African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 421 East Africa Railway Plan

 February 22, 1873.

 Sweet Palace.

Ernst convened all the senior officials of the East African government and the East African Railway Company to discuss the issue of railway construction in East Africa. Taking advantage of the economic crisis, the construction of railways in East Africa can also be started.

 Ernst described the preliminary construction blueprint of the East African Railway to everyone at the meeting in detail:

"The railway planned this time is divided into four parts. One is an extension of the First Railway. After completion, it will be renamed the 'Central Railway' to connect the East African coast, the East African Plateau, the Katanga Plateau, the Lunda Plateau, and Mata. Plateau of Pele, South Africa.”

"The Central Railway is in the shape of a 'T', with a total mileage of more than 4,600 kilometers. It starts from Dar es Salaam and passes through the first town, Mbeya, Lubumbashi, and Lusaka. Harare, Bulawayo, Pretoria.”

“The second one is the ‘Northern Railway’, with a total mileage of more than 1,000 kilometers, starting from Mombasa, passing through Nairobi, and ending in Kisumu.”

"After the two sections of railway are completed, the East African railway mileage will be about 5,600 kilometers, effectively connecting the East African territory. The Central Railway will be responsible for the cross-regional passenger and cargo exchange tasks between the eastern, western, and southern regions of East Africa. The Northern Railway will be responsible for The task of connecting the Great Lakes region to the coast.”

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Ernst said to the chief technical advisor of the East African Railway Company: "Mr. Nordin, please describe the specific construction conditions and plans to everyone in detail. If you have any difficulties, you can tell us directly!"

So Nordin said: "Everyone, before the construction of the First Railway, we carried out the survey of railway lines in East Africa. It took almost three years to select the relevant routes and try to avoid sections with complex terrain. However, along the lines There are still some swamps and wetlands that cannot be avoided, which is also the biggest problem faced by the Central Railway. In contrast, the Northern Railway does not have this problem."

"I simply take the Pacific Railway in the United States as an example. The total mileage of the Pacific Railway is about more than 3,000 kilometers, and the planned length of our Central Railway is far longer than that of the Pacific Railway. At the same time, the amount of construction projects within the same unit distance is also higher than that of the Pacific Railway. .”

The problem of construction volume was brought by Ernst himself, because Ernst believed that the construction of the East African Railway occupied the best sections of the entire East African Kingdom (avoiding mountainous sections and not developing tunnels). The future of the East African Railway will almost certainly be arteries, so we simply built a three-line railway. At the same time, Europe and the United States mostly relied on single-line railways and double-line railways.

“Taking the industrial base of the two countries as an example, the United States has a complete industrial system that can almost fully meet all the needs of railway production, while East Africa has zero foundation in this area and cannot even complete the most basic rail production.”

This means that railway construction in East Africa still relies on imports. However, East Africa has calculated that imports are currently cheaper than East Africa’s own production. This is certainly not the case in normal times, but after the economic crisis broke out in Europe and the United States, a large amount of excess railway production capacity just satisfies East Africa’s appetite. Now Ernst is waiting for the European and American railway industries to completely hit the bottom before he is ready to take action.

So Ernst added on the side: "Don't worry about this problem. Next, we will purchase relevant materials in large quantities from Europe. Currently, Austria and Germany have abundant excess steel production capacity that can fully meet the needs of the East African railway. Even if the German region is not enough , as well as Britain, France and the United States..." Nordin: "Your Highness, this is just one item. The next problem is the lack of skilled workers. Maybe black people can solve more than 85% of the needs, but some technologies are impossible for black people to solve. , which requires professional railway workers to complete.”

Ernst: "This is not a problem. I can tell you a clear message, that is, there is currently a serious economic crisis in Austria. More than a dozen railway companies have gone bankrupt, and this number is still rising. At the same time, the economic crisis will spread. Going to other industrial countries, especially the United States, Germany and France, which have also over-built railways in recent years, this means that many railway workers are unemployed. I have already ordered Austrian companies to recruit a large number of experienced railway workers. When they arrive in East Africa, they can effectively solve this problem.”

Nordin: "As for the construction period, your Highness' request is to complete the construction of the Central Railway and the Northern Railway within three years. After comparing the data of the Pacific Railway, we believe that at least more than 60,000 workers are needed."

 The Pacific Railway took four years from construction to completion, and the total number of workers remained at about 15,000.

This time, the construction length of the Central Railway alone in the East African Kingdom will exceed that of the Pacific Railway by nearly 1,500 kilometers. Including the Northern Railway, the project volume is almost twice that of the Pacific Railway. Moreover, the conditions of the East African Kingdom are far different from those of the United States, especially transportation. In addition, the construction period is short, so a lot of manpower is required.

Ernst: “Don’t worry about this. In order to support the railway construction work, the government recruited 100,000 indigenous laborers from various places to complete this work.”

One hundred thousand indigenous workers, which sounds like a lot, is actually not as large as the number of workers on the Central Canal being excavated in East Africa. The number of workers on the Central Canal currently exceeds 250,000. In this regard, it has not actually surpassed the Suez Canal. Egypt is trying to The construction of the Suez Canal cost 120,000 lives. The East African Kingdom is still far behind!

It can be seen that the engineering volume of railways and canals is completely incomparable. However, the advantage of canals is that the technical difficulty is not high. The work of digging earth can be completed by the command of ancient monarchs such as Emperor Sui Yang a thousand years ago, and a thousand years later The Suez Canal still maintains such a high casualty rate. It can only be said that the French who presided over the construction of the canal really treated the lives of Egyptians as cattle. No, not as good as cattle.

Although the East African Kingdom is more conscientious than the French, they are limited to treating black people as livestock. Animals also need to eat grass, and they are not like the French who don't even want to pay for such grass.

One hundred thousand indigenous railway workers are completely enough for East Africa. You must know that in the Far East in the previous life, in the 1930s, there were only 230,000 railway workers in the country. Russia's Siberian Railway employed a total of 90,000 workers, and the total length of the Siberian Railway was nearly Ten thousand kilometers is almost twice the current railway construction plan of the East African Kingdom. It is also the most difficult permafrost zone for construction. That is to say, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the Far East will be more difficult than the Siberian Railway in the future (alpine and hypoxic plus frozen soil), at least in summer The conditions for the construction of the Siberian Railway are much better.

 Taken together, everyone found that the only problem with railway construction in East Africa is the weak industrial base, and other problems are minor problems.

So Ernst went on to say: "While building the railway, we must also take advantage of the situation to complete the initial industrialization of East Africa. Before 1880, we can achieve complete independence and get rid of dependence on the steel demand of Germany and Austria."

This is also an important reason why Ernst requested that the construction of the central railway be completed within three years. Because if East Africa wants to develop industry, it can also develop the coal and iron mines in Zimbabwe, and all of this requires railway support. The quantity of coal and iron ore resources is still too small. As for South Africa, we still have to wait. That location is the border of East Africa and it does not have absolute strength. It is better not to develop it yet.

And after developing Zimbabwe, East Africa will be able to take control of its territory to a higher level, and its ability to control the south and west will be greatly strengthened. It will not be as top-heavy as it is now, relying only on the army to maintain regional security.

 (End of this chapter)