African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1151: Chapter 160: Handling of German Colonies

The German government has no time to dispute with East Africa because the German army has already been deployed to Belgium, and now Germany’s leadership is entirely focused on the war.

Thus, nearly a million square kilometers of Germany’s overseas colonies have fallen into East Africa’s hands. Under East Africa’s influence, Germany’s overseas colonial process in this era is considerably more challenging than in the previous era, where Germany’s overseas colonies totaled 2.59 million square kilometers, and now they cannot even reach half of that number.

Frankly speaking, just the economic value of Germany’s former Tanzania colony in the past exceeds the sum of all Germany’s current overseas colonies.

Take the Central African colony, for instance, which is already Germany’s most prominent colony, but within its territory, tropical rainforests alone account for over eighty percent of the total area, making development difficult.

After all, it belongs to a typical tropical rainforest climate distribution area, with the equator running through German Central Africa. Germany’s second-largest colony, German New Guinea, is also near the equator, and its geographical location is terrible. Not just for Germany, even for East Africa, it belongs to a place of no interest.

Apart from Africa, Germany’s other colonies are basically distributed near the Pacific islands in Oceania.

From the distribution of Germany’s colonies, one can see Germany’s ’frustrating’ position among colonial powers. To put it harshly, Germany’s previously obtained overseas territories are essentially the scraps discarded by England and France, not even considering them as leftovers. It’s no wonder Germany is dissatisfied with the current global division.

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In contrast to the gloom and doom among European nations due to the outbreak of World War I, East Africa is rejoicing. The war hasn’t expanded yet, and East Africa has already gained substantial benefits.

Germany’s overseas colonies are quite insignificant for Germany but hold entirely different meanings for East Africa. For example, Togoland and German Central Africa, leaving aside their economic value and development difficulties, their strategic value alone is worth East Africa’s action.

Togoland and German Central Africa are located respectively in the northern and eastern parts of the Gulf of Guinea. By acquiring these two places, East Africa’s political influence and military presence can directly expand to the Gulf of Guinea region.

For instance, Lome, the capital of Togoland, is a natural deep-water harbor, which can serve as a forward position and stable base for the East African Navy in the West African region.

German Central Africa has even denser ports, with the most important being Libreville and Quentier. Ernst knows that the coast of German Central Africa contains relatively rich oil resources, but Germany won’t be able to enjoy these.

Of course, Ernst definitely won’t disclose these oil resources proactively. The most important thing now is to complete the division and governance of German Central Africa.

At Rhine Palace, Ernst and the officials are actively planning the new territories.

Ernst said: ”Split German Central Africa into two parts, establishing a colony in the north and integrating the south into the homeland, basically incorporating the former French Gabon colony range into the homeland, while Cameroon temporarily retains its colonial status.”

”The original Central African development agreement now seems unlikely to continue according to our thoughts and must be redesigned.”

The Central African development was originally led by East Africa, involving Germany, Belgium, and the Southern German Kingdom in a massive plan.

Now Germany and Belgium are both caught up in European conflicts with no way to extricate themselves. The two countries have even become belligerents, let alone German Central Africa falling into East Africa’s hands, making the original joint development agreement a joke.

”German Central Africa alone has over 300,000 square kilometers of rainforest area, making development extremely difficult. Without ample population, it’s almost impossible to complete. Therefore, we will first develop the southern region, while Bangui and other East African inland areas can just take advantage of the sea access through Douala and Libreville ports.”

”The Northern Railway will be upgraded to a true Two-Ocean Railway, further enhancing our transportation advantages, thus completing the economic corridor along the northern railway.”

The Northern Railway’s terminus is the inland city of Bangui, and in the past, due to the west being the French and German colonies, East Africa naturally lacked the motivation to extend the Northern Railway further. Now that the west has entirely fallen into East Africa’s hands, the third extension of the Northern Railway is indeed necessary.

This way, East Africa’s ”Three Horizontal” railways have basically realized the function of connecting two oceans, greatly benefiting East Africa’s national economic development.

”We must also pay extra attention to Togoland. Lome must be developed into a port city with military attributes prioritized, serving as an important forward position for our interests in the Gulf of Guinea and South Atlantic region.”

Togoland is roughly the Togoland of the past, sandwiched between Ghana and Benin, that is, between the British Gold Coast and French Dahomey Protectorate.

Prior to this, East Africa was considered the strongest power in Africa but had almost no presence in West Africa. Togoland, as East Africa’s first colony in the West African region, is naturally of great significance.

Herman said: ”These two German colonies already exceed 500,000 square kilometers, making development and governance particularly challenging.”

Ernst: ”That’s why we have to conduct large-scale migration activities in these two areas, just referring to our practices in Beibu Gulf territory, especially Togoland, which will be the main focus of our migration efforts in recent years. Let’s set a small goal of migrating one million people in Togoland.”

The location of Togoland is said to be completely between two major powers of the world. Of course, Ernst’s migration policy is not intended to target the threats from the United Kingdom and France. Now, no country south of the Sahara can pose a threat to East Africa.

The main reason for Ernst’s aggressive migration plan in Togoland is to prevent issues with the local Black population.

West Africa is currently the densest region of Black people in the world. Over time, within a few decades, the Black population here will inevitably surge, and geographically, Togoland, except for its southern coastal area, is almost entirely surrounded by Black residents.

Moreover, Togoland’s territory is in a long strip distribution, with north and south nearly negligible. This terrain naturally facilitates the penetration of Black people into Togoland.

Ernst obtained Togoland from Germany not to serve as future attire for Black people, so the best solution is to migrate large numbers of people locally.

Firstly, East Africa’s domestic migrants, followed by migrants from Europe and the Far East Empire. Now European war has erupted, making it not particularly difficult to obtain population from Europe, especially Eastern Europe.

Of course, realizing the 50-50 population ratio that East Africa initially had is certainly unrealistic. After all, there won’t be too many European refugees to fool, given Togoland’s harsh conditions.

Nowadays, not like the last century, back then including Germany, many European countries’ economies weren’t developed, and East Africa caught the last bus of the German Region’s population loss to gain a large amount of German migrant population.

Now, many European countries have developed economically, and obtaining ample population from Europe can only come from the Kingdom of Naples and Eastern Europe with some maneuvering. These countries and regions are currently at the tail end of Europe’s economy, their population is growing rapidly, and they have replaced Germany as Europe’s most important source of population outflow.

However, Europe’s citizens, after all, are not easy to fool, mainly because of the traditional European immigration target countries, the United States, and now Argentina has become a competitor. In comparison, East Africa still has a significant gap, let alone East Africa recruiting immigrants not to its homeland, but to its colonies.

Therefore, the subsequent situation is predictable. East Africa’s immigration focus will undoubtedly be on the Far East Empire, and now is a good time to absorb immigrants from the Far East Empire.

After decades of relative peace, the Far East Empire’s population has recovered, and now the Far East Empire is once again plunged into turmoil and warlord divisions due to regime changes, offering East Africa an opportunity for recruiting immigrants from the Far East Empire.