Chapter 72 Tobacco Planting
Mashuru town, central Kenya.
In order to develop the newly explored area, the East African colonial government decided to grow tobacco here after sending people to conduct field surveys.
As a crop that likes warmth and light, most places in East Africa are suitable for tobacco cultivation, and East Africa has moderate rainfall, which can meet the water needs for early growth.
The town of Mashuru is 90 kilometers southeast of Nairobi, and there is an unnamed river running from north to south.
There were only about thirty immigrants who had just arrived here, led by a German named Anthony, five immigrants from the Austrian Empire and more than twenty Chinese.
Looking at the endless grassland stretching to the sky, Anthony couldn't help but feel the magnificence and magic of nature.
Anthony, who once lived in Europe, grew up seeing agricultural estates and forests in North Germany, which were full of beauty and vitality.
The land of Africa is full of wild nature, and its area is so large that it makes people feel excited.
The same was true for immigrants from the Austrian Empire. Most of them came to Africa for the first time and were even more shocked than Anthony. The Austrian Empire was a place with mountains and rivers, especially where the immigrants lived. Because of its relative backwardness, it still maintained a relatively simple lifestyle.
Some people have never left their village in their entire lives. It is conceivable that after going out to sea, they were first impressed by the magnificence of the ocean, and then after landing in East Africa, they were attracted by the unique tropical scenery of Africa.
The situation for Chinese immigrants is relatively better. Due to their origins, they cannot see such large areas of grassland in North China, but the farmland there is also endless.
Although the land area of the German and Austrian Empires is far smaller than that of the Far Eastern powers, in terms of per capita land ownership, the Far East is far behind the former two.
It’s just that the Far East is too large, especially the endless plains and long territory, which always makes it easy for people to overlook its huge population size. After excluding the population data, it does have a sense of vast land and abundant resources.
…
The immigrants began to build their homes, which were temporary residences made of mud. After all, there were too few people now and they could not waste too much time improving their living conditions.
After landing at the ports of Tanga and Dar es Salaam, we replenished supplies in the first town, led by experienced elderly people.
This is where the first batch of immigrants from Mashulu came from. All their daily necessities were on two horse carts, including farm tools and rations.
Looking down from the sky, the thirty-odd people seemed so small on the vast grassland, and their houses were like matchboxes.
This was the initial size of Mashuru Town, and the East African Colony planned to send nearly a thousand more immigrants here later.
During the same period, towns and villages like Mashuru were rapidly emerging in Kenya.
From the coastal areas in the east to the shores of the great lakes in the west, immigrants quickly filled local ecological niches.
This batch of immigrants was a mixed group, led by Germans, and composed of Austrian Imperial immigrants and Chinese immigrants.
…
After a month of development.
The population of Mashulu Town has reached more than 400 people. It has already taken on the appearance of a village, and the fields have been developed in an orderly manner.
Along the banks of the Unnamed River, residents of Mashuru Town have opened up a thousand-acre tobacco plantation.
On the rows of ridges, green tobacco seedlings, full of vitality and vigor, are rooted in the red soil.
These are the future raw material suppliers for the Heixingen Tobacco Company.
For a long time, the Hexingen Tobacco Company mainly purchased tobacco from merchants in other countries and then processed it into cigarettes through machines.
This greatly wastes production costs because the pricing power of tobacco is in the hands of those merchants.
East Africa has a vast area of barren land that is suitable for growing tobacco, which can not only provide the Black Xingen Tobacco Company with large quantities of low-priced raw materials, but also of quite good quality.
The East African colonial government planned to build a 50,000-acre tobacco plantation near the town of Mashuru.
On the one hand, it can speed up immigration to Kenya, and on the other hand, it can create profits, achieving the best of both worlds.
After the tobacco harvest, people from the Hechingen Tobacco Company will come to collect it, send it to the seaside to the Port of Mombasa or the Port of Dar es Salaam, and then ship it back to Europe.
Anthony felt a sense of pride as he looked at the successful Mashuru Town.
As the mayor, Anthony can be regarded as one of the last remaining German mercenaries in the colony.
When they first arrived in East Africa, there were only two thousand German mercenaries in the entire East African colony. Later, as the colonial population increased.
Adhering to the principle of priority, the Germans became the natural candidates for rulers. Anthony's teammates were gradually promoted to officials in various places or gained more powers in the army.
Anthony was still working there. This time, it was finally Anthony's turn to develop the Mashuru area and he was elected as the mayor of Mashuru town.
As a mercenary and former Prussian soldier, Anthony actually doesn't like the life of fighting and killing.
Compared to war, Anthony, who came from a peasant family, preferred dealing with land.
After becoming the ruler of Mashuru, he did not behave in an overbearing manner, but instead acted like a peasant in Prussia.
Every day, leading everyone to work in the fields and looking at the crops full of vitality, Anthony felt happier and more satisfied.
The immigrants in Mashulu Town were also inspired by this amiable and friendly mayor and became passionate about the land reclamation business.
Three different groups of people from Germany, Austria and the Far East all found a common language because of their identity as farmers.
They communicated and shared experiences while working in the fields. Anthony shared with the two some scientific knowledge popularized in Prussian education. The immigrants from the Austrian Empire also had rich experience, and were particularly good at some knowledge of agricultural facilities. Immigrants from the Far East were somewhat more experienced in vegetable cultivation and side dish research.
Because of frequent communication, Anthony learned some dialects within the Austrian Empire and many Chinese phrases. The Austrian Empire immigrants themselves knew some German and now they have also learned a small number of Chinese words. The Chinese also felt the threshold of some European languages in the communication with the former two.
The residents of Mashuru town live in harmony, just like they are connected to the iron-red land under the red sunset.
In the entire East African colonies, apart from immigrants working in agriculture, the largest number of people were soldiers, so there were no significant differences in class.
This creates conditions for different ethnic groups to live together, eat from the same pot, and share similar incomes. The barriers and vigilance caused by historical and geographical reasons are gradually being eliminated.
Of course, the natives of East Africa are not included here. After all, these natives don’t even have decent clothes, and their faces are covered with patterns and tattoos, making them look ferocious. Moreover, his dark skin color is difficult to be accepted by ordinary people, both from the perspective of civilization and race.
The East African colonial government also deliberately reinforced the impression in the minds of the immigrants that the natives were cruel, unindustrious, uncivilized, and backward in evolution (by comparing the faces of gorillas and the natives, showing that the lower face was protruding).
(End of this chapter)
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