African Entrepreneurship Record

Administrative district adjustments are obviously not achieved overnight but involve various stakeholders, as they relate to resource allocation. The most typical examples are education and healthcare, and other public welfare projects. Especially under the East African system, only provincial-level administrative districts can enjoy the related resources from an upgrade package.

In November 1896, the East African government unveiled a general plan for the adjustment of the administrative divisions of East Africa.

”Based on a comprehensive evaluation of data from various regions across the country, we plan to divide the nation into 45 provincial-level administrative districts, including the Lan Fang Overseas Province and two new provinces established on Madagascar Island, but excluding overseas colonies.”

”There is also a special region, the Congo Rainforest area, which, due to its climatic characteristics, we plan to continue maintaining as a reserve with the same administrative status as a province.”

”And because of Rhein City, we are preparing to cancel the original Central Province and partition some land from the Hohenzollern Province, Swabia Province, and Salzburg Province to form a new Central Province. Thus, the future Central Province will geographically occupy the central area of East Africa, while the original Central Province will revert to being called the Marine Province.”

The Marine Province, also known as the current Central Province, where First Town City is located, was one of the three marine districts in early East Africa when the administrative divisions were determined based on large regions.

”In the Mozambique region, we will set up the Tete Province, Niassa Province, Zambezi River Province, Rhodesia Province, and Pingyuan Province, these five new provinces, with Tete City, Nacala City, Kilimane City, Bela City, and Xinxiang City as their capitals, respectively.”

The name Niassa naturally refers to Lake Malawi’s previous name, similar to how Rhodesia was the former name for areas like Zimbabwe, preserved by Ernst.

As for Pingyuan Province, it is entirely due to Ernst’s quirky sense of humor; the capital Xinxiang City is actually the former Portuguese colonial town of Shao Kui.

After all, the plain terrain of East Africa is minimal, with the best farming conditions concentrated in southern Mozambique, so Ernst naming this area Pingyuan Province is fitting. The capital of Pingyuan Province should naturally be called Xinxiang, removing the colonial-era Portuguese name Shao Kui.

Furthermore, Pingyuan Province is equipped with a port, the former Mozambique city of Inhambane, so even though Xinxiang City is inland, it will not lack access to the sea.

”Maputo, together with New Hamburg Port City and surrounding areas, will form a new province, the Hansa Province, with New Hamburg Port City as its capital.”

”In addition, a new Orange Province will be set up in the South Africa region, with Bloemfontein as the capital, including Kimberley City. The area largely overlaps with the original Orange Free State.”

”The Baden Province will undergo slight changes, with the capital set in Gaborone, and the province’s second-largest city being Apington.”

The geographical location of Baden Province is roughly the same as the southeastern part of present-day Botswana, plus the northern colonial British Bechuanaland district.

”Besides increasing the Central Province with Rhein City as the national political center, Matabele Province will be renamed Bohemia Province.”

This change in name in fact emphasizes the industrial attributes of Bohemia Province (northeastern Zimbabwe), as it is well known that much of the Austria-Hungary Empire’s industry was concentrated in the Bohemia area. Hence, East Africa, based on this, renamed Matabele Province to Bohemia Province.

”At the same time, Bulawayo City will be separated from Bohemia Province to form a new Lorraine Province along with part of the Kalahari Basin to the west.”

This is intended as a means of checks and balances; the original Matabele Province was too strong, hence it was split into two provinces in this adjustment, also taking into account the Kalahari region.

The entire original Kalahari Basin was a part of Lorraine Province, but there wasn’t a single good city in the region, as it was entirely desert and arid. So including Bulawayo City strengthens and boosts the area.

”Meanwhile, the Central Hessen Province will re-split into Hessen Province and Mitomba Province.”

This is an example of unity progressing to division. Originally, Hessen Province was formed by merging Hessen Province and Mitomba Province, but now it has split into two provinces again, primarily due to local economic development.

”The northern part of Lorraine Province, including the Okavango Delta and the northern plateau area, which is most of the original eastern parts of Letania Province, will form the Okavango Province, mainly for integrated management of the Okavango River basin.”

”In southwest Africa, the Southwest Province will be established, with its capital set in Windhoek City.”

Southwest Africa has finally been established as a separate province and is the second largest provincial-level administrative district in East Africa, second only to the Congo Rainforest Reserve.

”In the west, Letania Province will have Alexandria Port as its new capital and will develop generally westward, with area reductions due to the division of the Okavango Province.”

”Establishing Benguela Province, with Benguela as its capital and along the railway, and West Coast Province, with Luanda as its capital and along the railway.”

”On the north bank of the Congo River, a Congo Province will be set up, including Cabinda City and Kinshasa City, with Kinshasa City as its capital.”

The new Congo Province is mainly distributed along the lower reaches of the Congo River, with Cabinda as the main seaport. This means that Brazzaville is gone, and in the future, Kinshasa will be the city across the Congo River.

In the previous world, Brazzaville and Kinshasa were formed as two cities due to the division of colonies. Now that East Africa has unified the banks 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 north is the establishment of the Ubangi Province, with its capital set in Bangui City.”

It is mainly a province set based on the Ubangi River and is an important border province, bordering four countries: Sigmaringen, Cameroon (Ger), Gabon (Fr), and Belgian Congo.

”Meanwhile, the eastern part of Ubangi Province will be divided into West Azande Province and East Azande Province, based on the Azande Plateau, with the original Bavaria Province migrating eastward to the west coast of King’s Lake (Albert Lake).”

Thus the Azande Plateau and surrounding areas go from being two provinces to four provinces.

”In the western and southern regions of the Great Lakes Region, the Great Lake Province will be established, while the northern part will continue to be the North Lake Province. The Northwest Region remains largely unchanged, and the eastern part will establish Soron Lake Province. The original Central Province will be changed to Marine Province.”

”Finally, Madagascar Island will be divided into Mahajanga Province and Toliara Province.”

The administrative divisions of Madagascar Island are basically not much different from the previous world. Ernst directly adopted the names of these two provinces, with areas and intervals similar to those of the previous world.

”These are the changes in provincial administrative divisions in East Africa. Aside from this, there are also two special cities, but they do not reach the level of provincial administrative districts, yet are higher than general provincial capitals and prefecture-level cities; these are Dar es Salaam City and Mombasa City. In the future, as East Africa’s economy develops, special cities may be adjusted at any time.”

They are similar to the deputy provincial capital city or municipality-level of the previous Far East Empire, though not as high as a municipality, because a municipality is a provincial-level administrative district, while Dar es Salaam City and Mombasa City still belong to the Marine Province (original Central Province) and Eastern Province.

This reflects the economic strength of the two cities, but in the future, as other cities develop, they may also be promoted to special cities, like New Frankfurt City, Bela City, New Hamburg Port City, Luanda City, Cabinda City, Mbeya City... all on the candidate list.

Finally, East Africa’s provincial-level administrative divisions amount to a total of 45, including the Lan Fang Overseas Province, the two provinces on Madagascar Island, and the Congo Rainforest Reserve, with Dar es Salaam City and Mombasa becoming special cities.

And in March 1897, the latest land data for East Africa was released, with East Africa’s land area approximately 13.0065 million square kilometers, just over 13 million square kilometers. Calculated based on Africa’s 3020 (3022) square kilometers, it accounts for about forty-three percent of the continent’s area.

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