Recaps

The chapter explained how state-funded childbirth, rapid immigration, and high fertility were driving East Africa’s population toward at least thirty million by 1880. It left East Africa continuing to attract and screen immigrants while seeking to manage the costs and political effects of its population boom.

• East Africa’s first large-scale civilian immigrant wave arrived in 1865, and Ernst’s policies encouraged high fertility by having the state bear much of the cost of childbearing.
• East Africa received around 250,000 immigrants monthly, with the government’s immigration network recruiting people across Europe, East Asia, and South America.
• East Africa attracted immigrants by waiving ship fares and using returning settlers to demonstrate conditions, while its immigration office also spread reports about hardships in the United States.
• East Africa expanded schooling and provided school lunches, further reducing families’ child-rearing costs.
• East Africa screened immigrants, especially restricting German immigrants from the United States to limit liberal political influence, while continuing to welcome women from many regions.
• The chapter estimated East Africa’s population would reach at least thirty million by 1880 and might exceed forty million.

In 1875, East Africa’s major infrastructure projects neared completion, leaving the Central Railway as the last major undertaking. Ernst planned to use the railway network to move settlers inland and proposed new lines and a port to connect the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone with the coast and western provinces.

• The Dar es Salaam-to-Mbeya section of the Central Railway was completed, while the Northern Railway and Central Canal were finished and the Little Rhine River renovation neared completion.
• Ernst told Constantin to slow railway construction and use the existing lines to move immigrants and eastern residents into South Salzburg Province.
• Ernst proposed a Southern Railway from a new Soko Port to Songea to improve transport for New Württemberg Province and the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone.
• Ernst planned a branch line from Dodoma through Mbeya to Bujumbura, extending East Africa’s railway network across the region’s great lakes.

Zuo Jiga sought a loan from Hechingen Bank to fund a campaign against separatist forces in the Far East Empire’s northwest. Mayweather offered financing and military supplies in exchange for procurement contracts and collateral, leaving the loan’s final terms unsettled.

• Mayweather met Zuo Jiga in Kaifeng after Qiao Zhiyong and Hu Xueyan brought him to discuss raising military funds.
• Zuo Jiga asked whether Hechingen Bank could lend five million taels, and Mayweather said it could lend as much as twenty million taels in East African Rheinland Shields.
• Mayweather agreed to a proposed five-percent interest rate, then required Hechingen Bank to handle military-ration procurement and take a share of the arms business.
• Mayweather offered to arrange grain, weapons, and European military instructors, while Qiao Zhiyong said the merchants could transport supplies from Henan toward the northwest.
• Mayweather said the loan would require collateral, and Zuo Jiga asked whether the bank had any other conditions.

In June 1875, East Africa held a large military exercise in Mikumi, pitting the East African Guards Division against the Southern Military Region under deliberately unequal conditions. Ernst inspected the exercise and warned commanders that European powers would eventually target Africa, leaving East Africa to prepare for a global conflict.

• The Blue Army Third Combat Squad was ruled to have suffered forty percent casualties after a Red Army grenade attack, and its soldiers argued over the ruling and their tactical mistakes.
• A Red Army squad leader criticized his unit for failing to post sentries while advancing through the jungle.
• Leinard and Corioli argued in the exercise command center over the Red Army's superior equipment and the exercise's unequal conditions.
• Svit explained that the exercise was intended to expose weaknesses in East Africa's readiness to fight European powers, and Ernst arrived to review the situation.
• Ernst said the Red Army represented East Africa's actual military level and warned that European powers would bring conflict to Africa amid the economic crisis.

In July 1875, Ernst directed the East African Navy’s voyage to the Far East toward establishing influence in Nanyang, with the Lanfang Republic as its intended foothold. He left the navy preparing to press Lanfang for trade and investment rights, laying the groundwork for future control.

• Ernst returned by train after inspecting East Africa’s military exercise.
• Archduke Ferdinand announced that the fleet would sail through the Strait of Malacca to visit Far Eastern countries.
• Ernst told Archduke Ferdinand to make the Lanfang Republic a priority and have the navy request expanded East African influence there.
• Ernst explained that Lanfang’s independent status and Chinese-led population made it a valuable strategic foothold that could avoid immediate conflict with other European powers.
• Ernst outlined a plan to use economic penetration, then seek the right to station troops and promote German influence in Lanfang.

On July 23, 1875, Archduke Ferdinand led an East African fleet to the Lanfang Republic and forced its Chief Executive, Liu Asheng, to sign a trade agreement. East Africa planned to expand its influence through trade, recruitment, immigration, and investment before eventually absorbing the fractured republic.

• Archduke Ferdinand arrived at Sanyangkou with seven East African warships and learned that Lanfang was more developed than other parts of the Nanyang region.
• After a language barrier delayed talks, Ferdinand used interpreters to tell the local leader that East Africa wanted to negotiate with Lanfang’s ruler.
• Ferdinand sailed to Dongweng, where Liu Asheng’s government offered no resistance to the East African troops.
• Ferdinand presented East Africa’s demands, and Liu Asheng signed the trade agreement under armed threat.
• East Africa planned to build local allies and expand its economic and military presence before taking control of Lanfang.

Archduke Ferdinand’s fleet left men in the Lanfang Republic, claimed Balabac Island for East Africa, and continued north to the Far East Empire. He arrived at Zhuhai and reflected on the country’s potential and unfamiliar customs.

• The Hohenzollern Conglomerate left more than three hundred armed men in the Lanfang Republic, where they met the Zanzibar Chamber of Commerce in Pontianak.
• Archduke Ferdinand claimed Balabac Island for the Kingdom of East Africa by planting its flag and ordered a small fort built.
• Archduke Ferdinand left twenty to thirty soldiers and supplies on Balabac Island, warning them to conserve ammunition and explore the rainforest cautiously.
• After eight days, Archduke Ferdinand’s fleet reached Zhuhai in the Far East Empire.
• Archduke Ferdinand praised the Far East Empire’s agriculture and potential, while remarking on its unfamiliar hairstyles and the condition of its people.

After completing their diplomatic visit in East Asia, Archduke Ferdinand and the East African Fleet traveled to the Alaska Royal Territory, where he inspected its settlements, defenses, and economy. He recommended connecting Alaska to Far Eastern telegraph lines and integrating its navy more closely with East Africa, recognizing its strategic importance in the Pacific.

• The East African Navy completed its diplomatic mission in East Asia and sailed to Alaska at Archduke Ferdinand’s suggestion.
• Archduke Ferdinand revisited Alaska, where he had once been taken after being abducted, and inspected the territory’s population, farms, fishing industry, and defenses.
• The Alaska Royal Guard guarded the territory’s coastal waters and turned away foreign expeditions, while Alaska’s rugged interior and Russian-controlled southern strip made land invasion difficult.
• Archduke Ferdinand recommended building telegraph connections between Alaska’s settlements and the Far East to improve communication and military administration.
• Archduke Ferdinand proposed merging the Alaska Royal Territory’s navy with East Africa’s navy and regarded Alaska as a strategically valuable East Pacific territory.

At a government work conference, East African leaders planned to use agricultural cooperatives, railway expansion, and development projects to strengthen the interior and respond to rising foreign tariffs. Ernst set goals for recruiting labor, developing mines, and increasing steel production, leaving East Africa focused on rapid expansion.

• The Minister of Agriculture announced plans to build more than 1,500 agricultural cooperatives along the railway in the Zimbabwe region.
• Officials described how government-led cooperatives and the East African Agricultural Corporation would guide farming, manage supplies, and coordinate grain exports.
• A speaker recommended expanding tobacco fields to offset Germany’s new tobacco monopoly and preserve East African tobacco’s competitiveness in the German market.
• Ernst said East Africa would rely on mainland grain, recruit more inland slaves, build infrastructure, and develop mines along the Zimbabwe railway.
• Ernst called for exploiting interior iron ore and coal and expanding steel production to at least one million tons by 1880.

Ernst and Constantin responded to worsening German pressure on the Hohenzollern Conglomerate by shifting investments to other markets and preparing to move food processing to East Africa. Their withdrawal intensified Germany’s economic crisis, while the conglomerate strengthened ties with southern German states and reduced its dependence on Prussian Junker businesses.

• East African officials described how railway construction had boosted inland development and narrowed the gap between the kingdom’s eastern and western regions.
• A subordinate reported that the German government was targeting Hechingen enterprises and considering higher tariffs on East African agricultural goods.
• Ernst told Constantin that the Hohenzollern name could not protect their interests and recommended moving German investments to Austria-Hungary, the Far East, and Argentina.
• Hechingen Bank redirected funds abroad, and East Africa prepared to replace German steel purchases with steel from Austria-Hungary.
• The Hohenzollern Conglomerate’s capital flight contributed to renewed panic and rising unemployment in Germany, prompting Wilhelm I to question Bismarck about the economy.
• Ernst strengthened cooperation with Baden, Württemberg, and Bavaria and prepared to relocate food-processing enterprises from Germany to East Africa.

In 1877, Ernst and Karina welcomed their first son at the Sveti Royal Palace, and the family named him Friedrich. Ernst also revealed plans to found a nation in East Africa in 1880, while the kingdom celebrated the prince’s birth.

• The Hohenzollern Conglomerate overtook Jewish capital in the Austro-Hungarian Empire by buying up assets during the economic crisis and gaining the favor of the Habsburgs and other nobles.
• Ernst held his newborn son and congratulated Karina, while Constantin and Ferdinand argued that the boy should be regarded as heir to the Hohenzollern family rather than as an African chief.
• Ernst said East Africa had kept itself isolated while it developed but could no longer remain hidden, and he planned to found the nation in 1880.
• Constantin chose the name Friedrich for the prince, hoping he would raise the House of Hohenzollern to new heights.
• East Africa celebrated Friedrich’s birth with seven days off, and Ernst ordered an Austro-Hungarian ironclad warship named after him.

In April 1876, Bismarck resisted Junker calls for Germany to seize colonies, arguing that overseas expansion would endanger Germany and its finances. With support from King Wilhelm I and Southern German delegates, he suppressed the radicals but agreed to let private German groups pursue colonial ventures, leaving Germany on the path to overseas expansion.

• A Prussian delegate blamed Germany’s economic crisis on its lack of colonies and demanded that Germany acquire them.
• Bismarck warned that reckless colonial ambitions could damage Germany’s international standing and argued that its weak navy and limited resources made overseas expansion risky.
• Junker nobles backed the colonial demand after Berlin Agricultural Company’s bankruptcy failed to give them control of grain sales, while the Hohenzollern Conglomerate shifted its business to Munich Agricultural Company.
• Bavarian and other Southern German delegates supported Bismarck’s position and opposed policies that might drag Germany into war.
• With King Wilhelm I and parliamentary support, Bismarck defeated the Junkers’ push for government-led expansion but allowed private German forces to pursue colonial ventures.

After German parliamentary discussions revealed colonial ambitions, Ernst decided East Africa should secure the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s protection. Archduke Ferdinand sought Franz’s support, arguing over East Africa’s population and the empire’s ethnic divisions, but the negotiations remained unresolved.

• Tom paid Representative Klein for information and sent an account of the German parliamentary session to East Africa.
• Ernst told Constantin and Ferdinand that East Africa should choose the Austro-Hungarian Empire as an ally and use its name to avert trouble.
• Ferdinand traveled to Austria in May and proposed an alliance between the Kingdom of Hechingen and the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Franz.
• Ferdinand explained East Africa’s population figures and assimilation policy as Franz questioned whether the kingdom could hold together.
• Ferdinand contrasted East Africa’s integration of immigrants with the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s growing ethnic and nationalist divisions.

Archduke Ferdinand persuaded Franz that East Africa could be a valuable naval and political partner for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Franz acknowledged Ernst’s past support but postponed deciding whether to form an alliance.

• Franz initially rejected the idea of the Austro-Hungarian Empire protecting East Africa, but Ferdinand argued that their navies could jointly pressure the Suez Canal.
• Ferdinand explained that East Africa’s growing ironclad fleet could match the Austro-Hungarian Navy in cooperation, though its sailors and officers lacked experience.
• Franz confided that he had given up on European hegemony and did not know how to steer the declining Empire, and Ferdinand reassured him.
• Ferdinand said East Africa had been drawing Slavic migrants from Slovenia, Croatia, and the Czech regions to reduce separatist pressures within the Empire.
• Ferdinand credited Ernst with helping the Empire through the Italo-Austrian War and economic crisis, then said East Africa preferred Austria-Hungary over powerful Germany as a partner.
• Franz ordered Ferdinand to finish his tea and leave, but told him to wait for his decision on the alliance.

Franz and his advisers debated whether Austria should cooperate with East Africa, weighing economic benefits against the risk of being drawn into conflicts in Africa. In June 1876, Austria independently signed a quasi-alliance with East Africa, leaving Hungary dissatisfied but reassured that the treaty did not represent the Empire as a whole.

• Franz summoned his advisers and asked whether an alliance with East Africa would damage Austria’s reputation or provoke other European powers.
• The Prime Minister warned that East Africa might be seeking protection from Britain, France, Portugal, or other foreign threats, while the Finance Minister argued that cooperation would benefit Austria’s economy.
• The Finance Minister proposed that Austria form a limited alliance with East Africa independently, without committing the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a whole.
• Franz approved the plan, and the Prime Minister agreed that Austria could negotiate on its own behalf.
• In June 1876, the Austrian government signed a Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance with East Africa, making the two countries quasi-allies.
• Hungary objected to not being consulted, but the Austrian Prime Minister assured the Hungarian Prime Minister that the treaty applied only to Austria and did not represent the Empire.

European governments reacted to East Africa’s alliance with Austria, with Britain viewing it as a possible threat to its African ambitions while Germany and France saw little cause for alarm. Britain began planning to court the Orange Free State and gather intelligence on East Africa, while Russia and Portugal showed little response.

• Ferdinand complained that the negotiations had let Austria off too easily, but Ernst said Austria’s name alone could deter ordinary nations.
• Benjamin and his Foreign Minister interpreted Austria’s treaty with East Africa as a sign of Austrian designs in Africa and discussed Britain’s colonial priorities.
• Benjamin learned that five British exploration teams had been expelled from East Africa and another had disappeared, then ordered efforts to bring the Orange Free State into Cape Town and gather intelligence on East Africa.
• King Wilhelm I questioned Austria’s interest in Africa, while Bismarck defended East Africa’s choice of Austria as a nearby, suitable protector.
• France accepted East Africa’s alliance with Austria as potentially useful against Britain, while Russia dismissed East Africa as unimportant and Portugal offered no response.

British investigator Wilke and sailor Enlai surveyed New Hamburg Port and discussed East Africa’s rapid growth, population, and military potential. Wilke dismissed the threat because many East Africans were of East Asian descent, while East Africa had already worked to prevent Britain from isolating it through a trade embargo.

• Wilke and Enlai observed New Hamburg Port’s defenses and compared its expanding facilities with Port Durban.
• Enlai explained that East African investment, railway construction, and Zulu labor had transformed the harbor and its surrounding wetlands.
• Enlai estimated that East Africa’s coastal cities held a large population, but Wilke was reassured by the presence of many East Asians and voiced confidence in Britain’s colonial power.
• The narration noted that Chinese immigrants formed a significant part of East Africa’s army, though Wilke had not investigated their role in its wars.
• Ernst had sent Archduke Ferdinand to Austria to secure Austro-Hungarian support and reduce the risk of a British trade embargo isolating East Africa.

British investigations revealed East Africa’s growing prosperity and territorial reach, prompting Benjamin to consider containing it after resolving Indian affairs. Ernst then planned East African expansion into Southwest Africa, aiming to secure key coastal and river locations while avoiding large-scale occupation.

• British investigators reported on East Africa’s prosperous ports, expanding territory, and lack of a presence on the West Coast.
• Benjamin said Britain would put East Africa on its agenda after dealing with Indian affairs, while the Finance Minister urged caution because of European support for the kingdom.
• Ernst told military personnel that East Africa needed an Atlantic foothold and proposed targeting the Skeleton Coast.
• Ernst identified three areas for East African control: the Portuguese border, the Orange River mouth, and Walvis Bay.
• Ernst planned to advance overland along the Orange River and establish coastal strongholds by sea.

In March 1877, Captain Chris and East African sailors explored Walvis Bay and the nearby Swakop River region, finding water and deciding to establish strongholds at both locations. East Africa later built a fortress at Walvis Bay before the Cape Colony could claim it, frustrating the British officials who arrived to occupy the bay.

• Captain Chris sent the sailors into the desert around Walvis Bay to search for drinking water and nearby rivers.
• The explorers found an oasis and the Swakop River north of the bay, while the sailors discovered groundwater by digging a well at Walvis Bay.
• Chris decided to establish strongholds at both Walvis Bay and the Swakop River mouth.
• Two months later, Letania Province made contact with the sailors, and East Africa began developing both sites.
• The Cape Colony discovered the East African strongholds, and British officials who came to occupy Walvis Bay returned to Cape Town without taking it.

East Africa expanded its control over the Congo Basin and pressed its railway toward Angola while considering Namibia’s strategic value. In May 1877, the Orange Free State voted to dissolve and join the Cape Colony, leaving southern South Africa divided between British and East African power.

• East Africa established the Ubangi River inland force to patrol the Congo and Ubangi rivers and advanced its Central Railway toward Angola.
• The Orange Free State voted 1,308 to 230, with 415 abstentions, to dissolve and join the Cape Colony.
• President Brandt dissolved the Orange Free State, fearing that resisting the merger would provoke civil war.
• British envoy Leint welcomed the Boers and promised shared diamond revenues, debt relief, and equal rights under British rule.
• Transvaal immigrants and anti-East African sentiment helped Britain draw the Orange Free State into its sphere of influence.

At a national defense conference, East African leaders reviewed growing colonial threats and the country’s vulnerability to foreign incursions. After Dutch colonists were caught near Jason Bay, Ernst ordered stronger coastal surveillance and defenses.

• Yalman reported recent incursions and suspicious movements by Dutch, French, British, and Portuguese groups, as well as the Cape Colony’s annexation of the Orange Free State.
• East African farmers spotted about a hundred Dutch colonists who had landed at Jason Bay and moved inland seeking slaves and a foothold.
• The Nawadu Town Police Department and local militiamen surrounded the Dutch group and discovered that they belonged to a private colonial company, not the Dutch government.
• Ernst ordered East Africa to inspect and register its bays, develop suitable harbors, install military facilities at other vulnerable sites, and make naval patrols and coastal telegraph lines routine.

Ernst prepared East Africa for a possible war with Britain by strengthening its forces and defenses in southern Africa, while planning to keep any conflict limited and prolonged. He argued that East Africa should use a war to defend its territory and test its army, though peaceful development remained preferable.

• Ernst ordered East Africa to expand its southern African forces to around fifty thousand troops and build more than two hundred forts.
• Ernst instructed senior officers to stock military outposts with supplies, survey terrain, and maintain communication between units.
• Ernst explained that Cape Town might threaten East Africa because of its strategic interests, even if Britain itself hesitated to fight.
• Ernst said East Africa should stabilize the front and turn any conflict into a war of attrition rather than launch an overwhelming invasion.
• Ernst planned to use a possible war to test the East African Army and military industry, while insisting that East Africa preferred peace.

East Africa displayed its growing naval power in exercises off Mozambique, alarming Portugal's newly appointed Governor Leiford. Learning how little money and manpower Portugal could commit and how formidable East Africa had become, Leiford realized his governorship would be far more difficult than he expected.

• East Africa held large naval exercises near Mozambique and New Hamburg Port with twenty-five combat vessels, including five ironclads and five domestically built gunboats.
• Leiford watched the exercises and worried that Portugal's navy could not defeat East Africa's fleet.
• A subordinate explained that East Africa's navy and colonial expansion were backed by the Hohenzollern Conglomerate, while Portugal's colonial revenues were siphoned away and resistance hindered development.
• Leiford learned that East Africa had more than a million immigrants, including Germans and Far Easterners, and that it produced quinine and had few reported malaria outbreaks.
• Leiford understood that Portugal's homeland had sent him to Mozambique to extract colonial wealth despite East Africa's overwhelming regional advantages.

The British government assessed East Africa’s territory, naval strength, and possible ties to Germany and Austria-Hungary, while dismissing its land and economic potential. Benjamin concluded that East Africa might be independent of both German and Austrian control, leaving its true alignment uncertain.

• Leiford judged that Mozambique could neither raise revenue nor cut costs enough to fund local development.
• The governor of Natal dismissed East Africa’s naval exercises as insignificant, while East Africa used them to signal that colonization would be difficult.
• Benjamin’s investigation estimated East Africa’s territory at around seven million square kilometers, though officials argued that much of it was desert or otherwise difficult to develop.
• Benjamin and Maldos debated whether East Africa could develop Africa with its population and whether it was backed by Germany or Austria-Hungary.
• Benjamin noted East Africa’s treaty and trade ties to Austria-Hungary but concluded that it might be neither German nor Austrian property.

Benjamin and the British ministers debated how to contain East Africa, which they viewed as a growing threat but knew little about. They decided to use Portugal and French support to test East Africa before Britain risked direct action.

• Benjamin warned that East Africa’s size and German ties threatened Britain’s position and urged the ministers to stop its expansion.
• The Finance Minister argued that East Africa’s land might not make it powerful, while stressing that Russia posed a more immediate danger to British interests.
• The Foreign Minister questioned why the Hechingen Royal Family kept East Africa closed to foreign trade and diplomacy.
• Benjamin proposed forcing East Africa open if necessary, but rejected declaring war without knowing the strength of its army.
• Benjamin proposed that Portugal test East Africa, with Britain and France supporting and arming Portugal’s colonies.