Chapter 843 "Black (East)-German Economic Cooperation and Development Agreement"
Of course, Germany's losses were the result of government investment and had little to do with the development of the local colonial groups in Cameroon. In addition, early colonial losses were normal. In the past few years, the Hechingen Consortium still had to inject funds into East Africa, which slowed down its own development. Otherwise, it would not have lost a large market share in Germany to the Deutsche Eindhoven and fallen to third place.
Although Cameroon's climate is similar to that of East Africa, the tropical savannah area is located inland, while the coastal areas have a tropical rainforest climate that is not suitable for development. This is very different from East Africa. Tanganyika, the birthplace of East Africa, has a tropical savannah climate even on the coast, which is a suitable area for human habitation.
This can be well reflected in the royal territory of Sigmaringen, which is located in the transition zone between tropical savannah and tropical desert, which is the famous "Sahel zone" in Africa in the past geography.
The Sahel region was also a suitable area for the development of civilization in ancient times. For example, the Ghana Empire, the Songhai Empire, and the Mali Empire of black Africans were all born in this region. There are actually many relics of civilization in the Sigmaringen royal territory.
Sigmaringen simply lacks a natural outlet to the sea, otherwise its conditions would be much better than those in Cameroon.
The development of tropical rainforest cities is actually quite difficult, which is something East Africa has a deep understanding of. In fact, the only typical tropical rainforest cities in East Africa are Kinshasa and Cabinda, but the population (non-black) of both places is less than 10,000.
Although the Province of Hesse and its capital city of Kisangani are located in the Congo Basin, they are a transition zone between tropical rainforest and tropical savanna. The eastern mountains and southern plateaus are actually very livable. If they were not livable, Kisangani would not have been able to briefly become the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and become a large city with a population of nearly 700,000.
There is almost no population between Kisangani and Kinshasa to the west, and the reason why Kinshasa became an East African city is because of its important geographical location and it is an important transportation hub on the Congo River.
In the past, the Belgians used this place as the capital of the Zaire colony. It developed from a military station and could go upstream directly from Kinshasa.
But even in the 21st century, when Kinshasa developed into a large African city with a population of over one million, it is still surrounded by lush tropical rainforest, similar to Cabinda.
Therefore, one can imagine how difficult it was for Germany to develop Cameroon. In fact, before Germany, the Portuguese, British, and French had all expanded in Cameroon. The fact that Germany was able to come from behind and occupy the region also shows that the value of Cameroon was not particularly important.
Of course, for Germany, and especially for the new government of Wilhelm II and Caprivi, Cameroon held a very prominent position.
First of all, both of them supported Germany's overseas colonial activities, and Cameroon is now Germany's largest overseas territory.
Moreover, to the east of Cameroon is the Sigmaringone royal territory and East Africa, which further enhances Cameroon's status.
Anyone with a discerning eye knows that if communication channels between the three countries can be opened up, it will be of great benefit to Germany's development of Cameroon. After all, Germany's main outlets to the sea are in the Atlantic Ocean, and Cameroon is in the South Atlantic Ocean, which is the area where Germany can reach East Africa the fastest. The only pity is that the main economic body of East Africa is in the central and eastern regions.
However, even so, East Africa's strength around Cameroon is not comparable to that of Germany. East Africa's northern railway goes directly to the western city of Bangui, which is only more than 1,000 kilometers away from the coast of Cameroon.
In fact, in addition to Bangui, the capital of East Azande Province, East Africa also controls part of the Chari River (the main river that flows into Lake Chad) and the eastern part of the Adamawa Mountains (the watershed between the tributaries of the Chari River and the Ubangi River), so geographically East Africa actually borders Germany.
It's just that Germany's development of Cameroon is too slow. For example, due to transportation problems, it is impossible to effectively connect East Africa and the royal territory of Sigmaringen. Therefore, if Germany wants to develop Cameroon, cooperation between East Africa and Sigmaringen is essential, which can greatly accelerate this process. Compared with the two countries, Germany's main population in Africa is too small.
Of course, Germany naturally also thought about introducing population from the Far Eastern Empire to develop Cameroon, but Germany is not Sigmaringen after all. Sigmaringen's development of the Chad region actually completely copied the East African model and took East Africa as a blueprint.
On the other hand, East Africa’s support for the Sigmaringen royal territory was actually conditional.
It is obviously difficult for Germany to accept these conditions. For example, introducing Chinese immigrants is not as good as directly capturing black natives in the inland and then developing Cameroon. After all, even Chinese immigrants need time and money.
Moreover, Germany's colonial activities in Cameroon were achieved through the support of local black forces, which is very different from East Africa and Sigmaringen.
East Africa and Sigmaringen were conquered by force, and every inch of land was conquered. Of course, the Sigmaringen royal territory was quite special, so the East African Defense Force was hired as a substitute.
Furthermore, the three countries have completely different positioning on Africa. East Africa regards African land as its own territory, and the Sigmaringen royal territory is not much different. After all, Leopold no longer has the Spanish throne to inherit, so it is not bad for him to gain a base in Africa. Germany's positioning on Cameroon is a colony, and development is more important than plunder. However, the conditions for plunder are not yet mature, so the benefits are not as good as the investment.
There is no problem in using black people to mine and build plantations, but it is definitely unrealistic to rely solely on black people to further develop Africa. The cost of re-education is obviously not as convenient as that of Chinese immigration.
Of course, it would be best if Germans could be introduced. The problem is that with economic development in recent years, Germany has ended its history of large-scale population migration. After all, Sigmaringen can't recruit people in Germany.
As a result, Cameroon is naturally at a mediocre level, not much different from other countries' West African colonies.
As the promoter of Germany's "new route", Caprivi believed that the key to breaking the deadlock was East Africa, and that if East Africa was under control, the Sigmaringen royal territory would be under control.
This was also one of the purposes of Caprivi's coming to East Africa. He wanted to build Cameroon into a colonial model, and this required the Cameroon colony to achieve results. Of course, the Cameroon issue was a small matter, and cooperation with East Africa was the big deal.
The two governments then launched a heated discussion on bilateral economic cooperation, which was nothing more than East Africa opening up its market in exchange for Germany's support in technology, capital and talent.
What East Africa needs to focus on is technical support in the chemical industry, because Germany is currently the world leader in the chemical field. Without large-scale changes in German land, German agriculture has developed rapidly, and its output is even comparable to that of Tsarist Russia. The chemical industry has made an indispensable contribution to this, and this is what East Africa lacks the most.
Secondly, Germany also has its own technological advantages in industrial fields such as steel and railways, while many factories in East Africa's traditional industrial fields still use German technology from the 1970s.
Finally, what Ernst values most is the academic exchange and talent cooperation training mechanism. Germany's higher education is in the explosive stage, which is the part that Ernst covets most.
In return, East Africa mainly allowed some German industrial products to enter East Africa, and exported some important industrial raw materials to Germany, especially non-ferrous metals and rare metals.
On December 13, 1891, East Germany and Germany informally signed the "Agreement on Economic Cooperation and Development between East and West Germany" to carry out limited cooperation in the economic field.
The main reason for the limited cooperation is that the differences between the two countries are not small. First, East Africa is relatively conservative in the political field. Second, East Africa and Germany are in competition in some areas, especially in the field of agricultural products. It should be noted that the Junker nobles are the most important political force in Germany. They oppose the unlimited entry of a major agricultural country like East Africa into the German market, just as they oppose the cooperation between Tsarist Russia and Germany.
However, the cooperation between the two countries has achieved great results. After all, East Africa has more options. In the field of food, East Africa does have conflicts with the Junker aristocracy, but East Africa is also the world's most important producer of cash crops. Rubber, cotton, coffee, tea and other (sub)tropical cash crops are Germany's shortcomings.
(End of this chapter)
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