Chapter 101 Recruiting People
Prince Constantine was indeed a prominent figure in southern Germany. Just by communicating with the nobles from all over the place, he gained the support of the southern states.
For the South German nobles, immigration overseas is actually a good thing. The South German region is mainly based on agricultural planting, and farmers are a group with a high fertility rate.
In addition, the land in southern Germany is fertile and the living standards of farmers are acceptable. In normal years, they can live freely, but this is not the case when a famine occurs.
The population density in southern Germany was originally high, and the noble territories themselves were not short of population, so they naturally could not care about the lives of the victims. The land was in the hands of the nobles anyway, so if you didn't farm the land, someone else would.
However, the industrial level in southern Germany is not high (compared with Prussia and Austria), and cannot absorb the remaining population.
Therefore, the unemployed farmers had to find their own way out. Before this, most of the farmers in southern Germany went to the United States.
This is not because conditions in the United States are so good, but because German immigrants really have nowhere to go. European countries exclude immigrants due to religious and population reasons, and Britain originally tricked many Germans into going to North America in order to develop North America.
Among these Germans who went to America, it is not ruled out that a few of them were able to succeed, but the lives of most people did not improve much, and the earlier the German immigrants were, the more difficult their living conditions were. Many German immigrants became so-called "indentured servants" when they arrived in the United States, and their status was higher than that of black slaves.
However, due to historical inertia and the increasingly improving attitude of the United States towards immigrants (even black slaves were liberated), going to the United States for development is still the first choice for German immigrants.
Especially recently, Prussia has basically stabilized and controlled the northern German region, so the number of emigrants from northern Germany has dropped significantly.
The south had not yet been controlled by Prussia, and coupled with the poor harvest, immigration increased instead of decreasing (1866 to 1869 was a peak for immigration to southern Germany. Data source: Internet.)
But the situation for the Americans improved. After the Civil War ended, the United States began to develop its western interior, and the demand for immigrants increased.
So Ernst now wants to snatch people from the Americans, and the chances of success this time are definitely high.
In the past, the German region did not have its own colonies overseas (countries such as Prussia and Austria had tried, but most of the attempts were spontaneous actions by merchants, so they failed). Naturally, immigrants from the German region could only choose to survive in British colonies.
Now the East African colonies were colonies developed by the Germans themselves (Hechingen was a German principality. After being incorporated into Prussia, its status was nominally retained and it participated in Prussian politics as a principality.), and they were vast in area, had been initially developed, and the conditions were not bad, which provided a new option for German immigrants.
This is not the most important thing. The most important advantage is that Hei Xingen himself is one of the local bosses in southern Germany. He is connected with the nobles in southern Germany and they are all one of the same people.
The residents of southern Germany were all subjects of the nobility. Serfdom had only been abolished not long ago (for example, Bavaria abolished serfdom in 1808), and the nobility still had a profound influence on the local peasants.
Therefore, as long as he could gain the support of nobles from all over the country, Hexingen would be able to obtain a large number of immigrants who had historically gone to the United States.
Historically, German immigrants to the United States were not interested in politics, which was similar to the Far Eastern immigrant groups, making it easier for Ernst to operate.
Of course, it is impossible to accept all these immigrants. After all, some people may choose to go to the United States to live with their relatives and friends. Such people are a minority after all, and Ernst doesn't care.
…
Kingdom of Württemberg.
A group of people were gathering around the Heixinggen Group's recruitment office. It was very simple, just a platform built in the village.
Most of the people who came to ask questions were ragged German farmers.
"Sir, we have never heard of this East African colony. Is it safe for us to live and work there?" said Oruchi Reiss, a farmer from the Kingdom of Württemberg, and Eric Knight, a staff member of the Hechingen Consortium.
"You can rest assured. The East African colony is a territory developed by us Germans overseas. It is larger than two German regions. There are more than one million Germans living there now. The main reason is that those recruited before were residents of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So it's normal that you haven't heard of it." Eric Knight exaggerated. He boasted that all the people in the East African colony (including the natives) were Germans, and deceived this group of people to go to East Africa with peace of mind.
"Uh...how much is over one million? Sir, I'm uneducated and can only count to ten on one hand! Can you give us an analogy?" a farmer asked embarrassedly.
Eric Knight felt awkward for a moment, but for the sake of performance, he still said in a friendly manner: "On the map of the Kingdom of Württemberg, your village is only the size of a grain of wheat thrown into a pond, and there are hundreds of villages like yours in the Kingdom of Württemberg. The population of all villages and cities in the Kingdom of Württemberg combined is the same as the population of the East African colonies."
"Ah! There are so many East Africans, just like the entire kingdom, why do they still need to recruit us to develop it?" a farmer asked puzzledly.
Good god, what I said before was in vain. Eric Knight had no other choice. The villagers in this village had too low a level of knowledge and could not understand what he said at all. But Eric Knight did not give up. He thought that people with low level of knowledge would be easier to fool. It was just a waste of time.
"This is different. Let me draw it on the ground for you."
Eric Knight found a branch, squatted on the ground, and cleared a space.
"This is the Kingdom of Württemberg." He then used a branch to draw a small circle the size of a thumbnail on the ground.
"And this is the East African colony." Eric Knight stretched out his arm and drew a circle with a diameter of one meter. "Look, this is the difference in area between Württemberg and the East African colony. So, the difference in area between your village and the Kingdom of Württemberg is the same as the difference in area between the Kingdom of Württemberg and the East African colony."
"Look, the East African colony is such a large land, but it has the same population as the small Württemberg. That's why the East African colony needs to recruit people to develop it!" Eric Knight said to the villagers.
"What does East Africa look like? Is it the same as Württemberg? Is the land there fertile? How's the rainfall?" a villager asked.
"East Africa! It's similar to ours, not too cold or too hot, the land is very flat, the precipitation is similar to ours, and there are many rivers, which is very suitable for growing crops. Of course, there are some disadvantages, too few people and more wild beasts. But don't worry, the East African colonial government will organize the army to clear the wild beasts, and then arrange for everyone to develop the land. There will be no problem with safety." Eric Knight said half-truthfully.
In fact, the Germans who now immigrate to the East African colonies basically do not go to those desolate places.
In order to balance Chinese immigration, Ernst must have split the German immigrants and stuffed them into existing colonial cities and settlements.
Therefore, the worst case scenario for German immigrants was that they would be assigned to mature villages, and they had no chance of settling down in groups on their own.
After all, if East Africa wants to assimilate Chinese culture and achieve Germanization, it cannot allow Chinatowns to exist like in Southeast Asia in later generations.
If you all live together, there is no need to communicate with other nationalities, so how can you integrate with each other?
As for why Eric Knight deceived these villagers, it was actually to dispel their concerns.
After all, praising Dong Africa as beautiful as a flower with all its merits would certainly arouse the villagers' vigilance. Only by pointing out Dong Africa's shortcomings could their suspicions be dispelled without scaring the villagers away.
The wild beasts are a good excuse. There is indeed a certain danger, and it also indirectly proves that there are indeed many wastelands in East Africa. Saying that the East African colonial government has sent troops to clean up the wastelands can subconsciously reassure the villagers. After all, how can wild beasts beat troops with guns?
(End of this chapter)
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