African Entrepreneurship Record

And East Africa is vast, facing both the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. The distance between Rhein City and the East-West Coast is almost the same, making Rhein City the best choice. Originally, First Town City was indeed advantageous for East Africa’s control over the Indian Ocean, but in recent years, East Africa’s influence in the Atlantic has also rapidly expanded.

Especially nowadays, in East Africa’s trade with Europe, cities along the Atlantic coast hold an absolute advantage. The sea passage for East Coast and Europe trade is only the Suez Canal, but this canal is restricted by England and France during wartime.

In times of peace in the past, the advantage of the Suez Canal was stronger than the Atlantic route, but ironically it is now wartime, and the Suez Canal is not under East Africa’s control.

And with the British controlling the Suez Canal, this is also an important reason why Aleksey and the others chose to arrive in East Africa from the Black Sea in southern Russia, as the safety can be guaranteed since the two countries are allies after all.

Prince Maxim said, "We can go to the Serengeti Reserve once preparations are made. In fact, I have never been to the Serengeti Grassland since I was a child."

Crown Prince Aleksey asked, "Why?"

Maxim replied, "There’s no particular reason. East Africa is vast, and there are many places I haven’t been to. Not only that, the same goes for overseas. For example, you in Europe can easily travel abroad, whereas I have only been to East Africa and Austria-Hungary so far."

"After all, East Africa is relatively remote compared to the geographical proximity within Europe, where countries can easily interact and communicate with each other."

Maxim actually left one sentence unsaid, which is that it’s easy to cause conflict; after all, more countries mean more conflicts.

After visiting the Fowa River Dam, the four of them strolled around the southeastern industrial zone of Rhein City, which was bustling during the day.

However, it was clearly not as prosperous as the city center. This industrial zone had only been built for a few years, whereas the Northwestern industrial zone was completed alongside the railway hub and had already developed on a large scale.

The southeastern industrial zone also amazed the three visitors from Russia with its plethora of trucks providing transportation services for the factories.

Although Aleksey had seen some Russian industrial parks, there were none like those in East Africa, and the differences between them were significant.

East Africa’s industrial parks were clearly elaborately planned, making them quite organized and well-managed.

Maxim introduced, "Many countries’ cities and industrial distributions are naturally formed, unlike our East Africa, which emphasizes systematic planning, considering multiple factors and facilitating urban management of the industry."

"Concentrating these large industrial enterprises in one area helps in the rational allocation of resources like water, electricity, and transportation."

"At the same time, it reduces the interference of residential life on production activities. To facilitate citizens’ participation in production activities, we have also established a relatively developed public transport system."

"The most important of which is the bus routes, and according to the planning of Rhein City, a metro line will be built in the future to further enhance connectivity between cities."

"These were already considered in the design of the industrial zone, with land reserved for future station construction."

"In this way, Rhein City will have four metro lines within five years, forming a preliminary network. Rhein City’s scale is not large, so these four metro lines can fully meet the current needs of Rhein City’s underground rail transit."

The scale Maxim referred to was not large compared to Europe’s major cities, which are generally capitals or important economic cities with populations of at least a million.

For example, Russia’s two major cities, Saint Petersburg and Moscow, both have populations nearing two million, while other countries and especially major European powers have capital populations over a million. The highest of these is London’s with nearly seven million people.

Compared to these cities, East Africa’s capital, Rhein City, indeed can’t be considered a large city, and East Africa’s Dar es Salaam and Mombasa each have just over a million people.

With a population of just over 600,000, Rhein City already has three metro lines, which seems quite unusual compared to the former Far East Empire, akin to a county having three metro lines.

Of course, Rhein City’s population target is to reach three million by the end of the century, and coupled with its capital administrative status, the number of metro lines currently constructed is within the expectations of the East African Government.

Currently, the three metro lines of Rhein City have already surprised the three visitors, including Aleksey.

Aleksey said, "Saint Petersburg’s population far exceeds Rhein City’s, yet it doesn’t have a single metro line."

The late 19th and early 20th centuries were a hot period for metro construction. For instance, the first metro lines in East Africa, France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary were all constructed during this period.

Austria-Hungary and East Africa were similar, both opening metros in the 1890s, whereas France and Germany built theirs at the beginning of the century, with Paris Metro starting operation in 1900 and Berlin Metro in 1902.

As of now, Russia has not a single metro line, and among the world powers, only Russia, Spain, and Japan have not built metros.

However, among these three, Spain is likely to soon break away from the powers without metros, with news suggesting Madrid plans to build a metro.

In fact, in the previous timeline, Madrid completed its first metro during World War I, which began operation in 1919 since Spain mostly played a minor role during WWI.

The metro seems to have become a standard feature for world powers, with exceptions like Greece, whose first metro was completed in 1904.

Yet Greece is neither strong, big, nor rich, only slightly better economically than backward regions or colonies.

Maxim said, "The metro, in essence, shouldn’t be overly emphasized. Its main purpose is to solve urban traffic congestion issues and provide convenience services. Rhein City’s metro lines aren’t profitable, and the traffic isn’t congested; on the contrary, they seem somewhat ostentatious."

That being said, when East Africa initially built the metro, Ernst regarded national defense and the accumulation of experience as significant factors.

In terms of national defense, it goes without saying that the metro serves as a natural underground shelter, especially with the emergence of new weapons like aircraft. This means that inland Rhein City could also face threats from the skies in the future. Although the likelihood is small enough to be almost negligible, Ernst never jokes about his safety.

As for the accumulation of experience, it’s easier to understand. The metro is, after all, an industry, and developing it in advance helps East Africa accumulate relevant experience. Currently, East Africa is one of the few countries in the world to independently build metros.

Maxim’s consolation was evidently ineffective, as the youthful Aleksey proclaimed, "Once I ascend the throne, I’ll build a metro in Saint Petersburg, letting it catch up with other major capitals in modernization."

Nicholas II had only Aleksey as a son, so Aleksey’s words weren’t overly ambitious but rather reasonable. If all went well, he would be Russia’s next Tsar. Maxim agreed with this sentiment.

Maxim said, "Good luck in the future; perhaps you’ll lead Russia out of its current predicament, boosting Russia’s economic and industrial strength."

In the previous world, Moscow’s metro construction happened during the Soviet era, and as for Saint Petersburg’s metro, it would be around the 1950s, even though Saint Petersburg only had five metro lines in the 21st century.

And all of these were built by the Soviet Union, so Aleksey’s dreams are unlikely to be realized, at least not right now because Ernst was confident that Russia’s current regime might collapse at any time, and if not replaced by Soviet Russia, it would likely become a capitalist government.