African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 834 The situation of railways in various countries in 1890

"Currently, internal combustion engine tractors are mainly developed in Mbeya and Dar es Salaam. Harare is relatively weak in terms of training technical talents due to its deep inland location, and it is not conducive to academic exchanges. Therefore, if central cities such as Harare want to innovate in the field of education in the future, they must develop both external and internal channels,” Adrich, Minister of Education for East Africa, told Ernst.

Currently, East Africa's cutting-edge technologies are being pushed inland. As a late-developing country, most of the knowledge sources in East Africa are "imported" and the local talent training system is not yet complete.

Mbeya City, which has an earlier development history, is the end point for East Africa to absorb the world's advanced cultural knowledge and technology. As for Harare City, it is too deep in the center and has a short history. Although it has developed rapidly in industry, its size has exceeded Mbeya. Asia, but lags far behind eastern cities such as Mbeya in cutting-edge technology and scientific education.

"Actually, Harare is not too far from the ocean. It's just that Mozambique was in the hands of the Portuguese before. Now Mozambique has been included in East Africa, so we must open up Harare's fastest external channel to promote the development of central cities, especially High-end industrial fields,” said Minister of Transportation Liu Yi Dewei.

The names of the East African ministers are quite peculiar. Of course, as a country with an integrated foreign population, this is normal. Just like the Minister of Transport is an older generation of Chinese immigrants and was born at the Hechingen Military Academy.

 Ernst asked Liu Yidwell: "Then what do your Ministry of Transportation think?"

"Your Royal Highness, the Port of Beira is now quite large, so we believe that the conditions are ripe for building a railway from Harare to Beira. The Ministry of Railways and we agree that it is very necessary to build the Habei Railway. It is just About 450 kilometers of railway are needed to give Harare the fastest access to the sea and at the same time promote the development of central Mozambique," Liu Yidwell said.

The railway system is obviously also part of transportation, but in East Africa in the 19th century, the railway system was divided into a separate government department, at the same level as the Ministry of Transportation. Of course, the close ties between the two parties made the two departments more important in the development of East African countries. Must communicate and collaborate with each other.

“The Habe Railway can solve Harare’s sea access problem. If completed, it will only take one day to travel from Harare to Beira, which is only a dozen kilometers longer than from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma. The time from Bimbea to Dar es Salaam has even been shortened by half,” said Railways Minister Andrei.

The speed of the East African Railway is between 30 and 50 kilometers per hour, so if the Habe Railway is built, it will only take less than a day to reach it. At present, given the conditions in Mozambique, it is impossible to set up too many stations along the route because the railway is nearby. There are no cities at all, and even villages are rare, which means that the completion of the Habei Railway can greatly save time and cost.

Ernst nodded and said: "The value of the Habei Railway is undoubtedly undoubted. It is very necessary for the development of eastern cities, but it is far from enough. Our new occupied areas in Mozambique, Angola and the Boer Republic will all be connected in the future. Regarding railways, the current pattern of railways in East Africa is that there are more railways in the east, the same in the central and northern parts, and less in the west and south. Your Ministry of Railways must plan this carefully. "

Andre replied: "As of last year, that is, 1889, the total mileage of my country's railways was 19,000 kilometers. In 1889, railway construction was slightly delayed for a year due to the war. In the past 20 years, an average of more than 1,000 kilometers have been built each year. kilometers of railway, so the specific conditions for the construction of the western and southern railways will depend on terrain conditions, economics, and national defense requirements.”

 The construction time of the East African Railway was actually around 1873, which did not last for twenty years. However, in the 1970s, affected by the economic crisis and excess steel production capacity in the world, the construction speed of the East African Railway was very fast. In the 1980s, it actually declined.

The reason why the West African export line for blacks in East Africa is slow is because there are many cities and strongholds along the way, and the black slaves have to deal with food, drink and diarrhea, so a lot of time is wasted in stopping and going.

Of course, this also promoted the healthy development of East Africa’s industrial structure. In the 1970s, most steel products and equipment were mainly imported from Europe. By the end of the 1980s, the localization of East African railways had reached more than 70%.

“my country’s railway construction has achieved brilliant results in the past two decades. Among non-powerful powers, only Argentina can compare with us. However, although the growth rate of Argentina’s railways is fast, it does not exceed 10,000 kilometers. We are the leader of Argentina’s railways. Twice. The country with the most railway mileage is the United States, which should be more than 200,000 kilometers, followed by Tsarist Russia, which is more than 40,000 kilometers. Germany's railway mileage should be about 40,000 kilometers, followed by the United Kingdom, which is about 30,000 kilometers, and France. Nearly 30,000 kilometers, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is about the same as France," Andre said.

 It goes without saying that U.S. railways were number one in the world before the economic crisis. Argentina's railways developed rapidly. In 1870, the country's railways were only 740 kilometers, 2,133 kilometers in 1880, 5,964 kilometers in 1886, and 9,254 kilometers in 1890.

Although East Africa is twice the size of Argentina, in terms of density, East Africa is no match. After all, Argentina’s landmass is only about a quarter of East Africa’s.

Of course, although the world's hegemon, the United Kingdom, only has 30,000 kilometers of railways, this is only in its own country. In the past two decades, the construction of railways in the United Kingdom has also been exaggerated. For example, the Argentine railway mentioned earlier was mainly built with British capital. In addition, there are American and Indian railways, and British capital are all involved.

 In 1890, the length of India's railways exceeded 25,000 kilometers, which if taken individually would exceed that of most countries in the world.

The length of the Tsarist-Russian railway is at the same latitude as East Africa. The Tsarist-Russian railway is also twice as long as East Africa. However, the area of ​​Tsarist Russia is almost 10 million square kilometers larger than that of East Africa, so the two countries are basically the same.

And the construction of the Siberian Railway has not yet started. The Tsarist Russian railways are basically concentrated in the European region. Within the European region, many railways are distributed in regions such as Poland and Western Ukraine, so the railways in Russia alone are not necessarily much better than those in East Africa.

As for France, it was obviously affected by the sequelae of the Franco-Prussian War, so railway construction was quite difficult. In fact, throughout the 1970s after the Franco-Prussian War, the French government worked hard to restore the economy, but unfortunately encountered an economic crisis.

 So it was not until the late 1970s that France ambitiously proposed the "Fresine Plan", which was to build a large-scale railway network, roads and water transportation. For this purpose, the French government allocated 5 billion francs in special funds.

 It is planned to build 30,000 kilometers of railways, 200,000 kilometers of roads, and 200 kilometers of canals within 20 years. At the same time, new ports such as Nantes, Bordeaux, Rouen, and Dunkirk will be opened and dredged.

This amount of money is exactly the same as the war reparations for the Franco-Prussian War, which means that the Franco-Prussian War directly cost France at least "twenty years."

However, this can also reflect the tenacious vitality of France. It took only ten years to basically eliminate the negative impact of the war on France.

As for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was basically on the same level as France. After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire itself was much behind France.

In addition to these countries, some small countries in Europe are also developing extremely rapidly, especially the low-lying countries of the Netherlands, Belgium, and the three Nordic countries.

Other than these countries, the rest are not ideal. For example, Japan's railways in 1890 were only more than 2,700 kilometers, and the Far Eastern Empire was only about 400 kilometers.

 So although the railway construction in East Africa is an exaggeration, it is not particularly outstanding when viewed from a global perspective.

 (End of this chapter)