Chapter 43 Administrative Divisions
The increase in immigration has undoubtedly given the East African colonies greater development potential. However, population growth has also increased the difficulty of colonial management. In particular, the current chaotic administrative planning in the East African colonies has made colonial management more difficult.
This situation forced Ernst to systematically replan the administrative agencies of the East African colonies and establish a new administrative governance system. Only under the new administrative divisions could he better count colonial data and implement plans based on specific circumstances.
For example, the coastal area is the highest-level administrative unit in the current East African colony, which was established on Ernst's whim after the land and population reached a certain size.
The Solon Lake District and the Great Lakes District were established with reference to the Coastal District, but their scale when they were established was only equivalent to the size of a town in the Coastal District.
At that time, the number of colonial outposts and the number of immigrants were very small, so it was easy to conduct statistics and management.
The population size has now reached, and some areas have developed, among which the coastal area alone is equivalent to the sum of all other East African colonies.
In the coastal area, such a large area, three levels of administrative divisions have been formed. One is the coastal area, with its capital in the First Town, which is also the seat of the highest ruling body of the colony.
Going down is the First Town, the Second Town... Small towns like these have relatively dense populations.
Below the First Town, the Second Town and other small towns are the newly arranged villages, which are distributed around the six small towns.
In other areas, in addition to the incongruous Lake Solon area and the Great Lakes area, there are also scattered strongholds such as Karonga and Mbeya, but they are actually at the same level as the first three.
In short, the current management of the East African colonies is rather chaotic and the names are rather arbitrary.
After a long time of drawing on the map with pencil and ruler, a preliminary administrative division of the East African colony was born.
First of all, the highest administrative hub of the East African colony, the East African Colonial Government, was still established in the First Town. The First Town was separately planned from the coastal area, and the Second Town was also incorporated into the First Town.
Next were the provincial administrative divisions of the East African colonies, also known as regions, which were divided into ten areas.
The former Coastal District was renamed Upper Coastal District, with the Third Town (Kitunga) as the seat of administration.
Below the Upper Coastal Area are naturally two new areas to be planned, one is the Central Coastal Province with the Rusen Belt area along the Rufiji River as its capital, and the other is the Lower Coastal Area with Ronroda as its capital.
These three coastal areas are distributed from north to south, close to the Sultanate of Zanzibar, reaching Kenya in the north and bordering the Portuguese forces in the south.
The Northern Plateau Region was established to the west of the Upper Coastal Region, with its capital in Karatu.
The Central Plateau Region was established to the west of the Central Coastal Region, with its capital in Dodoma.
To the west of the Lower Coastal Region is the Eastern Lake Malawi Region, with its capital at Songea.
The Upper Lake Malawi Region was established in the northern part of Lake Malawi, with Mbeya as its capital.
Then the East African colonies were established around the Great Lakes (Lake Victoria) region, with the Great Lakes Region established with its capital in Mwanza.
The Solon District was established east of Lake Solon (Lake Tanganyika), with Kigoma as its capital.
A large grassland area was established between the Solon area and the central plateau area, with Tabora as its capital.
In this way, the ten regional administrative divisions of the East African colony were completed.
They are: Upper Coastal Region (Third Town), Central Coastal Region (Rusen Belt), Lower Coastal Region (Ronroda), Eastern Lake Malawi Region (Songea), Upper Lake Malawi Region (Mbeya), Central Plateau Region (Dodoma), Northern Plateau Region (Karatu), Savannah Region (Tabora), Great Lakes Region (Mwanza), Solon Region (Kigoma).
Then there are the urban administrative divisions. In addition to the capitals of each region, some places suitable for population gathering are classified as cities, such as Karonga on the shores of Lake Malawi. Because Mbeya is already the capital in the upper Lake Malawi region, Karonga can only be classified as a city alone.
The last is the most basic village, also known as a natural village, which is generally managed by the surrounding towns as the center.
The current East African colonies do not have counties as administrative units. Instead, they are replaced by towns similar to those in Germany. The regions in the East African colonies are modeled after the states of the later German Federation.
This set of administrative divisions will be used as administrative planning during the transitional period. In the future, the East African colonies will change as they expand beyond Tanganyika.
Among them, the Central Coastal Area, the Lower Coastal Area and the Eastern Lake Malawi Area were not brought under actual control, which will also be a target for the expansion of the East African colonies in the future.
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In the new upper coastal area, two kilometers north of Manda Town, is the newly established Longka Village, which is under the management of Manda Town.
This village is currently the northernmost village in the Upper Coastal District, with a population of approximately 400, including a colonial security team of five Chinese immigrants formed to guard against invasions by indigenous tribes in the north.
Although the East African colony had already carried out an expulsion operation in the upper coastal area, it had not completely encircled and wiped out the nearby tribes due to lack of manpower, so the possibility of tribal invasions still existed.
After all, although the East African colonies drove them to all directions, they also lost the land and environment on which they depended for survival.
If they cannot find new resources to sustain themselves, some indigenous people may take the risk and move into the Upper Coastal Area.
For the safety of these immigrants, the East African colony arranged a village security team of five or six people in each village. The team leader was a German who was also the village chief, responsible for arranging the village's daily production activities and village security issues.
Liu Damao was an honest farmer from North China. He originally owned two or three acres of land in his former village. In good years, he could still have enough to eat.
There was a drought there this year and the wheat harvest was almost total. Liu Damao had no choice but to borrow some grain from the landlord. Although it met the temporary minimum living requirements, Liu Damao was unable to pay back the grain and his only two or three acres of land were taken away by the landlord Zhou.
It just so happened that Zhang Gensheng from the same village came back from the East African colony to recruit people to reclaim land in East Africa. Liu Damao, who had nowhere else to turn, signed up.
In this way, Liu Damao had to choose to make a living in the East African colony. When Liu Damao first arrived in the East African colony, he first went to the first town.
After registration, he was assigned to Longka Village. After several days of travel, he and his companions, led by the colonial security team, arrived at Manda Town, and then received basic living supplies and production tools in Manda Town.
When he first arrived in Longka Village, Liu Damao felt that the environment here was quite good, with relatively open terrain and dense vegetation, but such good land was left abandoned.
Longka Village belongs to the Tanga Region of Tanzania in later generations. The natural conditions here are very superior and suitable for agricultural development.
Under the leadership of the German village chief, Liu Damao and other villagers developed the land around Longka Village.
They built canals along the river and set up water wheels to bring river water ashore. They plowed the land along these canals and developed farmland.
The soil here has been accumulated over thousands of years, and no one has developed these lands, so the soil is very fertile and the crops grow very well.
Liu Damao and others' food, clothing, housing and transportation were all taken care of by the East African colonies, so they had no worries, but they had to go to work on time every day and complete the planned production workload.
For example, there was a minimum amount of land that each person had to develop every day. If these tasks were not completed, food rations would be reduced, and those who fell behind would be punished. The Germans were responsible for overseeing the work, and the Chinese security forces under them would inspect the work of the immigrants.
The weapons and ammunition of the Chinese security forces in the village were provided by Manda Town. They were responsible for the village’s police surveillance. If they spotted the enemy, they would be temporarily provided with ammunition by the German village chief.
There are more than 100 small villages like Longka Village in the entire Xinshang Binhai District, which are managed by leaders of four towns respectively.
The reason why small towns like Manda Town have a slightly denser population is because of their more advantageous geographical locations. Most of them are close to sufficient water sources, so the production conditions are better than those of these small villages.
In the East African colonies, there were also some towns that were less affected by the natural environment because they were located on major transportation routes connecting the entire East African colonies.
Just as the Upper Coastal Area was undergoing vigorous agricultural development, an exploration team from the East African colony had begun to move south. The place they were heading to was the Middle Coastal Area and the Lower Coastal Area planned on the map.
At the beginning, the expansion direction of the East African colonies was mainly towards the western inland, so the southern region close to the Sultanate of Zanzibar was neglected, and the focus was also placed on important cities and regions such as Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi in later generations, as well as Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania in later generations.
The colony's attention was distracted and the southern part of the original coastal area was neglected. Now, Ernst's newly planned administrative division of the East African colony has made southern Tanzania receive attention again, so the colony began to move south.
(End of this chapter)
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