Chapter 1020 Reverse Immigration
April 11, 1904.
Pontianak Port.
The Russian Second Pacific Fleet has not yet set off. At this time, the Pontianak Port ushered in a fleet, and this fleet was the East African immigrant fleet.
As the fleet sailed along the river towards Pontianak Port, the immigrants on the ship began to become familiar with this strange land for the first time.
"Pontianak looks pretty good. The river is wide and the water is fast. But the environment is a bit unsuitable. The forests on both sides of the river are dense and leafy. It is very different from the mainland."
Although East Africa also has tropical It has a rainforest climate, but the main population is still distributed in savanna or sub-rainforest areas. Therefore, after immigrating to Pontianak from East Africa, it was the first time that they saw the typical tropical rainforest climate type and vegetation.
“The equator passes through Pontianak City, and Pontianak is located on the coastal plain of Kalimantan Island, so the tropical rainforest climate here is very typical, which also makes the development of Pontianak City more difficult. Fortunately, it is here The history of foreign civilizations is slightly longer than that of Africa, so it is not necessary to start from scratch. ”
In fact, it is more difficult to define civilization. Just like the African indigenous people, if you say they are not civilized, they also have their own language. At the same time, they have developed tribes and slave kingdoms, but the level of civilization is too low, resulting in The entire southern Africa is almost undeveloped.
So East Africa has been able to build domestic development and construction, in a sense, truly starting from scratch, and has achieved amazing results.
There is no doubt that the fundamental reason for East Africa's amazing achievements is that the East African colonists brought advanced agricultural civilization, and now it is slowly transitioning to industrial civilization.
Although Lanfang Overseas Province is relatively backward, after more than ten generations of development by Chinese immigrants, its civilization has reached the level of farming civilization.
However, under the governance of East Africa, Lanfang Overseas Province has experienced a stage of significant decline in population and economy, and cities and villages have also declined significantly. Until now, the population of Lanfang Overseas Province has not recovered to what it was before East Africa’s rule. stage.
After all, the nationalization of land was too advanced for the people of Lan Fang Overseas Province at that time. East Africa encountered relatively fierce resistance in Lan Fang Overseas Province, and finally through physical suppression, the population of Lan Fang Overseas Province was also reduced. There was a massive exodus to surrounding Dutch and British colonies, or to the island's indigenous areas of influence.
Pontianak City is an exception in Lanfang Overseas Province. Although it also experienced population loss in the early days, in the 1990s, Pontianak City entered a stage of rapid development and provided opportunities for East Africa to be incorporated into the colony of Mindanao. foundation.
Because this is the political, economic, cultural and foreign exchange center of Lanfang Overseas Province, its special status led to Pontianak City being the only continuously developing area in the early days of East African rule in Lanfang Overseas Province.
To put it bluntly, Pontianak currently ranks first among the many towns in Kalimantan, surpassing some of the colonial towns on the island that were painstakingly run by the British or the Dutch.
In the 20th century, due to economic development reasons, Pontianak City has begun to attract lower-class Chinese immigrants from the Nanyang region or the southern coast of the Far Eastern Empire to immigrate here. The East African government calls this phenomenon "population return".
But in the same way, the increase in Chinese has also aroused the vigilance of the East African government. Although a large part of the original population of East Africa is Chinese immigrants, the East African government has adopted compulsory education, forced intermarriage, cultural transformation and other means Chinese immigrants have been integrated into the main ethnic groups in East Africa, but most Chinese in Lanfang Overseas Province are completely different.
Furthermore, Lanfang Overseas Province is far away from the mainland of East Africa, and there are not enough white immigrants to hedge, dilute, and reconcile. In this way, Lanfang Overseas Province has a great potential for independence. Now it is under the strong rule of the East African government. Under the current situation, and in the stage of rapid economic development, contradictions cannot be revealed, but the future is uncertain.
Therefore, in order to deal with the "unreasonable" population structure of overseas territories such as Lanfang Overseas Province, the East African government has put forward the political slogan of "accelerating the construction of overseas territories" since 1900. Including the immigration policy of importing a large number of native populations to Lanfang Overseas Province, the Southern Ryukyu Islands, the Northern Kingdom of Hawaii, the Royal Territory of Alaska, and the Mindanao Island Colony.
At that time, the population of East Africa was no longer as scarce as before, exceeding 80 million. It was also one of the most populous countries in the world. This also provided a way for East Africa to transport people to overseas territories. Basic conditions are provided.
In the past, due to lack of population, East Africa was like a brave man who could only eat and not eat. Now East Africa is suffering from the rapid growth of population, and this distress is caused by industrialization. If industrialization If it cannot keep up with population growth, East Africa may become a clown like Tsarist Russia in the future.
Sending immigrants overseas can not only reduce the pressure on local population growth, but also stabilize East Africa's rule in overseas territories.
Fortunately, the territories in East Africa are vast and sparsely populated. Among them, the Royal Territory of Alaska, Lanfang Overseas Province, Mindanao Colony and Madagascar can absorb a large number of people.
According to the final plan of the East African government, in order to effectively develop these colonies, East Africa will transport at least one million people to these areas starting in 1904.
This immigration in Pontianak City is the first demonstration site of this policy. As the most developed region in East Africa overseas, Pontianak has some significant advantages.
First of all, it has convenient sea transportation, and secondly, it has the most developed economic foundation in the overseas territories of East Africa. In the future, East Africa will use Pontianak City and other coastal cities in Lanfang Overseas Province as bases to gradually transport immigrants to the inland, establishing an Grant farms, plantations, and develop certain industries in Pontianak City, making it a model for the governance of East African overseas territories.
As the ship docked at Pontianak Port, the first large-scale non-military immigrants from East Africa officially arrived in Pontianak. Many of these immigrants are young people.
“Warmly welcome you all to Lan Fong Province!” Lan Fang Overseas Province and Pontianak City Government have shown a very enthusiastic attitude towards local immigrants.
“You are all talents of the empire. Although our Lanfang Overseas Province is a remote part of the empire, we will definitely provide you with the best conditions to build our homeland together!” Chris Xiao, senior official of Lanfang Overseas Province En said excitedly.
It is really not easy for Chris Sean and other Lanfang Overseas Province officials. Although it is an important overseas territory of the empire and is included in the imperial provinces, among the many overseas territories in East Africa, Lanfang It can be said that Fang's treatment in overseas provinces is unique.
However, no matter how resounding the name is, it cannot change the reality of poverty and backwardness in Lanfang Overseas Province. Even in terms of economic development, it is slightly better than Alaska, which has even worse climate conditions.
As for Lan Fang Overseas Province, everything is lacking now, especially population. Only now has the population of Lan Fong Overseas Province recovered to 200,000, a large part of which is still concentrated in Pontianak City. , and Lanfang Overseas Province covers an area of more than 120,000 square kilometers, so the importance of population to Lanfang Overseas Province is self-evident.
"Senior Officer Chris Sean, this time our fleet brought a total of more than 2,300 people. The importance of these young volunteers is self-evident. Many of them come to the places where the motherland needs it with passion to help. You build, so you must take it seriously, and according to the central government "In the next ten years, at least 100,000 local immigrants will be imported to Lan Fang Overseas Province. You must do a good job in the preliminary work. You cannot manage these immigrants in a colonial way, but in accordance with the local model."
A message to the Immigration Department officials , Chris Sean solemnly promised: "Don't worry! Even if I, Chris Sean, have a bite to eat, I won't let these domestic volunteers go hungry. For our province, these immigrants are the most precious wealth. The province’s resources will be given priority to them.”
"Very good. The importance of Lanfang Overseas Province in the empire's overseas territories is self-evident. The central government and the royal family are committed to building this place into the future economic center of the Nanyang region. I believe that under the leadership of Mr. Senior Official, Lanfang Overseas Province will The province can make further progress in the future,” the Immigration Department official said politely.
(End of this chapter)