African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1254: Chapter 263: East Africa’s Colonies

Of course, East Africa still has some differences, given that the mainland of East Africa is unprecedentedly strong, while most of East Africa’s colonies do not directly border East Africa. Ernst finds it hard to imagine the mainland being surpassed by the colonies in the future, unless the mainland eventually splits into many small nations.

Judging by the land area of East Africa, even if it splits into several nations, each nation’s size would be considerable, with each receiving millions of square kilometers of land.

”With the progress of the Era, the old colonial order is very difficult to maintain. Don’t be fooled by the present-day overseas empires of the UK, France, and Germany reaching their peak. Once their mainland declines, their current overseas territories will be hard to sustain.”

”Not to mention, if we were to cause trouble for them, the colonies of the two countries would probably already be in turmoil by now.”

”Relative to this, the Americans’ approach is a bit more clever, which is to use more subtle economic colonial means to continuously expand their national influence.”

Naturally, Ernst’s words, though spoken this way, certainly do not mean that Americans are truly wise and brave, more civilized than England and France, but rather that they had no choice and had to do so. After all, the prime parts of foreign colonies had already been divided up by Europe. If traditional colonial methods could achieve their goals, no one would willingly use economic colonial methods.

Without strong military backing, such economic colonial methods are difficult to maintain, and profits are not as quick as the traditional colonial methods of killing, burning, and looting.

Actually, the vast majority of regions in the world are progressing, which also makes colonial difficulties increasingly great.

Not to mention that since the Age of Exploration, outside of Europe, the United States, East Africa, and Japan have progressively risen as three world Great Powers, itself representing a challenge to the old colonial system.

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East Kalimantan.

The Governor of East Kalimantan is listening to reports on various data of the current colony.

”The colony’s registered population currently consists of four main parts: our national citizens, Chinese immigrants, white immigrants, and the original indigenous immigrants.”

”Among them, indigenous immigrants are the largest group, at around 160,000, national citizens are about 3,000, white immigrants 30,000, Chinese immigrants 40,000, along with a small number of Dutch and other foreigners.”

In the past year, the indigenous population on Kalimantan Island has decreased by almost half, mostly due to being non-believers or Hindus.

These two religions have a certain influence throughout the South Sea Region, and are key targets for the East Africa colonial government.

”We have taken over a total of four coal mines, one oilfield, and other types of mines, which are currently the most valuable mineral resources of East Kalimantan. Other industries are mainly under Dutch control, but they are not valuable, as originally there were not many Dutch in East Kalimantan, and most were primarily engaged in business.”

How did East Africa come to control East Kalimantan’s mineral resources? Naturally, they were snatched from the original local ruling classes, namely the two Sultanates of East Kalimantan.

”Additionally, among the indigenous population under our control, about 20,000 have been categorized as slaves, most of whom were followers of the original Sultanate.”

The mainland of East Africa has completely abolished slavery. After all, even Black people are set to disappear from the mainland of East Africa, and the original ”laborer” system no longer exists. These laborers were actually slaves, but this system still exists in the colonies of East Africa, especially in East Kalimantan, Togoland, and New Guinea.

”Last month, we formally completed the purging activities against local forces. As for the few indigenous people who escaped into the mountains, they likely have difficulty surviving.”

”The only concern is that some people fled north to the British Colony, which is currently the greatest security concern.”

Governor Kabe of East Kalimantan stated: ”No need to concern ourselves with that, as the population that fled to the British Colony is, after all, a minority. They are now like water without a source and wood without roots. Even if they wanted to make a comeback in the future, they have lost their soil.”

East Africa has always managed the colonies by directly exchanging blood, through methods of immigration and forced integration to completely change local population structures.

Therefore, Kabe is not at all worried about these small insects that escape East Africa’s all-encompassing net. Perhaps before they could leverage their influence to provoke local resistance to East Africa, but a few years from now, even if they could return to this land, everything would be different.

Kabe said: ”The biggest problem of East Kalimantan now is that the population is too sparse, with only about 200,000 people, not even comparable to neighboring Mindanao Island.”

”Yet the Empire’s command is for us to receive more population, to exceed one million over the entirety of East Kalimantan within five years, and to also spread the German language. This is quite a challenge for us, as just these two tasks are enough to keep us extremely busy.”

Within the colonies of East Africa in the South Sea Region, the Lanfang Overseas Province population is calculated as part of the mainland population of East Africa, being one of its provinces.

Thus, East Kalimantan can only take reference from Mindanao Island, which with over ten years of development, now has a population exceeding 500,000, of which nearly 65% are Chinese immigrants.

Due to East Africa not encountering favorable historical opportunities, such as the period of European population outflow during World War I, while colonizing Mindanao Island.

Nonetheless, the situation in East Kalimantan is not much better, as even those 100,000 indigenous people are yellow-skinned, and will automatically be categorized as Chinese immigrants in the future. Hence, even combining the national citizens and white immigrants, they constitute less than 20%.

This means that in the future, these two areas will have a population that is more oriented towards the East as compared to the mainland of East Africa.

Kabe’s assistant said: ”The task is heavy, yet this is good news, as it shows the Empire’s emphasis on East Kalimantan. After all, should [it] truly resemble North Hawaii Kingdom or the Southern Ryukyu Islands, that would indicate having no hope in one’s career.”

East Africa’s minor colonies are the real exile zones. Compared to those small and pitiable islands, even Alaska is considered a bustling place.

Currently, the population of the Alaska colony is approaching 900,000, potentially becoming East Africa’s first overseas territory to break the million-population mark.

Since the Rhein Royal Family acquired Alaska earlier than even the mainland, time has served to vastly grow the population in this extremely cold place.

In the 21st century, under American rule, Alaska’s population was only about 700,000. Reaching such levels by the early 20th century can be considered a unique aspect of East Africa’s immigration policy, especially given the fact that East Africa’s Alaska is slightly smaller than the United States’ Alaska State.

The reason Alaska can support such a large population ultimately lies in the local climate. Although most areas of Alaska are covered in snow and ice, the temperate marine climate region in the south still has farming conditions, supplemented by abundant natural resources, making it quite easy to sustain a population of a million.

If all of Alaska consisted of extreme cold zones, it wouldn’t be able to develop into East Africa’s most populous colony.

Of course, the immigration factor of the Far East Empire cannot be ignored, as East Africa had no other choice. European whites are hard to fool, while other African or tropical regions can be falsely advertised, but for Alaska, there is almost nothing to gloss over.

The same is true for the Beibu Gulf territory or the Persian Gulf coastal colony. The desert areas are not easy to convince people to go, but East Africa’s Beibu Gulf doesn’t need too many people, as it is Ernst’s treasure trove. As long as a certain number of troops can be stationed there, it’s sufficient.

Although the colony in Alaska has the largest population, Mindanao Island has seen the fastest growth rate in the past decade, largely as East Africa essentially adopted a ”Three Light” policy there, turning Mindanao almost into wasteland, while East Kalimantan still retained tens of thousands of indigenous people, making it appear even more brutal.

The cause of this result is Mindanao Island’s indigenous beliefs issue. While there are many non-believers in East Kalimantan, there are also some primal religions, or mostly Black-like tribes, which in East Africa’s eyes, are truly savage people who can be educated.

Currently, East Africa’s actively expanding colonies primarily comprise four major parts: East Kalimantan, Mindanao Island, New Guinea, and Togoland. Although Togoland is the smallest in area, it has the greatest potential for development, being located in the West Africa region.