Chapter 883: Comprehensive East Africanization

Therefore, the early Abyssinian Empire’s perception of East Africa was nothing more than fear and dissatisfaction. There was no fundamental conflict of interest. After all, the Abyssinian Empire was torn apart after the British expedition and had a strong fear of Westerners. .

At the same time, East Africa took advantage of Abyssinia's turbulent period to incorporate its vast southern area into its territory. As the local hegemon for thousands of years, the Abyssinians should feel a little unbalanced.

However, the Abyssinian Empire cannot be blamed for its behavior towards East Africa. After all, the Abyssinian Empire is only a regional hegemon and has no direct legal ownership of the southern lands. Therefore, southern Ethiopia was annexed to East Africa, and Abyssinian Empire The sub-empire could only hate itself for being useless.

Moreover, with Italy, an extraterritorial force, entering Northeast Africa and its old enemy Egypt, in the eyes of the Abyssinian Empire, East Africa is simply the embodiment of "greatness, light, and righteousness" in the world, and is the most "lovely" place in the world. countries, especially after the two countries signed a border demarcation agreement.

…

Bahir Dar city.

Located in the south of Lake Tana in the Abyssinian Empire, in the Central Province of the Abyssinian Empire, it quickly became the new political and economic center of the empire since Johannes IV moved the capital there.

The Central Province of the Abyssinian Empire was the former Amhara state, and the reason for the emergence of the administrative division of the Central Province was a reflection of the "East Africanization" of the Abyssinian Empire.

Yes, this so-called Central Province was modeled after the Central Province where the capital of East Africa is located. This reflects the strong influence of East Africa in the Abyssinian Empire.

The 19th century was an era when backward countries learned from the Western world, and the Abyssinian Empire’s learning template was East Africa.

Today, in the eyes of the Abyssinian Empire, East Africa is synonymous with "power, wealth, and civilization." After all, the tragedy of the modern Abyssinian Empire began entirely with the British expedition to the Abyssinian Empire, and in 1890, East Africa After defeating the powerful Britain, one can imagine the shock to the Abyssinian Empire.

In addition, East Africa is right next to Abyssinia. Both countries are plateau-dominated countries with similar climatic conditions, relations between the two countries, the peripheral political environment of the Abyssinian Empire, etc., and East Africa became Abyssinia. Primary learning object.

Of course, it is also very important that they are both monarchies. If it were a republic like the United States or France, then the royal family of the Abyssinian Empire would probably not be able to sleep.

As a new city, Bahir Dar shows East African style everywhere. After Johannes IV moved the capital, he specially invited East African designers to build it, and the template was the city of Mwanza in East Africa.

Bahir Dar is located on the shores of Lake Tana, the largest lake in Abyssinia. This is the same as Mwanza City, so the East Africans directly copied the design of Mwanza City and copied Bahir Dar.

Therefore, traces of East Africa can be seen everywhere in Bahir Dar, and even public toilets, trash cans and other infrastructure can be seen everywhere in the city.

Of course, the most eye-catching thing is the cars imported from East Africa that occasionally drive by on the road, making Bahir Dar not like a city in a traditional African country at all, but rather a small European or East African city.

Of course, as the capital of the Abyssinian Empire, the upper limit of Bahir Dar is not high. After all, the Abyssinian Empire as a whole is relatively poor. Therefore, although it is designed according to the city of Mwanza, the scale of the city is still far from that of Mwanza. Wanza City’s standards, so there are more compromises.

For example, the ambitious road construction plans in East Africa have been greatly reduced in Bahir Dar. However, compared with Europe, Bahir Dar's roads still appear spacious and clean, and they pay attention to greening on both sides of the roads.

It is worth mentioning that the Bahir Dar Palace is basically a replica of the Swet Palace in East Africa, and overall there is no difference at all.

The Svet Palace itself is relatively small among the palaces in the world. After all, Ernst had no intention of placing the capital of East Africa in the first town from the beginning. Therefore, in order to reduce "waste", the size of the Svet Palace is only that of some middle-sized European palaces. Small country size.

This is also the reason why the Abyssinian Empire can easily build the Bahir Dar Palace. However, although the palace is a bit smaller, it is still an extremely "majestic" building for the Abyssinian Empire.

Moreover, the popularization of running water, telephones, telegraphs, and lighting equipment have given this palace a strong sense of experience and a modern atmosphere. There is no doubt that these products come from factories in East Africa.

Except for the Royal Palace, the architectural forms of Bahir Dar City are all imitated in East African forms. If it were not for the darker skin of Abyssinians and Indians, you would not see any difference between this place and East Africa.

In the southeast of Bahir Dar, the first railway of the Abyssinian Empire is being built. This railway is extremely important to the Abyssinian Empire and East Africa.

The railway runs from Agaro in the northwest of the city of Jimma in East Africa to Bahir Dar, the capital of the Abyssinian Empire. Therefore, it is called the Agaro-Bahir Dar Railway by East African railway designers, or the A-Pakistan Railway for short. Of course, this is The name given to the railway in East Africa.

The Abyssinian Empire called the railway "Central Railway". After the loss of the eastern territory, the center of the Abyssinian Empire shifted westward. The Abyssinian-Pakistan Railway is indeed located in the center of the country, so it is not appropriate to call it this way. Problem, but the reason why it is called this is obviously influenced by the "Central Railway", the domestic railway artery in East Africa.

As the first railway in the Abyssinian Empire, it was called by Johannes IV the symbol of "the first step in the modernization of the Abyssinian Empire".

For East Africa, this railway is the first foreign railway that is completely built by East Africa and constructed according to East African standards. The railway is exactly the same as the domestic standards of East Africa. All facilities except sleepers, slag and other local materials are exported from East Africa.

Of course, for national defense and security reasons, the Abyssinian Empire did not directly connect this railway with the Turkana Railway in East Africa, so there is no railway line connecting more than 30 kilometers from Agaro to Jimma City.

Of course, East Africa has no intention of annexing the Abyssinian Empire. After all, this is one of the only two countries around East Africa with a population of over 10 million (the other is Egypt), so East Africa is unlikely to be interested in Abyssinian territory.

And there is another important reason why the Abyssinian Empire adopted the East African standard railway, that is, Egypt and Italy are both British standards, so they also have similar considerations as Tsarist Russia.

As for East Africa, although it is also an object of caution, this is not a problem when the "enemy" is too powerful. East Africa is not something that a small country like Italy can touch. Even without relying on railways, it can easily destroy the Abyssinian Empire. It is precisely because they clearly know this that the Abyssinian Empire authorities completely adopt a "submissive" attitude towards East Africa.

In addition to architecture, infrastructure, urban planning and other aspects, the Abyssinian Empire has fully learned from East Africa. The political system of East Africa is also the focus of the Abyssinian Empire.

In particular, John IV is very envious of the centralization of power in East Africa. In the past few years, the Abyssinian Empire has suffered from warlord separatism.

So after John IV came to power, he has been busy concentrating the power of the central government, especially after his base in the Greti region was directly threatened by Italy, he was forced to move the capital to Bahir Dar.

So after John IV moved the capital, he comprehensively strengthened Bahir Dar's position in the country, including the construction of the A-Pak Railway, which was also to win over and check the tribal forces close to East Africa to prevent them from completely turning to East Africa.

East Africa has a huge influence in the southern part of the Abyssinian Empire, so preventing the southern forces from splitting is one of the important tasks of Johannes IV, which is also related to his origin from a traditional northern clan.

In the past, the core of the Abyssinian Empire was the north, but after the war with Italy, the northern forces were severely weakened. Now the north has directly become a border. This is one of the important reasons why Bahir Dar, which originally had no sense of existence, became the new capital. By the way, the northern clan forces and Johannes IV concentrated the resources of the north to Bahir Dar.