Chapter 1033: Chapter 42: Reverse Migration

April 11, 1904.

Kundian Port.

Tsarist Russia’s Pacific Second Fleet had not yet set off, and at this moment Kundian Port was visited by a fleet, which happened to be the immigrant fleet from East Africa.

As the fleet sailed along the river channel towards Kundian Port, the immigrants onboard began to acquaint themselves with the unfamiliar land for the first time.

"Kundian looks pretty good. The river channels are wide, and the currents are swift, though the environment is somewhat hard to adapt to. The forests on both sides of the river are dense and lush, quite different from the homeland."

East Africa also has a tropical rainforest climate, but the main population is distributed in sparse woodland or sub-rainforest areas, so East African immigrants saw typical tropical rainforest climates and vegetation for the first time upon arriving in Kundian.

"The equator passes through Kundian City, and Kundian is situated on the coastal plains of Kalimantan Island, so the tropical rainforest climate here is quite typical, which also means the development of Kundian City is relatively difficult. Fortunately, the history of foreign civilization here is slightly longer than in Africa, so it is not completely starting from scratch."

In fact, defining civilization is quite complex; for instance, African natives do have their languages and have developed apart from tribes and slave kingdoms, but the level of civilization is too low, causing the whole southern Africa to almost remain undeveloped.

So East Africa’s ability to develop and build domestically truly meant starting from zero in many senses and achieving astounding results.

Undoubtedly, East Africa’s remarkable achievements stemmed from the advanced agricultural civilization brought by East African colonizers, who are now slowly transitioning toward industrial civilization.

Even though Lanfang Overseas Province was also relatively backward, after generations of development by Chinese immigrants, the level of civilization has reached an agricultural civilization level.

However, under East African governance, Lanfang Overseas Province underwent significant phases of population and economic decline, and both cities and villages markedly regressed. Even now, the population of Lanfang Overseas Province has not restored to the stage before East African rule.

After all, for the people of Lanfang Overseas Province at that time, land nationalization was too advanced, leading to fierce resistance from East Africa within Lanfang Overseas Province. Eventually, through physical suppression, it caused a mass exodus, with the population fleeing to nearby Dutch and British colonies or indigenous areas on the island.

Nevertheless, Kundian City within Lanfang Overseas Province was an exception. Although it also experienced population loss in the early years, by the 1990s, Kundian City entered a rapid development stage, providing a foundation for East Africa to integrate into the Mindanao Colony.

Because it is the political, economic, cultural, and foreign communication center of Lanfang Overseas Province, Kundian City’s special status made it the only continuously developing area under East African rule in the early days.

Unreservedly speaking, Kundian City currently ranks first among numerous towns on Kalimantan Island, surpassing some colonial towns painstakingly cultivated by British or Dutch settlers on the island.

Entering the 20th century, due to economic development reasons, Kundian City has begun to attract the lower-class Chinese from the South Sea Region or the southern coastal areas of the Far East Empire for immigration, the East African Government calls this phenomenon "population reflux."

But correspondingly, the increase of Chinese also raises concerns for the East African Government. Even though a large portion of the original stocks of East African nationals comes from Chinese immigrants, the East African Government has already integrated Chinese immigrants into the East African mainstream nationality through compulsory education, mandatory intermarriage, cultural transformation, etc. However, most Chinese immigrants in Lanfang Overseas Province are completely different.

Furthermore, Lanfang Overseas Province is far from mainland East Africa and lacks sufficient white immigrants for counterbalance, dilution, and reconciliation, leaving a significant insular tendency risk for Lanfang Overseas Province. While contradictions can’t manifest now under East African government’s strong rule and during the phase of rapid economic development, the future is unpredictable.

Thus, to cope with the "irrational" population structure in Lanfang Overseas Province and other overseas territories, the East African Government started proposing a political slogan of "accelerated development of overseas territories" from 1900.

Including the immigration policy to export a large number of mainland populations to Lanfang Overseas Province, Southern Ryukyu Islands, North Hawaii Kingdom, Alaska Royal Territory, Mindanao Colony.

At that time, East Africa’s population was no longer lacking as it used to be, exceeding eighty million, being a considerable populous nation worldwide, providing essential conditions for East Africa to deliver people to overseas territories.

In the past, due to population shortages, mainland East Africa was like a Pixiu, only consuming without discharge; now, East Africa would face trouble from rapid population growth, which is brought by industrialization. If industrialization does not keep pace with population growth, East Africa might become a laughingstock like Tsarist Russia.

Sending immigrants overseas, apart from alleviating the pressure of local population growth, can also stabilize East Africa’s rule over overseas territories. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Fortunately, East Africa’s territories are sparsely populated; among them, the Alaska Royal Territory, Lanfang Overseas Province, Mindanao Colony, and Madagascar Island can all accommodate a large population.

According to the final plan of the East African Government, to effectively develop these colonies, East Africa will export at least a million people to these regions starting in 1904.

This immigration to Kundian City is the first demonstration site of this policy. As East Africa’s most developed area overseas, Kundian has significant advantages.

Firstly, it has convenient maritime transportation, and secondly, it possesses the most advanced economic base of East Africa’s overseas territories. In the future, East Africa will take Kundian City and other coastal cities in Lanfang Overseas Province as bases, successively exporting immigrants inland to establish a batch of farms, plantations, and simultaneously develop some industries in Kundian City, turning it into a model for governance over East Africa’s overseas territories.

Along with the arrival of ships at Kundian Port, the first large-scale non-military immigrants from East Africa formally arrived at Kundian, and many of these immigrants were young people.

"Warmly welcome everyone to Lanfang Province!" Lanfang Overseas Province and Kundian City governments showed extremely enthusiastic attitudes towards local immigrants.

"You are all talents of the Empire. Though Lanfang Overseas Province is a remote corner of the Empire, we will surely provide the most favorable conditions for everyone to jointly build our homeland!" said Chris Sean, the governor of Lanfang Overseas Province, excitedly.

For Chris Sean and other Lanfang Overseas Province officials, it’s really not easy. Although it’s an important overseas territory of the Empire and incorporated into the Empire’s provinces, Lanfang Overseas Province’s treatment is unique among many overseas territories of East Africa.

Yet, no matter how loud the name is given, it cannot change the impoverished and underdeveloped reality of Lanfang Overseas Province, and even in terms of economic development, it is only slightly better than Alaska’s harsher climatic conditions.

And for Lanfang Overseas Province, a shortage of everything exists now, especially population. Until now, the population of Lanfang Overseas Province has only recovered to two hundred thousand, largely concentrated in Kundian City, whereas the area of Lanfang Overseas Province exceeds 120,000 square kilometers, making the importance of population for Lanfang Overseas Province self-evident.

"Governor Chris Sean, our fleet has brought a total of 2,300 people this time. The importance of these young volunteers is self-evident. Many came with a passionate commitment to help you build when needed by the motherland, so you must treat them seriously. Furthermore, according to instructions from the Central Government, at least 100,000 mainland immigrants will be sent to Lanfang Overseas Province over the next decade. Your preliminary work must be done well, not treating these immigrants like those in the colonies but managing them according to the domestic mode."

Regarding the immigration office official’s words, Chris Sean solemnly guaranteed, "Rest assured! As long as I, Chris Sean, have a mouthful of food, I will not let these domestic volunteers go hungry. For our province, these immigrants are the most valuable wealth, and the entire province’s resources will prioritize them."

"Very good, the importance of Lanfang Overseas Province in the Empire’s overseas territories cannot be overstated. The Central and Royal Family are committed to making it the future economic center of the South Sea Region. I believe under the leadership of the Governor, Lanfang Overseas Province can make further progress in the future," said the immigration office official courteously.