Chapter 1554 Double Wing Market
The Habsburgs were planning to flee, but this news couldn't be made public, and had to be kept secret, with the East African royal family also cooperating. At the same time, Emperor Rudolf's foresight was indeed accurate; for the Habsburgs, East Africa was the best refuge.
He had realized that if the Habsburg family stayed in Europe, they might be affected by the war. The war here does not refer to the civil war in the Austro-Hungarian Empire or a regional war, but a huge war like World War I that would involve the whole of Europe.
Therefore, it will be difficult to find a piece of pure land in Europe in the future. At this time, if the Habsburg royal family, which has lost its ruling foundation, stays in Europe, it will be like a rootless duckweed, drifting with the wind and rain.
…
East Kalimantan Colony.
Samarinda City.
With the increasing opening of East Africa to East Kalimantan, the status of Samarinda City in East Kalimantan is also increasing. Compared with Tanjung City in the north and Banjarmasin City in the south, the resources around Samarinda are richer and more diverse.
This allowed Samarinda to absorb a large number of immigrants arriving in the colony of East Kalimantan, and today, another European immigrant ship arrived at the port of Samarinda.
"Everyone, this is Samarinda, the second largest city in Kalimantan. In the entire Kalimantan, the largest city is Pontianak in the west, followed by Samarinda. After all, Pontianak was one of the earliest areas developed by the Empire, and it was also the capital of the Lan Fang Overseas Province of the Empire. Its political status was different from Samarinda's."
“However, this does not mean that Samarinda’s future will be worse than Pontianak’s. In the past decade or so, Samarinda has been the fastest-growing city in the entire Kalimantan island.”
"I can say with certainty that even in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or in Europe, this city's level of development is at an upper-middle level."
The captain of the Foley introduced the situation in Samarinda to the immigrants.
To be honest, even the East African colonies, Samarinda and the entire East Kalimantan, have developed much better than other colonies in neighboring countries.
The so-called colonial activities in East Africa are more like local investments. After all, there are no so-called "indigenous people" or "aboriginals" in the entire East Kalimantan, so naturally there is no so-called "colonial economic existence."
The most typical example is that there are no "slums" in East Kalimantan. To the north are Britain's colonies in Kalimantan, Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei.
In these areas, the gap between the rich and the poor can be seen at a glance. The gap between the areas where the British live, the areas where the local indigenous upper class lives, and the residences of ordinary people is very obvious.
The so-called residence of the latter is simply a dilapidated shack built on the edge of the city, with no planning, mosquitoes breeding, and dirty water flowing everywhere.
Although there are wealthy areas and civilian areas in Samarinda, the civilian areas have height restrictions and not only paved roads and running water, but some areas even have electricity.
The captain of the Welfare said, "Samarinda has its own industry, clean drinking water, food, street lights, and the best public security in the entire Southeast Asia."
"So, living here may be completely different from what you previously imagined. Aside from the environment being quite different from Europe, there aren't many major drawbacks..."
Borut and his partner Pahor, two immigrants from Croatia, did not listen carefully to the captain of the Foley ship's long speech. They lay on the edge of the ship and looked at the scenery of Samarinda with relish.
The city of Samarinda was built on the banks of the Mahakam River, a vast river, at least the vastest that Borut had ever seen.
Large and small ships on the river continuously converge on Samarinda, most of which are transport ships carrying timber, crops and coal from the inland to Samarinda.
Although it is not as prosperous and spectacular as the Port of Trieste, it also shows that the city's economy is strong and full of vitality.
Borut had worked in Trieste before. Of course, he was not from Trieste, but from a rural area in Croatia. Later, Trieste was hit by the economic crisis and Borut lost his job.
Therefore, Borut now boarded the Foley and arrived in Samarinda through an immigration company.
"Pahor, I don't know if it's an illusion, but I actually feel that Samarinda is more prosperous than Trieste." Borut said, leaning on the railing.
"This city doesn't look smaller than Trieste, but how could that be possible? Trieste is one of the largest cities in Europe."
Pahor also thought so: "You are right. Trieste is one of the largest cities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the so-called Samarinda is just a colonial city in East Africa."
"Samarinda may not be as big as Trieste, but its size still surprised me. This is a good thing for us. I was worried that this place would be a deserted place!"
In fact, in terms of city size, Samarinda and Trieste are comparable, both with a population of around 300,000. Of course, the actual population of Trieste should be larger. As the largest port city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Trieste has frequent personnel exchanges.
Almost all of Samarinda's population is here, so it would be more accurate to say that the two cities have comparable permanent populations, but Trieste has more than just permanent populations.
Even so, the size of Samarinda's urban population is, as Pahor noted, somewhat exaggerated.
The reason for this situation is the particularity of the East African colonies. The urban development path of East Kalimantan is more similar to the South American model, with the population mainly concentrated in towns.
This is a kind of advanced urbanization. On the Eurasian continent, the process of urbanization has developed gradually. The original population was concentrated in rural areas. After entering the industrial age, it began to gradually flow into cities.
When East Kalimantan became a colony, immigrants concentrated in coastal towns and then gradually spread inland and to rural areas, which is the opposite of Eurasia.
The situation in East Africa was different. Back then, East Africa first developed agriculture, so most immigrants were forcibly sent to various parts of East Africa through administrative means. It was not until the 20th century that urban development began to accelerate.
After all this turmoil, East Africa has become more similar to the Eurasian continent and has nurtured a unique local culture. Even now, nearly half of the population in East Africa still lives in rural areas.
The United States has also gone through such a process, but not as thoroughly as it was originally implemented in East Africa.
South America is the opposite of the United States and East Africa. In the past period of time, most immigrants in South America have lived in cities, and the level of urbanization has even exceeded that of East Africa and the United States. However, this urbanization obviously lacks support, and the economic value of cities other than the capital is very low.
For example, in Argentina, apart from Buenos Aires, the size and industry of other cities are not impressive enough.
The situation in Samarinda is similar to that in South American cities, but there are some differences. East Africa will divert the population through administrative means. For example, in East Kalimantan, there is not only Samarinda, but also Tanjung and Majarmasin. Although Tanjung and Majarmasin are slightly worse than Samarinda, they are not too far behind.
Borut said, "You are right. However, speaking from the surface, Samarinda is probably the second most beautiful city I have ever seen after Trieste."
"I originally thought that living conditions here were very difficult and there were a lot of plantations, but after seeing Samarinda, I feel that apart from the capital, there may be no place in Croatia more developed than Samarinda."
Although Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was one of the regions with the worst economy in the empire. It could basically only rely on agriculture to survive. Compared with East Kalimantan, it might really be unable to compete economically.
After all, the current population of East Kalimantan is over three million, and the population of the Kingdom of Croatia is about the same level.
However, East Kalimantan has a larger land area than Croatia and richer resources. At the same time, its ports and transportation are more developed than Croatia.
In terms of ports, the three major cities in East Kalimantan, Samarinda, Tanjung and Banjarmasin are all port cities, while in Croatia only Rijeka is of a decent scale.
The Croatia of this era is significantly different from the Croatia of the previous life. Because of the existence of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, a large number of Croatia's coastlines and ports in the previous life belonged to Dalmatia, such as Zadar, Split, etc.
At the same time, East Kalimantan not only has convenient sea transportation, but also has advantages in inland shipping that Croatia cannot match. Samarinda is built on the banks of the Mahakam River, while there is no such river connecting the Croatian coast to the inland.
Moreover, although East Kalimantan is a colony of East Africa and seems inferior, Croatia may not even be as good as the colonies of East Africa within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the past, Croatia was a de facto "colony" of Hungary for a long time. This should be similar to the areas outside Russia during the Tsarist era.
Therefore, the economy of East Kalimantan is actually much stronger than that of Croatia. If Samarinda were placed in Croatia, it would directly become the largest city.
Pahor also had a certain yearning for his future days in Samarinda.
"We might be doing just as well here as we were in Croatia. The only downside is that we might not be able to adapt to the environment here."
The only drawback of Samarinda is the heat, after all, it is located in the tropics.
As the two talked, the captain of the Welfare finally finished introducing Samarinda. He said to everyone, "After arriving here, everyone can start a new life and say goodbye to the past."
“East Kalimantan is definitely a pleasant place to live. The environment may seem a bit harsh, but as long as you stay there for a while, you can slowly adapt to it.”
"Besides, it's much more peaceful here than in Europe. There are no wars or conflicts."
The immigrants on the Welfare were basically from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Some of them came here to escape the turbulent situation and economic crisis.
Of course, what they don’t know is that East Kalimantan is not a safe place either, especially in the future, it may become one of the main battlefields for the game between East Africa and a certain country. However, at least in the past few years, East Kalimantan has been safe.
As the economic crisis spread and developed in Europe, the number of immigrants to the overseas colonies in East Africa was on the rise in 1933.
Among them, the population growth rate in Southeast Asian colonies such as East Kalimantan is the fastest. As the most populous colony in East Africa, East Kalimantan is expected to have a population of over five million or even more in the next ten years.
This wave of immigration, combined with the high birth rate in the colonies, will greatly alleviate the problem of future colonial population, or labor shortage, in East Africa.
This is not the end of overseas colonial migration; if large-scale unrest were to occur in Europe, the pace would accelerate. Currently, although the internal situation in the Austro-Hungarian Empire is quite tense, it is generally stable. However, the collapse of this stability is likely to occur in the near future.
Once the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, it would trigger a chain reaction, and the entire region, including the Balkan Peninsula, the Italian Peninsula, and western Ukraine, would likely be involved.
However, this is a good thing for East Africa to some extent. Although East Africa does not want to see the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, everyone now knows that the Austro-Hungarian Empire is difficult to maintain.
East Africa must consider finding new political allies or agents in Europe to maintain its own interests, which will also accelerate the decoupling process between East Africa and Europe.
After all, no political ally or agent can be more beneficial to East Africa than the continued existence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. For example, Germany is too strong in its diplomacy and cooperation with East Africa, and the expansion of a country like the Soviet Union in Europe is obviously not in the interests of East Africa. Other countries are too small.
Looking across Europe, only Italy seems to be able to cooperate with East Africa and replace the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, Italy does have strong complementarity with East Africa and its strength is not bad, but its leader Benito is uncertain.
Therefore, if the Austro-Hungarian Empire disintegrates, it will be difficult for East Africa to find such a stable and high-quality partner to maintain its interests in Central and Eastern Europe. Therefore, in the future, East Africa will inevitably be in a temporary period of strategic contraction in the direction of Europe.
If we want to support another pro-East African force similar to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, we may have to wait until the outbreak of World War II.
During this period, East Africa can only strengthen its expansion and control over other markets to make up for its losses in Europe, and the focus of this is the "double-wing market" planned by East Africa.
The so-called two-wing market is the "Nanyang Market" in the east and the "South American Market" in the west. These two markets are located on the left and right of East Africa, like wings, hence the name.
East Africa's market in South America has begun to take shape. Although it intervened late, it has seen quick results. After all, South America has a history of hundreds of years of development, and the original market owners, Spain, Portugal and Britain, have all declined.
Their decline has benefited the latecomers East Africa and the United States. East Africa has an advantage in the competition due to its geographical location. Therefore, South America has now become one of the engines of economic growth in East Africa, with low investment and quick results.
In contrast, East Africa has invested heavily in the Nanyang market, but the Nanyang market lacks population and needs time to grow.
Of course, the main reason is that the developed land in the Nanyang market is not in the hands of East Africa, but is controlled by Britain and France. Therefore, East Africa hopes that an East Asian country will break the balance in the Nanyang region and serve as a prelude for East Africa to redivide the regional market.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
