CHAPTER 535: CHAPTER 213: THE GOALKEEPERS OF THE GREAT POWERS

At the end of 1879.

The expected short rainy season had yet to arrive, unsurprisingly causing a drought in the eastern part of East Africa. This drought affected two major agricultural areas in East Africa: the coastal plains and the East African highland dry farming region.

The Great Lakes Region wasn’t much affected, benefiting from its geographical location which allowed it to enjoy some of the residual moisture from the Congo Basin, along with its already abundant water sources, thus causing minimal impact.

"This time, the rainy season hasn’t arrived due to special reasons, so we need to organize water resource allocation, and the reservoir water release work must also be conducted promptly to ensure the steady progress of agricultural work."

"According to local reports, five provinces in the east will be affected, including the Central Province, Eastern Province, New Württemberg Province, Highland Province, and South Salzburg Province. So, this drought has a fairly extensive impact area, with parts of the west and south also affected. However, since the west and south developed later and are sparsely populated, the impact isn’t as significant."

In the face of the drought, East Africa was able to respond calmly, with the entire national machinery operating smoothly; it was just that the scope of this drought attracted significant attention from the central government.

After more than a decade of development, the eastern part of East Africa, practically excluding Black people, had reached a population level typical of a normal country, clearly differing from sparsely populated countries like Australia, Canada, and Argentina.

In fact, Brazil is also considered sparsely populated, but Brazil at least has a population of over ten million, so it makes sense. East Africa is exaggerated, with the immigrant population in the Tanganyika region alone exceeding ten million, not even counting the newborn population in East Africa itself.

Thus, in terms of size, East Africa was no longer in the same league as the aforementioned countries. Of course, due to East Africa’s rapid territorial expansion, the population was still imbalanced with the land.

However, national population is generally compared horizontally, and East Africa’s population is already a firmly established demographic giant compared to most countries in the world.

As 1880 approached, the workload of various levels of government in East Africa intensified as well. In Ernst’s mind, 1880 was an important historical marker; therefore, starting in September of this year, the long-stalled census work was resumed.

For a populous and vast nation like East Africa, Ernst’s mental expectation was that East Africa should develop better than Japan and Spain.

Although Japan was not yet a great power, its rapid development through the Meiji Restoration, with its early advantages, was much stronger than East Africa, mainly due to the population issue. Japan was already a populous nation, while East Africa’s population spent considerable time and money migrating from other countries.

After all, without a population, no value could be created. East African colonies and the Meiji Restoration occurred almost simultaneously; at that time, the blank slate of East Africa didn’t even have full control over Tanganyika.

Thus, during that period, Japan could be said to have been running ahead in the race, while East Africa was just starting. Apart from land area, Japan was stronger than East Africa in all other aspects at the time.

After more than a decade, looking again at the development of the two countries, East Africa had caught up with most of its shortcomings and had overtaken Japan in some areas.

Take railways as an example: by 1879, the railway mileage in East Africa was approaching ten thousand kilometers, while Japan had only about fifteen hundred kilometers.

In terms of minerals like steel and coal, East Africa wouldn’t bully Japan on this point, as Japan couldn’t magically extract minerals from the ground.

The lack of resources was also one reason Japan’s railway mileage didn’t compare to East Africa’s. To build over a thousand kilometers of railway, Ernst could imagine the state of austerity in Japan.

In 1879, Japan was still an agricultural country, with over eighty percent of its fiscal revenue reliant on agricultural expenditure. The situation in East Africa was slightly better, with the Heixinggen Consortium waging war outside, though it couldn’t be considered purely East African assets.

Besides agriculture, Japan’s biggest investment was in textiles, especially in the silk industry, which was Japan’s main export product. Finally, there was foreign labor, with Japanese working globally continuously supporting Japan’s development. As for Japan’s mining industry, it could almost be ignored.

Ultimately, Japan engaged in mostly labor-intensive jobs, but Ernst admired their spirit. Frankly, the living standards of Japanese people might not even match those of Black people in East Africa.

East Africa’s industrial focus was on agriculture, mining, and emerging industries like electricity. The approach to agricultural development in East Africa differed from Japan’s.

In Japan, land and peasant value were exploited to the extreme, using the meager income from agriculture to support industrial and commercial development, hence the investment in agriculture was far less than the value extracted.

Whereas in East Africa, the investment in agriculture was substantial, truly being developed as a pillar industry. With such favorable land and environmental resources, East Africa had the reason to do so. Of course, Ernst also had ideas about agricultural hegemony. While it couldn’t be demonstrated now, at least a piece of the pie could be shared in the future.

In the emerging industries like electricity, East Africa was still in the budding stage, with Ernst continuously paving the way for East Africa, mainly through education and talent introduction, which hadn’t yet manifested.

The industrial and mining sectors need no elaboration. East Africa followed the German model, vigorously supporting heavy industry, resulting in steel production exceeding a million tons.

Of course, the biggest difference between the two countries remained military capability. East Africa’s defense force had actually reached the level of the great powers, especially after defeating Portugal, making no country dare to underestimate East Africa’s military strength.

Although Japan was relatively militaristic, even selling off everything wouldn’t match East Africa’s military capability. The East African navy alone was something Japan could only look up to.

Regarding Japan, East Africa was far ahead in everything but population. In fact, East Africa also held an advantage in population. After all, Black lives also matter, and the twenty million Black people in East Africa contributed significantly to its development.

Ernst compared Japan out of necessity, as there were almost no emerging countries comparable to East Africa’s development at the time. East Africa hadn’t reached the level of Germany and America, and Italy was fragmented due to Ernst, while other countries like Belgium and Romania were pitiably small.

In terms of countries closest in national strength to East Africa, it should actually be the Ottoman Empire and Spain. Ernst personally believed the Ottoman Empire’s military strength surpassed Spain’s. After all, in the Tenth Russo-Turkish War, the Ottoman’s performance was quite impressive. At the end of the century, Spain didn’t have much outstanding performance, although the Ottoman Empire faced a much more challenging geopolitical situation than Spain, it didn’t affect the Ottoman’s status as a great power.

Spain’s strength was more evident in its maritime and colonial endeavors, and its homeland wasn’t bad, considered average in Europe.

Beyond these countries, the only ones ahead of East Africa were the UK, France, Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, the USA, and a Far Eastern empire. Ernst wasn’t praising the Far Eastern empire due to his previous life as a person from the Far East but because it truly was an extremely influential power in this era. Apart from the major powers mentioned, the Far Eastern empire indeed had this capability.

It’s just that the Far Eastern empire couldn’t realize its full potential. The Qing Government, for the sake of its own rule, was overly cautious. On one hand, it heavily supported military-industrial development, but on the other hand, was reluctant to invest excessively in the military. After all, the Qing Government’s Eight Banners system had become obsolete, strictly guarding against the Han people and always indecisive in foreign military affairs, leading to repeated defeats. However, upon review, many wars had promising beginnings before capable individuals were suppressed again.

Therefore, through comparison with countries around the world, Ernst believed East Africa’s national strength should be aptly situated between the great powers and non-major countries. Without Italy, the gatekeeper position among the great powers would be Spain, and East Africa should rank just below Spain.