Chapter 522: Goalkeeper of the Powers
Late 1879.
The small rainy season that was supposed to arrive has not arrived yet, and as expected, a drought has occurred in eastern East Africa. This drought has affected two important agricultural production areas in East Africa, one is the coastal plains, and the other is the East African plateau dryland agricultural production area.
The Great Lakes region is not affected much. Thanks to its geographical location, it can benefit from the residual moisture from the Congo Basin to a certain extent. In addition, the Great Lakes region is already rich in water resources, so it does not cause much impact.
"The rainy season has been delayed due to special reasons, so we need to do a good job in water source division and release water from reservoirs in a timely manner to ensure the steady development of agricultural work."
"According to local reports, five provinces in the east will be affected, including the Central Province, the Eastern Province, the New Württemberg Province, the Plateau Province and the Southern Salzburg Province. So this drought will affect a wide range. Parts of the west and south will also be affected. However, the west and south are not greatly affected because they were developed late and have vast land and sparse population."
In the face of drought, East Africa was able to cope with it calmly, and the entire state machinery operated smoothly. However, the scope of this drought was somewhat large, so it attracted the high attention of the central government.
After more than ten years of development, the population in eastern East Africa, excluding the black people, has actually reached the range of a normal country, which is significantly different from sparsely populated countries such as Australia, Canada, and Argentina.
In fact, Brazil is a country with a vast territory and a sparse population, but it does have a population of more than 10 million, so it is understandable. The number in East Africa is exaggerated. The immigrant population in Tanganyika alone exceeds 10 million, not to mention the new population in East Africa.
Therefore, East Africa is no longer on the same level as the above-mentioned countries in terms of size. Of course, because East Africa's territorial expansion is too rapid, the population is still unbalanced with the land.
However, national populations are usually compared horizontally, and East Africa's population is already a populous country compared to the vast majority of countries in the world.
As 1880 is approaching, the workload of governments at all levels in East Africa has intensified. In Ernst's mind, 1880 is an important historical node. Therefore, in order to get a basic understanding of the national conditions in East Africa, the population census work that had been stagnant for several years was restarted in September this year.
For a country like East Africa with a large population and large territory, Ernst expected that East Africa would at least develop better than Japan and Spain.
Although Japan was not yet a great power, it developed rapidly through the Meiji Restoration, and Japan's first-mover advantage was much stronger than that of East Africa. The main reason was the population issue. Japan was originally a populous country, and it took a lot of time and money to migrate the population of East Africa from other countries.
After all, value cannot be created without population. The East African colonies were almost in the same period as the Meiji Restoration. At that time, East Africa was a blank slate and even Tanganyika was not fully under control.
So it can be said that Japan at that time was already at the front of the track, while East Africa had just started. Except for land area, Japan was stronger than East Africa in all aspects at that time.
Looking at the development of the two countries more than a decade later, East Africa has made up for most of its shortcomings and has surpassed Japan in some areas.
Take railways for example. In 1879, the length of railways in East Africa was close to 10,000 kilometers, while Japan's was only about 1,500 kilometers.
In terms of steel, coal and other minerals, East Africa will not bully Japan, and it is impossible for Japan to create minerals out of the ground for nothing.
Lack of resources is also an important reason why Japan's railway mileage is far less than that of East Africa. In order to build more than a thousand kilometers of railways, Ernst could imagine the country's tight budget.
In 1879, Japan was still an agricultural country, with more than 80% of its fiscal revenue relying on agricultural expenditure. The situation in East Africa was slightly better, with the Black Xingen Group conquering cities and territories abroad. Of course, the Black Xingen Group certainly cannot be regarded as a pure East African asset.
In addition to agriculture, Japan's biggest bet is on the textile industry, especially the silk industry, which is Japan's most important export product. Finally, the main industry is working abroad. Japanese people working all over the world continuously support Japan's development. As for Japan's mining industry, it is almost negligible.
After all, the Japanese are doing hard labor, but Ernst admires this spirit very much. To be honest, the living conditions of the Japanese are probably not even as good as those of the black people in East Africa.
East Africa's industrial focus is on agriculture, industry and mining, as well as emerging industries such as electricity. East Africa and Japan are different in developing agriculture.
Japan is squeezing the value of land and farmers to the extreme, using the meager income from agriculture to support industrial and commercial development, so its investment in agriculture is far less than the value it extracts.
East Africa has invested a lot in developing agriculture, and is truly developing it as a pillar industry. After all, such good land and environmental resources give East Africa reason to do so. Of course, Ernst also has some ideas about agricultural hegemony in his mind. It certainly cannot be reflected now, but at least he can get a share of the pie in the future.
Emerging industries such as electricity are still in their infancy in East Africa. Ernst has been paving the way for East Africa, mainly in education and talent introduction, but this aspect has not yet become apparent.
There is no need to say much about the industrial and mining industries. East Africa has followed the German approach and has provided strong support to heavy industry, which has enabled East Africa's steel production to exceed one million tons.
Of course, the biggest gap between the two countries is still the military level. East Africa's national defense force has actually reached the level of the great powers, especially after defeating Portugal. No country dares to underestimate East Africa's military strength.
Although Japan is relatively wealthy in military spending, they cannot catch up with the military level of East Africa even if they sell everything they have. The East African Navy alone is something Japan looks up to.
It can be said that East Africa is far ahead of Japan except in terms of population. In fact, East Africa has an advantage in population between the two sides. After all, black lives matter, and the 20 million blacks in East Africa have made important contributions to the development of East Africa.
Ernst had no choice but to compare Japan. There are almost no emerging countries in this era that can be compared with the development of East Africa. East Africa has not yet reached the level of Germany and the United States. Italy, which is at the bottom of the list, is torn apart because of Ernst. Other countries like Belgium and Romania are pitifully small.
In terms of national strength, the countries closest to East Africa should actually be the Ottoman Empire and Spain. Ernst personally believes that the Ottoman Empire's military strength is stronger than that of Spain. After all, in the tenth Russo-Turkish War, the Ottoman Empire's performance was still very impressive. Spain did not have many outstanding performances at the end of the century. It's just that the geopolitical situation faced by the Ottoman Empire was much worse than that of Spain, but it did not affect the Ottoman Empire's status as a great power.
Spain's strength is more reflected in the oceans and colonies. Its homeland is not bad either, and it is considered average in Europe.
Apart from these countries, the countries ahead of East Africa are nothing more than Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Austria, America and the Far Eastern Empire. Ernst did not praise the Far Eastern Empire because of his identity as a Far Easterner in his previous life, but because the Far Eastern Empire was indeed an extremely influential power in this era. Apart from the above-mentioned powers, the Far Eastern Empire really had this strength.
It's just that the Far Eastern Empire was unable to exert its own strength. The Qing government was timid for the sake of its own rule. On the one hand, it vigorously supported the development of the military industry, but did not dare to invest too much in the military. After all, the Eight Banners system of the Qing government had become useless, and it was strictly guarding against the Han people. It was always indecisive in foreign military affairs, and naturally it was defeated repeatedly. However, if you look closely, many wars were fought well in the early stages, but once capable people emerged, they would be restricted.
Therefore, by comparing with other countries in the world, Ernst believed that the national strength of East Africa should be exactly between the great powers and non-great powers. Without Italy, the position of the goalkeeper of the great powers would be Spain, and East Africa should be ranked below Spain.
(End of this chapter)
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