Chapter 38 Reclamation
When the fierce war between Prussia and Austria was in full swing, the coastal areas of the East African colonies had expelled all the indigenous people. Except for the slave traders who sold them to Zanzibar, some were left for hard labor and the rest were reissued to themselves. The weapon was later released.
Of course, these exiled natives were not out of benevolence in the East African colonies. They had been frightened by the military power in the coastal area. Naturally, they did not dare to return here and could only go west or north. They will inevitably encounter other indigenous tribes with weapons in their hands and no land or food. Naturally, conflicts will arise between other tribes. When the time comes, they will fight to the death, while the East African colonial oriole will stay behind and accept the new land.
Moreover, it is unknown whether the indigenous people who have lost their tribes can survive. In short, there is only one thing: reduce the number of indigenous people.
It is impossible to plant crops on all the new land, but the areas around the new stronghold can be developed first.
Most of these are places with sufficient water resources, which can provide stable water supply for production and life. Although the coastal areas have relatively abundant rainwater, the current East African colonies have a small population and not much land. As long as you find a river, you don’t need to look at the sky. Have a meal.
As the easternmost subdivision at present, the Binhai District is close to the Indian Ocean and has a relatively hot and humid climate, so it is very suitable for rice cultivation.
These newly developed lands naturally tend to favor rice in the choice of staple food. If the temperature of wheat is too high, the yield will be reduced, so it is suitable for planting in the western plateau area.
Moreover, precipitation in the western part of the East African colonies is relatively low, which is suitable for the growth of drought-resistant crops such as wheat and millet.
Sisal is currently the colony's biggest flagship product, and East Africa is suitable for growing many tropical cash crops, such as cotton, bananas, rubber and coffee...
But sisal is the best grown here, and it has a market, and competition from other cash crops is fierce.
In addition, cloves are also an important crop in the colonies. The Sultanate of Zanzibar is famous for its rich production of cloves, so the coastal areas adjacent to the Sultanate of Zanzibar have not spared clove cultivation.
The output of cloves is relatively low, so sales are not a problem. The Dutch fleet can be used to transport these cloves directly back to Europe for sale.
Nowadays, the use of horses and oxen to cultivate land has begun to appear in the East African colonies. With the increase of new horses, supporting plowing facilities have also been arranged.
Nowadays, horses are also used for communication in the colonies. News that used to take one or two months to be sent back from each stronghold can now be sent back within one or two weeks.
East African colonies also used horses to explore further afield, including intelligence in areas such as Kenya and Zimbabwe.
Horse farming is popular in Europe, which makes Europe not as scarce as war horses like in ancient East Asia. Horse farming makes horses a necessary production tool, and people are motivated to raise horses.
At the same time, European cattle are not so important and have become a common food on the table, so Europeans like to eat beef and drink milk.
This is also related to the fact that Europeans do not know how to handle the ingredients. For example, Europeans do not know how to castrate boars, resulting in a strong smell of pork, which can only be masked by the strong smell of spices.
Of course, Europe does not eat much pork now. Only the German region eats more pork. In the future, when Germany is unified, the number will further increase.
Beef only needs simple processing and tastes good, so it is naturally favored by Europeans. If you add a piece of butter and a little salt, you can get a simple and delicious steak.
In the East African colonies, Ernst naturally chose horses for farming, and cattle were mainly used for meat. Later generations of the Maasai people were nomadic people in East Africa, making a living by herding cattle.
The forced use of horses for plowing will inevitably increase the demand for horses. As an important means of transportation, horses can improve the transportation capacity of the East African colonies.
After all, there is basically no infrastructure in the East African colonies now, and they are still in the walking stage. Only a few Germans are equipped with military horses for passage.
In addition, the flat and open terrain of East Africa is very suitable for horses to gallop. In short, the more horses needed, the better.
In Manda, the northernmost part of the coastal area, you can now see smoke rising from cooking fires, and immigrants are starting to light fires to cook.
The nearby fields are almost completely cultivated. Waterwheels are borrowed to pump river water into the rice fields, and the fields are intertwined throughout the land.
These paddy fields are relatively large-scale, and horses are used to plow the land. Of course, some of them are done using indigenous people as power.
Some of them have already been planted with seedlings, some still need time, and to the east is a hilly area used for growing sisal.
Rows of sisal stretch from top to bottom, covering the hills. From a distance, they look like tea gardens in East Asia, surrounded by low hills and mountains, which is quite spectacular.
The weather conditions in the coastal area have been good recently. The timing of rains is relatively stable and there are rarely any irregularities.
This is also a benefit of the Indian Ocean. It is well known that the El Niño and La Niña phenomena in the Pacific are relatively significant and will intensify climate fluctuations in East Asia.
Although the Indian Ocean is also affected, it is not prominent. In addition to the influence of the equator and plateau areas, the climate in East Africa is also affected by the shift of the trade wind belt. Every year the trade wind belt moves south or north, it will bring a certain amount of rain to East Africa.
This results in East Africa having two rainy seasons a year. At the same time, the coast of East Africa is also affected by ocean currents, especially in the coastal area.
Without the Somali cold current, precipitation along the East African coast would definitely increase, forming orographic rain similar to that in northeastern India.
The stable climate of the East African colonies also resulted in the orderly progress of agricultural production. The colonies already had a relatively mature agricultural calendar that could be used to guide and arrange new immigrants to participate in agricultural production.
Affected by the current turmoil in East Asia, the number of immigrants coming to East Africa for colonial development is also increasing rapidly, especially in the north.
Affected by the invasion of Guandong, residents in the north now have two choices, one is to develop overseas, and the other is to develop in the Northeast.
If you want to go overseas, East Africa is currently the best option, because Ernst arranged the arrangement earlier, and the northern region did not have contact with the outside world as early as the south. Therefore, the immigration network laid by Ernst in the north is larger and more sophisticated. Mature.
In the southern region, especially the southeastern coast, there are many channels. Some people choose to go to Southeast Asia to develop, and the second destination is the Americas. After all, the channels are relatively wide, and many clans and local groups go to sea together.
Therefore, immigrants from the South tend to stick together overseas, but internal fighting is also quite serious, because they also gather together overseas to form strongholds similar to Chinatowns, and fighting is a characteristic of southern clans. Overseas, their interests overlap even more seriously. You If he eats more, he will eat less, so there is more fire than in China.
This is also one of the reasons why Ernst did not dare to choose to immigrate to the south. The only way to farm the land honestly is to not mess around, especially if groups will form. Although the number of Chinese immigrants in the East African colonies is the largest at present, they are scattered without leadership. Ste was satisfied.
In the German region of Europe, while Prussia and Austria were fighting fierce battles, the East African colonies were peaceful, and everyone was contributing to development.
House construction, farmland development, canal construction, new roads, livestock breeding, an East African colony with agriculture as its core was being rapidly constructed.