#1394 - settle down

Ernst supports actions like those of Keith Weihs that allow for the exercise of subjective initiative. Of course, Ernst himself is also optimistic about the development of the film and television industry.

In recent years, East Africa has already begun its layout for the film and television industry. As long as it controls the mainstream platforms, everything will basically be fine. Not to mention within East Africa, the East African government and the Rhine royal family have also controlled a number of influential media mouthpieces over the years.

Moreover, as an imperialist country in the early 20th century, East Africa does not need to tolerate the penetration of its culture and public opinion industries by the United States, the global hegemon, for the sake of economic development, unlike those late-developing countries in later generations.

As the current world hegemon, Britain's control and system construction are far from reaching the level of the United States in its previous life. Moreover, Britain has already lost the opportunity to go further, and now it can only try its best to preserve its own interests and maintain and retain the system and rules it has formulated that are beneficial to itself.

Unless Britain carries out another industrial revolution to transform itself, or moves its capital to India, even then, it would be very difficult for Britain to return to its peak. Not to mention that although India has a considerable size, the Indian Ocean is no longer the situation where Britain was the only dominant power in the past. Now East Africa has the ability to contain India's development.

Without an overwhelming advantage, why would East Africa claim to be the leader and major power in international affairs in the Indian Ocean region?

As far as the current situation is concerned, it is basically an international consensus that East Africa is the sole dominant power in the Indian Ocean. Even in the future, East Africa is likely to achieve regional hegemony in the South Atlantic.

And this is East Africa's geographical advantage. Unless Brazil or India, or a third-rate country like Argentina, can rise, but the facts of the previous life prove that the development of these countries in the world is only at a mediocre level, far from being considered good students, let alone being top students like East Africa.

This has also led to the emergence of the so-called "East African Experience" in the international community since some unknown time. A very small number of careerists hope to replicate East Africa's successful experience, which has turned some colonial areas into a chaotic mess.

However, currently, only East Africa and the South German Kingdom have succeeded. Leopold II of Belgium can also be considered half successful, after all, before his death, the Belgian Congo was completely his private territory.

It was not until Leopold II's death that the Belgian government officially took over the Belgian Congo.

The difference between the two is very big. Previously, the Belgian Congo was Leopold II's private territory, so Leopold II could do whatever he wanted in the Belgian Congo, while the Belgian government was at least a little more humane than Leopold II himself, but not by much.

However, in recent years, the Belgian Congo has also begun to show signs of becoming too powerful to control, which is a headache for the current Belgian government.

… …

February 12, 1922.

Black Point City, Belgian Congo Colony.

Affected by World War I, Black Point City has become more prosperous than before the war, not inferior to any city in Belgium itself.

Even Brussels, the capital of Belgium, has only just cleared the ruins left by the war after suffering the baptism of World War I.

As the economic and political center of the Belgian Congo colony, and with the status of the largest port city in the Belgian Congo colony, Black Point City's political position in the Belgian Congo is comparable to the sum of Brussels, the capital of Belgium, and Antwerp, the largest port city in Belgium.

Politically, as a colony, the political center of the Belgian Congo, like other colonies, is naturally located on the coast, which is conducive to the control of the suzerain state.

Economically, the Belgian Congo colony has eaten a large war dividend and became a safe haven for Belgian domestic capital during World War I. A large amount of Belgian domestic capital poured into Black Point City and other Belgian Congo colonies.

Finally, a large number of immigrants poured in. During the war, a large number of Belgians immigrated to the Belgian Congo.

This made the Belgian Congo colony one of the fastest-growing regions in the world during the five years of World War I.

As of 1922, the population of Black Point City alone had exceeded 700,000, most of whom were Belgians who immigrated to the Belgian Congo to escape the war, and the population of the entire Belgian Congo had exceeded 1.3 million.

This is actually easy to understand. Although Belgium is an inconspicuous small country in Europe, its population density is surprisingly high. The total population of Belgium itself, a small piece of land, exceeds seven million.

During World War I, Belgium was the front line where the two major camps repeatedly pulled each other, and the war was particularly fierce, which led to a large outflow of the Belgian population, and the Belgian Congo colony, as the country's overseas territory, became the first choice for many people.

Thanks to the rapid development of the Belgian Congo colony at the beginning of this century, the Belgian Congo colony still has a very good impression in the minds of Belgians before the arrival of the domestic colonial wave.

Moreover, if they run to the Belgian Congo colony to avoid the war, even if the situation in the Belgian Congo colony is different from what they imagined, there is still East Africa as an alternative.

East Africa in the early 20th century has long been rid of the stereotype of a barren land. After all, how could East Africa itself be too bad if it can become one of the world's top powers?

Moreover, many Belgians are not completely unaware of the situation in the Belgian Congo. As Belgium's most important overseas colony, many Belgian companies and personnel frequently travel between Belgium and the Congo colony.

During the war, many Belgian shipping companies started the immigration business, and these shipping companies were originally the main communication bridge for contact and trade between the Belgian Congo colony and the mainland before the war.

They also have a better understanding of the development of the Belgian Congo colony, and the employees of these shipping companies are naturally basically their own people, so for the safety of their families, they are willing to prepare a few more tickets.

Compared to ordinary Belgians who immigrated to the Belgian Congo colony, Belgian domestic enterprises poured into the Belgian Congo colony in large numbers during World War I.

The Belgian Congo colony has more than 200,000 square kilometers, which is much larger than the mainland area, and the resources are relatively rich. The most important thing is that it will not be affected by the war.

Among them, the most typical example is the large number of Belgian steel companies that moved to the Belgian Congo colony during the war.

On the one hand, the Belgian Congo colony has rich iron ore resources, and Belgium itself is one of the most developed countries in Europe's steel industry, so before the war, many Belgian steel companies had already laid out the Belgian Congo colony in advance.

After all, at the beginning of the 20th century, the steel industry had already undergone changes. Due to technological innovation, the weight of the impact of iron ore on the steel industry exceeded that of coal.

World War I greatly accelerated the transfer speed of Belgium's domestic steel industry.

On the other hand, the Belgian Congo colony, due to its geographical location, also faced a very good market. Besides being close to the large East African market, the steel from the Belgian Congo colony was also conducive to exports to West Africa, South America, and other countries.

The last point is that the labor cost in the Congo colony was lower than that in the mainland. After all, the Northwestern European region where Belgium is located is one of the regions with the highest labor costs in the world.

Therefore, transferring industries to the Congo was inherently beneficial to Belgian mainland enterprises. Moreover, as their own colony, they did not need to worry about being exploited when developing in the Congo.

As a result, with the influx of a large number of people and enterprises, Noir Town experienced rapid development during World War I, and the economic development level of the Belgian Congo colony even exceeded the level that a colony should have.

After all, most of the time, colonies were symbols of poverty and backwardness. Although the British colony of Canada had a fairly developed industry and economy, Canada had been developing for hundreds of years, and its resource and natural condition advantages were simply incomparable to those of the Belgian Congo colony.

The main reason for this result was that the Belgians did not have as many choices as the British. After all, Belgium only had the Congo as a colony.

Although Belgium was a small European country, in terms of economy, it was a veritable major power in the early 20th century. Therefore, Belgium's economic spillover and industrial transfer to its only colony was also very exaggerated.

Coupled with the impact of World War I, many Belgians who immigrated to the Congo colony were even reluctant to return home.

"Treden, is your family not planning to return to the mainland?" Dister asked after meeting his old acquaintance Treden on the streets of Noir Town.

The Treden family immigrated to the Belgian Congo colony in 1917, and this was their family's fifth year in the Belgian Congo.

Dister was originally Treden's fellow villager, and they knew each other when they were in Belgium.

"Oh, it's you, Dister! I haven't seen you for a while, you look a lot haggard."

Dister said, "That's natural. The epidemic has only just completely ended, and the economy is sluggish again, so I naturally feel irritable and my spirits have been poor."

The Belgian Congo colony was also affected by the epidemic and economic depression. After the war, Belgium returned to peace, and many people chose to return to the mainland. This led to a small peak in shipping between the Belgian Congo and the mainland. The increase in personnel exchanges naturally led to the rapid spread of the plague.

The Belgian mainland was right next to France, which was the hardest-hit area of the plague at the time. Of course, Belgium at that time was also a severely affected area of the plague, and many sailors who ran ships brought the European flu to the Belgian Congo.

This really made some Belgians who had already decided to settle in the Belgian Congo scold angrily, because from their perspective, the virus was spread from the mainland.

Treden said, "That's true. It wasn't easy to settle down in the Congo, and then we were affected by the epidemic and economic depression. This is indeed not good news for ordinary people like us."

"Then is your family not planning to return to Belgium?" Dister asked.

Treden said, "Where did you hear that I have plans to return to Belgium? Ship tickets are not cheap, and my family doesn't want to spend that money. Moreover, life in the Congo is already very good now, and there is no need to return to that sad place in Belgium. Maybe our original home is now a pile of rubble."

Dister exposed his past, saying, "Isn't that what you said when you first came to the Belgian Congo, that you would return to Belgium after the war?"

Back then, Treden did say such a thing. After all, under normal circumstances, who would be willing to run to a colony for no reason!

However, times have changed. When he said that, Treden's impression of the Congo colony was poverty and backwardness, and it could only be used as a temporary foothold. After the war, Treden would take his family back to the extravagant and economically developed Belgium.

However, after arriving in Noir Town, Treden found that his previous thoughts were wrong. The Congo colony was not as backward as he had imagined, but rather prosperous, not much different from the mainland.

Of course, Treden, who had just arrived in Noir Town, still missed Belgium, but as time went by, Treden finally gave up this idea, because no one could have imagined that the war would last for another two years, and when the war ended, a plague swept in again.

Although the Congo was also affected by the plague, compared with the Belgian mainland, it was completely insignificant.

In addition, in the few years in the Congo, Treden and his family had completely integrated into this place. If they returned to the mainland, work and housing would be problems, so now Treden was completely a Congolese.

Treden said to Dister, "You and I both know the situation in the mainland. Although the situation in the Congo is not good, the mainland will only be worse. Moreover, I personally think that the mainland will still be at risk of war in the future. After all, the World War has only stopped, and Belgium's location is too dangerous, far less safe than the Congo."

"Belgium is sandwiched between Britain, France, and Germany, and the relationship between these three countries is complicated and extremely domineering. Belgium is also a piece of fat, so the risk of war is too great, and this has been the case historically."

"Looking back at the Congo, there is only one neighboring country, East Africa. As long as East Africa does not invade here, the Congo is very safe. And even if East Africa really has ideas about the Congo, the intensity of the war will definitely be much smaller than in Europe."

The reason why Treden said this was because he believed that if East Africa really invaded the Congo, then the Congo would most likely surrender directly. In Europe, Belgium could still survive in the cracks, but the Congo had no choice in Africa and could only completely lean towards East Africa.

Treden continued, "Moreover, there are more opportunities in the Congo than in the mainland. Economic development is not worse than in the mainland. Returning to the mainland at this time means starting over. Unless there is something wrong with my brain, I would choose the former. It's quite comfortable to stay in the Congo."

These words resonated with Dister, who said, "That's true. In fact, in terms of economic level, the Congo is basically not bad in other aspects, except that its volume is temporarily inferior to the mainland."

This is very normal. The population of Belgium exceeds seven million, while the Congo has only one million. The population of Belgium is six times that of the Congo. What's more, the Congo is only a colony of Belgium.

However, these do not affect the quality of life of ordinary Belgians in the Belgian Congo, which is not much different from that of the mainland. Moreover, the Belgian Congo colony can provide them with a sense of security that the mainland cannot, so many people choose to settle here.