Chapter 27 – The Map
As the year drew to a close, the advance team of the East African colony completed a relatively clear map of the East African interior.
A copy of this map, transported by the commercial fleet, now lay spread across Ernst's desk. It was about one meter long and seventy centimeters wide, marked with rough outlines of mountains, rivers, and lakes.
At the far eastern edge, a road extended from the port of Dar es Salaam directly to First Town. Second and Third Town appeared as two labeled dots, with the Little Rhine River flowing between them. The map clearly depicted grasslands, forests, and farmland, while dashed lines marked the border of the Zanzibar Sultanate, stretching from north to south until it met Portuguese territory. These two powers still held near-complete control over East Africa's coastline.
Rivers in the eastern region were noted in detail—likely because the network was denser there and easier to explore. The Zanzibar Sultanate had long been active in that area, so local guides were available to help identify key geographic features.
A triangle in the north marked the Kilimanjaro range, and just west of it lay Lake Victoria—massive on the map, its waters represented by shaded areas.
Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa, had originally been "discovered" and named by British explorers searching for the source of the Nile. Its discovery occurred roughly a year after Ernst regained memories of his past life. West of Lake Victoria were two more large lakes: Albert and Edward.
At this point in time, Edward Lake wasn't yet officially named. Historically, it wouldn't be until 1889 that British explorer Henry Morton Stanley gave it that name. Similarly, nearby George Lake and others were later named after British royals.
But Ernst had arrived in this era with a clear plan: he would not acknowledge these British names—this was now his East Africa, and he would name it as he saw fit.
Since these lakes had only recently been explored, their names had not yet been widely accepted or updated on European maps. Ernst's colonial mapping team was just a few months behind the British explorers, so they had the perfect window to assert their own naming system.
With a bold stroke of his pen, Ernst renamed Lake Victoria simply "Great Lake," which suited it well—it had always been called the "Great Lakes Region" in his past life.
Lake Albert became "Lake Friedrich," in honor of his grandfather. Lake Edward became "Lake Constantin," for his father. Downstream George Lake was renamed "Lake Hexingen."
Lake Friedrich (Albert) and Lake Constantin (Edward) were both part of the Great Rift Valley, while the Great Lake (Victoria) sat between them, a vast basin-formed body of water.
The Great Lake covered 69,400 square kilometers, making it Africa's largest and the world's second-largest freshwater lake. Its drainage basin spanned more than 200,000 square kilometers and was one of the most densely populated regions in Africa—similar to China's Lake Tai region in Ernst's past life, which had housed over 30 million people.
For comparison, China's largest saltwater lake, Qinghai Lake, was only 4,625 square kilometers, and the largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake, reached just over 3,000 square kilometers during flood season. Only the North American Great Lakes, Russia's Lake Baikal, and East Africa's Tanganyika and Malawi Lakes could rival Victoria.
Thus, Ernst was determined to seize the Great Lake—not just for its abundant fishery resources, but also because it received more rainfall than the surrounding areas, had flat lands, and was ideal for agriculture.
Westward lay Lake Kivu… which Ernst decided to leave as is. After all, it was infamously known in modern times as the "killing lake," which felt unlucky.
Further west was Lake Tanganyika, renamed "Lake Zollern" by Ernst. Tanganyika was vital to Tanzania, which had later been formed by merging the Tanganyika mainland with the Zanzibar islands.
The suffix "-nia" had no special meaning in Africa—it was just an English naming habit (e.g., Kenya, Nigeria). "Tanzania" combined "Tanganyika" and "Zanzibar."
Lake Tanganyika, the largest lake along the Great Rift Valley, was also the second-deepest lake in the world after Lake Baikal. It stretched 679 kilometers from north to south and had steep banks, with only narrow plains along the shore. Unlike the flat and fertile surroundings of Lake Victoria, its economic value was slightly lower—but still important for transport, especially for the inland nations of central Africa.
To the south lay Lake Rukwa, a saline inland lake with decent fishing potential and many salt flats at its southwest end.
Even farther south was another great lake—Lake Nyasa. For easier reference, Ernst renamed it "Lake Malawi."
There were also smaller lakes near Dodoma, such as Lake Serengei, Lake Eyasi, Lake Manyara, and Lake Balangida.
Clearly, East Africa's highlands were rich in water. Just the surface area of the major lakes totaled over 100,000 square kilometers—larger than many countries. All the lakes of the East African Plateau together earned it the nickname "Water Tower of Africa."
As for mountains, besides Mount Kilimanjaro (the highest peak in Africa), there was the Mitumba Range on the eastern edge of the Congo Basin.
Southwest, across the strip between Tanganyika and Malawi, lay the Katanga Plateau. Further south were the coastal lowlands of Mozambique.
Ernst planned to take the central zone between Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika, and Lake Malawi.
He would establish three lakeside hubs: Mwanza on the southern bay of Lake Victoria, Kigoma on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, and Karonga on the northwestern tip of Lake Malawi.
Inland outposts would be placed in Dodoma, Tabora, and Mbeya (near Lake Rukwa).
As Ernst drew with red ink on the map, several bold circles emerged—together encompassing the majority of what would later become Tanzania.
…
"Tom, make a copy of this document and send it to the East African colony!" Ernst ordered, pushing forward his ambitious plan.
"And another thing—the weapons our armory is producing can now be shipped to East Africa. Start assembling a rifle unit of 600 Chinese immigrants."
Ernst continued: "Divide them into six teams, each led by a senior colonial officer. Their job is to secure and maintain control over the six newly planned hubs. Future immigrants will be sent directly to these places, and with these six inland centers plus the three coastal towns, we'll radiate outward and bring the entire Tanganyika region under our control."
Full of energy, Ernst added, "Make sure this first rifle unit is formed from the earliest batch of immigrants. Move 500 people to each outpost first. The weapons and ammo must be managed by our own people—the Germans."
Then he paused, thinking about anything he might've missed.
"Oh, right. Pick a few trustworthy people from the company—preferably Berlin locals with families—to take on some of the colonial administration. We can't let those mercenaries handle everything. Their main job is security, nothing else. That's all. Go take care of it."
"Yes, sir," Tom replied respectfully, taking the folder and quietly closing the door behind him.
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