"At present, internal combustion engine tractors are mainly developed in Mbeya city and Dar es Salaam city. Harare is relatively weak in terms of technical talent training due to its location deep inland, and it is not conducive to academic exchanges. Therefore, if Harare and other central cities want to innovate in the field of education in the future, they must develop both external and internal channels," said Minister of Education Adelichi in East Africa to Ernst.
Currently, cutting-edge technologies in East Africa are being vigorously pushed inland. As a late-developing country, most of the knowledge sources in East Africa are "imported" and the local talent training system is not yet complete.
Mbeya city, which has an earlier development history, is the current end point for East Africa to absorb the world's advanced cultural knowledge and technology. As for Harare city, it is too deep in the center and has a short history. Although it has developed rapidly in industry and has exceeded Mbeya city in size, it lags far behind eastern cities such as Mbeya in cutting-edge technology and scientific education.
"Actually, Harare is not too far from the ocean. It's just that Mozambique was in the hands of Portuguese before. Now Mozambique has been included in East Africa, so we must open up Harare's fastest external channel to promote the development of central cities, especially in high-end industries." Minister of Transportation Liu Yideweil said.
The names of East African ministers are quite peculiar. Of course, as a country with integrated foreign populations, this is normal, just like Minister of Transportation is the older generation Chinese immigrants, born from the Hechingen Military Academy.
Ernst asked Liu Yideweil: "Then what do you Ministry of Transportation think?"
"His Highness the Crown Prince, now Port of Beira has a considerable scale, so we believe that the conditions are now ripe to build a railway from Harare city to Beira, Ministry of Railways and we agree that we should build Habe Railway is very necessary. It only needs about 450 kilometers of railway to give Harare city the fastest access to the sea and at the same time promote the development of central Mozambique," Liu Yideweil said.
The railway system is obviously also part of transportation, but in East Africa in the 19th century, the railway system was divided into a separate government department, at the same level as Ministry of Transportation. Of course, the close connection between the two parties made it necessary for the two departments to communicate and cooperate with each other in the development of East African countries.
"Habe Railway can solve the problem of the sea outlet of Harare city. If it is built, it will only take one day to get from Harare to Beira, which is only less than the time from Dar es Salaam city to Beira. Dodoma is more than ten kilometers longer, and the time from Mbeya to Dar es Salaam city is even shortened by half," said Ministry of Railways Minister Andre.
The speed of East African railway is between 30 and 50 per hour, so if Habe Railway is built, it will only take less than a day to arrive. Currently, given the conditions in Mozambique, it is impossible to set up too many stations along the way, because there are no cities near the railway line, and even villages are rare. This means that Habe Railway can greatly save time and cost after it is completed.
For example, the Black West Africa export route in East Africa walked slowly because there were many cities and strongholds along the way, and the black slaves had to deal with food, drink, and diarrhea, so a lot of time was wasted by stopping and going.
Ernst nodded and said, "The value of Habe Railway is certainly undoubted. This is very necessary for the development of eastern cities, but it is far from enough. We are in Mozambique with Angola and Boer Republic These newly occupied areas will all be connected to railways in the future. The current East African railway pattern is that there are more in the east, an equal amount in the center and north, and less in the west and south. You Ministry of Railways must plan this carefully."
Andre replied, "As of last year, that is, 1889, the total mileage of my country's railways was 19,000 kilometers. In 1889, railway construction was slightly delayed for a year due to the war. In the past 20 years, an average of more than 1,000 kilometers of railways have been built every year. Therefore, the specific situation of railway construction in the west and south depends on the terrain conditions and economy, as well as national defense requirements."
The construction time of East African railway was actually around 1873, and it did not reach twenty years. However, in the 1970s, affected by the economic crisis and the world's steel production capacity was overcapacity, the construction speed of East African railway was very fast, but it declined in the 1980s.
Of course, this also promoted the healthy development of East Africa's industrial structure. In the 1970s, most steel products and equipment were mainly imported from Europe, but by the end of the 1980s, East African railway localization had reached more than 70%.
"My country's railway construction has achieved brilliant results in the past two decades. Among non-powerful powers, only Argentina can compare with us. However, although the growth rate of Argentina railway is fast, it does not exceed 10,000 kilometers. We are twice as long as Argentina railway. We are currently the country with the most railway mileage. It's United States, which should be more than 200,000 kilometers, followed by Tsarist Russia, which is more than 40,000 kilometers, German railways's mileage should be about 40,000 kilometers, then Britain's is about 30,000 kilometers, France is close to 30,000 kilometers, and Austro-Hungarian Empire is about the same as France." Andre said.
United States Railway Needless to say, it was already number one in the world before the economic crisis.
Argentina Railway development is rapid. In 1870, the country's railway length was only 740 kilometers, in 1880 it was 2,133 kilometers, in 1886 it was 5,964 kilometers, and in 1890 it had reached 9,254 kilometers.
Although East Africa is twice as large as Argentina, in terms of density, East Africa is no match. After all, Argentina's territory is only about a quarter of East Africa's.
Of course, although the world's hegemon, Britain, only has 30,000 kilometers of railways, this is only in its own country. In the past two decades, Britain's railway construction has been exaggerated. For example, the Argentina railway mentioned earlier was mainly built by British capital. In addition, there are also United States and Indian Railways, and British capital is involved.
In 1890, the length of India's railways exceeded 25,000 kilometers, which if taken alone would exceed that of most countries in the world.
The length of the Tsarist-Russian railway is at the same latitude as East Africa. The Tsarist-Russian railway is also twice as long as East Africa. However, the area of Tsarist Russia is almost 10 million square kilometers larger than that of East Africa, so the two countries are basically the same.
Moreover, Siberian Railway has not yet started construction. Tsarist-Russian railways are basically concentrated in the European region. Within the European region, many railways are distributed in Poland and West Ukraine. Therefore, the railways in the Russia region alone are not necessarily much better than those in East Africa.
As for France, it was obviously affected by the sequelae of Franco-Prussian War, so railway construction was quite difficult. In fact, throughout the 1970s after Franco-Prussian War, French government was working hard to restore the economy, but unfortunately encountered an economic crisis.
Therefore, it was not until the end of the 1970s that France ambitiously proposed the "Freyssinet Plan" project, that is, the large-scale construction of railway networks, highways and water transportation. For this purpose, French government allocated five billion francs in special funds.
It is planned to build 30,000 kilometers of railways, 200,000 kilometers of roads, and 200 kilometers of canals within 20 years. At the same time, we will open and dredge new ports such as Nantes, Bordeaux, Rouen, and Dunkirk.
This amount of money is exactly equal to Franco-Prussian War's war compensation, which means that Franco-Prussian War directly cost France at least "twenty years."
However, this can also reflect France's tenacious vitality. It took only ten years to basically eliminate the negative impact of the war on France.
As for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it is basically the same as France. After all, Austro-Hungarian Empire itself is much behind France.
In addition to these countries, some small countries in Europe are also developing extremely rapidly, especially the Low Countries Netherlands, Belgium, and the Northern Europe three countries.
Outside of these countries, the rest are not ideal. For example, Japan had only more than 2,700 kilometers of railways in 1890, and Far East Empire only had about 400 kilometers.
Therefore, although the East African railway construction is exaggerated, it is not particularly outstanding when viewed from a global perspective.