Dodoma

Dodoma was the destination for the first team of the East Africa Pioneer Corps. While other teams were still on their way, the first team had already begun construction.

Dodoma, the administrative capital of future Tanzania, is located at an altitude of over 1100 meters. It enjoys a cool climate and is situated near the upper reaches of the Wami River, amidst rolling low hills and diverse terrain.

This location served as a stopover point for caravans traveling from the Swahili Coast to Lake Tanganyika. In its past life, it was an important railway hub in Tanzania, making its geographical position quite significant.

Goods landed at the port of Dar es Salaam could be transshipped through Dodoma to various outposts in the East African colony, and it also facilitated subsequent immigration.

Dodoma receives about six hundred millimeters of rainfall annually, with temperatures fluctuating between fifteen and thirty degrees Celsius, making it very suitable for human habitation.

This provided convenience for the first team of the East Africa Pioneer Corps. Before the rainy season arrived, the first team used kerosene lighters produced by the Hechingen Company to start fires everywhere.

With the southeast wind, the flames spread northwest, causing many animals to flee. Those unfortunate enough to be caught in the blaze provided a hearty meal for the soldiers, which they roasted over the fire with wild bananas they had gathered.

After the fires subsided, the remaining plant ash perfectly neutralized the soil's acidity, and the over five hundred immigrants accompanying the expedition began to till the land.

There were also native tribes near Dodoma. This was a trading post between them and Arab merchants. Upon seeing the new first team of the Pioneer Corps arriving with firearms (which the Arabs also possessed), the natives naturally became wary of the unfamiliar.

Most importantly, faces from East Asia were rarely seen here. The local natives were mostly Bantu people who had migrated from West Africa hundreds of years ago. They had dark skin and had interacted with both the San people and white people in East Africa. The skin tone of the first team of the Pioneer Corps was somewhere in between, and their clothing styles were also unfamiliar. They could be distinguished from a great distance.

The first team had no intention of clashing with these native tribes for the time being. After all, they were newcomers, and their priority was to establish their camp first.

Fortunately, East Africa was still sparsely populated at this time. The total population on the East African grasslands within Tanzania might not have even reached that of the Mongolian Steppe.

After all, the Mongols raised horses and herded sheep, while these natives were still in the hunting and gathering stage, with low productivity supporting fewer people.

Furthermore, Arab merchants frequently incited tribal conflicts, instigated wars, and engaged in the slave trade. The population of East Africa had been decreasing rather than increasing in recent years.

The large population of future Tanzania, reaching fifty million, was largely due to the Germans and the British. Although their motives as colonizers were impure, they genuinely brought these "barbarians" into the agricultural era.

Therefore, after the independence of African countries, without the constraints of the colonizers and with increased productivity, populations doubled. For example, Tanzania's population in the 1960s was just over 10 million, and by the time Ernst time-traveled, it was approaching 60 million, with the birth rate still rising.

Currently, on the 940,000 square kilometers of land in Tanzania, Ernst suspected the population had not even reached five million.

This was because German East Africa, after decades of development in its past life, had a population of just over seven million before World War I. German East Africa included regions like Rwanda and Burundi, which were relatively densely populated areas in Africa.

This was why Ernst dared to set his sights on the East African colony. After all, many counties Ernst had seen in his past life had populations close to a million, some even two million.

Thinking about it, if one were to talk about emptying the population of an entire country, it would certainly be dismissed as wishful thinking. But the population of a few counties? That was still possible.

After all, the mobilization capabilities of his homeland in his past life were terrifying: the South-to-North Water Diversion, the Three Gorges Dam... there were many such examples.

And large-scale population resettlement was completed in a relatively short period. Ernst currently had plenty of time. He could spend the next thirty to fifty years focusing on relocating the natives, and then there would be no racial issues in East Africa.

As for the Chinese and white people, that would be easier to resolve, at least in Ernst's opinion. Ethnic integration had real-world examples, like Brazil, where everyone was so profoundly poor that they had no energy for such matters. In contrast, the highly developed Americans were always talking about race to divert attention.

Cuba was another example. Ernst greatly admired the Cuban government for achieving harmonious coexistence among all races under the same system. In other capitalist small countries in the future, this would have led to constant conflict.

There were also negative examples, like Yugoslavia. It wasn't that Ernst viewed this country with prejudice, but he felt its disintegration was self-inflicted by its leaders, perishing amidst compromise and freedom, unable to clarify their own stance or leverage their strengths. (Fear, trembling.)

He had digressed. At least Ernst believed he had the ability to resolve this matter. After all, having lived for a long time in a country with three thousand years of centralized rule and two thousand years of unification tradition, he was familiar with certain methods.

Ernst even felt that the feudal system of the Western Zhou Dynasty was more centralized than Western systems, as the Western Zhou's feudal system had a core. The Zhou Royal Family was still the nominal co-lord of the world in its later period. Europe, on the other hand, was practically "everyone is their own Roman emperor," and even after two world wars, they couldn't establish a proper European Union.

The only country in Europe with a grassroots centralized ideology, Russia, was half of it. So, it was no wonder Americans feared Russia, as it truly had the capability to unify Europe.

Dodoma. The temperature today was twenty-three degrees Celsius. The clothing of the Chinese immigrants was rather uniform, mostly Prussian military uniforms. In First Town, the humid and hot environment had been stifling, but in Dodoma, it was just right.

Therefore, the immigrants were in good spirits. However, the commander remained cautious. Africa had been considered a cursed continent by Europeans in the past, precisely because of the prevalence of tropical diseases. Most colonizers confined themselves to coastal activities and were unwilling to venture inland.

Hence, Ernst placed great importance on sanitation in the colony and proposed a set of feasible measures. For instance, drinking water must be boiled, raw or semi-cooked wild animal meat should not be consumed, and foods like snakes and frogs, which are prone to parasites, should be avoided. Colonies were to be disinfected regularly, and attention should be paid to preventing mosquito bites. Excrement should be collected and utilized reasonably...

These were the daily tasks of colonial officials, especially strictly controlling the dietary habits of immigrants, as the Chinese, who had long suffered from famine, could prepare food in countless ways.

However, food was still abundant in the East African colony. If there was truly nothing else to eat, there were still wild bananas and fruits to fill their stomachs. There was no need to hunt strange animals. Even the large herbivores on the African savanna could be hunted through teamwork. Zebras and wildebeest were full of wild spirit and posed a certain danger.

At night, the visibility in the Dodoma region was excellent. Stars filled the night sky, and the temperature had dropped slightly. The immigrants, tired from a day's labor, lay on their simple wooden beds and slept soundly.