Chapter 230
East Africa is based in the East African Plateau, which covers approximately one million square kilometers, covering mainly Tanzania, Kenya and the Great Lakes region. This is an already stable land area, plus some surrounding areas, which is almost two million square kilometers of land. The East African Kingdom is not afraid of any power competition.
With the numerical advantage of immigrants, other colonists, even if they add all the indigenous forces, will hardly pose a threat to the East African Plateau and surrounding areas.
Now the southwest region, the former Zambia region, has become a weak area of the East African Kingdom because it has just been incorporated. The East African Kingdom has made temporary compromises with the local indigenous forces.
Without the intervention of external forces, East Africa can naturally slowly eat up the southwest region, but once there are forces instigating the local area, the East African Kingdom will fall into passivity.
In addition to these two places, the Mitumba Mountains and coastal plains, as well as the northern desert area, occupy a considerable part of the area. All these areas combined are just under four million square kilometres.
"Your Majesty, this is the current map of the East African Kingdom, revised after we compared it many times."
(picture)
Von der Leyen spread out a map in front of Constantine. If he looked carefully, the shape of East Africa looked like a leaf, wide in the middle and narrow on both sides, diagonally inserted into the interior of Africa.
"This map looks really awkward! It looks weird." Constantine commented on the map.
"Your Majesty, this is because when we expanded our territory in East Africa, we avoided some slightly stronger forces, and the west was hindered by the Mitumba Mountains, the Congo River and the tropical rainforest, so we only reached the east bank of the Lualaba River. Along the plateau, we can expand southwestward unimpeded, and at the same time, there are no other forces in the interior, which also creates conditions for us."
"In the future, this plateau will be the core area of East Africa. It has a similar climate, a large enough area, and relatively gentle terrain. It also has topographic advantages over the surrounding areas," Felix said.
"The main trouble we encounter in developing the southwest plateau is transportation. In the past, when we were in the east, most of the rivers ran east-west, roughly in line with our expansion direction, while most of the rivers in the southwest were tributaries of the Zambezi River, running north-south. extension, so if we want to open up traffic in this area, we must build more bridges.”
"Not only that, except for these tributaries, the Zambezi River itself is a natural chasm. If the problem of the Zambezi River is not solved, our future expansion will also be affected."
"I think we should let the inland river and lake troops cooperate with us in the future. There are too many wetlands, swamps and lakes in Africa, and their boats are very suitable. At the same time, given the conditions in East Africa, we can build more suspension bridges to temporarily replace them. , at least to ensure the smooth passage of troops and weapons and equipment inland."
It is not difficult to see from the map that the future direction of expansion of East Africa, if you do not want to conflict with other colonists, there are only three directions, one is southern Sudan, the other is the Kingdom of Luba, the Kingdom of Rwanda, and the third is Zimbabwe.
Southern Sudan can expand, but it is relatively limited. The main reason is that further north is North Africa, and the west is not a good place and lacks water.
So there are only the Luba Kingdom and the Rwanda Kingdom in the west, and Zimbabwe in the south. These two areas are pretty good, one is the Ronda Plateau and the other is the Matabele Plateau.
As for which one to choose, Ernst didn’t even have to look at it and chose Zimbabwe directly.
Ernst knew the country of Zimbabwe very well. After all, in his previous life, Zimbabwe's currency was world-renowned, with a face value higher than that of Hades. Ernst also worked in Africa in his previous life, and was very familiar with Africa's resources. Because of the special nature of his work, eh Stern has been active in various African countries all year round, which is also a characteristic of those working in the engineering and mining industries in the Far East and Africa.
Zimbabwe has the most precious resources of this era, coal and iron. It is no exaggeration to say that with Zimbabwe, East Africa can directly become an industrial country relying on its coal and iron resources.
If you look at the resource analysis report of Zimbabwe in later generations, you will know that the top resources in many African countries rarely include coal and iron at the same time. The top resources are often diamonds, non-ferrous metals and some rare metals. The top resources in Zimbabwe include coal and iron. At the same time, Zimbabwe’s coal mines are of high grade and have few impurities, making them high-quality coal.
(Zimbabwe is rich in mineral resources. It is roughly estimated that there are more than 80 types, and more than 40 types have been basically proven. The main mineral products are diamonds, platinum, chromium, gold, iron, coal, nickel, copper, zinc and lead; industrial minerals Products include limestone, phosphate, clay and dolomite. In addition, newly discovered biogas reserves are also extremely rich. According to preliminary exploration estimates, platinum reserves rank second in the world, chromium ore reserves rank second in the world, and iron ore reserves are about 380 billion tons, coal reserves of 27 billion tons, and coal bed methane reserves of 500 million cubic meters. A diamond mine with rich reserves was discovered in Zimbabwe in 2001. Preliminary exploration results show that its diamond reserves rank first in the world. ——Data source from the Far Eastern Republic in the Republic of Zimbabwe Economic and Commercial Section of the Embassy)
Coal and oil are the two most important energy sources for industry, and coal and iron were the foundation of the first industrial revolution.
The only disadvantage of Zimbabwe is the lack of water. Its rainfall is on the same level as that of Shaanxi in the Far East. Shaanxi’s rainfall remains at more than 600 millimeters all year round (data source is from the official website of the Shaanxi government), while Zimbabwe’s rainfall ranges from 400 to 900 millimeters. At the same time, both rainfall distribution is uneven. Shaanxi decreases from south to north, while Zimbabwe decreases from east to west.
This is not a problem. Without coal and iron resources, East Africa can only be an agricultural country and a mining exporter. With coal and iron resources, East Africa can become an industrial country.
Compared with other continents, the African continent itself is short of coal. Iron ore is relatively considerable, but it is concentrated in West Africa. In the entire Central and Southern Africa, there were only three countries in the past that were not short of coal and iron resources, namely South Africa, Angola and Zimbabwe.
The first two are now occupied, leaving only Zimbabwe, the "unclaimed land". In its previous life, the country was called Rhodesia. After 1880, it was gradually occupied by the Boers and the British. The federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was slowly formed, consisting of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Now the East African Kingdom has two thirds of the three-thirds of the world. Taking Zimbabwe will block the Boer's northward expansion, and at the same time block the way for the Boers to expand northward. The path of the Portuguese's westward expansion.
Therefore, after occupying Zimbabwe, East Africa must start planning to attack one of the two, otherwise the threat will be too great. As for who becomes the enemy of East Africa first, it depends on whose hand can stretch long enough. Originally, Ernst had always been wary of Portugal. Colonies, but the Boers are also a stubborn race, and fighting on two fronts will definitely not work. It is better to attack first and cripple one.