African Entrepreneurship Record

So, the lack of precious metals in the East African coastal region made traditional European colonizers uninterested in this area, allowing the Heixinggen Royal Family to seize the opportunity.

The most typical counterexample is the West African region, which is close to East Africa. The term ”Gold Coast” implies that the area is destined to be unsettled.

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Ultimately, Tirpitz had to take a train from Dar es Salaam to the East African inland, and this inland journey further strengthened Tirpitz’s idea of cooperating with East Africa.

After East Africa moved its capital, the original diplomatic work naturally transferred from First Town to Rhein City, which means that foreign diplomatic personnel who could only wander as far as First Town can now venture deep into the East African interior for observation.

Foreign diplomatic personnel traveling from the coastal Dar es Salaam City to the new capital Rhein City can basically only do so by rail. However, the railway from Dar es Salaam City to Rhein City spans over fifteen hundred kilometers.

The cities, villages, and farmlands along this fifteen-hundred-kilometer journey can give these diplomatic personnel a clearer understanding of East Africa’s national strength.

This was precisely the case for Tirpitz. Ever since he boarded the train in Dar es Salaam City, he had been ”greedily” observing the information on East Africa along the Central Railway.

”Since we left Dar es Salaam, we have passed through twenty-three towns and over fifty villages. Among them, the larger ones include First Town, Morogoro City, and Dodoma City... Among them, five or six could be cities in East Africa based on their size, while the rest should be towns and villages,” Tirpitz said to his accompanying staff.

It was not difficult for Tirpitz to know the names of East African towns, as each station they passed had a sign usually showing the name of the local town.

Tirpitz’s assistant, Mordford Kilan, was also quite shocked and said, ”Your Excellency, Count, we have obviously underestimated East Africa as a country. So far, many areas we’ve traveled through by train have clearly been developed by East Africa. The large areas of farmland, towns, cities, and roads all indicate that East Africa’s development and governance of the interior have been extremely successful.”

”Their farmlands are neatly built and have complete water facilities, canals, and windmills are very common. And if I’m not mistaken, there may even be large machinery like tractors. I even suspect that the farms in the United States and Europe are at this level.”

Tractors, as important equipment for East African agricultural mechanization, are currently very scarce. Yet, Mordford Kilan still identified and judged them, which says a lot about the excellent eyesight of a naval personnel.

Of course, Mordford Kilan did not think much of it, as the shape of tractors has not changed much even transitioning from steam engines to internal combustion engines. So he didn’t know that all of East Africa’s tractors were powered by internal combustion engines.

Tirpitz somberly added, ”Our train probably has only traveled a few hundred kilometers so far, but the development status along the railway indicates that East Africa’s development of the interior cannot be compared to those West African colonies. If the entire East Africa is like this, we must place greater importance on this country.”

Mordford Kilan shook his head and said, ”Your Excellency, Count, it’s unlikely. East Africa has not occupied regions like Mozambique and Angola for very long, so they should not reach this standard. Furthermore, the eastern part of East Africa is likely the most developed region, which can be inferred from the country’s name. This is the Land of Dragon’s Ascension in East Africa, developed the earliest, so it’s entirely reasonable for it to reach Europe and America’s level.”

Tirpitz’s assistant had some truth. The eastern part of East Africa indeed leads nationally. However, the economic and population totals of central and eastern East Africa are comparable, and other areas have a much larger gap with these two regions.

Now, Tirpitz and his group have arrived within the boundaries of Ilanga City in Highland Province, East Africa, having traveled about five hundred kilometers, transitioning from the East African coastal plain to the East African Plateau region.

And there is still more than half the journey to the final destination, Rhein City. Although the situation displayed along the railway can certainly shock the Germans to some extent, it’s within everyone’s expectations. After all, during the South African War, it was estimated that the East African population was over twenty million. For a country with a population in the tens of millions, it’s reasonable for coastal and surrounding areas to be well developed, but this doesn’t represent the national development situation.

Tirpitz stated, ”Based on our current observations, East Africa’s development of the interior, especially along the railway, is relatively complete. After all, regions through which the railway passes generally have a decent economic status, and a large number of towns along the railway is normal. It’s just unknown if regions beyond the railway are the same.”

Town and population density along the railway is certainly higher. Beyond the railway, unless following rivers or main roads, population density is unlikely to be so high. However, the farmland area in the eastern region is still quite significant, with the eastern coastal plains and southern East African Plateau being major grain production bases. The scale of large farms is comparable to those in Eastern Europe in terms of density.

Compared to Central and Western Europe, Eastern Europe has a much lower population density. Although the Tsarist Russian population is over a hundred million, just the combined population of the Central European Austria-Hungary and Germany is nearly a hundred million. So, the densely populated eastern part of Tsarist Russia is roughly equivalent to the central and eastern regions of East Africa. Moreover, Tsarist Russia at this time includes territories like Ukraine and Poland.

Along the way, Tirpitz and others were further amazed. When passing through the city district of Iringa City, they identified it as a small to medium-sized city in East Africa. It may not compare to Dar es Salaam, First Town, or Dodoma, but it’s certainly much larger than a typical town.

They then encountered two more cities of a similar scale to Iringa City, until the train entered Mbea City along the Central Railway.

Upon entering the urban area of Mbea City, the Germans immediately noticed the city’s exceptional status. Just by visual observation, its level was even above that of Dodoma City and First Town, and it was by no means inferior to Dar es Salaam.

So much so that Tirpitz and his group mistakenly assumed it was the new capital of East Africa, ”Rhein City,” since, by this point, they had traveled nearly a thousand kilometers inland into East Africa, and they were losing their sense of distance.

”Mbea City is one of the five major cities in East Africa and is currently the second-largest city in the East African interior, not the capital. Rhein City is still more than six hundred kilometers from here,” the East African reception staff had to explain to Tirpitz and his group.

”Mbea City, like Dodoma City, is a provincial capital, located in our industrial zone. The industry is relatively developed, and it’s not far behind some major European cities, so the confusion is understandable.”

Tirpitz asked, ”Then wouldn’t Rhein City be even bigger?”

”Not at all. Although the built-up area of Rhein City is not small, its population currently cannot compare to traditional large cities like Mbea City. After all, Rhein City is entirely a new city.”

To Tirpitz, the East Africans’ explanation was baffling. To him, any city in East Africa was ”new” since the history of the country itself hasn’t even surpassed forty years. The so-called ”traditional large cities” seemed inexplicable. By East African standards, more than ninety percent of German cities are historically long-standing.