Chapter 231
"According to the current territory, there is suddenly so much more land, and it is also for the governance needs of the newly occupied land. I think the existing administrative divisions should be reformed." Constantine said.
At present, there are a total of 18 administrative divisions in East Africa, and there are two areas that have not established administrative divisions and are military-occupied areas, namely Southwest (Zambia) and Northeast (Somalia).
Of these 18 administrative regions, 17 are in the east. After Mbeya, only one East Katanga region is in the southwest.
Among the 17 administrative districts, excluding the Central District and the Northern Omorat District, the remaining 15 are distributed in the original Tanzania, Kenya and the Great Lakes Region.
Constantine has long wanted to reform the administrative divisions of East Africa. East Africa is vast and sparsely populated, and the eastern administrative divisions are too small. Each administrative division has a small population, which is a waste of administrative resources.
The most important thing is that the regional changes caused by the expansion of East Africa have made the original region somewhat unsatisfactory, especially the defense work.
For example, in the south on the border with Portugal, the banks of the Rufuma River are divided into the East Malawi Lake District and the Lower Coast District. The two administrative districts should be merged into one.
It can better deal with the potential threats of the Portuguese colony, and the presence of the East Malawi Lake District is too weak. With Songea as the center, it obviously cannot compete with Mbeya. Instead, the Lower Marina District has a good port. Mtwara, while the capital Ronroda is developing well, and one of the purposes of the port of Mtwara was to serve the East Malawi Lake District and Lower Coastal District, so from the perspective of national defense, economy, complementarity and administrative costs It seems that the two regions should be merged.
There is also the Central Coastal District, which has a weaker sense of existence and does not have its own port. It is completely dependent on the Central District. In fact, the Central Coastal District is not without excellent harbors. Kilwa Kiswani in the east The island was once the most powerful city in East Africa in the Middle Ages, and its farthest radiating area even reached Zimbabwe. However, it later declined, leaving only a group of ancient ruins.
There is currently no idea of developing new ports in East Africa. The current ports are completely sufficient and have redundancy. However, the Central Coastal District can be merged into the Central District, and the Central District itself has two excellent ports.
There is also a prairie area in East Africa, located deep in the hinterland of East Africa. At that time, Ernst established it as an independent region simply because it was a large area and could be said to be a paradise for wild animals.
There is also the Upper Malawi Lake District where Mbeya City is located. Now looking at the potential of Mbeya City, the area of the Upper Malawi Lake District is too small.
In addition to the above problems, the most prominent one is that the newly occupied northeast and southwest regions are completely white land.
If you want to establish local rule, military suppression alone will definitely not work. Government departments must be established. And there are not many administrative staff in East Africa, so if you want to make use of the few administrative staff, the simplest way is The solution is to merge the administrative regions in the east, so that half of the original government personnel can be allocated to the newly occupied area. Internal administrative adjustments can free up more administrative personnel to invest in the newly developed land. In fact, in this regard It is similar to the Meiji government’s plan for Japan.
But Japan is more extreme than East Africa, because East Africa has a large amount of newly acquired land to accommodate these officials. At the same time, Japan has a need for centralization (Daimyo vassals), but East Africa does not.
“Your Majesty, it is indeed necessary for us to split off some large areas with unclear positioning, such as the Omorat Special Zone (Omo River Basin and the vast land in northern Kenya), which used to be the northernmost area. Region, now that the Sultanate of Grady has been annexed, our national border has advanced to central Somalia, north of the Shabelle River, except for Soma The countries and tribes here are not too far from the British and French colonies on the Red Sea coast. No matter what happens, the areas north of the Shabelle River should be integrated to deal with the indigenous and British and French forces."
"Well, The Abyssinian Empire is also a potential threat due to its large size, large population and long history." "My opinion is completely opposite. The Abyssinian Empire poses almost no threat to us, both in terms of strength and interests. Even assuming that the Abyssinian Empire's national strength is the same as ours in East Africa, they will not If there is a conflict with us, now that we have taken advantage of the right time and place, and the German nation is harmonious, the Abyssinian Empire will not fight us for the rubbish land in the southern part of the Ethiopian plateau." Von der Leyen said. expressed an objection.
The core area of the Abyssinian Empire is in the northern part of the Ethiopian Plateau. The Omorat Special Zone in East Africa has gradually completed its control over the Oromo and Luo people in the southern part of the Ethiopian Plateau through years of penetration. The tribes, as well as the Cushitic wars, have the current area.
These are all indigenous tribes, so their combat effectiveness is not very strong. However, some tribes still have some connections with the Abyssinian Empire, similar to its vassal states. However, after seeing the armed forces of East Africa, the Abyssinians who were educated by the British The empire chose to play dead in its expansion in East Africa, and these subordinate black forces were easily wiped out by East Africa.
East Africa has no need to continue to expand northward. The pure black race has been completely wiped out from the local area, and the skin color crisis in the north has been solved by 80%.
And the Ethiopian Plateau is not an ideal expansion area in East Africa. The Ethiopian Plateau is one thousand meters higher than the East African Plateau.
The altitude of the East African Plateau is the most livable altitude for humans (scientific experiments have proven that the most livable altitude for humans is between 500 and 2,000 meters). The average altitude of the Ethiopian Plateau exceeds 2,500 meters. Its environment, especially the oxygen content, is not suitable for East African immigrants to live in, and it can easily cause high altitude sickness and make people feel psychologically uncomfortable.
This is also the reason why East Africa chose to expand to the southwest. The altitude there is almost the same as that of the East African Plateau. Immigrants have almost no altitude sickness and are very livable. The East African army, which is accustomed to fighting in the East African Plateau environment, is expanding there. It's like going home.
German immigrants in particular do not feel any difference from Europe in East Africa. Most of the German immigrants in East Africa come from Austria or South Germany.
And that area is considered a relatively high altitude place in Europe, the Alps and the Bavarian Plateau, with an average altitude of about 500 meters.
"Well, now that we have almost taken advantage, we can occupy some easy-to-defend areas and then stop in the north. The Abyssinian Empire is sandwiched between Britain, France, Egypt, and our East Africa. Obviously, Britain, France, and even Egypt pose a greater threat to him, and they will not be stupid enough to offend us again," Sweet agreed.
In fact, Abyssinia cannot be so stupid. The Omo River Basin occupied by East Africa and the southern part of the Ethiopian Plateau are surrounded by mountains and have steep terrain. They are not good places for marching at all. East Africa borrowed the heat. This area can only be taken down with the convenience of weapons.
Now East Africa basically has no fear of the threat of the Abyssinian Empire as long as some simple fortresses are deployed on some traffic arteries.
Moreover, there is no reason for the Abyssinian Empire to expand to the south, just like the reason for East Africa to expand to the upper reaches of the Omo River. East Africa is to protect the upstream water sources from threats. Otherwise, the southern part of the Ethiopian Plateau basically has no economic value. Even in its previous life, this region had the smallest population and the least developed economy in Ethiopia.
“Look at the territory of Egypt, which happens to semi-enclose the Ethiopian Plateau in the south. Now is the age of the ocean. The Abyssinian Empire does not even have an outlet to the sea. The future development can be imagined.”< br>
Already backward, now even the window for external exchanges has been blocked. If there had been no Italian colonization in the previous life, I am afraid Ethiopia would have fallen even further behind.
(End of this chapter)