African Nationhood

"Woo~~"

The huge hull of the "Tete" cruise ship slowly sailed into Fernand Velosu Bay and docked slowly towards the port city of Nacala Peninsula.

With the deepening of immigration work, the native population of South China increased, and the population of Matabeleland, the East African Administrative Region, the Transvaal Region, the Orange Region and the Natal Region all experienced significant growth.

(The administrative subdivision of the East African Administrative Office will begin soon, and the collection of regional names will begin soon.

I hope that the names you choose should be in line with regional characteristics as much as possible and not purely Chinese names.

The East African Administration is expected to be divided into 5 to 6 regions. The remaining undivided areas of the East African Administration are the areas south of the Zambezi River and north of the Limpopo River)

The rapid growth of population has greatly accelerated the development of various regions.

After Rhodesia Company became the sole proprietorship of Boss Shi, the Portuguese people in Rhodesia Company were notified that they could either stay and be obedient citizens, or get out.

The remaining subjects of the Rhodesian Company retained their personal assets. The Portuguese could only invest in minerals and road transportation, but were not allowed to retain plantations.

The Rhodesian Company will adopt a redemption policy for the Portuguese plantations and will not buy or sell them by force.

Such a strong policy of the Rhodesian Company caused most Portuguese to leave the country and return to Europe or go to colonies in other European countries.

……

The Nampula area has rich soil and water, and was a key area developed by the Portuguese during the Portuguese East Africa period. This area is dotted with plantations.

After Rhodes took over, several shareholders bought up plantations here. The Portuguese had no way to resist the oppression of the British and could only continue to develop plantations in other parts of the interior.

Boss Shi also took over a large area of ​​plantations within the Rhodesian Company during the wholly-owned acquisition, totaling 20 hectares.

These fertile lands cannot be wasted, and in order to better develop the Rhodesia Company, Shi Jintang instructed the Rhodesia Company to sign an immigration import agreement with the Ministry of Human Resources of the South China Autonomous Territory.

The agreement requested the Ministry of Human Resources of the South China Autonomous Territory to help the Rhodesian Company transport immigrants, and the reward would be domestic output, such as food and human resources.

In order to facilitate immigration, the traffic conditions within the Rhodesia Company must be improved first.

Therefore, starting in 1908, David Bell, general manager of the Rhodesia Company, mobilized a large number of black people to start renovating the Nacala Port.

Fernand Velosu Bay is an excellent deep-water harbor with a deep channel that can berth 10,000-ton giant ships.

It is closer than the previous ports of Beira and Mapu, saving more than 1000 kilometers of cruise travel.

The Rhodesian Company also signed an agreement with the Ministry of Transport of the South China Autonomous Territory. The Ministry of Transport of South China will help the Rhodesian Company build a railway from Nampula to the Nacala Peninsula to facilitate the transfer of immigrants.

In addition to these, Shi Jintang also misappropriated the low-interest loans obtained by the South China Autonomous Region from Germany into the construction of Nacala Port City.

Among the projects introduced from Germany, there are a series of factories such as fish processing plants, grain processing plants, oil pressing plants, sisal processing plants and cotton gins.

With these factories settled, this port city will rise rapidly.

……

After the construction of this port was completed at the beginning of this year, it began to receive immigrants from the Qing Dynasty.

After more than half a year of accepting new immigrants, 5 new immigrants have been retained here.

The remaining immigrants were imported to work on the plantations in the Nampula area through rail transportation. As they entered, the black indentured laborers would exit.

These blacks will be mobilized to work in the tsetse fly-infested areas of the interior, building roads, railways and mining in the Lake Malawi and Tanganyika Great Lakes areas.

If they can suffer from narcolepsy during work, then they will be lucky. If they don't get sick, they can only accept the fate of death from work.

The number of black workers controlled by the South China and Rhodesia companies has been reduced to less than 50 after years of continuous consumption.

Gold mines, diamond mines, coal mines, iron mines and manganese mines all require a large number of manpower, and the Ministry of Human Resources has submitted a warning letter to the cabinet about labor shortages.

Cabinet Ouyang Geng also suggested several times to Chairman Shi, hoping to open up new territories to control more black indentured laborers. Chairman Shi looked at Portuguese West Africa on the map and fell into deep thought.

In the original time and space next year, there will be a bourgeois revolution in Portugal, and the Portuguese royal family will be overthrown and exiled to the United Kingdom.

If you want to win this territory, you can only take advantage of this opportunity.

In addition, the Portuguese are building the Benguela Railway in Portuguese West Africa. They are working hard. If they come to the door at this time, aren't they asking for trouble?

Let the Portuguese work first. If we go there this time next year, we can save a lot of hard work in building the railway.

Chairman Shi was unmoved by Ouyang Geng and the Ministry of Human Resources' instigation.

He said there was no rush in this matter, we would first use up the black labor we have on hand, and then talk about new territories and human resources.

Ouyang Geng didn't know Chairman Shi's inner plan, so he had no choice but to leave in despair.

……

In addition to the Nampula region, the Rhodesian Company also has the Blantyre region. The environment here is very suitable for tobacco cultivation, and immigrants will be sent in large numbers to grow tobacco here.

In addition, this is also an area where the British gather. The Rhodesian Company has also communicated with the British here, and their land property rights here will be retained for the time being.

Let them develop with peace of mind here, as the future is not certain.

Even if the Rhodesian Company is merged into the South China Dominion in the future, the land in their hands will not be forcibly plundered and a redemption policy will be adopted.

White British people are very dissatisfied with this policy. They want to communicate with Boss Shi through the British cabinet.

But Boss Shi ignored the British cabinet at all and just told Prime Minister Asquith via telegram that the land policy of the Rhodesia Company was the internal affairs of the Rhodesia Company and that the British cabinet should not meddle in other matters.

The British Prime Minister could only secretly curse Shi Jintang for being greedy and shameless, and he had no other choice.

A real break with Nan Hua would only make the British cabinet more embarrassed.

Prime Minister Arthur Balfour had learned a painful lesson when he resigned because of the South African War. It was absolutely impossible for him to repeat the same mistake again.

Nowadays, South China's sphere of influence is very huge, and Britain must treat the South China Dominion with caution.

Once South China breaks away from British rule and forms an alliance with Germany or France, it will be a disaster for Britain's overseas territories and colonial policy.

However, the British Prime Minister is not without opportunities. Once Nan Hua seeks help from Great Britain, he will have the opportunity to force these greedy Chinese to submit.

Although at present, Nanhua has nothing to ask of Daying.

However, Prime Minister Asquith is not in a hurry. In his opinion, South China still has a long way to go before it wants to become a great power.

There will always be a time when these Chinese people ask for help from the British cabinet, and it will not be too late to negotiate terms at that time.

……

After taking care of his official duties, Shi Jintang rarely had some time to relax. He stretched and was wondering whether to go to Ye Rong's place to accompany his daughter or Jin Xiyue's place to accompany his son.

"Dingling bell~~"

The phone on the table rang and he picked it up.

"Hey, I'm Shi Jintang!"

"Hello, Chairman, my name is Xue Youfu. On behalf of the Naval Command, I invite you to attend the launch ceremony of our navy's cruiser."

Hearing the news, Shi Jintang became interested.

"Okay, Commander Xue, I will go and see how far your navy's ships have developed." (End of Chapter)