Recaps

East Africa planned the Central Canal to connect the Wami, Little Rhine, and Rufiji river systems and expand transport and irrigation across Central Province. Constantin approved building the Rufiji–Little Rhine section first and deferred the Wami connection until more labor arrived.

• East Africa prepared the Central Canal project to link three major rivers across the coastal plain.
• Vaskov explained how a short channel near Nazca Lake could divert water from the Rufiji River into the Little Rhine River.
• Vaskov presented two possible routes for connecting the Wami and Little Rhine rivers, one coastal and easier to build and one longer inland route.
• Constantin proposed building both northern routes, and Vaskov said the expanded plan would require much more labor.
• Constantin ordered construction of the Rufiji–Little Rhine canal to begin first and postponed the Wami–Little Rhine canals until the laborers arrived.

Svit’s East African punitive army advanced toward Bulawayo, overwhelming Ndebele resistance with superior weapons and help from guide Kasos. Lobengula learned of the army’s approach and berated the fleeing northern military leaders, leaving the kingdom facing the approaching invasion.

• After marching for half a month, Svit led South Salzburg troops and militia along the Luangwa River toward Bulawayo.
• Kasos told Svit that the army could safely wade across the shallow river and guide them through the terrain.
• Svit ordered the army to cross, and the troops advanced into the Matabele Plateau without facing an ambush.
• Lobengula received news of the East African advance and condemned the northern military leaders who had fled.
• The military leaders blamed the enemy’s firearms and artillery, while Lobengula accused them of abandoning Ndebele military traditions.

Lobengula inspected his musketeers and vowed to drive East African forces away, while East African troops joined up and captured Boer arms dealers supplying the Ndebele. Svit learned that the Transvaal had sent weapons and advisers to weaken East Africa, and vowed to deal with the Boers after defeating the Ndebele.

• Lobengula watched Ndebele warriors drill with muskets and heard Sir Wiggins assure him they could strike the Kingdom of East Africa.
• Svit received the Southern Army’s Second Brigade, whose commander, Yaan Reed, reported that the southern rebellion had mostly been suppressed.
• Yaan Reed presented Boer prisoners and crates of weapons captured from a shipment to the Ndebele.
• Svit questioned the Boers, who confessed that the Transvaal had supplied the Ndebele with thousands of muskets and gunpowder to weaken East Africa.
• Svit promised to keep the Boer prisoners in East Africa and vowed to settle accounts with the Transvaal after defeating the Ndebele.

The East African Army and the Matabele Kingdom’s forces clashed east of Bulawayo, where Svit faced Lobengula’s army and its British-style linear tactics. After East African artillery routed the Shona auxiliary soldiers, Svit ordered his army to advance, leaving Wiggins unaware of the range and accuracy advantage of the East African rifles.

• Svit observed that the Matabele Kingdom had chosen to face the East African Army in a frontal battle, while Wiggins advised Lobengula to use British linear tactics.
• Lobengula ordered more than ten thousand poorly armed Shona auxiliary soldiers to charge ahead as a way to exhaust East African ammunition.
• Svit ordered eighteen cannons to bombard the Shona, causing them to flee or collapse in fear despite the Ndebele overseers’ attempts to force them onward.
• Wiggins reassured Lobengula that East Africa would soon run out of shells and told him to wait until the enemy came within two hundred meters before firing.
• Svit halted the bombardment and ordered the East African Army to advance, while Wiggins misjudged the range and accuracy of their Dreyse rifles.

The East African Army shattered the Ndebele advance with longer-range rifles, artillery, and cavalry, turning the battle outside Bulawayo into a rout. As Lobengula fell and East African troops pressed forward, Wiggins and the Boer instructors fled toward their horses, abandoning the Ndebele.

• East African commanders opened fire at five hundred meters, and the Ndebele ranks panicked under the rifle volleys.
• Wiggins urged Lobengula to order a charge, and Lobengula led the Ndebele warriors forward despite their losses.
• Svit ordered artillery fire and then sent the East African cavalry into the Ndebele ranks, where Lobengula was knocked down and trampled.
• Svit ordered the whole East African line to attack, and the Ndebele forces lost command as soldiers began to scatter.
• Wiggins and the Boer instructors slipped away from the battlefield and headed for their horses, planning to return to Transvaal.

After defeating the Ndebele rebellion, Svit questioned the wounded Lobengula and learned that Boer Wiggins had supplied weapons and encouraged the uprising. Wiggins fled west but was captured by a Southwestern Army patrol, giving East Africa proof of Boer involvement.

• Svit questioned the wounded Lobengula, who blamed Wiggins for the firearms and the rebellion.
• Svit ordered scouts to pursue Wiggins, but they followed false clues east while Wiggins escaped west.
• Wiggins and his Boer group encountered a seven-man Southwestern Army patrol near Botswana.
• Wiggins led his thirteen men in an attack, but the patrol captured him and took or killed the other Boers.
• On May 28, 1871, East Africa obtained evidence that the Boers had supported the Ndebele rebellion.

East Africa prepared to punish the Boers for supporting the Ndebele, but Ernst delayed action until the kingdom could strike decisively. Meanwhile, rice researcher Marcos advised North Great Lakes Province officials on promoting Far Eastern japonica rice suited to the region, leaving them with a plan to expand cultivation while keeping experimental fields.

• Ernst persuaded East African officials to prepare for a sudden end-of-year attack on the Republic of the Transvaal while concealing their evidence and continuing trade and intelligence work.
• East Africa shifted troops to the Matabele Plateau and increased its contacts with Germans among the Boers to gather intelligence and lull the Boer ruling class.
• Marcos told Brzezinski that rice from Shanxi grew especially well at higher elevations in the Great Lakes Region and could be promoted while other varieties remained under experiment.
• Marcos explained that Great Lakes japonica rice had a longer growing season and suited Far Eastern tastes, while coastal long-grain rice better suited Middle Eastern and Indian markets.

Ernst sought to protect East Africa and the Hohenzollern Conglomerate from an approaching economic crisis while expanding their influence in the Far East. In July 1871, Jiaozhou Textile Mill negotiated to sell surplus machinery to the Shanxi and Anhui merchant groups, laying groundwork for cooperation against foreign capital.

• Ernst planned to strengthen East Africa's internal market and economic barriers as he anticipated a global economic crisis.
• Levens offered Qiao Zhiyong the Jiaozhou Textile Mill's surplus machinery, and Qiao questioned its high price and the risks of buying it.
• Levens argued that the advanced machines could help the Shanxi Merchants build cotton textile businesses in the northern interior.
• Jiaozhou Textile Mill negotiated separately with Hu Xueyan, representative of the Anhui Merchants, over another portion of the machinery.
• The Hohenzollern Conglomerate aimed to partner with both merchant groups to expand into the Far East's interior and resist competition from foreign capital.

Qiao Zhiyong and Hu Xueyan negotiated a commercial alliance with Anthony of Hechingen Bank, agreeing on trade rules and a Kaifeng headquarters. Anthony also offered to help both merchants study European banking, leaving them to consider how to modernize and protect their businesses.

• Qiao Zhiyong agreed to cooperate with Hechingen Bank if the three parties clearly defined their territories, and Anthony proposed mutual purchasing priorities and shared product standards.
• Qiao Zhiyong chose Kaifeng for the alliance’s headquarters, while Hu Xueyan warned that Hechingen Bank’s expansion threatened the Anhui Merchants.
• Anthony said the parties’ current territories would set their commercial boundaries and argued that Hechingen Bank was not positioned to compete with the British in the Yangtze River basin.
• Qiao Zhiyong asked to study Hechingen Bank’s model, and Anthony recommended sending representatives to the Netherlands to learn about finance.
• Hu Xueyan also asked to send people to Europe, and Anthony agreed to offer suggestions as the merchants considered learning Western business practices.

In Ruvu Village, an itinerant veterinarian castrated government-distributed piglets as part of East Africa’s effort to improve pork quality and expand farming-area livestock. The kingdom’s 200,000 breeding pigs were being raised in village-based pilot programs across four provinces.

• Yuri questioned Andre about why healthy piglets were being castrated, and Andre explained that castration helped pigs grow faster and kept their meat from developing a strong odor.
• An East African veterinarian castrated a piglet before the villagers and asked whether more piglets needed treatment.
• The villagers said the government had supplied only the piglets they already brought, and the veterinarian prepared to travel to the next village.
• The chapter explained that East Africa used pen-raising to turn grain and agricultural byproducts into meat, with pigs suited to the kingdom’s farming regions.
• The Kingdom of East Africa introduced 200,000 breeding pigs for village-based pilot programs in Central Province, Coastal Province, Sea-Lake Province, and South Salzburg Province.

Ernst argued that East Africa’s climate made pork more practical than cattle and sheep, and that its varied cooking traditions could help make pork a popular, high-quality food. He wanted East Africa to develop a distinctive cuisine by blending Chinese, German, Italian, and other culinary influences.

• Ernst judged that East African ranching faced disease and insect risks, while its grasslands made high-quality beef and mutton less competitive than pork.
• Ernst identified German sausages and Far Eastern preserved sausages and braised foods as ways to make pork more appealing and useful for military rations.
• The Vienna Food Factory and Berlin Food Factory expanded efforts to copy Far Eastern braised products, which Hechingen companies had already developed for canned food.
• Ernst noted that East Africa’s immigrants used diverse methods to cook pork and that locally abundant vegetable oils, especially sesame oil, supported deep-frying.
• Ernst proposed building an East African cuisine on Chinese cooking, incorporating German and Italian traditions and drawing on cuisines from around the world.

In 1871 New York, Italian immigrants arrived seeking a better life, while Italian mafia groups recruited them under the guise of helping fellow countrymen. A newly arrived refugee was offered work by one of the recruiters, unaware of what the opportunity entailed.

• Jonathan and Angelina discussed the influx of Italian immigrants and the dangers posed by Italian groups in New York.
• The chapter described how Irish gangs had once dominated American crime before Italian mafia organizations grew more powerful, helped by Ernst’s actions.
• Italian representatives paid Captain Mooney to ensure immigrant ships delivered their passengers alive after shipowners had abandoned Italians at sea.
• After the ship unloaded its starving passengers, mafia recruiters offered them food and comfort to attract recruits.
• A recruiter learned that a grieving Lombard refugee had no relatives, home, or job in America and offered him work at an Italian-run company.

The chapter explained how the Italian mafia recruited immigrants and supplied cheap labor for America’s railway boom, while German migration was diverted toward East Africa. It left Italian immigrant communities marginalized in the United States, a result the narrator attributed to five cooperating forces.

• The Italian mafia recruited workers from Italy, paid their passage, and used intimidation to secure American construction contracts.
• New York’s rapid growth and the railway boom made Vanderbilt’s Grand Central Station a major project that employed many Italian laborers.
• The Hohenzollern Conglomerate discouraged Germans from emigrating to America, while some Germans ignored its warnings and still planned to seek fortunes there.
• Italian mafia groups formed engineering companies, organized immigrant labor, and helped capitalists keep workers from resisting harsh conditions.
• Recent mass immigration and rising crime damaged Italian immigrants’ standing, and the narrator blamed the American government, the Italian mafia, the Kingdom of Italy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Ernst for the situation.

Jonathan ordered Hechingen Bank’s North American branch to loosen lending restrictions and invest broadly in America until the end of the year, before selling the projects on headquarters’ schedule. Meanwhile, the Hohenzollern Conglomerate expanded its Far Eastern investments with Shanxi and Anhui merchants, while Qiao Zhiyong moved to reform the Shanxi Merchants as their position came under threat.

• Jonathan read headquarters’ order to increase American investment and, despite doubting its risk assessment, convened his staff.
• Jonathan instructed the North American branch to loosen restrictions, invest in any profitable industry, and prepare to sell its projects starting next year.
• The Hohenzollern Conglomerate increased investments aimed at the Far Eastern domestic market and partnered with Shanxi and Anhui merchants in the north.
• Qiao Zhiyong began adapting Western banking models to reform the Shanxi Merchants’ Piaohao after Hechingen Bank encroached on their territory.
• The Hohenzollern Conglomerate continued expanding inland through North China, where floods, conflict, and economic decline had left markets relatively neglected by other foreign powers.

Ernst’s Hohenzollern Conglomerate began organizing the Huaihai Economic Zone, a four-province investment project shaped by East African, German, Austrian, and Qing interests. The chapter left Lanling poised to become the zone’s first coal-based industrial city as the partners prepared infrastructure and tax reforms.

• The Hohenzollern Conglomerate identified the region’s devastation and economic decline as an opportunity to develop the Huaihai Economic Zone.
• East Africa joined German and Austro-Hungarian merchants to pressure the Qing government into permitting large-scale investment, with the Anhui and Shanxi Merchants providing the Qing side’s stakes.
• Mark asked Chen Shijie to facilitate the Hechingen Bank’s investments in Yanzhou Prefecture, while Chen privately distrusted the foreign investors.
• The Hohenzollern Conglomerate selected Zaozhuang for coal development and planned to rename the new industrial city Lanling.
• East Africa and the Qing government agreed to repair transport routes, supply construction grain, and unify taxes across the zone, while Chen Shijie monitored East Africa on the Qing government’s behalf.

East Africa redirected immigration and tightened its control over Zimbabwe, using a system that let Shona tribes elect people into slavery while settling newcomers in the region. The chapter left the kingdom exporting thousands of enslaved people every three months to support construction across East Africa.

• The Hohenzollern Conglomerate reduced its investment in East Africa, while East Africa sought Hungarian commoners to fill eastern settlements and free German immigrants for development elsewhere.
• East Africa ordered the Shona people to seize Ndebele people who had enslaved them and exile them to Central Province to dig canals.
• East Africa divided the Shona into more than 150 large tribes and stationed a company of soldiers in each to prevent resistance and maintain direct rule.
• East Africa required each Shona tribe to offer 100 slaves as tribute and let the tribes choose who would be enslaved, shifting conflicts among them onto one another.
• East Africa transferred 15,000 slaves from Zimbabwe every three months and brought new immigrants into the region to strengthen its control.

Mbeya Ceramics Factory produced its first batch of coarse porcelain, but most pieces were defective and the factory focused on improving its process. The chapter shifted to East Africa’s plans for glass manufacturing, which had greater domestic demand and could support future scientific research and automobile production.

• Workers opened the kiln at Mbeya Ceramics Factory and found that only fifteen percent of the porcelain had passed inspection, with poor quality overall.
• The mayor of Mbeya city encouraged the workers to keep improving, while the chapter explained that Far Eastern immigrants, especially people from Qicun Village, supplied much of the factory’s expertise.
• Ernst’s government treated porcelain as a limited industry because East Africa could import higher-end wares and had little incentive to compete with established producers.
• East Africa concentrated on glass manufacturing in Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, and Songea, while the Hohenzollern Daily Necessities Company pursued flat-glass technology with German universities.
• The Hohenzollern Conglomerate planned to develop automobiles in East Africa, but Benz was still improving the engine and several years of work remained before a practical car could be launched.

East Africa prioritized Zimbabwe’s wartime preparations by planning communications, roads, defenses, and military farms to support its troops and open up farmland. The Shona were compelled to farm under harsh restrictions, while the chapter left future immigrants to improve the reclaimed fields.

• The East African government prioritized Zimbabwe over Zambia and planned a telegraph line, a north-south road, and defensive fortifications, with Bulawayo serving as a military fortress and grain-route center.
• East Africa declared Zimbabwe’s animals government property and banned Shona hunting without permission, threatening offenders with enslavement.
• East Africa planned military farms to feed at least seventy thousand soldiers, since transporting all their food from the rear would overwhelm the supply network.
• Ernst reflected on differences among African regions and on East Africa’s historical ties with Germany, Portugal, and the Far East.
• East Africa intended the Shona to open up farmland across Zimbabwe, leaving later immigrants to improve the fields.

The chapter described how Hechingen Overseas Trading Company supported East Africa’s growth and connected German and Austrian commerce with the Far East. It portrayed Dar es Salaam as the Indian Ocean coast’s leading commercial city, sustained by trade, services, infrastructure, and foreign spending.

• Hechingen Overseas Trading Company expanded its shipping fleet and businesses, helping establish East Africa’s commercial reach in the Far East.
• Austrian and German merchants relied on the Hohenzollern Conglomerate and East African Embassy for support in the Far East, while investors from the three countries funded the Huaihai Economic Zone.
• Dar es Salaam attracted sailors and merchants with casinos, entertainment, barbershops, shopping, hotels, taverns, and telegraph services.
• Foreign visitors littered the city and increased policing and sanitation work, but Dar es Salaam’s drainage, paved roads, and greenery kept it clean and pleasant.
• Dar es Salaam’s position near Zanzibar and southern European colonies helped it become the Indian Ocean coast’s leading commercial, financial, trade, shipping, and communications center.

Far Eastern aid envoys Li Ge and Ande arrived in Dar es Salaam expecting a plague-stricken, impoverished country, but found a prosperous city instead. Aryan explained what he could, and the group learned that foreigners were barred from the Western District as they continued exploring.

• Ande and Li Ge questioned whether East Africa had been misrepresented after seeing Dar es Salaam's orderly, busy harbor and streets.
• Li Ge asked Aryan about the city's prosperity and learned that Aryan was German by origin, held East African nationality, and had never visited the East African mainland.
• Aryan guided the delegation around the Foreign Commercial Zone and explained that the white-robed people they saw were Arabs dressed for life in hot, sunny regions.
• The delegation reached a barrier and learned from a police officer that foreigners could not enter Dar es Salaam's Western District.
• Aryan asked the officer where the city's government offices were so he could contact the Kingdom of East Africa.

Aryan brought Li Ge and the Far Eastern medical delegation to Dar es Salaam, where immigration officials arranged their temporary stay at a transit camp. Li Ge and Ande found East Africa far more orderly and prosperous than they had been led to expect, though they remained unaware that their government had sent them as expendable envoys.

• Aryan explained the delegation’s unexpected arrival to Dar es Salaam officials, who ordered the group to remain in the city until the Central Government received them in three days.
• Aryan told Li Ge that a delayed message and the embassy’s lack of contingency plans had caused the confusion, easing Li Ge’s resentment.
• Immigration Office staff arranged carriages to take the delegation to a transit point outside Dar es Salaam.
• Li Ge and the others passed a guarded checkpoint and arrived at a large camp, where staff assigned them clean dormitory rooms and arranged meals and supplies.
• Li Ge and Ande observed that East Africa appeared prosperous and orderly, while privately reflecting that the Far Eastern government had hastily made them envoys despite their limited status.

The Far Eastern physicians discussed East Africa’s Chinese immigrants and the hardships driving people overseas before Zhou Mo escorted them to dinner. The delegation was impressed by the cafeteria’s abundant food and learned more about East African hospitals and the kingdom’s treatment of immigrants.

• Li Ji, Yuan Ye, and their companions debated whether Chinese people lived in East Africa and whether poverty in the Far East pushed them to emigrate.
• Zhou Mo told Li Ji that he had emigrated from Shandong, become German in East Africa, and found no discrimination there.
• Zhou Mo explained that East Africa had few doctors, described the large Dar es Salaam city hospital, and mentioned possible Western physicians at the royal palace.
• Zhou Mo led the physicians to the cafeteria, where Aryan demonstrated how to choose food from the available dishes.
• Li Ge, An De, and Li Ji remarked on the plentiful meals, and Li Ji noted that even well-paid doctors in the Far East could rarely afford such food.

Immigrants at the transit point in Dar es Salaam were awakened for breakfast and subjected to a strict hygiene inspection, while the chapter explained East Africa’s comparatively high urbanization rate and agricultural advantages. Li Ge and Ande visited the residential area, where they saw the new immigrants living in orderly, crowded dormitories.

• East African Immigration Office staff woke Yuan Ye, Li Ji, and the other immigrants at six in the morning and ordered them to wash up for breakfast.
• The chapter described East Africa’s urbanization rate, explaining that concentrated settlement, cooperative agriculture, industry, and the exclusion of the Black population from official counts contributed to its high figure.
• Immigration Office staff inspected the immigrants’ rooms and clothing, ordering residents to clean up or risk losing dinner.
• Ande wondered whether East Africa was mistreating the immigrants, so Li Ge asked their guide about the commotion.
• The guide told Li Ge that the new arrivals were being taught East African routines and allowed him and Ande to visit the residential area.
• Li Ge and Ande saw immigrants cleaning and washing in crowded but orderly dormitories, and noted their uniform clothing and thin appearance.

Ande and Li Ge discussed Prussia’s militarism and concluded that East Africa’s large army served its ambitions to seize land and guard against European rivals. They remained unsure of East Africa’s population, territory, and military strength, leaving their suspicions based on what they had seen in Dar es Salaam.

• Ande warned Li Ge that East Africa’s King Constantin was Prussian royalty and cautioned him against criticizing Prussia.
• Li Ge argued that East Africa had no need for a large army, while Ande suggested its troops were used to seize land from local peoples.
• Ande pointed to East Africa’s immigrant recruitment and grain supply as evidence that Constantin had acquired land by conquest.
• Li Ge and Ande speculated that Britain and France might also seek territory in Africa, prompting East Africa to expand its military.
• Ande and Li Ge wondered about East Africa’s army and neighboring regimes, unaware that they had mistaken immigrants for soldiers.

The Kingdom of Italy began its colonial campaign by seizing Assab from Egypt with help from the Rubattino Company. General Samuel warned that conquering Abyssinia would be far harder than Britain’s intervention because Italy sought land and would provoke unified resistance.

• On May 13, 1871, an Italian infantry division landed at Assab as Italy began colonizing to relieve its debts and domestic unrest.
• The Rubattino Company rebelled and captured key facilities, helping the Italian Army drive the Egyptian garrison out of Assab City.
• Giuseppe Sapeto welcomed General Samuel and praised his record in the Italo-Austrian War.
• Samuel cautioned Sapeto against underestimating Abyssinia and explained that Italy’s goal of taking land would unite the empire against the invasion.
• Samuel resolved that Italy must carefully keep Abyssinia divided and defeat its forces one by one.