African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1264 In East Africa

Time flies and 1917 years have passed.

The streets of Rhine City are bustling with traffic and people. In just over a decade, Rhine City has become one of the new major cities in East Africa.

Crown Prince Alexei of Tsarist Russia and his two sisters were touring the Rhine City under the guidance of Maxim, the fourth prince of East Africa.

Prince Maxim was born in 1887 and was Ernst's youngest son. Even so, he was much older than Nicholas II's children.

Among the Russian princes and princesses who came to East Africa this time, the oldest is the third Russian princess Maria, who was born in 1899 and is currently only eighteen years old.

This time, the Russian royal family was led by Princess Maria to East Africa to take care of her younger sister Anastasia and younger brother Alexei.

Maxim took them for a stroll on the streets of Rhine City. He said to the adult Princess Maria, "Rhine City is a new city, so its scale cannot be compared with St. Petersburg. However, our capital of East Africa also has advantages that St. Petersburg cannot have. It is spring all year round and is located in the middle of the land. St. Petersburg is just the opposite."

St. Petersburg belongs to a relatively warm area in Russia, but it is close to the Arctic Circle, while Rhineland in East Africa is close to the equator.

In terms of geographical location, the two can be said to be poles apart, but both show different climates at the same latitude.

Just like St. Petersburg, the name easily makes people think of snow, while the Rhine City easily makes people think of scorching sun, but the actual situation in the two places is not like this.

The temperature in St. Petersburg in winter is only a few degrees below zero, which is hard to imagine in other areas of Russia at the same latitude. However, the climate of Rhine City is common in East Africa, and the plateau areas are basically similar to those of Rhine City.

Maria said: "This is indeed beyond our expectations. During this period, the snow in St. Petersburg or other places in Russia has not melted yet, while East Africa is in summer. However, except when we first arrived in East Africa, we did not feel the heat in Rhine City."

Maxim said: "That's because the climate in the coastal or plain areas is different from that in the inland plateau. Coastal areas such as Dar es Salaam are generally hotter than inland areas."

"This is affected by the altitude and topography. For example, St. Petersburg has a temperate continental climate like many areas in your country, but it is affected by the Atlantic warm current and the ocean, so the temperature is higher."

"For climate reasons alone, we in East Africa prefer to stay in the inland highlands, where the climate is cooler."

Although it is summer, the highest temperature in Rhine City today is only 26 degrees, and there will be showers in the next few days, so you can't experience the summer heat.

Princess Maria likes this kind of climate very much. She said: "I feel that the temperature and air in Rhine City are much better than those in St. Petersburg. This is a novel experience for us."

"If it was in St. Petersburg in the past, I would prefer to stay in the house and feel the warmth of the stove during this time, but in Rhine City, it is more suitable to go out and play."

Prince Maxim said with a smile: "In that case, you three can stay in Rhine City for a while. This time I invited you to East Africa because it is necessary for the two countries to deepen their relationship. The only pity is that your parents and two sisters did not come."

At this point, Princess Maria's face darkened a little, and then she said, "My father and mother are busy now, and my sisters are also in the hospital on the front line. Anastasia, Alexi and I are too young to help, so we have been asked by my father to come to East Africa to relax."

"I don't know when the war will end. Before we left St. Petersburg, I heard some news that the war on the front line was not favorable to Russia. Although my father didn't say it, I could feel his anxiety."

This is probably one of the reasons why Nicholas II agreed to East Africa’s request and sent his two daughters and only son to East Africa.

Since last year, the situation of the war in Europe has begun to become unfavorable to Russia, especially by the end of last year, when the Russian army on the front line was retreating step by step and lost a lot of land.

The supply of materials in St. Petersburg also began to be in crisis. On the one hand, there was the blockade of the Baltic Sea by the German Navy, and on the other hand, there was the fall of Poland and other original grain-producing areas. All this led to the frequent anti-war activities in St. Petersburg, which may have made Nicholas II feel the crisis.

Another factor is that East Africa invited the Russian royal family, which is good news for Nicholas II at the moment.

When the two allies of Britain and France were unreliable, East Africa became a great help to Russia. The export of materials from East Africa alleviated Russia's material gap to a certain extent.

This is easy to understand. Although Britain and France are Russia's allies, the support they can provide to Russia is quite limited.

After all, the two countries were facing pressure from their allies and had a huge shortage of supplies, so it was impossible for them to allocate a part of them to meet Russia's needs.

What's more, a country of Russia's size is not something that Britain and France can support. The industrial development of the two countries has been sluggish in recent years. Even the combined military production capacity of the two countries can barely compete with Germany.

Germany also had the Austro-Hungarian Empire as an ally. Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the weakest among the five major European powers, it greatly shared the pressure on Germany.

Of course, it is not ruled out that Britain and France hope that the Allies will fight Russia to the death as much as possible, but at the same time they are worried that Russia will make too much progress in the war. This is similar to the situation in World War II in the previous life, so the Allied Powers are not a monolithic entity.

In response to Princess Maria's complaints, Prince Maxim could only pretend to be helpless and said, "I hope the war will end soon!"

In fact, the country that most hopes that the European war will continue is East Africa, so what Maxim said cannot be true.

In the wars of the past few years, East Africa can be said to have made a lot of money. The entire nation has enjoyed the dividends brought by the European war, and overseas orders have continued to flow in, so East Africa naturally hopes that the war will continue.

The people of East Africa have felt the economic benefits, and overseas, East Africa is even more like a behemoth. As European powers were deeply involved in World War I, East Africa's colonial expansion made rapid progress, and West Africa quickly opened up the situation in Southeast Asia and the Americas.

Maxim, the fourth prince of East Africa, was also well aware of this, but he could not possibly gloat in front of the three members of the Russian royal family.

So Maxim changed the subject and said, "Now that we are in East Africa, don't think about those troubles. You three siblings can enjoy more of our East African scenery."

"I will personally be your tour guide this time. This will be an unforgettable life experience for you. As world powers, East Africa and Russia can be said to have completely different styles."

"Here, you can see many sights that you can't see in Russia, or even in Europe."

Among the many world powers at this stage, only East Africa is in the tropical region, and the Russian nobles generally operate in Europe.

Maria, Anastasia and Alexei were all relatively young, so they had even less experience of leaving Russia.

This time to East Africa, they went all the way south, took the railway from St. Petersburg to Crimea, and finally arrived in East Africa, covering a distance of thousands of miles.

It can be said that this trip to East Africa is the longest journey they have ever experienced since they were born.

Maria was the oldest of the three and the only adult, so she was the one who talked to Maxim along the way, while Anastasia was responsible for taking care of the young Alexi.

As a victim of hemophilia, Alexei was not in very good health and was also young, so his two sisters did not dare to relax their care for him.

(End of this chapter)