Chapter 137 Patch
East Africa is isolated overseas, far away from Germany.
It is obvious that for the Hechingen royal family, the current core interests are still in Germany, and the East African colony can only be regarded as a major investment project of the Hechingen royal family.
Although Ernst strategically selected the future of the Hechingen royal family in East Africa, there is no need to go to East Africa immediately.
Because the East African colonies are still a long-term project in the eyes of any colonial country, and now this project has not even completed the first phase.
The East African colonies relied heavily on the Hechingen Consortium to replenish their blood, and their development immediately came to a standstill without the Hechingen royal family.
For example, the weapons, technology, and population of the German and Austro-Hungarian empires. Without the royal family of Hechingen as the central regulator, there is no room for fantasy about a colony in East Africa.
Although the Ernsts were not in East Africa, the power in East Africa was in the hands of Ernst, and regulations restricted the power of all officials in East Africa to a very small range.
Because East Africa adopts an employment system, that is, a company system, and the current main development project is agriculture, it is not an exaggeration to say that the East African colony is an agricultural development company under Hechingen.
East African officials are also employees of Hechingen, especially the earliest Germans in the army. They all signed contracts with Hechingen.
In other words, these people have weaknesses in the hands of the Hechingen royal family. You can rest assured to use your power to do things in East Africa, but your family members are recorded in the files of the Hechingen consortium. In Prussia and Germany It is not easy for the Hohenzollern family to take advantage of this three-thirds of an acre of land.
Moreover, these German mercenaries who were in various ruling circles in the colony were all veterans who had retired from the Prussian army.
To put it bluntly, they are all old people who were kicked out by the army when they were old. They came to East Africa to work for Ernst in order to make a living.
After they have made enough money, they will definitely not be willing to stay in East Africa. After all, they also want to enjoy their old age, and East Africa is obviously not a place for retirement now.
Even if the medical conditions in East Africa are rudimentary, there is nothing interesting about them. The most important thing is that they don’t have their families.
Different from those immigrants at the bottom, immigrants from the Far East, Austria-Hungary, South Germany... are there to make a living. The moment they leave their hometown, they are mentally prepared to die in a foreign land. It is not ruled out that some people have the idea of returning to their hometown with honor. But most people still go there just to survive.
The purpose of German mercenaries from the beginning was to participate in colonial activities to make money. At any time, they were Germans (Germany here refers to the collective name of the current German states.) rather than East Africans.
So after making enough money, they naturally want to return to Germany to enjoy life, so the power is only temporarily in their hands, let alone the power locked in a cage.
The Hechingen Foundation's resident director in East Africa is responsible for auditing accounts and strictly controlling the allocation and expenditure of various resources in East Africa. He is also responsible for supervising the implementation of Ernst's orders by East African officials.
Although the number of directors of the Hechingen Foundation stationed in East Africa is small, their high-level status is high. Among them, von der Leyen is a representative. He, together with the East African military commander Yalman, and the East African Army Staff Chief Siote (Chinese), constitute the East African group. Troika.
The staff is the second force in the East African army that Ernst likes most. They are all students from the Hechingen Military Academy. In the early days, they were mainly Chinese students, but now they have begun to add German students.
The Hechingen Military Academy was actually the place where Ernst raised his private army. All students received brainwashing education. The Hechingen royal family was their belief, so Ernst dared to reuse them and play a supervisory role in all parties in East Africa.
Basically, every East African official must be assigned a student from the Hechingen Military Academy as his deputy. This configuration extends from the center to the countryside.
Any action in East Africa requires a joint meeting of the above three groups and then reports to Ernst, who then makes a decision.
The administrative efficiency of East Africa is certainly not high, but it is very safe, because the tripartite interest groups cannot pee in the same pot.
Fortunately, East Africa is an agricultural colony through and through. The specific affairs are boring, just farming, farming, farming...
Occasionally, if you attack an indigenous tribe, the colonial village can make the decision on its own, and only the indigenous countries, Arab forces and other colonists need to report to their superiors.
However, the forces surrounding East Africa have been thoroughly investigated by East Africa. Those people cannot be messed with. The East African colonies have a clear conscience. Apart from the Portuguese and the British, there are no deterrent forces.
Even so, the East African colonies are still quite low-key, such as the United Kingdom. The reason why East Africa is polite to the Zanzibar Sultanate, in addition to dealing with the needs of the indigenous people, is that it is afraid of British interference, so the core of the Zanzibar Sultanate can continue to exist.
On the border between East Africa and Mozambique, the East African colonies have also maintained restraint and will not take the initiative to cause trouble.
Not to mention the British and Portuguese, even the indigenous and East African colonies were handled with care.
For example, in Zambia in the southwest, East Africa has long been able to compete for territory. Even if East African forces enter Zambia, other colonial forces will not get the news.
But the East African colonies did not do this. They had to eat one bite at a time and were not eager to expand until immigration was in place.
Of course, it's not that Ernst doesn't want to go to East Africa to take charge, but it's just that he can't get away at the moment and it's not necessary.
Prince Constantine was old (67 years old), and Ernst was worried about leaving his old father alone in Europe (historically, Prince Constantine died on September 3, 1869).
At the same time, the biggest wealth in the hands of the Hechingen royal family is the Hechingen Consortium, whose main businesses are all located in Europe.
Ernst did not dare to hand over Hechingen's affairs in Europe to others easily. If the Hechingen Consortium was lost, Ernst would not be able to develop the East African colonies even if he had great ability.
From the establishment of the East African colonies to the present, it can be said that the Hechingen Consortium has helped it up little by little. The funds and ships needed for immigration, the early rations for immigrants, the weapons and equipment of the colonies, the salaries of East African officials... those are all the Hechingen Consortium. which provided.
There is only one way to solve this problem, and that is to shift the focus of the Hechingen Consortium to East Africa.
However, the current conditions in the East African colonies are difficult to support themselves, not to mention the Hechingen Consortium. Ernst is not demanding, and will at least wait until a preliminary industrial foundation is established in East Africa before transferring the Hechingen Consortium to East Africa. .
For example, if we want to develop industry to solve the coal problem in the East African colonies, we need to build railways. The coal in East Africa is mainly in the southwest, so we need to bring them to the coastal areas. Of course, some people may say that it is enough to build factories there.
The problem is that in this era, the machines in the factories are all stupid and clumsy. To transport them to the inland requires railways. In addition, the Hechingen Consortium’s main business is Europe. In the end, goods and food in the inland still rely on railways. Transported out.
It is still quite difficult to build a railway to the interior under the current conditions in East Africa. It is not impossible to do it if we gather the power of the entire colony and the support of the Hechingen Consortium, but the cost is too high.
Of course Ernst knew the role of railways, but now was not the time to build railways. Ernst knew of a period of opportunity and planned to plan railway construction in East Africa at that time.
In addition to railways, ironworks, cement plants...they all have it! Otherwise, the Hexingen Consortium is too clever to make a living without rice, and it will be useless to move the machinery over. It cannot rely on importing everything.
Not to mention these, even the current scale of agriculture in East Africa is difficult to support industrial construction. For example, light industrial raw materials such as cotton are only grown on a small scale in East Africa. If it really gets bigger, it might attract the attention of some countries. There are many textile industries. The pillar industry of industrialized countries.
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All in all, East Africa still has many roads to go. At present, the East African colonies are at best vassals of the Hechingen Consortium. Ernst can influence the politics of the German region and European public opinion through the Hechingen Consortium, and at the same time control the industrial development of East Africa.
Although the East African colonies were important to Ernst's heart, the fact was that the East African colonies were now inferior to the Hechingen Consortium.
In this way, if East Africa is lost, Ernst can find a new place to start over through the Hechingen Consortium, but if the Hechingen Consortium is lost, Ernst will have nothing to do.
Of course, Ernst's idea was to combine the Hechingen Consortium and the East African colonies in the future, but it was not the time yet. The development of the East African colonies was not enough to support Ernst's entire fortune on it.