Chapter 449 Ambition
The most important function of this administrative division reform is to rely on the central railway to carry out reasonable industrial layout in the inland areas. Therefore, Zambia, the southern plateau of Congo (Katanga Plateau), and Zimbabwe are divided into three provinces.
The main industry in Swabia is the development of copper mines. In addition to copper mines, there are also cobalt mines, tin mines, and uranium mines. The gold mining areas are distributed in Hesse Province. Its population is mainly distributed in the savanna area in the south, and in the north. It's a tropical rainforest.
The actual area of Swabia Province in East Africa has become smaller than that of Katanga Province in Congo in its previous life, but its mineral resources still account for more than 60% of Congo.
In the previous life, the resources of Katanga Province in the Congo, such as cobalt and uranium mines, were actually controlled by the Americans. Katanga's cobalt resources accounted for 70% of the world's resources, and its uranium ore (uranium 238) accounted for 70% of the world's. At the same time, tin mines account for 10% of the world's total, and copper mines account for about 8%. (The data of various institutions are not uniform, just use it as a reference)
This kind of resource endowment caused constant conflicts in the Katanga region in the previous life. Britain, the United States, Belgium, and Russia all supported local forces, and even Rwanda also got involved.
The resource endowment of Hohenzollern Province is not bad. It is in the middle position, with convenient transportation between the north and the south, and can undertake the resource exchange between the north and south Swabia and Matabele provinces.
Matabele Province, the most famous resource of Zimbabwe, is the Zimbabwe Great Rock Wall, which runs north to south across the central region of Zimbabwe and is basically consistent with the central railway.
This is the main reason why the Central Railway was built from Harare to Bulawayo instead of taking a shortcut. At the same time, the British abandoned the line of Kings Falls (Victoria Falls) in the previous life and built the cross-river bridge from the east bank of Kariba Reservoir in the previous life. .
At this point, Ernst fully drew on the experience of his previous life, such as the Kariba Reservoir. The Kariba Reservoir is one of the largest artificial lakes in the world. The normal water storage level of the Kariba Hydropower Station on the north coast of Zambia is 487.79m. The water level is 475.5m, and the maximum storage capacity is 185 billion cubic meters. The adjusted storage capacity below the normal water level is 60.85 billion cubic meters, shared by Zambia and Zimbabwe. As a reference, the total storage capacity of the Three Gorges Reservoir, the largest in the Far East, is only 39.3 billion cubic meters.
Ernst wants to replicate a super project like the Kariba Reservoir in East Africa, but East Africa currently does not have the capabilities and conditions.
So the Kariba Reservoir remained on Ernst’s small budget and will be built when conditions are mature in the future.
In the previous life, the Kariba Reservoir was more than 200 kilometers long from east to west, so the Central Railway as a whole was shifted eastward by more than 200 kilometers. This made the Central Railway section from Lusaka to Harare to Bulawayo overall changed. It became a big triangle.
However, because of Pretoria, the Central Railway is relatively straight overall and can take care of the (big) cities along the route, so the utilization rate is still relatively high.
Once the central railway is completed, East Africa will be able to activate its inland economy and develop the new Hamburg Port in the south.
For the former Transvaal Republic, Ernst planned to postpone the development, and the former Zulu Kingdom (Southern Frontier Province) did not need it. The Zulu Kingdom was mainly coal-based, and it also had the convenience of ports.
Therefore, the development of coal resources in the Drakensberg Mountains is an important project. After development, the coal mines here can be directly transported to East Africa by sea to support the industrial development of the eastern coast of East Africa, such as Dar es Salaam, Bagamoyo, Tanga, Mombasa, Mtwara and other coastal cities can directly benefit from this.
After all, the most indispensable resource in the UK is coal mines. There are enough local coal mine resources, plus the colonies, it can be said that coal mines are the cheapest minerals for the British. If they even covet the coal mine resources of the Southern Frontier Province (formerly the Zulu Kingdom), , Ernst is very willing to teach them how to behave.
The Italians have now consolidated their control over the southeastern part of the Abyssinian Empire, and under the influence of the economic crisis, the Kingdom of Italy has bet its national destiny on the Abyssinian Empire.
Leopold II of Belgium also used his expertise in his previous life. Through various means, he deceived the Congolese natives west of the Ubangi River and gained local sovereignty.
Two countries have come to an end, while other major countries have not taken any action. An important reason is that they have not yet felt the pressure from their competitors. The existence of the East African Kingdom has largely alleviated the economic crisis in the German region. Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire have generally improved during the economic crisis, and the United States, which has the most severe crisis, has endured a more serious crisis than in history.
Because most factories in Germany maintain basic operations, and the Hechingen Consortium competes with the United States (mainly in the power industry), it is difficult for American steel, electricity and other products to open up sales in Europe. At the same time, American agricultural products have also suffered Competition is more severe than in the past, especially for crops such as grain and tobacco. On the contrary, tobacco sales have skyrocketed due to high unemployment and an uncertain future in the local area.
However, the crisis in the United States is not as serious as imagined, because East Africa absorbs part of the unemployed population in the United States.
The East African Immigration Agency recruited a large number of German unemployed workers and farmers in German communities in the United States, and even advertised through newspapers in German communities. Many German workers went to East Africa on slave ships from East Africa.
As for why there are German farmers in urban German communities, this is also the fault of the East African Kingdom. Under the agricultural crisis, the southern plantations in the United States have cut costs and reduced expenses in response to the economic crisis. Therefore, a large number of extremely cheap black people have replaced the original plantation employees. of white farm workers.
ˆ Black workers do not need wages at all because their contracts are "migrant workers" directly linked to the Haitian government, that is, dispatched labor.
Theoretically, their wages are issued by the Haitian government. American planters do not have any obligation or responsibility to pay these "laborers". They only need to ensure that they have three meals a day.
The most indispensable thing for plantation owners is food. Now there are mountains of food in the warehouse and they cannot be sold. It would be good to use it to raise obedient "slaves".
Moreover, these slaves are completely legal, and the federal government and the courts cannot find any fault. These slaves are easy to deal with when they are old or disabled. Because of the emancipation of black slaves in the United States, there are many black people in society. When they are not needed, they can be directly exiled to society. That's it.
A large number of new black slaves poured into southern plantations, which naturally made life even more difficult for the white people at the bottom, which also affected white farmers and workers.
The huge German population in the United States, the main source of workers in the United States and the main force of unemployment, has been absorbed by East Africa.
In the first three months of 1874 alone, more than 200,000 German-Americans went to East Africa, surpassing Germany and Austria to become the largest source of German immigrants in East Africa.
Europe and the United States are so busy, so the Far East market has attracted much attention from countries around the world. The Far East has greatly digested the overcapacity caused by the economic crisis.
Comparing to the restraint of Europe and the United States, Japan directly chose to attack Danwan Island in the heart of the Far East. As a result, due to the intervention of the upper-level government of Danwan Island (Fujian), which knew the news in advance, it directly suffered a **** blow.
The **** company of the East African Kingdom's Consulate in the Zhuhai Trade District received a windfall, but it also suffered a lot of casualties. German mercenaries are famous all over the world. In other words, Ernst's ancestors also did mercenary business. This kind of This is nothing unusual in Europe.
As a pioneer in the colonization and development of Africa, Ernst was not prepared to remain indifferent in this upsurge of carving up the world. In addition to consolidating the achievements made in Africa, East Africa also planned to make further progress in Africa. At the same time, when East Africa's navy began to take shape, The Indian Ocean, which Ernst was thinking about, can also start to take action, and not only in the Indian Ocean, but also in the Pacific. Ernst is also ready to test it out to see if he can fish in troubled waters.
(End of this chapter)