Chapter 583: Different Levels
At Schweizer Palace, Ernst was also planning how to improve the transportation problems in the province of Hesse. This time it was not Ernst who thought of it on his own initiative, but it was mentioned when he was communicating with Prince Karl.
With the help of East Africa, Sigmaringen has now established a firm foothold in Africa, so at the end of the year Ernst came to ask Prince Karl about the construction of Sigmaringen's African colonies.
Because of the relationship between the two families, the Ernst family and Prince Karl got along very harmoniously, and even conversations about colonial affairs were as casual as chatting about family matters.
Ernst: "Uncle Karl, how is the situation in your colony now?"
"So far, the progress is very smooth. Thanks to your help, we have immigrated more than 40,000 people in Chad. This was unimaginable to me before!" Prince Carl exclaimed.
Ernst smiled and said nothing. During the peak period of East African immigration, from 1874 to 1875, East Africa had nearly four million immigrants in two years. In normal years, the number of immigrants could reach about one million. Now the number of immigrants has dropped drastically, and is no less than 300,000 per year. Therefore, the number of immigrants from Sigmaringen is just a drop in the bucket for East Africa.
After taking a sip of tea, Ernst asked, "Then are you able to control the territory we planned for you now?"
Prince Carl said excitedly: "Of course, two million square kilometers of land! Who wouldn't be tempted? Anyway, we have already controlled many important areas, and other forces should be unable to squeeze in now!"
Ernst understood the pleasure of this crazy land grabbing in Africa. He said: "Once you have established a firm foothold in Chad, you can continue to develop westwards. After all, the seaport is in the west. Then you will be the next India. Of course, the area of India is only more than 3 million square kilometers."
Of course, Ernst was only referring to the area. The conditions in India are too good, with almost no rotten land. Even the arid land like Pakistan can be supported by the Indus River to support more than 100 million people in the future.
But when I think about the fact that places like Somalia in the past could feed a population of more than 10 million, it seems understandable.
India's advantage over East Africa is that the tropical monsoon climate precipitation is almost twice that of East Africa. The annual precipitation in the tropical monsoon climate is 1500 to 2000 mm; the annual precipitation in the tropical savanna climate is only 750 to 1000 mm. This difference is very obvious; however, Ernst believes that the precipitation in the tropical savanna is at a just right threshold.
The main countries with the same type of climate distribution as East Africa are Brazil, Mexico and Australia. In the past, except for Mexico which focused on drug cultivation, the agricultural development of the other two countries was very good.
Needless to say, Brazil's urbanization rate is close to 90%, and only 10% of the people live in rural areas, which is smaller than the rural population in Europe and the United States. This also indirectly shows the level of development of Brazil's agriculture. As for Brazil's hunger problem, it is entirely caused by distribution.
Australia's agricultural conditions are not very favorable and can be said to be the worst among several regions. That is because the desert and semi-desert areas of Australia account for nearly 40% of the country's area, and more than 70% of the land in the entire continent is in arid or semi-arid areas.
The Murray-Darling Basin, Australia's most important wheat producing area, has a subtropical savanna climate with relatively little precipitation. Most areas have an annual precipitation of only 200 to 500 mm, which is lower than that in most parts of East Africa. In Matabele Province (Zimbabwe), which claims to have relatively scarce precipitation in East Africa, most areas have precipitation of more than 700 mm, and the driest western area can reach 400 mm.
In the desert areas of East Africa, the Kalahari Desert and the Namib Desert, rainfall can sometimes reach more than 200 to 300 mm.
Of course, the tropical savanna climate in East Africa is very different from that in Australia. The tropical savanna climate in East Africa is caused by the plateau terrain, while the tropical savanna climate in Australia is distributed in the plains.
The main reasons for the low precipitation in Australia's tropical savanna climate are the blocking of water vapor from the east by the Great Dividing Range in the east and the influence of the subtropical high pressure.
Most of East Africa is between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer, while half of Australia's tropical savanna climate is south of the Tropic of Capricorn. As for the tropical savanna climate in northern Australia, most of it is used for grazing cattle and sheep.
Of course, Ernst believes that the reason why Australia's climate is so dry is due to the fact that the entire continent is located neither north nor south, which means that it is severely affected by the subtropical high pressure.
The subtropical high pressure is a belt of sinking air currents that is not conducive to rainfall. It is generally distributed around 30 degrees north and south latitude, that is, between 20 and 40 degrees north latitude, just covering most of Australia.
The South African territory in East Africa is almost in this area. Areas like Botswana and Namibia are extremely arid. That is, Africa's terrain is relatively narrow and long, distributed from north to south. Otherwise, a very large area of desert would have formed in the south. Even so, the area of desert and semi-desert in southwestern Africa has reached nearly one million square kilometers.
A negative example is the Sahara Desert near 30 degrees north latitude. Egypt is located at this latitude, and most of East Africa just bypasses the north and south subtropical high-pressure belts.
Of course, I say so much mainly to highlight the superiority of East Africa's climate. The tropical savanna climate is also divided into different levels. The same name does not mean the conditions are the same. Brazil has a good climate, but its most livable tropical plateau climate is less than half of Africa's. Therefore, East Africa is better than these countries in terms of climate conditions and land area.
Prince Carl: "Among this year's immigrants, you East Africans directly sent us more than 30,000 people, and we in Sigmaringen worked very hard in Europe to recruit more than 3,000 people."
This made Ernst laugh in his heart, but he still persuaded: "Uncle Karl, don't think about immigrants from Germany. You should think more about Romania and Austria-Hungary. Germany's current industrial development has reached a new stage. There is basically no overflow population. Instead, people from other regions are going to Germany to work. So it is more realistic to recruit immigrants to the backward areas of Central and Eastern Europe."
Of course, there is another reason that Ernst did not mention, which is that East Africa has the most German immigration agencies. With the existence of East Africa, it is difficult for anyone to compete with East Africa.
Prince Carl: "Oh, that's true. If it had happened a few years earlier, we wouldn't have been so passive, especially during the economic crisis, when many people suddenly lost their jobs."
However, Ernst thinks that this may not be the case. The most important reason why Sigmaringen can now immigrate to Africa on a large scale is the support of East Africa. A few years ago, East Africa’s own population was not enough, and it was impossible for it to give others a share of the benefits.
Without the help of East Africa, Sigmaringen could only have a few thousand immigrants in Africa. This is the current situation of most African colonies, except for the two exceptions of East Africa and Italy.
East Africa adopted the human wave tactic and used immigrants to develop Africa, while Italy colonized Africa out of necessity to ease domestic population pressure. According to a survey by the East African National Defense and Security Agency, Italy has now immigrated more than 300,000 people in Ethiopia, completing the immigration results of Cape Town that took hundreds of years in just a few years.
Therefore, the Italian African colonies are now the third largest colony (country) in terms of white population after the North African Arabs. The first is naturally East Africa, and the second is Cape Town. Most of the other colonies are not well-developed. In some countries' colonies, the number of white people may be only a few dozen or a few hundred. Those with more than ten thousand white people are considered big countries.
(End of this chapter)
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