Chapter 681 Kinshasa
“The only pity in the Congo River Basin is that shipping ends in Kinshasa, and Kinshasa is currently the only city on the Congo River that has the potential to compare with Kisang City (Kisangani), but this is all based on a premise If there is no outlet, Kinshasa is just a dead port that can only be used by East Africa itself, and its cargo volume is not even as important as the Ubangi River to East Africa."
According to original history, it was not until 1881 that the colonial explorer Stanley arrived in Kinshasa. At that time, there were scattered villages and thousands of black people.
East Africa captured Kinshasa three years earlier, and the current population of Kinshasa is only more than 3,000, because East Africa does not count the local black population.
"The Congo River Basin, except Hesse Province, and several provinces in the plateau area, can be said to have extremely economic value. The most abundant resource is logs. However, logs cannot be exported, which means they are basically worthless. Therefore, the Congo River The basin has basically no output.”
"At the same time, even if the Atlantic Ocean channel is opened and the outlet is seized from the Portuguese, Kinshasa will still be hindered by the waterfalls downstream. So we want to open up the Congo River Basin to the Atlantic Ocean. Basically, there are two options. , build railways to realize water-rail combined transportation, or build canals.”
If the canal project relies on vigorously flying bricks, it is very possible to realize it. While the black people in East Africa still have some role, building a 100-kilometer canal can indeed bypass the downstream waterfalls.
The main thing that needs to be overcome is the terrain difficulties to slow down the river drop, and now that East Africa has considerable explosive production capacity, there is no need to rely purely on manpower to solve all problems.
However, the number of laborers required for this plan is also sky-high. According to the current development trend of the western part of East Africa, it is simply unaffordable. The most important thing is that the downstream is still controlled by Portugal. If the Portuguese problem is not solved, everything will be a mirror.
"A certain proportion of Kinshasa's residents are members of the military. Secondly, they are engaged in the export trade to downstream areas, including daily necessities and medicines. In other aspects, they are basically in a competitive relationship, such as the huge forestry resources. This kind of thing is connected There is no shortage of grasslands in eastern East Africa, not to mention other forces in the same region. They can also export to their own countries at the same time, and they also have much advantages in mineral resources than here."
In the final analysis, Kinshasa's trade still relies on East African industry, which does not exist in many colonies, so many of their items need to be imported from Europe.
East Africa can transport these materials to Kinshasa through shipping, and then the Belgians can operate them to the downstream areas. As for Portugal, it has long cut off trade with East Africa, especially those Angolan farmers with spending power.
Kinshasa is a very young city, so it has little production capacity, and its supply mainly comes from Kisan City.
Even if Kisan City is connected to Kinshasa City by water transport, the distance is more than 1,500 kilometers, but the one-way speed from Kisan City to Kinshasa City is very fast.
The middle part of the Congo River is in a basin and the terrain is flat, but hundreds of tributaries all merge into the main channel. The water volume is large, so the flow speed is faster than ordinary rivers. It only takes a few days to get from Kisan City to Kinshasa.
But if you go upstream, you have to do the opposite, but it won't be like the downstream section of Kinshasa, where the terrain drops suddenly and makes it unnavigable.
However, this also puts forward requirements for the traffic capacity of ships. There are no trackers to pull ships in the Congo rainforest, so we can only work more on ship power, and steam engines and internal combustion engines have become the first choices. Fortunately, East Africa has accumulated relevant experience Experience, especially the rapid development of inland waterway shipping in the Three Great Lakes region, has solved technical problems, so the shipbuilding industry in Kisan City is relatively developed.
However, even so, the Congo River is dominated by medium-sized ships. They are too small to be easily controlled and require reserved fuel space. They are too large to maintain. Only a few dozen strongholds have been built along the entire Congo River in East Africa.
"Pharmaceuticals are a big part of Kinshasa's exports. We in East Africa have a greater say in this regard than other regions. Quinine is an essential export commodity and is very popular in the Belgian Congo and Angola. In addition to other pharmaceuticals The demand is also relatively large.”
This is mainly because East Africa has developed well and has a large population, which results in East Africa having sufficient experience and weight in this field.
After all, if the medicine is not effective enough, East Africa will not be able to gain a foothold here, and it has the largest immigrant population in Africa. The population of East Africa is a secret to all parties, but one thing that is certain is that East Africa has the largest immigrant population.
As for black people, as indigenous people, they have strong immunity. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that they live in scattered places, so the disease has no time to spread.
At present, African indigenous people still have primitive social systems, with villages and tribes being the mainstream, so the population is sparse and relatively dispersed, which to a certain extent hinders the spread of diseases.
Of course, diseases like malaria that rely on mosquito bites are difficult to prevent. Africa is located in the tropics and is the most suitable continent for mosquitoes to live in, like South America and India. However, this also makes mosquito repellent products in East Africa become a hot topic. sales.
However, in this era, few people understand the relationship between mosquitoes and malaria, so they are simply used as mosquito repellent products, rather than becoming a mandatory daily necessity like in East Africa.
Therefore, even if some colonists purchased mosquito repellent products in order to improve their quality of life, they rarely shared them with slaves and workers.
In this case, the secret of ensuring population growth in East Africa and curbing the spread of diseases has not been spread. After all, mosquitoes are the vectors of many tropical diseases, which has greatly improved the average life expectancy and health level of East Africans.
Moreover, other regions are in dire straits, and it can further expand the export sales of East African pharmaceuticals. This kind of thing kills three birds with one stone.
So regardless of the small population of Kinshasa, the profits earned by reselling medicines and daily necessities for East Africa are no lower than some cities in the east. Of course, the upstream city of Kisan is also a beneficiary.
"Cities in the entire west and the intersection of Belgium and Congo, only Bangui and Kinshasa can barely be seen, and their military significance is greater than economic significance. However, according to the above news, Kinshasa will continue to expand in the next few years, and directly Led by the central government.”
The Congo Rainforest Basin area has not been divided into provinces so far, but exists as a region like Southwest Africa.
The only "big" city here is Kinshasa, so it is normal for it to be directly managed by the central government, just like the three cities in Southwest Africa are jointly taken over by the Ministry of Defense and the government.
Kinshasa is of great significance to the East African military. It will serve as a forward city position for East Africa against Portugal in the future.
Because Kinshasa is built on the border between the two countries, it is the intersection of the Kuango River and the Congo River, and is a water and land transportation hub. The only thing it lacks now is population. Therefore, in order to attack Angola, the development of Kinshasa City has also been put on East Africa. It is also a key development city near the South Atlantic in the future.
In fact, there is Brazzaville on the other side of Kinshasa, but Brazzaville is located close to the narrow strip of the left bank of the Congo River, and the Belgian Congo is to the north, so it is not a key development target in East Africa. Kinshasa, across the river, can use it. Rivers play certain military defense and transportation functions.
Moreover, in the future, East Africa intends to directly build bridges to connect Kinshasa and Brazzaville. After all, there is no need to develop two cities on both sides of the river.