Chapter 585: The Era of Change
Ernst and Prince Karl revealed their opinions on the construction of the Hesse Railway, but this idea has not been implemented at present. Although the Hesse Railway only passes through Hesse and then connects to Swabia, its engineering difficulty is definitely the highest ever encountered in East Africa.
Because the area it passes through is the region with the most abundant rainfall in East Africa, and there is a large difference in terrain from the Katanga Plateau to the Congo Basin, which also adds difficulty to the construction of the railway. In addition, the area is densely populated with wetlands and forests, and the difficulties to be overcome are even greater.
So Ernst said to Prince Karl: "The difficulties encountered in building this railway are definitely the most serious in the history of East African railway construction. I estimate that it will be difficult to complete without tens of thousands of casualties, so the planning and construction of this railway must be carefully considered."
Prince Karl also agreed with this point. There was no precedent for building such a long railway in the tropical rainforest at that time. Of course, Hesse is located on the eastern edge of the Congo Basin, and its environment is not similar to the heart of the Congo rainforest, because the lower half of Hesse is mountainous and plateau. Therefore, the difficulties that the Hesse railway has to overcome are mainly the terrain and topography.
Ernst went on to say: “As for the Northern Railway extension you mentioned, I also have this intention, but I will definitely not consider it in the next few years. In the future, it will definitely be connected to the Central Railway.”
Ernst's idea was very simple. After the Hesse Provincial Railway was completed, the Central Railway would complete the "four connections" in the four-way connection. However, before that, the Central Railway and the Northern Railway were two completely independent parts.
After the construction of the Hessen Railway, the Northern Railway can be connected to the Hessen Railway to the west, so that the Central Railway and the Northern Railway can be intersected and interconnected, which is conducive to strengthening the connection between various parts of East Africa.
However, Ernst thought of more than just this. The Northern Railway is very similar to the Uganda Railway built by Britain in the previous life, but it is not as long as the Uganda Railway. In the future, the Northern Railway will be connected with the Hesse Railway.
At the same time, a northern branch line can be opened to the north, to the Azande Plateau, to integrate the transportation between the Central African Republic and East Africa in the future.
In this way, the so-called Northern Railway can be more worthy of its name. Before East Africa had the same land area as it is today, it was understandable to call it the Northern Railway.
Now, the Northern Railway has become the "Northeast" Railway in the vast territory of East Africa, and the Northern Railway seems to be somewhat unworthy of its name.
Of course, this was just Ernst's personal opinion. Prince Carl also had his own ideas. He said to Ernst, "What you just said does make sense. It seems that East Africa currently does not have much demand for northern railway construction. I can't force it, but Sigmaringen is now colonizing Chad and can only pass through East Africa. You know this."
When Prince Carl said this, his intentions were basically clear.
East Africa does not attach importance to the Northern Railway, but Sigmaringen needs this railway to contribute to Sigmaringen's colonial cause.
Because Sigmaringen has no access to the sea on the Atlantic coast, all personnel and materials need to be transported to Chad through East Africa, and the northern railway is now only half completed, which greatly increases the cost of colonization of Sigmaringen.
The distance from Mombasa to Chad is more than 2,000 kilometers, and it takes almost three months for personnel and materials to travel back and forth. During these three months, eating, drinking, defecating and urinating are all done in East Africa.
This is a realistic factor, and Sigmaringen also has to consider future development factors. Unlike in Europe, Sigmaringen's biggest reliance in Europe is naturally Germany, but in Africa, it is impossible for a powerful country to surpass East Africa.
Therefore, the future of Sigmaringen must be tied to East Africa, and if the Northern Railway can be extended to Chad, the connection between Sigmaringen and East Africa will naturally be closer.
"Of course, I know this is a bit unreasonable. After all, railway construction, especially the construction of thousands of kilometers of railway, is not a small project for any country. It's just that the Northern Railway is indeed important to Sigmaringen. You should be very clear about this. So if East Africa is willing to build the Northern Railway, it must notify us in advance so that we can contribute." Prince Carl said with some regret.
In fact, Prince Carl knew in his heart that Ernst would definitely carry out further construction of the northern railway. After all, the Azande Plateau, the Great Lakes Region, and the Nile Basin all needed this railway to drive the economic development of northern East Africa. Of course, there were also considerations for consolidating national security.
That's why he mentioned the Northern Railway this time to test Ernst's attitude. If it were before, Prince Karl would definitely not have such ambitions.
But he had been in East Africa for more than half a year, and the more he learned about East Africa, the more his passion for colonization was aroused.
The more shocked he was in East Africa, the higher his hopes were placed on the Chad colony. Not to mention becoming like East Africa, even if it only developed to one twentieth of East Africa's national strength, it would still have much greater potential than Romania's one-third acre of land.
Prince Carl's biggest itinerary in East Africa this year is to take a train to inspect the construction of East Africa along the Central Railway.
Not to mention how East Africa has developed, the journey of more than 3,000 kilometers alone opened his eyes. It took him two weeks to reach the New Hamburg Port in East Africa from the Port of Dar es Salaam.
We stopped in cities such as Mbeya and Harare. Now the development of inland areas is comparable to that of some backward areas in Europe. Of course, the backward areas I am referring to are Romania. The only thing that Romania is better than the inland of East Africa is its high population density.
This is the case in the interior of East Africa, not to mention the eastern region which can be compared with most European countries. Apart from the vast land and sparse population, there is not much difference.
Moreover, if we really talk about vast land and sparse population, the national conditions of Tsarist Russia, the United States and East Africa are similar. If black people are included in East Africa, the population is 50 million, while the population of Tsarist Russia is more than 100 million, its territory is twice that of East Africa, and its population is exactly twice that of East Africa. Therefore, the population density of East Africa and Tsarist Russia is similar, and the effective territory of East Africa is obviously much larger than that of Tsarist Russia.
The population of the United States is slightly smaller than that of East Africa, and its land area is also slightly smaller than that of East Africa itself. Although East Africa itself is nearly three million square kilometers larger than the United States, it would be almost the same if the tropical rainforest is removed, because East Africa has not yet clearly defined the Congo Basin as East African territory. It can only be regarded as a territory, or sphere of influence.
So the population density of East Africa today is actually similar to that of the United States and Russia. The only difference is that these two countries developed hundreds of years earlier than East Africa.
The gap of several hundred years is naturally not so easy to overcome. Just talking about roads, East Africa cannot expect to catch up with others' accumulation of hundreds of years in just a dozen years.
However, East Africa is not without the opportunity to catch up. For example, hardened roads are the development trend of future roads. Now countries around the world and East Africa are on the same starting line. When the automobile industry rises, East Africa will also be at the same starting point as other countries in terms of road development.
The same is true in industry. Now is the time when the second industrial revolution is emerging. Although East Africa is more than ten years behind other countries, it has also joined the train and is on the same starting line as emerging countries such as Japan.
In short, this is an era of change. As long as East Africa seizes the opportunity, it will soar in the future. Ernst has laid a good foundation for East Africa's basic base.
(End of this chapter)
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