African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1175: Chapter 184: Franz IV’s Visit

September 30, 1914.

Rhein City welcomed a new batch of guests. Since the outbreak of the European War, Washington and Rhein have become focal points for frequent visits by the two major camps.

This time, the delegation visiting Rhein City was jointly formed by the Ottoman, German, and Austria-Hungary. After the war broke out, East Africa’s importance to the Allies camp became increasingly prominent, especially in terms of overseas material sources, East Africa almost monopolized a large portion of strategic materials in trade with the three countries.

By 1914, the total population of Rhein City smoothly surpassed 600,000. A large number of company headquarters and government agencies were located in Rhein City, while other industrial and agricultural sectors were showing vigorous growth, forming another core of the central East African economy along with New Frankfurt City, Kabwe, Lusaka, and other cities.

In the center of Rhein City, the classical and ultra-modern buildings complemented each other, arranged in an orderly fashion. After the city’s economy opened up, a large influx of people poured into the capital, and the streets were bustling with traffic and people, reflecting the deep cultural heritage and vibrant vitality of the city.

This is very rare, after all, East Africa was never a country with deep historical roots, but the cities of East Africa, led by Rhein City, made East Africa resemble some European cities with profound historical heritage through architecture, art, and design.

It was also distinctly different from the style of American modern architecture, especially in New York with its varied skyscrapers and the exaggerated building forms of dense steel and concrete forests.

East Africa has its unique understanding of some modern architecture, deeply imprinted with Ernst’s aesthetic imprint from the Far East in his previous life, which at first glance is far less wild and artistic than the new architectural style of Europe and America.

This is fundamentally different from the classical architecture within Rhein City. In classical architecture, East Africa completely replicated the essence of European classical architecture rigidly and can be said to be meticulous.

However, Rhein City’s modern architecture pursues more practicality and aesthetic unity. This makes the new East African architecture seem somewhat conservative, unified, and monotonous compared to the rough development of contemporary new architecture in Europe and America, but it can achieve very good effects.

One can’t see this from individual buildings, but within the entire city architecture group, it seems very integrated, natural, and smooth.

To put it simply, it’s like how many people write. Currently, architects in Europe and America pursue the pinnacle of individual font art, incorporating their own artistic features, but when lined up into sentences or articles, some fonts will seem very abrupt, while East Africa’s simple, square, and featureless fonts, through unified city design and planning, make the entire piece of text very pleasing to the eye.

This made Duke Friedrich Franz IV of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Grand Duchy, who was visiting East Africa for the first time, feel very bittersweet.

The Mecklenburg-Schwerin Grand Duchy is one of the important states in North Germany. Although Prussia unified Germany, there are still many monarchs below, the most famous of which are the Bavarian Kingdom or the Hexionggen Principality.

Bavaria is the second most important kingdom in Germany after Prussia, and Hexionggen Principality’s uniqueness lies in its nominal ruler being the renowned Rhein Empire Emperor Ernst.

As the monarch of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Grand Duchy, if the East African factor is excluded, theoretically, the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Grand Duchy is more important than the Hexionggen Principality, but now there’s no need to be entangled, as the monarch of the Hexionggen Principality also bears the title of Rhein Empire, the two are fundamentally incomparable.

[responsibility of receiving Franz IV falls upon the Imperial Crown Prince Friedrich, after all, Franz IV’s status in East Africa can only be compared with the royal family and Archduke Ferdinand’s family.]

Franz IV’s uncle is Tsar Nicholas II, and his grandfather was the nephew of the former German Emperor William I.

Crown Prince Friedrich said to the continuously exclaiming Franz IV: ”Your Highness, it seems you are very interested in our East African city construction?”

Franz IV, being addressed, remarked: ”Naturally, this is my first time coming to East Africa, to be honest, East Africa has greatly exceeded my expectations; this city can be said to be one of the most beautiful cities I’ve seen outside Europe, like a piece of art, making one linger around.”

In front of Friedrich, Franz IV could only pick good words to say, after all, from any angle, Friedrich could not be compared to him, just a titular German state ruler.

Of course, the praise for East African city construction was not fabricated, but heartfelt, as now European countries are embroiled in war, and such a peaceful place like East Africa is probably the second closest thing to paradise after the United States.

Crown Prince Friedrich, inheriting his father’s character, modestly replied: ”We in East Africa still have some gaps compared to Europe and America, with much to learn, after all, compared to the traditional German regions, East Africa’s development history is still very short, most of East Africa’s achievements have been built upon the foundations of early-developed countries like Germany.”

The traditional German regions were naturally relative to East Africa, as East Africa was proclaimed as a German Country, East Africa was naturally the New German Region.

Of course, this was mainly to distinguish the large and small German regions in Europe, where one of the realized schemes for Germany’s unification was Prussia’s idea of the small Germany, while the large Germany would encompass countries with Austrian German regions.

However, for various reasons, the concept of New Germany had not yet been widely accepted, and unlike New France, the Rhein Empire was a major power in today’s world, while New France’s most glorious time was but a colony, let alone now it’s been almost completely divided by the UK and the US, only the Quebec Region has some influence.

Franz IV: ”Crown Prince, Your Highness is a bit modest. On my way from Dar es Salaam City here, I have already fully understood the national situation of East Africa, except that the population is slightly sparse compared to Germany, East Africa’s development is no less than any place in Europe.”

The whole of Europe is smaller in area than East Africa, but its population is three to four times that of East Africa, and yet Europe’s population distribution is not uniform, for example, Germany with more than 500,000 square kilometers, accommodates over 60 million, so Germany’s population is relatively dense, while other regions like the Balkans, Northern Europe may not compare to many regions of East Africa.

”Now European countries are deeply mired in the quagmire of war, while East Africa takes this opportunity to thrive around the world, the domestic economy is booming, truly making one exceptionally envious.”

Although attention was focused on Europe, this does not mean European countries were unaware of the movement of East Africa and the United States, now that East Africa and the United States were making huge profits worldwide, especially East Africa which had obtained all German overseas colonies before the war, East Africa alone made a fortune on that.

Of course, it’s just that East Africa has not taken advantage of England and France being busy in the European War to invade their overseas vital interests; France is hard to say, but the United Kingdom would definitely withdraw from the European war directly, after all, no matter how big the threat from Germany, it cannot compare to the safety of India.

As for the economy, European countries can only stand by and watch East Africa and the United States seize ground in their respective overseas markets, of course, this situation would end after the war, as long as they don’t lose their overseas colonies, England and France will have ways to reclaim most of the market share post-war, so the most important thing currently is to resolve the immediate issues of Germany and Austria-Hungary Empire.

This is exactly what Germany does not want to see, Germany has already sacrificed too much for the war, including its own colonies, so Germany absolutely cannot allow the war to be lost, even a draw for Germany would be a strategic failure if they don’t defeat the Allies.

Franz IV’s visit to East Africa is obviously another representative act by the German government to conduct lobbying activities. In fact, the German government has also worked hard on the United States, but compared to England, Germany ultimately finds it hard to make a breakthrough with the United States.