Chapter 27 Map
Near the end of the year, the advance troops of the East African colonies had drawn a relatively intuitive map of the interior of East Africa.
Shipped via the commercial fleet, a copy of the map now sits on Ernst's desk,
The entire map is about one meter long and seventy centimeters wide, with rough mountains and rivers marked on the content.
In the far east, starting from the port of Dar es Salaam, a road leads directly to the first town. The Second Town and the Third Town are two named points on the map, with the Little Rhine running through them.
The depiction is relatively clear, including grassland, woodland and farmland. The dotted line is the border of the Zanzibar Sultanate, extending from north to south to the Portuguese colony. These two basically monopolize the East African coastline.
The rivers in the east are marked in detail on the map. It is obvious that the water network is relatively dense, and it is also easier to explore. After all, the Sultanate of Zanzibar is active nearby all year round. Some geographical elements can be found with local guides.
There is a triangle on the north side of the map to represent a mountain range, which should be the Kilimanjaro Mountains. To the west of the mountain range is Lake Victoria. Lake Victoria is huge and is also the same on the map. It is used to represent the shadow coverage of the water body.
As the largest lake in Africa, Lake Victoria was first discovered and named by British explorers in order to explore the source of the Nile River.
The discovery happened exactly one year after Ernst awakened his past life memories. There are two large lakes to the west of Lake Victoria, Lake Albert and Lake Edward.
Of course, Lake Edward is not yet called Lake Edward. The original history was that it was not until 1889 that the British Stanley named Lake Edward.
In addition, the British royal family on the lower reaches of Lake George has taken over the naming rights of these lakes. However, when Ernst came to this era and regarded East Africa as his own territory, it was naturally impossible to recognize these British names, even if they were named by the British.
In fact, the names of these lakes discovered by the British have not yet been determined. To be precise, they have not been updated on the new European maps, and the East African colonial mapping team came only a few months later than the British explorers.
Therefore, with a stroke of Ernst's pen, Lake Victoria was named the Great Lakes, which was very consistent with the characteristics of Lake Victoria. After all, the area around Lake Victoria was called the Great Lakes District in the previous life.
Lake Albert was changed to Lake Friedrichshafen by Ernst to commemorate his grandfather.
It goes without saying that Lake Edward was renamed Lake Constantine, and Lake George downstream was renamed Lake Hechingen.
Lake Friedrich (Lake Albert) and Lake Constantine (Lake Edward) are both part of the East African Rift Valley, and Taihu Lake is located between them. It is a lake formed by the accumulated water in the basin.
The entire Great Lake (Lake Victoria) covers an area of 69,400 square kilometers. It is the largest freshwater lake in Africa and the second largest freshwater lake in the world. The basin covers an area of more than 200,000 square kilometers and is commonly known as the Great Lakes Area. In its previous life, more than 30 million people lived around Taihu Lake, making it one of the most densely populated areas in Africa.
For comparison, Qinghai Lake, the largest saltwater lake in China in the previous life, was only 4,625 square kilometers, and Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake, had a maximum area of just over 3,000 square kilometers during the flood season. The freshwater lakes that can compete with Lake Tai (Lake Victoria) are the Great Lakes of North America and Lake Baikal in the hands of Russia, as well as Lake Tanganyiga and Lake Malawi, which are also in the East African Plateau.
Therefore, Ernst must capture the Great Lake (Lake Victoria). It is not only rich in fishery resources, but also has higher precipitation than surrounding areas. The land is flat and conditions for agricultural development are good.
Continuing to the west is Lake Kivu... Well, it is better to call it Lake Kivu. After all, it was the famous "murderous" lake in the previous life and was unlucky.
Continuing to look at the west side of the map is Lake Tanganyika, which Ernst named Lake Solon. The importance of Lake Tanganyika to Tanzania is self-evident. Tanzania in its previous life was formed by the merger of Tanganyika in the mainland and Zanzibar in the east.
Nia actually has no special meaning in Africa. It is mainly a suffix of English words, so many countries in Africa have this suffix, such as Kenya, Nigeria... and Tanzania is the collective name of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
Lake Tanganyika is the largest lake in the East African Rift Valley and the second deepest lake in the world after Lake Baikal.
Lake Tanganyika is winding and winding. The terrain on both sides is relatively steep and there are narrow coastal plains. Compared with the open land around Lake Victoria, the economic value is not so high. The geographical location is not bad. It is about 679 kilometers long from north to south. In its previous life, it was Water transport is prominent among the transportation arteries of landlocked countries in Central Africa.
The lake to the south is Lake Rukua, an inland saltwater lake with rich fishery resources and many salt ponds at the southwest end.
To the far south is another large lake, Lake Nyasa, so Ernst changed its name to Lake Malawi for the convenience of memory.
In addition, there are Lake Serenge near Dodoma, Lake Eyasi in the north, Lake Manyara, Lake Balangida...
This shows that the water resources on the East African Plateau are abundant. The area of these large lakes alone is hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, which is larger than the area of many countries. If the lakes in the entire East African Plateau are put together, it is not called an African water tower. Pass.
As for the mountain range, in addition to Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, there are also the Mitumba Mountains in the eastern part of the Congo Basin.
To the southwest, across Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi, is the Katanga Plateau, and to the south is the Mozambique coastal plain.
Ernst decided to take in the middle of Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi in one bite.
First, three important lakeside strongholds were established, respectively on the coasts of the three large lakes, Mwanza in the southern bay of Lake Victoria, Kigoma on the east coast of Lake Tanganyika and Karonga in the northwest corner of Lake Malawi.
The inland strongholds were directly selected in Dodoma, Tapora, and Mbeya near Lake Rukwa.
As the red pen was drawn on the map, several red circles appeared on the map, so that most of Tanzania was within the scope of these circles.
…
"Tom, please make a copy of this document and send it to the East African colonies!" Ernst implemented this ambitious plan in the East African colonies.
"Also, the weapons produced by our arsenal can also be sent to East Africa. First, we will form a musketry unit of 600 Chinese immigrants."
Ernst continued: "These 600 people were divided into six groups, led by senior leaders of the colony, to clean up and maintain the management of the six strongholds of the new plan. Subsequent immigration will increase the intensity of migration to these six strongholds. In the future, by With these six strongholds and the three towns along the coastal colonies as radiation centers, we can capture the entire Tanganyika region."
Ernst said enthusiastically: "Also, the first batch of musketeers should use more of the original immigrants. Five hundred people should be moved to each stronghold first, and the weapons and ammunition should be managed by our own people (Germans)."
Ernst thought for a moment whether there were any mistakes.
"Oh, by the way, you choose a few trustworthy people from the company, preferably local Berliners with families, to take over the management of part of the colony. You can't let those mercenary groups do everything. They Responsible for public security is the first priority. Okay, that’s all I’ve given you, go ahead and do it!”
"Yes, Master." Tom answered respectfully while holding the document, turned around and left the office, closing the door behind him.