Choosing a Plan

Hesse Province.

In name, it corresponded to Germany's Grand Duchy of Hesse. In reality, Hesse had been merely a county in the eighteenth century, much like the Principality of Hechingen. But during the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in 1803, Hesse seized its opportunity and expanded its territory. Later, when Napoleon formed the Confederation of the Rhine, Hesse was elevated by Napoleon to a grand duchy, annexing even more land and officially becoming one of Germany's important states.

The capital of the Grand Duchy of Hesse was Wiesbaden, though the most famous city in Germany's state of Hesse in his previous life was probably Frankfurt, one of Europe's financial centers.

The name Grand Duchy of Hesse alone revealed the region's defining characteristic: abundant forests. Three-fifths of its territory was covered by woodland, making it the most forested part of Germany, with numerous river valleys and basins.

East Africa's Hesse Province had been named largely because its natural features resembled those of the Grand Duchy of Hesse—forests spread thickly across the land.

Hesse Province lay along the eastern edge of the Congo rainforest, west of the Mitumba Mountains. It received abundant rainfall, and with mountains and plateaus scattered throughout, its forest coverage exceeded seventy-five percent.

It had not reached ninety percent because, after annexing the southern Mitoomba Province, it had gained part of the Katanga Plateau, which had a typical tropical savanna climate.

At the same time, by annexing Mitoomba Province, Hesse Province had gained a border with Lake Tanganyika. The Congo River, East Africa's largest river by flow, lay to the west, while Lake Tanganyika, East Africa's most abundant source of freshwater, lay to the east. Thus, Hesse Province possessed exceptionally rich water resources.

At present, Hesse Province's development ranked among the better provinces in East Africa. After more