Chapter 163 End of the Year
1868, it was the end of the year again.
The population of East Africa has reached 1.75 million. In addition to the new immigrant population, there is also the first wave of baby boomers in East Africa.
The relatively stable environment in the past two years, coupled with East Africa's policy preference for female immigrants and the gradual improvement of immigrant marriage issues, has led to newly established families accounting for the majority of East African families.
Now that they have started a family and a career, they naturally want to continue the family line. East Africa has been reaping the benefits of war, with the expansion of its territory and the increase in grain-growing area, which have provided an incentive for immigrants to have children.
In this era, the cost of raising children is extremely low, and coupled with the influence of traditional fertility concepts of immigrants, people have basically relaxed their restrictions on having children.
If these immigrants just work a little harder, they can feed more people.
Immigrants in the East African colonies had basically no sense of crisis, mainly because East Africa was too vast, the natural conditions were too good, and it had lost the inward-looking environment of the Eurasian continent.
In addition to the immigrant population, indigenous workers are not included in East Africa's population statistics. This year's indigenous population is estimated to be around 1.3 million.
There is no shortage of natives on the African continent. Even if the natives in East Africa were controlled, they not only had to undertake heavy work, but would also be sold to the East African colonies, so the losses were still huge.
However, when East Africa expanded westwards, another group of people would be captured and brought back to supplement the lack of labor in East Africa. This was a typical slave economy, with both inflow and outflow, forming a closed loop.
Under the slave economy, East Africa's infrastructure was created at a speed visible to the naked eye, and cities and villages across East Africa were connected by roads.
At the same time, the widespread use of slaves allowed East Africans to easily open up several times more land, replace livestock and machinery, and support the scale of agriculture in East Africa.
The grain harvested in the East African colonies was mainly divided into three parts: one part was food for immigrants, one part was food for slaves, and one part was sold overseas.
Among them, the food rations of immigrants accounted for the largest proportion, not because the immigrants ate a lot, but because the new immigrants to East Africa were all poor and could not immediately engage in production. The initial food rations were completely paid by the East African colonies.
Moreover, land development, village and city construction, or wars in East Africa all require a large amount of food as a guarantee.
The slaves’ rations account for a considerable proportion. Given the number of slaves, the total amount of food these people eat is bound to be small.
In order to solve the problem of food for slaves, East Africa planted large areas of corn and cassava as slave food. These things have high yields, are easy to care for, and can basically grow as long as they are planted in the ground, so the food problem of slaves was easily solved.
Food for sale is the main source of income for the East African colonies. However, food planting is cyclical, and with the continuous influx of immigrants, there is not much food exported from East Africa at present. However, due to the vast area of arable land, the quantity is still considerable.
The exported grain must naturally be of the best quality so that it can be competitive in the European market. With the help of low labor and land costs, the profits from East African grain exports are considerable.
Compared to food crops, cash crops are definitely more profitable, but East Africa has only existed for a short time and many cash crops have not yet entered the harvest stage.
For example, it takes at least three to five years for a coffee plantation in Kenya to bear fruit from planting, and rubber plantations along the Great Lakes take six to eight years. Specialty products such as cinchona trees also take time.
Only cash crops such as sisal, cloves and peanuts have entered the stage of sustainable production and export.
In the second half of the year, there was not much expansion in East Africa, mainly a simple expulsion of the indigenous people on the west side of the Mitumba Mountains.
The western side of the Mitumba Mountains is a buffer zone between the East African Plateau and the Congo Basin, with a relatively rugged terrain.
The occupation of the Mitumba Mountains area could only be regarded as a continuation of the last Northwest War, so the East African government did not take it very seriously.
The entire Mitumba Mountains area is covered with virgin forests and sparsely populated. Further west, there is a tropical rainforest climate.
Therefore, the East African colony easily took over about 200,000 square kilometers of land, mainly the two regions of North Kivu and South Kivu provinces in the former Congo.
During this era, the Kingdom of Kongo was still gathering dust on the western Atlantic coast, and the strongest power in the Mitumba Mountains region was the Eight Northwestern Kingdoms that had been eliminated or driven away by East Africa.
As the heritage of the eight northwestern countries, the Mitumba Mountains area was naturally taken over by East Africa. Further west is a vast tropical rainforest, with almost no places suitable for survival.
There is no country in the Congo Basin. There are only tribes, collectively called the Northwestern Bantu tribes, which correspond to the Eastern Bantu tribes that have been eliminated.
It was only after Belgium invaded this area that the prototype of the previous Democratic Republic of the Congo was integrated, the famous Belgian Congo Free State.
Now the Mitumba Mountains in the Congo region are occupied by East Africa, so there is no place for the Belgians here.
Next year, East Africa will swallow up the Katanga Plateau in southern Congo and eastern Zambia according to last year's plan, so in the future all that will be left for the Belgians is the real Congo Basin, which is the tropical rainforest area.
All plateaus and mountains that are slightly suitable for human habitation have been reserved or occupied by the East African colonies. Moreover, the emergence of the East African colonies will certainly affect the division of Africa among the great powers in the future, and the future is subject to great uncertainty.
At present, Ernst has no interest in the heart of the Congo Basin. The reputation of the tropical rainforest as a forbidden area for mankind is not exaggerated.
Throughout this year, East Africa's territorial expansion is not very large, totaling about 500,000 to 600,000 square kilometers, mainly in the northwest.
Among them, the eight northwestern countries took the most effort to eliminate and drive out the eight northwestern countries, but after eliminating and driving out the eight northwestern countries, East Africa also established a stable rule in the local area. Except for Egypt in North Africa, no other force could threaten this place.
In addition to population and area, East Africa has also initially established a traditional handicraft system to meet the needs of colonial immigrants.
Including salt fields, brick kilns, lime factories, various handicraft workshops...
These were gradually expanded inland after taking over industries in the eastern region of the former Zanzibar Sultanate.
Its characteristics are low technology content and low output, but the East African colonies are a blank sheet of paper, and the problem of whether there is a problem or not must be solved before seeking subsequent development.
The technical content also means that it is easy for practitioners to master it, and is suitable for dissemination in an environment like East Africa where illiteracy is widespread. If something too advanced is developed, given the cultural level of colonial immigrants, it may be difficult to maintain the machine.
The most educated people in East Africa only have primary school education, and they are still scattered in government agencies in various places to maintain the operation of the East African colonies.
Of course, East Africa also built several modern factories this year. Although they are not large in scale, they can still be considered as an introduction.
All machines and parts are imported and require guidance from professional technicians. Each factory needs European employees to monitor it from construction to production.
The most important thing is that East Africa does not have a complete industrial chain. Whatever Europe lacks, it can be imported from neighboring countries. Therefore, even small countries can achieve industrialization with the help of Europe's complete industrial system.
In East Africa, only Egypt has taken half a step into industrialization, and it was cut off by Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire.
The neighboring Mozambique colony was completely a place used by the Portuguese to suck blood. The level of industrialization in Portugal itself was not high, let alone its colonies, so the conditions for industrialization in East Africa were still immature.
Of course, if you are willing to spend money, you can build skyscrapers even in the North and South Poles, but the Hechingen Foundation is not a welfare institution. The Hechingen Foundation controlled by Ernst has been continuously providing blood transfusions to the East African colonies, in exchange for today's population and scale.
There is no other company like it in the whole world. For example, if the East India Company had been losing money while developing India, the British government would have given up on India long ago.
Why didn't the colonists expand blindly? It all comes down to a cost issue. Colonial operations also require costs.
The biggest concern for East Africa is not to work hard to develop and construct, only to end up as a dowry for others, so population and army are the core of East African colonies.
Only someone can provide more troops and military funds, and only a large-scale, well-equipped and highly combat-effective army can defend the security of the East African colonies.
Moreover, for colonists like Ernst, people are also wealth. Even if the quality is not good, a sufficient quantity can still accumulate wealth for the Hechingen royal family.
Just like India in its past, no matter how miserable the lives of ordinary people are, it does not affect Indian companies from growing bigger and stronger by relying on India's population and market.
(End of this chapter)
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