Chapter 22 Colonial Development
Hexingen Group, the first town in Tanzania, has rows of sisal seedlings that have just been buried in the soil planted on the low hills in the southwest, and agricultural workers are turning the soil.
In the aisles on both sides, the natives pulled the iron plows purchased from Europe to turn over the soil in the aisles, while the Chinese were responsible for the soil around the sisal seedlings. This was a delicate job, and if the natives were allowed to do it, it might damage the roots of the sisal, so it could only be done by experienced and meticulous Chinese farm workers using hoes to dig it up bit by bit.
On the completed land, the Germans, under the guidance of Spanish agricultural experts, directed and supervised the natives to dig drainage canals.
Spreading from the high slopes to the flat land are the already planted wheat seedlings. In order to ensure water supply for the wheat, a new water diversion channel is being built.
With the arrival of more and more Chinese immigrants, the scale of agriculture has become quite considerable. These new immigrants will be assigned by the company to work under the old people who have arrived here earlier and have some experience, and participate in the reclamation work. The Germans are the leadership, mainly responsible for supervision, management and force.
In order to prevent some ignorant indigenous tribes and slave hunting teams, the remaining German mercenaries would patrol the surrounding territories in groups.
The main force continued to explore inland and draw maps. Sometimes when they came back to rest, they would capture some laborers and clear the land around the first town.
The entire First Town is expanding westwards at a speed visible to the naked eye. As long as follow-up personnel are in place, new strongholds will continue to appear in inland Tanzania.
The entire colonial team has begun planning for a second base, located on the Little Rhine River 13 kilometers southwest of the first town. In order to facilitate statistical management, the name this time is still as simple as before, the second town (Rufu). In addition, a third town is also in the plan.
The third town (Kitonga) is located to the north of the first town, about ten kilometers away in a straight line. Construction will begin once the follow-up personnel are ready.
The prototype of an East African colony emerged, with the First Town as its center, connected to the Port of Dar es Salaam to the east and radiating to the west, covering an area of approximately 150,000 acres.
Sisal prefers a high-slope environment with high temperature, high humidity and uniform rainfall, especially a climate with high temperature, dryness, full sunshine during the day and lots of fog and dew at night.
East Africa just meets the above conditions. During the day, the sunshine is strong and the temperature is high. At night, because it is located in the plateau terrain, the atmosphere is relatively thin, the insulation effect is poor, the heat is lost quickly, and the moisture in the air is easy to condense. Therefore, the daily temperature difference in Africa is greater than the annual temperature difference.
The suitable temperature for sisal growth is 27-30℃, the upper limit is 40℃, the lower limit is 16℃, and the temperature difference between day and night should not exceed 7~10℃, which is in line with the temperature conditions in East Africa.
The suitable annual rainfall is 1200-800mm. It has strong adaptability, is resistant to barrenness, drought and waterlogging, but has strong growth ability and a wide range of adaptability. It is suitable for planting in loose, well-drained, low-groundwater and fertile sandy loam. It is not suitable for planting in places with poor drainage and frequent humidity. It has low cold resistance and is prone to physiological leaf spot disease.
These are data provided by the Hispanic agricultural experts Ernst invited from Mexico. Sisal is native to the Mexican plateau and was later brought to the world by Europeans.
This Hispanic expert was a farmer who grew sisal in Mexico. Although he was not well educated, his grandmother was from Germany, so he could speak German, which was why the East African colony hired him.
The Mexican Plateau is similar to the East African Plateau, both are near the equator and have somewhat similar environments. The difference is that East Africa is closer to the equator, with the equator passing through the middle, while Mexico is located between the Tropic of Cancer and the equator.
The precipitation distribution in Mexico is uneven. Some places are tropical rainforests, while other areas are tropical deserts. The conditions in East Africa are better. The area south of Ethiopia and Somalia is basically tropical savannah.
The East African colonies were managed in a corporate manner. The Chinese who immigrated here were nominally workers of the Hei Xingen Consortium, and this was also true in practice. The land belonged to the Hei Xingen Consortium, and the consortium would arrange for these agricultural workers to work collectively.
All immigrants were divided into different working groups to develop the land in East Africa in a planned manner, and ultimately the food supply was determined by the work efficiency of each group.
The colonial management would send people to inspect the work results of the agricultural workers. The acceptance criteria included workload and time, the quality of farmland development, and subsequent crop growth.
Theoretically, these agricultural workers can get wages, but no one is getting them at the moment, and the Chinese farmers and workers don't care either. The main purpose of coming here to work is to make a living. In the Far East, most of them have lost their land or gone bankrupt due to force majeure, and have no way to make a living, so they cross the ocean to East Africa.
The East African colonies encouraged such people to come to East Africa to make a living, because what was most lacking now was people. After comparing the Chinese and the natives, the colonial leaders also found that the Chinese were much more efficient than the natives and easier to manage.
Most of those natives needed the colonial team to send someone with a whip to supervise them before they would work lazily, although they were also affected by the exploitation of the Heixingen Consortium.
But we are always afraid of comparison. The Chinese on one side work hard without complaints and obey orders. They do whatever they are told without any reluctance. Why can't you local lazy guys do it?
In this way, the colonial leaders gradually "understood" the boss's painstaking efforts. These Chinese were indeed natural high-quality workers, and were not inferior to the Germans.
However, these Chinese workers do have a big appetite, and it is difficult for ordinary Germans who can just barely get enough food and clothing in Europe to understand the Chinese people's desire to have enough food.
In the East African colonies, the more work you do, the better, and the more food you can eat, the better, so naturally you work hard.
Because of colonization and reclamation, the animals on the East African grasslands suffered a great disaster. Wildebeests, lions...all kinds of large animals were hunted by the colonial teams.
Most of the meat from these animals went into the stomachs of Chinese laborers. For many Chinese laborers who had not tasted meat for years, it was like celebrating the Chinese New Year.
Even in this era, many lower-class people in the Qing Dynasty could not even get a bite of oil to eat during the New Year. It was not like now, as long as you work hard you can have a meal, and occasionally eat meat. Although every day was hard, happiness and satisfaction appeared on these people's faces for the first time.
After solving basic survival problems, some families have begun the task of having children. Yes, there are Chinese families in the East African colonies.
The East African colonies encouraged family immigration. After all, forming a family was a stable condition for maintaining rule. Of course, large families and clans were not included. In Ernst's eyes, large families and clans were unstable factors. After all, if you rely on large families and clans, you will stick together, and if you make trouble, it will be no joke. It is also unfair to the development of society.
Therefore, when Ernst was recruiting people in the Far East, he strictly prohibited large families and clans from interfering. Perhaps these families and clans would not think of coming to East Africa, but Ernst still had to take precautions.
As for small families of two or three, Ernst warmly welcomed them. Apart from others, as long as they were starting a family or had already started a family in the East African colonies, they would be allocated separate residences. As for bachelors, most of them could only sleep in large bunk beds.
At present the sex ratio in the colonies is seriously unbalanced, with only a minority forming families, and those already established in the Far East, and even fewer women being recruited individually as workers.
In the future, it will be Ernst's responsibility to solve the marriage problems of these bachelors, but now Ernst does not have the energy to deal with these things.
Ernst is now more concerned about the development of the industry and changes in the European situation.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
