Chapter Summaries

Ernst and East African officials planned a 5,600-kilometer railway network and discussed the materials, workers, and schedule needed to build it. The government intended to complete both main lines within three years and use railway construction to launch East Africa’s industrialization by 1880.

• Ernst presented plans for a Central Railway connecting Dar es Salaam to Pretoria and a Northern Railway linking Mombasa, Nairobi, and Kisumu.
• Nodding explained that swampy terrain, imported materials, and a shortage of skilled railway workers were the main construction challenges.
• Ernst said East Africa would buy surplus steel and railway materials from Europe and recruit experienced railway workers displaced by the economic crisis.
• Nodding estimated that the three-year construction schedule required at least 60,000 workers, and Ernst pledged to recruit 100,000 indigenous laborers.
• Ernst said railway construction would support development of Zimbabwe’s coal and iron resources and help East Africa achieve steel self-sufficiency by 1880.

Ernst argued that the Central Railway had to develop Katanga’s copper mines and integrate the region with eastern East Africa. He left the conference focused on railway support for copper mining and on coastal East Africa’s role as an export base for electrical goods and agricultural products.

• Ernst said the Central Railway should develop Katanga and link it economically with eastern East Africa before the Matabele Plateau did.
• Ernst identified Katanga’s copper as a key resource for building East Africa’s competitive advantage and stressed that mining required railway access.
• Ernst planned to develop the electrical industry in Dar es Salaam city and Mombasa city, using Hechingen Electric Company’s expertise and European sales channels.
• Ernst explained that eastern East Africa’s maritime access made it suitable for export-oriented industry despite its distance from the main global shipping routes.
• Ernst’s industrial blueprint made the eastern coast the vanguard of electrical exports, while East Africa’s foreign trade would also depend on tropical cash crops.

Richard tried to persuade Li Hongzhang to buy East Africa’s Dreyse rifle production lines, while Li questioned both the price and East Africa’s ability to supply them. The talks ended without a purchase, with Li urged to consult Li Ge about East Africa’s strength.

• Richard presented a Dreyse rifle to Li Hongzhang, who questioned its performance and said the Far East had no new procurement plans.
• Richard offered the complete production line for 110,000 taels of silver and refused Li Hongzhang’s request to buy fewer lines or negotiate the price.
• Li Hongzhang questioned whether East Africa could provide the machinery, and Richard pointed him toward Li Ge, the Far East’s ambassador in East Africa.
• Li Hongzhang recalled that Li Ge had been sent to oversee an aid mission but had remained in East Africa and been appointed ambassador there.

East Africa finalized an arms deal with the Far East while forced labor demands in Zimbabwe triggered a mass flight by the Shona people. The escape scattered hundreds of thousands across the region, and East Africa concluded that it needed to relocate Zimbabwe’s natives to keep them from reaching Mozambique.

• East Africa and the Far East agreed to an exchange of money and goods, pending inspection and payment after East African ships arrived at Jiaozhou Bay.
• The chief of Bakora village led the villagers in fleeing west to avoid another round of German labor seizures.
• Shona communities across Zimbabwe began fleeing in large numbers after East Africa’s forced-labor quotas and the so-called “blood tax” worsened their hardships.
• More than three hundred thousand people scattered across the grasslands, with many escaping toward Mozambique or the Kalahari Basin while East Africa intercepted roughly a hundred thousand for railway work.
• East Africa recognized that it needed to relocate Zimbabwe’s natives and prevent them from escaping into Mozambique.

Hohenzollern Tobacco Company discussed how to expand sales during the economic crisis, relying on cheap East African tobacco and low-priced products while preparing to establish its Golden Leaf brand. The company planned to grow its market share as rival tobacco firms were forced into tougher competition.

• Hohenzollern Tobacco Company's managers decided to expand sales outlets, especially mobile street stalls, because demand for cheap tobacco had surged during the crisis.
• The managers credited East African tobacco supplies with freeing the company from dependence on foreign tobacco giants and lowering its raw-material costs.
• The managers sampled Golden Leaf cigarettes made with Matabele Plateau tobacco and considered blending the leaf or using it for cigars.
• The managers agreed to build Golden Leaf into a high-end brand that could help drive sales of the company's cheaper products.
• The managers chose to focus on lower prices and market sales efforts rather than increase advertising during the crisis.
• Hohenzollern Tobacco Company's cheap supplies and growing market share forced rival tobacco companies into more intense competition.

Ernst sailed from East Africa to Austria with a 3,000-man guard battalion, intending to prepare for his wedding to Karina and buy factories, equipment, and materials for East Africa amid the economic crisis. He arrived in Trieste and saw unemployment and the effects of the crisis firsthand before arranging transport for his delegation to Vienna.

• Constantin urged Ernst to represent East Africa impressively in Vienna, while Ernst promised to treat his marriage to Karina as a major event.
• Ernst departed East Africa aboard the Lion with a state delegation and a 3,000-man guard battalion, planning to spend at least half a year in Europe.
• Ernst's fleet reached Trieste on May 22, where he saw that the port was quieter and less prosperous than the year before.
• Ernst noticed unemployed workers lining up for jobs with East African companies and the immigration office.
• Ernst asked Austrian officers to arrange a dedicated train to take his people, including East African soldiers, to Vienna.

Ernst visited the Trieste Royal Shipyard, where Archduke Ferdinand showed him an ironclad being built and discovered that the East African Navy's newly launched ship was secretly named the Archduke Ferdinand. Ernst proposed naming the new ironclad Prince Hermann, after his grandfather.

• Ernst met Archduke Ferdinand at the Trieste Royal Shipyard and examined an ironclad designed to displace just under 7,000 tons.
• Archduke Ferdinand explained that the ship followed the British Devastation-class design but retained a traditional dual-power system.
• Ernst revealed that the Archduke Ferdinand launched the previous month belonged to the East African Navy, surprising Archduke Ferdinand, who had mistaken it for an Austrian ship.
• Archduke Ferdinand said he wanted to board the Archduke Ferdinand as its owner when it returned to port.
• Ernst suggested naming the ironclad under construction Prince Hermann, after his grandfather, a former Austrian field marshal.

Ernst and Archduke Ferdinand discussed expanding East Africa’s navy and agreed that trained personnel mattered more than adding warships. They settled on building a naval training system with help from foreign academies as Ferdinand prepared to travel to Vienna and Germany.

• Archduke Ferdinand proposed buying two more ironclads, but Ernst insisted that naval purchases stay within budget and meet East Africa’s practical needs.
• Ernst warned Archduke Ferdinand that East Africa lacked trained naval personnel, prompting him to prioritize training over additional ships.
• Archduke Ferdinand proposed sending students to Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands, while Ernst agreed to seek help from German and Swedish royal families and Dutch shipbuilders.
• Archduke Ferdinand proposed establishing the Ferdinand Naval Academy and arranging joint instruction with Austrian naval academies, and Ernst approved offering them favorable terms.
• Ernst said he would go to Vienna to discuss railway matters with Franz before traveling to Germany to pursue business opportunities.

Ernst considered East Africa’s railway construction, industrial capacity, and the limits holding back its development. As the railway began to take shape, he concluded that East Africa lacked the skilled personnel and administrative ability needed to carry out an ambitious Five-Year Plan.

• Ernst traveled by train from Trieste to Vienna and reflected on the contrast between rapid industrial change and the old-fashioned Austrian countryside.
• East Africa began building the Central Railway, using more than twenty regiments of Indigenous laborers to clear the route and drain a dangerous swamp by hand before the rainy season.
• East Africa expanded its industrial support for construction with cement plants, logging camps, quarries, and a new steel mill in Kalabari, while its railway and shipyards continued to demand large quantities of steel.
• Ernst compared East Africa’s industrial foundations with those of Tsarist Russia and the Far East, noting that both had stronger existing industries and more experienced personnel.
• Ernst recognized that East Africa’s limited number of mostly low-tech factories, poorly educated population, and dependence on German and Austrian specialists made a Five-Year Plan impractical.

Professor Kurland arrived in Soga City with Mr. Blanco and saw how far East Africa had developed, while questioning its German identity and government-organized society. The group toured the nearly empty city, where the driver explained that residents received government wages paid in a low-value East African currency.

• Professor Kurland arrived by train in Soga City and marveled at its European-style buildings, farmland, and infrastructure.
• Mr. Blanco explained that East Africa welcomed settlers from around the world and treated those who identified with German culture as Germans, while black people held lower status.
• Professor Kurland asked why Soga City was so quiet, and Mr. Blanco said it was a new city with few residents but government-provided services and venues.
• A horse-drawn carriage driver told Professor Kurland that the government arranged work and paid him about twenty-five East African Rheinland Shield each month.
• Mr. Blanco clarified that East Africa's Rheinland Shield was worth far less than the European currency, and the driver said his wages could support an ordinary family.

Professor Kurland and his fellow agricultural experts toured their free, well-equipped residences in Soga City and learned about its services and electric utilities. Brandt was reassured about communication and research facilities, though he planned to inspect his workplace before deciding whether to bring his family to East Africa.

• Blanco showed Kurland and the other experts their spacious homes and explained that East Africa provided high-quality housing to recruited talent.
• Kurland questioned Soga's wide roads and extensive urban development, and he was surprised that electric lighting was common in the city.
• Blanco explained the houses' furnishings, bathrooms, electricity, cafeteria, and neighborhood services, including a telegraph office that could contact Europe.
• Brandt said he might bring his family and friends to Soga after assessing East Africa and its working conditions.
• Blanco showed the experts the East African Rice Research Institute, less than two kilometers from their homes, and described transport options and the city library.

By July 1873, East Africa had finished the first section of the Central Canal despite low labor productivity and relied on coercive quotas and rewards to keep its native workers digging. The chapter described how the government exported workers to several regions, subsidized their transfer during the economic crisis, and concealed deaths through cremation.

• East African overseers used inspections, group rankings, food rewards, and the threat of sale abroad to raise the output of native laborers.
• As the agricultural crisis reduced American demand, East Africa subsidized exports, paying Haiti for accepting immigrants while Haitian elites put them to work or resold them.
• East Africa sent workers whose terms ended to Central Asia, the Caribbean, and West Africa, where Msiri and other rulers used them as farmers and soldiers.
• East Africa exported women and children as well as workers, limiting the native population left behind and contributing to conflicts in West Africa.
• Ernst's government cremated the many laborers who died in East Africa, citing poor sanitation and disease prevention.

Constantin and Ernst approved a major project to straighten, widen, and reinforce the flood-prone Little Rhine River and improve irrigation along its banks. The work was scheduled for the dry season, with East Africa planning similar improvements on other coastal rivers.

• The Minister of Agriculture told Constantin that repeated floods along the Little Rhine River had inundated farmland and reached three villages.
• Constantin learned that the river’s narrow, winding channel impeded water flow and increased flood risks.
• Constantin and Ernst decided to launch the Little Rhine River Improvement Project, covering more than 150 kilometers of dredging, widening, embankment reinforcement, and channel straightening.
• The project also included upgrading irrigation and aimed to protect farmland, settlements, and First Town City while improving flood discharge and navigation.
• Ernst planned to use East Africa’s abundant labor force to improve other coastal rivers, including the Ruvuma, Rufiji, and Tana.

Ernst outlined cautious principles for transforming East Africa’s rivers and urged Constantin to protect the environment while pursuing industrialization. He used London’s pollution as a warning and planned to route coastal cities’ sewage to the sea, while inland wastewater would still flow into rivers and lakes.

• Ernst sent Constantin six recommendations for river projects, including preserving original channels, restoring vegetation, protecting river life, and building reservoirs and connections between waterways.
• Constantin questioned whether Ernst’s recommendations were overly cautious, and Ernst said they were guidance rather than rigid rules.
• Ernst cited London’s polluted air and Thames River to argue that environmental damage harmed people and was difficult to reverse.
• Ernst described plans to connect First Town City’s sewer system to Soga City’s pipeline network and discharge the wastewater into the sea.
• Ernst argued that environmental protections would support East Africa’s long-term development and that rivers should be preserved for shipping, irrigation, and water supply.

Ernst expanded East Africa’s steel industry and immigration plans amid a European economic crisis, arranging steel imports and seeking more ships to transport workers and materials. He directed recruiters toward non-German populations in Austria’s Czech and Slovenian regions and identified overpopulated East Prussia as a major source of German immigrants.

• An official reported that East Africa had consolidated seventeen steel enterprises and recruited more than thirty-four thousand steelworkers from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including over thirteen thousand Czechs.
• Ernst complained that too few workers had arrived, and his staff explained that limited shipping capacity was slowing immigration.
• Ernst ordered the company to hire British small shipping operators and seek cheaper vessels from Mediterranean countries.
• An official reported annual steel orders of three hundred thousand tons from Austria and four hundred thousand tons from the Ruhr, with total shipments to East Africa expected to reach 1.1 million tons annually.
• Ernst ordered recruiters to focus on non-Germans from Austria and nearby Austro-Hungarian regions, especially the Czech and Slovenian regions.
• Ernst shifted East Africa’s recruitment focus in Germany toward the overpopulated, agriculturally dependent East Prussia.

The Hohenzollern Conglomerate showcased European products and East African goods at the 1873 Vienna World Expo, where it used displays and tastings to promote East African specialties. Somali bananas won a public competition against Caribbean bananas, leaving the East African exhibitors with the title “the world's sweetest bananas.”

• The Hohenzollern Conglomerate presented its industrial products, East African crops and animal goods, and trade goods at the Vienna World Expo.
• A Brazilian exhibitor challenged the Hechingen Company over its East African rubber, but buyers focused on price and purchased from the cheaper supplier.
• The Hohenzollern Conglomerate placed Somali bananas beside American bananas and invited visitors to compare them.
• Caribbean exhibitors, including the Boston Fruit Company, demanded a fair contest using bananas brought from their own region.
• Visitors and Carol I tasted both varieties and judged the Somali bananas superior, earning them the title “the world's sweetest bananas.”
• British newspapers disparaged American banana products as imitations and inferior goods.

Ernst avoided the Vienna World Expo as cholera spread through the city and discussed East Africa’s public health measures and its success at the exposition. East Africa’s award count drew protests over copied exhibits, while the chapter revealed that Austrian favor and a large-scale “black curtain” had helped its exhibitors win.

• Ernst stayed away from Vienna because cholera had broken out, while East Africa’s sanitation and quarantine measures kept the disease from spreading widely there.
• An East African official told Ernst that East Africa had won 441 awards, one more than the United States, and that Bala had protested over exhibits resembling goods from the Far East.
• Ernst dismissed Bala’s protest, noting that some East African crafts had been brought by immigrants and developed locally.
• Mr. Guisan accused East Africa of copying Japanese Yosegi-zaiku and folding fans, while Mr. Koizumi urged him to consider that the similarities might be coincidental.
• The chapter revealed that Austrian judges heavily favored East Africa, with more than ninety percent of its exhibits winning awards, while Austria and Prussia took the top two places.

Ernst prepared to marry Princess Karina in Vienna, where the wedding showcased East Africa’s military strength and drew royal guests from across Europe. At the celebration, Crown Princes Frederick, Alexander III, and Rudolf discussed the balance of power and the need for their nations to remain united against outside pressure.

• Archduke Ferdinand questioned Ernst’s formal wedding outfit, and Ernst defended its familiar style.
• Austria prepared Vienna for the wedding with heightened security, illuminated streets, and East African troops completing training nearby.
• Royal representatives and crown princes from numerous countries arrived, including Frederick, Alexander III, and Rudolf.
• Alexander III described Britain and France as the leading powers, while Rudolf warned that the United States could become a threat to Europe.
• Frederick urged the three crown princes to set aside disputes and cooperate against external powers.

Ernst and Karina married in Vienna, where a lavish diamond ring and an East African military parade drew attention from guests and crowds. The chapter ended with the soldiers saluting the newlyweds and Ernst proudly enjoying the spectacle while Karina felt embarrassed.

• Prince Karl took over Archduke Ferdinand's duties for the wedding, while Ferdinand returned to Karina's side.
• Ernst and Karina traveled by carriage to St. Augustine's Abbey Church and completed their wedding ceremony, exchanging vows and a striking blue diamond ring.
• After the banquet, Ernst showed Karina the East African military parade, featuring three thousand soldiers in distinctive black, gold, and red uniforms.
• European royals and Vienna's citizens watched the disciplined East African formations march through the city.
• The soldiers presented arms and shouted their congratulations to Ernst and Karina, delighting Ernst and embarrassing Karina.

The East African Army’s parade impressed Vienna’s citizens with its discipline and prompted discussion of the kingdom’s military strength. That evening, Hechingen Electric Company’s light show illuminated the city, leaving Karina admiring Vienna’s beauty.

• Vienna’s citizens applauded the East African Army after its parade, and one former soldier argued that its troops and weapons showed experience in war.
• The chapter explained that East Africa’s literacy, resources, and industrial system supported the growth of its military industry, while the Central Railway would help unlock southern resources.
• Karina asked Ernst about the evening’s light show, and he explained that it was meant to advertise Hechingen Electric Company.
• At eight o’clock, Hechingen Electric Company switched on colored lights and illuminated signs across Vienna, and Karina exclaimed that the city was beautiful.