Chapter 591 Return

Constantine's inspection of Matabele Province did not last for a few days, and he had to return to the first town to welcome the New Year with his family. This trip to Matabele Province basically stopped in Harare.

After boarding the special train, Constantine said with some regret: "We are so rushed this time. It would be great if we could go to Bulawayo to have a look!"

"Your Majesty, we can visit Bulawayo next year. Now that we have the railway, it is not difficult to go to these cities. Apart from Bulawayo, the only city worth visiting in the south is New Hamburg. However, New Hamburg was built entirely according to the template of Dar es Salaam and other cities. It is similar and has no special features."

This is what Butler Capitaine said. In fact, the Port of New Hamburg is very different from many ports in East Africa, because there are three port areas in the bay of the Port of New Hamburg, including a military port, and it is divided into inner and outer ports. If you really go to the Port of New Hamburg for a boat tour, you can also discover and appreciate its unique layout.

As for what CapitaLand said about building it according to the template of coastal cities such as Dar es Salaam, there is nothing wrong with that, except that the standards are more the same, as reflected in the city's infrastructure and living facilities.

"Kade, how is Pretoria, the capital of Hechingen Province, the former Transvaal Republic, doing now? It seems that I haven't heard any news?" Constantine asked.

Before East Africa occupied the South African region, Pretoria was definitely one of the best cities in South Africa. Only Cape Town was one level stronger than Pretoria. Now there is no news at all, so Constantine is still quite curious.

Cade: "Pretoria is now a major military town in South Africa, but its economic development has no special features. In recent years, the population growth of Hechingen, South Frontier, and New Baden has been far less than that of the neighboring Matabele Province. However, the army has increased a lot. The only one that has been developed is probably the coastal port city of New Hamburg, which is due to the construction of the Central Railway."

"Didn't I hear that Ernst was planning to raise sheep in South Africa? What's the result now?"

"Animal husbandry takes time. It took us more than a decade to improve the animal husbandry in East Africa, and we barely caught up with other countries. The land area of ​​East Africa is more than ten times that of an average country, so the scale of our animal husbandry is not large in proportion. On the contrary, it is small. The same is true for sheep farming, which is currently only carried out in the Southern Frontier Province."

Constantine felt a little petty when he heard this, and said, "Only one province, Southern Frontier Province? Isn't it a little small?"

Cade laughed when he heard this. He said to Constantine, "Your Majesty, the Southern Frontier Province is not small at all. You have been in East Africa for a long time, so you are used to looking at things from the perspective of a big country. One of our provinces in East Africa is larger than many European countries. If you compare them separately, they are on par with some medium-sized countries. Therefore, the grazing industry of one province in the Southern Frontier Province may be much stronger than that of many countries. After all, other countries still have to consider the issue of grain planting, and it is impossible for them to use all their land for grazing."

After hearing what Cade said, Constantine suddenly realized that his way of thinking and work were indeed different. In Europe, apart from serving the Prussian army, he mostly focused on his own fiefdom industry.

The Principality of Hechingen was, to put it bluntly, just a township. Sometimes Constantine even worried about the small amount of land in the subordinate villages. But after arriving in East Africa, he became numb when faced with tens of thousands of square kilometers of land. For example, this trip to Harare was also under the name of inspecting Matabele Province. Matabele Province alone is more than 300,000 square kilometers, almost catching up with half the area of ​​Germany.

When Constantine first arrived in East Africa, the territory of East Africa was limited to the East African Plateau, but it was two or three times the size of Germany. Over the years, the territory has been continuously expanded, and East Africa has become one of the major countries in the world.

It takes time to transform territory into national strength, but once the scale is reached, it is very satisfying and satisfies Constantine's great vanity. The only drawback is that he can't brag about his achievements to his old friends like he did in Europe.

Cade went on to say, "Of course, the Southern Frontier Province is only developing the eastern region. The western part bordering the former Orange Free State has not been developed. In addition, the eastern region does not only raise sheep, but also does some agriculture, which is not much different from other eastern regions. The only difference is that the northern region mainly raises livestock such as cattle, horses, and pigs. This is also the reason for considering staggered competition among industries. The New Hamburg Port City is now busy building a wool textile center and forming two centers of the East African textile industry with the northern city of Nairobi. And I heard that the city of Bulawayo is also actively promoting the goal of becoming a central textile center, and it is a dual-lane development. The western region where Bulawayo is located has a relatively dry climate, so it is suitable for cotton planting as well as sheep breeding."

Raising cattle is very different from raising sheep, but cattle are obviously more picky than sheep. Looking at the world's high-quality pastures, Europe, Argentina and other regions have high-quality grasslands. The temperate marine climate in northern Europe and the subtropical grassland climate in Argentina are both characterized by a warm climate and abundant water and grass, so cattle breeding is the main focus.

Areas with relatively dry climates are suitable for raising sheep, typical examples include Australia's Murray Darling Grasslands and the Northwest region of the Far East Empire. Many areas of the South African plateau have limited precipitation and a relatively dry climate, so raising sheep is very suitable.

Of course, South Africa is also suitable for raising cattle. Cattle and sheep, like humans, all prefer a climate with warm winters and cool summers. The vast plateau areas of East Africa meet this characteristic.

The previous Transvaal Republic, or the Boers' choice of raising cattle was related to their habits and the market. Many Boers came from the Netherlands, Germany and France. The livestock industry in these countries was mainly based on raising cattle, so they continued their traditional practices after immigrating to South Africa. The Boers' export market is still Europe, and Europe and the United States are the regions with the highest beef consumption in the world.

In comparison, East Africa is still a little behind in this regard. Although East Africa's animal husbandry is also mainly based on cattle, the development time of East Africa's animal husbandry is too short. It will take time for the common people in East Africa to eat beef.

As for sheep farming, in addition to the wool textile industry mentioned earlier, the export value of mutton itself is also quite high. East Africa is very close to the Arab region and Central Asia, and the consumption of mutton in the Arab and Central Asian regions is considerable.

While Constantine and Cade were talking, the special train had already entered the Zambezi River Bridge, the largest railway bridge in East Africa.

The Zambezi River Railway Bridge is one of the famous projects built in East Africa. It is built entirely of steel structures. The steel used was imported from Europe during the economic crisis in 1873, so the cost was not high.

Although East Africa has the Nile River and the Congo River, which are world-class rivers, the Zambezi River is obviously much more important to East Africa than the first two rivers.

Because the Zambezi River is likely to become a world-class river unique to East Africa in the future, the southern bank of the lower reaches is still controlled by the Portuguese.

As for the Congo River, although East Africa accounts for the majority, the Congo River passes through a tropical rainforest area and has low economic value.

The Nile River is slightly better than the Congo River, but the natural conditions and economic value within its range are far inferior to those of the Zambezi River Basin.

Finally, there is the relatively unknown Orange River. As a boundary river, the Orange River has never been taken seriously, and the conditions in the region are also quite bad. Only the land in the upper reaches, that is, on both sides of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, has some value and is suitable for human settlement.

Of course, none of the rivers in East Africa could satisfy Ernst. The river basins in East Africa are also fragmented, and their role in boosting the economy of East Africa is far less than that of other rivers of the same level in the world.

The only relatively promising hydropower resource is difficult to develop now, but this is also a good thing for East Africa. Human beings have a strong desire to explore the basins of major rivers, such as tracing the source of the Nile River.

The lack of large rivers flowing inland in East Africa hindered the colonization process of other colonizers in Africa. On the other hand, the Niger River, which had better conditions, accelerated the conquest progress of Western colonizers.

(End of this chapter)