Chapter 72 Tobacco Cultivation
Kenya, central, Mashuru town.
In order to develop the newly explored area, the colonial government of East Africa decided to grow tobacco here after sending people to conduct field investigations.
As a crop that loves temperature and light, most places in East Africa are suitable for tobacco cultivation, and the rainfall in East Africa is moderate, which can meet the water resources needed for early growth.
Masuru Town, ninety kilometers southeast of Nairobi, has an unknown river running from north to south.
There were only about 30 immigrants who first arrived here, led by the German Anthony, five immigrants from the Austrian Empire and more than 20 Chinese.
Looking at the boundless grassland reaching to the sky, Anthony couldn't help but sigh at the magnificence and magic of nature.
Anthony, who once lived in Europe, grew up seeing agricultural estates and forests in North Germany, which were full of beauty and vitality.
The land of Africa is full of wild nature, and the area is so large that people can't help but feel excited inside.
The same is true for the immigrants from the Austrian Empire. Most of them came to Africa for the first time and were even more shocked than Anthony. The Austrian Empire is full of mountains and rivers, especially where the immigrants live. Because of their relative backwardness, they still maintain a relatively primitive life. Way.
Some people have never left their villages in their entire lives. It is conceivable that after going to sea, they were first impressed by the majesty of the sea, and then after landing in East Africa, they were attracted by the unique tropical scenery of Africa.
The Chinese immigrants are relatively better off. Due to their origin, they cannot see such an area of grassland in North China, but the farmland there is also endless.
Although the area of the German and Austrian empires is far less than that of the great powers in the Far East, in terms of per capita land possession, the Far East is far less than the former two.
It's just that the Far East is too large, especially the endless plains and the long land, which always make it easy for people to overlook its huge population. After excluding the population data, it does mean that the land is vast and rich in resources.
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The immigrants began to build residences, which were temporary residences made of mud. After all, there were too few manpower and they could not waste too much time improving their living conditions.
After disembarking from Tanga Port and Dar es Salaam Port, we replenished supplies in the first town, led by experienced old people.
This is where the first batch of immigrants from Mashuru came from. All the living supplies were carried on two horses, farm tools and food rations.
Looking down from the sky, more than thirty people look so small in the vast grassland. Their houses are like matchboxes.
This was the initial size of Mashuru Town, and the East African colonies planned to send nearly a thousand immigrants to this place in the future.
During the same period, towns and villages like Mashuru Town grew rapidly in Kenya.
From the coastal belt in the east to the shores of the Great Lakes in the extreme west, immigrants quickly filled local ecological niches.
The immigrants in this phase were all mixed, led by Germans and composed of immigrants from the Austrian Empire and Chinese immigrants.
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After a month of development.
The population of Masulu Town has reached more than 400 people. It already looks like a village, and the fields are being developed in a decent way.
Along the banks of the Nameless River, residents of Masulu Town have opened up thousands of acres of tobacco plantations.
On the rows of ridges, green tobacco seedlings are full of vitality and vitality, taking root in the red soil.
These are the future raw material supply locations for Hechingen Tobacco Company.
For a long time, Hechingen Tobacco Company mainly purchased tobacco from businessmen in other countries and then processed it into cigarettes through machines.
This is a huge waste of production costs because the pricing power of tobacco is in the hands of those businessmen.
East Africa has a huge area of barren land, which is suitable for growing tobacco. It can not only provide Heixingen Tobacco Company with large quantities of raw materials at good prices, but the quality is also quite good.
The colonial government of East Africa planned to build a tobacco plantation of 50,000 acres near the town of Masuru.
On the one hand, it can speed up immigration to Kenya, and on the other hand, it can create profits, which is the best of both worlds.
After the tobacco is harvested, people from the Hechingen Tobacco Company will come to collect it, send it to the seaside to the port of Mombasa or Dar es Salaam, and then transport it back to Europe.
Anthony looked at Mashulu Town, which had achieved quite a lot in front of him, and felt a sense of pride.
As the mayor of the town, Anthony can be regarded as the last group of German mercenaries in the colony.
When they first came to East Africa, there were only two thousand German mercenaries in the entire East African colony. Later, as the colony's population increased.
Adhering to the principle of priority, the Germans became the seed candidates for the natural ruler. One after another, Anthony's teammates were promoted to officials in various places, or gained more authority in the army.
But Anthony was still standing still. This time it was Anthony's turn to develop the Mashulu area. He was elected as the mayor of Mashulu Town.
As a mercenary and a former Prussian soldier, Anthony actually didn't like the days of fighting and killing.
Compared to war, Anthony, who came from a peasant family, was more willing to deal with the land.
After becoming the ruler of Mashulu Town, he did not behave domineeringly, but instead acted like a peasant in Prussia.
Leading everyone to work in the fields every day, and looking at the crops full of vitality, Anthony became more and more happy and satisfied.
The immigrants in Mashulu Town were also inspired by this affable mayor and became passionate about land reclamation.
Three different groups of people from Germany, Austria and the Far East all have a common language because of their identity as farmers.
They exchanged and shared experiences while working in the fields. Anthony shared some of the scientific knowledge popularized in Prussian education with the two. The immigrants from the Austrian Empire also had rich experience and were especially good at knowledge of some agricultural facilities. The immigrants from the Far East are somewhat more sophisticated in vegetable cultivation and non-staple food research.
Because they often communicated together, Anthony learned some dialects in the Austrian Empire and many Chinese phrases. The immigrants from the Austrian Empire themselves knew some German and now also learned a small amount of Chinese vocabulary. The Chinese also learned a lot in communicating with the first two. I also touched the threshold of some European languages.
The residents of Masuru Town live harmoniously just like they are connected to the iron-red land under the red sunset.
In addition to immigrants engaged in agricultural work throughout the East African colonies, the largest number were soldiers, so there was no significant difference in class.
This creates conditions for different ethnic groups to live together, eat from the same pot, and receive similar profits. The barriers and vigilance caused by historical and geographical reasons are slowly being eliminated.
Of course, the natives of East Africa are not included here. After all, these natives don't even have decent clothes. Their faces are covered with pattern tattoos, and they look fierce. Moreover, his skin color is dark, which makes it difficult for ordinary people to accept him from a civilizational or racial perspective.
The East African colonial government also deliberately strengthened the impression in the minds of immigrants that the natives were cruel, uncivilized, uncivilized, and evolutionary backward and primitive (by comparing the faces of orangutans and natives, the lower face was convex.).