African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 196: Chapter 184: ”3-Line” Plan

March 11, 1869.

The Mediterranean and the Red Sea once again saw specialized cable-laying ships. For those living along the Mediterranean coast, this sight was nothing new; in recent years, as countries increasingly valued the role of the telegraph, capable nations and companies have been laying telegraph lines under the sea.

This time, the ships conducting the cable-laying work came from Austria-Hungary and Germany, each beginning work in the Mediterranean and Red Sea.

From Austria-Hungary’s Trieste to Egypt, and then from Egypt to East Africa over the seas, once again the cable-laying work began.

This time it was a backup line being laid since maintaining the connection between East Africa and Europe with a single cable wasn’t reliable.

The plan to lay the backup line had already been sitting on Ernst’s desk; it had been planned when the first cable was laid from East Africa to Europe, but due to financial constraints at the time, it was not executed simultaneously.

Later, the first cable continued working well, after all, the entire line wasn’t used for civilian purposes, it was a government-dedicated line for East Africa, with little workload, so the second line hadn’t commenced for a long time, or rather, Ernst had almost forgotten about the plan.

Now, with the father setting off for East Africa, communication between father and son became essential. To prevent any accidents, Ernst decided to restart the cable-laying work.

An undersea cable, after all, is relatively fragile, so laying a backup line is akin to installing insurance; even if the regular line encounters an accident, the backup line can immediately be put into use.

East Africa, First Town.

”This is the document sent by His Highness. Now, go ahead and deliver the message to the inland along the line and let the governments prepare.” Von der Leyen handed over the documents regarding the telegraph line laying in East Africa to the people in the conference room.

”This is quite a workload!” said the officials in the conference room after reading the documents.

”It’s not too difficult; although the entire engineering line is more than 4,000 kilometers long, we just need to set up utility poles on both sides of the road, and local governments along the way just need to handle the work within their jurisdictions.” Von der Leyen said.

”That’s true; utility poles can be sourced locally, and we must prepare the powerhouses in advance to facilitate the installation of generators later.”

Everyone was discussing the land part of this telegraph line construction plan. East Africa’s colony had already set up a land telegraph line from Mombasa to Dar es Salaam and then to First Town last year.

So the telegraph wasn’t unfamiliar to First Town’s officials. After all, the undersea cable only connected to Mombasa, which was some distance from Dar es Salaam and First Town; relying solely on horseback for message transmission wasn’t feasible.

Currently, East Africa mainly delivered messages via horseback, establishing post offices in various cities to form a communication network, and the telegraph was only available in First Town, Dar es Salaam, and Mombasa.

This time, the telegraph line setup work will be divided into two main lines and fewer branch lines: one originating from Mombasa, the other from First Town.

The Mombasa line, passing through Nairobi and then reaching Kisumu, finally arrives at the northwest new city of Kampala, while splitting a branch line to the north directly reaching Omolate town above Lake Turkana in Nairobi, so northern developments can be promptly conveyed to us.

The First Town line uses Dodoma as a transit station, with the southern line leading to Mbeya City as the endpoint, and the northern line heading north first passing Mwanza and then continuing westward to reach Bujumbura on the northern shore of Soron (Tanganyika) Lake, so the government can promptly grasp western information.” summed up Technical Director Kane.

At this time, the Mbeya government sent Merk and Becker to negotiate with the Yake Kingdom, yet to return, so people were unaware that the Yake Kingdom had already been sold to East Africa’s colony by Mwesili. Hence, this time in the telegraph line planning, the First Town line only reached Mbeya in the west.

The above East Africa-Europe Haiti cable line, First Town line, and Mombasa line are precisely the latest communication engineering designed by Ernst for East Africa, also named the ”Three Line” Plan by Ernst.

It fundamentally covers the major directions of East Africa, with only the south lacking a line construction plan because the south and the Portuguese forces are separated by the Lufuma River, with less defense pressure, and the area primarily populated by indigenous tribes on the Portuguese side, meaning the two colonies don’t genuinely border each other.

East Africa assigned these indigenous tribes to the Portuguese sphere, signaling goodwill to the Portuguese, for if the two colonies were genuinely adjacent, skirmishes would be inevitable.

So far, East Africa’s colonial expansion activities have been quite successful, not entirely due to peace negotiations like Becker’s efforts.

Moreover, Becker could succeed due to East Africa’s strength; Mwesili was no saint but a slave trader. The reason he sold the Yake Kingdom to East Africa at a very low price was because he knew East Africa was truly greedy, akin to him.

However, he couldn’t overpower the opponent, and because the slave trade evolved into one-way plundering by East Africa, Mwesili gained nothing, causing the Yake Kingdom interest group to teeter. Therefore, selling it to the East Africans seemed a better choice.

The transaction with the Yake Kingdom exemplified East Africa’s imperial demeanor. Place East Africa in Europe, and other countries are probably just seeking amusement, but it’s an insurmountable peak for African indigenous people.

Currently, East Africa mainly aims for expansion in Central South Africa, so it’s very necessary to set up a telegraph line reaching Mbeya.

The Bujumbura region is responsible for eastward communication in the Mitumba Mountains area where East Africa is penetrating.

Kampala handles information exchange for the Great Lakes Region in the northwest.

Omolate town manages the Omo River Basin, being relatively close to Abysinnia Empire, demanding focused caution, while also capable of monitoring developments in Egypt’s Sultanate area.

With the ”Three Line” Plan, these critical aspects of East Africa can directly connect with the Central Government, allowing Ernst to consistently monitor developments in East Africa.

Apart from the above regions, only the southern Mozambique and northern Somali are outside this plan’s coverage, with the Portuguese having expressed disinterest, and Somali being utterly insignificant.

The Somali-East Africa border mainly features desert, serving as a natural geographical barrier, and the Gledi Sultanate in the Somali direction is too weak, with a small population. East Africa should be thankful for steering clear of its hassles.

Without further ado, the earliest informed First Town and Mombasa governments began organizing people to erect the utility poles required for the telegraph lines.

The utility poles were locally sourced, and during this era East Africa’s forests were terrifyingly dense, surpassing forty percent, making wood incredibly cheap, virtually cost-free, with East Africa’s population so small that the rate of felling couldn’t catch up with growth.

After a simple unified processing of the timber, wedges were added atop as subsequent supports for fixing the telegraph line.

Once materials, including telegraph wire and generators, iron wires, etc., from Europe arrive, the lines can be secured above, with small maintenance and inspection points established at intervals, facilitating workers to promptly identify issues and maintain line smoothness.

Some constructions are powerhouses, serving the entire telegraph system, with generators imported from Siemens company, high-power DC generators, a significant portion of the ”Three Line” Plan expenses are spent on devices like generators.

Seizing the opportunity of Prince Constantine heading for East Africa, Ernst took the chance to directly integrate East Africa’s on-land telegraph lines with the undersea lines in one go.