Recaps

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.

Ernst and his party concluded their European trip and sailed back to East Africa aboard the ironclad Archduke Ferdinand, while Ernst reassured Karina about the colony’s conditions. The chapter ended with the fleet heading toward the Red Sea and Ernst explaining how East Africa’s development had improved its environment.

• Ernst’s European trip secured 240 German enterprises, plans for forty-three factories, equipment purchases, and nearly one million tons of steel orders for East Africa’s railway.
• At Trieste, Archduke Ferdinand prepared to return to East Africa aboard the ironclad that now flew the East African national flag.
• Austro-Hungarian officers lamented their navy’s limited prospects as the East African fleet sailed away.
• British troops near the Suez Canal recognized the ironclad as an East African purchase and discussed the kingdom’s financial strength and plantation trade.
• Ernst answered Karina’s questions about cannibals and malaria, while Princess Charlotte confirmed that the coast was pleasant but the interior was different.
• Ernst compared East Africa’s transformation to Lingnan’s development as the fleet passed through the Suez Canal and headed for the Red Sea.

Portuguese observers in Mozambique saw the East African ironclad Archduke Ferdinand and feared East Africa’s growing military and industrial strength. They speculated that East Africa was using imported steel to build railways, while its gold remained hidden from international markets.

• Portuguese watchers in Dar es Salaam spotted the Archduke Ferdinand and worried that its ironclad power could threaten Mozambique.
• The Portuguese discussed how East Africa had surrounded Mozambique and Angola through its expansion into the Transvaal and Zulu territories.
• Portuguese observers noted that ships were bringing large quantities of steel to East Africa and guessed that the kingdom was building railways.
• The Portuguese debated whether East Africa could afford a railway linking its territory to South Africa and concluded that such a project would be prohibitively expensive without gold.
• East Africa kept its gold out of international markets and continued exporting mainly agricultural products.

Ernst, Archduke Ferdinand, and Karina arrived in Dar es Salaam and discussed East Africa’s industrial growth, its development strategy, and Austria’s and Mexico’s prospects. Ernst left the group focused on East Africa’s long-term potential and warned that the United States would dominate the Americas once European powers withdrew.

• Ernst and his party came ashore at Dar es Salaam’s New Port and took the busy First Railway to First Town.
• Ferdinand admired Dar es Salaam’s growth, and Ernst explained how the Central Railway and New Port supported East Africa’s industrial development.
• Ernst described the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone as East Africa’s heavy-industry center and explained why Zimbabwe’s development depended on railway access.
• Karina compared East African cities favorably with Austrian cities, and Ernst argued that Austria’s population and economic output still far exceeded East Africa’s.
• Ferdinand wondered whether Austria could have developed Africa, and Ernst said Austria lacked the investment, organization, and freedom to do so.
• Ferdinand reflected on his failed rule in Mexico, and Ernst warned that the United States would dominate the Americas after Britain and France withdrew.

Ernst and Karina returned to First Town, where they remarried in a public ceremony and gathered with their families at Sveti Royal Palace. Constantin welcomed Karina with a crown and encouraged her parents to move to First Town, while Ernst’s parents agreed to reunite with her there after he finished naval business.

• Ernst and Karina arrived in First Town and went through a second wedding ceremony there.
• Constantin presented Karina with a jeweled crown as a gift, and Ernst placed it on her head.
• Ernst became distracted by thoughts about East Africa’s development before Constantin called him back to the family gathering.
• Constantin asked Ferdinand and Charlotte to move to First Town so Karina would have her parents nearby.
• Ferdinand agreed that he and Charlotte would move to First Town after he had sorted out naval affairs.

After a locust plague broke out in the neighboring Wasangali Sultanate, Ernst ordered East Africa to prepare defenses and secure food supplies for Somalia. He also sought to exploit possible crop losses in the Middle East by expanding East Africa’s grain exports.

• Ernst received a telegram reporting a locust disaster in the Wasangali Sultanate and identified the insects as desert locusts.
• Ernst ordered the Ministry of Agriculture and northern Pest Control Centers to prepare defenses, especially in Eastern Province and Southern Prussian Province.
• Ernst assessed that East Africa could do little to stop the locusts in sparsely populated Somalia, but could mobilize forces in southern Kenya to monitor routes and disrupt egg-laying sites.
• Ernst noted that the highlands, trade winds, and cooler temperatures would limit the locusts’ spread into East Africa’s main agricultural regions.
• Ernst ordered food distribution preparations for Somalia and instructed his people to coordinate with Zanzibar merchants to seize grain markets if the plague spread to the Middle East.

Desert locusts from the Wasangali Sultanate threatened northern East Africa, prompting a coordinated campaign that largely protected the Northern Pastures. Ernst called for East Africa to expand its South African pastures to reduce the risk of future livestock losses.

• Locusts bred after rare rains in the Somali Desert and spread from the Wasangali Sultanate toward East Africa and across the Red Sea.
• The Northern Province Pest Control Center ordered inspections and organized efforts to destroy locusts and their egg-laying grounds.
• East African workers culled locusts along the Shebelle and Juba River basins, reducing their numbers before they reached the Northern Pastures.
• The locusts caused heavy banana losses but were mostly stopped at the southern Kenyan plateau, preserving East Africa's main livestock source.
• Ernst urged the government to open new pastures in the former Republic of the Transvaal and replenish South African ranches with livestock from the Northern Pastures.

Nairobi factory workers discussed the locust threat, their lives in East Africa, and their plans, while director Claisen considered increasing their workload. The chapter described Nairobi’s prospects and East Africa’s agricultural heartlands, emphasizing the railways needed to connect the Great Lakes Region to Mombasa.

• Nairobi residents learned the locust plague had been intercepted and discussed the damage elsewhere and their lives in East Africa.
• Stephen, Chris, and Odebiou Meng argued about their national origins, past hardships, and family lives before discussing a football match.
• Director Claisen watched the lively workers at Nairobi Cotton Textile Factory No. 1 and proposed giving them a heavier workload.
• The chapter compared Nairobi’s future with its development in Ernst’s previous life and noted that Mombasa and the Central Railway would limit its prospects.
• The chapter outlined the agricultural and mineral potential of the Great Lakes Region, Zambia, southern Congo, and Tanzania, and stressed the importance of railway connections to seaports.

East Africa reorganized its administrative divisions in 1874 to address population growth, inefficient provincial boundaries, and military-controlled districts. Ernst’s new map merged and renamed provinces across the kingdom, while the story left western boundaries open to future expansion.

• Officials reported that immigration and farming had grown rapidly in the Zambezi and southern Congo regions, while scattered inland populations strained administrative systems.
• The government identified overcrowded northern provincial divisions, chaotic military districts south of the Zambezi, and weak, unevenly developed eastern provinces.
• Ernst approved a reorganization that retained twenty-six provinces while merging or abolishing many existing units and creating new provinces across East Africa.
• The reorganization created new provinces in the Congo basin, Zambia, and southern territories, and designated nature reserves in the Serengeti and south of Pretoria.
• East Africa incorporated Pemba, Mafia, and Zanzibar into Central Province and elevated the Comoros to a municipal-level naval base.
• The government shaped provinces in South Africa to guard against Cape Colony and left western administration flexible because East Africa expected its borders to change.

Ernst planned East Africa’s provinces and railway around their mineral resources, while the economic crisis and competing powers’ colonial moves pushed his kingdom to consider further expansion. The chapter left East Africa poised to strengthen its position in Africa and explore opportunities in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

• Ernst divided Zambia, the southern Congolese plateau, and Zimbabwe into provinces arranged around the Central Railway and their resources.
• Ernst deferred the Kariba Reservoir project until East Africa had the capability and conditions to build it, and prioritized developing coal in Southern Frontier Province.
• Italy expanded its control southeast of the Abyssinian Empire, while Leopold II secured sovereignty over territory west of the Ubangi River.
• East Africa recruited German-descendant workers and farmers from the United States, and more than two hundred thousand arrived in the first three months of 1874.
• Japan attacked Dawan Island but was repelled after Fujian intervened; the East African consulate guard company in the Zhuhai Trade Zone suffered casualties.
• Ernst planned to consolidate East Africa’s African gains and pursue opportunities in the Indian and Pacific Oceans as its navy developed.

Ernst addressed East Africa’s rapid population growth by tightening immigration screening and ending most childbirth subsidies from 1875. The chapter left the government preparing to notify households as East Africa shifted its focus from population quantity to quality.

• In 1874, East Africa raised immigration requirements and tightened health screenings, filtering out many prospective immigrants.
• Ernst concluded that rapid population growth and government support for newborns had become an unsustainable burden.
• At the population conference, officials debated limiting childbirth support and immigration, citing high fertility, incoming migrants, and concerns about national identity.
• Ernst ordered officials to inform every household that subsidies for newborns born from 1875 onward would end, while pregnancies already underway had to be registered.
• East Africa’s population policy changed, marking a shift from seeking population growth toward improving population quality.