CHAPTER 551: CHAPTER 229: HOHENZOLLERN VERSION OF THE "AFRICA PARTITION PLAN

"Uncle Karl, look, this area here is Lake Chad. Just from the map, you can see how vast its water area is. It’s no exaggeration to say it’s possibly second only to the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) and Soron Lake (Lake Tanganyika) among African lakes."

At present, Lake Chad hasn’t dried up as it did in later generations. The water area might be around thirty to forty thousand square kilometers (during the rainy season, the lake’s area expands rapidly), so it’s very conspicuous on the African map drafted in East Africa.

Prince Karl indeed is quite tempted. Such a massive lake would captivate anyone. Lakes and rivers represent civilization, especially a lake of this size next to the Sahara Desert.

"Ernst, does this so-called ’Lake Chad’ really exist?"

It’s no wonder Prince Karl would ask so. In fact, Lake Chad was already discovered in the early 19th century, but the updating and dissemination of maps couldn’t keep up. It wasn’t until recently that European countries began large-scale exploration of Africa.

But apologies, one East African country already occupies nearly one-third of Africa. Even two-thirds of Africa has only the West African area with considerable development value. Although the North African bunch has declined along with the Arab Empire and Ottoman Empire, a broken ship still has three pounds of nails. The cultural imprint isn’t easily erased. This is one of the reasons Algeria gained independence from France in the previous life.

"Uncle Karl, rest assured. If any country knows Africa well, it’s us in East Africa. In fact, the British discovered Lake Chad in 1822 while investigating the relationship between the Niger River and Lake Chad. Later, our exploration team also surveyed the area, and our data is more detailed."

Strictly speaking, the first European to discover Lake Chad was a Scotsman. Lake Chad and the Niger River have no direct connection; rather, in ancient times, Lake Chad was one of the sources of the Nile River. At that time, Lake Chad was even larger than the present-day Caspian Sea.

Ernst continued to explain to Prince Karl, "In the entire Chad region, the north isn’t a great place, with its arid climate and wide deserts. However, the southern savannah and many areas in East Africa are similar, with rainfall between 500 to 1200 millimeters, making it very suitable for agricultural development. The northern area, although with poorer climate, has no competitors. If you can, take as much land as you want; you won’t lose anything. After all, the Arab Empire also originated in the vast deserts of the Arabian Peninsula."

It’s certainly not pure desert. There are quite a few grain-producing areas on the Arabian Peninsula. But with a high population, it’s definitely not enough. Chad’s central and northern areas are almost in the same situation.

"To the east or south is the Cameroon area, which you can also consider. The northwest Darfur is an Arab country. If you want it, you’ll have to take it yourself. The Darfur people should be more challenging than the southern Black people."

"We can send troops to clear parts of Chad and Cameroon for you to use as a base to move forward with colonization. You only need to stabilize and push westward and northward."

Ernst handed over nearly more than two million square kilometers of land to Sigmaringen with a grand gesture, making the well-experienced Prince Karl inadvertently gasp for breath.

Too generous? Or perhaps bold, this is the allure of colonization. Unlike Europe, where they might fight to the death over a village’s land.

Of course, East Africa only mentioned that it would secure a base for Higeneringen. This base being the land of the former Wadai Empire.

The Wadai Empire was a sultanate established by Abbasid Dynasty nobles. In reality, many countries bordering the north and west of East Africa are also sultanates, essentially Arab countries. However, the regions of Chad and Cameroon, including Darfur, are Arab countries dominated by Black people.

Those original sultanates have long ceased to exist, the main culprit being East Africa. The past expulsion of the Black Kingdom within the west from East Africa all passed through here to West Africa.

Such a large-scale population migration inevitably led to conflicts with the local tribal states. Perhaps they could resist a round of migration, but East African Blacks, continuously passing through the area, led many states to become extinct long ago. After all, the Blacks expelled from East Africa were also not weak. With such a distance, they needed material supplies, causing disaster to the local people.

The expedition Ernst mentioned to help Sigmaringen was essentially just a formality. The Black forces near East Africa were already dwindled.

Prince Karl: "But this territory, though vast, is too far from the ocean, making it inconvenient to manage."

Indeed, the distance from the Indian Ocean coast to Chad is quite long. From the Atlantic direction, it’s convenient. Historically, the French did just that. However, among the German states worldwide, Germany is the strongest in the Atlantic, though its navy struggles even in its offshore areas. Hence, the South Atlantic became the sphere of influence of the British and French.

Of course, Germany is symbolically colonizing in West Africa, but due to France’s strong presence there, it hasn’t been very successful. However, Germany has caused significant trouble for the French West African colonies.

The reason is still East Africa. East Africa swallowed the two most important former German colonies in Africa (German East Africa and German South West Africa) in the previous life, so in this life, Germany has more energy to invest in West African colonial endeavors.

"Uncle Karl, you don’t have to worry about this. We can assist you. The northern railway reaches the Great Lakes Region, providing you with transport capacity. The remaining journey to the Chad region is also under our control. It’s only the South Atlantic direction where our navy is too weak to compete with other countries."

Not to mention the British and French, in the South Atlantic, East Africa’s naval strength doesn’t even match Portugal’s. East Africa’s ability to launch an attack on Angola relies entirely on inland areas, supporting the front via railways and roads.

Therefore, if Sigmaringen wants to colonize Chad and its surrounding areas, it would be best to proceed via the East African interior. Of course, railway fees must also be paid, and they can earn some money from Romania in the process to subsidize the East African economy. Moreover, Sigmaringen’s colonization of Chad will certainly require a large workforce via East Africa, where all provisions and amenities must be provided by East Africa.

Even among brothers, accounts must be settled clearly. East Africa’s support for Sigmaringen is already generous, considering others have no opportunity to use the East African railway.

After all, Prince Karl is quite satisfied. He even believes that he has hit the jackpot, as East Africa is essentially gifting him a colony with considerable potential, leaving him to solve the remaining issues.

"Yes, I’ll discuss this with Leopold and the others."

Aside from its own strength, Sigmaringen’s greatest reliance is on East Africa and Romania. East Africa has cleared the territory, leaving the rest to rely mainly on themselves and Romania.

However, Ernst reminded, "The family and the country need to be distinguished, and actually, the military pressure for colonizing the Chad region isn’t substantial. What is needed are people and materials, which we can provide from East Africa at cost price. So I suggest Sigmaringen and Romania separately handle colonization of these areas, especially Darfur, which can be handed over to Romanian troops for settlement, while southern Chad is best controlled by yourselves."

Although the Romanian monarch is Carol I, Romania is not his private property. Hence, it is best to use Romania publicly for the service of Sigmaringen’s royal family.

That is, Sigmaringen and Romania should cooperate in colonizing Chad and nearby areas; otherwise, relying solely on Sigmaringen’s own strength would be quite strenuous.

"Can you also provide population support?"

"Of course, but we can only provide Far East Chinese immigrants. As for the whites, you will have to recruit them yourselves from Romania and nearby regions."

In recent years, East Africa has absorbed all the surplus German population from Europe, especially Germany. Now that the economic crisis is over and the German economy is restarting, despite being affected by the ’long-term depression,’ employment is guaranteed, as those who once competed for jobs have already gone to East Africa, particularly farmers from East Prussia who went bankrupt due to the agricultural crisis.

Thus, historically, the 1880s migration wave from Germany to the United States is no longer possible, and during the 1870s, the United States itself was in an economic crisis and did not absorb German immigrants. This means that the original historical twenty-year German migration has all headed to East Africa.

As a result, the possibility of Sigmaringen recruiting German immigrants on a large scale from Germany is close to zero; East Africa itself cannot recruit them.

Therefore, solutions can only be sought from countries like Romania, and East African immigration from the Far East could be provided. Though, in actuality, recently the number of Far East immigrants to East Africa has greatly reduced, and boat tickets for migration to East Africa have even become a rare commodity.

Because a vital choice in East Africa’s immigration policy is population hedging, now with Germans unreachable, the hedging significance is lost.

So, now many ships from East Africa begin to serve the Black labor trade, primarily providing cheap labor to the Americas, meaning East Africa’s immigration peak has already ended, transitioning to a normal immigration country.

And East Africa’s immigration policies over the past decade have resulted in three outcomes: one, large-scale development and growth in East Africa, alleviating the economic crisis in the German region; two, relieving the human-land conflict in the Far East; and three, providing a significant amount of Black labor to the United States at the expense of reducing the number of white immigrants.

The United States, as a capitalist country, understands cost efficiency. Compared to advertising in Europe and paying ship fees, clearly, Black workers from Southern plantations are more economical.

As for slave trade concerns, Northern industrialists are unaware, since the Blacks leaving the South are free individuals, possibly older but obedient, easy to manage, and even more useful than before. To freely exploit Blacks from plantation owners again, this time, American society does not wish to fight another Civil War.

Ernst is generously providing land and people to Sigmaringen, not out of goodwill, but to create a Black barrier, fully isolating future West African Blacks from East Africa.

In the northwest, there is Belgian Congo; to the northeast, Italian Ethiopia. Only the gap in the middle needs to be filled.

With East African support, Sigmaringen’s colonization in Central Africa (Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, parts of Sudan) has a high likelihood of success.

And Germany securing one or two colonies in West Africa isn’t unlikely, considering Germany historically had Togoland (Togo Republic), Cameroon, even Gabon (a product of the German-French competition over Morocco, compensated by France) and other colonies in West Africa.

Then the three direct branches of the Hohenzollern will have influence in Africa, solidifying the Hohenzollern family’s title as tribal leaders.