East Africa should exceed 20 million at that time. For a large country with a population of 10 million, it is more reasonable for the coastal and surrounding areas to develop well, but it does not represent the development of East Africa as a whole.
Tirpitz said: “Based on our current observations, East Africa’s development of the interior, especially along the railway lines, is relatively complete. After all, the areas that the railways pass through generally have good economic conditions, and there are many towns along the railway lines. This is normal, but I don’t know if the same is true for areas outside the railway line. "
There are definitely more towns and cities along the railway line. As for outside the railway line, unless it is along a river or highway, the population is small. It is impossible to be so dense. Of course, the farmland area in the eastern region is still very considerable. The eastern coastal plain and the southern part of the East African Plateau are important grain production bases in East Africa. The number of large-scale farms is similar to that in Eastern Europe.
Compared with Central Europe and Western Europe, Eastern Europe has a much lower population density. Although the entire population of Tsarist Russia is over 100 million, the combined population of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany in Central Europe alone is nearly 100 million, so the population of Tsarist Russia is relatively small. The dense part of Eastern Europe is similar to the central and eastern regions of East Africa, and Tsarist Russia at this time included territories such as Ukraine and Poland.
Next, Tirpitz and others were even more eye-opening along the way. When passing through the urban area of Iringa, they determined that this is also a small and medium-sized city in East Africa. Compared with Darei Ssaram, the first town, may not be as good as Dodoma, but it is still much larger than the average town.
Next they encountered two more cities that were similar in size to Iringa City, until the train entered Mbeya City along the Central Railway.
As soon as they entered the urban area of Mbeya City, the Germans saw how extraordinary this city was. From the naked eye alone, its level was actually higher than Dodoma City and the First Town, which is the same as Dar es Salaam. I'm afraid it's not inferior in comparison.
So much so that Tirpitz and his party mistook this place for the new capital of East Africa, "Rhine City". After all, it was nearly a thousand kilometers away from the interior of East Africa at this time, and it was already difficult for Tirpitz and his party to get there. Distance concept.
"Mbeya City is one of the five largest cities in East Africa. It is currently the second largest city in inland East Africa. It is not the capital of East Africa. The Rhine City is still more than 600 kilometers away from here." Reception staff from East Africa He could only explain it to Tirpitz and his party.
“Mbeya City is the provincial capital like Dodoma City, and it is located in the industrial zone of our country. The industry is relatively developed and is not bad compared with some big cities in Europe, so it is not surprising to be mistaken.”
Tirpitz asked: "Isn't the Rhine City bigger?"
"No, although the built-up area of Rhine City is not small, the current population is far from being compared with traditional East African large cities such as Mbeya City. After all, Rhine City is a completely new city."
Explanation for East Africans , Tirpitz was speechless. To him, any city in East Africa was "new". After all, the country in East Africa had a history of less than forty years, and the so-called "traditional big cities" were even more inexplicable. According to East African standards, More than 90% of German cities have a long history.
(End of this chapter)