African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 372: Chapter 51 K-001

In the next month, East Africa began to fully utilize the role of the Far East Aid Corps. To make people willingly work, one must understand economic inducement. The price that the Kingdom of East Africa could offer was quite good. Besides basic living guarantees, they also offered high wages, but all in Rhine Shields circulating internally within East Africa. Earning in East Africa and spending in East Africa, a single shield couldn’t be taken home.

These doctors were also given positions in East Africa, practically becoming government staff in the medical field. The actions of the East African government left Li Ge and Ande merely staring helplessly, with no recourse.

Under the vigorous efforts of East Africa to win people over, quite a few were indeed tempted. However, most still wished to return to the Far East. The medical profession is high-paying everywhere, and they weren’t living poorly. Moreover, most Far Eastern doctors were quite learned, and their desire to return to their roots was even stronger.

East Africa understood this too, but it didn’t matter. There would always be a constant flow of Far Eastern talents coming to fill these vacancies in the Kingdom of East Africa until one day East African medicine fully developed.

...

September 13, 1871.

King Constantine personally visited the city of Dar es Salaam. Due to years of development, the transportation pressure it bore grew increasingly heavy.

So even three years before the transformation of the city of Dar es Salaam, a new port was opened seven kilometers southeast of the old port to alleviate the pressure from the old port.

This new port mainly handled the import and export of bulk commodities from East Africa, immigration, and important imported equipment. The old port was mainly responsible for receiving foreign ships needing to dock in the city of Dar es Salaam.

This also explained why the immigration transition point of the city of Dar es Salaam moved from urban areas to the southern suburbs. It became more convenient for immigrants to head to the transition point after landing at the new port in Dar es Salaam, which also facilitated management.

Previously, after immigrants landed in Dar es Salaam, they mingled with residential areas within the city. Temporary settlements were also constrained by the old city, scattered and poorly managed, disrupting the city appearance and negatively impacting the mood of passersby.

After spending a long time on board, and with most immigrants coming from impoverished backgrounds, their appearance was understandably unpopular when they landed in East Africa.

Although consumers passing through Dar es Salaam had likewise spent long periods at sea, their appearance wasn’t ideal either, but they had money! They could go months without bathing or grooming, with their clothes becoming aged; yet, they were strict with others. The immigrants’ disheveled looks were intolerable. Therefore, a good city appearance helped the Kingdom of East Africa to drain the pockets of foreign sailors.

Of course, the function of the new port could also obscure some developmental data of the Kingdom of East Africa. Dar es Salaam was a mix of diverse people, with merchants from various nations congregating there. Who knew if there were any ”interested parties” among them?

Today, King Constantine personally arrived at the new port of Dar es Salaam to attend the inauguration ceremony of East Africa’s first railway.

Just three days ago, a steam-powered locomotive, cooperatively built by Heixinggen Vienna Energy Power Company and Austrian Royal Railway Company, arrived in East Africa, along with six accompanying carriages, including one passenger carriage and five cargo carriages.

Transporting this giant from the dock to the station took a full two days. The Dar es Salaam train station was built in the southwest suburbs, three kilometers from the city. East African railway workers repeatedly reinforced the roads along the route to get this giant to the station.

The train station in Dar es Salaam looked very simple, with only a platform and a signpost, plus a small building covering more than thirty square meters.

Technical personnel from Heixinggen Vienna Energy Power Company introduced East Africa’s first train to Constantine on the platform.

”Your Majesty, this train was jointly designed and built by Heixinggen Vienna Energy Power Company and Austria’s Franz - Eastern Emperor Railway Company, utilizing many advanced technologies of the time. After a half-year of technical verification and assembly by skilled locomotive workers in Austria, it underwent a three-month trial run in Austria after leaving the factory. It fully meets the current needs of East Africa, and under the instruction of His Highness Ernst, this train is named after you, with the code K-001.”

Constantine asked, ”If in mountainous areas, can it still run normally? The elevation difference from the East African plateau to the coastal plain is quite substantial.”

”Your Majesty, this locomotive underwent extensive testing in the Austria-Hungary Empire. Our team built a special test track in the Alps Mountains, and both its speed and climbing ability reached the world average level. We also have data on East Africa’s geographic conditions, which are not nearly as challenging as Austria. Austria is a mountainous country, so many mountain railways have been built in the past two years. Although the altitude of the East African plateau is also high, many places transition smoothly from the plateau to the plains, with a much lower overall gradient.”

There is some difference between plateaus and mountains. Africa is a highland continent, the highest among all continents. This geological structure is not conducive to crustal movements forming mountain ranges. Consequently, the East African terrain mainly consists of gentle plateaus with a lack of tall mountains.

Therefore, East Africa doesn’t have abrupt geological structures like Brazil’s coastal shield that obstruct traffic. The coastal plain of East Africa follows the official East African description as plains. In reality, regions close to the coastline have an altitude below 200 meters, while most middle regions transition from 200 meters to 1000 meters, with little altitude difference along the edge of the East African plateau.

The altitude of the East African plateau is between 1000 and 2000 meters, with an average altitude of about 1200 meters. Mountains like Mount Kilimanjaro, over 5800 meters high, are primarily influenced by the East African Rift.

In essence, they were formed by volcanic activity, with their formation beginning around 750,000 years ago, initially consisting of three major craters: Shira, Kibo, and Mawenzi.

There are many volcanoes within East Africa, but most have passed their active phase, consisting primarily of extinct and dormant volcanoes. Though the volcanic seismic belt caused by the East African Rift is vast, it pales in comparison to the Pacific Ring of Fire.

The occurrence of earthquakes and volcanoes in East Africa is even less than in Italy. At least in his previous life, Ernst had never heard of any significant volcanic or earthquake events in Africa. While earthquakes frequently occurred, they were mostly mild, seldom exceeding a magnitude of 6.

Ernst remembered an earthquake near Lake Tanganyika in Africa, where the measured data by the Americans showed 6.8 magnitude, while the French measured 7.5, leading to negligible loss besides a handful of casualties, and there wasn’t significant damage.

Overall, outside the area near the East African Rift, East Africa had little need to worry about such natural disasters as volcanoes and earthquakes. The geological conditions were generally stable, so the construction of railways should consider factors like heavy rains and floods more.

Furthermore, East Africa was sparsely populated, making it easy to reroute in regions unsuitable for railway construction, thereby avoiding significant difficulties.