Chapter 865 Plateau Province

Although Morogoro is developing 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 visit Morogoro. In fact, before Ernst I still inspected Morogoro twice, but the last inspection was in 1888. At that time, Morogoro obviously had not developed to the level it is today.

The train did not stop in Morogoro, but continued towards the next stop, Dodoma City, passing through the Udzungwa Mountains. The railway began to detour to the northeast, and then transitioned to the East African Plateau. Because the northwest slope is gentle, so At the beginning, the Central Railway built the northern line plan.

The southern route plan is to go directly from Morogoro to Iringa City and then directly to Mbeya, but this will bypass Dodoma City, so the East African Railway Ministry took care of Dodoma City and Plateau Province at that time. Northern route plan.

However, this decision later proved to be correct. With the opening of the Bujumbura-Dodoma railway, the Great Lakes region has become more closely connected with the eastern economy.

As for the southern line plan, it is not without its merits. It can greatly save the distance between Dar es Salaam and Mbeya. Therefore, when the East African Railway expands in the future, a railway line from Morogoro to Iringa will definitely be built. .

…

Dodoma.

Ernst got off the train here, and the train would stop here for a short period of time. Now, as the capital of Plateau Province, Dodoma City has a development level similar to that of the first town. As the fourth economic city on the East African Plateau, Dodoma obviously cannot Compared with Nairobi, Mwanza, and Kisumu, as one of the national railway hubs, Dodoma's economic size ranks among the top ten in East Africa.

Especially after being merged into the old Hohenzollern Province (mainly the east coast of Lake Tanganyika), Dodoma developed even more rapidly, and the province's resources were concentrated here, especially the industrial development was extremely rapid.

This has to mention the area of ​​Plateau Province. In the East African Plateau, Plateau Province ranks first in area. In fact, South Salzburg Province is larger than Plateau Province, but South Salzburg Province spans the East African Plateau and Katan. The Ga Plateau is not entirely a province on the East African Plateau.

The advantages in size and geographical location allowed Dodoma City to develop relatively quickly, but in Ernst's mind, he had already begun to plan to re-split the Plateau Province.

If you include the Serengeti grassland, the plateau province covers an astonishing 400,000 square kilometers, making it a relatively large country even in Europe.

In the early days, the area of ​​Plateau Province was prominent because the overall development level of Plateau Province was poor at that time. However, after so many years of development, the population density of Plateau Province is now also in the upper reaches of East Africa. Secondly, Dodoma is too far east in Plateau Province. It is not conducive to promoting the economic development of the province.

According to Ernst's psychological expectations, the Plateau Province will be re-divided into at least two or three provinces in the future. This 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 overhaul of water conservancy projects in East Africa, Plateau Province became the largest wheat-producing area in East Africa.

Moreover, after the abolition of the old Hohenzollern Province, the current Lake Solon (Lake Tanganyika) basin lacks decent large cities, mainly in comparison with the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) and Lake Malawi.

Of course, Bujumbura, the capital of Western Great Lakes Province, actually belongs to the Lake Solon Basin, but the economy of Western Great Lakes Province is mainly located in the Great Lakes Basin.

Dodoma City is not the largest city in the province. The largest city in Plateau Province is Mwanza on the south bank of the Great Lakes.

However, with the size of the Plateau Province, the administrative divisions on the East African Plateau will definitely need to be greatly changed in the future, and urban adjustments within the region will also need to be carried out.

At present, the main reason why Ernst did not do this is because East Africa is currently focusing on the development of the south and west. The south and west have not yet divided provincial boundaries, so when the economies and populations of the two places reach a certain scale, East Africa will divide them into Along with Plateau Province and other regions, administrative divisions are made.

Of course, even after being split, the provinces split from Plateau Province will not be too bad. The size of the main provinces split will at least exceed 150,000 square kilometers.

You must know that in the previous life, Tanzania had more than eleven first-level administrative districts in this region. Tanzania's first-level administrative districts are called "districts", which are equivalent to provinces in other countries. Of course, the area will be smaller, even smaller than the state area of ​​the United States. , because the United States in its previous life only had fifty states in such a large area, while Tanzania's land area of ​​less than one million square meters is covered with thirty-one first-level administrative districts.

However, the overall terrain of Tanzania is flat, and the time difference is not too big, so the equally divided "districts", as long as they are not compared with cities such as Dar es Salaam or Dodoma, are relatively balanced in strength.

The provinces in East Africa are destined not to be too small. Even if uninhabitable areas such as the Congo rainforest, southwest Africa, Somalia, and northern deserts (mainly the border areas of North and South Sudan) are excluded, the land area of ​​East Africa is still close to 10 million square kilometers.

Ernst's expected number of provinces in East Africa should be around 30 to 40. Currently, there are more than 20 provincial administrative regions in East Africa, and more will be divided in the future.

However, the number will not reach nearly a hundred like that of Tsarist Russia. The first-level administrative regions of Tsarist Russia are mainly provinces and states. In addition, there are also higher-level governor-general regions, numbering about ten, similar to the military regions established in East Africa.

After all, the national conditions of East Africa and Tsarist Russia are different. Without counting the royal territory of Alaska, Tsarist Russia has almost one more United States than East Africa.

There are nearly fifty states in the United States, which is not very reasonable in Ernst's view, especially in the Midwestern region of the United States. The horizontal and vertical border lines in Ernst's view are very easy to draw in the American states. Economic strength is also not conducive to the central government’s division and checks on local governments.

Of course, the national conditions of the two countries are different. East Africa is a centralized country, and the central power is much stronger than the local governments. The United States is a federal system, and the states work together to live together, so generalizations cannot be made.

However, according to Ernst's thinking, the provincial system is naturally better. After all, this system is the one he is most familiar with and is conducive to the rule of the Hechingen royal family.

Of course, for the needs of governance, Ernst also had the idea of ​​establishing a principality, but mainly in areas outside the mainland, such as Alaska and other remote places, so as to facilitate the future sharing of risks by the Hechingen royal family.

Moreover, overseas countries are far away from East Africa and the centrifugal force is strong, which will inevitably require greater autonomy. If it is set up as a principality or a dependent country, it will be helpful to maintain contact, similar to the British Commonwealth, and it will be easier for the Hechingen royal family to serve as the future leader of overseas colonies. Add insurance to the security of the local royal family.

However, these are still a bit far away now. Even if the south and west are developed, I don’t know how long it will take. Therefore, Ernst has not made any major plans to divide the administrative divisions of East Africa in recent years.

In Dodoma City, Ernst mainly got off the train to get some air. After staying at the station for dozens of minutes, the train set off again. In the following days, Ernst would inspect Iringa City and Mbeya City. Ernst basically never visited the area.

After waiting for Mbeya, it was the central area where Ernst focused on inspecting the location of the "future capital" this time.