Chapter 582: Geographic Divisions
As Walz and Mori talked, various carts and wagons moved in and out of Dar es Salaam National Cable Factory No. 1. Most of the vehicles were still human- or animal-powered, carrying only small loads at a time.
Fortunately, Dar es Salaam's railway station wasn't far from the factory, so it was easy to receive and ship goods. The real difficulty lay in sourcing raw materials.
The factory's copper and rubber came from inland—primarily Hohenzollern Province, Swabia Province, and Hesse Province. Coal was obtained through city quotas.
Hohenzollern and Swabia had rail access, but Hesse was different. Located on the western side of the Mitumba Mountains and the eastern edge of the Congo Basin, it had steep terrain and poor transportation infrastructure.
As East Africa's main rubber-producing province, Hesse faced major challenges in transporting harvested rubber. Yet it was also one of East Africa's most resource-rich provinces—home to large deposits of copper, coal, iron, tungsten, and extensive forest resources, thanks to its proximity to the Congo rainforest and Mitumba Mountains.
Few other provinces could rival Hesse in resources—except for Hechingen Province (formerly the Transvaal Republic), Matabele Province (Zimbabwe), Southern Frontier Province (southern Transvaal, Zulu Kingdom, and Swaziland), Nile Province (South Sudan), New Baden Province (Botswana), Hohenzollern Province (Zambia), and Swabia Province (southern Congo plateau).
Among them, Hechingen and Matabele stood in a league of their own. Their mineral wealth could rival most countries globally.
Hechingen Province alone, if considered a country, would rank in the global top ten in mineral value. In a previous life, most of South Africa's mineral wealth came from this region—and South Africa was the fifth-largest mining nation in the world.
Matabele Province, despite Zimbabwe's notorious currency problems, had one of the more developed industrial sectors in Africa. As a landlocked country, this industrialization was largely due to its rich mineral resources.
The same held true for Hechingen Province. In a previous life, South Africa's economic center—Johannesburg—was located here. But Ernst had chosen not to develop Hechingen, so East Africa lacked a Johannesburg-equivalent city.
That region's wealth came primarily from gold. But East Africa avoided touching its gold reserves to avoid unnecessary complications.
Other resource-rich provinces included South Salzburg, New Württemberg, and Lorraine.
Thus, East Africa's top ten mineral-rich provinces were mostly located in the central and southern regions. The only northern province to make the list was Nile Province—thanks to its oil reserves.
In East Africa, the north was defined largely by elevation. Areas north of the East African and South African highlands were considered northern—this included Northern Province, Juba Province, Turkana Province, Nile Province, New Bavaria, Eastern Azande, and much of the Congo rainforest (covering present-day Somalia, southern Ethiopia, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and parts of Congo).
The plateaus north of the Zambezi River—East African Plateau and Katanga Plateau—were collectively called the Central Plateau and formed East Africa's mid-region, including the eastern coastal plain (present-day Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, southern Congo, etc.).
Provinces south of the Zambezi were considered the south, forming another geographical classification for East Africa.
Elevation served as the key divider, and the Zambezi was the primary landmark—unlike the Huai River in China, which marked a clear climate shift between north and south.
East Africa also used another common method to divide its regions—based on development and economic progress.
By this method, East Africa was split into five zones: east, inland, west, south, and north.
The east included all areas east of the Great Rift Valley lakes—Nile, Tanganyika, and Malawi. These were the most developed, densely populated, and economically advanced.
Somalia counted as east by this definition, though it was also geographically northern. But locals saw themselves more aligned with the east, since that implied better development.
The inland region included Hohenzollern, Hesse, Swabia, and Matabele Provinces—central East Africa's developing core.
The south was much smaller—primarily modern-day South Africa and Botswana.
The north had vague borders but typically referred to tropical deserts and savanna zones, excluding the Congo rainforest.
The west was the least developed—mostly consisting of present-day Namibia and similarly inhospitable areas.
By either classification, Hesse was part of the central region. Of course, easterners might lump it in with the west—just like Northeastern Chinese might call anything south of Shanhaiguan "the south."
Hesse was a key resource province. Its most important current industry was rubber, but transportation was a major bottleneck.
This raised costs in sectors like electricity and manufacturing—especially for products like bicycle and cart tires.
Rubber from Hesse could only be moved by "roads," which were often muddy and difficult. East Africa's other roads were decent, but Hesse's terrain was rough, and frequent rain made travel treacherous.
While Hesse's roads weren't as bad as in pre-modern Africa, they still required frequent repairs. Every heavy rain would turn cart paths into muddy pits.
The best long-term solution was road paving—using cement. But East Africa had a major cement shortage. The government had prioritized other projects, so Hesse's road-hardening plan was never implemented.
However, as industries like electricity grew, rubber demand surged—and Hesse's transport issues had to be resolved.
In the past, rubber-producing countries were usually coastal, allowing easy sea transport. Hesse's inland location added extra costs, making East African rubber less competitive globally.
Ernst didn't expect East African rubber to be cheaper than Southeast Asia's or Brazil's—but it had to be cheaper domestically than imports. And rubber was a profitable, high-demand industry—losses were unlikely.
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