With the small flames in the Balkans calmed down, Italy can finally begin to fully enjoy the fruits of the war.
In Albania and Kosovo, tens of thousands of railway builders are stepping up the construction of the railway line from Durrës to Pristina. As the most important transportation line in Kosovo and also a mountain load railway, this railway also adopts the latest technology
Construction technology, reinforced concrete pouring technology.
Bridge piers and bridges poured with reinforced concrete have greater bearing capacity, higher strength, and sturdiness. They can carry heavier trains, so the emergence of this technology has brought great development to the engineering community.
However, although reinforced concrete has various advantages, it is not currently used much around the world.
In fact, the technology of reinforced concrete has been around for more than 20 years. In 1868, a French gardener poured the first practical object, a reinforced concrete flower pot.
That's right, it's a flower pot.
It was not until 1872 that the first reinforced concrete building appeared in New York.
As for now, reinforced concrete is not used much, because the reason that restricts the development of reinforced concrete technology is still the cost issue. This technology requires the use of a large amount of steel bars and cement, and the current prices of steel and cement are not cheap. If it is large
The large-scale adoption of this technology will drive up costs.
This is also the main reason why reinforced concrete was not used on a large scale before 1900.
As for why Italy wants to use this technology on this railway, in the final analysis it is for transportation. Compared with pushing up the cost, the benefits it brings will benefit the development of Italian industry more. The government can still settle this account.
Moreover, the mineral development in Kosovo has made railway construction even more urgent. Currently, there are three large coal mines under construction in Kosovo, as well as one neutral lead mine, two neutral zinc mines, one large chromium mine, and two
A silver mine. The development of so many mines is due to the hard work of a large number of geological exploration teams in Kosovo.
After the construction of these mines is completed, in addition to rough screening and processing locally, they all need to be transported to the mainland.
Without this railway, transportation would be a big problem.
Therefore, this railway connecting Durrës and Pristina is currently the most important project of the Italian Ministry of Transport. For this reason, tens of thousands of road construction workers are busy here. They use various tools and machinery to construct in these situations
Bridges were built over water and roads were opened over mountains. Finally, at the end of 1892, it took a year and a half to build this artery, which was related to the industrial development of Italy.
Of course, the Durres to Pristina railway is not the only railway currently under construction in Italy, there are other railways also under construction.
For example, the Sofia-Pristina railway has just completed line exploration, but this railway is mainly built by Bulgarians, and Italy only needs to build a small section in Kosovo.
Of course, there is another railway that the Italian government has not forgotten, that is, the railway from Sabha to the Libyan port of Sirte. Although this railway does not need to cross the valley river, it is more convenient than the Durrës-Pristina railway.
It is difficult to build because it passes through the Sahara.
The line surveyors also have a big headache for this railway. They need to avoid desert terrain and try to choose the railway in the Gobi. Otherwise, the railway maintenance workers will cry after a sandstorm.
In addition, the selection of stations is also a difficult problem. You must know that around the world, tractor engines are still driven by steam engines, which will mean that the trains need to add coal and water, and what is the situation in the Sahara. Therefore, in order to reasonably arrange the stations and daily maintenance work,
The line exploration was extremely difficult. Fortunately, the hard work over the past year was not in vain, and the line exploration was finally completed.
In November 1892, the construction of this railway line for iron ore transportation finally started from the Port of Sirte.
Of course, the construction of this railway does not attract as much attention as the Balkan railway, and there is a lot of time. The five-year construction period is more than enough for an 800-kilometer railway, even if this railway needs to be built in
Built in the Gobi Desert.
There was no railway construction in Italy in 1892. The three steel plants in the south planned by the government also started construction at the sites that had already been selected. Thousands of people worked hard for these three steel plants.
As an important pillar of the development of the south, the Italian government has also put a lot of effort into these three steel plants. Italy has invested a lot of money and purchased technology from abroad to form the foundation of the three steel plants.
It strives to reach a scale of 1.2 million tons of pig iron and 450,000 tons of crude steel in Italy by 1895.
Don't look at this amount of steel production, it is not even as good as a small steel plant now, but you only need to compare it with neighboring countries to know that France's current pig iron production is 2 million tons and crude steel is 870,000 tons. Even Europe's largest output
In Germany, there are only 4.35 million tons of pig iron and 2.65 million tons of crude steel every year, adding up to a steel production of only 7 million tons.
It is impossible for Italy to reach the current output of Germany for at least ten years. On the one hand, it is due to raw material reasons, and on the other hand, it is a market problem. It will be used to produce so much steel. At present, Italy simply cannot eat that much steel.
Even the shipbuilding industry, which uses the most materials, cannot share much.
Therefore, Italy's current layout in the steel industry is to try its best to let the steel industry drive out steel from other countries.
Of course, Italy's light industry has not been forgotten at present, but compared to heavy industry, which can better reflect national strength, the government does not spend much energy on light industry. After all, there is too little capital on hand, and good steel needs to be used on the cutting edge.
Of course, large-scale construction has also brought another benefit to Italy, that is, Italy's immigration has dropped below the 100,000 mark, an unprecedented drop to 40,000. This is truly an unprecedented achievement.
You must know that Italy used to emigrate more than 100,000 or 200,000 people every year. If there is a disaster year, there will be no problem at all if the number of immigrants reaches 300,000 or 400,000.
The reason for such large-scale immigration is that Italy cannot retain so many people, or that there is no land to support so many people.
The current population of Italy is 31.78 million. Due to Italy's emphasis on family, the annual birth rate is as high as about 3.34%. After deducting the mortality rate of about 2.2%, the natural growth rate is about 1.14%. This means that Italy has more than 300,000 more people every year.
population. So if there are no immigrants, Italy's barren land (compared to Germany and France, Italian land is really poor) will not be able to support so many people.
The reason why the number of immigrants will be reduced this time is not only because industrial development can accommodate more people, but also because Carlo's behavior of expelling new territories gives people more places to go.
Crossing the ocean to make a living is not as good as settling down nearby. It would be a waste to leave uncared for land in the new territory, which naturally attracted a large number of Italians to flock across the sea.
In just over a year, more than half a million Italians went to the new territory, immediately occupying all the Albanian territory.
As for why there are more than 100,000 more Albanian people, the production and construction of various minerals and the construction of road facilities also require manpower.
Of course, Italy's development in 1892 was far more than the above.
And as the bell rang in 1893, a new situation emerged.
