African Entrepreneurship Record-Chapter 831 - 35: The Maputo Railway

New Hamburg Port City.

October 29, 1889.

With the calming of the war, East Africa has put the construction towards the south on the agenda, starting with the railway from New Hamburg Port City to Maputo, connecting Maputo to other cities in East Africa by rail.

This is the simplest way to connect Maputo to East Africa, requiring the construction of a railway less than 400 kilometers long to link Maputo, the capital of the former Mozambique colony, to the East African railway network.

Of course, in the future, an east-west railway will be built at Maputo, taking on the role of an outlet for provinces such as the central Matabele Province.

However, the interest of Matabele Province in Maputo is actually not great. They prioritize the Bela region in central Mozambique.

Bela, also an important port in Mozambique in the past, is located directly west of Matabele Province and is the fastest sea route for Matabele Province.

For Maputo, though, the location is too far south for Matabele Province, and for Heixinggen Province, Maputo is not the optimal choice either, as the Drakensberg Mountains stand as a barrier between the two.

Instead, the terrain between southern New Hamburg Port City and Heixinggen Province is relatively flat, making the Central Railway easier to build, while the connection between Maputo and the East African interior will have to wait for the future.

Under current conditions, the East African Navy is actually the most interested in Maputo, preparing to concentrate naval forces from New Hamburg Port City in the Maputo area.

The fact that Maputo can become a military stronghold for the Portuguese in the Western Indian Ocean speaks to its important strategic location, and its port conditions are unique along the East African eastern coast.

Its economic role is rather secondary. Like former Mozambique, Maputo's location is too far south and, unless it is a political center, it mainly influences the Mozambican southern plains area.

This is a form of historical inertia, similar to how the capital of German East Africa wasn't moved from Bajamojo to Dar es Salaam; if it were, Bajamojo might have been the most economically developed area of what is now mainland Tanzania in the past.

In the fields between New Hamburg Port and Maputo Port, tracks are neatly laid out on the grass. The distance between New Hamburg Port and Maputo is short, and the terrain is flat, so railway construction is not very challenging.

These tracks are all produced by the New Hamburg Port City steel plant, as New Hamburg Port City is an important coal base in East Africa and one of the major steel production bases as well.

The iron ore for New Hamburg Port City is primarily imported from outside, similar to most coastal cities in East Africa. After the South African War, sea routes were reopened, and cheap iron ore from India and the Middle East is clearly less expensive than transporting it from inland.

Along the more than 300-kilometer journey from New Hamburg Port to Maputo, you can see Black railway workers at work. They wear simple work clothes and swing hammers at the rivets on the rails.

As a technical craft, even Black railway workers need training, so these Black railway workers have been brought from the east to this location, not just randomly recruited locals or Black slaves.

In East Africa, there are over 200,000 Black railway workers, many of whom are frontline workers. Excluding the Black workers, the number of official railway employees in East Africa is actually only around 150,000.

Of course, many temporary workers are used during railway construction, and East Africa cleverly assigns these floating occupations to Black laborers to maintain stability among the official Eastern African railway employees.

This situation is quite common in East Africa, and it results in some skilled Black people staying longer in East Africa, although the casualty numbers are also relatively high.

The number of personnel officially employed within the East African railway system exceeds that of the entire Far East Empire at the same time, symbolizing the foundation of East African industrialization.

Of course, the large number of railway workers in East Africa is related to the railway being a pillar industry in East Africa, similar to the steel industry, the electricity industry, the machinery manufacturing industry, and the military industry.

However, compared to Europe and America, there is still a huge gap. In Europe and America, especially in Western Europe, the industrial population has already surpassed the agricultural population, while East Africa is just beginning.

Currently, the number of workers nationwide in East Africa exceeds one million, mainly due to policy changes in the 1970s and 1980s, and the economic crisis that absorbed unemployed workers from Germany and the United States, enabling East Africa to rapidly close the gap with developed countries.

This is similar to how the Soviet Union, during the Great Depression of the 1930s, achieved industrialization through just two five-year plans; historical opportunities are extremely important.

However, the 1873 economic crisis cannot be compared to that global crisis and cannot serve as a springboard for East African industry. So far, the industrial population in East Africa accounts for about five percent of the national population, and this is a conservative estimate without counting nearly 20 million Black people, so the road to East African industrialization is still long.

Of course, given East Africa's current size, five percent is still about two to three million people, which is more than the total population of some countries worldwide, thus proving the theory that "big equals strong."

In the past, India was seen as a "world power"; despite having a poor economic level, it had the world's leading national power among the Five Permanents, and with the decline of England and France, it might still have more advantages compared to India.

Of course, if you delve into India's combat effectiveness, many countries in East Asia are much stronger than India. Ernst never doubted this, and if Vietnam and India were to go to war, without using nuclear weapons, they might very well end up evenly matched.

This isn't just idle talk; it's considering the national character of India. Indian society, as a typical tropical country, maintains social efficiency on par with Africa and Southeast Asia, while among tropical countries, Singapore is the most efficient, followed closely by Vietnam.

In such damp and humid environments, it's hard to get energized. This is very evident in parts of East Africa, with the most typical examples being the Nile River Basin and the Congo rainforest area.

For example, why can Juba, the capital of Nile River Province, become a training ground for East Africa? It's not because the environment is particularly advantageous, but because it's incredibly tough.

The military that can maintain daily training in Juba can indeed perform even better in tougher environments later on.

After all, the environment in the southern part of the Nile River Basin is too hot and humid, the entire region is like a "steamer," and living in such an environment for 365 days a year is very difficult.

Although East Africa is a tropical region, most areas have a predominantly dry climate, like Capital First Town, where summers are occasionally hot but the humidity is not high, making it somewhat livable.

This is also the case for the Nile River Province; the most economically strong area is the northern Jezira Plain, and both the Jezira Plain and its surroundings have a typical tropical desert climate, located at the edge of the Sahara Desert, which is more suitable for agricultural production activities and industrial development.

And the East African plateau region has even more significant climate advantages: naturally dry, with suitable amounts of precipitation and evaporation, and flat, open terrain, making the plateau areas in the east and middle the most densely populated and economically developed places in East Africa.

In the future, the South African plateau region, Mozambique, and the highlands of western Angola will also be key areas for East African development, with climate being an important prerequisite.