Chapter 912 Luanda Merchant
“It will catch up with the New Hamburg Port in ten years, catch up with Mbeya in twenty years, and become the new Dar es Salaam in thirty years.”
"Work hard for fifty years to build a world-class city."
"Western Economic Bridgehead, Future East African Industrial City."
………
Red slogans like this can be seen everywhere on the streets of Luanda. As the largest city on the west coast of East Africa, Luanda has the most ambition among the cities on the west coast.
In terms of geographical location, environmental climate, traffic conditions, etc., the conditions in Luanda are no worse than those in Dar es Salaam. The difference between the two is that Dar es Salaam is more developed than Luanda. The history is more than 20 years earlier.
This time is naturally calculated from the time when the two cities were included in the rule of East Africa. If this factor did not interfere, it is difficult to say which one is better in terms of development level, Luanda or Dar es Salaam.
Before the emergence of East Africa, Dar es Salaam was the main city of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, while Luanda was the capital of the Portuguese colony of Angola, and could only be considered half-matched in terms of strength.
However, after so many years of East African governance, the city of Dar es Salaam has long lost its charm as an "African" city. Even in the international community, Dar es Salaam is still ranked as a "metropolis". Therefore, Luanda's pursuit seems to many people to be impossible.
After all, Luanda is indeed developing well, but Dar es Salaam is also making progress. Dar es Salaam aims to be the most prosperous cities in various countries such as New York, London, Paris, and Berlin.
Moreover, Luanda's development speed in East Africa is currently not as fast as that of Beira, and is even being overtaken by Cabinda, which has a "harsh" environment in the region.
Seeing these red inspiring slogans, Hull didn't know why he felt a little uncomfortable in his heart. Hull is a German businessman who came to East Africa to look for business opportunities.
And his destination is Luanda, because after the Port of Luanda fell into the hands of East Africa, it became an important port for exporting resources to Western Europe. With the opening of the Luanda Railway, the cargo volume here is no better than that of Dar es Salaam and Dar es Salaam. Mombasa is bad.
"East Africa is a very strange country. Although you are culturally derived from the German region, you have your own characteristics. This is different from any country and region in the world. Even the Far Eastern Empire, the source of the largest immigrant group, cannot find this. This is a characteristic." Hull said to Maxim, the East African who was responsible for receiving him, looking at the signs in the city of Luanda.
"How can Mr. Hull be so sure?" Maxim asked curiously. He was wondering how Hull came to this conclusion. This requires not only understanding of Germany, but also understanding of countries around the world.
Hull shook his head and said: "Perhaps my knowledge is shallow, but I have also been to many places in the world, and I have never seen a country that is so different from East Africa. Take Germany, for example. Although Germany is also a country of big government, But Germany is a military power, and its national management reflects the characteristics of the military field. But we all know that Germany does this to maintain Germany’s security. After all, Germany is surrounded by wolves.”
"What about East Africa?" Maxim asked.
Hull thought for a moment and replied: "Frankly speaking, my impression of East Africa before was that it was a more iron-blooded militaristic country than Germany. But when I came here, I found that I was wrong, even for Angola, which is temporarily under control. We don’t see many troops in the region, but there are vibrant scenes of vigorous economic development everywhere.”
Of course, there is one thing that Hull did not say, that is, this kind of development is like a cow being driven forward by a whip, just because the East African government's administrative intervention in the economy is too crazy, but it must be said that this method is very effective.
He had also seen Luanda under the Portuguese rule when he was young. At that time, the Suez Canal had not yet been opened, so most ships had to pass through here.
East Africa has only taken over Luanda for five years. Luanda's urban area and population have expanded several times, and East Africa has deployed industries here, so Luanda is considered a relatively good small city in European countries.
At this point, Hull suddenly remembered something, and he said to Maxim: "These slogans remind me of them! They are the previous recruitment slogans in Germany, but the content of the two countries is different."
In this regard, Maxim said: "After the South African War, the external threats in East Africa basically no longer exist, so the expansion of the army naturally stopped. In fact, although the number of troops in East Africa was large before, it was not reflected in East Africa. After all, The territory of East Africa is more than ten times that of Germany. To be honest, it is only fair to compare East Africa with Europe. However, there are many European countries, and each country has a large army. The sum total is naturally much more exaggerated than that of East Africa, especially since the major powers have more armies than East Africa. Much more.”
Europe's population is concentrated, and each country is small. News can easily spread within the country, such as conscription, which can easily panic people.
It would be different if it were placed in East Africa. East Africa recruits troops in the east, and other regions cannot feel it at all. Only residents along the railway can experience the oppressive feeling of military mobilization during wartime.
"Furthermore, we in East Africa are also a peace-loving country. In the early days, all the people were indeed soldiers, but that was a special method in a special period. Think about the fact that there were a lot of indigenous forces and wild animals in Africa before. If this method was not used at that time, it would have been impossible. There is peace and stability in East Africa today.”
The peace and stability of East Africa is built on the bodies of the indigenous people, Arabs, Portuguese and British. Of course, wild animals all over the country have also suffered a catastrophe.
Hull was quite envious of this. He said: "Your location in East Africa is too good. There are oceans on both sides. There is only one Cape Town in the south, and most of the north is uncivilized. As long as the country is developed, the threat of war will basically be eliminated. Germany is located in the heart of the European continent, and there is no peace on all sides."
Maxim could only comfort him: "This also created Germany's position as the crossroads of Europe and became the center of Europe. So as long as Germany remains strong, this is an advantage."
Although he is an East African, East Africans are also Germans, so Maxim did not hesitate to praise Germany. After all, the main civilization of East African society still originated from the German region. Similarly, if it were an Austrian, Maxim would say the same thing.
Germany and Austria are both important economic partners of East Africa. Austria and East Africa are even "allies" on the surface. In addition, East Africa's current industrial development needs the support of Germany and Austria. Maxim will also express some "respect" to people like Hull.
Of course, it is hard to say what Hull thinks. Although East Africa calls itself a German country, it is questionable whether it can be recognized by the people of Germany and Austria.
In fact, the theory of East Africa being non-German is very popular in Germany and Austria, especially before the South African War. Many people simply rejected the identity of East African "Germans". After all, East Africa has two layers of negative factors in terms of blood and geographical location.
However, after the South African War, this argument basically disappeared. If you can defeat the British, then only the "Germans" can become big.
After all, France has been defeated once, and Tsarist Russia is a backward and barbaric country. Only Britain can make German angry youths interested. As a result, the South African War directly broke this filter. If you can't even beat East Africa, then should Britain's world hegemony also change hands?