Chapter 653: Provincial Capital Selection
In other words, the current Walvis Bay and Swakopmund Port are just fishing ports, providing incidental services to passing ships, while Swakopmund Port also serves as a military port.
"The level of attention the country pays to Southwest Africa is probably on the same level as the Congo rainforest, Serengeti Nature Reserve, and Limpopo Nature Reserve in East Africa. We are treated the same as the animals on the grasslands," Val joked.
Yasold said: "Haha, I don't know about other places, the Limpopo River Nature Reserve is not on the same level as us. The Limpopo River Nature Reserve is within the jurisdiction of Hechingen Province and Southern Frontier Province.
Do you think that the name Hechingen can mean a simple place? Moreover, the capital of Hechingen Province is called Otto City, which was named after the previous generation of Hechingen Prince, the father of His Majesty the King.
There is also the Southern Frontier Province, where the provincial capital, New Hamburg Port City, is developing rapidly, and it seems to be on par with Dar es Salaam and Mombasa. "
Val retorted: "I am not talking about the same thing as you. The Limpopo Nature Reserve is not the same as the Hechingen Province and the Southern Frontier Province. Although they are intertwined, they are at the same level, just like the railways are under the control of the railway system, not the provinces."
"The Limpopo Nature Reserve is not something we in South West Africa can challenge. It is a genuine provincial administrative unit. We in South West Africa are not even a province yet, but can only be regarded as a region. Besides, the number of troops in the Limpopo Nature Reserve alone is greater than the entire population of South West Africa. How can we compare with it?" Yasold reminded.
It is embarrassing to say that Southwest Africa has not yet become a formal member of East Africa in name. According to the precedent in East Africa, the situation in Southwest Africa should belong to a military control area. This was the case when Matabele Province was first occupied by East Africa, but it was soon designated as a province by East Africa.
"This is normal. The central government's approval and construction of the Mangjing Highway is already taking care of Southwest Africa. After all, I won't pay too much attention to the economic situation and natural environment of Southwest Africa as a whole. Let alone the highway, I think it is enough to maintain sea transportation. Building such a long highway is not cost-effective at all in my opinion." Val said.
Before Southwest Africa officially became a province, excluding military personnel, Athold and Val, as well as the mayor of Orangemund (the mouth of the Orange River), should be the top three officials in Southwest Africa. As for Lüderitz, it did not belong to the administrative region but was a military base of the military in the Bay of Lüderitz.
"So you said that if Southwest Africa is divided into provinces in the future, the capital should be chosen between our two cities!" Yasold suddenly realized this problem.
"It is most likely your Walvis Bay City. After all, your economy and population are stronger."
"Not necessarily. The selection of provincial capitals will not be based on these two factors as key indicators. The economies of provincial capitals in many provinces may not be stronger than other cities in the province."
"It can't be Oranjemund anyway," Val concluded.
"That may not be the case. Southwest Africa is such a large area that it can be divided into several provinces. Although Oranjemund is remote, if Southwest Africa is divided into multiple provinces, then Oranjemund has a great chance."
The two city officials' predictions about the future of Southwest Africa can only be said to be completely different from Ernst's ideas.
Ernst is not very concerned about Southwest Africa because construction is going on everywhere in East Africa now, and the conditions and importance of other regions in East Africa are much better than those in Southwest Africa.
But Ernst would not ignore such a large area of more than one million square kilometers in Southwest Africa.
In a broad sense, Southwest Africa actually has three provinces: the Lethania Province in the Okavango River Basin, the Lorraine Province in the Kalahari Basin with the Okavango River Delta as its center, and the 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 area of 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 plans to split up the remaining more than one million square kilometers of Southwest Africa, because the positioning of Southwest Africa was very similar to the Western Province of the Far East Empire.
However, its importance is far less than that of the Western Regions. The Western Regions is located in Central Asia and is of great significance to the national defense of the Far Eastern Empire. There is almost no threat from the land of Southwest Africa. To the east is the Atlantic Ocean, and the bordering areas with Britain and Portugal in the north and south are also harsh environments.
Apart from other things, the economic conditions of the Western Region Province are not comparable to those of Southwest Africa, especially the agricultural conditions. The oasis agriculture in the Western Region Province is very developed, and there are a large number of high-quality agricultural areas around the Tianshan Mountains, the Tarim River, or the Ili River Valley. This is very similar to the Somalia region in East Africa and can support a large population.
There are no large rivers in Southwest Africa, and deserts and barren lands are widespread. There are also no high mountains like the Tianshan Mountains, so there is not much meltwater from the mountain ice and snow.
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, the coast is basically covered by the Namib Desert. If it follows the development path of the previous life, 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 passage between the inland and the Atlantic Ocean through here in the future, the economic level of Southwest Africa is estimated to surpass Namibia in the 20th century.
Overall, Southwest Africa's potential is not ranked high in East Africa, and due to climatic reasons, there is no need to split it.
As for the choice of the provincial capital, Ernst actually had an idea long ago. He would not choose a coastal area, but a plateau area in the central part of southwest Africa. For example, Windhoek, the capital of Namibia in its previous life, is a good choice.
Therefore, the idea of Athold and Val was doomed to fail. As for why they chose the Central Plateau which has not been developed at all, the reason is very simple. The population capacity of the Central Plateau is larger.
Take Walvis Bay for example, water source is a big problem. So far, its food still relies on sea transportation. Although Swakopmund has the Swakop River, the water volume of the Swakop River is not large and it is still a seasonal river.
In the past life, the combined population of these two cities barely exceeded 100,000. If the population could not be increased, the development potential of these two cities would be very limited. This is also an important reason why the Central Railway did not choose to go out to sea here.
Therefore, 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 has greater potential than coastal ports.
In addition, the three central provinces of East Africa are now developing very rapidly, and they will be able to effectively radiate to the central region of Southwest Africa in the future, further weakening the port transportation advantages of the coastal areas of Southwest Africa.
Because the development of mineral resources in the central region has only two directions, one is export, and the other is use by East Africa itself. For export, in the future, it can also choose to use railways through eastern ports. Not to mention use by East Africa itself, the industry has now been deployed in the three central provinces.
Of course, Walvis Bay and other Atlantic ports still have their uses. After all, they provide more options, which is beneficial to the export security of East African goods and has certain significance for national defense security.
However, its population capacity is a big problem, which also means that it is difficult to develop the coastal ports of Southwest Africa into comprehensive ports. It can only focus on developing several pillar industries. This is also the main reason why provincial capitals do not consider coastal areas.
(End of this chapter)
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