Recaps

Ernst strengthened East Africa’s army, navy, schools, railways, and industries while using the European financial crisis to acquire resources and workers. The arc ended with mass Shona flight from Zimbabwe, East Africa’s effort to capture laborers for railway construction, and the Hohenzollern Tobacco Company's expansion.

• The Cape Colony and East Africa signed a non-aggression agreement that set the Orange River as their boundary and transferred Griqualand to East Africa, while Ernst prepared a small armed delegation to unsettle Portuguese Mozambique.
• Ernst tightened Hechingen Bank’s lending and sold overseas assets, then reorganized East Africa’s army, ordered Mauser rifle production, and began planning a much larger navy and naval academy.
• Leopold II launched Belgium’s Congo Colony, while Ernst and Archduke Ferdinand planned ports, shipbuilding, and a naval education system for East Africa.
• Ernst expanded compulsory education and proposed field kitchens for soldiers as East Africa prepared to build railways and industrial projects with materials and skilled workers made available by Europe’s crisis.
• After the Vienna crash, Ernst ordered Hechingen businesses to cut prices and flood markets with grain, while Hechingen Bank lowered interest rates and prepared to benefit as competitors failed.
• Ernst planned Central and Northern Railways to connect East Africa’s ports, mines, and industrial centers, and Richard offered Li Hongzhang a complete Dreyse rifle production line.
• Shona communities fled East Africa’s forced-labor quotas across Zimbabwe, and East Africa intercepted about a hundred thousand people for railway work while considering how to prevent further flight into Mozambique.
• Hohenzollern Tobacco Company expanded cheap sales outlets and developed Golden Leaf cigarettes as a high-end brand while intensifying competition with rival tobacco companies.

Ernst married Karina in Vienna and East Africa, secured industrial and naval support in Europe, and returned to steer the kingdom through locust defenses, provincial reorganization, and a new population policy. The arc left East Africa expanding its reach while shifting from rapid population growth toward stricter immigration and birth support.

• Ernst sailed to Europe with a state delegation and guard battalion, inspected an ironclad with Archduke Ferdinand in Trieste, and arranged naval training and industrial support.
• As East Africa expanded its railways, factories, and recruitment, Professor Kurland and other experts arrived in Soga City and saw the housing and services provided to recruited specialists.
• Ernst and Constantin launched river-improvement and environmental measures while East Africa increased steel imports, recruited workers, and presented its products at the Vienna World Expo.
• Ernst married Karina in Vienna, where three thousand East African soldiers paraded and Hechingen Electric Company illuminated the city, before securing European business and steel orders.
• Ernst returned with Karina and Archduke Ferdinand, held a second wedding ceremony in First Town, and explained East Africa’s industrial plans and Ferdinand’s move there.
• Ernst organized locust defenses that protected East Africa’s main livestock region, then approved a provincial reorganization as immigration and development spread across the Zambezi and Congo regions.
• East Africa tightened immigration and health screening, and Ernst ended newborn subsidies for children born from 1875 onward while requiring pregnancies already underway to be registered.

Ernst expanded East Africa’s population, industry, military, and overseas influence while securing Austria’s friendship and establishing footholds along southern Africa’s Atlantic coast. Britain grew alarmed and began considering how Portugal might test East Africa’s strength.

• East Africa expanded immigration, schooling, railways, and agricultural settlement as Ernst pushed for industrial growth and a population of tens of millions.
• Mayweather negotiated a military loan for Zuo Jiga, while Ernst reviewed military exercises and warned that East Africa needed to prepare for conflict with European powers.
• Archduke Ferdinand secured a trade agreement with Lanfang, claimed Balabac Island, visited the Far East Empire, and inspected Alaska’s defenses and communications needs.
• Ernst redirected German investments abroad as Berlin faced economic turmoil, welcomed the birth of Friedrich, and planned to found East Africa as a nation in 1880.
• Ferdinand negotiated an alliance with Austria, and Austria signed a Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance with East Africa in June 1876.
• Ernst established East African positions at Walvis Bay and the Swakop River, while Britain brought the Orange Free State into the Cape Colony.
• After Dutch colonists landed at Jason Bay, Ernst ordered coastal surveys, forts, patrols, telegraphs, and a larger southern African force.
• Benjamin and British ministers assessed East Africa’s territory and military power, then proposed using Portugal to test it with British and French support.

Ernst prepared East Africa for war with Portugal while pursuing military, political, and territorial goals. East Africa defeated Portugal and gained territory, then received growing diplomatic attention while remaining unwilling to commit to a German alliance.

• Constantin opened East Africa’s new colleges, and Ernst arranged the establishment of the country’s first medical college in First Town while Li Ji accepted the challenge of testing Chinese medicine through evidence.
• Ernst planned to use a war with Portugal to strengthen East Africa’s standing, while East Africa organized a Black Legion and prepared to exploit British and French support for Mozambique.
• As Portuguese troops advanced toward Songo, East African forces defended the outpost and used the Black Legion in battle while regular divisions prepared attacks elsewhere.
• Ernst ordered forces to advance into northern Mozambique as East Africa’s regular army routed Portuguese troops in Angola and captured Luanda.
• Britain mediated the war, and Portugal ceded southern Angola and the land north of the Zambezi River in Mozambique to East Africa.
• European powers sent diplomats to East Africa, which divided its embassies among Dar es Salaam city, First Town, and Zanzibar Island.
• Klein proposed a German alliance with East Africa, but Von der Leyen warned of opposition from Britain, France, and Russia, and East Africa remained focused on building its strength.