Chapter 539: On Neighbors
"Uncle Karl, for now you should stay in First Town. Developing a colony takes time—especially in Africa, where caution is essential. So staying in First Town will help you stay in contact with Leopold and the others, while also allowing you to supervise the pace of colonization."
Inviting Prince Karl to remain in First Town was only proper. It was unthinkable to send a seventy-year-old man alone to Chad.
Chad was truly desolate at this time, with more wild animals than humans. This was partly because East Africa had arrived, forcing many Black African powers to flee westward. In Africa, it's a constant push and pull between humans and wildlife—wherever Black Africans left space that East Africa didn't occupy, wild animals moved back in.
So for now, East Africa's border forces were more likely to conduct large-scale hunting in Chad than to clash with any Black factions.
In fact, as the population of East Africa grew, its wildlife resources were also heavily impacted. So this military trip to Chad could also bring some profit, especially from ivory and leather.
Ernst continued: "Colonial development is not something that happens overnight—especially in Africa. One misstep could ruin everything. After all, there are plenty of failed colonial ventures in Africa. But as long as we follow East Africa's example, repeating the process in Chad shouldn't be too difficult. We can send experienced specialists to support you."
These "specialists" were veteran East Africans who had lived through the birth of the East African colony, overcoming countless hardships. Their experience was beyond valuable.
In fact, there were already two East African divisions stationed near Chad. These forces could help Sigmaringen resolve most future issues.
The military had always been the vanguard of East Africa's colonial expansion. The border troops were trained to manage all kinds of risks, and the army served as a training ground for East Africa's human resources.
In the army, soldiers not only learned to march and fight, but were also introduced to new things—especially machinery and technology. The military camps also helped improve literacy rates.
East Africa's troops had a basic level of medical training too. Every soldier knew some basic bandaging and disinfection skills.
So if Sigmaringen encountered any problems, asking the East African army for help would likely solve them—whether military or civil.
"Ernst, how long do you think it would take us to establish a colony in Chad and incorporate the areas you mentioned into Sigmaringen, or even go further?"
Ernst thought for a moment and replied: "If it's just about establishing basic colonial order, similar to other colonies, then it would only take a few years. You wouldn't even need a large population—just a few thousand people would be enough to establish colonial rule in Africa."
In a previous life, German East Africa had only a few thousand Germans but controlled nearly a million square kilometers. But that kind of colonial rule wasn't very stable and couldn't compete with other colonial powers like the British.
Ernst's approach—using a mass-mobilization strategy directly in Africa—was non-mainstream. He wasn't just plundering wealth; he aimed to carve out territory and build a country.
So Ernst said, "If Sigmaringen's colony wants real development, it should follow East Africa's path. The natives are completely unreliable—they could rebel at any time."
"And to be honest, Africa's colonial prospects are no worse than Europe's. Take East Africa: once developed, it became a great power through its native resources alone. That wouldn't have been possible in Europe. Hechingen never had that kind of opportunity in Europe."
"African land is easy to acquire now, but this is the last window of opportunity—especially in Central and West Africa, where competition is far more intense than when we colonized East Africa. But their colonization starts from the western coast inward, which makes the inland your best chance."
When East Africa was colonized, the only real competition was from the French. Thanks in large part to the Sultanate of Zanzibar, East Africa faced no real rivals.
Had this been a few decades earlier, during the Sultanate's peak, colonizing East Africa would've been much harder. The Sultanate was bold and aggressive back then, so timing is everything.
"Now all the countries are scrambling over West Africa. Because they're tied up along the coast, they have little energy left to explore inland. So, Uncle Karl, you'd best complete the colony's framework within a few years—wait too long, and there may not even be scraps left."
"Besides, this land covers over two million square kilometers. In the future, if the population grows and we're aggressive enough, we might even gain an outlet to the South Atlantic. That would be far more valuable than anything in Romania."
Of course, Romania's climate and environment are better overall than Chad's. But southern Chad and parts of Cameroon are on par with Romania in many respects.
Northern Chad and Darfur, though arid, are rich in mineral and oil resources. Most of Chad's mineral wealth is in the north.
Romania is best known for its oil—Germany's wartime fuel depot in WWII. Chad's most valuable resource is also oil. And to France in a past life, Chad's uranium was crucial too.
So Chad had a lot of potential—most importantly, it was vast. Unlike the Romania of today, which hadn't absorbed much Hungarian land like before, Chad alone was over ten times Romania's current size. Southern Chad's arable land alone was larger than all of Romania.
"No problem. So you're saying the plan is to grab the land first and then solidify our hold over the next few years. Right?"
"Exactly, Uncle Karl. Now's the time to act fast. Strike first. And don't worry about population. Even if we can't recruit enough people from Europe, we'll easily get people from the Far East."
Ernst's strategy was to squeeze out the Black African population through immigration. It didn't matter if the settlers were white or Asian—as long as they could form a buffer between East and West African populations. But such a barrier needed people—lots of them.
History has shown that purely physical barriers don't work. The Great Wall couldn't stop nomads. The U.S.-Mexico border wall can't stop migrants. Barbed wire on the Myanmar border can't stop desperate people either.
So the best way was to build buffer zones. And there's no better buffer than culturally similar nations. Sigmaringen's colony would use German as its only official language, just like East Africa, making cultural integration natural. And Sigmaringen had the best relationship with the Hechingen royal family, so no conflicts of interest.
Creating a Sigmaringen colony in northern East Africa would benefit East Africa greatly. At least compared to past refugee waves of Arabs and Black Africans in Europe, such events were unlikely in East Africa. After all, East Africa wasn't the U.S., which messed up its neighbors.
Like the saying goes, "You become like those you surround yourself with." The U.S. turned the Americas into a mess and was tainted in turn—hence the drug and immigration problems.
These problems didn't hurt American elites or politicians, but they greatly harmed the country's poorest citizens.
So Ernst didn't want East Africa's neighboring countries to fall into ruin either. Just like in any society, having good neighbors is a blessing. Bad neighbors are like those around the Far Eastern Empire—chaotic. And even then, the Far Eastern Empire still had to maintain fragile relations. Wars nearby would affect its economy and investments too.
That's why Ernst didn't want to live next to Black nations. Not only were many poorly governed, but some West African groups already held grudges against East Africa—many had been expelled by East Africans. So better to keep some distance.
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