African Entrepreneurship Record

February 3, 1888.

Constantine inspected the Mbeya City Arsenal to observe the development of the East African military industry. The Mbeya City Arsenal is a leading representation of East Africa’s independent military industry and has been one of the most important military construction units in East Africa since the late 1860s.

The senior officials of the Mbeya City Arsenal led Constantine through various weapons production workshops, among which the artillery production workshop remained one of the places of most interest to Constantine, the former European land battle general.

”The improvement of the French 1807 75mm field gun effectively solved the recoil problem and greatly enhanced the army’s firepower. To date, a total of 378 units have been equipped, forming an important component of the land mobile support artillery. The annual production is maintained at around 30 units,” explained the manager of the Mbeya City Arsenal to the King.

”In the past three years, our factory has also cooperated with Austria-Hungary to produce 120mm heavy artillery. However, its application scenarios are few, and a total of 49 units were produced.”

”We independently developed the 1883 model grenade launcher, producing over 2,000 units, and copied over 130 Maxim guns.”

East Africa is a country that does not strictly enforce patent laws, so the Maxim gun is primarily replicated, which greatly relates to the conditions in East Africa.

Currently, the most open coastal areas of East Africa still belong to a semi-open market, and the inland areas are basically not open, so patents are not effective inland.

This is also an issue for East Africa in terms of attracting foreign investment. The idea of exchanging the market for technology is basically impossible to achieve. For example, Maxim would certainly not invest in setting up a factory in East Africa, as East Africa currently pays little attention to intellectual property. Therefore, after the birth of the Maxim gun, East Africa could only purchase and then replicate it, successfully replicating it in 1885 and setting up a factory in 1886, with mass production beginning by 1888.

Of course, this is largely due to Ernst’s emphasis on weapons like machine guns. Long before the Maxim gun, East Africa had already embarked on extensive research.

However, this research process ultimately could not withstand Maxim’s genius idea, so East Africa could only replicate based on the principle of the Maxim gun. This was not entirely plagiarism.

”Up to now, the East African Army has equipped a total of over 6,000 various artillery pieces, mainly coastal defense cannons and small-caliber artillery.”

In East Africa, artillery with a 75mm caliber is the standard. Any artillery below this value is classified as light artillery, while those above or equal to this value are heavy artillery.

This standard actually conforms to international standards. For example, the British heavy artillery standard is a caliber greater than or equal to three inches, which is 76mm, whereas East Africa is a metric country, so for convenient calculation, the metric system is primarily used, resulting in the 75mm standard.

Currently, the number of large-caliber artillery pieces worldwide cannot be compared to the future. The 75mm caliber is already considered a relatively large artillery value.

Moreover, large-caliber artillery is inconvenient to transport, relying mainly on animal power, and with the poor road conditions within East Africa, the army naturally favors light artillery.

Of course, the actual road conditions in East Africa are considered excellent globally. In the large-scale infrastructure development of the 1970s and 80s, East African road standards were higher than those of Tsarist Russia and comparable to those in the United States, though the US had longer and more numerous roads, while East Africa boasted superior quality.

As for other European countries, due to their land area, they are not suitable as a comparison for East African roads.

Of course, East African land transportation includes not only roads but also railways and inland water transport; however, compared to Europe and America, they do not have an advantage.

Firstly, East Africa has limited railway mileage. Even with the opening of the Hessen Railway, East Africa’s railways have only just completed a preliminary network and are primarily centered around the Central Railway and Northern Railway.

Secondly, regarding water transport, East African rivers are not highly navigable, unable to achieve national connectivity but can realize regional traffic accessibility. This feature is especially characterized by developed lake transport. East Africa has four relatively large lakes that are visible even on world maps, while smaller lakes are also among the largest in other world regions, such as King’s Lake (Albert Lake), Constantine Lake (Edward Lake), Lake Heixinggen (Lake George), Lake Kivu, Lake Mweru, and Luqiao Lake...

Compared to the prosperity of lake transport, river transport is in a rather awkward position. The rivers with the highest shipping value are measured in hundreds of kilometers, and those that reach longer stretches of uninterrupted navigation, such as the White Nile and Congo Rivers, flow through sparsely populated areas.

The Zambezi River flows through important economic regions of East Africa, but due to gorges, rapids, and waterfalls, only certain sections are navigable.

As of 1888, East Africa had a total of 23 artillery production factories: three in the Northern Industrial Belt, six in the Lake Malawi Industrial Area, four in Central Province, seven in the Matebel Province, two in the Hohenzollern District, and one in the Swabian Province.

Overall, the focus of artillery production is in the central region, with the Lake Malawi Industrial Area, spearheaded by Mbeya City, also relatively close to the central area, so the overall military production in East Africa has transitioned inland. This layout is beneficial for the security of East African national defense production.

Among the four artillery factories in Central Province, three serve the navy, and one is a military enterprise under the Guard Division. Central Province is also the most accessible area in East Africa for technical exchanges with Europe, so it has the most advanced technology among military enterprises in this region, while other artillery factories are mostly built on resource and transport advantages.

Of course, some artillery factories are just subsidiary units of large arsenals, not only responsible for artillery production, but East Africa has a total of 43 arsenal units. The eight army-affiliated arsenals are mainly concentrated in the central and eastern regions’ eight provinces. Besides, the southern New Hamburg Port City also has one arsenal, and the navy has seven directly affiliated arsenals, including three military shipyards.

Taking the Mbeya City Arsenal as an example, besides artillery, it has large production of rifles, machine guns, etc., which belong to giant military enterprises. This is the early advantage of Mbeya City’s early development in East Africa’s military industry.

When central resource provinces like the Matebel Province had not yet been incorporated into East Africa, the Lake Malawi Industrial Area became the only heavy industry production base in East Africa.

At the same time, it was a key focus for military industry layout, forming the earliest coal-iron composite along the shores of Lake Malawi, led by Mbeya City. It wasn’t until the establishment of the Matebel Province that the Lake Malawi Industrial Area’s status was gradually replaced.

As of now, the military production in the Lake Malawi Industrial Area still accounts for nearly 30% of East Africa’s total. Once industrial sites are established, they are not easy to relocate, and the technological accumulation is more profound than in the Matebel Province-led central three provinces.

Many domestically produced East African equipment was first born in the Lake Malawi Industrial Area, especially in weapons manufacturing, which held an absolutely leading position at the time.

Of course, military products are not limited to weapons equipment; light industrial products are also important to guarantee military combat effectiveness, a role mainly shouldered by the Northern Industrial Belt.

The cities of Nairobi and Mombasa within the Northern Industrial Belt are among East Africa’s important textile industry centers, including cotton, flax, and leather industries, dominating in East Africa.

At the same time, Mombasa and Nairobi are also crucial food processing industry centers in East Africa. The Northern Industrial Belt region produces abundant coffee, tea, and various economic or crop types and is also an important livestock center, bordering the northern pasturelands and connected to the Indian Ocean on the east, the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) to the west, with the northern mountain plateau as a significant forestry region. The agricultural, forestry, livestock, and fishery sectors almost have no weaknesses.

Mombasa serves as East Africa’s gateway for external exchanges, making it convenient to introduce European advanced technology and machinery, with the Northern Railway connecting the Northern Industrial Belt’s economic development. Therefore, the Northern Industrial Belt holds considerable influence in the field of light industry within East Africa, supplying 37% of East Africa’s military light industrial products.

Of course, the Northern Industrial Belt also has very obvious shortcomings in terms of resources, which is an important reason why the north focuses on light industry as its main development direction.