East Africa's colonial methods inherited the strategies of its original mainland expansion and placed enormous importance on population. Other colonizers usually counted the troops and settlers in their overseas colonies by the hundreds or thousands, while East Africa casually measured them in tens of thousands.
Except for places like Port of Dakhla—tiny patches of land with poor transport links and scarce resources.
A large population base was the core means by which East Africa kept a firm grip on its colonies and overseas territories. Wherever conditions allowed, East Africa never hesitated to carry out large-scale immigrant settlement.
In this respect, only Tsarist Russia resembled East Africa. Yet Tsarist Russia's colonies had basically become its own territory, whereas East Africa's overseas territories were unsuitable for complete mainlandization. Forget overseas territories—even Darfur, which bordered East Africa directly, had not been formally incorporated into its territory.
Still, there was no doubting the painstaking effort East Africa invested in managing its colonies and overseas holdings.
Governor Louis sighed. "East Africa's so-called colonies are fundamentally different from ours. Their overseas colonies are really overseas provinces flying the banner of colonies."
"Take Togoland alone. It is similar to the three provinces our country established in Algeria—perhaps even more thorough."
"Algeria at least retained its local population, but East Africa has been extremely radical on the issue of population. It has achieved fundamental 'Germanization,' making it entirely equal to the East African mainland."
Algeria was a French colony, but it differed markedly from France's other colonies. France essentially regarded Algeria as part of its own territory and sought to fully merge it with mainland France, thereby taking the first steps toward becoming a trans-Mediterranean empire.
That way, the Mediterranean Sea between Algeria and mainland France would become entirely France's "inner lake." By turning Algeria into a "second