African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1293: Chapter 302: Davao City

Winston’s plan is generally feasible, mainly depending on whether the United States takes the bait. However, based on past circumstances, the British are quite adept at persuading Americans.

During the war, the United Kingdom had a dedicated department for strategies directed at the U.S., hiring numerous professionals familiar with American affairs to lobby the upper class and elites in various fields, promoting the benefits of joining the Allies.

American public opinion was also deeply influenced by the British, which is understandable. At that time, the United States was not the World Overlord as it is known in the future; global opinion domination was firmly in the hands of the British.

The authority over world opinion can be considered the privilege of every successive World Overlord. For instance, in the 21st century of the previous life, the mighty Far East Empire and Russia, countries second only to the United States, were not only besieged by this opinion dominance but also had a bunch of domestic echoers fostered.

As for other countries, unless adopting the isolated information policies like North Korea or Cuba, Eritrea, etc., they could hardly escape the siege and exploitation of opinion dominance.

The most typical example is the Soviet Union. In its later years, it was indeed a regime that couldn’t keep up with the times, but the voluntary surrender and deconstruction of its ruling foundation under the Western color revolutions were downright shocking.

Compared to the ruling class of the Soviet Union in its later years, the upper echelons of the North Korean government clearly had more intelligence and insight, as dragging things out, no matter how decrepit, the Soviet Union would still have been much stronger than what Russia later became.

This also illustrates the severity of the Soviet leadership’s break. However, for a country founded on idealism, it was easy for loyal and righteous soldiers charging into battle to fall on the battlefield and in political struggles, making it no surprise that the Soviet Union in its later years couldn’t even find a qualified leader.

Today, the British control the global opinion dominance, and although the United States has surpassed the United Kingdom in economics and industry, it cannot escape the chains of the UK’s centuries-old, deeply rooted soft power.

In this regard, it is instead East Africa that is less threatened by British opinion dominance. Of course, this is limited to inside East Africa; overseas, East Africa is also severely disparaged and belittled by the British.

This situation arose from East Africa’s long-standing ”seclusion” policy, making it hard for the world opinion dominance led by the British to penetrate East Africa.

Although East Africa opened up before World War I, by that time it was too late for the British to set up another opinion machinery in East Africa.

Moreover, even the open East Africa was hard for other forces to penetrate its opinion system, as it still employed the speech review system from its seclusion era.

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Mindanao Island.

July 1917.

The Freedom arrived at one of the most prosperous cities of Mindanao Island—Davao. Once the third-largest city in the Philippines, now, under East African development, Davao has grown quite swiftly, with a population of over 30,000.

This was inevitable. After East Africa had purged the local indigenous resistance forces, the population of the entire Mindanao Island plummeted drastically.

Davao City was in a much better state than the eastern region led by Zamboanga City. The eastern part of Mindanao was once the area with the highest population of the Arabian Sect on the island, and to completely control the ancient city of Zamboanga City, East Africa turned the place into virtual wasteland.

At least Davao still had some uncivilized natives whose primitive religions were unorganized, so they were barely accepted by the East African Government. Of course, following East Africa’s usual conduct, the majority of the natives left behind were certainly the local females.

After all, East Africa also needed to consider the ”bachelors” in the colonies, as this was conducive to stabilizing East Africa’s control in the region.

Later, East Africa recruited a large number of immigrants, which increased the population of Davao City to over 30,000, second only to Zamboanga City on Mindanao Island.

In Mindanao Island under East African governance, the population settlements are quite dispersed, making it quite challenging for Davao City and Zamboanga City to each reach a population of over 10,000.

This is mainly due to the complex terrain and massive area of Mindanao Island. East Africa’s purchase of Mindanao Island was not limited to one island but covered a vast archipelago.

These islands are often best described as ”unpalatable yet hard to discard” because many have strategic value due to Mindanao Colony’s numerous islands and bays.

East Africa could neglect them, but would not allow enemies, especially the northern United States, to occupy these places, causing East Africa to distribute its limited population sparsely across Mindanao Island.

In fact, some main islands might even have populations in the double digits, merely as a testament to East Africa’s control over these areas.

For instance, the third-largest island of the Philippines in the previous life—Sama Island—was also part of the trade between East Africa and Spain concerning Mindanao Island.

Currently, Sama Island has a total population of just over 10,000, whereas it once had over a million in the past life.

This underscores the extreme population scarcity in the Mindanao Colony, with the total population of the entire Mindanao Colony being less than 600,000, the result of East Africa’s more than a decade of effort.

On the Freedom, the Slavs craned their necks, observing the relatively prosperous Davao City.

”Is this our final destination? It seems conditions here are decent. After all, with such a large population, it indicates this place has not been completely undeveloped.”

”All along this journey, after passing the Malacca Strait, this is the second-most populous place I’ve seen. It’s slightly smaller in scale than Zamboanga City.”

Zamboanga City has nearly 10,000 more people than Davao, so its city scale appears much larger than here.

”Throughout the South Sea Region, it’s mostly rainforest with strange vegetation, somewhat similar to the vegetation of the Ottoman Empire. However, the southern part of the Ottoman Empire is desert, where human presence is scarce, incomparable to Russia.”

”The development is too low. Ukraine is full of vast developed farmlands, and even the desert areas of the Ottoman Empire have many developed oases, while this place seems isolated from the world—either endless ocean or endless rainforest.”

”Living in such a place, one wonders how desperate it must be.”

”And the climate here, since leaving Basra, the ship’s temperature has continually risen, with the air becoming more humid—the worst of it being seasickness.”

”Only thanks to the adequate food and medicine provided by the East Africans could I even imagine enduring life here. Hopefully, once we land, our living environment will be slightly better.”

The Slavs on the Freedom appeared extremely anxious and uncertain about their future, largely because the South Sea Region seemed too desolate. Coupled with the dreadful climate, it was hard for anyone to find peace.

During these days at sea, hardly anyone maintained their spirits, with most people’s psychological state deteriorating ever since the Allies took them from Ukraine.

Amidst the Slavs’ heated discussions, the Freedom finally docked at the port of Davao City.

This brought a long-awaited smile to Captain Hilda’s face. He laughed heartily, saying, ”Finally reached the destination, this journey of more than twenty days was truly tough.”

Even seasoned sailors found such a trip arduous, highlighting the suffering endured by the Slavs, most of whom had never seen the ocean through this more than twenty-day journey.

First mate Vilkenitz said to Hilda, ”I know a bar in Davao City. After the handover work is arranged, I’ll take you to have a mug of chilled local beer. The drinks at that tavern are transported from local production, and the taste is quite decent.”

First mate Vilkenitz was quite familiar with Davao City, having been there more than a dozen times, though that was while piloting a modern commercial steamer, not the old sailing ship Freedom.