Chapter 653: Provincial Capital Selection
In other words, the current Walvis Bay Port and Swakopmund Port are just fishing ports, providing services for passing ships, while Swakopmund Port works part-time as a military port.
“The country’s emphasis on Southwest Africa is probably on the same level as that of the Congo Rainforest, Serengeti Nature Reserve, and Limpopo Nature Reserve in East Africa. We are treated the same as animals on the grasslands. ." Val joked.
Assold said: "Haha, I don't know about other places. The Limpopo River Nature Reserve is not at the same level as us. The Limpopo River Nature Reserve is under the jurisdiction of Hechingen Province and Southern Frontier Province.
Do you think the name Hechingen can mean a simple place? Moreover, the provincial capital of Hechingen is called the city of Otto. This name was taken from the previous generation of Prince Hechingen, His Majesty the King.
There is also the Southern Frontier Province, and the provincial capital New Hamburg Port City is developing at a rapid pace. Depending on the situation, it is on par with Dar es Salaam and Mombasa. "
Val retorted: "I'm not talking about the same thing as you. The Limpopo River Nature Reserve is not the same as Hechingen Province and Southern Frontier Province. Although they are intertwined, they are at the same level. , just like railways are controlled by the railway system instead of the provinces. "
"The Limpopo River Nature Reserve is not something we in Southwest Africa can touch. It is a genuine provincial administrative unit. Our Southwest Africa is not yet a province, and can only be regarded as a region. The reporter said that the number of troops in the Limpopo River Nature Reserve alone is greater than the population of the entire southwest Africa. How can it be compared with it? Yasold reminded.
It is also embarrassing to say that Southwest Africa has not become a formal member of East Africa. According to the precedent in East Africa, the situation in Southwest Africa should be a military control area. In the past, This was the case when Matabele Province was first occupied by East Africa, but it was soon designated as a Province.
“This is normal. If the central government can approve and build the Whale Highway, it can be regarded as taking care of Southwest Africa. After all, as far as the economic situation and natural environment of Southwest Africa are concerned, even I don’t pay much attention to it. , let alone roads, I think it is enough to maintain maritime transportation. Building such a long road is not cost-effective in my opinion. " Val said.
Before Southwest Africa officially became a province, excluding military personnel, Atsold and Val, as well as the mayor of Orangemond (the mouth of the Orange River), should be the top three senior officials in Southwest Africa. As for Lüderitz does not belong to an administrative region, but is entirely a military stronghold in the Lüderitz Bay.
"So you said that if Southwest Africa is divided into provinces in the future, the provincial capital should be chosen between our two cities!" Yasold suddenly realized this problem.
“There is a high probability that our Walvis Bay City is yours. After all, your economy and population are stronger.”
“Not necessarily. The selection of the provincial capital will not use these two factors as key indicators. The economy of many provincial capitals may not be stronger than that of other cities in the province."
"It can't be Orangemond anyway," Val concluded.
"That's not necessarily the case. Southwest Africa is such a large area that we can definitely divide it into several more provinces. Although Orangemond is remote, if Southwest Africa is divided into multiple provinces, then Orangemond has a great chance."< br>
The predictions of the two senior city officials for the future of Southwest Africa can only be said to be completely different from Ernst’s ideas.
Ernst is not very interested in Southwest Africa. That is because construction is taking place everywhere in East Africa, and the conditions and importance of other regions in East Africa are much stronger than those in Southwest Africa.
But Southwest Africa is such a huge land of more than one million square kilometers, and Ernst will not ignore it.
In a broad sense, Southwest Africa actually has three provinces, one is Laitania Province in the Okavango River Basin, and the Kalahari Basin is centered on the Okavango River Delta. Lorraine Province, New Baden Province with the former British Bechuanaland as its core.
These three provinces all belong to the transition zone between desert and grassland. The remaining large land is Southwest Africa without administrative divisions, which is most of Namibia, Botswana, and parts of South Africa in the previous life. Ernst had no intention of splitting up the remaining over one million square kilometers of Southwest Africa, because the positioning of Southwest Africa was very similar to that of the Western Province of the Far Eastern Empire.
But it is far less important than the Western Region Province. The Western Region Province is located in Central Asia and is very important to the defense of the Far Eastern Empire. However, there are almost no threats on land in Southwest Africa. To the east is the Atlantic Ocean. The areas bordering the north and south and Britain and Portugal are also areas with harsh environments.
Not to mention other things, the economic conditions of the Western Regions Province are not comparable to those of Southwest Africa, especially the agricultural conditions. The oasis agriculture in the Western Regions Province is very developed, and there are a large number of high-quality agricultural zones surrounding the Tarim River in the Tianshan Mountains or the Ili Valley. , which is very similar to the Somali region in East Africa and can support a large population.
There are no big rivers in Southwest Africa, deserts and barren land are widespread, and there are no high mountains like the Tianshan Mountains, so there is not much melting water from ice and snow in the mountains.
Southwest Africa in East Africa is larger than Namibia in the previous life, so a large part of the Kalahari Desert also belongs to Southwest Africa, and the area of the Kalahari Desert exceeds 600,000 square kilometers.
Although Namibia has a long coastline, it is basically covered by the Namib Desert. If the development path of the previous life is followed, the role of these coastlines will not be fully utilized.
The main factors limiting the development of its coastline are infrastructure and national economic strength. If East Africa opens up a railway channel to the inland and the Atlantic Ocean through here in the future, the economic level of Southwest Africa is estimated to be as high as 100,000 in the twentieth century. Beyond Namibia in its previous life.
Generally speaking, the potential of Southwest Africa is not as high as that of East Africa, and due to climate reasons, there is no need to split it.
As for choosing a provincial capital, Ernst actually had an idea for a long time. He would not choose a coastal area, but a plateau in the central part of Southwest Africa. For example, Windhoek, the capital of Namibia in its previous life, was a good choice. .
Therefore, Yasold and Val's ideas are doomed to fail. As for why they chose the central plateau, which is currently not developed at all, the reason is very simple. The population of the central plateau is larger there.
Take Walvis Bay Port as an example. Water source is a big problem. So far, its food still relies on sea transportation. Although Swakopmund has the Swakop River, the amount of water in the Swakop River is not large. , or a seasonal river.
In the previous life, the combined population of these two cities barely exceeded 100,000. If the population cannot increase, the development potential of these two cities will be very limited. This is also an important reason why Central Railway did not choose to go overseas here. .
So the future provincial capital of Southwest Africa will definitely be built in the central plateau area, which has certain agricultural potential. Moreover, the central plateau area is an important mineral distribution area in Southwest Africa, and it has greater potential than coastal ports.
In addition, the three central provinces in East Africa are developing very rapidly, which will effectively radiate to the central area of Southwest Africa in the future, further weakening the port transportation advantage along the coast of Southwest Africa.
Because the development of mineral resources in the central region has two directions, one is for export, and the other is for East Africa's own use. For export, you can also choose the railway through the eastern port in the future, let alone East Africa's own use. Now the industry has been in the three central provinces deploy.
Of course, Atlantic ports such as Walvis Bay still play a role. After all, they provide a few more options, which are conducive to the safety of East African commodity exports and are of certain significance to national defense security.
However, its population capacity is a big problem, which also means that it is difficult to develop coastal ports in Southwest Africa into comprehensive ports. It can only focus on developing a few pillar industries. This is why the provincial capital does not consider the coastal areas. main reason.
(End of this chapter)