Chapter 883: Comprehensive East Africanization
Therefore, the early Abyssinian Empire's feelings towards East Africa were mostly fear and dissatisfaction. There was no fundamental conflict of interest. After all, the Abyssinian Empire was torn apart after the British expedition and had a strong fear of Westerners.
At the same time, East Africa took advantage of Abyssinia's turbulent period to incorporate a large area in its southern part. As the local overlord for a thousand years, it is understandable that the Abyssinians felt a little unbalanced.
However, the Abyssinian Empire's actions towards East Africa were completely blameless. After all, the Abyssinian Empire was only a regional hegemon and had no direct legal ownership of the southern lands. Therefore, when southern Ethiopia was incorporated into East Africa, the Abyssinian Empire could only hate itself for being useless.
Moreover, with the entry of Italy, an extraterritorial power, into Northeast Africa and the backdrop of its old enemy Egypt, East Africa seemed to the Abyssinian Empire to be the embodiment of "greatness, glory, and justice" in the world and the most "lovely" country in the world. This was even more so after the two countries signed a border demarcation agreement.
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Bahir Dar city.
Located in the south of Lake Tana in the Abyssinian Empire, in the Central Province of the Abyssinian Empire, it quickly became the new political and economic center of the empire since John IV moved the capital there.
The Central Province of the Abyssinian Empire is the former Amhara State. The emergence of the Central Province administrative division is a reflection of the "East Africanization" of the Abyssinian Empire.
That’s right, this so-called Central Province was modeled after the Central Province where the capital of East Africa is located, which reflects the strong influence of East Africa in the Abyssinian Empire.
The 19th century was an era when backward countries learned from the Western world, and the Abyssinian Empire’s learning model was East Africa.
Today, in the eyes of the Abyssinian Empire, East Africa is synonymous with "strong, prosperous, and civilized". After all, the tragedy of the modern Abyssinian Empire was entirely started by the British expedition to the Abyssinian Empire. In 1890, after East Africa defeated the powerful Britain, the shock to the Abyssinian Empire can be imagined.
In addition, East Africa is right next to Abyssinia, both countries are mainly plateau countries with similar climatic conditions. Due to the relationship between the two countries, the peripheral political environment of the Abyssinian Empire and other reasons, East Africa became Abyssinia's primary object of study.
Of course, this point is also very important as they are both monarchies. If it were a republic like the United States or France, the royal family of the Abyssinian Empire would probably not be able to sleep well.
As a new city, Bahir Dar displays East African style everywhere. It was built by East African designers specially invited by King John IV after he moved the capital, and the template was the city of Mwanza in East Africa.
Bahir Dar is located on the shores of Lake Tana, the largest lake in Abyssinia, just like Mwanza, so East Africans simply copied the design of Mwanza and replicated Bahir Dar.
Therefore, traces of East Africa can be seen everywhere in Bahir Dar, even public toilets, trash cans and other basic facilities can be seen everywhere in the urban area.
Of course, the most eye-catching thing is the cars imported from East Africa that occasionally pass by on the road, making Bahir Dar look nothing like a traditional African city, but rather a small European or East African city.
Of course, as the capital of the Abyssinian Empire, the upper limit of Bahir Dar is not high. After all, the Abyssinian Empire as a whole is relatively poor. Therefore, although it is designed according to the city of Mwanza, the scale of the city is far from the standard of Mwanza, so there are many compromise solutions.
For example, the ambitious road construction plan in East Africa has been greatly reduced in Bahir Dar. However, compared with Europe, the roads in Bahir Dar still appear spacious and clean, and attention is paid to greening on both sides of the road.
It is worth mentioning that the Bahir Dar Palace is basically a replica of the Sweet Palace in East Africa, and there is no difference at all overall.
The Sweet Palace is relatively small in size among the royal palaces in the world. After all, Ernst had no intention from the beginning to keep the capital of East Africa in the first town, so in order to reduce "waste", the size of the Sweet Palace is only the size of some small and medium-sized European countries.
This is also the reason why the Abyssinian Empire was able to easily build the Bahir Dar Palace. Although the palace was a little smaller, it was still an extremely "grand and spectacular" building for the Abyssinian Empire.
In addition, the availability of running water, telephones, telegraphs, and lighting equipment gives the palace a strong sense of modernity. There is no doubt that these products all come from factories in East Africa.
Except for the royal palace, all the buildings in Bahir Dar are modeled after East African ones. If it weren't for the darker skin of Abyssinians and Indians, it would be impossible to tell the difference between this place and East Africa.
Southeast of Bahir Dar, the first railway in the Abyssinian Empire was being built, which was extremely important to the Abyssinian Empire and East Africa.
The railway runs from Agaro, northwest of Jimma City in East Africa, directly to Bahir Dar, the capital of the Abyssinian Empire. Therefore, it is called the Agaro-Bahir Dar Railway by East African railway designers, or the Abyssinian-Bahir Dar Railway for short. Of course, this is the name of the railway in East Africa.
The Abyssinian Empire called this railway the "Central Railway". After the loss of its eastern territory, the center of the Abyssinian Empire shifted westwards. The Abyssinian-Pakistan Railway is indeed located in the center of the country, so there is nothing wrong with calling it this. However, the reason for this name is obviously influenced by the "Central Railway", the main railway artery in East Africa.
As the first railway in the Abyssinian Empire, it was called by Johannes IV as a symbol of "the first step in the modernization of the Abyssinian Empire."
As for East Africa, this railway is the first one abroad that is completely built by East Africa and constructed according to East African standards. The railway is exactly the same as the domestic standards of East Africa. Except for sleepers, slag and other local materials, all facilities are exported from East Africa.
Of course, due to national defense and security considerations, the Abyssinian Empire did not directly connect this railway to the Turkana Railway in East Africa, so there is no railway connection for more than 30 kilometers from Agaro to Jimma City.
Of course, East Africa had no intention of invading the Abyssinian Empire. After all, it was one of only two countries around East Africa with a population of over 10 million (the other was Egypt), so East Africa could not be interested in Abyssinian territory.
Another important reason why the Abyssinian Empire adopted the East African standard railway was that Egypt and Italy both used British standards, so they also had similar considerations as Tsarist Russia.
As for East Africa, although it is also an object of vigilance, this is not a problem when the "enemy" is too powerful. East Africa is not something that a small country like Italy can challenge. Even without relying on railways, the Abyssinian Empire can be easily destroyed. It is precisely because they clearly know this that the authorities of the Abyssinian Empire completely adopt an attitude of "submission" towards East Africa.
In addition to architecture, infrastructure, urban planning and other aspects, the Abyssinian Empire learned all about East Africa, and East Africa's political system was also a focus of study for the Abyssinian Empire.
In particular, John IV was very envious of the centralization of power in East Africa. In the previous years, the Abyssinian Empire had suffered from warlord separatism.
Therefore, after Johannes IV came to power, he was busy centralizing the power of the central government, especially after his base in the Greti region was directly threatened by Italy and he was forced to move the capital to Bahir Dar.
Therefore, after Johannes IV moved the capital, he comprehensively strengthened Bahir Dar's position in the country, including the construction of the Afghan-Pakistani Railway, which was also intended to win over and check the tribal forces close to East Africa and prevent them from completely turning to East Africa.
East Africa had a huge influence on the southern part of the Abyssinian Empire, so preventing the southern forces from splitting was one of Johannes IV's important tasks, which was also related to his origin as a traditional northern family.
In the past, the core of the Abyssinian Empire was the north, but after the war with Italy, the northern power was severely weakened. Now the north has directly become a border. This is one of the important reasons why Bahir Dar, a region that originally had no sense of existence, became the new capital. By the way, the northern clique forces and Johannes IV concentrated the resources of the north in Bahir Dar.
(End of this chapter)
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