African Entrepreneurship Record

Hughes smiled and said to his brother: "There is no need to worry about this. To put it bluntly, if East Africa really comes to attack, the Belgian Congo will only have to surrender. It is impossible for a large-scale war like Europe to happen."

"Our total population here is only a few hundred thousand, and most of them are immigrants from the Far East. If East Africa was really ambitious about the Congo, East Africa would have done this more than ten years ago."

"After all, although East Africa is located in Africa, in my impression, Africa cannot represent the country of East Africa. East Africa's population alone exceeds 100 million, its military strength is strong, and its industrial strength is not inferior to that of European countries. We, the Congo, have no chance of winning against East Africa. What's more, the mainland has been reduced to a battlefield, and the Belgian Congo as a colony cannot be taken into account. "

In Hughes's view, as long as the Belgian Congo surrendered quickly, it was basically unlikely to suffer a big blow, and Herman's ideas did not necessarily represent the ideas of the East African government.

He went on to say: "The war in the country is fought between Germany and France, the two world powers. We, Belgium, are caught between them. We can only be ravaged repeatedly. The two countries often have hundreds of thousands of troops doing evil in Belgium, which is extremely harmful to the people. big."

"This kind of situation is impossible to happen in the Belgian Congo. To put it bluntly, the combined population of our colonies is probably equivalent to that of the East African Defense Forces. If they charge, we can only raise the flag and surrender. And this is all assuming that East Africa is hostile to the East African Defense Forces. Under the premise that we have evil intentions, in short, the Belgian Congo is much safer than the mainland. The most important thing is that there are many opportunities here, which can also be beneficial to the development of our Decro family. "

After listening to his brother's explanation, Herman suddenly realized that his worries were unfounded. Nowadays, Africa can be said to be dominated by East Africa, so there will be no large-scale war.

It is different in Europe. The five major countries, Britain, France, Germany, Austria and Russia, are not even close in strength. No one is convinced by the other. On the contrary, there is no way to defeat the other in a short time. However, this will also greatly increase the intensity and length of the war, which will lead to the war against the other. The negative impact on civilians is huge.

But on the African continent, East Africa has no rivals at all. If East Africa really plans a war with Congo, most people will probably choose to surrender directly instead of resisting.

After all, a colony is a colony. Most Belgian immigrants only regard this place as a place to stay without deep feelings. Therefore, surrender is not a burden for the Belgians in the colony at all. What's more, East Africa is a member of the world's powerful countries. Faced with There is no shame in surrendering to such an opponent.

Although Herman's idea was a little petty, it was understandable. The main reason was that his family had just escaped from the European battlefield and it was not like they would encounter war again.

During the conversation between the two, Hughes did not forget to tease his nephews. Because of his relative wealth, Hughes gave a lot of candies to his three nephews.

"The price of sugar in the Belgian Congo is cheaper than in the mainland. We have always produced white sugar. Now there are many sugar factories in Pointe-Noire, and East Africa is also a major sugar-producing country, so you can eat it freely. This is the white rabbit milk that my uncle specially bought. Sugar is a relatively expensive brand, but don't eat too much, otherwise it will cause tooth decay, and it is not good for your health," Hughes said with a loving look on his face as he rubbed the heads of his nephews.

Herman: "Hughes, you spend too much money. These are not cheap, right? You are not married yet, so you shouldn't spend money so lavishly."

Hughes: "Brother, you don't need to say more. My income is quite considerable, and my family doesn't speak two languages. This is a special gift for my nephews."

Hermann still did not get rid of his inertial thinking and liked to preach on European habits and common sense. However, the Belgian Congo, as a Belgian colony, was very different from the Belgian mainland.

So Hughes continued: "The Belgian Congo is far less backward than you think, and the prices here are also somewhat different from those in the mainland. For example, many tropical fruits and agricultural products are expensive in the mainland, but they are not very valuable here."

"Although the industry here is not too developed, we are close to East Africa, and it is no exaggeration to say that East Africa can provide all the goods we need."

The Belgian Congo is actually one of the dumping grounds for East African products. Although it is a Belgian colony, Belgium simply does not have the courage to reject various East African activities in the Belgian Congo due to its national strength.

This also provides an important foundation for the development of the Belgian Congo. In addition to the investment by the Belgian government, the East African government also invests a lot in the Belgian Congo, mainly in the field of agricultural product processing.

At present, because Belgium has been reduced to a battlefield, the Belgian Congo can be said to have ushered in new development opportunities. Without local dictation, the Belgian Congo colonial government is more independent and can concentrate more power and funds to develop itself.

Because of the war, the Belgian central government has actually lost control of the Congo. In fact, before the Hermann family arrived in Pointe-Noire, the Belgian central government had already embarked on a journey of exile because of the fall of Brussels. Now Belgium The government has already started working in France.

Therefore, the central government of Belgium is like a clay Buddha crossing the river. It cannot protect itself, and it has no time to take care of the Congolese colony thousands of miles away.

In fact, due to the fall of Brussels, the Belgian Congo colony has now lost contact with the Belgian central government. The Belgian Congo colonial government is now a completely independent government agency.

For a while, the central government could not think of the existence of the Belgian Congo, which gave the colonial government of the Belgian Congo a lot of autonomy, including the interception of taxes.

On the other hand, although Germany and Belgium turned against each other, the development of Central Africa has not ended. After all, it is East Africa that leads the development of Central Africa. The absence of Germany does not affect the cooperation between East Africa and Belgium at all, not to mention that East Africa has acquired Gabon in the north. Now the Belgian Congo borders East Africa on three sides, which is more conducive to strengthening East Africa's dominance in regional economic development.

Without Germany, this process has been accelerated. Now East Africa is discussing the construction plan of the Leipzig Railway with the Belgian Congo government.

Because Gabon has become an East African colony, land transportation between Angola in southern East Africa and Gabon can also be carried out, and connecting Angola and Gabon must pass through the Belgian Congo. The initial plan of East Africa is to start from Cabinda City, along the South Atlantic coastline, through Pointe Noire and other Belgian Congo regions, and finally connect to the Port of Libreville in Gabon.

The acceleration of infrastructure construction is obviously beneficial to both Belgian Congo and East Africa. This is a win-win situation. It can strengthen East Africa's national defense and economic construction, and also make Belgian Congo closer to East Africa economically, while Belgian Congo can also increase its own income.

The last and most important point is that there are many Belgians like Hermann who have fled to Belgian Congo. Many of these people are either rich or noble. Their escape from Belgium to Belgian Congo is conducive to increasing local consumption and investment.

After all, those who can run here are not ordinary people. Take Hermann for example. Although Hermann's family conditions are average, he belongs to the type of relatives and friends. If his brother had not developed here, it would not be easy to run here.

In short, the war in Belgium is a good thing for Belgian Congo. As long as this opportunity can be used well, the development of Belgian Congo in the future is worth looking forward to, especially the last point. Domestic immigrants can bring the funds and talents that Belgian Congo lacks for development.

Today, the economic foundation of Belgian Congo is not too bad. If these refugees can be guided to settle there, it will be of great benefit to Belgian Congo. At least compared with the mainland, except for the disadvantage of population, most of the conditions in Belgian Congo are better than those in the mainland.