African Entrepreneurship Record

May 1, 1900.

This day is International Labour Day, established back in 1889 by the Second International to commemorate the May Day strike by workers in Chicago, United States.

It’s worth mentioning that May 1 in East Africa is also Labour Day because of Ernst, just without the international qualifier. Furthermore, East Africans will celebrate May Day along with a National Day holiday, as Ernst decided to extend East Africa’s May Day holiday from three days to seven days, making it a week-long celebration.

East Africa itself is a country with relatively few holidays. As a new nation, Ernst abolished some European religious holidays. East Africa doesn’t experience a clear winter, and its territory is split by the equator into two parts, which means East Africa doesn’t have a unified nationwide slack season. Therefore, to minimize interference with agricultural activities, many traditional Europe and Asia holidays do not resonate in East Africa.

This means May Day will become the second most important holiday in East Africa after the New Year, and the second longest holiday besides student vacations.

East African students have two holidays, a long summer break in the southern hemisphere (coinciding with East African New Year) and a short winter break in the southern hemisphere.

Because most of East Africa’s territory lies in the southern hemisphere, and the southern hemisphere’s summer is the northern hemisphere’s winter, when other countries’ students are on winter break, it’s the hottest time in East Africa. So it’s equivalent to East Africa’s summer vacation, combined with the overlap with East African New Year, this holiday is the longest, nearly two months, whereas the short break is just over a month.

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”Ambassador Brielon, long time no see. Are you here to attend East Africa’s coronation ceremony?” In Rhine Palace, Germany’s ambassador to East Africa, Baron Bules, asked Austria-Hungary’s ambassador to East Africa, Brielon.

”Ah, Baron Bules, East African Government has indeed invited quite a few people this time, but it seems apart from diplomatic personnel, there aren’t any significant heads of state from other countries attending,” Brielon said.

”Perhaps that’s for the best; the actions of the Heixinggen Royal Family aren’t likely to be well-received. After all, there are already too many empires in the world now, with some, like Tsarist Russia, being less than genuine,” Bules commented.

Brielon took a sip of his wine and smiled without replying. He considered that currently, Europe has three emperors, but other than Austria-Hungary’s Emperor Franz, the rest are clowns like Napoleon.

For instance, the British Empire’s queen is the Emperor of India. The Prussians’ so-called emperor is just the German Empire’s emperor, not the German emperor. Tsar’s title is needless to say, quite tenuous. As an Austrian, Brielon had some thoughts about Austria-Hungary reclaiming dominance in the German Region, but they were just thoughts.

Of course, from a practical perspective, there isn’t an emperor widely acknowledged in Europe right now, as Europe’s emperor and the Far East Empire’s emperor have significant differences in definition.

Europe’s emperor is a collection of numerous titles, with the most important being Caesar and Augustus, among others. Even once crowned emperor, a European emperor’s powers are restricted and can’t be absolute, unlike the Far East Empire’s emperor who has unlimited power.

”Although the Heixinggen Royal Family developed from the European aristocratic system, given their expansion in Africa and the formation of a powerful empire, from the East Africans’ perspective, their establishment of an empire is incontestable. However, this system should be viewed separately from Europe,” said Brielon, not criticizing East Africa’s right or wrong.

Inside, though, he derided Bules as a Prussian brute, unsurprisingly crude like those from the military, mirroring William II’s unfiltered speech.

After taking a sip of wine, Bules replied, ”That’s indeed the case; Africa isn’t Europe. The Heixinggen Royal Family probably recognizes this truth. Therefore, their empire should center on Africa. If one day America produces an American emperor, the logic would be the same, although in principle there can only be one Roman Emperor in Europe.”

The Roman Emperor, in some sense, is the emperor of all Europe, which is the common pursuit of the Tsar, German Emperor, and Austrian Emperor, of course. Since the Roman Era, Europe hasn’t seen such a figure again, with Napoleon being the closest contender in recent times. Though he wasn’t recognized by European nobility, he was the man who came closest to uniting Europe.

While Bules and Brielon conversed, the French ambassador Lawrence and Spanish ambassador William were also discussing related matters. However, the Spaniards are relatively friendly towards East Africa, whereas the French have complex feelings towards East Africa, with many small countries’ diplomatic personnel having various opinions on East Africa’s elevation to an empire this time.

The most exciting exchanges came from the diplomatic personnel of Tsarist Russia and the United Kingdom, who remained at odds even within the third party country of East Africa.

”Mr. Wilson, the weather today is quite splendid. For East Africans, their empire was handed to them by a certain country. Without the war of 1889, East Africa wouldn’t have gained millions of square kilometers in land and become another empire spanning two oceans,” Tsarist Russian ambassador Maxim approached and snidely revealed the United Kingdom’s wounds.

At this time, relations between the United Kingdom and Tsarist Russia were at their worst. Although the United Kingdom held grudges against East Africa, time had mended relations with East Africa, certainly after a decade had passed since the South African war. The British couldn’t remain fixated on East Africa forever.

With the threat posed by Tsarist Russia surpassing East Africa’s, even Germany is inclining towards this direction. However, German-British relations hadn’t yet fully deteriorated.

Despite regretting their mistake in allowing East Africa’s rise, the United Kingdom could still accept it, attributed to their experience in related domains, such as the independence of the United States from British rule.

Furthermore, East Africa had been relatively compliant over the past decade. While continuing its overseas expansion, it didn’t threaten British interests, and the scale of East African Navy put Britain at ease, without engaging in naval races like other nations. If other great powers required East Africa, then the Royal Navy wouldn’t remain as tense as it is currently.

Wilson’s face showed no sign of emotional change as he formally replied to Maxim, ”We have indeed had unpleasant interactions with East Africa. Still, East Africa was already one of the world’s great powers at that time. Nowadays, East Africa is far beyond a northern territory close to the Arctic Circle. After all, in Siberia, you can only rely on a few potatoes to live. This may be a matter of intelligence; undoubtedly, we Brits achieved today’s success through our intellect, and although East Africa may be like some frigid country that only thinks about fighting, they are still undeniably smarter than Mr. Maxim. I hear your Siberian Railway construction is exceedingly challenging; if required, we Brits are willing to assist you.”

Wilson directly belittled Maxim’s intelligence, with extreme insult, given East Africa being an African nation and the stereotype about African Blacks’ naturally low intellect, an impression inherited by East Africa.

Claiming Tsarist Russian intellect was inferior to East Africa’s was akin to saying Tsarist Russian intelligence was not even comparable to African Blacks.

Maxim indeed flew into a rage, loudly demanding a duel with Wilson, capturing the attention of all attendees.

Wilson feigned a helpless tone, saying, ”What did I say? It proves some nations have only the simple minds of warriors. As civilized people, we Brits surely don’t advocate such actions...”

Being the host country, East African Government couldn’t let the tension escalate and found excuses to separate the two. The incident between Britain and Tsarist Russia’s diplomatic staff became one of the small episodes before the coronation ceremony.