Chapter 834 Railway Conditions in Various Countries in 1890
"At present, the research and development centers of internal combustion engine tractors are mainly in Mbeya and Dar es Salaam. Because Harare is deep in the interior, it is still relatively weak in the training of technical talents, and it is not conducive to academic exchanges. Therefore, if central cities such as Harare want to innovate in the field of education in the future, they must develop both external and internal channels." East African Minister of Education Adrich said to Ernst.
Currently, East Africa's cutting-edge technologies are being vigorously promoted inland. As a late-developing country, most of East Africa's knowledge comes from "imported" sources, and the local talent training system is not yet sound.
Mbeya, a city with an earlier development history, is the current end point for East Africa to absorb the world's advanced cultural knowledge and technology. As for Harare, it is too deep in the center and has a shorter history. Although it has developed rapidly in industry and has surpassed Mbeya in size, it lags far behind Mbeya and other eastern cities in cutting-edge technology and scientific education.
"In fact, Harare is not too far from the ocean. It's just that Mozambique was in the hands of the Portuguese before, and now Mozambique has become part of East Africa, so we must open up the fastest external channel for Harare, so as to promote the development speed of central cities, especially in the field of high-end industries." said Liu Yideville, Minister of Transport.
The names of the East African ministers are quite peculiar. Of course, as a country with a large number of immigrants, this is normal. For example, the Minister of Transport is an older generation of Chinese immigrants who graduated from the Hechingen Military Academy.
Ernst asked Liu Yideville, "What do you think of the Ministry of Transportation?"
“Your Highness, the Port of Beira is now quite large, so we believe that the conditions are ripe for building a railway from Harare to Beira. The Ministry of Railways and we agree that building the Harare-Beira railway is very necessary. With only about 450 kilometers of railway, Harare will have the fastest access to the sea, and at the same time it will promote the development of central Mozambique,” said Liu Yideville.
The railway system is obviously part of transportation, but in East Africa in the 19th century, the railway system was divided into a separate government department, at the same level as the Ministry of Transportation. Of course, the close connection between the two departments requires the two departments to communicate and cooperate with each other in the development of East African countries.
"The Harare-Beira Railway can solve the problem of Harare's access to the sea. If completed, it will only take one day to travel from Harare to Beira, which is only a dozen kilometers more than from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma, and even half the time from Mbeya to Dar es Salaam," said Andre, Minister of Railways.
The speed of East African railways is between 30 and 50 kilometers per hour, so if the Harbin-Beihe Railway is completed, it will take less than a day to arrive. Given the current conditions in Mozambique, it is impossible to set up too many stations along the way, because there are no cities near the railway, and even villages are rare. This means that the Harbin-Beihe Railway will greatly save time costs after it is completed.
The reason why the export route from East Africa to West Africa was slow was because there were many cities and strongholds along the way, and the black slaves had to take care of their food, drink, defecation and urination, so a lot of time was wasted due to the frequent stops and starts.
Ernst nodded and said, "The value of the Harbin-Beihe Railway is unquestionable. It is very necessary for the development of eastern cities, but it is far from enough. We will have railways in Mozambique, Angola, and the newly occupied areas of the Boer Republic in the future. At present, the pattern of East African railways is that there are more in the east, the middle and north are equal, and there are fewer in the west and south. Your Ministry of Railways must plan carefully on this."
Andre replied: "As of last year, that is, 1889, the total length of our railways was 19,000 kilometers. In 1889, due to the war, railway construction was slightly delayed for one year. In the past 20 years, an average of more than 1,000 kilometers of railways have been built each year. Therefore, the specific situation of railway construction in the west and south depends on the terrain and economy, as well as the requirements of national defense."
The construction of the East African Railway actually started around 1873, and did not take 20 years. However, in the 1970s, affected by the economic crisis and the overcapacity of global steel production, the construction of the East African Railway was very fast, but it actually slowed down in the 1980s.
Of course, this also promoted the healthy development of East Africa's industrial structure. In the 1970s, most steel and equipment were imported from Europe, but by the end of the 1980s, the localization of East African railways had reached more than 70 percent.
"Our country's railway construction has achieved brilliant results in the past 20 years. Among non-great powers, only Argentina can compare with us. Although Argentina's railway growth rate is fast, it has not exceeded 10,000 kilometers. Our railway is twice that of Argentina. Currently, the country with the longest railway mileage is the United States, which should be more than 200,000 kilometers, followed by Tsarist Russia, which is more than 40,000 kilometers. Germany's railway mileage should be around 40,000 kilometers, followed by Britain at around 30,000 kilometers, France close to 30,000 kilometers, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire is about the same as France." Andre said.
Needless to say, American railways were already the best in the world before the economic crisis.
Argentina's railway developed rapidly. In 1870, the national railway length was only 740 kilometers, 2,133 kilometers in 1880, 5,964 kilometers in 1886, and 9,254 kilometers in 1890.
Although East Africa is twice the size of Argentina, when it comes to density, East Africa is no match. After all, Argentina’s land area is only about a quarter of East Africa’s.
Of course, although the world hegemon Britain only has 30,000 kilometers of railways, this is only in its homeland. In the past 20 years, the UK has also built an exaggerated amount of railways. For example, the Argentine railway mentioned above was mainly built with British capital. In addition, there are also railways in the United States and India, which also involve British capital.
By 1890, the length of India's railways had exceeded 25,000 kilometers, which if taken alone would have exceeded that of most countries in the world.
The length of Tsarist Russia's railway is at the same latitude as East Africa, and is also twice as long as that of East Africa. However, Tsarist Russia's area is almost 10 million square kilometers larger than that of East Africa, so the two countries are basically on par.
Moreover, the Trans-Siberian Railway had not yet been built, and the Tsarist Russian railways were basically concentrated in the European region. Within the European region, many railways were located in Poland, Western Ukraine and other regions. Therefore, as far as the railways in the Russian region are concerned, they may not be much stronger than those in East Africa.
As for France, it was obviously affected by the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, so railway construction was quite difficult. In fact, throughout the 1970s after the Franco-Prussian War, the French government was working hard to restore the economy, but unfortunately encountered an economic crisis.
Therefore, it was not until the late 1970s that France ambitiously proposed the "Fressine Plan", which was to build a large-scale railway network, roads and water transportation. For this purpose, the French government allocated 5 billion francs of special funds.
It is planned to build 30,000 kilometers of railways, 200,000 kilometers of roads, and 200 kilometers of canals within 20 years, and at the same time open and dredge new ports such as Nantes, Bordeaux, Rouen, and Dunkirk.
This amount of money is exactly equivalent to the war reparations for the Franco-Prussian War, which means that the Franco-Prussian War directly caused France to lose at least "twenty years".
However, this also indirectly reflects France's tenacious vitality. It took only ten years to basically eliminate the negative impact of the war on France.
As for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was basically on par with France. After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire itself was much more backward than France.
In addition to these countries, some small countries in Europe are also developing extremely rapidly, especially the low-lying countries of the Netherlands, Belgium, and the three Nordic countries.
Apart from these countries, the rest were not ideal. For example, Japan had only 2,700 kilometers of railways in 1890, and the Far East Empire had only about 400 kilometers.
So although the construction of railways in East Africa is exaggerated, it is not particularly outstanding when viewed from a global perspective.
(End of this chapter)
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