African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 144: Chapter 134: The Road

Taking advantage of the lull during the truce, the East African colony reinforced the roads within its territory.

Poor and destitute, this is not just for show; other countries wanting to industrialize at least have the accumulation from the agricultural era, or have the backing of a major power.

Roads, bridges, agricultural irrigation systems, and even canals... these things, other countries and developed colonies have at least a century of accumulation.

Before the arrival of the colonizers, East Africa truly had nothing; even the mud roads were developed by the East African colony itself.

The transportation situation in East Africa can be imagined; after a rain, they became muddy and impassable. Fortunately, the East African savannah is flat and open, making road construction not difficult.

On the front line of the road construction army in East Africa were those indigenous captives, with the East African colonial government overseeing the work.

Tens of thousands of people simultaneously worked on the front line of road construction; though the tools were crude, the sheer number of people ensured that East Africa’s roads expanded at a visibly fast pace.

For the indigenous people, the food in the East African colony was not too bad, being high in salt and oil, ensuring they had enough strength every day.

The portions of food were naturally not large but more stable compared to living by hunting, supplemented by the occasional addition of wild animals from the East African colony.

Those indigenous people working at high intensity every day didn’t collapse from exhaustion; instead, they appeared more robust than before.

In this era, whether it was a colony or not, the labor was used to death, especially in regions outside Europe.

The development of projects like the Suez Canal, and the construction of America’s Two-Ocean Railway were all built over bones; these projects had high labor intensity, and most workmen’s meals were poor, tasted bad, were spoiled, and they often were shortchanged.

As for why East Africa raised the indigenous people to be fat, unlike other places, it wasn’t that the East African colonial government suddenly had a conscience.

It was so these indigenous laborers retiring from East Africa could be sold at a good price and were sent to the slave merchants of Zanzibar after being used for a period.

Just right, East Africa first harvested the labor value of these indigenous people; for places with dangerous terrain, or high difficulty engineering, a large number of indigenous people completed the work.

On every East African construction site, a few may die from accidents, but the East African colonial government doesn’t care in the slightest.

The East African colonial government ensured that the indigenous people’s meals weren’t too bad, and since the entire East Africa turned pitch black after nightfall, they couldn’t make these indigenous people work around the clock.

The food wasn’t bad, with enough sleep; the indigenous lived more comfortably than hunting on the grasslands, with the only disadvantage being they lost their freedom and were treated as inferior.

It’s well-known that strength is built through practice; before, these indigenous people had big strength, but their endurance for heavy labor was poor due to constant hunting, which made their explosive strength good, suited for running, but work requires waist power, arm strength, and patience.

Now, after training by the East African colony, laboring on the construction site every day greatly improved the indigenous people’s obedience and stamina.

As a result, after selling these retired indigenous people to the slave merchants of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, they received consistent praise.

The reason being, Ottoman clients, after using these trained indigenous people, were pleasantly surprised to find them more obedient and healthy than previous slaves, with a lower attrition rate.

Of course, just relying on indigenous labor isn’t enough to ensure the quality of the East African roads, at least to prevent them from being too deteriorated.

As mentioned earlier, the indigenous people’s patience is lacking, unable to handle meticulous work, so technical segments of the road still relied on immigrants.

Especially sections requiring reinforcement, such as bridges, which must be durable and have technical content, regular immigrants wouldn’t suffice, so immigrants with relevant experience were needed.

Through a combination of indigenous people and immigrants, the East African colony realized the connection of roads linking each town within the colony.

The purpose of these dirt roads was partly to prevent immigrants from getting lost in the boundless grasslands, which were deserted and easy to lose direction, while immigrants needed continuous inland immigration, so it was necessary to connect the colonial outposts with roads to ensure rescue in case of getting lost in the wild.

If using the current East African roads for transportation, it would have advantages and disadvantages.

In fair weather, the roads are indeed more comfortable than grasslands, but when it rains, the roads with turf on both sides are easier to traverse, though rainy traveling is rare, so these roads must be built.

Moreover, while the current road conditions are poor, they can be upgraded later, without mentioning far territory; the road from Mbeya to Dar es Salaam is undergoing gravel renovation.

The coal mines of Mbeya require vehicle transport, providing energy to East Africa’s few factories, so the roadbed must be stronger than ordinary roads.

In addition, the Marine District and Central District, regions developed early on, are also upgrading their roads, whereas in other areas, the priority is still addressing the presence and absence of roads.

During the truce, the main roads being reinforced in the East African colony were those from the coast to Mwanza and the urgent repair of simple dirt roads from the Great Lakes Region to newly occupied areas.

During the war, long supply lines and bad road conditions caused the East African colony significant hardship.

And the war reached only halfway, with the stronger northern four countries still ahead, so full preparation was necessary to avoid overturning.

Though Ernst looked down on the indigenous, sometimes they could still unleash significant power, and history has many instances of backward forces defeating advanced forces.

Therefore, every battle should be thoroughly prepared; had the British or Portuguese fought this war, they would not have been as steady as Ernst.

With over ten thousand East African colonial troops (including militia) armed with modern military weapons, they could fight a small-scale battle in Europe.

Moreover, they were enough to pose a serious threat to some small countries like Greece and other Balkan nations; some whose populations are just millions, and some armies only have tens of thousands, not to mention weaker nations, like many small states within Germany.

Thus, East Africa treated these indigenous countries with utmost care, unparalleled by the Sultanate of Zanzibar.

The Sultanate of Zanzibar numbered only tens of thousands; East Africa instantly displayed its northwest invasion forces in front of the Sultanate’s territory, exerting significant deterrence.

In a short time, the East African colony could muster a temporarily detached force of seventy to eighty thousand people, which currently only Egypt can achieve across Africa.

Hence, Ernst dared to talk about establishing a foothold in Africa; as for why other forces haven’t taken notice.

It’s due to other colonial powers not penetrating the inland, thus unaware of East Africa’s situation, plus East Africa is currently the necessary passage for Europe to India and the Far East; Dar es Salaam and Mombasa see many merchant ships docking daily.

Frequent comings and goings are normal, making immigrants landing in East Africa seemingly unremarkable, since besides East Africa itself, nobody bothers to count how many immigrants East Africa has.

After all, everyone is recruiting for their colonies, and East Africa just recruits a bit more; plus, East Africa’s fully enclosed management means Zanzibar merchants can only do business in Dar es Salaam’s market, with currently no other forces delving deep into East African inland to investigate, perhaps judging simply through East Africa’s few ports.

Seen from the coast, East Africa appears similar to Portugal’s Mozambique colony, thus lacking concern.

Actually connecting with East Africa, the Portuguese have seen only a few East African villages, and the west borders East Africa’s subordinate indigenous forces, with most of the colonies being separated by the Lufuma River, leaving Portuguese unable to gauge East Africa’s strength.

As for Arabs, familiar with East Africa are mainly the Sultanate of Zanzibar, now trapped on the island.

Egypt’s Sultanate (South Sudan), close to East Africa’s Omolate, but separated by many indigenous nomadic forces, plus Egypt’s control over South Sudan is weak (South Sudan is all Black people).

Of course, East Africa’s geographic location is relatively good, especially with Dar es Salaam being an important harbor along the Indian Ocean coast.

Yet Britain and France are aware of the completion approaching for the Suez Canal, plus Britain has Cape Town, and France has Madagascar; the two countries have footholds in the Indian Ocean, making Dar es Salaam less significant.

Furthermore, Dar es Salaam and other ports are armed with cannons, fortified as ironclad turtles, allowing East Africa to maintain independence from external threats.

If East Africa truly wanted to draw other nations’ attention, there would naturally be a method: massively developing East Africa’s mineral resources and monetizing them, which is clearly impossible, and Ernst naturally aims to conceal it for as long as possible.