Chapter 230：

Chapter 230

East Africa has its roots in the East African Plateau, which is approximately one million square kilometers, mainly covering Tanzania, Kenya and the Great Lakes region. This is an already stable land area, plus some surrounding areas, that is, almost two million square kilometers of land. The Kingdom of East Africa is not afraid of any competition from forces.

Relying on the advantage of the number of immigrants, even if other colonists add all the indigenous forces, it is difficult to pose a threat to the East African plateau and its surroundings.

Now the southwest region, the former Zambia region, has become a weak area of ​​the East African Kingdom because it has just been incorporated not long ago. The East African Kingdom has made a temporary compromise to the local indigenous forces.

Without the intervention of external forces, East Africa can naturally eat up the southwest region slowly, but once there are forces to instigate the local area, the Kingdom of East Africa will fall into a passive state.

In addition to these two places, the Mitumba Mountains, the coastal plains, and the northern desert area all occupy a considerable part of the area. All of these areas add up to just under four million square kilometers.

"Your Majesty, this is the current map of the East African Kingdom, the result of our revision after many comparisons."

(picture)

Von der Leyen spread out a map in front of Constantine. Looking carefully, the shape of East Africa is somewhat like a leaf, wide in the middle and narrow on both sides, obliquely 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 the territory of East Africa, we avoided some slightly stronger forces, and the west was only reached the east bank of the Lualaba River due to the obstruction of the Mitumba Mountains, the Congo River and the tropical rainforest. We can expand to the southwest unimpeded along the plateau, 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. Its climate is similar, its area is large enough, and its terrain is relatively gentle. At the same time, it has a topographical advantage over its surrounding areas," Felix said.

"The main trouble we are facing in the development of the southwest plateau is the traffic problem. In the past, we were in the east, and most of the rivers were east-west, roughly in line with our expansion direction. However, most of the rivers in the southwest were tributaries of the Zambezi River, running north-south. extension, so more bridges have to be built to connect the area.”

“Not only that, except for these tributaries, the Zambezi River itself is a natural barrier. If the Zambezi River issue is not resolved, our future expansion will also be affected.”

"I think we should let the inland river and lake troops cooperate more with us in the future. There are too many wetlands, swamps and lakes in Africa. It is very suitable to use their small boats. At the same time, in view of 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 in the interior.”

It is not difficult to see from the map that the future expansion direction 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 Luanda, and the other is Zimbabwe.

South Sudan can expand, but it is also relatively limited, mainly because North Africa is further north, and the west is not a good place to be short of water.

So there are only the kingdoms of Luba and Ruanda in the west, and Zimbabwe in the south. These two areas are not bad, one is the Ronda Plateau and the other is the Matabele Plateau.

As for which one to choose, Ernst didn't need to look at it, and chose Zimbabwe directly.

Ernst knows Zimbabwe very well. After all, Zimbabwe’s currency was famous all over the world in his previous life, and its face value was higher than Ming coins. Ernst also worked in Africa in his previous life, and he knew very well about Africa’s resources. Because of the special nature of his work, um Ster has been active in African countries all the year round, which is also a characteristic of those working in the Far East in Africa in engineering and mining industries.

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 by relying on its coal and iron resources.

Looking at the resource analysis report of Zimbabwe in later generations, we know that among the top resources in African countries, coal and iron rarely appear at the same time, and 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, the coal mines in Zimbabwe are high-grade and have few impurities, which are high-quality coal.

(Zimbabwe is rich in mineral resources. It is roughly estimated that there are more than 80 kinds, and more than 40 kinds 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 proven biogas reserves are also extremely rich. According to preliminary exploration estimates, platinum reserves rank second in the world, chrome ore reserves rank second in the world, and iron ore reserves are about 380 billion tons of coal reserves, 27 billion tons of coal reserves, and 500 million cubic meters of coal-bed methane reserves. In 2001, a diamond mine with rich reserves was discovered in Zimbabwe, and preliminary exploration results show that its diamond reserves rank first in the world. ——Data source Ambassador of the Far East Republic to the Republic of Zimbabwe Economic and Commercial Office of the Pavilion)

Coal and oil, these two energy sources are the most important to industry, and coal and iron are the foundation of the first industrial revolution.

The only shortcoming of Zimbabwe is the lack of water. Its rainfall is on the same level as Shaanxi in the Far East. The rainfall in Shaanxi is maintained at a level of more than 600 mm all year round (data source from the official website of the Shaanxi government), while the rainfall in Zimbabwe is in the range of 400 to 900 mm. At the same time, both are uneven distribution of rainfall, Shaanxi is decreasing from south to north, and Zimbabwe is decreasing 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 lacks coal, and iron ore is relatively considerable, but it is concentrated in West Africa, the entire Central South Africa, and there are only three countries that do not lack coal and iron resources in previous lives, namely South Africa, Angola and Zimbabwe.

The first two are now occupied by people, leaving only Zimbabwe, the "land of no man". Zimbabwe was called Rhodesia in the past, and it was gradually occupied by the Boers and the British after 1880. Slowly forming the Rhodesia and Nyasaland Federation, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi, now the Kingdom of East Africa has two thirds of the world, taking Zimbabwe will also block the Boers' northward expansion, and at the same time block The road for the Portuguese to expand westward.

Therefore, after the occupation of Zimbabwe, East Africa must start planning and attack one of the two, otherwise the threat will be too great. As for who will become the enemy of East Africa first, it depends on whose hand is long enough. Originally, Ernst had been wary of Portugal. Colonies, but the Boers are also a stubborn species. Two-front combat is definitely not possible. It is better to take the initiative to attack first and kill one.

(end of this chapter)