African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 47: Chapter 43 Administrative Divisions

The increase in immigration has undoubtedly endowed the East African colony with stronger development potential. However, the population growth has also intensified the colony’s management challenges, especially due to the chaotic administrative planning currently in East Africa, adding difficulty to the colony’s management.

This situation has compelled Ernst to systematically re-plan the administrative institutions of the East African colony, establishing a new administrative governance system. Under the new administrative divisions, it would be possible to better gather colonial data and implement plans according to specific situations.

For instance, the Marine District was established when the land and population reached a certain scale, and it temporarily became the highest administrative unit in the current East African colony.

The Soron Lake Region and the Great Lakes Region were established in reference to the Marine District, but when they were established, their scale was only equivalent to a single town in the Marine District.

At that time, the number of colonial outposts and immigrants was very small, so it was easy to manage and collect statistics.

Now, the population size has been reached, and some areas have already developed. In the Marine District, a single administrative unit is equivalent to the sum of all other colonies in East Africa and more.

In the Marine District, the vast area has already formed a three-tier administrative division: the Marine District, whose capital is in First Town, also the location of the colony’s highest ruling organ.

Beneath are First Town, Second Town... such small towns with relatively dense populations.

Below First Town, Second Town, and other such towns are newly arranged villages, spread around six small towns.

In other regions, besides the unusual Soron Lake Region and the Great Lakes Region, there are scattered outposts like Kalonga and Mbeya, but in essence, they are at the same level as the first three.

In short, the current management of the East African colony is relatively chaotic, with names being relatively casual.

After Ernst spent a long time depicting it with pencils and rulers on the map, a preliminary administrative division of the East African colony was born.

Firstly, the highest administrative hub of the East African colony, the government of the East African colony, was still established in First Town, which was separately planned out of the Marine District, and Second Town was also included in First Town.

Secondly, the provincial administrative regions of the East African colony, also referred to as large districts, were divided into ten parts.

The original Marine District was renamed Upper Marine District, with Third Town (Kitong’a) as the seat of the administrative organ.

Below the Upper Marine District are naturally two newly planned districts: the Central Coastal Province with the capital in the Rosen Belt region along the Rufiji River, and the Lower Marine District with Ron Roda as the capital.

These three Marine Districts, from north to south, are distributed sequentially close to the Sultanate of Zanzibar, reaching Kenya in the north and bordering Portuguese forces to the south.

To the west of the Upper Marine District, the Northern Plateau District is established, with the capital in Karatuu.

To the west of the Central Coastal Area, the Central Plateau District is established, with the capital in Dodoma.

To the west of the Lower Marine District, the East Malawi Lake District is established, with the capital in Songea.

North of Lake Malawi, the Upper Malawi Lake District is established, with the capital in Mbeya.

Then, surrounding the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) area, the Great Lakes Region is established, with the capital in Mwanza.

East of Soron Lake (Lake Tanganyika), the Soron District is established, with the capital in Kigoma.

Between the Soron District and the Central Plateau District, a Great Plains District is established, with the capital in Tabola.

Thus, the ten large district-level administrative divisions of the East African colony were completed.

They are respectively: Upper Marine District (Third Town), Central Coastal Area (Rosen Belt), Lower Marine District (Ron Roda), East Malawi Lake District (Songea), Upper Malawi Lake District (Mbeya), Central Plateau District (Dodoma), Northern Plateau District (Karatuu), Great Plains District (Tabola), Great Lakes Region (Mwanza), Soron District (Kigoma).

Then, there is the city administrative division. Besides the capitals of the various large districts, some places suitable for population aggregation will also be divided into cities, such as Kalonga by Lake Malawi. Because the Upper Malawi Lake District already has Mbeya as its capital, Kalonga can only be individually divided into a city.

Finally, there are the most basic villages, which are natural villages generally managed by nearby towns as centers.

Currently, the East African colony does not have the county as an administrative unit; it is replaced by city towns similar to the German regions. The districts of the East African colony refer to the states of the later German Federation.

This administrative division will be used as a transitional administrative plan. In the future, the East African colony will change as it expands beyond Tanganyika.

Among them, the Central Coastal Area, the Lower Marine District, and the East Malawi Lake District are not yet under actual control, which will be an expansion goal for the upcoming East African colony.

...

The newly established Upper Marine District, two kilometers north of Manda Town, is Longka Village, newly set up and under the management of Manda Town.

This village is currently the northernmost village in the Upper Marine District, with about 400 villagers, including a five-member group of Chinese immigrants forming a colonial security team to guard against invasions from northern indigenous tribes.

Although the East African colony already held an expulsion operation in the Upper Marine District, due to manpower reasons, it did not completely encircle nearby tribes, so there is still the possibility of tribal invasions.

After all, although the East African colony drove them to the surrounding areas, they also lost their land and environment for survival.

If new resources cannot be found to sustain their livelihood, some indigenous people may take risks and enter the Upper Marine District.

For the safety of these immigrants, a village-level security team of five to six people is arranged in each village in the East African colony. Their leader is a German, who also serves as the village head, responsible for arranging daily production activities and village security issues.

Liu Damao is an honest North China farmer who originally had two or three acres of his own land in his previous village. In good years, he could have enough to eat.

This year, there was a drought there, and wheat almost failed; forced by necessity, Liu Damao had to borrow some grain from the landlord’s family. Although it met his basic living requirements temporarily, the two to three acres of land that Liu Damao owned were taken back by Landlord Zhou’s family when he couldn’t repay the grain.

Coincidentally, a villager named Zhang Gensheng, returning from the East African colony, was recruiting people to go to East Africa to reclaim land. Having no way out, Liu Damao signed up.

And so, Liu Damao had no choice but to come to the East African colony to make a living. Initially arriving at the colony, Liu Damao first went to First Town.

After registering, he was assigned to Longka Village. After a few days of travel, he and his companions, under the escort of the colonial security team, arrived at Manda Town. Then, in Manda Town, they received basic living supplies and tools for production.

Arriving at Longka Village, Liu Damao felt that the environment here was not bad; the terrain was relatively open, and the vegetation was relatively dense, yet such good land was wasteland.

Longka Village belongs to the future Tanzania Tanga District, where the natural conditions are very favorable, suitable for agricultural development.

Under the leadership of the German village head, Liu Damao and other villagers developed the land around Longka Village.

They built canals along the river, erected water wheels to draw river water ashore, and plowed the land along these canals. One after another, farmlands were developed.

The soil here has accumulated over thousands of years, and since no one has ever developed this land, the soil is very fertile, and the crops grow very well.

Liu Damao and others had their food, clothing, and lodging fully provided by the East African colony, so there were no worries about this aspect. However, they had to work punctually every day to complete the planned production workload.

For example, each person had a minimum amount of land to develop daily. If they could not complete these tasks, their food rations would be reduced, and those who lagged would be punished, and the Germans were in charge of supervising, with the Chinese security army under their command patrolling the immigrants’ work.

The weapons and ammunition of the village’s Chinese security army were provided by Manda Town, and they were responsible for the village’s security. If enemies were found, ammunition would be temporarily issued by the German village head.

In the whole new Upper Marine District, there are more than 100 small villages like Longka Village, respectively managed by four towns.

Towns like Manda Town, with a slightly denser population, owe their situation to their more advantageous geographical position, most being close to abundant water sources, so the production conditions are better than those of these small villages.

In the East African colony, some city towns were located at transportation hubs, connecting transportation throughout the East African colony, so they were not much affected by the natural environment.

While there is a vigorous agricultural development going on in the Upper Marine District, a colonial exploration team has already started heading south to the areas designated as the Central Coastal Area and the Lower Marine District on the map.

Initially, the expansion direction of the East African colony mainly focused on developing the western interior, thus neglecting the southern areas close to the Sultanate of Zanzibar. The focus was also placed on future important cities and regions such as Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Malawi, and the future Tanzanian capital, Dodoma.

The expedition dispersed the colony’s energy, ignoring the original southern part of the Marine District. Now, with Ernst’s new planning of the East African colony’s administrative divisions, the southern areas of Tanzania have been revalued, prompting the colony to begin moving southward.