African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 582 Geographical Boundaries

While Waltz and Morrie were talking, vehicles of various sizes were coming in and out of the No. 1 Cable and Cable Factory in Dar es Salaam. Most of the vehicles at this time were human and animal power, and they could not pull many goods at a time.

 Fortunately, the Dar es Salaam Railway Station is not far from the First State-owned Cable Factory in Dar es Salaam. It is easy to purchase and ship goods. The real difficulty is the origin of the raw materials.

The copper and rubber of the State-owned Cable Factory in Dar es Salaam come from inland areas, mainly concentrated in the three provinces of Hohenzollern, Swabia, and Hesse. As for coal, it comes from the city. Just get the quota.

The provinces of Hohenzollern and Swabia are both connected by railways, but Hesse Province is very different. Hesse Province is also on the west side of the Mitumba Mountains and on the eastern edge of the Congo Basin. The terrain difference is relatively large and the transportation is not Very convenient.

Therefore, in Hesse Province, which is the main rubber producing area in East Africa, it is very inconvenient to transport rubber after harvesting. Hesse Province is also a resource-rich province in East Africa, with a large amount of mineral resources distributed, such as copper, coal, iron, tungsten, etc., and the local area It is also one of the most important forestry provinces in East Africa. It is backed by the Congo rainforest and Mitumba Mountains and is quite rich in forestry resources.

Currently there are only a few resource-based provinces that can stabilize Hesse, including Hechingen Province (formerly the Transvaal Republic), Matabele Province (Zimbabwe), and Southern Frontier Province (the southern part of the Transvaal Republic). As well as the former Kingdom of Zulu, Kingdom of Swaziland), Nile Province (South Sudan), New Baden Province (Botswana), Hohenzollern Province (Zambia), and Swabia Province (southern Congo Plateau).

Among them, Hechingen and Matabele Provinces are unique, and their mineral resources are comparable to most countries in the world.

 For example, the province of Hechingen, if viewed as a country, would have been among the top ten in the world in terms of mineral value in previous generations. In previous generations, most of South Africa's minerals were concentrated in this area, and South Africa was the fifth largest mineral-producing country in the world.

Needless to say, Matabele Province, although Zimbabwe’s currency is very famous, Zimbabwe’s industry is relatively developed in Africa, and Zimbabwe is still a landlocked country, so why did this result occur? Naturally and Zimbabwe’s rich mineral resources Inseparable relationship.

In fact, this was the case in Hechingen Province in its previous life. Johannesburg, the most economically developed city in South Africa, is located in Hechingen Province. However, because Ernst did not develop Hechingen Province, the city of Johannesburg did not exist in East Africa.

 After all, Johannesburg made its fortune in gold mines in its previous life. The gold mines in South Africa were too dazzling, and East Africa did not want to get into trouble because of them.

These resource-rich provinces plus South Salzburg, Neu-Württemberg, Lorraine and other provinces with relatively rich mineral resources.

It can be seen that the top ten provinces with the most valuable mineral resources in East Africa are basically located in the central and southern parts of East Africa. The only province entering from the north is the Nile Province (South Sudan), mainly because of oil.

In the north of East Africa, the main dividing line is the plateau. The East African Plateau and the north of the South African Plateau belong to the north, including the Northern Province, Juba Province, Turkana Province, Nile Province, New Bavaria Province, and Eastern Azand Province. own most of the Congolese rainforest (in previous lives Somalia, southern Ethiopia, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, most of Congo, etc.).

The two major plateau areas north of the Zambezi River, the East African Plateau and the Katanga Plateau, are collectively known as the Central Plateau in East Africa. They are the central region of East Africa, including the eastern coastal plain (previously Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, southern Congo, etc.) .

 The provinces south of the Zambezi River are the south of East Africa, which is a way of dividing the geography of East Africa.

 Among them, the plateau is an important dividing criterion, and the Zambezi River is an important geographical mark for dividing the plateau, because there is actually not much difference between the two sides of the Zambezi River, and it is not a geographical dividing line with obvious differences in climate characteristics between the two sides like the Huaihe River.

Of course, there is also a very commonly used geographical classification standard in East Africa, which is mainly based on the degree of economic development and degree of development.

 According to this standard, East Africa is divided into five parts: east, interior, west, south and north.

According to this standard, the eastern region is very widely distributed. East of the Great Rift Valley, dominated by the Nile River, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi, is the eastern part of East Africa. It generally refers to the early development of East Africa, its denser population, and its economy. developed areas. According to this standard, Somalia is considered the east, but Somalia is also the north. However, there is no need to worry about this. The locals in Somalia must agree more with the east, because the east represents more development in East Africa.

The interior mainly refers to the four provinces of Hohenzollern, Hesse, Swabia and Matabele that are under development, which is the area in the geographical center of East Africa.

 The scope of the south has been much reduced, mainly South Africa and Botswana in the previous life.

The boundaries of the north are blurred, but they generally refer to the provinces where tropical deserts and savannahs meet, except that the Congolese rainforest is not included.

 The west is a few provinces and regions that are basically undeveloped. It is also the most underdeveloped region in East Africa and the least suitable for living in the environment. It was mainly Namibia in the previous life.

Regardless of the above two geographical classification standards, Hesse Province belongs to the central region. Of course, people in the eastern region can collectively refer to the west as the west. This is the same as the northeastern people of the Far Eastern Empire calling the south of Shanhaiguan the south. A truth.

 Hesse Province is an important resource province in East Africa. The most important industry currently is the rubber industry. However, Hesse Province has very inconvenient transportation due to various reasons.

 This has increased production costs for East Africa’s power industry and other industries, such as tires for bicycles and horse-drawn carriages.

As for transporting rubber out of Hesse Province, you basically have to rely on the so-called "roads" in Hesse Province. The roads in other parts of East Africa are not bad.

Hesse Province has a rugged terrain and a lot of rainfall, so its road conditions are 100% certain to be one of the worst in East Africa.

Of course, although the road condition in Hesse Province is poor, it is not as bad as in Africa in its previous life. Because of the East African government, its roads are effectively maintained every year.

However, this is also very time-consuming and labor-intensive. Hesse Province basically needs to maintain the roads every once in a while. It can take as little as two or three days, and at most it takes only a week to renovate the roads, because if it rains heavily, it will be damaged if a horse-drawn carriage runs over it. It leaves deep tire tracks and a few more cars will form deep pits where water accumulates.

The most worry-free way to solve the problem of roads in Hesse Province in the future is to harden the roads in Hesse Province. This is still relatively easy to solve, that is, to use cement to rebuild the roads in Hesse Province.

However, the cement shortage in East Africa is relatively large. In recent years, the government has invested in other projects, and the consumption of cement has been in short supply. Therefore, the road hardening plan in Hesse Province has not been implemented.

 However, with the development of electric power and other industries, the demand for the rubber industry has increased significantly, and the poor traffic conditions in Hesse Province must be improved.

In the past, most major rubber-producing countries had the advantage of being close to the ocean and convenient shipping. However, the main rubber-producing areas in East Africa are located inland. Therefore, the inland transportation in Hesse Province must be improved, otherwise the rubber produced in East Africa may not be able to be exported. To compete with other major rubber producing areas in the world, after all, there is an additional transportation cost.

Ernst does not expect East African rubber to be cheaper than Southeast Asia and Brazil, but domestic use in East Africa is definitely cheaper than imports. Of course, the rubber industry has always been profitable, and the demand for rubber is also rising every year. The possibility of losing money is very high. Small.

 (End of this chapter)