Chapter 231
"According to the current map, there is suddenly so much more land, and also in order to rule the newly occupied land, I think the existing administrative divisions should be reformed." Constantine said.
Currently, there are 18 administrative regions in East Africa, and there are two areas without administrative divisions, which are military occupation areas, namely Southwest (Zambia) and Northeast (Somalia).
Of these 18 administrative regions, 17 are in the east, beyond Mbeya, and only one, East Katanga, is in the southwest.
Of the 17 administrative regions, excluding the Central Region and the Northern Omorate Special Region, the remaining 15 are distributed in the former Tanzania, Kenya and the Great Lakes region.
Constantine had long wanted to reform the administrative divisions of East Africa. East Africa is vast and sparsely populated, and the administrative divisions in the east are too small. The population of each administrative district is not large, which is a waste of administrative resources.
The most important thing is that the regional changes caused by the expansion in East Africa have made the original region somewhat inadequate, especially in terms of defense work.
For example, in the south bordering Portugal, the area along the Ruvuma River is divided into the East Lake Malawi Region and the Lower Coastal Region. The two administrative regions should be merged into one.
It can better deal with the potential threat from Portuguese colonies, and the presence of the Eastern Lake Malawi region is too weak. With Songea as its center, it obviously cannot compete with Mbeya. On the contrary, the Lower Coastal Region has the good port of Mtwara, and its capital Ronroda has developed well. One of the purposes of building the port of Mtwara was to serve the Eastern Lake Malawi region and the Lower Coastal Region. Therefore, in terms of national defense, economy, complementarity and administrative costs, the two regions should be merged.
There is also the Central Coastal Area, which has a weaker presence and does not have its own port. It is completely dependent on the Central Area. In fact, the Central Coastal Area is not without excellent harbors. Kilwa Kiswani Island to its east was once the most powerful city in East Africa in the Middle Ages. Its farthest radiation area even reached Zimbabwe, but it later declined, leaving only a group of ancient ruins.
There is no plan to develop new ports in East Africa at present. The current ports are fully sufficient and redundant. However, the Central Coastal District can be merged into the Central District, and the Central District will have two excellent ports on its own.
There is also a savannah area in East Africa, deep in the heart of East Africa. Ernst established it as an independent region simply because it was so large that it could be said to be a paradise for wildlife.
There is also the Upper Lake Malawi region where the city of Mbeya is located. Now looking at the potential of Mbeya City, the area of the Upper Lake Malawi region is too small.
In addition to the above problems, the most prominent one is that the newly occupied Northeast and Southwest regions are completely blank.
If they wanted to establish rule in the local area, it would not be enough to rely solely on military suppression. Government departments must be established. There were not many administrative personnel in East Africa, so if they wanted to make use of the few administrative personnel, the simplest way was to merge administrative regions in the east. In this way, half of the original government agency personnel could be allocated to the newly occupied areas. Internal administrative adjustments could free up more administrative personnel to invest in newly developed lands. This aspect was actually similar to the Meiji government's plan for Japan.
But Japan was more extreme than East Africa because East Africa had a large amount of newly acquired land to accommodate these officials, and Japan had a need for centralization (daimyo domains), while East Africa did not.
"Your Majesty, we do need to split up some regions with unclear positioning, such as the Omorate Special Region (the Omo River Basin and the vast land of northern Kenya). It used to be the northernmost region. Now that the Geledi Sultanate has been incorporated, our border has been pushed to the central part of Somalia, north of the Shabelle River. In addition to the Somali countries and tribes, it is not too far from the colonies of Britain and France on the Red Sea coast. No matter how it changes, the north of the Shabelle River should be integrated to deal with the indigenous people and the British and French forces."
"Well, the Abyssinian Empire is also a potential threat because of its large size, large population, and long history," Felix said.
"My opinion is exactly the opposite. The Abyssinian Empire poses almost no threat to us, both in terms of strength and interests. Even if we assume that the Abyssinian Empire is as powerful as ours in East Africa, they will not conflict with us. Now we have the best of time and place, and with the German nation we have the support of the people. The Abyssinian Empire will not fight with us for a bunch of rotten land in the southern part of the Ethiopian Plateau." Von der Leyen expressed her objection.
The core area of the Abyssinian Empire is in the northern part of the Ethiopian Plateau. The Omorate Special Region in East Africa has gradually completed the war against the Oromo people, Luo tribes, and Kushites in the southern part of the Ethiopian Plateau through years of infiltration, and has its current area.
These are all indigenous tribes, so their fighting power is not very strong, but some of the tribes still have some connections with the Abyssinian Empire, similar to its vassal states. But after seeing the East African armed forces, the Abyssinian Empire, which had been educated by the British, chose to play dead in its expansion in East Africa, and these subordinate black forces were easily wiped out by East Africa.
There is no need for East Africa to continue expanding northward. The pure black race has been completely wiped out from the area, and the skin color crisis in the north has been resolved by 80 percent.
Moreover, 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 suitable altitude for human habitation (scientific experiments have shown that the most suitable altitude for human habitation is between 500 and 2,000 meters). The environment of the Ethiopian Plateau, with an average altitude of more than 2,500 meters, especially the oxygen content, is not suitable for East African immigrants to live in, and it is easy to cause altitude sickness and make people 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 it is very livable. For the East African army, which is accustomed to fighting in the East African plateau environment, expanding there is just like going home.
German immigrants, in particular, felt no difference between East Africa and Europe. Most of the German immigrants in East Africa came from Austria or southern Germany.
That area is considered to be a relatively high altitude place in Europe, the Alps and the Bavarian Plateau, with an average altitude of about 500 meters.
"Well, now we have gained enough advantage. If we occupy some easily defensible areas, we can 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 it. They will not be stupid enough to offend us again." Siweitt agreed.
In fact, Abyssinia could not 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 was able to take over this area with the convenience of hot weapons.
Now, East Africa can basically avoid the threat of the Abyssinian Empire by setting up some simple fortresses on some important transportation routes.
Moreover, the Abyssinian Empire had no reason to expand southward, just like the reason why East Africa expanded to the upper reaches of the Omo River. East Africa wanted to protect the upstream water source from threats. Apart from that, the southern part of the Ethiopian Plateau had basically no economic value. Even in the past, this area was the least populous and least economically developed area in Ethiopia.
"Look at Egypt's territory. It just happens to half surround the Ethiopian Plateau in the south. Now is the era of the ocean. The Abyssinian Empire doesn't even have an outlet to the sea. You can imagine its future development."
Ethiopia was already backward, and now even its window for external communication has been blocked. If there had not been Italian colonization in the past, I'm afraid Ethiopia would have been even more backward.
(End of this chapter)
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