African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1400: Chapter 1: Director Bolna

Late 1919.

Cabinda City.

Among the many provinces of East Africa, Congo Province is quite unique. From a climatic perspective, due to most of it being located in the tropical rainforest region, Congo Province is not suitable for grain crop cultivation.

In ancient times, Congo Province could not possibly support the creation of large civilizations. It was difficult to transition into agricultural civilization, which was a slow process across Sub-Saharan Africa, even in regions like the East African Plateau that were suitable for agricultural development.

From the populations of countries located in the tropical rainforest climate region in Africa’s previous life, this is evident. Even in the 21st century, the population of Congo (Brazzaville) is only over five million, Gabon three million, Equatorial Guinea just over one million, and Cameroon, which is relatively populous, only over twenty million, with the population of Congo (Gold) being nearly a hundred million.

However, as mentioned before, the population of Congo is mainly distributed around the basin edges, which are transitional zones between tropical rainforest and tropical grassland. Deep in the tropical rainforest region, the population is almost negligible.

Cameroon, with a population exceeding twenty million, even close to thirty million, further illustrates this point.

Cameroon is a country with a rich coastline. Logically, its population and economy should concentrate along the coast, yet in its previous life, Cameroon’s population was more concentrated in the northern or southern plateau regions. ℴ

In its previous life, its capital, Yaoundé, was built on the hilly area of the southern plateau of Cameroon.

Cameroon’s previous administrative divisions also prove this point well: the larger the province, the more it was situated in tropical rainforest regions, fully demonstrating the difficulty of developing such areas.

East Africa’s Congo Province shares many similarities with Cameroon’s previous life, as Congo Province isn’t entirely composed of tropical rainforest regions. Its southern part, influenced by terrain, is also located in the transitional zone between tropical rainforest and grassland.

This transitional zone is also the relatively developed agricultural area of Congo Province, with its capital, Kinshasa, belonging to this transitional zone.

But more than twenty years ago, Kinshasa was clearly not like this. Previously, due to infrequent human activity, Kinshasa and places like it were indeed part of the tropical rainforest region. However, after East Africa took control of Congo Province, the large-scale opening and construction led to significant rainforest being destroyed, transformed into urban areas, villages, or farmland.

This caused the climate throughout the region to increasingly lean towards tropical grassland climate. After all, the ecology here was already relatively fragile, maintaining a delicate balance between rainforest and grassland, contending with each other. East Africa’s development caused large-scale shrinking of rainforests and the characteristics of sparse-tree grassland climate became dominant.

Nonetheless, the land in Congo Province remains relatively barren, and the main crops grown in this province are still based mainly on tropical rainforest-type economies.

So-called tropical rainforest-type economic crops are actually classified opposite to tropical grassland-type economic crops, a unique agricultural categorization standard of East Africa.

Of course, compared to Kinshasa or southern Congo Province, Cabinda City, located on the northwest coast, has a much more stable tropical rainforest climate. Even though the city’s area and population have been continuously expanding due to East African development, Cabinda City remains completely enveloped by rainforest.

By the end of 1919, Cabinda City’s population reached as high as 830,000, with registered residents numbering over 670,000.

As time goes on, more detailed East African population data has emerged, and residential population statistics for various cities have been completed in this round.

By the end of 1919, East Africa had as many as eight cities with populations exceeding one million. However, if calculated based on registered population, the number remains at three.

In the same period, the United States had about ten cities with populations exceeding one million, slightly outperforming East Africa. This also reflects the disparity between East African urbanization and the United States to some extent, especially considering East Africa’s population surpasses the United States by nearly 60 million, almost equivalent to one Germany.

In 1919, only one city in East Africa’s West Coast exceeded one million in population, which was Luanda, the capital of West Coast Province. Cabinda’s population ranked second to Luanda but was significantly higher than Kinshasa, the capital of Congo Province.

Out of East Africa’s eight cities with populations exceeding one million, apart from Luanda, the distribution was primarily in the east and central regions, indicating that at this stage, the economy of the west cannot compare to the eastern and central East Africa regions.

However, this is quite normal, as East Africa’s western region, especially the original Angola region, was integrated into East Africa too late.

Back when East Africa took over Angola from Portugal, it had almost no effective development or utilization, with industrial and transportation virtually non-existent.

And Angola was already the best piece of land in East Africa’s west, facing tropical rainforest regions to the north and tropical desert regions to the south, neither suitable for urban, agricultural, nor other development.

As the second largest city in East Africa’s west, Cabinda City has developed to its current level within less than thirty years, enough to amaze the world.

In fact, Cabinda City is the most developed city within East Africa’s tropical rainforest, followed by Jisan City, the capital of Hessen Province.

This city, established along the coast and surrounded by rainforest on three sides, has received massive human, physical, and financial investment from the East African government.

After all, as a city developed from a rainforest, its development costs naturally surpass those of typical cities. However, the results obtained have satisfied East Africa greatly.