Chapter 231

"According to the current territory, there is suddenly so much land, and it is also for the governance needs of the newly occupied land. I think the existing administrative divisions should be reformed," Constantine said.

At present, there are a total of 18 administrative regions in East Africa, and there are two areas that have not established administrative divisions and are military-occupied areas, namely the southwest (Zambia) and the northeast (Somalia).

Of these 18 administrative regions, 17 are in the east, past Mbeya, and only one, Eastern Katanga, is in the southwest.

Among the 17 administrative regions, excluding the Central Region and the Northern Omorat Region, the remaining 15 are distributed in the original Tanzania, Kenya and the Great Lakes Region.

Constantine has long wanted to reform the administrative divisions of East Africa. East Africa is vast and sparsely populated, and the eastern administrative divisions are too small. Each administrative division has a small population, which is a waste of administrative resources.

The most important thing is that the regional changes caused by the expansion of East Africa have made the original region somewhat unsatisfactory, especially defense work.

For example, in the south on the border with Portugal, the banks of the Rufuma River are divided into the East Malawi Lake District and the Lower Coast District. The two administrative districts should be merged into one.

It can better deal with potential threats from Portuguese colonies, and the presence of the East Malawi Lake District is too weak. With Songea as the center, it obviously cannot compete with Mbeya. Instead, the Lower Coast District has a good port of Mtwara. At the same time The capital, Ronroda, is developing well, and one of the purposes of the port of Mtwara was to serve the East Malawi Lake District and the Lower Coast District. Therefore, in terms of national defense, economy, complementarity and administrative costs, the two should be combined. Regional mergers.

There is also the Central Coastal District, which has a weaker sense of existence and does not have its own port. It is completely dependent on the Central District. In fact, the Central Coastal District is not without excellent harbors. Kilwa Kiswani Island in the east was East Africa's largest island in the Middle Ages. The most powerful city, its farthest radiation area even reached Zimbabwe, but it later declined, leaving only a group of ancient ruins.

There is currently no idea of ​​developing new ports in East Africa. The current ports are completely sufficient and have redundancy. However, the Central Coastal District can be merged into the Central District, and the Central District itself has two excellent ports.

There is also a prairie area in East Africa, located deep in the hinterland of East Africa. At that time, Ernst established it as an independent region simply because it was so large that it could be said to be a paradise for wild animals.

There is also the Upper Malawi Lake District where Mbeya City is located. Now looking at the potential of Mbeya City, the area of ​​the Upper Malawi Lake District is too small.

In addition to the above problems, the most prominent one is that the newly occupied northeast and southwest regions are completely white.

If you want to establish local rule, military suppression alone will definitely not work. Government departments must be established. And there are not many administrative staff in East Africa. Therefore, if you want to make use of the few administrative staff, the easiest way is to merge administrative districts in the east. In this way, half of the original government personnel can be allocated to the newly occupied areas. Internal administrative adjustments can free up more administrative personnel to invest in newly developed lands. This aspect is actually similar to the Meiji government's policy on Japan. Pretty much the same plan.

But Japan is more extreme than East Africa, because East Africa has a large amount of newly acquired land to accommodate these officials. At the same time, Japan has a need for centralization (Daimyo vassals), but East Africa does not.

"Your Majesty, we do need to split up some regions that are not clearly defined, such as the Omorat Special Zone (the Omo River Basin and the vast land in northern Kenya). It used to be the northernmost region, and now it is Gullah After the Sultanate was annexed, our national border was pushed to central Somalia, north of the Shabelle River. In addition to the Somali countries and tribes, it is not too far from the British and French colonies on the Red Sea coast. No matter how it changes, Shabelle Everything north of the river should be integrated to deal with the indigenous, British and French forces.”

"Well, so is the Abyssinian Empire. It is large, has a large population, and has a long history. It is a potential threat." Felix said.

"My opinion is completely opposite. The Abyssinian Empire poses almost no threat to us, both in terms of strength and interests. Even assuming that the Abyssinian Empire's national strength is the same as ours in East Africa, they will not Conflict with us, now that we have taken advantage of the right time and place, and the German nation is both human and human, the Abyssinian Empire will not fight us over a pile of rubbish land in the southern part of the Ethiopian plateau." Von der Leyen said expressed an objection.

The core area of ​​the Abyssinian Empire is in the northern part of the Ethiopian Plateau. After years of penetration, the Omorat Special Zone in East Africa gradually completed the war against the Oromo, Luo tribes, and Cushites in the southern part of the Ethiopian Plateau. Have the current area.

These are all indigenous tribes, so their combat effectiveness is not very strong. However, some tribes still have some connections with the Abyssinian Empire, similar to its vassal states. However, after seeing the armed forces of East Africa, the Abyssinians who were educated by the British The empire 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 to expand northward. The pure black race has been completely wiped out from the local area, and the skin color crisis in the north has been solved by 80%.

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 livable altitude for humans (scientific experiments have proven that the most livable altitude for humans is between 500 and 2,000 meters). The environment of the Ethiopian Plateau, which has an average altitude of more than 2,500 meters, is especially oxygen-rich. The content is not suitable for East African immigrants to live in, and it can easily cause high reactions and make people feel 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 are very livable. East African troops who are accustomed to fighting in the East African Plateau environment expand there, and it is like going home.

German immigrants in particular do not feel any difference from Europe in East Africa. Most of the German immigrants in East Africa come from Austria or South Germany.

And that area is considered a relatively high altitude place in Europe, the Alps and the Bavarian Plateau, with an average altitude of about 500 meters.

"Well, now that we have almost taken advantage, we can occupy some easy-to-defend areas and then stop in the north. The Abyssinian Empire is sandwiched between Britain, France, Egypt, and our East Africa. It is obvious that Britain, France, and even Egypt are interested in it. The threat is greater, and they will not be stupid enough to offend us again." Sweet agreed.

In fact, it is impossible for Abyssinia to be so stupid. The Omo River Basin occupied by East Africa and the southern part of the Ethiopian Plateau are surrounded by mountains and the terrain is steep. They are not good places for marching at all. East Africa was only captured with the convenience of thermal weapons. this area.

Now East Africa basically has no fear of the threat of the Abyssinian Empire as long as some simple fortresses are deployed on some traffic arteries.

Moreover, there is no reason for the Abyssinian Empire to expand to the south, just like the reason for East Africa to expand to the upper reaches of the Omo River. East Africa is to protect the upstream water sources from threats. Otherwise, the southern part of the Ethiopian Plateau basically has no economic value. Even in its previous life, this region had the smallest population and the least developed economy in Ethiopia.

"Look at the territory of Egypt. It happens to semi-encircle the Ethiopian Plateau to the south. Now is the age of the ocean. The Abyssinian Empire doesn't even have an outlet to the sea. The future development can be imagined."

It was already backward, but now even the window for external exchanges has been blocked. If there had been no Italian colonization in the previous life, Ethiopia would have fallen even further behind.