African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 598: Chapter 276: The Era of Change

Ernst and Prince Karl disclosed some opinions on the railway construction in Hessen Province. However, this idea is currently unfeasible. Do not assume that the railway only passes through Hessen Province and then connects to the Swabian Province; the engineering difficulty is certainly the highest ever encountered in East Africa.

This is because the area it passes through is the most precipitation-rich region in East Africa. Moreover, the transition from the Katanga Plateau to the Congo Basin poses a significant elevation difference, adding to the difficulty of railway construction. The area is also dense with wetlands and forests, further increasing the challenges to overcome.

So Ernst told Prince Karl, ”Building this railway is the most challenging project in the history of railway construction in East Africa. I estimate that without tens of thousands of casualties, it would be very difficult to complete, so we must consider this railway planning very cautiously.”

Prince Karl also agreed with this point. In this era, such a long railway project in a tropical rainforest has no precedent. However, Hessen Province is on the eastern edge of the Congo Basin, so its environment is not as similar to the heart of the Congo rainforest. Since Hessen Province also has lower areas of mountains and plateaus, the main difficulties for the Hessen Province railway lie in the terrain and topography.

Ernst continued, ”As for the extension of the Northern Railway you mentioned, I also have this intention, but it definitely won’t be considered in the next few years. In the future, it will certainly be networked with the Central Railway.”

Ernst’s idea is quite simple. Once the Hessen Province railway is completed, the Central Railway will complete the ”four-way” junction, but previously, the Central Railway and Northern Railway were two independent parts.

After the construction of the Hessen Province railway, the Northern Railway can be connected to the Hessen Province railway in the west, allowing the Central Railway and Northern Railway to intersect and network, which will strengthen the connections between different places in East Africa.

However, Ernst thought beyond this. The Northern Railway is very similar to the Uganda Railway built by the British in his previous life, but not as long as the Uganda Railway. If in the future the Northern Railway is networked with the Hessen Province railway.

Then a northern branch can be developed towards the Azande Plateau, allowing the future Central African Republic and East African transportation to integrate into one.

This way, the so-called Northern Railway can become more well-deserved. When East Africa did not have such a large territory, it was reasonable to call it the Northern Railway.

Now the Northern Railway, on the vast territory of East Africa, has become the ”Northeastern” Railway, making the Northern Railway seem somewhat misnamed.

Of course, this is just Ernst’s personal idea. Prince Karl also has his own thoughts. He told Ernst, ”What you just said makes a lot of sense; it seems that currently East Africa does not have a significant demand for the construction of the Northern Railway. I can’t force it, but Sigmaringen is now colonizing Chad, which can only be accessed through East Africa, and you know this.”

By saying this, Prince Karl basically revealed his intentions.

East Africa may not prioritize the Northern Railway, but Sigmaringen needs this railway to support its colonial endeavors.

Since Sigmaringen does not have an Atlantic coast port, all personnel and materials have to be transported through East Africa to Chad, and the Northern Railway is currently only half constructed, greatly increasing Sigmaringen’s colonial costs.

From Mombasa to Chad, the distance is more than two thousand kilometers, and it takes nearly three months for personnel and materials to travel, living entirely within East Africa during that time.

This is a practical consideration, and Sigmaringen also has to think about future development factors. Unlike in Europe, where Sigmaringen’s greatest reliance is naturally Germany, on this small piece of land in Africa, it is impossible for there to be a stronger nation than East Africa.

Therefore, Sigmaringen’s future must be bound together with East Africa, and if the Northern Railway can extend to Chad, the ties between Sigmaringen and East Africa would naturally become closer.

”Of course, I know this might be difficult, after all, railway construction, especially for a railway over a thousand kilometers, is no small project for any country. But the Northern Railway is indeed important to Sigmaringen, and you should be very aware of that, so if East Africa is interested in building the Northern Railway, please notify us in advance so we can contribute.” Prince Karl said somewhat regretfully.

Actually, Prince Karl also knows in his heart that Ernst is surely going to further the construction of the Northern Railway. After all, the Azande Plateau, the Great Lakes Region, and the Nile River Basin all need this railway to drive the economic development of northern East Africa, and naturally considering national security consolidation.

That is why he mentioned the Northern Railway this time, to probe Ernst’s stance. Previously, Prince Karl would not have had such ambitions.

But he has been in East Africa for over half a year now, and the more he understands East Africa, the more his colonial enthusiasm is ignited.

The more shaken he is by what he sees in East Africa, the more hopeful he is for the Chad colony. Not expecting it to become like East Africa, even developing a tenth of East Africa’s strength would be far more promising than Romania’s small territory.

Prince Karl’s most significant journey in East Africa this year was taking a train along the Central Railway to inspect East Africa’s development.

Aside from East Africa’s development, just the more than 3,000 kilometers trip itself was an eye-opener. It took him two weeks to travel from the port of Dar es Salaam to the southernmost point of East Africa, the New Hamburg Port.

He stopped in cities like Mbeya and Harare along the way. The development of the inland regions is now comparable to some backward areas of Europe, specifically referring to areas like Romania, which surpasses East Africa in the inland strength only by population density.

If the East African interiors are already like this, then there is no need to mention the eastern regions that can already match the vast majority of European countries; besides being sparsely populated, there is not much difference.

And speaking of sparsely populated areas, Russian Empire, the United States, and East Africa have similar national situations. East Africa has a population of about fifty million when including Black people, while Russia has over a hundred million, with a territory twice that of East Africa, and a population density roughly equivalent. East Africa’s effective territory is obviously larger than that of Russia.

The U.S. population is slightly less than that of East Africa, and its territory is also slightly less than that of East Africa’s mainland. Though East Africa’s mainland surpasses the U.S. by nearly three million square kilometers, eliminating the tropical rainforest makes them roughly equivalent, as East Africa has not yet explicitly classified the Congo Basin as its territory, considering it merely as a domain or sphere of influence.

So East Africa’s current population density is quite similar to the U.S. and Russia, the only difference being that these two nations developed hundreds of years earlier than East Africa.

This gap of several hundred years is naturally not easy to overcome. Just looking at roads, East Africa cannot expect to catch up to the accumulation of others over several hundred years in mere decades.

However, East Africa is not without opportunities to catch up. For example, the development of paved roads is a future trend; now countries worldwide and East Africa are on the same starting line. When the automobile industry arises, road development in East Africa will also start at the same point as other countries.

The same goes for industry. Now is the time of the second industrial revolution. Although East Africa is about ten years behind other countries, it can still join midway, standing on the same starting line as emerging nations like Japan.

In short, this is an era of transformation. As long as East Africa seizes the opportunity, it can soar into the future. Ernst has already laid a solid foundation for East Africa’s basic economy.