Domination of the Draka - Map/Terrain

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I noticed that much of South Africa (away from coast) has desert terrain. I don't remember this in HoI2 but my recollection from the books is that the heartlands are described as quite luxuriant.

And how much would Draka have transformed the continent, not just the South?

In default HoI2 most of Africa is very poor though as we know in reality it has huge potential in terms of resources. In this game would Draka have reforested Lebanon, irrigated Sudan (desert->plains), dammed the Nile and Great Lakes tributaries (hydroelectric power?)

 

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Here is a link on economic geography:

http://www.changingthetimes.net/draka/app11.html

Draka appendices:

http://www.changingthetimes.net/draka/draka_appendixes.htm

South Africa Interior

The southwest Cape was intensively developed as the only area of Mediterranean climate in the British Empire; labor was brought in from the north, and an extensive network of hard-surfaced roads driven through the mountain passes to connect the valleys and basins.

Agriculture is, as usual for the Domination, organized on a plantation basis, but for historical reasons many of the units are unusually small, with only 100–300 serfs. The region of reliable winter rainfall within 120 km of Capetown is intensively cultivated, with a good deal of irrigated land; the wetter mountainsides are under planted forest of conifer and hardwood, mainly eucalyptus and oak. Deciduous fruit is grown under irrigation in the higher, cooler basins; vines, Mediterranean fruits (apricots, figs, nectarines, etc.) and tropical species are produced in the lowlands, with out-of-season fruits shipped to the northern hemisphere.

The Karoo drylands beyond the winter-rainfall zone are divided into large grazing plantations of up to 200,000 hectares; the deep Kalahari desert is a 250,000 sq. km. State Reserve for wildlife and !Kung bushfolk. The ranching areas originally produced dried meat, leather, tallow and enormous quantities of fine-grade merino wool; in recent decades game-ranching of oryx and other desert antelopes has supplemented or even replaced the introduced sheep. Capetown University's Aridland Management Project has been instrumental in efforts to preserve and increase the carrying capacity of the marginal lands. Scattered irrigated areas are mostly devoted to fodder crops such as alfalfa.

I think Mozambique needs some changes:

Shahnapur [Maputo, Mozambique]: founded 1799. 1990 pop. 7,600,000

Domination's largest port; handling & warehousing facilities. Primary naval shipbuilding center; very extensive artificial extensions to harbor facilities. Dry-docks and floating docks, etc. Naval air and orbital scramjet bases; several large nuclear power facilities at 100–200 kilometer radius. Construction and assembly of marine nuclear power systems, fuel-cell submarine and industrial systems. Rail nexus. General manufacture. Iron and steel, heavy engineering (power-plant turbines, castings and forgings, ordnance), explosives, petroleum storage and pipelines to interior. Shahnapur Institute of Tropical Medicine.

Mesopotamia:

Agriculture

The Tigris–Euphrates lowlands were revolutionized by a series of large dams on the headwaters of both rivers, and control and check dams, settling ponds, irrigation and drainage channels and saline-water pumping stations. Over 700,000 laborers were at work from 1919–1948 on water control; tens of millions of hectares were brought under cultivation, and the ancient problem of soil salinity eliminated. Labor was provided by drafts from Turkey, Bulgaria and China; a dense road-rail net provided instant communications.

The areas to the north of Baghdad were partially irrigated, and partially used for dryland cultivation. The mountain areas were swept clear of their Kurdish-Turkish populations and afforested; the desert likewise depopulated, with a fringe of ranches and the deeper areas left as State Reserve parks.

Products: wheat, barley, rice, dates, cotton, citrus, sugar cane, truck crops, fodder crops, feedlots (southern lowlands); grains, vineyards and fruit-orchards, livestock, wool, nuts (pistachio, walnut) (northern foothill zone).

Cities: Basra (2,500,000, 91% serf); Baghdad (600,000, 89% serf); Mosul (250,000, 88% serf).

Defined by the Arabian desert on the west, the Zagros–Taurus mountain chains on the north and east, and the Arabian Gulf on the south. Site of the world's largest oil and natural gas reserves.

The oilfields of the lower gulf were discovered by Draka exploratory parties in 1910–12, and developed by the Hydrocarbon Combine from 1919; the Persian and North Mesopotamian fields, developed by German capital before the Great War, were taken over and expanded at the same time.

The first six-year plan (1920–26) saw output reach 10,000,000 barrels a year; a series of cities, from Basra to Muscat, was founded to handle, process and export the product. Pipelines were also constructed for overland export; the huge reserves of natural gas served as a limitless source of heat and electrical energy. By the 1940s, the conurbation at the head of the Gulf had a total population of over 6,000,000; by the late 1980s, 12,000,000. (91% serf).

Should Basra be an indusrialized city?

 

[cplhicks]

Couple of things I'll point out on this one...

1. There are areas of the old territories that probably need a terrain change due to Draka irrigation and desalinization, but I don't know african geography well enough to tell what's what. I'd suspect South Africa, the West African coast, and Egypt/Sudan would get the most attention, however.
2. 20 years isn't really sufficient to completely reforest the middle east, it's a good start, but for dense, old growth, they would need at least a hundred years. It might warrant changing a few desert provinces near rivers to plains or hills, however.