African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 919: East Africa Land Area and Administrative Regions
Administrative division adjustments obviously cannot be achieved overnight, but involve bargaining among all parties. After all, this involves resource allocation, the most typical of which is education, medical care and other people's livelihood projects. Especially in the East African system, only provincial administrative regions can enjoy the relevant resources for upgrading and supporting facilities.

In November 1896, the East African government put forward a general plan for the adjustment of East Africa's administrative divisions.

"Based on the comprehensive data of various regions across the country, we plan to divide the country into 45 provincial administrative regions, including the Lanfang overseas province and two new provinces established on the island of Madagascar, but excluding overseas colonies."

"There is also a special area, the Congo rainforest area, which, due to its climatic characteristics, we intend to continue to retain its role as a protected area, with the same administrative level as the provincial level."

"Because of the Rhine City, we are going to cancel the original Central Province and separate a part of the land from the Hohenzollern Province, Swabia Province and Salzburg Province as the new Central Province. In this way, the future Central Province will be geographically located in the heart of East Africa. As for the original Central Province, we will restore its name to the Maritime Province."

The Coastal Province is now the Central Province, where the first town is located. In the early days of East Africa, it was one of the three coastal regions. At that time, the administrative divisions of East Africa were still determined according to regions.

“In Mozambique, we will create five new provinces: Tete, Nyasaland, Zambezi, Rhodesia and Plains, with Tete, Nacala, Quelimane, Beira and Xinxiang as their capitals respectively.”

The name Nyasaland is naturally another name for Lake Malawi in its previous life. Similarly, Rhodesia was the name of Zimbabwe and other places in its previous life, and was retained by Ernst.

As for the Plain Province, it was completely Ernst's bad taste. The capital of Plain Province, Xinxiang City, was actually the Shaokwi Town of the former Portuguese colony.

After all, there are too few plains in East Africa, and the best farming conditions are concentrated in southern Mozambique, so Ernst named this place Plains Province, which is quite appropriate. The capital of Plains Province should naturally be named Xinxiang, and this way the name Chokwe from the Portuguese colonial period can also be removed.

The Plains Province also has a port, which is the city of Inhambane in Mozambique in the past. In this way, although Xinxiang City is located inland, it is not without access to the sea.

"Maputo, the New Hamburgo Port City and the surrounding areas will form a new province, the Hansa Province, with the capital in the New Hamburgo Port City."

"In addition, a new Orange Province will be established in South Africa, with Bloemfontein as its capital, including the city of Kimberley, and the area will basically overlap with the original Orange Free State."

"Baden Province will undergo a slight change, with Gaborone being the provincial capital and Upington being the second largest city in the province."

The geographical location of Baden Province is roughly the southeast of Botswana in the past plus the northern colonial area of ​​British Bechuanaland.

“In addition to adding the Central Province in the central region, with the city of Rhine as the national political center, the Matabele Province was renamed the Bohemian Province.”

This change in name actually emphasizes the industrial attributes of the Province of Bohemia (northeastern Zimbabwe). As we all know, most of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's industry is concentrated in the Bohemian region, so East Africa also used this as a basis and renamed the Matabele Province to the Province of Bohemia.

“At the same time, the city of Bulawayo was separated from the province of Bohemia, and part of the western Kalahari Basin formed a new province of Lorraine.”

This is for the purpose of checks and balances. The original Matabele Province was too strong, so it was split into two provinces in this regional adjustment. At the same time, it also takes the Kalahari region into consideration.

The original Kalahari Basin was all part of the Lorraine Province, but there was not a single viable city, and the area was full of deserts and arid regions, so the incorporation of Bulawayo City would strengthen and boost the local area.

"At the same time, the central province of Hesse was transformed back into two provinces, Hesse and Mitumba."

This is also the case that after a long period of division, there will be unification, and after a long period of unification, there will be division. The original Hesse Province was the result of the merger of the Hesse Province and the Mitumba Province, and now it has been split into two provinces again, mainly due to the development of the local economy.

"The Okavango Delta in the north of Lorraine Province, together with the northern plateau area, which is most of the eastern part of the former Letania Province, formed the Okavango Province, mainly for the comprehensive management of the Okavango River Basin." "Southwest Africa established the Southwest Province, with the provincial capital in Windhoek."

South West Africa was finally established as a separate province and is the second largest provincial administrative region in East Africa, second only to the Congo Rainforest Reserve.

"In the west, the province of Lethania has Alexandria as its new capital and is developing westward as a whole. Its area has been reduced due to the separation of Okavango Province."

“With Benguela as the provincial capital, Benguela Province will be established along the railway, and with Luanda as the provincial capital, West Coast Province will be established along the railway.”

“The Congo Province shall be established along the Congo River in the north, including the cities of Cabinda and Kinshasa, with Kinshasa as the provincial capital.”

The new Congo Province is basically distributed along the main stream of the lower Congo River, and its main seaport is Cabinda. This also means that Brazzaville is gone, and Kinshasa will be the city across the Congo River in the future.

In the past, Brazzaville and Kinshasa were two cities formed due to colonial divisions. Now that East Africa has unified both sides of the Congo River, there is naturally no need to set up two cities, especially after the Congo River railway bridge project was established.

“The main change in the northern region is the creation of the province of Ubangi, with its capital in Bangui.”

It is basically a province established due to the Ubangi River. It is also an important border province, bordering Sigmaringen, Cameroon (Germany), Gabon (France), and Belgian Congo.

“At the same time, the eastern part of Ubangi Province was divided into two provinces, Azande West and Azande East. The former Bavaria Province was moved eastward to the west bank of Lake Königssee (Lake Albert) according to the Azande Plateau.”

In this way, the Azande Plateau and its surrounding areas were transformed from two provinces to four provinces.

"The western and southern parts of the Great Lakes region will be established as the Great Lakes Province, the northern part will continue to retain the Northern Great Lakes Province, the northwest region will remain basically unchanged, the eastern part will be established as the Solon Lake Province, and the former Central Province will be changed to the Maritime Province."

“Finally, the island of Madagascar is divided into the provinces of Mahajanga and Toliara.”

The administrative divisions of Madagascar Island are basically not much different from those in the previous life. Ernst directly borrowed the names of these two provinces. At the same time, the areas and regions of the two provinces are basically the same as in the previous life.

"The above are the changes in the provincial administrative regions in East Africa. In addition, there are two special cities, which do not reach the provincial administrative region level, but are higher than ordinary provincial capitals and prefecture-level cities. They are Dar es Salaam and Mombasa. With the development of the East African economy in the future, the special cities may be adjusted at any time."

Similar to the sub-provincial capitals or municipalities of the Far Eastern Empire in the previous life, but their status is not as high as that of municipalities. After all, municipalities are provincial administrative regions, while Dar es Salaam and Mombasa still belong to the Coast Province (formerly Central Province) and the Eastern Province.

This is a reflection of the economic strength of the two cities. However, with the development of other cities in the future, they may also be promoted to special cities. Cities like New Frankfurt, Beira, New Hamburger Port, Luanda, Cabinda, Mbeya... are all on the candidate list.

In the end, there were a total of 45 provincial administrative regions in East Africa, including the Lanfang Overseas Province, two provinces on the island of Madagascar, and the Congo Rainforest Reserve. Dar es Salaam and Mombasa became special cities.

In March 1897, the latest data on East Africa’s land area was released. The land area of ​​East Africa is approximately 3 million square kilometers, just over 1300.65 million square kilometers. If calculated based on Africa’s area of ​​1300 (3020) square kilometers, it accounts for about 3022% of the continent’s area.

(Figure)

(End of this chapter)