Chapter 1034: Automobile Capital
December 3, 1905.
Rhine City.
As the capital of a country, Rhine City is developing rapidly, and what is particularly eye-catching are the cars that are no longer uncommon on the streets of Rhine City.
Although cars have widely appeared in major cities in the world and have become a symbol of industrial civilization, the more developed the city, the more cars there are.
You can see this kind of strange thing more or less on the streets of Berlin, Paris, London and New York, but in the Rhineland, the number of cars is a bit excessive. The number of registered cars alone reached an astonishing more than 33,000.
At that time, the total population of Rhine City was close to 400,000, which was equivalent to one car for every dozen people. Cars had completely become the mainstream travel tool in East Africa.
At the same time, the number of urban rail vehicles and buses has also increased significantly, and the density in the region ranks first in the world. As a medium-sized city in the world, the degree of development of Rhine City is evident.
Before the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa’s automobile industry was relatively well-known in the world. At that time, East Africa’s automobile production was still within the understanding of diplomats from various countries. However, after the end of the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa’s annual automobile output It has been difficult for diplomats from various countries to understand.
Of course, diplomats from European and American countries can also find reasons to explain the scale of automobiles in Rhine City. For example, French Ambassador Thomson said: "East Africa did start relatively early in the automobile industry, but this does not mean that East Africa It has surpassed European countries. In fact, centralized countries like East Africa can easily concentrate resources in the capital. I am afraid that the East African government has given priority to allocating most of the country's automobile production to the Rhine City. This situation cannot exist in France. .”
"We in France cannot, like the East African government, use political means to pool the efforts of the whole country to build its own political center. This is an extremely wasteful performance project. If it is in France, as long as you are capable, even if you are outside Paris, Citizens can also buy cars, but in East Africa, except for a few developed cities such as Rhine City, it is completely like Tsarist Russia.”
Even if they saw it with their own eyes, Europeans would not. It may be a kind of arrogance to admit that East Africa has surpassed itself in some fields in a short period of time. In fact, both East Africa and the United States enjoy this kind of "discriminatory" treatment. How can Europe, as the center of world civilization, be beaten by East Africa and the United States? A country that is a barbaric land and transcends it! This is unacceptable to those who currently hold Eurocentric views.
Of course, it is not that some knowledgeable people have noticed the rapid development of East Africa and the United States. There are traces of the rapid development of the United States. As the "Chosen Land", the basic conditions of the United States are not inferior to those of Europe. , so it is reasonable for it to develop.
However, when they want to explore the internal reasons in East Africa, they will encounter various setbacks. Take the automobile industry as an example. It is known that the East African automobile industry is the first echelon in the world, but the reasons for the success of the East African automobile industry But it's hard to find.
Because East Africa is a closed country, the seven major automobile factories in East Africa are all located in inland areas. These places are not accessible to foreigners. The coastal areas are relatively open, but only a few and European and American ones can be seen from the coast. There is essentially no difference between small car factories of the same type.
The closest automobile production base to diplomats from various countries is New Frankfurt, but the "border" of the Rhine City prevents them from crossing only a few dozen kilometers away.
Fortunately, the East African automobile industry is relatively restrained. If it really connects with the international market, it will definitely be a disaster for the automobile industries of other countries.
Compared with European and American diplomats, diplomats from backward countries such as the Far Eastern Empire naturally do not have such a "discriminatory" filter. Even though the degree of industrialization in East Africa is still low, looking at the world, it is second only to Britain and the United States. Germany is the top industrial power. For now, French industry no longer has much advantage over Upper East Africa.
France is equivalent to the industrially developed middle and eastern parts of East Africa. However, East Africa has a large land area and many regions are not highly developed. This has dragged down the degree of industrialization in East Africa. It is not that French industry is stronger than East Africa.
If we exclude the concept of per capita, East Africa's industry has surpassed France's in terms of scale and quality, and the gap with the UK is not that big. Of course, in terms of light industry, East Africa is a different matter compared to the two countries. The rapid rise of East African industry is actually closely related to the Second Industrial Revolution. East Africa, like Germany and the United States, is a leader in the Second Industrial Revolution.
It’s just that Germany and the United States laid the foundation as early as the first industrial period. This is also the main reason why East Africa has difficulty competing with Germany and the United States in traditional industrial types.
In fact, Japan is also the main beneficiary of the second industrial revolution, but at present, Japanese industry is far from "amazing" in the eyes of other industrial countries.
The impact of the second industrial revolution on the world structure was quite strong. Germany and the United States surpassed the two established powers, Britain and France. Japan also rose rapidly in the Far East, and at the same time created East Africa. This "African monster".
As long as the late-developing countries seize the opportunity of the second industrial revolution, they will basically achieve a leap-forward growth in their own strength. On the contrary, they will continue to crawl forward slowly in front of the great powers.
From the colonial era to the present stage, East Africa is closely related to the second industrial revolution. The second industrial revolution originated in the 1970s. At that time, East Africa had completed preliminary colonial construction activities and had a certain economic scale and structure. quantity.
The 1970s was an important period of opportunity for East Africa to take advantage of the economic crisis in Europe and the United States to introduce industry on a large scale. At that time, although East Africa had difficulty in industrial construction due to talent constraints, it relied on the overflowing educational resources from the German region, that is, With an average primary education level per capita, the East African industry has still completed the work of building a framework. In the 1980s and 1990s, this framework was continuously improved.
At the same time, local education in East Africa continued to develop, and finally in the late 1990s, East Africa finally bore fruit in the fields of scientific research and talent.
On this basis, the First Five-Year Plan for East Africa has been successfully implemented, and East Africa’s industrial production capacity has accelerated, making East Africa now one of the leading countries in the second industrial revolution.
At the end of the First Five-Year Plan, East Africa has completely formed a domestic cycle in important fields such as talent, industry, scientific research, and markets. Even if other countries imposed sanctions or blockades on East Africa at that time, it would not be possible. Impeding the rise of East Africa.
Through decades of hard work, East Africa has turned East Africa into a semi-industrial power. Although its achievements have been questioned by European and American societies, it is enough to make countries other than Europe and the United States envious.
Li Ling, Ambassador of the Far Eastern Empire, said: "Thirty or forty years ago, we had various misunderstandings about East Africa. At that time, our country knew very little about overseas countries, which led us to think that East Africa was no different from other Western countries. However, Later we learned that East Africa is just the country with the shortest history in the world, even more so than the United States. But in less than fifty years, East Africa, even an uncivilized land, has become a very large area with a large population. , a world power with strong industry.”
“The development experience of East Africa has a strong reference significance for our country. This country can quickly complete its transformation in a very short period of time, although there are reasons for Africa’s prosperity. , but at the beginning of its establishment, it could not even meet the basic population, and it still needed to introduce a large number of immigrants to our country.”
“So the East African model is definitely not something that can be summarized in a few words. It is different from the systems of European and American countries. There is a huge difference in the world, but being able to stand out will undoubtedly be a great inspiration for our country’s rejuvenation.”
It is normal for diplomats of the Far Eastern Empire to be interested in East Africa. At that time, the Far Eastern Empire was still a monarchy, so government officials were naturally interested. It also favors the continuation of the monarchy.
(End of this chapter)