Recaps

Ernst traveled from Marseille to Paris to reconnect the Hechingen Royal Family with its old French allies and meet influential nobles. After three days of visits, the family’s French network had been reestablished, leaving it better positioned to exchange support and information.

• Ernst praised the Marseille branch’s work, rewarded strong employees, addressed shortcomings, and departed for Paris via Lyon.
• On October 18, 1868, Ernst arrived in Paris and visited Count Jacob Medina, an old comrade of his grandfather, and Baron Jaime Medina.
• Ernst told Count Jacob Medina that he had come at his father’s instruction to visit old friends, and the count asked him to convey greetings to Constantin.
• Ernst spent three days visiting the Hechingen Royal Family’s former French partners, many of whom had died, and renewed ties with those who remained.
• Ernst also visited nobles from different factions, including the Bonaparte family, to rebuild connections and improve the family’s access to information.

Giovanni persuaded Mikhail to accept a bottle of Romantic Paris wine and promoted its supposed history, quality, and prestige while negotiating a labor deal. Mikhail believed the pitch and considered buying the wine, unaware that Romantic Paris and Wrangler vodka were both Hohenzollern Conglomerate brands built on fabricated stories and clever marketing.

• Mikhail bargained with Giovanni over payment for fifty-seven workers, and Giovanni offered a bottle of Romantic Paris wine and two bottles of Wrangler vodka while keeping their agreed price.
• Mikhail tasted the wine and said he preferred the stronger Wrangler vodka, so Giovanni described Romantic Paris as a prestigious wine with an ancient origin and a European gold medal.
• Giovanni claimed the wine was sold in Moscow and cost six rubles for a mid-range bottle, with pricier and rare editions also available.
• Mikhail believed Giovanni's claims and decided he might buy Romantic Paris for himself, though he still considered Wrangler sufficient for guests.
• The narration revealed that Romantic Paris's history and award were fabricated, its production was based in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Wrangler vodka was also a Hohenzollern Conglomerate product marketed to Russians.

Mikhail and Giovanni arranged the transport of bankrupt peasants from Tsarist Russia to East Africa, where the Hohenzollern Conglomerate sought cheap labor. In Saint Petersburg, Giovanni taught Maxim how to recruit more people from the countryside through local nobles and landlords.

• Mikhail sent Giovanni away with peasants impoverished by Russia’s land system, debt, and taxes.
• The Hohenzollern Conglomerate bought Russian laborers in planned batches, paying more for men than women and limiting the number brought to East Africa.
• Giovanni brought his recruits to Saint Petersburg and Maxim asked how he had found so many people.
• Giovanni demanded three meals in exchange for his advice, and Maxim reluctantly agreed.
• Giovanni told Maxim to build ties with rural nobles and landlords, who could direct indebted villagers and surplus sons toward recruitment.

The Tsarist Russian immigrants sailed from Saint Petersburg toward East Africa while instructor Akhtman ordered them to abandon their Russian identity, language, and Orthodox faith. The immigrants accepted the demands, leaving their future in the colony uncertain but prepared to adapt.

• Maxim agreed to share a meal with his companion after they finished their work at the docks.
• The ship carrying the Tsarist Russian immigrants departed Saint Petersburg with immigration instructors aboard.
• Akhtman told the immigrants to forget Russia and adopt the colony’s identity, warning that they would not receive fair treatment otherwise.
• Akhtman praised Alexander II and argued that the immigrants had been treated as property in Russia, then demanded they abandon Russian customs and the Orthodox Church.
• The immigrants did not resist Akhtman; most accepted that they would have to change, including those who had private reservations about religion.

East African immigrants burned grasslands and killed local wildlife to clear settlements and reduce the threat of animal diseases and parasites. The chapter ended with the carcasses burned and the scorched plains awaiting the rainy season, when East African livestock would graze there instead.

• East African colonists set fires across Northern Kenya and shot animals to clear land for settlement and farming.
• Ernst regarded the destruction of wildlife as necessary to disrupt disease and parasite habitats before introducing livestock.
• Andre warned Porter Yang against eating wild game, citing the risks of tropical diseases and parasites.
• By evening, the immigrants doused collected animal carcasses with fuel oil and burned them.
• The grasslands lay blackened, awaiting new grass and livestock after the rainy season.

Technicians demonstrated East Africa’s first wind-powered gristmill in Karatu, showing residents how it ground wheat into flour and explaining the uses of windmills. The colony planned to expand windmill construction to reduce reliance on scarce labor and costly steam engines.

• Technicians started the windmill gristmill in Karatu and announced that it was ready to operate.
• A technician and two residents fed wheat into the mill, and the wind-driven millstones ground it into crude flour.
• A Bavarian immigrant described windmill flour-making, while a Dutch technician explained how windmills had powered industries and reclaimed land in the Netherlands.
• The chapter explained that East Africa’s villages had relied on hand-powered mills and native labor, and that windmills could free workers for other projects.
• The colony favored locally supplied windmills over expensive steam engines, while American windmills were described as using more metal parts.

Professor Anton Perutz arrived in East Africa and encountered its widespread use of Prussian military uniforms, while the colony kept its ports open to foreign shipping and guarded its inland regions from outside scrutiny. The chapter left East Africa maintaining its isolation as it expanded, with foreign traders confined to border markets and the ports of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.

• First Town annexed neighboring Second Town as the colonial capital and Central District grew.
• Second Town residents saw new arrivals and recognized that they were unlike the immigrants who had first settled there.
• Professor Anton Perutz arrived in Dar es Salaam and later encountered East Africa’s uniformed residents inland.
• Ernst kept Dar es Salaam and Mombasa open to international shipping while reserving other ports for the Hohenzollern Conglomerate.
• Arab merchants and slave traders waited at border markets as East Africa’s terrain and indigenous tribes limited access to its interior.

Professor Anton Perutz oversaw the construction of an agricultural research base in Second Town and began teaching trainees about East Africa’s soil and agricultural potential. He left them with a theory that tropical rainfall carried away soil nutrients, which future experiments would need to test.

• Professor Anton Perutz inspected the rapidly growing experimental base built with Second Town’s land and labor.
• Professor Anton Perutz’s team established fields, water systems, laboratories, dormitories, and gardens across the site beside the Little Rhine River.
• Professor Anton Perutz taught trainees that East Africa’s agricultural potential was limited chiefly by soil fertility.
• Professor Anton Perutz theorized that water carried nutrients away from tropical soil and said experiments were needed to verify his explanation.

Ernst began reforming Hechingen Military Academy to turn it from a crash-course school into a professional military institution for East Africa. He planned to retain qualified students, strengthen the curriculum and teaching staff, and build proper training grounds.

• Professor Anton Perutz's team was assigned to pursue scientific research while also finding ways to improve East African crops and agricultural yields.
• Ernst decided to restore Hechingen Military Academy's three-year program, revise its textbooks, recruit experienced instructors, and establish specialized training grounds.
• Ernst prepared an examination to remove students who were too young or unqualified, sending younger failures back to Hechingen Cultural School and older ones to East Africa for work.
• Ernst planned to recruit instructors from smaller German states and have his father set aside land in western Hechingen for military drills and live-fire training.

On November 11, 1868, Prince Constantin and Ernst presided over a public review of Hechingen Military Academy’s first high-quality cadet class. The impressive parade marked the start of the academy’s shift toward better education and training, while its real capabilities remained unproven.

• Hechingen Military Academy’s instructors warned the cadets to avoid mistakes during the public review, and the students assembled in Hechingen army uniforms.
• Prince Constantin welcomed the guests and spoke about Hechingen’s history, while Ernst announced that the academy would prioritize quality over rapid expansion.
• The military band played the Prussian anthem and the academy’s school anthem as eleven formations marched past the review stand in goose-step with Dreyse rifles.
• The Prussian Military Commander praised the cadets’ appearance and training in public but later reported that they lacked experience and could not match the Kingdom’s army.
• Ernst regarded the review as only the beginning of the academy’s reforms, with the cadets’ abilities to be tested in two years.

Sangabu Village’s fishermen worked to exceed their monthly fishing quota on the Great Lakes, despite a storm delaying their return to Mwanza. After unloading and recording their catch, they sailed back to the village.

• Village chief Lelas urged Sangabu Village’s fishermen to catch enough fish to earn extra rest days at the end of the month.
• Lelas led the fishing fleet onto the Great Lakes, where the fishermen herded fish into their nets and hauled in a large catch.
• When dark clouds and strong winds gathered, Lelas kept the boats in formation as the villagers continued fishing and filled their cabins.
• Lelas called off fishing and led the fleet toward Mwanza through torrential rain, reaching land after a journey twice as long as usual.
• A Mwanza worker recorded Sangabu Village’s catch, and Lelas checked the figures and signed the form before the fishermen returned to their village.

The chapter reviewed East Africa’s growth in 1868, including its rising immigrant population, slave-based economy, expanding agriculture, and emerging industries. East Africa gained territory in the Mitumba Mountains and prepared to expand into the Congo and Zambia regions, while Ernst’s focus remained on building the colony’s population and military.

• East Africa’s population reached 1.75 million as stable conditions and immigration policies helped newly formed families drive a baby boom, while the native population exceeded 1.3 million.
• East Africa used enslaved labor to expand infrastructure and cultivation, dividing grain among immigrant rations, slave rations, and overseas sales.
• The colony brought roughly 200,000 square kilometers in the Mitumba Mountains under its control after expelling local natives and defeating or driving away the Eight Northwestern Kingdoms.
• East Africa established basic handicraft industries and several modern factories, but relied on imported machinery and European technicians because its industrial chain and skilled workforce remained limited.
• Ernst planned for East Africa to occupy the Katanga Plateau and eastern Zambia the following year, while prioritizing population and military strength to protect the colony’s growth.

The chapter described Mwanza Aquatic Products Processing Plant’s labor-intensive production of salted dried fish and its role in supplying protein to East African immigrants. It left East Africa relying on local fisheries alongside livestock and household poultry to meet its meat needs.

• Workers at Mwanza Aquatic Products Processing Plant processed fresh fish by hand, salting and sun-drying it for preservation.
• The plant employed more than five hundred workers and supplied dried fish to East Africa’s interior and arid regions.
• East African immigrants relied on fish for protein because wildlife had been culled, livestock numbers remained low, and soybeans could not replace meat.
• The East African government promoted guinea fowl for their disease resistance and their ability to warn of fires.
• Immigrants mainly raised poultry and tended vegetable gardens through household labor, while regional aquatic plants supplied fish across East Africa.

The chapter explained how East Africa developed the Lascampore Trade Market into a prosperous trading hub and concentrated its tariffs there while avoiding taxes on vulnerable coastal ports. The market connected East African goods with North African merchants, and the account ended by describing North Africa’s demand for imported grain.

• The Lascampore Trade Market grew beside Lascampore Village, attracting Arab merchants and helping the village prosper.
• East Africa’s market expanded into a major source of tax revenue after the colony severed older southern trade routes and sealed its borders.
• The East African Colonial Government avoided significant coastal taxes because maritime powers threatened the colony’s shipping and immigration lifelines.
• East Africa concentrated tariffs at Lascampore, where it could safely tax overland trade with North African merchants.
• The chapter described how poor agricultural output and differing diets left North Africa dependent on imported grain, giving East African merchants a new market.

Fischer, an unemployed construction worker in Stuttgart, considered joining the Hohenzollern Conglomerate’s recruitment drive to East Africa so he could support his family. By December, he and Anna and their children had arrived in the colony, where Fischer was assigned to Dar es Salaam.

• The Stuttgart Evening News published an advertisement seeking experienced construction workers for jobs overseas, offering housing, children’s education, eight-hour workdays, and monthly wages.
• Fischer, dismissed because his employer considered him too old, discussed emigrating to East Africa with Anna because he could not find work to support their family.
• Anna agreed to support Fischer’s decision after he explained that local factory jobs were harsh and unlikely to provide enough for their family.
• In December, the Fischer family arrived in East Africa aboard a ship arranged for family immigrants, and Fischer was assigned to Dar es Salaam.
• Ernst’s plans for East Africa called for eliminating the native population and erasing evidence of colonial crimes and remnants of native civilization.

Ernst ordered East Africa’s Arab architectural heritage demolished and replaced with Germanic-style buildings, hoping to erase historical traces that might later support foreign claims to the region. Fischer directed demolition work in Dar es Salaam after leaving Germany for East Africa in search of work.

• Ernst decided to destroy evidence of Arab civilization in East Africa to forestall future territorial claims.
• Ernst arranged for buildings left by the Sultanate of Zanzibar to be demolished and replaced with Germanic-style architecture in Dar es Salaam, Mombasa, Buganda, and elsewhere.
• Fischer directed demolition operations in Dar es Salaam.
• Fischer had immigrated from Germany after losing his construction job and needing to support his family.

Layton taught German immigrants in a Dar es Salaam dining hall how to use chopsticks, which the halls supplied because they were cheap and easy to clean. The chapter explained how East African dining halls adopted chopsticks and left European immigrants free to use other utensils once they obtained them.

• Layton demonstrated how German immigrants should hold and use chopsticks to eat rice and vegetables.
• Layton explained that dining halls supplied chopsticks to save costs and that diners could not eat with their bare hands.
• The chapter described the history of European forks and the continued use of spoons among German rural commoners.
• Dining hall supervisors chose chopsticks for their low cost, ease of cleaning, and fit with East Africa's sanitation rules.
• The chapter noted that chopsticks were most common in coastal and rice-producing regions, while immigrants in wheat-growing areas were more likely to use their own utensils.

Fischer settled into a spacious house in Dar es Salaam and put his construction experience to work for the East African colony. He supervised the rebuilding of the port district into an inn and beer hall, insisting on proper materials and foundations.

• Leiden taught European immigrants how to use chopsticks before leaving them to eat at the cafeteria.
• Fischer recalled selling his home in Stuttgart, depositing the proceeds in the Hohenzollern Development Bank, and bringing his family’s few possessions to East Africa.
• Fischer’s family received a spacious former Zanzibar residence in Dar es Salaam, and he continued saving most of his wages.
• East Africa began rebuilding the dockside area to attract European and Arab sailors with an inn and beer hall in a European style.
• Fischer directed the construction workers and ordered them to improve the cement mix and deepen the inn’s foundation.

Fischer brought home imported food and sugar from Dar es Salaam’s Trade Street, and he and Anna looked forward to a more comfortable Christmas with their family. The chapter left them appreciating the security and choices Fischer’s well-paid work in East Africa provided.

• Fischer returned from Trade Street with a basket of goods and showed Anna imported Vienna sausages.
• Fischer explained that the family received rice as part of his wages but sometimes bought flour to vary their meals.
• Anna mistook the jar of white sugar for salt, and Fischer told her it had been imported from the Far East.
• Fischer reassured Anna that they could afford the sugar and wanted to give their children extra nourishment for Christmas.
• The chapter described how Fischer’s specialized work gave his family greater spending power than ordinary immigrants in East Africa.

By the end of 1868, East Africa had grown to more than 1.75 million immigrants and newborns, expanded its territory to about two million square kilometers, and opened vast areas for farming. The chapter leaves East Africa prosperous in agriculture but still industrially weak, reliant on imported tools, slave labor, and primitive transport.

• By November 1868, East Africa's population exceeded 1.75 million, while its indigenous population was estimated at 1.3 to 1.5 million and its slave population continued to decline.
• East Africa developed the Northwest Region and Northern Kenya with little resistance, bringing its territory to roughly two million square kilometers.
• East Africa opened about 20.4 million mu of farmland, expanding wheat and corn cultivation while continuing to grow rice, millet, sorghum, and cash crops.
• East Africa concentrated many water-demanding cash crops in the Great Lakes Region and coastal plains, while planting drought-tolerant crops such as cotton and sesame in drier areas.
• East Africa relied on imported iron tools and traditional workshops because it lacked a modern steel mill and could not efficiently transport heavy machinery and resources.
• East Africa's factories remained few and small, while its agriculture produced enough for local needs and exports through extensive land, slave labor, and improved farming methods.

Ernst assessed East Africa’s resource limits and planned its 1869 westward expansion toward the Katanga Plateau and coal-rich lands. With the colony nearing two million people, he reduced immigration’s priority and planned stricter, more balanced intake while preparing for the Franco-Prussian War and the opening of the Suez Canal.

• Ernst judged East Africa’s agriculture strong but its industrial resources limited, with little coal, iron, or petroleum nearby.
• Ernst chose the southwest for East Africa’s next expansion, targeting the Katanga Plateau’s copper-cobalt belt and coal deposits in Zambia and Zimbabwe while avoiding clashes with regional powers.
• Ernst set a 1869 immigration target of two million, expecting the colony’s population of over 1.75 million to reach it soon.
• Ernst planned to raise immigrant selection standards and balance origins, keeping Germans at least thirty percent while reducing intake from other regions as German immigration slowed.
• Ernst shifted attention from immigration toward the Franco-Prussian War, the Suez Canal’s opening, and the Hohenzollern Conglomerate’s industrial and shipping plans.

Ernst set East Africa’s 1869 agricultural priorities around settling border regions, protecting food security, introducing cash crops, and improving farming with livestock and water infrastructure. Further expansion of farmland depended on how many new immigrants arrived and reached their assigned settlements.

• Ernst prioritized reclaiming wasteland and settling immigrant farmers in East Africa’s border regions to strengthen security and isolate surrounding native populations.
• Ernst maintained a policy of growing diverse staple crops first while expanding cash-crop cultivation, and he tested whether Brazil restricted access to rubber seeds.
• East Africa introduced more than twenty tea varieties and had the East African Agricultural Research Institute study native plants.
• Ernst prioritized better tools, livestock breeding, and water conservancy over costly agricultural steam engines, while developing ox and horse power to reduce reliance on slaves.
• East Africa built tens of thousands of irrigation windmills in the second half of 1868, and the 1869 expansion of farmland depended on new immigrants reaching their destinations.

In Vienna, Ernst planned to establish a specialized food group backed by East African agricultural output and Austrian resources. He ordered the Hohenzollern Conglomerate to acquire a large, well-connected tract of land for factories, with further expansion planned in Trieste as the Suez Canal opened.

• Boon described a large, inexpensive tract near Vienna, and Ernst ordered him to negotiate its purchase and seek adjoining land.
• Ernst planned to separate food production from the daily necessities group as East Africa prepared to export more grain.
• Ernst chose Austria for the new food group’s headquarters to combine East African supplies with Austro-Hungarian agricultural resources and avoid stronger German competition.
• Ernst planned factories in Vienna during the first half of the year and in Trieste during the second half to connect European and East African supply routes.

Roald surveyed a river site with acting village chief Wasim and recommended it for a new settlement, explaining how an embankment and drainage could manage water and support agriculture. Wasim agreed the site looked suitable but said the small group lacked the people and time to build the embankment yet.

• Roald showed Wasim and the villagers how an embankment across the small river could conserve water and control its flow.
• Roald explained that the elevated site was unlikely to flood and that the greater concern was dry-season water supply.
• Wasim said the settlement’s little more than a hundred residents were too busy building homes and clearing land to begin the embankment.
• Roald urged Wasim to finalize and report the village site, expecting the East African government to send support.
• Roald’s background was revealed: he had come to East Africa to repay gambling debts, gained practical experience surveying settlements, and still planned to return to Europe after his contract ended.

Hornfeiss and Maria had built a contented household in Northern Kenya after Maria was sold into East Africa and married to him through the colony’s arranged-spouse lottery. The chapter ended with Maria joining Hornfeiss for breakfast before he went to work.

• Maria prepared breakfast while the chapter recounted how her father sold her to pay his gambling debts and how she was transferred from the Dutch East Indies to East Africa.
• Hornfeiss, a young Austrian immigrant, drew Maria in Mombasa’s spouse lottery, married her, and brought her to his home.
• Hornfeiss named Maria because she had no proper name, and she gradually learned enough German to speak with him.
• Maria finished her household chores and sat with Hornfeiss after he urged her to eat breakfast with him.