African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1746 West African Migrants
The next day, Hachiro Arita met with Ambassador Mah again and told him about the Japanese government's decision: in addition to recognizing the Sunda Strait as part of East Africa's sphere of influence, the Japanese government could also meet some of East Africa's demands on other issues.

After consulting with the Japanese government, Ambassador Mach signed the relevant treaty with the Japanese government, thus achieving the objective of this East Africa mission.

Rhine City.

Crown Prince Frederick was very satisfied with the result.

He told Ernst, "Both of our main objectives in this engagement with the Japanese government have been achieved, especially the resumption of immigration to the Far Eastern Empire."

"Now is the time when the two Habsburg kingdoms need a large number of immigrants to fill their newly expanded territories."

Resuming immigration was a key objective that Crown Prince Frederick had specifically instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to negotiate with Japan.

Moreover, for East Africa to resume immigration, in addition to developing its own colonies, it is even more important to take into account the immigration needs of the two Habsburg kingdoms.

Previously, the Habsburg family had newly occupied nearly 300,000 square kilometers of land in West Africa, while the two families had a combined population of less than 200,000, making it a sparsely populated country.

Therefore, in order to further reduce the living space of Black people and Muslims on the African continent, and also for the "Greater East Africa" ​​population strategy, a stable source of immigrants is needed.

Throughout history, the only places where the world's population has spilled over have been Eurasia. With the special requirements and standards of East Africa, the number of targets to choose from is even smaller.

……

Portonovo, Habsburg Monarchy.

After taking over Dahomey, it became the new political center of the Habsburg Monarchy. The Habsburg government was busy moving from the original capital, Natitlingo, to Portonovo, the former capital of the French colony of Dahomey.

Although Nattitingu and Porto Novo are currently similar in terms of urban development, Porto Novo clearly has a greater development prospect than Nattitingu.

At the same time, moving the capital to Portonovo also helped strengthen the Habsburg monarchy's control over Dahomey.

Previously, there had been discussions within the Habsburg monarchy regarding the choice of a new capital, specifically between Portonovo and Cotonou.

Porto Novo's advantage lies in being the former capital of a French colony, while Cotonou is Dahomey's most important port town.

Ultimately, Karl I chose Portonovo as the new capital of the Habsburg monarchy.

Karl I's priority was security, since the Habsburg monarchy didn't have a strong navy to protect its coastline, and he worried about a possible French comeback.

Of course, another reason for choosing Portonovo was to lay the groundwork for the future expansion of the Habsburg monarchy.

Portonovo is located right next to the border between the Habsburg Monarchy and Nigeria, making it a potential forward base for the Habsburg Monarchy's expansion into Nigeria.

Less than 100 kilometers east of Porto Novo lies Lagos, the capital of the British colony of Nigeria.

This demonstrates the importance of Portonovo as a future base for the Habsburg monarchy's eastward expansion.

Of course, after annexing Dahomey and moving the capital to Portonovo, Charles I became even busier, with a host of problems to solve.

For example, in suppressing the local indigenous forces in Dahomey, Charles I has not yet taken action against the local indigenous people. Population restrictions are one of the biggest challenges that Charles I faces.

At this moment, in the palace of Portonov.

Porto Novoro Palace, formerly the residence of the French governor, is now used by Charles I as his temporary residence and office.

The Habsburg Chancellor, Bright, was reporting to Karl I at Portonovo Palace on the population situation in Dahomey.

"Your Majesty, according to our rough statistics and the data left by the French, the current black population in Dahomey is about 1.2 million, which is almost more than ten times the population of our Habsburg Monarchy."

"Moreover, the Black population in Dahomey is mainly in tribal form, which makes the local population extremely dispersed, further increasing the difficulty for us to manage and govern the area."

After conquering Dahomey, the Habsburg monarchy immediately conducted a census of the local black population. While the data may not be entirely accurate, the error was certainly not significant.

Karl I frowned and said, "One million two hundred thousand people..."

One million two hundred thousand is not a large number, but for the newly established Habsburg monarchy, it was an astronomical figure, especially since these one million two hundred thousand people were not "their own people".

Prime Minister Bright said, "Yes, Your Majesty, we must treat these 1.2 million Black people with great care if we want to govern them, otherwise it may provoke a huge backlash from them."

“Our Habsburg Monarchy has too small a population, and given the vastness and sparseness of the empire, it would be a huge challenge for us if so many black people were to roam the kingdom.”

The Black population was too large for the Habsburg Monarchy, but the Habsburg Monarchy itself was extremely underpopulated, given that the Habsburg Monarchy now covered an area of ​​nearly 100,000 square kilometers.

Prime Minister Bright stated, "We urgently need to bring in immigrants to address the issues of empire's stability and development."

Speaking of immigration, this was another headache for Charles I. He said with a wry smile, "It's not easy to recruit immigrants from Europe and Asia now."

"Although many Europeans chose to flee the war to escape the chaos, their primary destination was the Americas, and they looked down on our place."

It is no longer the 19th century. With the rapid development in recent years, many parts of Europe have completed industrialization, which has greatly increased the requirements for destination standards for European immigrants.

The most popular destination for European immigrants today is the Americas, including countries like Canada, the United States, and Argentina.

Then there's East Africa, but in recent years, East Africa's demand for European immigrants has greatly decreased. After all, East Africa's own population has reached more than 200 million, so there's no need to "scam" or "deceive" Europe as in the past.

Of course, the colonies in East Africa still had a strong demand for immigrants, but they faced the same problem as the Habsburg monarchies: Europeans didn't value them.

The situation was even more awkward for the Habsburg monarchy. At least some of its colonies in East Africa had been developed, and it had the world's leading power in East Africa as its backing and a symbol of strength.

The Habsburg Monarchy is probably unheard of by Europeans; they might mistake it for the historical Habsburg Monarchy. This refers to the time when the Habsburg family was still active in Europe.

Moreover, the Habsburg monarchy was located in West Africa, one of the most underdeveloped regions in the world.

Therefore, it was not easy for the Habsburg monarchy to recruit immigrants from Europe. The reason why East Africa was able to swindle so many immigrants from Europe in the past was because Germany was a high ground for European immigrants at that time. At that time, Germany had a large population and was poor, so East Africa could easily absorb a large number of immigrants from Germany.

However, the German region has now completely "escaped poverty" and has even become one of the richest regions in the world.

In addition, another reason why the Habsburg monarchy found it difficult to recruit immigrants from the German region was that the German region at that time was militarily strong and had an advantage in war.

Germany, including the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, was generally able to maintain stability. Under these circumstances, the Germans were naturally unwilling to make unnecessary trouble and go to West Africa to explore new lands.

In the 19th century, when East Africa was recruiting German immigrants, the German-speaking regions were in a state of great chaos. In fact, Germany was not unified in its early stages, and wars were frequent.

War was also a major reason for the Germans to emigrate; in short, the Habsburg monarchy was simply not in a good position.

Prime Minister Bright said, "There's nothing we can do about it. Right now, the only places in Europe where we can still find people are the Balkans and Italy, which are arguably the poorest regions in Europe right now."

The Balkan Peninsula can be considered the lowest point of development in Europe, the poorest region, while Italy's main problem is its large population.

Therefore, even after unification, Italy's economy developed well, but it still lagged behind other European countries.

Even so, immigration from the Balkans and Italy was far from sufficient for the Habsburg monarchy.

The reason is simple: both places are currently relatively stable and have not been affected by the war.

Even without the support of the Dalmatian Kingdom and East Africa, it would have been impossible for the Habsburg monarchy to recruit people from either of these places.

The Kingdom of Dalmatia was also a kingdom controlled by the Habsburg family, and its king was also Karl I, who was the last king of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Because they were both members of the Habsburg family, Charles I of the Dalmatian Kingdom offered assistance to help the Habsburg monarchy and the new Austrian kingdom in West Africa recruit immigrants in the Balkans.

Prime Minister Bright continued, "It is too difficult to recruit immigrants from Europe. Right now, our only hope is immigrants from Asia, but unfortunately, Asia is also in trouble because of the war."

“In particular, the immigration work of the Far Eastern Empire almost came to a complete standstill after 1939, and now it can only absorb people from Southeast Asia.”

Even after the Far Eastern Empire's immigration channels were paralyzed due to war and the Japanese blockade, East Africa still tried to provide immigrants to the two Habsburg kingdoms from Southeast Asia.

This included immigrants from densely populated areas in Southeast Asia, such as the French Indochina colonies and the Dutch East Indies colonies.

At this point, Karl I said angrily, "These damned Japanese, they are at war with the Far Eastern Empire, yet they are hindering the Empire's progress in absorbing immigrants from the Far Eastern Empire."

“If it weren’t for that, we wouldn’t be so worried about the Empire’s population problem right now.”

Karl I's resentment toward Japan stemmed not only from the issue of immigration, but also from the significant implications it had for the future development of the Habsburg monarchy.

For example, the development of the Habsburg monarchy required a large number of immigrants. Without a sufficient population, the development of the fertile land of Dahomey would not have been possible.

At the same time, the Habsburg monarchy also needed immigrants to build an army in order to suppress the local black natives, which affected the stability of the Habsburg monarchy.

Finally, the Habsburg monarchy aimed to expand further into Nigeria, a British colony whose strength far surpassed that of French Dahomey.

The Dahomey colony was a remote area in the former French West Africa, while Nigeria was the absolute center of British West African colonies.

Nigeria alone has a military force of nearly 100,000, which is an extremely exaggerated number. Although the main composition of the Nigerian army is indigenous, it is not something that the Habsburg monarchy can easily ignore.

The reason why the number of British troops in Nigeria is so exaggerated is not only because Nigeria itself has a large population, but also because of the adverse surrounding situation Nigeria faces.

The threat, especially in East Africa, is the main reason why Britain is willing to increase its military involvement in Nigeria.

Leaving aside East Africa, even the Kingdom of South Germany, a dependent state of East Africa, posed a significant threat and pressure to Nigeria in the eyes of the British.

Not to mention that East Africa also has the Togoland colony in West Africa. Although the Togoland colony does not border Nigeria, it is adjacent to the British Gold Coast colony. At the same time, Togoland has Lomé Port, an important naval port in East Africa in West Africa. This means that Togoland is fully capable of cooperating with the Kingdom of South Germany to launch a war against the various British colonies in West Africa.

Now, the British are more wary of East Africa, especially after the Habsburg monarchy and the new Austrian kingdom defeated the French.

British colonies around the Gulf of Guinea were right under the noses of East Africa, so for the security of colonies like Nigeria, the British had been strengthening their military presence in West Africa.

This is why Nigeria has a military force of nearly 100,000 people.

The sheer size of Nigeria's military force posed a significant challenge for Karl I, as Nigeria was crucial to the Habsburg monarchy's potential to become a major power in West Africa.

Therefore, to ensure everything went smoothly, Charles I needed more troops, which in turn required more manpower and funding, both of which were closely related to immigration.

Just as Karl I and Prime Minister Bright were racking their brains over the immigration issue, the Habsburg Foreign Minister arrived at the palace with a smile on his face.

Holding a telegram, he excitedly said to Karl I, "Your Majesty, good news!"

"A telegram has arrived from Rhine City. The East African government has informed us that the immigration channels to the Far Eastern Empire have been reopened, and we can resume our recruitment efforts for immigrants to the Far Eastern Empire!"

Karl I quickly took the telegram, and after confirming it, he laughed heartily and said, "This telegram has come at just the right time. Immediately inform the new Kingdom of Austria so we can discuss the immigration matters together."

In fact, even without Charles I's notification, the East African government had already sent a telegram to the Kingdom of New Austria.

Unlike the Habsburg monarchy, the New Austrian Kingdom did not relocate its capital. Its capital remained in Dapon. Although they had annexed Upper Wörth to the north, the New Austrian Kingdom's ultimate goal was the British Gold Coast colony, which was Ghana in the previous life. Therefore, there was no need to move the capital to Upper Wörth. Of course, the environment in Upper Wörth was not necessarily much better than that in Dapon to the south.

(End of this chapter)