Recaps

Samuel warned Sapeto not to underestimate the Abyssinian Empire, explaining how surprise attacks and close combat had helped him survive the poorly equipped Italian army’s war against Austria-Hungary. After learning about the surrounding powers, Samuel decided Italy needed to gather more intelligence before planning its operations.

• Samuel recounted how shortages, a collapsed command system, and Austro-Hungarian firepower had forced him to use night attacks, captured rifles, and close combat.
• Samuel explained that his experience taught him not to dismiss the possibility that Abyssinians could use similar tactics against Italian troops.
• Sapeto respected Samuel’s military experience and promised to support his orders in Eritrea.
• Sapeto described the powers near Abyssinia, including Britain, France, Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of East Africa.
• Samuel concluded that Italy knew too little about Abyssinia and ordered intelligence gathering before making a plan.

Samuel addressed lodging and supply problems for the Italian expeditionary force in Assab, where the barren climate made local food production impossible. Sapeto explained that Zanzibar merchants could supply cheap East African rice, and Samuel agreed to buy it, though the troops would have to adjust.

• Samuel considered how to house his three thousand troops in Assab and asked Sapeto how the company had managed its supplies.
• Sapeto explained that Assab depended on imported grain because its arid surroundings could not support agriculture.
• Sapeto recommended ordering grain from the Sultanate of Zanzibar, whose merchants could deliver cheap East African rice.
• Samuel questioned the cost and suitability of rice, but Sapeto said it was cheaper than flour and had already supplied markets across the Indian Ocean.
• Samuel chose rice for the troops and learned that Zanzibar merchants handled the trade because East Africa lacked enough ships.

Young Sayyid reflected on Zanzibar’s reliance on East African trade, while Italian General Samuel asked Sapeto to secure grain from Zanzibar for Italy’s campaign in Abyssinia. In Dar es Salaam, Li Ge and the newly arrived East African officials prepared to travel to First Town City, whose character differed from the coastal commercial hub.

• Young Sayyid accepted Zanzibar’s dependence on East Africa, believing Constantin’s rule and the current arrangement kept the Sultanate secure.
• Samuel agreed to buy grain from Zanzibar and asked Sapeto to seek concessions and confirm that the merchant could supply enough.
• Sapeto accepted Samuel’s request as a service to Italy.
• Egypt allowed Italy to use Assab as a base against Abyssinia, judging the region of limited importance to its own interests.
• East African Central Government representatives arrived in Dar es Salaam, allowing Li Ge and the others to leave the immigrant transit point for First Town City.
• Aryan asked Li Ge whether First Town City would surpass Dar es Salaam, and Li Ge explained that the capital was more developed while Dar es Salaam was more prosperous.

During the journey to First Town, Aryan explained telegraphs and electricity to Li Ge and described telegraph projects connecting East Africa with the Far East. The chapter left the proposed Xuzhou-centered network awaiting decisions by German Far East business interests, while plans for a Shanghai–Jiaozhou line advanced.

• Li Ge asked Willex about the roadside wires, and Aryan explained that they connected Dar es Salaam with First Town.
• Aryan described how telegraphs transmitted messages using electricity, leaving Li Ge struggling to understand the scientific principles.
• Aryan told Li Ge that telegraph lines linking Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Nagasaki were nearing completion and that Hechingen Electric Company planned a Shanghai–Jiaozhou route.
• The chapter explained that the Hohenzollern Conglomerate was promoting a Xuzhou-centered telegraph network, with the German Far East Chamber of Commerce Alliance yet to decide how to proceed.
• The Shanghai–Jiaozhou line was being laid to connect the Huaihai Economic Zone through Jiaozhou, its principal port.

The aid delegation stayed in Anka Village, where village chief Robert showed them the orderly settlement and described plans to improve residents’ homes. Robert explained why he had chosen to remain in East Africa and trusted Ernst’s promises, leaving the delegation with a picture of the kingdom’s rural life and his confidence in its future.

• The convoy stopped after traveling a little over twenty kilometers, and the village chief arranged lodging for the aid delegation in Anka Village.
• Aryan admired the sunset and countryside, while the delegation observed the village’s harvested rice fields and orderly layout.
• Aryan compared Anka Village’s earthen houses to those in the Far East, and Robert said residents would soon move into safer, more comfortable homes.
• Robert recounted his early service in East Africa and said he had stayed with his family because he trusted Ernst and believed the kingdom offered a better future than war-prone Europe.

As the group traveled through the savanna, Aryan explained how railways worked and why they were more efficient than roads. He learned that East Africa’s First Railway had been waiting for a locomotive, which had finished testing in Austria and was due to arrive the following month.

• The group spotted a railway running beside the road, and Aryan explained its rails, sleepers, and ballast.
• Aryan told the group that East Africa’s First Railway had remained idle while it awaited a locomotive.
• Aryan learned from Willex that the locomotive had completed its final tests in Austria and would be shipped to East Africa next month for trial operations.
• Aryan explained how steam engines powered locomotives and why railways could carry more than horse-drawn carriages.

The railway passed a branch line under construction toward Soga, Ernst’s new planned city southwest of Dar es Salaam. As designers Lawrence and Dres shaped Soga into a refined garden city, they debated what landmark could express its character.

• Aryan explained that the tracks visible from the train were a branch line, but he ignored the travelers’ questions about its destination.
• The branch line led toward Soga, where the workforce that had completed Dar es Salaam’s transformation was building Ernst’s new city.
• Lawrence instructed his assistant to build a large flowerbed at a Y-shaped intersection and oversaw work on Soga’s advanced sewers.
• Lawrence and Dres discussed a landmark for Soga, weighing a fountain square against a sculpture that could represent the city.

The Kingdom of East Africa prepared to seize the Republic of the Transvaal by training troops for rapid marches and anti-guerrilla warfare, while mapping Boer territory and planning to prevent foreign interference. The chapter leaves the Boers unaware of the impending invasion as East Africa readied a forceful annexation.

• East African instructors taught soldiers to encircle Boer fighters, cut off their supplies, and avoid ambushes while securing settlements.
• East Africa sent agents disguised as German merchants and explorers to map Transvaal terrain and routes, then compiled their findings at Hechingen Military Academy.
• East African leaders ordered the army to capture the Republic of the Transvaal within a little over a month, before Britain or the Orange Free State could intervene.
• The army upgraded rations and intensified training so soldiers could march more than forty kilometers per day.
• East Africa assessed the Transvaal's impoverished ranching economy and the Boers' land-based military system, shaped by their conflicts with the Zulu Kingdom.

Constantin received Qing China's aid delegation and tried to arrange for its envoys, Li Ge and Ande, to serve as East Africa’s resident diplomats. He reassured them that the Qing Emperor would decide, then ordered the Far East doctors assigned to East African hospitals, leaving their future in East Africa largely beyond their control.

• Constantin met the Far East delegation and learned that Li Ge and Ande were officials accompanying 103 doctors.
• Constantin proposed that Li Ge and Ande remain in East Africa as Qing China's resident envoys, frightening them because they feared being branded traitors.
• Li Ge refused to take office without his sovereign’s permission, and Constantin clarified that East Africa would first ask the Qing Emperor to approve the appointment.
• Constantin promised to praise Li Ge and Ande in a letter to their sovereign, while the two envoys privately worried about their careers and families.
• Constantin ordered the Ministry of Health to arrange work for the Far East doctors, and Berleide said they could become hospital directors.

Constantin and Berleide discussed how to integrate Far Eastern doctors and traditional Chinese medicine into East Africa’s medical system. They decided to divide the doctors between standard-setting and academy work, and clinics that would train apprentices across the kingdom.

• Berleide argued that East Africa should gather qualified Far Eastern doctors to create unified standards for traditional Chinese medicine.
• Berleide described the benefits of combining Far Eastern treatments with European medicine, including bone-setting and standardized medical equipment.
• Constantin proposed an exchange among Western, Far Eastern, and Arab doctors, but Berleide recommended waiting until the Far Eastern doctors learned German.
• Berleide proposed training doctors through both apprenticeships spread across East Africa and a medical academy, and Constantin approved both approaches.
• Constantin and Berleide decided to split the Far Eastern doctors between establishing medical standards and academies, and opening clinics that trained apprentices.

East Africa recruited Far Eastern doctors while preparing to expand its transport network in Dar es Salaam. Constantin attended the opening of the kingdom’s first railway, whose locomotive was named K-001, and learned that it could handle East Africa’s terrain.

• East Africa offered Far Eastern doctors high wages and public medical titles, though most still planned to return home.
• Constantin arrived in Dar es Salaam on September 13, 1871, as the city’s new port and immigrant transit facilities eased pressure on the old harbor.
• East African workers reinforced roads to transport the newly arrived locomotive and its carriages to the railway station.
• Technicians told Constantin that the locomotive, jointly built by Hechingen Vienna Energy and Power Company and Austria’s royal railway company, was named K-001 after him.
• Constantin asked about the locomotive’s ability to operate in the highlands, and the technicians assured him that its tested climbing ability and East Africa’s gradual slopes made it suitable.

Constantin laid out immediate improvements for Dar es Salaam’s railway station, while the chapter explained East Africa’s long-term plans and advantages for extending the First Railway. The railway remained under construction, with East Africa intending to fund it through Hechingen Bank and expand it toward Zimbabwe and possibly South Africa.

• Constantin ordered Dar es Salaam city to plan warehouses, a road to the station, a preserved rail connection to the Old Port, and an additional security checkpoint.
• Ernst’s First Railway plan drew on the Tanzam Railway route and envisioned extending the line from Dar es Salaam city to the Zimbabwe region, including a difficult crossing of the Zambezi River.
• The chapter contrasted East Africa’s plentiful land, labor, food, and year-round building conditions with the obstacles faced by the Tanzam, Siberian, and Canadian Pacific railways.
• After Zimbabwe’s occupation, East Africa expanded the railway’s projected route and considered adding a South African section if its war against the Boers went well.
• The Hechingen Royal Family planned for Hechingen Bank to lend construction funds to the East African government, which would repay them from the railway’s future economic returns.

Constantin rode East Africa’s new railway from Dar es Salaam toward First Town, impressing residents who had never seen a train. Meanwhile, Ernst planned to establish a million-mu rubber plantation across Hesse Province and Mitoomba Province, where the climate and terrain favored rubber cultivation.

• The Constantin departed Dar es Salaam station and accelerated toward First Town, with a technician explaining its speed and Constantin estimating the journey would take an hour and a half.
• Villagers and immigrants watched the train pass, and its arrival challenged their expectations of what East Africa could achieve.
• The chapter described Hesse Province and Mitoomba Province as sparsely populated regions rich in minerals but difficult to develop because of poor transportation.
• Ernst chose the two provinces for East Africa’s largest rubber plantation because their rainfall, warmth, and terrain suited rubber trees.
• Ernst set a target of opening one million mu of rubber plantations, relying on the region’s residents to tend the trees and on neighboring areas for grain.

On October 8, 1873, a devastating fire consumed Chicago while Hechingen Bank’s Chicago branch remained safe in the Western District. President Odyssey watched the city burn and recognized that the branch’s unpopular location and brick-and-stone construction had saved it.

• A massive fire engulfed Chicago’s commercial center and drove countless residents into the Western District, where Hechingen Bank’s guards secured the branch.
• Odyssey watched the blaze from the bank’s third floor and thanked God that the branch’s low-cost Western District location had spared it.
• The chapter recounted how Hechingen Bank had established its Chicago branch away from downtown despite Odyssey’s objections and the branch’s growing business among German Americans.
• The branch had replaced nearby wooden roads with brick and stone when it was built, while much of Chicago remained made of timber after a long dry spell.

After the Great Chicago Fire left thousands dead and many residents destitute, the East African Immigration Office exploited the disaster to recruit people for resettlement. It secretly shipped immigrants from Chicago and other parts of the Americas to East Africa, where they would help meet the kingdom’s labor needs.

• The Great Chicago Fire devastated Chicago, and Odyssey’s bank branch provided disinfection and refugee shelters as relief efforts struggled to meet the residents’ needs.
• After receiving instructions from New York headquarters, Odyssey learned that an East African Immigration Office would operate in Chicago and cooperate with his branch.
• Immigration Office workers offered unemployed Chicago residents work elsewhere, misleading them about their destination and recruiting Germans and Chinese survivors.
• The Office sent recruits through New York, where East African armed personnel took them aboard ocean liners bound for East Africa.
• The East African Immigration Office expanded its recruitment across the Americas, targeting struggling Germans and other people suited to railway work, farming, and supervising slaves.

Ernst and Thomas discussed using Haiti as a covert route to send East African Black people to the American South, replacing white immigrants recruited away from the United States. Thomas laid out a plan involving bribery, Haitian identification documents, and plantation contracts, and Ernst approved the idea in principle.

• Ernst told Thomas to recruit immigrants from American rural areas and ports while avoiding suspicion from American financial interests.
• Thomas proposed exporting Black people to America to replace the white people East Africa was recruiting, and Ernst agreed the idea was worth exploring.
• Thomas identified Haiti as a springboard because it was a Black nation with an easily bribed government and a legal abolition of slavery.
• Thomas proposed bribing Haitian officials, issuing Haitian identification documents to East African natives, and sending them to Haiti under the guise of trade and aid.
• Thomas explained that Haiti’s population would spill outward toward American Southern plantations, where owners could bind the newcomers to long-term employment contracts.
• Ernst accepted the plan and said East Africa could bear the cost of sending the people away.

Ernst arranged for Haiti to contact the Americans through French slave traders while considering plans to contain black populations by creating backward states in Africa. He prepared to leave for East Africa, leaving Tom to oversee European affairs, and learned that the Archduke Ferdinand ironclad was thirty percent complete.

• Ernst ordered Thomas to settle matters with Haiti and arrange contact with the Americans through French traders without revealing East Africa's involvement.
• Ernst considered establishing backward African countries between black populations and East Africa, but deferred the plan until East Africa met its immigration needs.
• Tom told Ernst that his ship to Trieste was arranged and that the Archduke Ferdinand ironclad had reached thirty percent completion.
• Ernst entrusted Tom with European affairs and the Hohenzollern Conglomerate while he departed for East Africa.
• Ernst reflected that the ironclad, named for Archduke Ferdinand and armed with six Krupp 283mm guns, would restore Ferdinand's prestige at Ernst's upcoming wedding.

Half a year before Ernst left for Trieste, British journalist Rosens persuaded Shinshita to pose with a Japanese macaque for a photograph meant to promote Japan. The image appeared in the smutty London newspaper The Sun, leaving Shinshita humiliated and resentful for the rest of his life.

• Rosens discussed Darwin, Britain’s rise to world power, and Japan with Shinshita, who agreed with Rosens and offered to help him find Japanese people for photographs.
• Shinshita posed beside a female macaque at a hot spring while Rosens photographed them, believing the image would show Japanese people living in harmony with nature.
• Rosens told Shinshita that his newspaper was The Sun and claimed Londoners would enjoy the photograph of his amiable samurai image.
• A London gentleman bought The Sun discreetly and later saw the photograph of Shinshita and the macaque beneath an article about Japanese hot springs and Darwin.
• Months later, Shinshita received a copy of The Sun, learned it was a smut newspaper, and became furious; years afterward, he died resentful and urged his grandson to kill more British people.

Ernst traveled from Berlin to Vienna on his way back to East Africa, where he planned to supervise the war against the Boers. In Vienna, he said farewell to Rudolf and advised him to understand Emperor Franz’s political difficulties.

• Ernst traveled by train toward Austria and discussed why he would personally oversee the war against the Boers on the Matabele Plateau.
• Ernst considered the complicated regional situation around the Transvaal, including the British, Mozambique, the Zulu Kingdom, the Orange Free State, and Eswatini.
• After three days, Ernst arrived in Vienna, where Rudolf secretly came to see him off despite not having told Emperor Franz.
• Ernst urged Rudolf not to resent his father and explained how Hungary’s demands threatened Austria’s stability.
• Rudolf said Wilhelm II had helped him understand the Hungarian issue, and Ernst and Rudolf parted as Ernst prepared to continue his journey.

Ernst inspected the Archduke Ferdinand at the Trieste shipyard, then prepared to depart for East Africa with a large collection of cultural relics and books. He arranged for the cargo to be protected aboard ship, while the books were destined for the new national library in Soga.

• Ernst inspected the Archduke Ferdinand with technicians from Hechingen's Trieste shipyard and approved the vessel.
• Ernst acquired paintings, calligraphy, books, and artifacts from British and French soldiers returning with spoils from the Old Summer Palace.
• Ernst noted that French public criticism of the looting had led to extensive reporting and auctions, allowing him to buy more artifacts through Hechingen Bank.
• Ernst ordered his subordinate to protect and regularly inspect the artworks packed aboard the ship.
• Ernst brought thirty thousand sets of books for the national library in Soga, which was intended for readers beyond the ordinary public.

Ernst considered how East Africa could build a national identity by inheriting German and Chinese cultural legacies. Meanwhile, Thomas secured the Chellos family’s help in routing East African captives through Haiti and selling them as slaves in the United States, with Haitian identity papers to conceal their origins.

• Ernst argued that East Africa’s people could claim both German and Chinese heritage, and that his private collection would remain a cultural asset in the kingdom.
• Thomas arrived in Port-au-Prince and approached Young Chellos under the alias Medina to propose a slave-trading arrangement.
• Young Chellos agreed to sell Thomas’s African captives through the family’s American channels in exchange for a commission.
• Thomas proposed disguising the captives as Haitians, and Young Chellos agreed to arrange certificates through the presidential palace.

Ernst returned to East Africa and saw how much Dar es Salaam had developed, reflecting on Africa’s potential and the strategic importance of the Indian Ocean trade route. After unloading his belongings, he planned to take the books he had brought to the Soga National Library before continuing to First Town.

• Ernst arrived at Dar es Salaam and compared the city’s prosperity with Trieste, recognizing the results of East Africa’s development.
• Ernst considered Africa’s economic potential and its future rivalry with India over control of the Indian Ocean route.
• Ernst’s fleet bypassed Dar es Salaam’s old port and entered its new port, where Mox welcomed him.
• Ernst ordered Mox to unload his carefully packed belongings, especially the items from the Orient and Chris.
• After two days, Ernst learned that the railway branch to Soga was complete, and he decided to leave some items there before traveling to First Town.
• Ernst planned to place the books he had brought in the Soga National Library.

Ernst inspected Soga, East Africa’s planned scientific research city, and explained how its infrastructure and location were meant to attract and support future talent. He left Soga’s purpose unexplained to his subordinate while defending its ambitious construction and discussing the future of native laborers.

• Ernst and his party arrived in Soga and toured the city’s large National Library and carefully planned streets, parks, and transport lanes.
• Ernst described Soga as a future center for scientists and recruited talent, designed to provide comfortable living and convenient travel to Dar es Salaam.
• A subordinate said Soga’s success would depend on employment and the city’s commercial, cultural, and civic life, not merely its infrastructure.
• Ernst said Soga’s purpose would become clear in two years and argued that building ahead of its time was worthwhile in East Africa’s open landscape.
• Ernst said native workers should be given suitable work after their terms ended, and his subordinate praised East Africa in comparison with the United States.

Andries and the Boers faced repeated Zulu raids as the Republic of the Transvaal struggled to defend itself. The chapter recounted the bloody history of Boer-Zulu conflict and ended with the Boers’ support for the Ndebele people setting the stage for future trouble with East Africa.

• Andries watched another Zulu force withdraw after raiding the Boers, while British influence kept the Transvaal from striking decisively.
• The chapter recounted how the Boers attacked the Ndebele, forcing them north, and then settled in Natal under Governor Retief.
• Dingane had Retief and his party killed, then launched a devastating assault on the Boer settlements and captured Port Durban.
• Pretorius joined forces with Mpande and defeated Dingane’s army at the Battle of Blood River, after which the Boers installed Mpande as king.
• The British seized Natal, pushing the Boers inland, while the Zulu Kingdom later resumed raids against the Transvaal.
• The Boers grew accustomed to trading with East Africa but backed the Ndebele against it, planting the seeds of their own destruction.

Ernst arrived in First Town and reunited with Constantin, who had adapted well to life in East Africa. After greeting the officials and settling into the palace, Ernst assessed First Town’s defenses and concluded that it was secure for now but poorly placed to remain the capital as East Africa expanded.

• Ernst arrived in First Town, where Constantin and East African officials welcomed him.
• Ernst reassured Keno that Tom was doing well and overseeing the conglomerate’s European operations.
• Keno arranged for Ernst’s luggage and possessions to be registered and placed in Qiuweit Palace.
• Ernst considered how Zanzibar Island and coastal defenses protected First Town from naval attack.
• Ernst concluded that First Town could only serve as a temporary capital and that a more central location in Zambia or southern Congo would suit East Africa better.