Chapter 865 Plateau Province

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

The train did not stop in Morogoro, but continued to 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 slope in the northwest is gentle, the Central Railway built the northern line plan at the beginning.

The southern line plan is to go directly from Morogoro to Iringa City and then directly to Mbeya, but this bypasses Dodoma City, so the East African Railway Department chose the northern line plan at that time to take care of Dodoma City and Plateau Province.

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

As for the southern route, it is not without merit. It can greatly save the distance between Dar es Salaam and Mbeya, so when the East African Railway is expanded in the future, the railway line from Morogoro to Iringa will definitely be built.

...

Dodoma.

Ernst got off the train here. The train will stay here for a while. Now Dodoma City, as the capital of Plateau Province, has a development level similar to that of the first town. As the fourth economic city on the East African Plateau, Dodoma is obviously not comparable to Nairobi, Mwanza, and Kisumu. However, as one of the national railway hubs, Dodoma's economic scale can also rank among the top ten in East Africa.

Especially after being incorporated into the old Hohenzollern Province (mainly the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika), Dodoma has developed more rapidly, and the province's resources have been concentrated here, especially the industrial development is extremely rapid.

This has to mention the area of ​​Plateau Province. In the East African Plateau, Plateau Province has the largest area. In fact, the area of ​​South Salzburg Province is larger than that of Plateau Province, but South Salzburg Province spans the East African Plateau and the Katanga Plateau, and does not completely belong to the provinces on the East African Plateau.

The advantages of size and geographical location have made Dodoma City develop rapidly. However, Ernst has long been planning to split the Plateau Province.

If the Serengeti grassland is included, the area of ​​Plateau Province reaches an astonishing 400,000 square kilometers. Even if it is placed in Europe, it can become a relatively large country.

The reason why the Plateau Province was prominent in the early days was that the overall development level of the Plateau Province was poor at that time. However, after so many years of development, the population density of Plateau Province is now in the upper reaches in East Africa. Secondly, Dodoma is the only place in Plateau Province that is too far east, which is not conducive to driving the economic development of the entire province.

According to Ernst's psychological expectations, the Plateau Province will be split into at least two or three provinces in the future. This is not a place dominated by desert terrain like the North Province or Southwest Africa. The agricultural conditions are actually quite good, especially after the major repair of water conservancy projects in East Africa, the Plateau Province has become the largest wheat producing area in East Africa.

Moreover, after the abolition of the old Hohenzollern Province, the Lake Soren (Lake Tanganyika) basin lacks decent big cities, mainly compared with the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) Lake Malawi.

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

However, based on the area of ​​Plateau Province, the administrative divisions on the East African Plateau will definitely be greatly changed in the future, and the adjustment of cities within the region will also be carried out.

At present, the main reason why Ernst did not do so is that East Africa’s current main focus is on the development of the south and the west. The south and the west have not yet divided the provincial boundaries, so when the economy and population of the two places reach a certain scale, East Africa will divide them together with Plateau Province and other regions for administrative division.

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

You should know that in the past life, Tanzania had more than eleven first-level administrative regions in this area. Tanzania's first-level administrative regions are called "districts", which are equivalent to provinces in other countries. Of course, they are smaller in area, even smaller than the states in the United States, because the United States had only fifty states in its previous life, while Tanzania has less than one million square kilometers of land, but it is covered with thirty-one first-level administrative regions.

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

The provinces in East Africa are destined to be not too small in area. Even if the Congo rainforest, Southwest Africa, Somalia, and the northern desert (mainly the border area between North and South Sudan) and other unsuitable areas for living are removed, 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 thirty to forty, and there are currently more than twenty provincial administrative regions in East Africa, and more will be divided in the future.

However, the number would not reach nearly one hundred like that of Tsarist Russia. The first-level administrative regions of Tsarist Russia were mainly provinces and states. In addition, there were higher-level governor-general districts, which numbered 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, the territory of Tsarist Russia is almost one more than that of East Africa.

The United States has nearly 50 states, which is not very reasonable in Ernst's view, especially in the Midwest of the United States. The horizontal and vertical borders are very easy to pull the economic strength of the states in the United States, and it is also not conducive to the division and balance of the central government over the local governments.

Of course, the national conditions of the two countries are different. East Africa is a centralized country with much greater central power than the local governments, while the United States is a federal system with states living together, so they cannot be generalized.

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

Of course, for the needs of rule, Ernst also has the idea of ​​establishing a principality, but it is mainly outside the mainland, such as Alaska and other remote places, so that it is convenient for the Hechingen royal family to share risks in the future.

Moreover, overseas countries are far away from East Africa, and the centrifugal force is strong, so they will inevitably demand greater autonomy. If they are set up as principalities or vassal states, it will be beneficial to maintain contact, similar to the Commonwealth. Moreover, the Hechingen royal family will serve as the future leaders of overseas colonies, which will also make it easier to increase the security of the local royal family.

However, it is still a bit far away to think about these things now. It is unknown how long it will take for the south and the west to be developed, so Ernst has no plans to make major changes to the administrative divisions of East Africa in recent years.

In Dodoma, Ernst mainly got off the train to breathe. After staying at the station for dozens of minutes, the train set off again. In the following days, Ernst will inspect Iringa and Mbeya in turn. Ernst has basically never been to these two areas.

After Mbeya, Ernst will focus on the central area where the "future capital" is located.