Chapter 20: First Town (Mlandizi)
About 58 kilometers west from Dar es Salaam, you can see a brand new village. This is the first base established by the Hechingen colonial team in East Africa.
To commemorate this important place, the leader of the colonial team, Armandi, named it the First Town (later the town of Mlandizi in Tanzania), symbolizing that this was the first step in colonial development.
The first town is located in the buffer zone between the East African coastal plain and the plateau. There are no mountains around it. There are only a few hills in the southwest, and the terrain is relatively flat and open.
The First Town is located in a coastal plain not far from the Indian Ocean, close to the border of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Influenced by the warm and humid air currents near the equator, the annual precipitation in the First Town is over 1,300 mm, and the surrounding vegetation is lush.
Due to the uneven distribution of precipitation in Africa, a large amount of precipitation from the upper reaches during the rainy season may accumulate in the lower reaches and cause floods after flowing into the rivers. Therefore, the first town was built on a high ground to avoid the impact of sudden floods during the rainy season.
There is a large river running through the north of the First Town. It originates from the Uluguru Mountains and was named the Little Rhine (Rufu River) by Captain Armand. The river extends all the way to Bagamoyo in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and enters the Zanzibar Strait.
The first town is located in the Little Rhine River basin. The entire area has abundant rainfall. Because it is located near the equator, it has sufficient sunlight and heat, which is suitable for the growth of crops such as rice, flax, and corn.
At present, this place is still deserted. Apart from the wild beasts everywhere, only the slave hunting teams from the Zanzibar Sultanate occasionally pass by here.
Because of the long-term slave hunting activities of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, there were basically no large-scale indigenous tribes nearby, and the slave hunting teams had to go deep inland to get anything, so they only stopped here for a short time.
The Hexingen colonial team dug trenches around the first town and built low fences to prevent attacks by wild beasts. This was a huge project, so the village was not large.
There are currently more than 800 residents in the First Town, including members of the colonial team who stayed here and Chinese immigrants who have just arrived from afar, as well as more than 500 indigenous people who are temporarily detained here.
In February, the first batch of 700 East Asian immigrants arrived here via a Dutch fleet. Most of them were deceived by the name of recruitment, but in fact they might have to return to their hometown in East Africa for the rest of their lives.
The employment contract for Hechingen lasted for twenty years, so there was no need to think about it, he could only work for the Hohenzollern family for his whole life. After all, they were all adults, and in this era of short life expectancy, twenty years basically meant that most of their lives would be spent here.
However, with the future development of East Africa, by then, even if Ernst sent someone to ask them to leave East Africa, they would probably not be willing to return to their distant and troubled hometown.
After docking at the port of Dar es Salaam, the immigrants were driven off the ship by the staff, and the port staff who had been prepared in advance disinfected the immigrants.
In the makeshift shed, fifty people were divided into groups, stripped off their clothes, and cleaned themselves with water and soap from wooden barrels. Even in the hot weather, they did not have to worry about catching a cold.
They changed into uniform German clothing (most of which were second-hand Prussian military uniforms that Ernst had bought) and began cutting their hair and shaving their beards.
Cutting off the braids did cause a small-scale panic. After all, they had been suppressed for nearly a hundred years, and fear still existed in their hearts. But now that they were here, they could no longer decide for themselves. They had to accept it even if they didn't want to.
After the cleaning work was completed, these people were sent to the first town to carry out reclamation work. It took the colonial team a month to eliminate the wild beasts in the surrounding area, and the surrounding five or six kilometers became a safe area.
Because it is close to Zanzibar, there are almost no indigenous tribes nearby, only a few small villages. Most of them were driven away under the physical threats and intimidation of the colonial team, and the few who disobeyed were directly captured and used as free labor.
As for why they didn't arrest them all but chose to drive them away, it was because they had too few people. Every member of the colonial team was a valuable asset, and it was not cost-effective to use tough measures against these tribes. However, those indigenous people who were unwilling to leave their land were still set as examples.
They are now digging canals and building roads in the prisoner-of-war camp in the First Town. The village trenches a few days ago were completed by them. Currently, more than 500 people are building the first gravel road from the First Town to the port of Dar es Salaam.
In the early days, these natives were substitutes for livestock and machines and the source of power for the colony. The First Town also had dozens of miles of land around it waiting for them to serve as animal power.
The land in Tanzania is flat and open, and coming here did not make these immigrants feel uncomfortable, because the first batch of immigrants basically came from the north of the Qing Dynasty, where there were also open plains.
Although the weather is a little hot, it is better than cold. As for the strong ultraviolet rays in Africa, it is nothing to these farmers who have to work hard in the fields all year round.
What was the first problem that the new immigrants encountered? Even Ernst did not expect, or perhaps forgot to mention, that the climate near the coast of East Africa was hot and humid, which was more suitable for growing rice.
However, most of these immigrants were from the north and had no experience in rice cultivation, and Ernst had not prepared rice seeds.
It’s not that wheat cannot be grown. In fact, wheat can be grown in tropical regions, but the yield is not high. Tropical wheat is suitable for growing in plateau areas, but the First Town is located in the coastal plains of East Africa.
For example, in India, wheat is the main crop grown in the Deccan Plateau, while rice is the main crop grown in the Ganges Plain. India's annual wheat output is no less than its rice output.
In this case, we will temporarily replace rice planting with wheat, but we will no longer pursue yield, just grow some food for food, and other areas will switch to growing cash crops.
Sisal was the key crop developed by the Hexingan colonial team. Later, Tanzania, located in the tropics, became a world-renowned sisal producing area. Sisal fiber is strong and not afraid of seawater erosion. It is a high-quality raw material for making ship cables, sacks, and carpets.
The current era is still the era of wooden-hulled ships. The good properties of sisal and the huge market make the economic value of this crop on the rise. Compared with grain, Ernst can say without exaggeration that he can harvest as much as he plants.
After all, the development of the grain market is a long process. The largest population in the world is still farmers, and the largest industry is agriculture. Every country has its own grain industry, and the intensity of market competition can be imagined. Moreover, all staple foods are sold at low prices and in large quantities, and profits cannot be made quickly. This is why there are so many plantations in the United States.
However, it is different for in-demand products like sisal. It can basically only be widely grown in tropical regions and has high requirements for precipitation. After all, not all tropical regions have abundant rainfall. There are also tropical desert climates.
Tropical rainforests are not suitable for sisal cultivation either. It’s not that the climatic conditions in tropical rainforests are bad, but that it is difficult to develop. In terms of land alone, there are too many trees in tropical rainforests, and it is difficult to cut down trees. The economic benefits of planting on small plots are not outstanding.
Tanzania is different. In addition to its favorable climatic conditions, it also has a vast land area, especially arable land.
According to statistics from later generations, the arable land area in Tanzania may reach 600 million mu, accounting for more than 40% of the land area and capable of feeding 400 million people.
Ernst didn't know where the data came from, but his personal experience in his previous life told him that East Africa was indeed suitable for agriculture.
The East African Plateau is vast. Although it is a plateau, Ernst, who grew up in the North China Plain, feels that East Africa is very similar to North China. It’s just that the altitude of East Africa is a little higher. Otherwise, in Ernst’s eyes, there is basically no other difference between it and the plains.
The most unique feature of the East African Plateau is that there is no shield like that of Brazil formed along the coast. The coastal plains and plateaus transition slowly, and the economic hinterland conditions are excellent.
Therefore, the population of Tanzania in later generations was very evenly distributed, unlike the population of Brazil which was all crowded in the southeast corner of the Brazilian Plateau.
The main part of Tanzania is located on the East African Plateau. The domestic terrain is undulating and stable, basically on the same plane. The mountains are distributed in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa on the border. For example, Kilimanjaro, the towering mountain that suddenly appears on the plain is quite spectacular.
This is also the puzzle that Ernst can't understand, because Kilimanjaro and the African grasslands are clearly separated, unlike other regions where there is a buffer between mountains and plains.
In any case, Ernst believed that the natural conditions in East Africa were favorable, and the only constraint on land development was water resources. This was the reason for Tanzania's agricultural dilemma in the past.
There is a lack of water conservancy facilities and water storage reservoirs. During the rainy season, a large amount of rainfall flows into the Indian Ocean along the rivers without being effectively utilized.
Therefore, in the future, solving the water diversion and storage problems in the East African colonies will solve the biggest constraint on agricultural development in East Africa.
(End of this chapter)
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