In 1868, it was the end of the year again.

East Africa's population has come full circle, reaching 1.75 million. In addition to the new immigrant population, there was the first wave of baby booms in East Africa.

In the past two years, the relatively stable environment, coupled with the policy tilt towards female immigrants in East Africa, has gradually improved the problem of migrant marriages, and newly established families account for the majority of East African families.

Since they have started a family and started a business, they naturally have to pass on their ancestry, and East Africa has been reaping the dividends of the war, and the expansion of its territory and the increase in the area of grain cultivation have provided impetus for immigrants to have children.

In this era, the cost of raising children is extremely low, and the influence of immigrants' traditional conception of childbearing is basically liberalized.

These immigrants, if they work a little harder, can feed the population more.

The immigrants in the East African colonies basically did not have any sense of crisis, mainly because East Africa was open to space, and the natural conditions were too good, and they lost the environment of involution on the Eurasian continent.

In addition to the immigrant population, indigenous labour is not included in the East African demographic, which is estimated to be around 1.3 million this year.

There is really no shortage of natives on the African continent, even if the indigenous people in East Africa are controlled, the natives have to take on heavy work and will be sold by the East African colonies, so the loss is still very large.

However, when East Africa expands westward, it will catch a group of people back to supplement the missing labor force in East Africa, a typical slave economy, and there are in and out, forming a closed loop.

Under the slave economy, East Africa's infrastructure was created at a rate visible to the naked eye, and cities and villages throughout East Africa were connected by roads.

At the same time, the widespread use of slaves made it easy for East Africans to open up several times the amount of land, replace livestock and machinery, and support the scale of agriculture in East Africa.

The grain harvested in the East African colonies was mainly divided into three parts, one part was the rations of immigrants, one part was the rations of slaves, and some were sold overseas.

Among them, the food rations of immigrants accounted for the largest proportion, not because the immigrants ate too much, but because the new immigrants to East Africa were all poor and white, and it was impossible to put them into production immediately, and the rations in the early stage were completely paid by the East African colonies.

Moreover, in East Africa, land development, village and city construction, or conquest everywhere require a large amount of food as a guarantee.

The rations of slaves accounted for a large proportion, and the number of slaves was there, and the total amount of food eaten by these people was indispensable.

In order to solve the problem of slave food, East Africa planted large patches of corn and cassava as slave rations, these things are high-yield, easy to take care of, and can be grown in the ground, so slave food can be easily solved.

Grain for sale was the main economic source of the East African colonies, but the cyclical nature of grain cultivation and the continuous influx of immigrants meant that there was not much grain for export in East Africa, but with the huge area of arable land, the amount was still considerable.

Naturally, the best quality grain should be selected for export, so that it can be competitive in the European market, and with the help of low labor and land costs, East African grain export profits are considerable.

Cash crops are certainly more lucrative than food crops, but East Africa has been around for too short a time and many cash crops have not yet been harvested.

For example, coffee plantations in Kenya take at least three to five years from planting to fruit, rubber plantations along the Great Lakes take six to eight years, and special products such as cinchona trees take time.

Only cash crops such as sisal, cloves, and peanuts have entered the stage of sustainable production and export.

In the second half of the year, East Africa did not expand much, mainly due to the simple eviction of indigenous people on the western side of the Mitumba Mountains.

The western side of the Mitumba Mountains is a buffer zone between the East African plateau and the Congo Basin, and the terrain is relatively rugged.

The occupation of the Mitumba Mountains can only be regarded as a continuation of the last Northwest War, so the East African government does not take it very seriously.

The entire Mitumba mountain range is densely forested and sparsely populated, and further west is the tropical rainforest climate.

Therefore, the East African colonies easily acquired this place, about 200,000 square kilometers of land, mainly in the former Congolese provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.

At this time, the Kingdom of Congo was still eating ashes on the western Atlantic coast, and the strongest power in the Mitumba Mountains region was the eight northwestern countries that were wiped out or driven out by East Africa.

As a heritage of the eight countries in the northwest, the Mitumba Mountains region is home to East Africa, and further west is the vast rainforest, where there are few suitable places for survival.

There are also no states in the Congo Basin, all of which are tribes, collectively known as the North-West Bantu Tribes, corresponding to the Eastern Bantu Tribes that have been wiped out.

It was only later that Belgium invaded this place, and the prototype of the previous Congo was integrated, the famous Belgian Congo Free State.

The current Congo region was occupied by East Africa in the Mitumba Mountains, and there was no place for Belgians here.

Next year, East Africa will swallow up the Katanga Plateau in southern Congo and eastern Zambia as planned last year, so that only the real Congo Basin, that is, the rainforest, is left for the Belgians.

However, all the plateaus and mountains that are slightly suitable for human habitation have been predetermined or occupied by the East African colonies, and the emergence of East African colonies will certainly affect the division of Africa by the great powers in the future, and how it will be in the future will be very volatile.

At present, Ernst has no interest in the hinterland of the Congo Basin, and the reputation of tropical rainforests and forbidden places for mankind is not boasted.

Throughout this year, the territorial expansion of East Africa has not been very large, adding up to about five or six hundred thousand square kilometers, mainly in the northwest.

Among them, the Northwest Eight countries were the most laborious, but after the elimination and expulsion of the Northwest Eight Kingdoms, East Africa also established a solid rule in the region, and no other force could threaten it except Egypt in North Africa.

In addition to population and size, East Africa also initially established a traditional handicraft system to meet the needs of colonial immigrants.

Including salt works, brick kiln factories, lime factories, various handicraft workshops......

These were gradually extended inland after taking over the industries in the eastern part of the former Sultanate of Zanzibar.

It is characterized by low technology content and low output, but the East African colonies are a blank slate, and the problems can be solved before subsequent development can be sought.

The technical content also means that it is easy to be mastered by practitioners, and it is suitable for spreading in the illiterate environment of East Africa, and if it is too advanced, I am afraid that the maintenance of the machine is a problem in terms of the cultural level of colonial immigrants.

The most educated people in East Africa, equivalent to the primary school level, are still scattered in local government offices to maintain the operation of the East African colonies.

Of course, East Africa has also built several modern factories this year, although the scale is not large, but it can be regarded as the introduction.

The machines and parts are all imported, and at the same time need the guidance of professional technicians, and each factory needs to be watched by European employees from the construction to the production stage.

The most important thing is that East Africa does not have a complete industrial chain, and there is nothing in Europe that can be imported from neighboring countries, so even small countries can achieve industrialization with the help of Europe's complete industrial system.

Around East Africa, only Egypt was half a foot in industrialization, and it was cut off by Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire.

The Mozambican colony next door was completely used by the Portuguese to suck blood, and the level of industrialization in Portugal was not high, let alone a colony, so the conditions for industrialization in East Africa were still immature.

Of course, if you are willing to spend money, you can build skyscrapers in the North and South Poles, but the Hexingen Consortium is not a welfare institution, and the Hexingen Consortium itself under Ernst's control has been continuously transfusing blood to the East African colonies in exchange for today's population and size.

The whole world can't find a second one, just like if the East India Company had been losing money in developing India, the British government would have given up on India a long time ago.

Why the colonists did not expand blindly is still a matter of cost, and colonial operations also require costs.

The most important concern in East Africa is not to be fortunate enough to work hard to develop and build, and finally give others a dowry, so the population and army are the core of the East African colonies.

Only with men can we provide more troops and military spending, and only with a large, well-equipped, and combat-ready army can we defend the security of the East African colonies.

And for colonists like Ernst, people are also wealth, quality is not good, and the quantity is enough to gather wealth for the Heshingen royal family.

Just like India in the previous life, ordinary people are living in dire straits, which does not affect Indian companies to rely on India's population and market to become bigger and stronger.

(End of chapter)