Chapter 137 Patch
East Africa is isolated overseas and far away from Germany.
It is obvious that the core interests of the Hechingen royal family are still in Germany, and the East African colony can only be regarded as a major investment project of the Hechingen royal family.
Although Ernst strategically chose East Africa for the future of the Hechingen royal family, there is no need to go to East Africa immediately.
Because the East African colony is still a long-term project in the eyes of any colonial country, and now this project has not even completed the first phase.
The East African colonies relied heavily on the Black Hingen Consortium for financial support, and their development immediately came to a standstill without the Black Hingen royal family.
For example, the weapons, technology, and population of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire would not even be possible if there was no Hechingen royal family as the central regulator.
Although Ernst was not in East Africa, all power in East Africa was in Ernst's hands, and the rules and regulations limited the power of all officials in East Africa to a very small range.
Because East Africa adopts the employment system, that is, the corporate system, and the current main development project is agriculture, it is not an exaggeration to say that the East African colony is an agricultural development company under the Hei Xinggen.
The officials in East Africa were employees of Hechingen, especially the earliest Germans in the army, all of whom signed contracts with Hechingen.
In other words, these people all have weaknesses in the hands of the Hechingen royal family. You can use your power to mess around in East Africa without worrying about it, but your family members are all recorded in the files of the Hechingen Consortium. It is not easy to take advantage of the Hohenzollern family in Prussia and Germany.
Moreover, these German mercenaries who were in various ruling levels in the colonies were all veterans who had retired from the Prussian army.
To put it bluntly, they were all elderly people who were driven out by the army and came to East Africa to work for Ernst for a living.
Once they have made enough money, they will definitely not want to stay in East Africa any longer. After all, they also want to enjoy their old age, and East Africa is obviously not a place for retirement now.
Not only are the medical conditions in East Africa poor, there isn’t anything fun to do there either, and most importantly, their families are not there.
Unlike those lower-class immigrants, immigrants from the Far East, Austria-Hungary, South Germany, etc., were there to make a living. The moment they left their hometown, they were mentally prepared to die in a foreign land. It is not ruled out that some of them had the idea of returning home in glory, but most people still went there to survive.
The purpose of German mercenaries from the very beginning was to participate in colonial activities to make money. At all times, they were Germans (Germany here refers to the current German states) rather than East Africans.
So after making enough money, they will naturally return to Germany to enjoy life. Therefore, power is only temporary in their hands, let alone power locked in a cage.
The Hexingen Group's permanent director in East Africa is specifically responsible for auditing accounts and strictly controlling the allocation and expenditure of various resources in East Africa. He is also responsible for supervising the implementation of Ernst's orders by East African officials.
Although the number of directors stationed in East Africa by the Hechingen Foundation is small, they all have high-level positions. Among them, von der Leyen is a representative. He, the East African military commander Armand, and Siewert (of Chinese descent) of the East African Army General Staff together constitute the troika in East Africa.
The General Staff was the second force in the East African Army that Ernst valued the most. It was composed of students from the Hechingen Military Academy. In the early days, it was mainly Chinese students, but now it has begun to supplement with German students.
The Hechingen Military Academy is actually where Ernst keeps his private army. All students have received brainwashing education. The Hechingen royal family is their belief, so Ernst dares to use them and supervise the various forces in East Africa.
Basically, every East African official has a deputy who is a student from the Hechingen Military Academy, and this configuration extends from the central government to the countryside.
Any action in East Africa requires a joint meeting of the above three groups, and then reports to Ernst, who then makes the decision.
This way East Africa's administrative efficiency is certainly not high, but it is very safe because the three interest groups cannot work on the same page.
Fortunately, East Africa is a thorough agricultural colony, and the specific affairs are boring, just farming, farming, farming...
Occasionally, when attacking an indigenous tribe, the colonial villages can make the decision themselves, and only the indigenous countries, Arab forces and other colonists need to report to their superiors.
However, East Africa has already thoroughly checked the forces surrounding it. Those people cannot be provoked. The East African colonies are well aware that apart from the Portuguese and the British, there are no other deterrent forces.
Even so, the East African colonies were still quite low-key. Take Britain for example. The reason why East Africa was polite to the Sultanate of Zanzibar was, in addition to dealing with the needs of the indigenous people, because it was afraid of British interference. Therefore, the core of the Sultanate of Zanzibar could continue to exist.
On the border between East Africa and Mozambique, the East African colonies have also remained restrained and will not take the initiative to cause trouble.
Not to mention Britain and Portugal, even the indigenous people and the East African colonies were handled with great caution.
For example, in Zambia in the southwest, East Africa has long had the ability to grab land. Even if East African forces enter Zambia, other colonial forces will not get the news.
But the East African colonies did not do so. They had to eat one bite at a time, and there was no rush to expand until all the immigrants were in place.
Of course, Ernst doesn't want to go to East Africa to take charge, but he is currently unable to get away and there is no need to do so.
Prince Constantine was old (67 years old), and Ernst was not at ease leaving his old father alone in Europe (historically, Prince Constantine died on September 3, 1869).
At the same time, the largest wealth in the hands of the Hechingen royal family is the Hechingen Group, whose main businesses are all located in Europe.
Ernst did not dare to easily hand over the Hechingen affairs in Europe to others. If he lost the Hechingen Consortium, Ernst would not be able to develop the East African colonies even if he had great ability.
It can be said that the East African colony was built up bit by bit by the Black Xingen Consortium from its establishment to the present. The funds and ships needed for the immigrants, the early rations for the immigrants, the weapons and equipment of the colony, the salaries of the East African officials... all were provided by the Black Xingen Consortium.
There is only one way to solve this problem, and that is to shift the focus of the Heixingen Group to East Africa.
However, the current conditions in the East African colonies make it difficult for them to support the Black Xingen Consortium, let alone themselves. Ernst does not have high demands. He will at least wait until East Africa has established a preliminary industrial base before transferring the Black Xingen Consortium to East Africa.
For example, to develop industry and solve the coal problem in East African colonies, it is necessary to build railways. The coal in East Africa is mainly in the southwest, so it is necessary to transport it to the coastal areas. Of course, some people may say, isn’t it enough to build factories locally?
The problem was that the machines in factories at that time were all huge and clumsy things, and railways were needed to transport them inland. In addition, the main business of the Hexingen Group was in Europe, so in the end, the goods and food from the inland still had to be transported out by rail.
However, under the current conditions in East Africa, it is still quite difficult to build a railway to the interior. It is not impossible if all the colonies and the support of the Black Xingen Consortium are combined, but the cost is too high.
Ernst certainly knew the role of railways, but now was not the time to build railways. Ernst knew there was an opportunity period and planned to plan the construction of railways in East Africa at that time.
In addition to railways, ironworks, cement plants... all of these must be there! Otherwise, the Hei Xinggen Consortium will be helpless without rice. It will be useless to move the machines here. You can't rely on importing everything.
Apart from these, the current agricultural scale in East Africa is unlikely to support industrial construction. For example, cotton, a raw material for light industry, is only grown on a small scale in East Africa. If it is really expanded, it may attract the attention of certain countries. The textile industry is a pillar industry in many industrialized countries.
…
All in all, East Africa still has a long way to go. At present, the East African colonies are at most vassals of the Hechingen Consortium. Ernst can influence the politics of the German region and European public opinion through the Hechingen Consortium, while controlling the industrial development of East Africa.
Although the East African colonies are important in Ernst's heart, the fact is that the East African colonies are now no match for the Hechingen Consortium.
In other words, if Ernst lost East Africa, he could find a new place to start over through the Hechingen Consortium, but if he lost the Hechingen Consortium, Ernst would not be able to do anything.
Of course, Ernst's idea is to combine the Hechingen Consortium and the East African colonies in the future, but now is not the right time. The development of the East African colonies is not enough to support Ernst to bet his entire fortune on it.
(End of this chapter)
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