Chapter 135 Rest
The war was temporarily over, and the East African colonies resumed their normal operating procedures.
During the war, transporting immigrants to the front lines was a huge and overwhelming challenge for East Africa.
Therefore, the war machine of East Africa also needs to slow down. The whole of East Africa is an agricultural colony, so its ability to support large-scale military forces is stronger than those traditional agricultural countries.
Fortunately, the East African colonies were just established, with a vast land area and a large per capita arable land area, so the total grain output was high, which made them self-sufficient and able to strongly support the actions of new immigrants and the army.
The army needed to rest, and the new immigrants heading to the west also had to work quickly to plant the land as soon as possible and create value, while other parts of East Africa also had to speed up the reclamation of land.
During these two months, East Africa received 170,000 immigrants (this figure is not exaggerated, considering the slave trade and the ability of British ships to transport black people. So what East Africa lacks is not transportation capacity, but the source of immigrants, especially German immigrants). All of them were received by the newly occupied Northwest Territories, Western Kenya Region and Omorate Town.
If these 170,000 immigrants were distributed among the already established colonial outposts, various parts of East Africa would surely be able to achieve further development.
In the first half of 1868, more than 500,000 immigrants were imported from East Africa, almost completing Ernst's estimate of 600,000 immigrants a year at the end of last year.
Currently, the population of East Africa has reached 1.2 million, and the land area is about 1.5 million square kilometers. In the past, Uganda has also been regarded as a meal on the table, which is more than 200,000 square kilometers of land.
It is expected that the number will be able to be absorbed before the end of the year. If the immigration activities go smoothly, the number can reach at least 1.7 million.
The population exceeding one million has made Ernst no longer panic. One million is not only a unit but also a shot of sedative. This is an era for countries with a population exceeding one million.
In the 17th century, when the Netherlands rose, its population was in the millions; in the 19th century, when Britain rose, its population was in the tens of millions; in the 20th century, when the United States rose, its population was in the hundreds of millions.
If the population exceeds one million, the East African colony will be able to gain a foothold in Africa, and its strength will at least rank fourth in Africa.
The first is naturally the Muhammad Ali Dynasty of Egypt under the nominal territory of the Ottoman Empire.
Anyone familiar with history knows that Muhammad Ali's reforms allowed Egypt to enter a period of prosperity and strength, and even defeated its suzerain, the Ottoman Empire.
Later, the intervention of Britain and France saved the dying Ottoman Empire, and Egypt fell back into a semi-colonial state.
Although Egypt's reform failed, after the reform, Egypt has taken one step into industrialization, and its army has also completed modernization. Therefore, Egypt's comprehensive strength should be the undisputed number one among the local forces in Africa.
Egypt's territory now also includes Sudan (including South Sudan), which actually borders the Omo River Basin colony in the northwest of East Africa.
The East African colonies might not necessarily be afraid of Egypt militarily, but they were not as comprehensive as Egypt. They had both industry and agriculture, as well as a navy, and had even achieved self-sufficiency in some weapons and equipment.
The second is France. There is not much to say about France. Considering the distance between France’s North African colony (Algeria) and mainland France, it is no problem to say that France is the strongest force in Africa.
Anyway, the French mainly expanded in North Africa and West Africa, and had no contact with East Africa. The French colonies closest to East Africa were the Comoros Islands and French Madagascar, which were separated from East Africa by the Indian Ocean.
The third is Britain. Like France, their navy is too strong, so no other superpower in the world can compare with these two countries.
Why are Britain and France not placed before Egypt? It is because these two countries are not purely African countries.
So, excluding the colonists, the first on the mainland is Egypt, the second is the Abyssinian Empire, and Ernst himself doesn't know the third.
The British and French colonies had national strength to support them, so East Africa naturally did not dare to make things difficult for itself in front of the two countries. However, it was not afraid at all when facing the Boers and the Portuguese.
Because of offending Britain and France, East Africa could only be beaten, and could not get out of the Indian Ocean even if it wanted to fight back. But it was different when facing the remaining forces. The Boers had a population of only a few hundred thousand, and the Portuguese in Mozambique, including merchants and immigrants, probably only had tens of thousands of people (maybe only a few thousand).
The East African colonies were on the same level as them. As for the Kingdom of Portugal's support for Mozambique, it was just for show. If it didn't send hundreds of thousands of troops, Ernst wouldn't even take it seriously.
There is no need to lead the charge into battle yourself. As long as there are more immigrants in the territory, there will be more troops. The army is the basis for Ernst to gain a foothold in East Africa.
Of course, there is no need for East Africa to come into conflict with the above-mentioned forces at present, as there is still a large amount of vacant land in Africa that can be developed.
Therefore, before the great powers set their sights on Africa, the East African colonies could expand freely, and their only opponents were the indigenous forces.
Without the support of external forces, the indigenous people would basically be no match for the East African colonies.
Don’t be fooled by the smooth development and rapid expansion of the East African colonies. That was based on Ernst’s daily anxiety.
The East African colonies were nothing more than an illusion created by Ernst using the identity of the Hohenzollern family to deceive the outside world into believing that the East African colonies were an attempt by Prussia to colonize overseas.
Compared with Prussia's focus on developing colonies, other countries were more worried about Prussia unifying Germany, so the expansion of East African colonies was tacitly approved by Britain, France and other countries.
Prussia itself does not have the energy to pay attention to overseas affairs. Now the kingdom's top leaders are making preparations for the unification of Germany. As for the Hechingen royal family to develop Africa, as long as Prussia provides money and manpower, it will be fine. Moreover, the Hechingen royal family is considered one of their own, and the development of colonies in Africa will eventually lead to their reliance on themselves.
Needless to say, Tsarist Russia's interests were all on the Eurasian continent.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire supported Ernst. The Austro-Hungarian Empire did not have the energy to expand overseas, and the Habsburgs and Ernst had such a good relationship that they were almost like a family. Ernst recruited immigrants in Austria-Hungary, which was not only beneficial to Austria, but also to Hungary and stabilized its rule. These factors led to the Austro-Hungarian Empire supporting Ernst's colonization.
But support was in the name of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which only did Ernst a favor. Apart from being relaxed on immigration issues, there was no real benefit at all.
To sum up, there is no country that the East African colonies can rely on, and if they completely lean towards any side, they may be doomed.
Therefore, they can only protect themselves by relying on immigration and forming an army. Of course, there must be a threshold for immigration. If all kinds of people are accepted, then if imperialism comes knocking, they will definitely be the guides.
This is also the reason why immigration from East Africa is slow. If quality is not taken into consideration, it would be easy to have two to three million immigrants each year. However, it took the East African colonies two and a half years to reach a population of 1.2 million. This was the result of Ernst's reverse increase in immigration standards.
(End of this chapter)
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