Influenced by the Russo-Japanese War, construction of the fifth battleship East Africa had originally planned to build was also temporarily halted. The main purpose was to absorb the experience and lessons of the Russo-Japanese naval battle, so that this battleship could be perfected.
Now they were simply waiting for the Japanese Combined Fleet and Russia's Second Fleet to fight to the death in the Far East. At the Russian Navy's current pace, the earliest they could reach Far Eastern waters might already be late October of this year.
It was now early October 1904, and East Africa's plan was roughly eighty percent complete. According to the calculations of the East African Planning Commission, East Africa should be able to achieve all the plan's targets ahead of schedule within 1905.
As the plan advanced, East African industry saw another substantial leap in its figures beginning in 1903. Output of vital basic industrial products, including steel, cement, textiles, electricity, petroleum, fertilizer, and pharmaceuticals, rose sharply once more.
At the same time, large numbers of emerging industrial towns appeared in the western region, and the number of towns and cities across the country increased markedly. However, the precise urbanization rate could not yet be calculated. While East African industry was rapidly expanding, East Africa's population was also continuing to grow, and the eventual urbanization rate would depend on the combined data of both.
Taking the central region as an example, many cities, including Rhine City, were accelerating their expansion. Ernst could see this plainly. As industries expanded and East African urban populations grew, urban construction naturally had to increase accordingly, including all kinds of factories and residential districts.
Over the past few years, Rhine City alone had gained as many as 110,000 new residents, pushing its population beyond 290,000 and rapidly driving it