Chapter 843
Of course, Germany's losses were government investment and had little to do with the development of local colonial groups in Cameroon. Moreover, early colonial losses were also normal. In the past few years, the Hechingen Consortium still had to import funds into East Africa, thus slowing down the development of Cameroon. Otherwise, a large number of market shares in Germany would not have been absorbed by the German Electric Corporation and reduced to the third position.
Moreover, although the climate of Cameroon is similar to that of East Africa, the savanna area is located inland, and the coast has a tropical rainforest climate that is not suitable for development. This is very different from East Africa. The land of Longxing in East Africa, namely Tanganyika, is also a savanna even along the coast. The climate is an area suitable for human habitation.
This can be well reflected in the royal territory of Sigmaringen, which is located in the transition zone between savannah and tropical desert, which is the famous "Sahel zone" in Africa in the past.
The Sahel Zone was also a suitable area for the development of civilization in ancient times. For example, the African black empire of Ghana, the Songhai Empire, and the Mali Empire were all nurtured in this area. There are actually many civilizational relics in the royal territory of Sigmalingen.
Sigmaringen also lacks a natural outlet to the sea, otherwise the conditions would actually be much better than those in Cameroon.
The development of tropical rainforest cities is actually quite difficult, as East Africa is well aware of. The only typical tropical rainforest cities in East Africa are Kinshasa and Cabinda, but the population (non-blacks) in both places does not exceed 10,000.
Although Hesse Province and the provincial capital Kisan City (Kisangani) are located in the Congo Basin, they belong to the transition zone between tropical rainforest and savannah. The eastern mountains and southern plateau areas are actually very livable, if not livable, in previous lives. It is impossible for Kisangani to briefly become the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a large city with a population of nearly 700,000.
There is almost no population between Kisangani to the west and Kinshasa. The reason why Kinshasa became an East African city is because of its important geographical location and it is an important transportation hub on the Congo River.
In the previous life, the Belgians used this place as the capital of the Zaire colony, which was developed from a military station. You can go directly upstream from Kinshasa.
But even in the 21st century, Kinshasa has developed into a large African city with a population of over one million, and it is still surrounded by lush tropical rainforest, which is similar to Cabinda.
Therefore, one can imagine the difficulty for Germany to develop Cameroon. In fact, before Germany, the Portuguese, British, and French all expanded in Cameroon, and Germany's ability to catch up from behind and occupy this area also shows that the value of Cameroon is not particularly important. .
Of course, for Germany, especially the new governments of Wilhelm II and Capli, Cameroon loomed large.
The first is that both of them support Germany's overseas colonial activities, and Cameroon is now Germany's largest overseas territory.
Moreover, to the east of Cameroon is the royal territory of Sigmaringen and East Africa, which further enhances Cameroon's status.
Anyone with a discerning eye knows that if the communication channels between the three countries can be opened up, it will be of huge benefit to Germany in developing Cameroon. After all, Germany's outlet is mainly in the Atlantic Ocean, and Cameroon is in the South Atlantic Ocean, which is the fastest area that Germany can reach East Africa. It is a pity. The key point is that the main economic entities in East Africa are in the central and eastern regions.
But even so, East Africa's strength around Cameroon is not comparable to Germany's. East Africa's northern railway goes directly to the western city of Bangui, which is only more than a thousand kilometers away from the coast of Cameroon.
In fact, in addition to Bangui, the capital of East Azand Province, East Africa also controls parts of the Shari River (the main river that flows into Lake Chad) and the eastern Adamawa Mountains (the watershed of the tributaries of the Shari River and the Ubangi River), so in Geographically, East Africa actually borders Germany.
It's just that Germany's development of Cameroon is too slow. For example, due to transportation problems, it cannot effectively connect East Africa and the royal territory of Sigmaringen. Therefore, if Germany wants to develop Cameroon, cooperation with East Africa and Sigmaringen is essential, which can greatly accelerate this. First of all, compared to the two countries, Germany's main population in Africa is too small.
Of course, Germany has naturally thought about introducing people from the Far Eastern Empire to develop Cameroon, but Germany is not Sigmaringen after all. Sigmaringen's development of the Chad region actually completely copied the East African model and was modeled on East Africa.
On the other hand, East Africa's support for the royal territory of Sigmalingen is actually subject to conditions.
It is obviously difficult for Germany to accept these conditions. For example, introducing Chinese immigrants is not as good as going directly to the inland to capture black indigenous people and then develop Cameroon. After all, even Chinese immigrants need to spend time and money.
Moreover, Germany’s colonial activities in Cameroon were achieved through support for local black forces, which was very different from East Africa and Sigmaringen.
East Africa and Sigmaringen were conquered by the overlord, and every inch of land was conquered. Of course, the royal territory of Sigmaringen was quite special, so the East African National Defense Force was hired as a proxy.
Furthermore, the three countries have completely different positions on Africa. East Africa regards African land as its territory, and the royal territory of Sigmaringen is no less generous. After all, Leopold does not have the Spanish throne to inherit, so it is not bad to get a foundation in Africa. Germany's positioning of Cameroon is a colony, and development is greater than plunder. However, the conditions for plundering are not yet mature, so the returns are not as good as the investment.
There is no big problem if black people are used for mining and setting up plantations, but it is certainly unrealistic to rely solely on black people to further develop Africa. The cost of re-education is obviously not as convenient as that of Chinese immigrants.
Of course, it would definitely be best if Germans could be introduced. The problem is that with the economic development in recent years, Germany has ended its history of large-scale population emigration. After all, Sigmaringen cannot recruit people in Germany.
In this way, Cameroon is naturally at a level that is neither above nor below, and is not much different from the West African colonies of other countries.
As the promoter of Germany's "new line", Caprivi believes that the key to breaking the situation is East Africa, and if you solve East Africa, you will also solve the royal territory of Sigmaringen.
This is also one of the purposes of Caprivi coming to East Africa. He himself wants to build Cameroon into a colonial model, and this requires the Cameroon colony to make achievements. Of course, the Cameroon problem is a small matter, and cooperation with East Africa is the big one. .
Next, the two governments launched a heated discussion on the economic cooperation between the two parties, which was nothing more than opening up the market in East Africa in exchange for Germany's technical, financial and talent support for East Africa.
The key thing in East Africa is to obtain technical support in the field of chemical industry, because Germany currently dominates the world in the chemical field. Without large-scale changes in German land, German agriculture has developed rapidly, and its output is even equivalent to that of Tsarist Russia. The chemical industry has contributed a lot. And this is what East Africa lacks most.
Secondly, Germany also has its own technological advantages in industrial fields such as steel and railways, while East Africa still has many factories in traditional industrial fields that use German technology from the 1970s.
Finally, there is the academic exchange and talent cooperation training mechanism that Ernst values most. German higher education is in an explosive stage, and this is the part that Ernst covets the most.
As a price, East Africa mainly liberalized the entry of some German industrial products into East Africa and exported some important industrial raw materials to Germany, especially non-ferrous metals and rare metals.
On December 13, 1891, East Germany officially signed the "Black (East) Germany Economic Cooperation and Development Agreement" with Germany to carry out limited cooperation in the economic field.
The main reason why there is limited cooperation is that the differences between the two countries are not small. Firstly, East Africa is relatively conservative in the political field. Secondly, East Africa and Germany have a competitive relationship in some fields, especially in the field of agricultural products. You must know that Juncker The aristocracy was the most important political force in Germany. They opposed unrestricted access to the German market by a large agricultural country like East Africa, just as they opposed Tsarist Russia's cooperation with Germany.
However, the cooperation between the two countries has still achieved great results. After all, East Africa has many options. In the field of food, East Africa does conflict with the Juncker aristocracy, but East Africa is also the world's most important producer of cash crops, such as rubber, cotton, coffee, and tea. Etc. (Sub)tropical cash crops are Germany’s shortcomings.