African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1554 The Two-Winged Market
The Habsburg royal family's plan to flee was naturally a secret, to be carried out covertly, with the cooperation of the East African royal families. Furthermore, Emperor Rudolf's foresight proved remarkably accurate; for the Habsburg royal family at that moment, East Africa was the perfect refuge.

He had realized that if the Habsburg family remained in Europe, they might be affected by war—not the Austro-Hungarian civil war or regional wars, but a massive war like World War I that would engulf the whole of Europe.

Therefore, it will be difficult to find a safe haven in Europe in the future. At this time, the Habsburg royal family, having lost its ruling foundation, will be like a rootless duckweed, drifting with the wind and rain if they remain in Europe.

……

East Kalimantan colony.

Samarinda City.

As East Africa becomes increasingly open to East Kalimantan, Samarinda's status in East Kalimantan is also rising. Compared to Tanjung in the north and Macham in the south, Samarinda is surrounded by richer and more diverse resources.

This led to Samarinda absorbing a large number of immigrants arriving in the East Kalimantan colony, and today, another European immigrant ship has arrived at the port of Samarinda.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Samarinda, the second largest city on Kalimantan Island. The largest city on the entire Kalimantan Island is Pontianak in the west, followed by Samarinda. After all, Pontianak is one of the earliest developed areas of the Empire, and it is also the capital of the Empire's Lanfang Overseas Province. Its political status is different from that of Samarinda."

"However, this does not mean that Samarinda's future will be worse than Pontianak's. In the past decade or so, Samarinda has been the fastest-growing city in the entire Kalimantan Island."

"I can say with certainty that even if this city were placed in the Austro-Hungarian Empire or in Europe, its level of development would be considered to be above average."

The captain of the Welfare ship introduced the immigrants to the situation in Samarinda.

To be realistic, even the colonies in East Africa, such as Samarinda and the whole of East Kalimantan, were far more developed than the colonies of other neighboring countries.

The so-called colonial activities in East Africa are more like investments in the local area. After all, there are no so-called "indigenous people" or "natives" in East Kalimantan now, so there is no so-called "colonial economy".

The most typical example is that there are no "slums" in East Kalimantan. To the north are the British colonies in Kalimantan: Sarawak, Sabah, and Brunei.

In these areas, the gap between rich and poor is immediately apparent. The differences between the areas inhabited by the British, the areas inhabited by the local upper class, and the homes of ordinary people are quite obvious.

The latter's so-called residence was simply a dilapidated shack built on the edge of the city, with no planning, breeding mosquitoes, and overflowing with dirty water.

Although there are rich and poor areas in Samarinda, the poor areas have height restrictions, paved roads, running water, and some areas even have electricity.

The captain of the Welfare ship said, "Samarainda has its own industry, clean drinking water, food, streetlights, and the best security in all of Southeast Asia, etc."

"So, living here might be completely different from what you imagined before. Apart from the environment being very different from Europe, there are almost no major drawbacks..."

The two Croatian immigrants, Borut and his companion Pahor, paid no attention to the captain's long speech. Instead, they leaned over the railing, gazing intently at the scenery of the city of Sanmalinda.

Samarinda is built on the banks of the Mahakan River, which is so wide that it is at least the widest river Borut has ever seen.

Boats of all sizes were constantly converging on the river towards Samarinda, most of them transporting timber, crops, and coal from the inland.

Although it cannot compare to the bustling and magnificent port of Trieste, it still demonstrates that the city's economy is thriving and full of vitality.

Borut had previously worked in Trieste, though he wasn't originally from Trieste; he came from a rural area in Croatia. Later, Trieste was affected by the economic crisis, and Borut lost his job.

That's why Borut was able to board the Welfare Ship and arrive in Samarinda through an immigration company.

“Pahor, I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but I feel like Sanmalinda is even more prosperous than Trieste,” Borut said, leaning against the railing.

"This city doesn't look any smaller than Trieste, but that's impossible. Trieste is one of the largest cities in Europe."

Pahor agreed: "You're right. Trieste was one of the top cities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while the so-called Sanmalinda was just a city in a colony in East Africa."

"Sanmalinda is probably not as big as Trieste, but its size still exceeded my expectations, which is a good thing for us. I was worried that this place was a godforsaken place!"

In terms of city size, Trieste and San Malinda are roughly equal, with a population of around 300,000 each. Of course, Trieste's actual population should be even larger, as it was the largest port city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and saw very frequent travel between people.

The population of Sanmalinda is almost entirely located here, so to be more precise, the permanent residents of the two cities are roughly equal, but Trieste has more than just permanent residents.

Even so, the population size of Samarinda is, as Pahol said, somewhat exaggerated.

The reason for this situation lies in the unique characteristics of East African colonies. The urban development path of East Kalimantan is more similar to the South American model, with the population mainly concentrated in towns and cities.

This is a kind of advanced urbanization. On the Eurasian continent, the urbanization process is a gradual process. The original population was concentrated in the countryside, and only after entering the industrial era did they begin to gradually move into the cities.

When East Kalimantan became a colony, immigrants concentrated in coastal towns and then gradually spread inland and to rural areas, in the opposite direction to Eurasia.

The situation in East Africa was different. In the past, East Africa prioritized agricultural development, so through administrative means, most immigrants were forcibly relocated to various parts of East Africa. It was not until after the 20th century that urban development began to accelerate.

After all this upheaval, East Africa has become more like Eurasia, and has developed a unique rural culture. Even now, nearly half of East Africa's population still lives in rural areas.

The United States also went through a similar process, but it was not as thorough as the one initially implemented in East Africa.

South America serves as a contrasting example to the US and East Africa. For a period, most South American immigrants lived in cities, with urbanization levels even exceeding those of East Africa and the US. However, this urbanization lacked support; the economic quality of cities outside the capital was very low. For instance, in Argentina, apart from Buenos Aires, the size and industrial base of other cities were somewhat inadequate.

The situation in Samarinda is similar to that of South American cities, but there are some differences. In East Africa, populations are diverted through administrative means. For example, in East Kalimantan, there are not only Samarinda, but also Tanjung and Matchen. Although Tanjung and Matchen are not as good as Samarinda, they are not far behind.

Borut said, "You're right, but on the surface, Sanmalinda is probably the second best city I've ever seen after Trieste."

“I originally thought that living conditions here would be very harsh and that there would be a lot of plantations, but after seeing Sanmalinda, I feel that there is probably no place in Croatia more developed than Sanmalinda except for the capital.”

Although Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was one of the poorest regions in the empire, basically relying on agriculture for its livelihood. Compared to East Kalimantan, it was indeed likely less economically developed.

After all, East Kalimantan now has a population of over three million, while the Kingdom of Croatia has a population of about the same level.

However, East Kalimantan has a larger land area and more abundant resources than Croatia, and its ports and transportation are also more developed.

In terms of ports, East Kalimantan's three major cities, Malinda, Tanjung and Machan, are all port cities, while Croatia only has Rijeka, which is of a decent size.

Croatia in this era is significantly different from Croatia in the previous era. Because of the existence of the Dalmatian Kingdom, a large part of Croatia's coastline and ports in the previous era belonged to Dalmatia, such as Zadar and Split.

At the same time, East Kalimantan not only has convenient maritime transport, but also has advantages in inland waterway transport that Croatia cannot match. Samarinda is built on the banks of the Mahakan River, while the Croatian coast does not have such a river connecting it to the inland.

Moreover, despite East Kalimantan being a colony in East Africa and seemingly inferior, Croatia, within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was probably even less powerful than an East African colony. In the past, Croatia was a de facto "colony" of Hungary for a long time, which is similar to the situation in Tsarist Russia, outside of Russia.

Therefore, East Kalimantan's economy is actually much stronger than Croatia's, and if Sanmalinda were in Croatia, it would immediately become the largest city.

Pahol also expressed some longing for his future days in Samarinda.

“We might do just as well here as we did in Croatia. The only downside might be that we’re not used to the environment here.”

The only downside of Samarinda is its sweltering heat, given its tropical location.

While the two were talking, the captain of the Welfare ship finally finished introducing the three Marindas and said to everyone, "After arriving here, everyone can start a new life and say goodbye to the past."

"East Kalimantan is definitely a livable place. The environment may look a bit harsh, but you can gradually adapt after staying there for a while."

"Moreover, it is much more stable here than in Europe, with no wars or conflicts."

The immigrants on the Welfare were mostly from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Some of them came here to escape the turbulent situation and economic crisis.

Of course, what they didn't know was that East Kalimantan was not a safe place either, especially in the future, as it could become one of the main battlegrounds for East Africa's struggle with a certain country. However, at least for the next few years, East Kalimantan was safe.

As the economic crisis spread and developed in Europe, the number of immigrants to the East African overseas colonies was on the rise in 1933.

Among them, East Kalimantan and other Southeast Asian colonies have the fastest population growth. East Kalimantan, which has the largest population among East African colonies, is expected to have a population of over five million or even more in the next ten years.

This wave of immigration, coupled with the high birth rate in the colonies, will greatly alleviate the problem of population, or rather, labor shortage, in the future colonies of East Africa.

This is not the end of the migration from overseas colonies; if large-scale turmoil occurs in Europe, the pace will accelerate even further. Currently, although the internal situation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is quite tense, it is relatively stable overall. However, the collapse of this stability is highly likely to occur in the near future.

The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire would trigger a chain reaction, potentially involving the entire region, including the Balkans, the Italian peninsula, and western Ukraine.

However, this is a good thing for East Africa in some ways. Although East Africa does not want to see the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, everyone now knows that the Austro-Hungarian Empire is difficult to maintain.

East Africa must consider finding new political allies or proxies in Europe to safeguard its interests, which will also accelerate the decoupling process between East Africa and Europe.

After all, no political ally or proxy could have been more beneficial to East Africa than the continued existence of Austria-Hungary. For example, Germany was too assertive in its diplomacy and cooperation with East Africa, while the expansion of countries like the Soviet Union in Europe was clearly not in East Africa's interest, and other countries were too small.

Looking across Europe, only Italy seems capable of cooperating with East Africa to replace the Austro-Hungarian Empire. While Italy does have strong complementarity with East Africa and is quite powerful, its leader, Benito, is uncertain.

Therefore, if the Austro-Hungarian Empire disintegrates, East Africa will find it difficult to find a stable and high-quality partner to maintain its interests in Central and Eastern Europe. As a result, East Africa will inevitably be in a period of temporary strategic contraction in its relations with Europe.

If we want to support another pro-East African power similar to Austria-Hungary, we may have to wait until after the outbreak of World War II.

During this period, East Africa could only compensate for its losses in Europe by strengthening its expansion and control over other markets, with the key focus being the "two-wing market" strategy that East Africa was planning.

The so-called twin markets are the "Southeast Asian Market" in the east and the "South American Market" in the west. These two markets are located on the left and right sides of East Africa, like wings, hence the name.

East Africa has already established a considerable market presence in South America. Although it entered the market late, it has seen rapid results. After all, South America has been developed for hundreds of years, and the original market owners, Spain, Portugal, and Britain, have all declined.

Their decline benefited East Africa and the United States, which in turn gained an advantage in the competition due to their geographical location. As a result, South America has now become one of the engines of East Africa's economic growth, offering quick returns with minimal investment.

In contrast, the Southeast Asian market has seen significant investment from East Africa, but it lacks a large population and requires time to grow.

Of course, the main reason is that the developed territories in the Southeast Asian market are not in the hands of East Africa, but are controlled by Britain and France. Therefore, East Africa hopes that an East Asian country will break the balance in the Southeast Asian region and thus set the stage for the re-division of regional markets in East Africa.

(End of this chapter)