Chapter 43 Administrative Divisions

The increase in immigration has undoubtedly given the East African colonies greater development potential. However, population growth has also made it more difficult to manage the colonies. In particular, the current chaotic administrative planning of the East African colonies has made colonial management more difficult.

This situation forced Ernst to systematically re-plan the management institutions of the East African colonies and establish a new administrative governance system. Under the new administrative divisions, he could better collect colonial data and implement plans according to specific conditions.

For example, the Maritime District was the highest-level administrative unit in the current East African colonies that Ernst temporarily set up after the land and population reached a certain scale.

The Solon Lake District and the Great Lakes District were established based on the Binhai District, but the scale when they were established was only equivalent to the size of a town in the Binhai District.

At the beginning, the number of colonial strongholds and the number of immigrants were very small, so statistical management was easy.

Now the population size has reached and some areas have developed. One administrative unit of the coastal district is equivalent to more than the other colonies in East Africa combined.

In the Binhai District, a huge place has formed administrative divisions with three levels. One is the Binhai District, with the capital in the First Town and the seat of the highest governing body of the colony.

Downstairs are the first town and the second town... Small towns like this have a relatively dense population.

Below the first town, second town and other small towns are the newly arranged villages, which are distributed around six small towns.

In other areas, in addition to the nondescript Solon Lake District and the Great Lakes District, there are also scattered strongholds such as Karonga and Mbeya, but they are actually on the same level as the first three.

All in all, the current management of the East African colonies is relatively chaotic and the names are relatively random.

After Ernst Gott drew it on the map with pencil and measuring tape for a long time, a primary administrative division of the East African colony was born.

First of all, the highest management hub of the East African colonies, the East African colonial government, was still established in the first town. The first town was planned separately from the coastal area, and the second town was also included in the first town.

Secondly, the provincial administrative areas of the East African colonies were also called regions and were divided into ten areas.

The original Binhai District was renamed as Upper Binhai District, with the third town (Kitunga) as the administrative seat.

Below the Upper Coastal District are naturally two new districts to be planned, one is the Central Coastal Province with the Lusen Belt area along the Rufiji River as its capital, and the other is the Lower Coastal District 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 influence in the south.

The Northern Plateau District was established in the upper coastal area to the west, and the capital was established in Karatu.

The Central Plateau District was established from the Central Coastal District to the west, and the capital was established in Dodoma.

The East Malawi Lake District is established from the lower coastal area to the west, with the capital at Songea.

The Upper Lake Malawi District was established in the north of Lake Malawi, with its capital at Mbeya.

Then the East African colonies established the Great Lakes District around the Great Lakes (Lake Victoria) area, with its capital in Mwanza.

Solon District was established east of Lake Solon (Lake Tanganyika), with its capital in Kigoma.

A prairie district was established between the Solon District and the Central Plateau District, with its capital in Tapora.

In this way, the ten district-level administrative divisions of the East African colonies were completed.

They are: Upper Coastal District (Third Town), Central Coastal District (Rusen Belt), Lower Coastal District (Ronroda), East Malawi Lake District (Songea), Upper Malawi Lake District (Mbeya ), Central Plateau Region (Dodoma), Northern Plateau Region (Karatu), Steppe Region (Tapora), Great Lakes Region (Mwanza), Solon Region (Kigoma).

Then there is the urban administrative division. In addition to the capitals of each region, there will also be some places suitable for population gathering that are divided into cities, such as Karonga, located on the shores of Lake Malawi, because there are already Mu in the Upper Malawi Lake District. Beia is the capital, so Karonga can only be classified as a city alone.

Finally, there is the most basic village, that is, the natural village, which is generally managed by the surrounding towns as the center.

The current East African colonies do not have the administrative unit of counties. Instead, they are cities and towns similar to the German regions. The large regions of the East African colonies are based on the states of the later German Confederation.

This set of administrative division designs will be used as a transitional administrative plan. In the future, the East African colonies will change with the expansion beyond Tanganyika.

Among them, the Central Coastal District, Lower Coastal District and East Malawi Lake District have not been included in the actual control, which will also be an expansion target of the East African colonies in the future.

…

In the new Upper Binhai District, two kilometers north of Manda Town, here is the newly established Longka Village, which falls under the management scope of Manda Town.

This village is currently the northernmost village in the Upper Binhai District. It has about 400 villagers, including a colonial security team formed by five Chinese immigrants to guard against invasion by indigenous tribes in the north.

Although the East African colonies had already conducted an expulsion operation in the Upper Coastal District, the nearby tribes were not completely encircled and suppressed due to manpower constraints, so there was still the possibility of tribal invasion.

After all, although the East African colonies drove them around, they also lost the land and environment they relied on for survival.

If new resources cannot be found to sustain their livelihood, some indigenous people may take risks and enter the upper coastal zone.

For the safety of these immigrants, the East African colonies arranged a village-level security team of five or six people in each village. The leader was a German who was also the village chief and was responsible for the arrangement of the daily production activities and the security of the village. question.

Liu Damao is an honest farmer from North China. He originally had two or three acres of land in his former village, and he could still afford to eat when the years were good.

There was a drought this year and the wheat harvest was almost dead. Liu Damao, who was forced to borrow some grain from the landlord, had no choice but to borrow some grain from the landlord. Although it met the temporary minimum living requirements, Liu Damao's only two or three acres of land, which could not afford grain, were also used. The landlord Zhou’s family took it away.

It happened that Zhang Gensheng from the same village came back from the East African colony to recruit people and went to East Africa to open up wasteland. Liu Damao, who was desperate, signed up.

In this way, Liu Damao had to choose to make a living in the East African colonies. Liu Damao, who first arrived in the East African colonies, first went to the first town.

After registration, he was arranged to Longka Village. After several days of traveling, he and his companions, led by the colonial security team, arrived at Manda Town, where they received basic living supplies and production tools. .

When he first arrived in Longka Village, Liu Damao felt that the environment here was pretty good. The terrain was relatively open and the vegetation was dense. However, such good land was left randomly abandoned.

Longka Village belongs to the Tanga District 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 rivers, built waterwheels, brought the river water ashore, plowed the land along these canals, and pieces of farmland were developed.

The soil here has been accumulated for thousands of years. At the same time, no one has developed these lands, so the soil is very fertile and the crops grow very well.

The food, clothing, housing and transportation of Liu Damao and others were all taken care of by the East African colonies. Therefore, they had no worries, but they had to work on time every day and complete the planned production workload.

For example, there is a minimum limit on how much land each person needs to develop every day. If these tasks cannot be completed, then the food rations will be reduced and those who fall behind will be punished. The Germans will be responsible for supervising the work, and their Chinese security forces will inspect the immigration work.

The weapons and ammunition of the Chinese security forces in the village are provided by Manda Town. They are responsible for the security of the village. If enemies are discovered, the German village chief will temporarily issue ammunition.

There are more than 100 small villages like Longka Village in the entire Xinshang Binhai District, and they are managed by the leaders of four towns.

The reason why small towns like Manda Town have a slightly denser population is because their geographical location is more advantageous. Most of them are close to sufficient water sources, so the production conditions are better than 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 traffic arteries connecting the entire East African colonies.

Just as the Upper Binhai District was undergoing vigorous agricultural development, an exploration team from the East African colonies had already begun to go south. The places they were going to were the Middle Binhai District and the Lower Binhai District planned on the map.

At the beginning, the expansion direction of the East African colonies was mainly towards the western inland, so the southern area near the Sultanate of Zanzibar was ignored. The focus was also on Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi in later generations. As well as later important cities and regions such as Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania.

The energy of the colony was dispersed, and the southern part of the original coastal area was ignored. Now, Ernst's newly planned East African colonial administrative divisions have brought renewed attention to the southern part of Tanzania, so the colony began to move south.