Chapter 163 End of the Year

In 1868, it was the end of the year again.

The population of East Africa has reached 1.75 million. In addition to the new immigrant population, there was East Africa's first baby boom.

The relatively stable environment in the past two years, coupled with East Africa's policy preference for female immigrants, has gradually improved immigrant marriage problems, and newly formed families account for the majority of East African families.

Now that you have a family and a business, it is natural to pass on the family line. East Africa has been reaping the dividends of war. The expansion of its territory and the increase in food planting area have provided impetus for immigrants to have children.

In this era, the cost of raising children is extremely low. In addition, due to the influence of immigrants’ traditional fertility concepts, children are basically liberalized.

As long as these immigrants work harder, they can support more people.

The immigrants from the East African colonies basically had no sense of crisis. The main reason was that East Africa was too vast and had too good natural conditions, so they lost the involution environment of Eurasia.

In addition to the immigrant population, indigenous workers are not included in the East African demographics. This year, the number of indigenous workers is expected to be around 1.3 million.

There is really no shortage of indigenous people on the African continent. Even if the indigenous indigenous people in East Africa are controlled, the indigenous people will not only have to bear heavy work, but will also be sold by the East African colonies, so the losses will still be huge.

But when East Africa expands westward, it will capture a group of people back to supplement the missing labor force in East Africa. It is a typical slave economy, and there is entry and exit, forming a closed loop.

Under the slave economy, East Africa's infrastructure was created at a speed visible to the naked eye, and cities and villages throughout East Africa were connected by roads.

At the same time, the widespread use of slaves allowed East Africans to easily open up several times the land, replacing livestock and machinery, and supporting the scale of agriculture in East Africa.

The grain harvested in the East African colonies was mainly divided into three parts: one part was rations for immigrants, part was rations for slaves, and part was sold overseas.

Among them, immigrants accounted for the largest proportion of rations. This was not because the immigrants ate more, but because the new immigrants to East Africa were poor and could not put into production immediately. The initial rations were entirely paid for by the East African colonies.

Moreover, land development, village and city construction, or military campaigns in East Africa all require a large amount of food as a guarantee.

The proportion of slaves' rations is not small. Given the number of slaves, the total amount of food these people eat is indispensable.

In order to provide food for slaves, East Africa planted large areas of corn, cassava, etc. as slave rations. These products have high yields, are easy to take care of, and can basically grow if they are planted in the ground, so slave food can be easily solved.

Food for sale is the main source of income for the East African colonies. However, food cultivation is cyclical and immigrants continue to influx. Currently, East Africa does not export much food. However, due to the huge cultivated land area, the amount is still considerable.

Naturally, the grain exported must be of the best quality so that it can be competitive in the European market. With low labor and land costs, East African grain exports are very profitable.

Compared with food crops, cash crops are definitely more profitable, but the existence time in East Africa is too short now, and many cash crops have not yet entered the harvest stage.

For example, coffee plantations in Kenya take at least three to five years from planting to fruiting, rubber plantations along the Great Lakes take six to eight years, and specialty products such as cinchona trees also take time.

Only cash crops such as sisal, cloves, and peanuts have entered the stage of sustainable production and export.

In the second half of the year, there was not much expansion in East Africa, mainly the simple expulsion of the indigenous people on the west side of the Mitumba Mountains.

The west side of the Mitumba Mountains is the buffer zone between the East African Plateau and the Congo Basin, and the terrain is relatively rugged.

The occupation of the Mitumba Mountains area can only be regarded as a continuation of the last Northwest War, so the East African government does not attach great importance to it.

The entire Mitumba Mountains area is densely covered with virgin forests and sparsely populated. Further west, there is a tropical rainforest climate.

Therefore, the East African colonies easily collected about 200,000 square kilometers of land, mainly in the two regions of North Kivu and South Kivu in the former Congo.

In this era, the Kingdom of Congo was still eating ashes on the Atlantic coast in the west. The strongest forces in the Mitumba Mountains were the eight northwest countries that were eliminated or driven away by East Africa.

As a heritage of the eight northwest countries, the Mitumba Mountains area has been taken over by East Africa. Further west is a huge tropical rain forest, with few places suitable for survival.

There is no country in the Congo Basin. They are all tribes, collectively known as the Northwest Bantu tribes, corresponding to the East Bantu tribes that have been eliminated.

It was only after Belgium invaded this place that the prototype of the previous life of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was integrated, the famous Belgian Congo Free State.

Now the Mitumba Mountains in the Congo region were originally occupied by East Africa, and it is destined that there is no place for Belgians here.

Next year, East Africa will swallow up the Katanga Plateau in southern Congo and eastern Zambia according to last year's plan, so the only thing left for the Belgians in the future is the real Congo Basin, which is the tropical rainforest area.

All plateaus and mountains that are slightly suitable for human habitation have been reserved or occupied by East African colonies. Moreover, the emergence of East African colonies will definitely affect the division of Africa by the great powers in the future. What will happen in the future is highly variable.

At present, Ernst has no interest in the hinterland of the Congo Basin. The reputation of tropical rain forests and forbidden areas for mankind is not something to be boasted about.

Throughout this year, the territorial expansion of East Africa was not very large, totaling about five to six million square kilometers, mainly in the northwest.

Among them, the eight northwest countries took the most effort, but after eliminating and driving out the eight northwest countries, East Africa also established a stable rule in the area. Except for Egypt in North Africa, no other force can threaten this place.

In addition to population and area, East Africa also initially established a traditional handicraft system to meet the needs of colonial immigrants.

Including salt fields, brick kilns, lime plants, various handicraft workshops...

These were gradually promoted inland after taking over the industries in the eastern region of the former Zanzibar Sultanate.

It is characterized by low technology content and low output, but the East African colonies are a blank sheet of paper. Problems must be solved first before subsequent development can be pursued.

The technical content also means that it is easy to be mastered by practitioners, and is suitable for dissemination in an environment where illiteracy is common in East Africa. If you really make something too advanced, given the cultural level of colonial immigrants, the maintenance of the machine may be a problem.

The group of people with the highest academic qualifications in East Africa, which is equivalent to primary school level, are still scattered in various government agencies to maintain the operation of the East African colonies.

Of course, East Africa has also built several modern factories this year. Although they are not large in scale, they can be considered introduced.

All machines and parts are imported, and professional technical personnel are required to guide each factory. From the construction to the production stage, each factory needs European employees to monitor it.

The most important thing is that East Africa does not have a complete industrial chain. What Europe lacks can be imported from neighboring countries, so even small countries can achieve industrialization with the help of Europe's complete industrial system.

Around East Africa, only Egypt had half a foot in industrialization, and it was cut off by Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire.

The Mozambique colony next door is completely used by the Portuguese to suck blood. The level of industrialization in Portugal is not high, let alone the colonies, so the conditions for industrialization in East Africa are still immature.

Of course, if you are willing to spend money, you can build skyscrapers even in the North and South Poles, but the Hechingen Foundation is not a welfare organization. The Hechingen Foundation under the control of Ernst itself continued to provide blood transfusions to the East African colonies, in exchange for today's population and scale.

There is no other company in the world. Just like if the East India Company had been losing money when developing India, the British government would have given up on India long ago.

Why did the colonists not expand blindly? After all, it was still a matter of cost, and colonial operations also required costs.

The biggest issue that East Africa should worry about is not to work hard in development and construction and end up as a dowry for others, so the population and army are the core of the East African colonies.

Only those who can provide more soldiers and military expenditures, and only those with large scale, advanced equipment and strong combat effectiveness can protect the security of the East African colonies.

And for colonists like Ernst, people are also wealth. Even if the quality is not good, if the quantity is enough, they can gather wealth for the Hechingen royal family.

Just like India in the previous life, no matter how miserable ordinary people are, it does not affect Indian companies from relying on India's population and market to grow bigger and stronger.