African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 480: Chapter 158 Observation

Apart from the Orange River, the Tugela River is also a geographical boundary between East Africa and the Cape Colony, flowing from within Lesotho to the Indian Ocean.

The Tugela River is quite wide and turbulent, with the well-known Tugela Falls standing tall over it. The water cascades down the large cliffs of the Drakensberg Mountains, forming a waterfall group with a drop of 944 meters, second only to Angel Falls, ranking second in the world.

Thus, the topography of the Tugela River basin is extremely rugged, providing a great supplemental function for East African national defense.

North of the Tugela River, the construction of New Hamburg Port has been completed, with its scale rapidly approaching that of the northern and southern ports, Maputo and Durban, becoming one of the three most prosperous cities in the area.

Observation ships from the British Natal colony wandered outside New Hamburg Port, observing this emerging port, both familiar and unfamiliar, with an East African warship following cautiously behind, preventing the British from causing any mischief.

However, the British are not fools. As a dual-use port for both military and civilian purposes, New Hamburg Port boasts a strong defense capability. In addition to the naval base, just the mobile gun emplacements at the port entrance can serve as a formidable barrier.

”This new port, just looking at it from the outside, has a structure similar to Durban’s, both being trumpet-shaped with a narrow entrance and wide basin, making it very suitable as a naval base. Why didn’t our people pay attention to it initially and instead let the Germans have the advantage?”

”Mr. Wilke, this question is easy to answer, because we have Durban Port, whose natural conditions are much superior to those of this bay.”

”But judging from the construction situation of the two ports, I haven’t found where the Germans’ New Hamburg Port is inferior to Durban Port?”

”The natural conditions of New Hamburg Port were originally not as good as Durban Port’s, but unfortunately, East Africa invested heavily in the area, especially with rapid population growth, improving East Africa’s ability to renovate Durban Port, thereby overcoming the unfavorable local conditions.”

Currently, New Hamburg Port City has a population of about 30,000, but including the Zulu people, it is about 70,000. East Africa has invested heavily in New Hamburg Port, especially the railway construction, making this new city appear extremely busy.

”The Germans’ infrastructure capability is quite impressive. A few years ago, we also witnessed the coastline conditions within the Zulu Kingdom. At that time, the so-called ’New Hamburg Port’ was just a deserted bay, far inferior to Durban Port, and the south of this port was a swamp area, so the port silting situation was severe. However, with the Germans’ modification, in a few years, New Hamburg Port will certainly surpass Durban as the most prosperous city in the region.”

The swamp area to the south of the port has been transformed by East Africa. Through the hard work of over 20,000 Zulu people, over the course of three years, they artificially created a three square kilometer deep-water area for New Hamburg Port.

The canal connecting to the northern lakes has also been completed, greatly improving the conditions of New Hamburg Port; the usable area has already exceeded that of Durban Port, and this is not the limit of New Hamburg Port. In the southern wetlands, there is a five square kilometer lake, yet to be developed by East Africa.

Wilke somewhat discontentedly said, ”Are the Germans breeding machines? Isn’t America enough for them, and now they want to dominate Africa as well!”

”Mr. Wilke, the development of the East African Kingdom is inseparable from the explosive population growth in the German regions. Last time in the war, they could mobilize tens of thousands of troops, indicating that East Africa must have at least hundreds of thousands of people at home, but the population of a single New Hamburg Port is roughly tens of thousands, and as far as I know, the populations of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa are even larger. Moreover, East Africa has other ports, which means that just in the coastal areas, East Africa may have a population of at least hundreds of thousands.”

As an old sailor who has frequented the Indian Ocean coast for years, Enlai is quite knowledgeable about the ports along the East African coast, especially the two free ports, Dar es Salaam and Mombasa. Enlai believes that the populations of these port cities could each exceed 100,000, almost comparable to some large European ports.

Upon hearing this, Wilke felt the situation was grave. If this is indeed the case, then East Africa could still attack the South African region from the inland. The total white population in East Africa might very well exceed one million. Although a million people is not much compared to Europe, in Africa, only Egypt and some traditional North African white countries have a bigger white population than the East African Kingdom.

Enlai said, ”However, things might not be as extreme as we think. A significant part of East Africa’s population composition consists of Asians. I encountered that half of the residents in Dar es Salaam and Mombasa are East Asians, so East Africa isn’t as terrifying as we imagined.”

”Is that so?” After hearing this, Wilke said, ”If the East African Kingdom internally inflates its numbers with yellow races, then that would explain it.”

Wilke’s disdain for East Asians isn’t unwarranted; instead, the Far East Empire has been very disappointing these years. Through decades of war, Britain has completely gained confidence over the Far East Empire, giving the British the illusion that East Asians are vulnerable, with one Englishman as good as a thousand, and a few warships can easily intimidate the Far East Empire into submission. If half of East Africa’s population is East Asian, then the problem is ”not significant.”

Of course, it’s not just East Asians that Britain looks down on, but also South Asians, considering the cost of colonizing India to be ridiculously low.

Wilke, a surveyor from Britain, had never investigated beforehand that half of the East African army consisted of Chinese immigrants, who made significant contributions during various East African invasion wars, including the previous South African war.

Of course, the British not taking it seriously is understandable, as the South African War mainly involved the Germans and the Boers, with the Transvaal Republic putting up a poor fight. The British would only consider it natural since the mother country of the Boers, Holland, wouldn’t dare to threaten Germany, let alone actually wage war against East Africa. If they did, they would show the Germans what true power of the world overlord means.

Wilke arrogantly said, ”After all, the problem lies in the race. Black people are the lowest in this world; even countries like India are much stronger than black people. So, the Germans have picked up a big bargain, enlarging their territory in Africa while we were neglecting it. However, their good days are about to end. Once the empire completes its affairs around India and the Orange Free State, we will let East Africa know who is the most formidable among the colonizers. This is not something those continental German barbarians can imagine.”

While population and scale indeed have some effects, the British do not buy this at all. Countries like India, the Far East, and even the United States have suffered significant losses at the hands of the British.

In the early years of the United States’ founding, Britain imposed a trade embargo on the country, allowing only ships under sixty tons to leave port, until the U.S. broke the deadlock by developing Pacific trade and doing business with the Far East Empire.

However, the Americans were not so virtuous either; before long, they also engaged in unfair competition like their British forebears by utilizing opium, and the Far East Empire found it difficult to distinguish between British and American traders, with many American merchants profiting from opium, especially those in the Boston area.

Speaking of trade embargoes, this was what most concerned Ernst before. Now that the East African navy has initially taken shape with a certain counterattack capability, however, to avoid being targeted in the future, hence the Grand Duke Ferdinand’s trip to Austria earlier.

The British trade embargo on America was a result of cooperation with Spain, France, and others, so East Africa couldn’t let other countries cooperate with British actions. Therefore, pulling Austria-Hungary into the equation was necessary. Any country targeting East Africa would have to consider the stance of Austria-Hungary.

Although the Austria-Hungary Empire’s stance is ambiguous, having a stance is much stronger than having none, and Ernst’s education also reminds himself not to overly rely on others; if capable of independence, we must be independent.