Chapter 695 The Dalits’ Plan
After the labor problem plaguing the Tanzania colony was resolved, the colony's development speed accelerated.
Problems that the colonists of all generations could not solve were solved easily. In fact, many things are like this. Before quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes, they remain unsolvable.
In fact, the population of the Governor-General of Tanzania is not large. There are Dutch, Portuguese, Arabs, and a lot of mixed-race people who don’t know who they are. Coupled with Franz’s strong support, the white population has exceeded three. Ten thousand.
However, even 30,000 people are still too few for Tanzania to manage even the farmland of the conquered lands.
In fact, these 30,000 people are mainly businessmen, shopkeepers, fishermen, craftsmen, soldiers, and sailors. The number of laborers is seriously insufficient. Moreover, this group of people does not want to go deep into the interior, but only wants to stay at the seaside.
Among the primitive countries that were destroyed by the Tanzania Governor-General, three of them have entered the agricultural age.
However, after the Austrian Empire took over those lands, it found that it had no ability to take care of the inland land, so the former Governor of Tanzania, Hendry Vandermeer, came up with the idea of using black slaves to increase the labor force.
This technique has been used on the American continent for hundreds of years, and it can be said that it is the best before, but Hendry Vandermeer ignored one problem, that is, these black people are too familiar with their own land.
As long as there is no supervisor, or the supervisor is not paying attention, the black people will run away or be lazy. As a result, the colonists could only wear straw hats and follow behind with guns to supervise.
Coupled with a series of natural and man-made disasters, this old businessman was finally paralyzed by anger.
But this does not mean that the former governor's ideas were wrong. On the contrary, his food plan was very far-sighted.
The entry of a large number of Dalit laborers at this time only restored the Tanzania Viceroyalty to its proper state. In fact, it was precisely because of this that the Austrian Empire was able to open up a large amount of agricultural land here in a few years.
As for pioneering, Franz felt that more manpower was needed. You must know that it took the colonists and the indigenous people hundreds of years to develop those farmlands.
Moreover, East Africa is different from Galicia. In the Austrian Empire itself, Franz could directly deploy heavy machinery and even explosives to destroy those things that might hinder development. In addition, the refugees in Galicia were comparable to those in Tanzania at this time. There are many Lite people.
And rather than pioneering, integrating the previously occupied lands of the Six Nations is now the top priority.
Tanzania's infrastructure is really poor. To develop it, there must at least be roads connecting these areas with Bagamoyo on the seaside.
In addition, in order to adapt to the development of the times, Franz is also preparing to build a new city, which is Sanlan Port.
This city was later the capital of Tanzania and the largest port in the country. At this time, it was still a small fishing village called "Mzizima".
The original residents of the area were the Kutu people of the Mogoro Kingdom, but with the establishment of the Tanzania Viceroyalty of the Austrian Empire, tragic wars broke out among the surrounding indigenous kingdoms for survival space.
Coupled with the opportunistic sneak attack by the Oman Empire, "Mzizima" at this time had been abandoned.
After dealing with a wandering tribe occupying the Magpie's Nest, Benny Erbin led the colonial soldiers into the village.
In fact, usually as an assistant to the governor, he should explore the terrain by boat, because Sanlan Port is a port city.
But this time Benny Erbin also had a mission: to build roads.
That's right, Franz not only needs sea access, he also needs land access. In fact, in addition to strengthening the control of coastal areas, he is also preparing to build railways.
However, with Tanzania's level of development at this time, railways are no longer a possibility. Everything has to be shipped from Europe. Unless the Suez Canal is opened, the cost will be too high to be of practical significance.
Although Benny Erbin has a white face, he is a native of Tanzania, so he knows all the tribes living there.
But this tribe that occupied Sanlan Port was something he had never seen before. In addition, along the way he discovered that the indigenous people who had been defeated and fled had returned.
This is very unusual, because both the Austrian army and the slave-catching team of the Oman Empire are like natural disasters to the indigenous people.
Theoretically speaking, it is impossible for the indigenous residents who have escaped to come back. Although some kingdoms have evolved the most primitive agricultural civilization, the main resource of almost every country is its own herd.
So for those nomads, it’s the same wherever they go, there’s no need to come back and take risks.
Benny Erbin wanted to find a few prisoners for questioning, but the Dalit laborers killed black people indiscriminately whenever they found them. All he saw along the way were corpses nailed to wooden stakes.
As Dalit laborers continue to be sent inland, the Ngoni Kingdom, the last of the seven kingdoms, is also being harassed.
The Ngoni Kingdom has sent messengers several times to request an armistice, but in fact the Tanzania Governor-General did not use troops against the Ngoni Kingdom. There was only a colonial advance team of about 300 people nearby.
After the Ngoni Kingdom absorbed several subjugated tribes, their total number should be 100,000.
However, what Benny Erbin and Hendry van der Meer in Bagamoyo did not expect was that the advance team also included nearly 4,000 Dalit workers.
In fact, the Governor-General of Tanzania did not distribute weapons to Dalits in order to prevent them from rebelling. Only the leader of each group had an old-fashioned matchlock gun for self-defense.
(The group here is one hundred people.)
After all, there are many ferocious beasts in East Africa, and there are also many wandering black people. These guys who have lost their homes are more terrifying than the beasts. Many white colonists were killed by these stragglers.
For the colonial army, frontal combat was not scary. What was scary was that at night, poisonous insects, beasts, and black people were more terrifying than the last.
The job of the colonial army advance team is to protect these Dalit workers, allow them to resume local agricultural production, and prevent them from escaping. They are also responsible for guarding and distributing supplies.
You must know that food and medicine will not fall from the sky, and food grown on the ground will not mature immediately. If there are only a few hundred people, they can live by hunting and gathering.
But once the population size exceeds four digits, if you don't want to starve to death, you have to either engage in breeding and farming, or split up and go to other hunting grounds, otherwise the land cannot support so many people.
These food and medicines are more useful than guns and whips in controlling Dalit labor. However, the tameness (servility) of these guys was an eye-opener for the Austrian colonists.
Later, the colonists in the advance team simply gave the Dalit workers a week's worth of supplies at a time, and then went directly to the grasslands to hunt or just lay down and sleep to pass the time.
But just when the Austrian colonists were getting carried away, the Dalits were whittling bamboo into spears, felling wood into bows, covering skins into armor, and were brewing a big plan.