East Africa's geographic location had always made it easy for people to overlook it. This was the habitual way of thinking born of empiricism. Under such thinking, no one took Africa seriously, with the United States being the most typical example.
The United States possessed an exceptionally favorable geographic position and top-tier conditions in every respect. Yet even though it had now developed to rank second only to Britain, its status in the world was greatly mismatched. America's political influence remained confined to the Americas; Mexico and the host of small Caribbean Sea nations basically revolved around the United States.
This was because, in most people's impression, the Americas had never produced a great power with worldwide influence. Take the Black Ship Incident, for example: the Americans had forced open Japan's doors, yet the Imperial Japanese Navy learned from Britain and its army learned from Prussia, but neither learned from the United States.
The American Army was weak—this was more or less everyone's consensus. Yet considering America's size and land area, the American Army should theoretically have been far stronger than the British Army. The reason it had failed to develop was entirely because Mexico and Canada were too pathetic.
Even a power as mighty as the United States could not pressure Europe at present, so little East Africa naturally had even less presence.
However, Europe's failure to notice East Africa's development did not mean the countries and colonies surrounding East Africa failed to notice it.
When the Archduke Ferdinand sailed through the waters off Dar es Salaam, it was spotted by Portuguese spending time there.
As a neighbor, the Mozambique colony paid the closest attention to the Kingdom of East Africa's development. It had specifically sent people to keep watch in Dar es Salaam city and gather relevant intelligence.