Chapter 119: The Busy Season
As soon as Christmas ended, East African immigrants returned to their busy lives.
Unlike Europe, where it was truly winter and farmers could rest, many regions in East Africa were entering the short rainy season (typically November to December).
While planting crops, immigrants also needed to dredge rivers and canals to manage irrigation and drainage.
East Africa's climate conditions—if not perfect—were certainly above the global average.
As long as water was sufficient, crops like rice could be planted 2.5 times per year (five seasons every two years).
The colony's current arable lands were all located near rivers, lakes, or in high-rainfall areas.
With the water issue solved, cultivation was no longer a problem, and immigrants had their hands full.
Only during the growing period did some free time arise.
During these lulls, the colony conscripted settlers for territorial expansion.
This was East Africa's expansion model: civilians during planting, soldiers during war.
Even without war, militia training continued—there was rarely true downtime.
This dual system—balancing productivity and readiness—formed the foundation of East Africa's orderly expansion.
Beyond the militia, there was always the standing army.
Typically, militias were enough to deal with natives. Only when they failed did the regular army step in.
But these situations mainly occurred during expansion. Once the colony stabilized or had enough people, the militia wouldn't be needed for combat anymore.
The biggest challenge remained native clearance—impossible without sufficient manpower.
The natives were familiar with the terrain and easily vanished into the hills and forests.
The regular army couldn't afford to play hide-and-seek.
That's why mass militia patrols were essential to fully sweep newly claimed lands.
Even if a few slipped through, it wasn't a big concern.
Like invasive species—without mates, they couldn't reproduce.
That's how East Africa operated today.
There were certainly remnants hiding somewhere. But having lost their tribal support and disconnected from any social system—
even primitive ones—they were unlikely to survive.
All the good land was now taken.
They'd have to live among wild animals. Even if they avoided being eaten and escaped patrols, they'd die alone and forgotten.
African wildlife tended to be social—solitary predators were rare.
Animals had evolved to survive East Africa's conditions better than humans.
So why wasn't East Africa as densely populated as West Africa?
Because the people were too few.
The tribal natives and wild animals were essentially evenly matched.
What made immigrants different was their use of firearms—a dimensional superiority.
Even the fiercest beast fell to a single shot.
Natives needed teamwork—four or five people to kill one predator.
Larger animals like elephants or hippos took the whole village to bring down.
...
Christmas Day itself had been a brief pause—East Africa's way of respecting tradition.
But the rainy season was always the colony's busiest time.
East Africa was underdeveloped and lacked basic infrastructure.
When rains came all at once, it became a real test.
Previously, water simply followed the terrain.
Low-lying areas flooded easily—one reason natives avoided settling near rivers.
They preferred to walk for water, living on higher, drier land.
That's why documentaries often show Africans walking long distances with water jugs.
Some water sources also drew predators—another reason to stay away.
But East African colonists couldn't afford to live that way.
Agriculture was their top industry, and crops needed to be near water.
Predators had already been eliminated, so settlers lived by rivers and lakes.
To irrigate, they dug canals, built waterwheels, and other systems.
However, in the rainy season, rivers often flooded.
So dredging and building levees became essential.
These were massive projects, requiring everyone's participation.
Fortunately, full-scale floods were rare—usually only in extreme years.
And even then, proper preparation minimized damage.
Most farmland wasn't directly by the river—irrigation came via ditches.
Once conditions improved, they would import water pumps and other equipment.
Then, human labor could be replaced.
That day wasn't far off.
Windmills—primitive but effective—could arrive early.
Ernst even planned to send people to the Netherlands to learn their techniques.
Interestingly, Dutch windmills originated from the German regions.
But the Dutch had turned them into versatile tools—
not just for irrigation and drainage, but also for grinding grain, pressing oil, felting, and papermaking.
Though the steam age had begun, windmills still had value in a place like East Africa.
Materials weren't a problem—wood and bricks were abundant.
Other parts could be imported.
East Africa couldn't enter the industrial age yet,
but it could adopt every tool and technique from the agricultural era.
It was a matter of cost-efficiency.
Industrialization was expensive and slow.
But traditional farming tools could be made locally.
Combined with farming techniques refined over centuries,
this would push East Africa's productivity to its peak—at least for the agricultural era.
That era was just a transitional phase.
Ernst knew that.
Industrialization was the future.
But a house needed a foundation.
Without agriculture, industry would be rootless.
Sure, small-scale industry was doable.
But if that were enough, Ernst could have stayed in Hohenzollern and farmed his little corner.
East Africa had too much potential to waste.
And big industry needed agricultural self-sufficiency to survive.
The colony had already upgraded East Africa from a primitive to an agrarian economy.
And if Ernst could lead it through the next few decades,
he'd complete in one lifetime what took others centuries.
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