Late 1879.

The delay in the expected light rainfall season led to a drought in eastern East Africa that affected two important agricultural producing regions of East Africa, the coastal plains and the dryland farming regions of the East African highlands.

The Great Lakes region has little impact, and thanks to its geographical location, it can enjoy some residual water vapor from the Congo Basin, and the Great Lakes region is already rich in water, so it does not have much impact.

"The rainy season has not arrived for a long time due to special reasons, so it is necessary to do a good job in dividing water sources, and at the same time, the work of releasing water from reservoirs must also be carried out in a timely manner to ensure the steady development of agricultural work."

"According to local reports, five eastern provinces will be affected, including Central Province, Eastern Province, New Württemberg Province, Plateau Province and South Salzburg Province, so the drought is quite widespread, and parts of the west and south will also be affected, but now the west and south are not very affected because of late development and sparse population."

In the face of the drought, East Africa was able to deal with it calmly, and the entire state machinery was running smoothly, but the scope of the drought this time was somewhat large, so it attracted great attention from the central government.

After more than ten years of development, the eastern part of East Africa has actually been eliminated from blacks, and the population has reached the normal national range, which is obviously different from Australia, Canada, Argentina and other sparsely populated countries.

In fact, Brazil is also sparsely populated, but Brazil has a population of more than 10 million, so it is an exaggeration to say that in the past, East Africa alone has a migrant population of more than 10 million in Tanganyika, and this is not counting the new population in East Africa.

Therefore, East Africa is no longer on the same level as the above-mentioned countries in terms of size, of course, because the territorial expansion momentum of East Africa is too fast, so the population is still unbalanced with the land.

However, the population of countries is generally compared horizontally, and the population of East Africa is already a stable populous country compared to the vast majority of countries in the world.

Because 1880 was approaching, the work of governments at all levels in East Africa was also intensified, and because in Ernst's mind, 1880 was an important historical node, so in order to find out the national conditions in East Africa, the census work, which had been stalled for several years, was reopened from September this year.

In a large country like East Africa, which is both populous and geographical, Ernst's psychological expectation is that East Africa should develop better than Japan and Spain.

Although Japan is not yet a great power, but through the Meiji Restoration, the momentum of development is very rapid, and Japan's first-mover advantage is much stronger than that of East Africa, mainly because of the population, Japan is already a large population, and the migration of East Africa's population from other countries took a lot of time and money.

After all, value cannot be created without population, and the East African colonies were almost at the same time as the Meiji Restoration, when East Africa did not even control Tanganyika.

So at that time, Japan could be said to have run at the front of the track, and East Africa had just started, and Japan was stronger than East Africa in all aspects at that time, except for the land area.

Looking at the development of the two countries after more than ten years, East Africa has made up for most of its shortcomings, and has caught up with Japan in some areas.

In 1879, the length of railways in East Africa was approaching 10,000 kilometers, while in Japan it was only about 1,500 kilometers.

In terms of steel, coal and other minerals, East Africa will not bully Japan, and Japan will not be able to change minerals out of the ground for nothing.

The lack of resources is also an important reason why the length of railways in Japan is far inferior to that of East Africa, and in order to build more than 1,000 kilometers of railways, Ernst can imagine the state of the whole country in a state of food and clothing.

In 1879, Japan was still an agrarian country, relying on agricultural expenditures for more than 80 percent of its fiscal revenue, and the situation in East Africa was slightly better.

In addition to agriculture, Japan's biggest bet is on the textile industry, especially the silk industry, which is Japan's main export product, and finally mainly overseas work, Japanese people work all over the world to support Japan's development, as for Japan's mining industry is almost negligible.

In the final analysis, Japan does some hard work, but this spirit Ernst is quite admired, and to be honest, the living conditions of the Japanese are probably not as good as the blacks in East Africa.

East Africa's focus is on emerging industries such as agriculture, industry and mining, and electric power, and the development of agriculture is different from that of Japan.

Japan is squeezing the value of land and farmers to the limit, and uses the meager income from agriculture to support the development of industry and commerce, so the investment in agriculture is far less than the value it extracts.

After all, such good land and environmental resources give East Africa a reason to do so, of course, Ernst also has some ideas about agricultural hegemony in his heart, which is definitely not reflected now, and at least he can get a piece of the pie in the future.

Emerging industries such as electricity, East Africa is still in its infancy, and Ernst has been paving the way for East Africa, mainly in terms of education and talent introduction, which has not yet been revealed.

Needless to say, East Africa follows the path of Germany, with strong support for heavy industry, which makes East Africa produce more than one million tons of steel.

Of course, the biggest gap between the two countries is the military level, and East Africa's national defense strength has actually reached the level of a great power, especially after defeating Portugal, no country dares to underestimate East Africa's military strength.

Although Japan is relatively poor in its military arsenal, it cannot keep up with the military level of East Africa by smashing pots and selling iron, and the East African Navy alone is the existence that Japan looks up to.

East Africa can be said to be far ahead of Japan in terms of population, but in fact, East Africa also has an advantage in terms of population, after all, the lives of black people are life, and 20 million black people in East Africa have made important contributions to the development of East Africa.

The reason why Ernst compares Japan is also a helpless move, there are almost no emerging countries that can be compared with the development of East Africa in this era, East Africa has not reached the level of Germany and the United States, Italy is divided because of Ernst's reasons, and other countries like Belgium and Romania are pitifully small in size.

On the countries closest to the national strength of East Africa, in fact, it should be Ottoman and Spain, Ernst personally believes that the military strength of the Ottoman is stronger than Spain, after all, the tenth Russo-Turkish war, the performance of the Ottoman is still very eye-catching, Spain at the end of the century does not have much bright performance, but the Ottoman Empire is facing a much worse geopolitical situation than Spain, but it does not affect the Ottoman status as a great power.

Spain's strength is more reflected in the sea and colonies, and the mainland is not bad, and it is in Europe decent.

In addition to these countries, what is in front of East Africa is nothing more than Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Austria and the United States plus a Far Eastern Empire, Ernst is not praising the Far Eastern Empire because of his identity as a Far Easterner in his previous life, but the Far Eastern Empire is indeed an extremely influential power in this era, in addition to the above powers, the Far Eastern Empire really has this strength.

It's just that the Far Eastern Empire can't give full play to its own strength, the Qing government is timid for its own rule, on the one hand, it vigorously supports the development of the military industry, but it does not dare to invest too much in the military, after all, the Qing government's Eight Banners system has become a waste, and the Han people are strictly guarded against it, and the foreign military is always indecisive, and naturally it has been defeated repeatedly, but many wars are actually fought well in the early stage, but as soon as capable people emerge, they will be restricted.

Therefore, by comparing with other countries in the world, Ernst believes that the national strength of East Africa should be exactly between the great powers and non-great powers, and without Italy, the position of the goalkeeper of the great powers is Spain, and East Africa should be ranked below Spain.

(End of chapter)