England's Domain in 1999.
England Rules Supreme in Africa in 1999. Electric Railroads
Built by American Engineers Cover the Dark Continent. France
Suffers Two Waterloos. England's Rule in India Unshaken in the
Twentieth Century.
In 1999 England was the ruler of Africa and her domain over the Dark
Continent was indisputable. From the Delta of the Nile to Cape Town,
from Abyssinia to Liberia, the British lion was free to roam and
roar throughout the enormous, heart-shaped African continent. From
Alexandria to Cape Town became, in 1999, a comparatively short journey
over the electric railroads which in that year traversed the entire
length of the Nile basin, with important stations at Berber and
Khartoum, Uganda, Zambo to Pretoria, thence to the Terminal of the
roads at Cape Town. This electric railroad through the Nile basin,
the lake regions and heart of the African continent, was completed
and in operation in 1930, after a sacrifice in its construction [It
Reduced the Census.] of 19,000 lives and an outlay of $152,000,000. It
proved to be, however, the backbone of Africa, the vertebral column
from which scores of other electric railroad branches reached out
both east and west, like the ribs of a mastodon.
The great presiding genius and leading spirit in African railroads was
Cecil Rhodes, the same who was regarded as being the most prominent
colonial Englishman. It was through his perseverance and untiring
energy that the great system of African railroads was created in
1930. Rhodes was a really great man. Thousands courted his favor
and smile, and tens of thousands trembled at his frown. Throughout
Southern Africa so great in 1899 was his power and influence that he
was called the "Deputy Almighty."
In the construction of these African electric railroads America played
an important rôle. Cecil Rhodes was at first inclined to award the
contracts for rails, copper wires, cars and general equipment to
English manufacturing firms but his worthy patriotic sentiments soon
vanished when it was demonstrated clear as sunlight, even early as
1898 that America could produce a far superior grade of machinery in
much less time and at much less cost. In 1901 Cecil Rhodes awarded
all his heavy contracts to American firms. In other words, England
furnished the capital and America practically built the entire system
of African railroads in 1930.
The first "eye opener" in the line of American competition against
British machinery came into prominence in the spring of 1899, when work
had already commenced on the north division of the great trunk line
through Africa. The Atbara bridge and the first lesson in industrial
economy that it taught, will not soon be forgotten. Bids were invited
from British and American [America Leads the World.] bridge builders
in April, 1899. It was represented to all competitors that the proposed
bridge must be completed in the shortest time possible.
When the bids were opened it was discovered that the English engineers
required seven months to complete the work, while their American
competitors guaranteed to complete and deliver the bridge in forty-two
days from date of signing the contract and the work was to be completed
for a much less sum than the price demanded by the English builders.
The lesson of the Atbara bridge was not lost upon the great "Deputy
Almighty" of South Africa and Cecil Rhodes became the [A Peaceful
Victory.] means during the first quarter of the twentieth century
of securing many million dollars to the American trade. Africa's
most urgent needs in 1900 were railroads and missionaries. England
supplied a very superior article of the latter, while in the railroad
field no country could equal the American output.
In the nineteenth century it had been the unpleasant experience of
France to suffer at the hands of England two Waterloos. [France Eats
"Humble Pie."] One was the great and only Waterloo, which drenched
the soil of Belgium with the blood of many brave men. Waterloo,
Jr., overtook the French soldiers at Fashoda, on Africa's soil
in 1899. When in that year England ordered France to leave Fashoda
without any further ceremony a victory was won by England, bloodless,
but none the less effective.
After the Fashoda incident France gradually lost her African provinces,
leaving England in undisputed sway over a continent that in wealth
and resources proved far superior to her great Indian Empire. In 1999
Alexander II, of Great Britain, ruled over a mighty empire. In the
nineteenth century British kings and queens were just plain, every day
royalties, transacting a legitimate business in that line and otherwise
enjoying the respect and confidence of their patrons. It was generally
understood that the "king can do no wrong." This was indisputable for
the simple reason they never did anything at all. But when great Africa
became a British province, it was then felt necessary to add still
another title to the British Crown and in 1999 Britain's Sovereign
became known to his chums and acquaintances as King of Great Britain
and Ireland, D. F., Emperor of India, Mogul of Africa and Right Bower
of the Americas, because, in 1999 none of England's important deals
were regarded as complete without a Yankee plum in the pie. Sometimes
England contrived, as the phrase goes, to "get her foot in it" but
cousin Jonathan across the salt pond, always managed to yank her out.
In 1999 England still held a firm grip upon India. The secret of
Samson's herculean [How England Holds India.] strength was due to
the fact that a lawn-mower had never tampered with his hair. But the
secret of the British lion's power in India did not consist in the
fact that the lordly beast cultivated a full mane.
India in 1999, as in the year 1899, still continued to remain the
world's most brilliant illustration that nations which are divided
among themselves must inevitably fall. In 1899 the question was
repeatedly asked, how can England with a mere corporal's guard, hold
together the vast, mystic India under her sway? How can a nation of
40,000,000 people, like England, hold under her sway a far distant
continent like India with its population of 350,000,000 people?
In 1999 India still remained a house divided against itself and England
was boss of the whole ranch. The eighty different principalities of
India, each one speaking a different dialect and governed by alien
potentates, fired by mutual hatreds which were fanned by fierce
jealousies and the immutable laws of caste, were still as far apart in
1999, in point of harmony and cohesive action, as the Himalayan peaks
are remote from the spice groves of Ceylon. [Cannot Hold Together.]
If at any period in the eighteenth, nineteenth or twentieth centuries
these principalities of India could have united themselves together
in a common cause and arisen in the might of their power against
British rule, England would be driven out of India in ten days'
time. India's 350,000,000 population represents an enormous mass,
but, as long as it remains divided into practically eighty different
nations, all of them animated by bitter hatreds and antagonisms,
England will experience no trouble in retaining absolute control of
her large but very acrimonious Indian family.
The power and stamina of the Anglo-Saxon race, which already dominated
the [Anglo-Saxons Rule the World.] world in 1999 through the vast
Republic of the Americas and the world-wide British Empire, exemplified
itself in a high degree in the British government of India. Only one
desperate struggle was ever attempted against British rule in India
and the disastrous failure of the mutiny in 1857 was yet fresh in
the minds of many in 1999.
The great, mighty India, the home of mysteries that baffle all reason;
the fount which holds the sacred Ganges and boasts of Benares' holy
soil, was still under the lion's paw in 1999 and bid fair to remain
under British rule for many centuries yet to come. Mystic India, the
land of the loftiest mountains, deepest jungles and broadest plains;
the home of Pharsee and Thug; the lair of lion, tiger, leopard and
elephant; the Eden of the deadly cobra, India, the world's vast
and mystic continent, remained a British province throughout the
twentieth century.