Chapter 230
East Africa is based on the East African Plateau, which is about one million square kilometers, mainly covering Tanzania, Kenya and the Great Lakes region. This is an already stable land area, plus some surrounding areas, which is almost two million square kilometers of land. The East African Kingdom is not afraid of any power competition.
With the numerical advantage of immigrants, it is difficult for other colonists to pose a threat to the East African Plateau and surrounding areas, even if they add all the indigenous forces.
Now the southwest region, the former Zambia region, has become a weak area of the East African Kingdom because it was just incorporated. The East African Kingdom has made temporary compromises with the local indigenous forces.
Without the intervention of external forces, East Africa can naturally slowly eat up the southwest region, but once there are forces instigating the local area, the East African Kingdom will fall into passivity.
In addition to these two places, the Mitumba Mountains and coastal plains, as well as the northern desert area, occupy a considerable part of the area. All these areas combined are just under four million square kilometres.
"Your Majesty, this is the current map of the East African Kingdom, revised after we compared it many times."
(Picture)
Von der Leyen will The map was spread out in front of Constantine. If you look closely, you can see that the shape of East Africa is like a leaf, wide in the middle and narrow on both sides, diagonally inserted into the interior of Africa.
“This map looks really awkward! It looks weird.” Constantine commented on the map.
"Your Majesty, this is because when we expanded our territory in East Africa, we avoided some slightly stronger forces, and the west was hindered by the Mitumba Mountains, the Congo River and the tropical rainforest, so we only reached the east bank of the Lualaba River. Along the plateau, we can expand southwestward unimpeded. At the same time, there are no other forces in the interior, which also creates conditions for us."
"In the future, this plateau will be the core area of East Africa, with a similar climate. , the area is large enough, the terrain is relatively gentle, and it has topographic advantages over the surrounding areas,” Felix said.
“The main trouble we encounter in developing the southwest plateau is transportation. In the past, when we were in the east, most of the rivers ran east-west, roughly in line with our expansion direction, while most of the rivers in the southwest were Zambia. The tributaries of the West River extend north and south, so if you want to open up traffic in this area, you must build more bridges.”
“Not only that, except for these tributaries, the Zambezi River itself is a natural chasm. Our future expansion will also be affected by the Bixi River problem.”
“I think we should let the inland river and lake troops cooperate with us in the future. There are too many wetlands, swamps and lakes in Africa, and they can use their small boats. It is very suitable, and given the conditions in East Africa, we can build more suspension bridges to temporarily replace them, at least to ensure the smooth passage of troops and weapons and equipment inland.”
It is not difficult to see from the map that the future expansion direction of East Africa, if you do not want to conflict with other colonists, there are only three directions, one is southern Sudan, the other is the Kingdom of Luba, the Kingdom of Rwanda, and the third is Zimbabwe. Southern Sudan can expand, but it is relatively limited. The main reason is that further north is North Africa, and the west is not a good place and is short of water.
So there are only the Luba Kingdom and the Rwanda Kingdom in the west, and Zimbabwe in the south. These two areas are pretty good, one is the Ronda Plateau and the other is the Matabele Plateau.
As for which one to choose, Ernst didn’t even have to look at it and just chose Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is a country that Ernst knows very well. After all, in his previous life, Zimbabwe’s currency was world-renowned, with a face value higher than that of Hades. Ernst also worked in Africa in his previous life, and was very familiar with Africa’s resources, because Due to the particularity of his work, Ernst has been active in various African countries all year round. This is also a characteristic of those who work in the engineering and mining industries in the Far East and Africa.
Zimbabwe has the most precious resources of this era, coal and iron. It is no exaggeration to say that with Zimbabwe, East Africa can directly become an industrial country relying on its coal and iron resources.
If you look at the resource analysis report of Zimbabwe in later generations, you will know that the top resources in many African countries rarely include coal and iron at the same time. The top resources are often diamonds, non-ferrous metals and Some rare metals. The top resources in Zimbabwe include coal and iron. At the same time, Zimbabwe's coal mines are of high grade and have few impurities, making them high-quality coal.
(Zimbabwe is rich in mineral resources. It is roughly estimated that there are more than 80 kinds, and more than 40 kinds have been basically proven. The main mineral products are diamonds, platinum, chromium, gold, iron, coal, nickel, copper, zinc and lead; industrial mineral products include limestone, phosphate, clay and dolomite. In addition, newly discovered biogas reserves are also extremely rich. According to preliminary exploration estimates, platinum reserves rank second in the world, and chromium ore reserves rank second in the world. ,iron ore The reserves are about 38 billion tons, with coal reserves of 27 billion tons and coal bed methane reserves of 500 million cubic meters. In 2001, a rich diamond mine was discovered in Zimbabwe. Preliminary exploration results show that its diamond reserves rank first in the world - data source from the Far East Republic. Economic and Commercial Section of the Embassy of the Republic of Zimbabwe)
Coal and oil, the two energy sources are the most important to industry, and coal and iron are the basis of the first industrial revolution.
The only disadvantage of Zimbabwe is the lack of water. Its rainfall is on the same level as Shaanxi in the Far East. Shaanxi’s rainfall remains at more than 600 millimeters all year round (data source is the official website of the Shaanxi government), while Zimbabwe’s rainfall is around 400 millimeters. Within the 900 mm interval, both rainfall distributions are uneven. Shaanxi decreases from south to north, while Zimbabwe decreases from east to west.
This is not a problem. Without coal and iron resources, East Africa can only be an agricultural country and a mining exporter. With coal and iron resources, East Africa can become an industrial country.
Compared with other continents, the African continent itself is short of coal. Iron ore is quite considerable, but it is concentrated in West Africa. In the entire central and southern Africa, there were only three countries in the previous life that did not lack coal and iron resources. They were South Africa and Angola and Zimbabwe.
The first two are now occupied, leaving only Zimbabwe, the "unclaimed land". In its previous life, Zimbabwe was called Rhodesia. After 1880, it was gradually occupied by the Boers and the British. people occupy. The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was slowly formed, consisting of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Now the East African Kingdom has two thirds of the three-thirds of the world. Taking Zimbabwe will block the Boer's northward expansion, and at the same time block the way for the Boers to expand northward. The path of the Portuguese's westward expansion.
So after occupying Zimbabwe, East Africa must start planning to attack one of the two, otherwise the threat will be too great. As for who becomes the enemy of East Africa first, it depends on whose hand can stretch long enough. Originally Ernst has always been wary of Portuguese colonies, but the Boers are also a stubborn race, and fighting on two fronts will definitely not work. It is better to take the initiative first and cripple one of them.
(End of this chapter)