Chapter 27: map
Chapter 27 Map
As the end of the year approaches, the advance troops of the East African colonies have drawn up a more intuitive map of the East African inland.
Shipped by merchant fleet, a copy of this map now sits on Ernst's desk,
The entire map is about one meter long and seventy centimeters wide, with roughly mountains, rivers and lakes marked on the content.
At the easternmost point, starting from the port of Dar es Salaam, a road goes directly to the first town. The second town and the third town are two named points on the map, and the small Rhine runs through it.
The depiction is relatively clear, including grassland woodland and farmland, and the dotted line is the border of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, extending from north to south to the Portuguese colony. These two basically monopolize the coastline of East Africa.
The rivers in the east are marked in detail on the map. It is obvious that the water network is relatively dense, and there are reasons for better exploration. After all, the Sultanate of Zanzibar is active all year round, and some geographical elements can be found with local guides.
There is a triangle on the north side of the map indicating a mountain range, which should be the Kilimanjaro Mountains. To the west of the mountain range is Lake Victoria. Lake Victoria is huge, and it is the same on the map. It is used to represent the shadow coverage of water bodies.
As the largest lake in Africa, Lake Victoria was first discovered and named by British explorers. The reason was to explore the source of the Nile River.
The time of discovery was exactly one year after Ernst awakened the memory of his previous life. To the west of Lake Victoria, there are two large lakes, Lake Albert and Lake Edward.
Of course, Lake Edward is not called Lake Edward at present. It was not until 1889 that the British Stanley named it Lake Edward.
In addition, the British royal family of Lake George in the lower reaches took over the naming rights of these lakes, but Ernst came to this era and regarded East Africa as his own territory. Naturally, it is impossible to recognize these British names, even if they have been named by the British.
In fact, the names of the lakes discovered by the British have not yet been determined. To be precise, they have not been updated on the new map of Europe, and the East African colonial mapping team came only a few months later than the British explorers.
So, with a stroke of Ernst's pen, Lake Victoria was named the Great Lake, which is very in line with the characteristics of Lake Victoria. After all, the area around Lake Victoria was called the Great Lakes in the previous life.
Lake Albert was changed to Lake Friedrich by Ernst to commemorate his grandfather.
Lake Edward was renamed Lake Constantine. It goes without saying that the downstream Lake George was renamed Lake Hechingen.
Lake Frederick (Lake Albert) and Lake Constantine (Lake Edward) are both part of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa, and Lake Tai is located between the two and is a lake formed by basin water.
The entire Great Lakes (Lake Victoria) covers an area of 69,400 square kilometers. It is the largest freshwater lake in Africa and the second largest in the world. The basin covers an area of more than 200,000 square kilometers, and is commonly called the Great Lakes District. In previous lives, there were more than 30 million people living around Taihu Lake, which is one of the most densely populated areas in Africa.
As a comparison, Qinghai Lake, the largest saltwater lake in China in the previous life, was only 4,625 square kilometers, and the largest freshwater lake, Poyang 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 Tanganyika and Lake Malawi, which are also in the East African Plateau.
So the Great Lake (Lake Victoria), Ernst must be taken down. Not only are there rich fishery resources, but also the precipitation is higher than the surrounding areas, the land is flat, and the 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 is the famous "killing" lake in the previous life, which is unlucky.
Continue to look at the west side of the map is Lake Tanganyika, which Ernst named Lake Sauron. The importance of Lake Tanganyika to Tanzania is self-evident. Tanzania in the previous life was merged from Tanganyika on the mainland and Zanzibar on the east.
Nia has no special meaning in Africa. It is mainly an English word suffix, so many countries in Africa have this suffix, such as Kenya, Nigeria... 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 twists and turns, 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, and the geographical location is not bad. It is about 679 kilometers long from north to south. In the previous life, it was The traffic arteries of inland countries in Central Africa, water transportation is more prominent.
The lake to the south is Lake Rukwa, which is an inland saltwater lake, but it is rich in fishery resources, and there are many salt ponds at the southwestern end.
The southernmost part is another large lake, Lake Niassa, for the convenience of memory, Ernst changed the name to Lake Malawi.
In addition to this, there are Serenget Lake near Dodoma, Lake Eyasi in the north, Lake Manyara, Lake Barangida...
It can be seen that the water resources on the East African plateau are abundant. The area of these large lakes alone is more than 100,000 square kilometers, which is larger than that of many countries. The lakes on the entire East African plateau are added up. It is not an African water tower. Pass.
In the mountain range, in addition to Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, there is also the Mitumba Mountains in the eastern Congo Basin.
To the southwest, between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi is the Katanga Plateau, and to the south is the coastal plain of Mozambique.
Ernst decided to eat the middle ground between Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi in one bite.
First establish three important lakeside strongholds, respectively along the coasts of the three great 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 are directly selected in Dodoma, Tabora, and Mbeya near Lake Rukwa.
As the red pen water outlines on the map, several red circles appear on the map, so most of Tanzania is within the range of these circles.
…
"Tom, make a copy of this document and send it to the East African colony!" Ernst implemented this ambitious plan in the East African colony.
"Also, the weapons produced by our arsenal can also be sent to East Africa. First, form a firearms unit of 600 Chinese immigrants."
Ernst went on to say: "These 600 people are divided into six groups, led by the high-level colony, to clean up and maintain the management of the six strongholds of the new plan. Follow-up immigrants will increase their migration to these six strongholds. In the future, by With these six strongholds plus the three towns in the coastal colonies as the radiation center, we can take the entire Tanganyika region into our pocket."
Ernst said in high spirits: "Also, the first batch of musketeers should use more of the first batch of immigrants, and each stronghold will migrate 500 people first, and the weapons and ammunition should be managed by our own people (Germans)."
Ernst thought for a while to see if there was anything wrong.
"Oh, by the way, you choose a few trusted people from the company, preferably Berlin natives with families, to take over the management of part of the colony, you can't let the gang of mercenaries do everything, they Responsible for law and order is the first priority. Alright, so many orders first, you go do it!"
"Yes, master." Tom replied respectfully holding the document, turned and left the office, closing the door behind him.
(end of this chapter)