Chapter 56 Balance
Ernst returned to his home in Hechingen from Austria and spent Christmas 1866 with Prince Constantine.
The East African colonies also developed step by step.
January 14, 1867.
The first group of immigrants from the Austrian Empire arrives at the port of Dar es Salaam.
The immigrants who had just arrived in East Africa had already tempered their tempers due to the bumps on the sea, and now they were very happy to see land.
Because it is still within the territory of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, the environment here looks pretty good in the eyes of many immigrants. After all, Zanzibar has been developed for many years and its urban construction is barely qualified.
People of all skin colors can be seen in Zanzibar, Germans, Arabs, Portuguese, blacks, Indians and Chinese...
The immigrants who have been living deep in the interior of the Austrian Empire have never seen this. The architectural style of Zanzibar is also different from that of Europe, and is full of strong Arabic style.
Add to that the tropical beaches and coconut trees, and everything is so new to these immigrants.
…
After three days of travel, the immigrants were brought to the first town. Officials from various regions of the East African colonies, who had been prepared for this, had already come to attract the immigrants.
The first group of immigrants that arrived today turned out to be white people! The colonial officials, who were used to receiving Chinese immigrants in the past, were somewhat surprised.
However, these people soon started to argue with each other. The colonial officials were currently all Germans, and the students of the Hechingen Military Academy generally served as translators and assistants, or as junior officers in the colonial army.
In fact, these Germans were also afraid. After all, what would happen if the yellow people under their command rebelled? Earlier, it was not bad, and the population was not large. However, in the last few months of last year, the number of Chinese immigrants increased by tens of thousands, while the number of Germans was still the same as before, at 2,000.
It is still possible for two thousand people to suppress tens of thousands of people, but the number of Chinese immigrants is increasing too fast. This year there are tens of thousands, next year there will be hundreds of thousands, and the year after there will be hundreds of thousands.
This is still an understatement. No one knows whether Ernst will increase the number of ships to transport more people.
Although Chinese immigrants are more obedient and have stronger labor force, the development of East Africa has greatly accelerated since the restrictions on Chinese immigration were lifted.
But for German officials, they would feel at ease only if they could employ their own people (white people), because German officials could not speak Chinese and much of their work needed to be done by students from the Hechingen Military Academy.
The German officials who had already tasted the sweetness of power were naturally worried. After all, these students of the Hechingen Military Academy were loyal to Ernst and had a surveillance role on the German officials in the colony.
German officials believed that they were Ernst's support, and that Ernst's over-reliance on the Chinese would lead to instability in the East African colonies.
Compared with the Germans hired for money and the students of the Hechingen Military Academy trained by himself, Ernst certainly trusted the students he trained more.
However, human hearts are unpredictable, so Ernst did not dare to hand over the colonies to them. He would rather use Germans with not very high skills (mostly retired military veterans and mercenaries working overseas, and only a small number of senior executives are managers of the Hechingen Consortium).
The purpose of migrating population from the Austrian Empire was also to prevent Chinese immigrants from dominating the market.
Ernst was just a feudal nobleman with ambitions to expand his territory, but some people always suspected that Ernst was a white man with a yellow heart.
In fact, Ernst had never thought about it this way. In addition to fulfilling the great ideals of his previous life, establishing a strong country in East Africa and preventing the natives from wasting the great land of Africa, Ernst always put the interests of the Hohenzollern family first.
In Ernst's own opinion, Africa can support at least two world-class powers, one is West Africa and the other is Southeast Africa.
West Africa is a densely populated region with mixed forces from various countries. Colonists from various countries have their own sphere of influence on the Gold Coast, while in East Africa there is only one top player, the Portuguese.
Cape Town, South Africa, is already controlled by the British, and the Boers are not easy to deal with, so it is not a good place to start.
In East Africa, there is basically only Portugal, a country that is already on the decline. Ernst does not even take the neighboring Sultanate of Zanzibar seriously (the colonial military strength has exceeded that of Zanzibar).
The development of East Africa requires the removal of all indigenous people, and the best way to do this is to use immigrants to occupy Indian land, just like the Americans did.
For example, in the German East Africa of the past, local officials wrote in their reports to the German government that it was impossible for white people to settle in Tanganyika on a large scale, and large-scale land cultivation had to be completed by local labor.
So it’s not that Ernst didn’t want to use the Germans, but that there were too few Germans, and the population in the German region was just enough. Germany had been plagued by wars before, so many people chose to go abroad and immigrate overseas. Now Germany has basically stabilized under the control of Prussia.
Without the threat of war, the Germans naturally chose to stay in Germany, and Prussia, which already had a unified foundation, saw rapid industrial development, which made the pie bigger and better solved the unemployment problem.
In addition, the living standards in the German region itself were first-class in that era, so the Germans would rather wait and would not go abroad easily.
Even Germans in Austria will give priority to the German region when choosing where to work and live.
Therefore, if you want to develop Africa, you must have a large amount of surplus labor. Currently, the countries with the most abundant labor in the world are the Russian Empire, India and the Qing Dynasty.
It is difficult for the Russians to consider this. After all, Russians have lived in temperate, subarctic and frigid zones all year round, where they can withstand the African environment.
It is even more impossible for Ernst to use India. Not to mention the bad reputation of Indians in the past life, India will still be one of the few powerful opponents of East Africa in the Indian Ocean in the future. Ernst's ambition is to dominate the Indian Ocean.
A unified India has the ability to interfere in all countries around the Indian Ocean. Later generations of Indians relied on the Indians who stayed in Africa during the British colonial era to influence the politics of African countries.
The Qing Dynasty did not have the same capabilities as India, and the farthest it could affect was the Strait of Malacca. The problem was that in his previous life, Ernst never saw the Imperial Navy break through the first island chain until his death, let alone Malacca.
To be honest, if India can strangle the Malacca Strait, it will destroy half of the empire's economy. First, the main channel of oil energy will be interrupted, and second, the European market must be transferred through the Americas. Therefore, Pakistan's position is so important. Even though everyone knows that the two countries are brothers in name only, the common threat has prompted both sides to stand together. Anyone who really feels for them would be stupid.
Weakening India in the future is East Africa’s long-term strategy. There can only be one hegemon in the Indian Ocean, and East Africa’s future goal is hegemony in the Indian Ocean.
Channels like the Strait of Malacca are also the goal of future East African colonies.
If the first two are not available, then the only option is Chinese immigration. Ernst was Chinese in his previous life, so he naturally has some good feelings towards Chinese people, and Chinese people are really easy to use.
Now Ernst is a real German, so in terms of identity, German comes first. After all, his German identity cannot be changed in this life, so putting Germans first means putting himself first.
If the East African colonies were not developed, which Germans would be willing to come? You couldn't just pay them high salaries. Ernst's money didn't come from the wind. The two thousand Germans he hired accounted for a lot of his expenses in East Africa.
Even the immigrants who were lured over from Austria were just ancestral farmers from the Hungarians and Slavs.
The population of the Austrian Empire could only be considered second tier, and its composition was complex, but Ernst did not care. After all, America in later generations was also ruled by Saxons who brought immigrants from all over the world. The largest immigrant group was the Germans, and later Latin Americans rose in America. However, this could not change the fact that American Saxons were the ruling class, and English was the basis for maintaining American rule.
The country that Ernst wanted to establish was naturally a German-speaking country, and all cultures were aligned with Germany. After Tanzania gained independence, it still used English as its official language. Therefore, race was secondary, and language and cultural identity were the basis of rule.
Otherwise, there would be no need for a country like Brazil to exist at all. It is the Portuguese language and cultural identity that maintains the unity of the Brazilian nation.
Moreover, even if Ernst wanted to recruit a large number of people from Germany, it would be impossible at the moment. If he followed the example of the United States and recruited some fraudsters and robbers, it would not work.
The United States relies on its large size and comprehensive conditions, and is the best in the world. Otherwise, the crime rate in the United States is basically no different from that in South America. The only difference is that Americans are really rich, while South Americans are really poor.
Just because you can't recruit Germans now doesn't mean you won't be able to recruit them in the future. When the East African colonies are developed in the future, there will naturally be people willing to come and develop. Besides, there will be two world wars and the economic crisis to come, which will be good opportunities for Ernst to take action in Europe. There is no need to rush.
On the other hand, if East Africa cannot be developed, they will not come even if Europe begs them to immigrate here.
Therefore, at present, everything in the East African colonies is centered on developing wasteland and improving agricultural construction. Only with construction can there be a future.
When agricultural conditions mature and enter the industrialization stage, it will be necessary to introduce European immigrants on a large scale.
As for the problem of too many Chinese immigrants, it was not a threat at all until the East African natives were cleared out, and Ernst had already begun seeking European immigrants to balance the number of Chinese.
Both European colonists and Chinese immigrants were latecomers in invading East Africa. They were merely masterminds and accomplices. If the indigenous people were wiped out, the two races would not be able to live in peace in the future. This was the effect Ernst wanted. If everyone felt guilty, it would be difficult to bring up racial conflicts, just like the tacit understanding of most Americans ignoring the Indians.
Ernst did not follow the example of the United States and South Africa in implementing racial apartheid. The current East African colonies are following the model of Brazil and Cuba. Ultimately, cultural identity comes first.
Cultural identity must be instilled from a young age. Don’t think that colonial immigrants have no culture. In fact, they are very sophisticated! They have not received cultural education, but they have social experience passed down from their ancestors.
Trying to change the mindsets of the first generation of immigrants through education is basically a thankless task. As long as Ernst ensures that they can have a full meal, they will be grateful.
After all, the current Chinese people do not have any political ideas in their minds. Unlike the unruly people in Europe who still attempt to make political demands, before the Republic of China, the Chinese would only rebel when they really had no food to eat. Even if they had a bite of food to eat, they would hold on to it.
But if the Republic of China really came, Ernst would not recruit immigrants from the Far East. At that time, he would not recruit immigrants, but recruit unruly people who participated in rebellion every day. Foreigners all missed the Qing Dynasty. He really did that. It made me cry to death.
Ernst thought.
…
The evil cause of colonization cannot be washed away. Ernst chose to drag the Chinese into the water as accomplices. In the future, when East Africa enters modernization, the descendants of Chinese will not be able to speak up.
It is tacitly understood that we should all learn from the Americans and just pretend that there were no indigenous peoples in East Africa. The only way forward is to integrate the German and Chinese ethnic groups.
Ernst was a saint for not choosing to treat the natives the same way the United States treated the Indians. No colonist in the world today is nobler than Ernst.
(End of this chapter)
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