Trams and East Africa's Opportunities for Power Development

As Africa's foremost "great power," East Africa's status was naturally reflected in the state of its social development. Though East Africa's social system seemed like a tangled mess, its overall social character was basically in step with the times.

Dar es Salaam city.

Dar es Salaam city had long ranked first in the East African economy. It was also East Africa's largest comprehensive city, leading in many statistics, so many new things first appeared in Dar es Salaam city.

In 1887, East Africa's first tram officially began operating in Dar es Salaam city, drawing crowds of citizens who came to watch.

As early as 1881, the German engineer Werner von Siemens had laid the first tram tracks in the outskirts of Berlin, creating the world's first prototype tram.

In fact, Siemens had begun researching trams in 1870, and already had a prototype vehicle at the 1879 Berlin World's Fair. As a competitor, Berlin Electric Company was naturally unwilling to lag behind, and in 1875 it had joined forces with Hechingen Energy Power Company to begin designing trams.

It successfully launched its own model in 1883, and in 1885 the East African government drafted plans to build tram lines in Dar es Salaam city and Mombasa.

Not until 1887 did East Africa's first tram finally begin operating in Dar es Salaam city. At the same time, Dar es Salaam city converted its horse-drawn tram lines into electrified tram lines, becoming the world's first commercially operational tram system (in the original history, this was the United States in 1888).

Of course, before this, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had trial-operated the first tram line in Sarajevo. However, due to technical shortcomings, Sarajevo's trams still required horses to provide part of their power, so they could not be considered truly successful trams.

By comparison, Siemens