Chapter 865 Plateau Province
Although Morogoro has developed well, it is just a small episode in this trip. After all, as a city not far from the first town, Ernst has plenty of time to inspect Morogoro. In fact, Ernst has inspected Morogoro twice before, but the last inspection was in 1888. At that time, Morogoro obviously had not developed to its current level.
The train did not stop in Morogoro, but continued towards the next stop, Dodoma City. Passing through the Udzungwa Mountains, the railway began to circle northeast and then transition to the East African Plateau. Because the slope in the northwest is gentle, the Central Railway originally built the northern line plan.
The southern route was to go directly from Morogoro to Iringa and then to Mbeya, but this would bypass Dodoma, so the East African Railways chose the northern route to take care of Dodoma and Plateau Province.
However, this decision was later proved to be correct. With the opening of the Bujumbura-Dodoma railway, the Great Lakes region has closer economic ties with the east.
As for the southern line plan, it is not without its merits. It can greatly save the distance between Dar es Salaam and Mbeya, so when the East African railway is expanded in the future, a railway line from Morogoro to Iringa will definitely be built.
…
Dodoma.
Ernst got off the train here. The train will stop here for a short while. Today, Dodoma City, as the capital of Plateau Province, has a level of development similar to that of the first town. As the fourth largest economic city on the East African Plateau, Dodoma is obviously not comparable to Nairobi, Mwanza, and Kisumu. However, as one of the national railway hubs, Dodoma's economic size can also rank among the top ten in East Africa.
Especially after being incorporated into the old Hohenzollern Province (mainly the area on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika), Dodoma developed even more rapidly, with the province's resources concentrated here, especially industrial development, which was extremely rapid.
This brings us to the area of Plateau Province. On the East African Plateau, Plateau Province has the largest area. In fact, South Salzburg Province is larger than Plateau Province, but South Salzburg Province spans the East African Plateau and the Katanga Plateau and is not entirely a province on the East African Plateau.
The advantages in size and geographical location have enabled Dodoma City to develop rapidly. However, in Ernst's mind, he had already begun planning to split the Plateau Province again.
If the Serengeti grasslands are included, the area of the Highlands Province reaches an astonishing 400,000 square kilometers, which would make it a relatively large country even in Europe.
The reason why Plateau Province had a prominent area in the early days was that the overall level of development in the Plateau Province was relatively poor at that time. However, after so many years of development, the population density of Plateau Province is now among the highest in East Africa. Secondly, Dodoma is the only place in Plateau Province that is too far to the east, which is not conducive to driving the economic development of the entire province.
According to Ernst's psychological expectation, the Plateau Province will have to be split into at least two or three provinces in the future. This place is not a place dominated by desert terrain like the Northern Province or Southwest Africa. The agricultural conditions are actually quite good, especially after the major overhaul of water conservancy projects in East Africa, the Plateau Province has become the largest wheat producing area in East Africa.
Moreover, after the abolition of the old Hohenzollern province, the current Lake Soron (Lake Tanganyika) basin lacks decent large cities, mainly in contrast to the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) Lake Malawi.
Of course, Bujumbura, the capital of Western Great Lakes Province, actually also belongs to the Lake Solon Basin, but the economy of Western Great Lakes Province is mainly in the Great Lakes Basin.
Dodoma is not the largest city in the province. The largest city in Plateau Province is Mwanza on the southern shore of Lake Tai.
However, given the area of the Plateau Province, the administrative divisions on the East African Plateau will definitely need to be overhauled in the future, and urban adjustments within the region will also have to be made.
The main reason why Ernst did not do so at present is that East Africa's current main focus is on the development of the south and the west. The south and the west have not yet been divided into provincial boundaries, so when the economy and population of the two places reach a certain scale, East Africa will divide them into administrative regions together with the Plateau Province and other regions.
Of course, even after being split, the provinces split from the plateau province will not be too bad. The size of the main provinces split will at least exceed 150,000 square kilometers.
You should know that in the past life, Tanzania had more than eleven first-level administrative regions in this area. Tanzania's first-level administrative regions are called "districts", which are equivalent to provinces in other countries. Of course, they are smaller in area, even smaller than the states of the United States, because the United States had only fifty states in its previous life. Tanzania has a land area of less than one million square meters, but is spread over thirty-one first-level administrative regions.
However, Tanzania's overall terrain is flat and the time difference is not too big, so the evenly divided "districts" are relatively balanced in strength as long as they are not compared with cities such as Dar es Salaam or Dodoma.
The provinces in East Africa are destined to be large. Even if uninhabitable areas such as the Congo rainforest, Southwest Africa, Somalia, and the northern desert (mainly the border area between North and South Sudan) are removed, the land area of East Africa is still close to 10 million square kilometers.
Ernst expects the number of provinces in East Africa to be around thirty to forty. However, there are currently more than twenty provincial administrative regions in East Africa, and more will be divided in the future.
However, the number would not reach nearly one hundred like that of Tsarist Russia. The first-level administrative regions of Tsarist Russia were mainly provinces and states. In addition, there were higher-level governor-general districts, which numbered about ten, similar to the military regions established in East Africa.
After all, the national conditions of East Africa and Tsarist Russia are different. Excluding the royal territory of Alaska, the territory of Tsarist Russia is almost the size of the United States than that of East Africa.
The fact that the United States has nearly fifty states is not very reasonable in Ernst's opinion, especially in the Midwest. In Ernst's opinion, the straight horizontal and vertical borders can easily draw on the economic strength of the states, but are also not conducive to the division and checks and balances between the central government and the local governments.
Of course, the national conditions of the two countries are different. East Africa is a centralized country where the central power is far greater than the local power, while the United States is a federal country where the states live in partnership, so they cannot be generalized.
However, according to Ernst's idea, the provincial system is naturally better. After all, this system is the one he is most familiar with, and it is beneficial to the rule of the Hechingen royal family.
Of course, for the sake of ruling needs, Ernst also has the idea of establishing a duchy, but it is mainly in areas outside the homeland, such as remote places like Alaska, so that it will be convenient for the Hechingen royal family to share risks in the future.
Moreover, overseas colonies are far away from East Africa and have strong centrifugal forces, so they will inevitably demand greater autonomy. If they are set up as principalities or dependencies, it will be helpful to maintain contact, similar to the Commonwealth. Moreover, if the Hechingen royal family serves as the future leaders of overseas colonies, it will be easier to increase insurance for the safety of the local royal family.
However, it is still a bit far-fetched to think about these things now. It is not known how long it will take for the south and the west to be developed. Therefore, Ernst has no plans to make major changes to the administrative divisions of East Africa in recent years.
In Dodoma, Ernst mainly got off the train to get some fresh air. After staying at the station for dozens of minutes, the train set off again. In the following days, Ernst would inspect Iringa and Mbeya in turn, two areas that Ernst had basically never been to.
After passing Mbeya, Ernst focused on the central area where the "future capital" would be located.
(End of this chapter)
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