CHAPTER 172: CHAPTER 161: YEAR END

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

The population of East Africa had circled around and reached 1.75 million. Apart from the new immigrant population, there was also the first baby boom in East Africa.

The relatively stable environment of the past two years, along with East Africa’s policy bias towards female immigrants and the gradual improvement of immigrant marriage issues, led to newly established families constituting the majority of families in East Africa.

Now that they had a family and a career, naturally, they wanted to pass on their lineage. East Africa had always been benefiting from the war dividend, with territorial expansion and an increase in arable land, all providing motivation for immigrants to have children.

At this time, the cost of raising children was extremely low, coupled with the influence of traditional immigrant reproductive concepts, they basically let go in terms of having children.

These immigrants only needed to work a bit harder to support more people.

Immigrants in the East African colony had almost no sense of crisis, mainly because East Africa was too spacious, and the natural conditions were too good, depriving it of the competitive environment found on the Eurasian continent.

Apart from the immigrant population, indigenous labor was not counted in the East African population statistics. This year, the indigenous population was estimated to be around 1.3 million.

The African continent was really not short of indigenous people. Even if the indigenous people in East Africa were controlled, they had to undertake heavy work and were sold by the East African colony, resulting in substantial losses.

However, when East Africa expanded westward, they captured a batch to supplement the labor force lost in East Africa, a typical slave economy, with ins and outs forming a closed loop.

Under the slave economy, East Africa’s infrastructure was being established at a visible speed, with roads connecting cities and villages throughout East Africa.

At the same time, the extensive use of slaves allowed East Africans to easily clear land many times over, replacing livestock and machinery to support East Africa’s agricultural scale.

The harvested grain in the East African colony was mainly divided into three parts: one part was the immigrant ration, one part was the slave ration, and one part was sold overseas.

Among them, the immigrant ration accounted for the largest proportion, not because immigrants ate more, but because new immigrants to East Africa came with nothing and could not immediately partake in production, so the initial rations were entirely funded by the East African colony.

Moreover, East Africa engaged in land development, village and city construction, or waged wars all around, which required a large amount of grain as a guarantee.

The slave ration also accounted for a significant portion; the sheer number of slaves meant their total consumption was not small.

To solve the issue of slave food, East Africa planted large tracts of maize and cassava as slave rations. These items had high yields and were easy to manage, basically growing in the field with little maintenance, so slave meals were easily resolved.

The grain for sale was the main economic source for the East African colony. However, grain production was cyclical, and with immigrants continuously coming in, the amount of grain available for export currently was not much, but thanks to the vast land area, the quantity was still considerable.

For exports, naturally the best quality grain was selected to be competitive in European markets. Taking advantage of the low labor and land costs, East African grain export profits were quite substantial.

Compared to cereal crops, cash crops certainly promised higher profits, but East Africa had existed for too short a time, and many cash crops had not yet entered the harvest stage.

For example, the coffee plantations in Kenya required at least three to five years from planting to fruiting, the rubber plantations along the Great Lake shoreline needed six to eight years, and other specialties like cinchona trees also required time.

Only crops like sisal, cloves, peanuts, and other cash crops had reached sustainable production and export stages.

In the second half of the year, East Africa’s area expansion was not large, mainly involving the simple expulsion of indigenous people on the western side of the Mitumba Mountains.

The western side of the Mitumba Mountains was a buffer zone between the East African plateau and the Congo Basin, with relatively rugged terrain.

Occupying the Mitumba Mountains region could only be considered a continuation of the previous northwest war, so the East African government did not pay much attention.

The entire Mitumba Mountains region was filled with dense primeval forests and sparsely populated; going further west led to a tropical rainforest climate.

Thus, the East African colony easily annexed this area, approximately 200,000 square kilometers of land, mainly the regions of what were the North Kivu Province and South Kivu in the previous Congo.

At this time, the Kingdom of Congo was still eating dust on the western Atlantic coast, and the most powerful force in the Mitumba Mountains region was the Northwestern Eight Nations, who were either destroyed or driven out by East Africa.

As the legacy of the Northwestern Eight Nations, the Mitumba Mountains region fell into East Africa’s hands. Further west, what lay ahead was the vast tropical rainforest with almost no suitable places for living.

No nation existed within the Congo Basin; it was composed entirely of tribes collectively referred to as the Northwest Bantu Tribes, corresponding to the already eliminated Eastern Bantu Tribes.

It was only later when Belgium invaded the area that the precursor to the previous Congo Gold, the famous Congo Free State, was integrated.

Now that the original Mitumba Mountains in Congo was occupied by East Africa, it ensured no place for Belgians there.

And next year, East Africa planned, according to last year’s plan, to swallow the Katanga Plateau in southern Congo and eastern Zambia, so the future would leave the Belgians only the real Congo Basin, which was the tropical rainforest area.

Almost any plateau and mountain area slightly suitable for human habitation was either reserved or already occupied by the East African colony, and the presence of the East African colony would undoubtedly affect how the great powers would carve up Africa in the future, with great uncertainty in potential changes.

Currently, Ernst was not interested in the heartland of the Congo Basin, known as the human forbidden zone due to the tropical rainforest.

The entire year, the territorial expansion of East Africa was not significant, totaling about five to six hundred thousand square kilometers, mainly in the northwest.

Among them, the Northwestern Eight Nations were the most troublesome, but after eliminating and driving out the Northwestern Eight Nations, East Africa also established stable control locally. Apart from Egypt in North Africa, no other force could threaten this place.

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

This included salt fields, brick kilns, lime factories, and various handicraft workshops...

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

The characteristics were low technological content and low production, but the East African colony was a blank slate, solving the problem of availability first before seeking subsequent development.

Low technological content also meant it was easy for workers to master, suitable for spreading in an environment like East Africa, where illiteracy was rampant; attempting too advanced things might make even the maintenance of machines a problem given the cultural level of colonial immigrants.

And the batch of people with the highest education level in East Africa was equivalent to elementary education, yet they were scattered across various government agencies, maintaining the operation of the East African colony.

Of course, this year East Africa also built several modern factories; though not large in scale, they were at least introduced.

Machines and parts relied entirely on imports, simultaneously requiring guidance from professional technicians. Every factory from construction to the production phase needed European employees watching over it.

Most importantly, East Africa did not have a complete industrial chain. In Europe, if anything was missing, it could be imported from neighboring countries, so even small nations could achieve industrialization by leveraging Europe’s complete industrial system.

Around East Africa, only Egypt had half a foot into industrialization, and it was also cut off by the British, French, and Ottoman Empires.

The neighboring Mozambique colony was entirely a place for the Portuguese to siphon resources; even Portugal’s domestic level of industrialization was not high, let alone the colony, so East Africa’s industrialization conditions remained immature.

Of course, if money were no issue, skyscrapers could be built even at the poles, but the Heixinggen consortium was not a welfare institution. Under Ernst’s control, the Heixinggen consortium was constantly providing East African colonies with blood transfusions, resulting in today’s population and scale.

There wouldn’t be a second case found in the whole world, just as if the East India Company had continued to develop India at a loss, the British government would have long abandoned India.

The reason colonizers did not blindly expand boils down to the cost issue; operating a colony also required costs.

East Africa’s biggest concern should be not to work hard on development and construction only to ultimately serve as someone else’s dowry. Therefore, population and army were at the core of the East African colony.

With people, more soldiers and military expenses could be provided; with a large-scale, well-equipped, and strong army, the safety of the East African colony could be safeguarded.

Furthermore, for a colonizer like Ernst, people were wealth; if the quality was lacking, a sufficient quantity could still accumulate wealth for the Heixinggen royal family.

Just like previous India, no matter how the ordinary people lived in distress, it did not affect Indian enterprises relying on India’s population and market to grow bigger and stronger.