In my impression, East Asia is a country with poor mineral resources, which is actually related to East Asia’s high level of industrialization. However, when comparing actual mineral resource reserves with Tanzania, East Asia is clearly inferior.
Regarding coal, iron, and oil, East Asia possesses world-class large mines, and even the least notable oil has several famous large oil fields.
Before the discovery of oil along its eastern coast, Tanzania was considered an oil-poor nation. However, Tanzania is not the small country that people traditionally perceive it to be.
In terms of land area, it spans 940,000 square kilometers, almost a tenth of East Asia, but East Asia’s northwest desert covers nearly a quarter of its area, and there are high-altitude, harsh-to-develop cold plateaus and countless mountains, with only the eastern part having substantial conditions for agricultural development.
Tanzania’s main topography is a plateau, but the elevation is not too high, the terrain is relatively gentle, and the equator passes through it, ensuring suitable temperatures and moderate rainfall, turning it into a well-known agricultural country in Africa, with Tanzania’s comprehensive natural agricultural conditions probably second only to Nigeria.
From a population standpoint, Tanzania is also internationally recognized as a populous country, having already surpassed the fifty million mark and still rapidly growing. Yet Tanzania still has plenty of undeveloped land, untapped fishing resources, and its population potential doesn’t stop there.
As for industrial conditions, although mineral resources are not very abundant, it depends on who you’re comparing it with; at least several small and medium-sized countries in Europe cannot compare. To meet basic industrialization needs is completely sufficient. African mineral resources overall are not considered abundant among continents, with resources concentrated in South Africa and West Africa, and notable oil resources in North Africa. Tanzania’s mineral resources fall in the middle range in Africa.
Tanzania’s transportation is also decent, located on traditional commercial routes of the Indian Ocean. Dar es Salaam is one of the few well-known major ports in Africa, and before the Suez Canal was opened, it was an important global commercial hub, a jewel on the Indian Ocean; historically, the temporarily prosperous Omani Empire established a branch here—the Zanzibar Kingdom.
Hence, Tanzania’s conditions in various aspects are not inadequate, so why is the development level so low?
Before Ernst went to Africa for work, influenced by traditional media, he thought there was only one reason for Africa’s poverty: Africans are lazy, relying on nature to survive.
But after arriving in Africa, Ernst realized the partial nature of this belief; it was merely a surface observation.
Multiple factors contribute to Africa’s poverty. Before the colonizers arrived, the overall civilization level of the African continent was very low. The isolation of the Sahara led to most places in southern Africa being civilization deserts, with only Ethiopia in East Africa and West Africa developing independent civilizations, heavily influenced by the Arabs.
The Bantu people in West Africa were the earliest groups to expand southwards, but they only developed early civilized features of statehood, with very low technological levels. Migration southwards required traversing the Congo rainforest and Central African savannah, regions teeming with wild beasts. The Middle Eastern Omani Empire expanded here, but only reached Zanzibar Island and the East African coast, with civilization not extending inland into Africa.
In Central South Africa, a widespread tribal society primarily reliant on hunting existed. In contrast, tribes on the Mongolian steppe, influenced by Central Plains culture, developed governance; however, Africa presented a governance desert, with indigenous people living in constant conflict with beasts.
The arrival of Westerners forcibly integrated this area primarily composed of primitive tribes into the modern social system.
According to Ernst’s experience, this destructive method makes it difficult for local indigenous people to integrate into modern social forms, much like the mountainous west regions of the East Asian land of abundance, which were still under slavery at the founding of the Republic, and despite nearly a hundred years of integration and support, some local habits remained hard to change.
Let alone Westerners who came not to alleviate poverty, and their social forms were even less effective than the primitive tribal systems predating slavery in Africa.
In reality, tribal systems were already quite advanced for the Africans at the time.
Many regions in Africa still embodied the most basic forms of families and villages; how to describe it, even lions on the African savannah exist in such family-based forms!
Thus, the African starting point for civilization was extremely low, nearly nonexistent, akin to maintaining a prehistoric level of civilization.
Under the gunfire of Westerners, Africa was forced onto the path of enlightenment, which is also a cause of continual post-independence turmoil.
Tanzania doesn’t face major conflicts, with modern-day Tanzania remaining stable, ranking among the top in African countries.
But Tanzanians lack experience in governing a country, with no history to learn from, starting from a low point. Social stagnation results in slow overall progress. Although there is development, it is insignificant compared to the global scale, much like how East Asia and the Middle East have far surpassed Africa in later generations.
However, compared to many African countries, Tanzania can already be considered one of the most successful African nations.
Ernst recalls his life experiences from previous lives and inevitably sighs; working from an area with complete infrastructure to one with virtually no infrastructure felt disastrous. Eventually, Ernst adapted to that lifestyle.
Of course, now isn’t the time to reminisce about past lives. He has journeyed through time back to modern Europe; a new life beckons for him, and he is about to seek his place in the tidal waves of history.