Chapter 407: Military Reform
King Constantino only stayed half a day in Third Town before choosing to return. Since Third Town is very close to First Town, he was back the same evening, wasting no time.
By that point, Ernst had also returned to First Town from Nairobi. After making a tidy profit in the Americas, he was ready to invest in a small round of upgrades for the East African Army.
The first step was to completely phase out the Dreyse needle gun from the army. The Dreyse had already proven itself outdated in the Franco-Prussian War, and Prussia had begun searching for a replacement soon after.
History didn't change much in this regard—the Mauser Model 1871 participated in the rifle trials, and its rifle-ammunition system beat out the Bavarian M1869 Werder, the Swiss Martini, and the British-designed Whitworth rifles.
On December 2, 1871, Prussia ordered 2,500 rifles for trial use. On March 22, 1872, Wilhelm I approved mass production of the M1871. However, the production contract wasn't awarded to Mauser, but to larger manufacturers with better facilities.
Although Mauser didn't land the main contract, Ernst saw this as an opportunity—he could establish a new production line in East Africa and prioritize supplying the East African Army.
Next came the matter of demobilization. Ernst now had no plans for foreign campaigns, so he didn't need to maintain such a large army.
Currently, the East African Army numbered over 200,000. After discussions with the Ministry of Defense, Ernst determined that military threats on land were minimal and that maintaining a standing army of 150,000 would be sufficient. That would allow quick response to wars from any direction and still guarantee rapid deployment to suppress domestic unrest, particularly native uprisings.
Before Ernst arrived in East Africa, the army had already undergone one round of expansion—mostly to provide posts for graduates of the Hechingen Military Academy. At that time, the army structure was also revised.
Due to rapid territorial expansion, the previous military regions no longer fit. After annexing Zimbabwe, East Africa reorganized its land forces into five major military regions, each responsible for a different direction of potential land-based threats.
The new layout was as follows:
Central Military Region: Present-day TanzaniaNorthern Military Region: Present-day Kenya, Ethiopia, SomaliaNile Military Region: South Sudan and the Central African RepublicWestern Military Region: Everything west of Lake Tanganyika—Congo, Zambia, Angola, NamibiaSouthern Military Region: Zimbabwe and newly occupied South African territories
Due to East Africa's occupation of large areas in South Africa, the Southern Military Region had to expand accordingly. The others remained unchanged.
After the reorganization and downsizing, the East African Army structure was as follows:
⬤ Central Military Region:
101st Guards Division: 30,000 (stationed in Central Province, HQ in First Town)111th Infantry Division: 12,000 (HQ in Mbeya)112th Infantry Division: 12,000 (stationed along the Ruvuma River to deter the Portuguese in Mozambique, HQ in Songea)121st Cavalry Division: 5,000 (HQ in First Town)122nd Cavalry Division: 5,000 (HQ in Dodoma)123rd Cavalry Division: 5,000 (HQ in Mbeya)
Note: The three cavalry divisions and the 111th Infantry Division are mobile field units.
⬤ Northern Military Region:
211th Division: 12,000 (Turkana Province, guarding against Abyssinia and Italian East Africa)212th Division: 12,000 (Northern Province, defending against British, French, and Italian colonies along the Red Sea)
⬤ Nile Military Region:
311th Division: 8,000 (Nile Basin, guarding against Egypt's southern Sudan region)331st Mountain Division: 12,000 (Azande Plateau, controlling the gateway from West to East Africa, preventing incursions by West African tribes or colonial forces)
⬤ Western Military Region:
411th Division: 5,000 (Hessen and Mitumba Provinces)412th Division: 5,000 (Zambia)413th Division: 8,000 (Southern Congo Basin, watching Angola and the Kingdom of Kongo)414th Division: 8,000 (Eastern Angola, to deter Portuguese forces)415th Division: 5,000 (Okavango River Basin—northeastern Namibia)
⬤ Southern Military Region:
511th Division: 8,000 (Transvaal, guarding against the Orange Free State, Cape Colony, and Lesotho)512th Division: 8,000 (Zulu Kingdom region, guarding against British Natal and Lesotho)513th Division: 5,000 (Zimbabwe)514th Division: 5,000 (former British Bechuanaland, guarding against the Orange Free State and Cape Colony)
Total active duty troops: 170,000
East Africa's military was divided into three levels:
Elite Division: Only one—the 101st Guards Division, stationed in the capital, fully staffed with 30,000.First-Class Divisions: Each with 12,000 troops, deployed in high-pressure areas or key zones within Tanzania.Second-Class Divisions: Each with 8,000 men, mainly along borders or facing weaker adversaries—e.g., Cape Colony in the south, which East Africa had classified as a low-threat zone.Third-Class Divisions: Each with 5,000 men, stationed in less important or lower-risk areas.
Cavalry divisions also had 5,000 men but were considered first-class due to their mobility and role. Currently, all three cavalry divisions are stationed in Tanganyika. The 111th Infantry Division, while not facing significant threats, is a mobile force like the cavalry, ready to reinforce other zones.
After reorganization, East Africa's active-duty troops would make up about 2% of its total (non-native) population.
That may sound high—Germany's standing army at the time made up about 1.6% of its population—so East Africa was, technically, even more militarized than Prussia.
After trimming troop numbers, Ernst also planned to upgrade equipment—artillery, machine guns, etc.—to fully Prussianize the East African Army.
Besides equipment, military reform also included expanding and improving the domestic defense industry to ensure self-sufficiency in logistics and arms.
The first step: recruit talent from Germany, Austria-Hungary, and other nations. A batch of high-paid experts would be brought in to help upgrade production standards in East Africa's state-owned arms factories.
Next: consolidate and expand these military factories to significantly boost capacity, with the goal of achieving total weapons self-sufficiency—and possibly exporting them in the future.
As for the Dreyse needle rifle production lines being phased out, Ernst intended to keep only a small portion and sell the rest. They were still in good condition and hadn't been used long, so scrapping them would be a waste.
His first choice for a buyer? The Far East. Since they lacked their own arms production capacity and still relied on imports, it was a perfect match. Plus, East Africa had invested in ironworks and coal mines in the Huaihai Economic Zone, giving the region enough industrial foundation to support rifle production.
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