Manchuria, Central Asia, Baltic, Africa, etc. (October-December, 1888)
Fifth Arrow?]
Tsar Alexander III decided to name the new Russian possession in Africa, Keniya (Кения), translated simply as Kenya into English, a name derived from Mount Kenya, the highest mountain in the region (and the second highest mountain in Africa).
The modern name of the mountain actually comes from the German Johann Ludwig Krapf (1810-1881), who in turn got the name of the Kivoi chief, "Kĩ-Nyaa" or "Kĩĩma-Kĩĩnyaa". Although the mountain receives different names according to local cultures.
In the region there are cultures such as the Kikuyu, Embu, Ameru and Maasai, most of the inhabitants are of the Bantu or Nilotic ethnic group, although of course in a region as large as Africa there are always exceptions.
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The first Russian experiences in the region were to establish military camps to cooperate with the Germans in the extermination of infected cattle in the region, which seems to have been mostly successful from 1888 onwards.
The Russians took advantage of and began to gain the trust of local leaders by giving away cattle as replacements for cattle killed in the plague, a diplomatic strategy that also reduced the potential expense of investing in rebuilding all of the colony's livestock from scratch.
The economic potential of the region was mainly in agriculture, since significant quantities of minerals were unknown in the region (and in truth although Keniya has limestone, gold, salt, niobium, fluorspar and oil, the truth is that it is not in a amount as significant as other regions of Africa).
From Keniya agriculture the Russians could extract tea, coffee, tropical fruits, legumes, palm oil, corn, wheat, coconut, pineapple, cotton, etc.
The problem would be to establish all the necessary infrastructure for such projects, it would also mean that Russia should pseudo-modify its strategy from the Four Arrows towards the Five Arrows for the development of Keniya.
As a first step in the strategy, Tsar Alexander III seized the city (formerly administered by the British from whom he bought the colony) of Mombasa (in Cyrillic, Момбаса) on the Keniya coast.
It was straightforward after the purchase, and the Russian coastal military presence establishing itself in place.
It would be the main administrative center of Keniya, at least if Tsar Alexander III did not decide later that it would be better to build the capital of the colony in another region.
Mombasa was already a region hundreds of years old, if not thousands, the exact foundation of the settlement is unknown but it is usually located in the year 900 AD.
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With Mombasa under his power, Tsar Alexander III wasted no time in connecting it to the Russian trade routes between Madagascar, New Moscow, Walbis Bay-Namibia, Cameroon, and other Russian possessions.
In the region in 1888 there was still a strong presence of traditional African religions, and the oldest Abrahamic religion is Islam, which reached the coasts in the 8th century, in fact it can be said that there is a mosque built around the 1300s AD in the city of Mombasa.
But it was not the religion of the majority of the region, so without much trouble Tsar Alexander III started his simple projects, putting the port of Mombasa into operation according to Russian interests, starting to buy local elites, establish churches, orphanages and schools. (indoctrinate and help the population), and prepare the way for the infrastructure necessary for economic development.
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[Four Arrows / Five Arrows: Abyssinia]
As if the Great Ethiopian Famine (which includes not only disease in livestock, but also an invasion of locusts and caterpillars) were not enough in Abyssinia, it initiates a series of epidemic outbreaks of smallpox and typhus.
As mentioned above, smallpox itself was a serious problem for everyone, regardless of their rank on the social scales of the time.
Russia already had the Russian Red Cross deployed, and was cooperating with the Ethiopian authorities of Emperor Yohannes IV to alleviate the situation through Russian camps, trade routes and colonies in the region.
Now both authorities had to invest in fighting smallpox and typhus as well. Russia in particular with its authorities and its administered regions set a precedent for the fight against diseases in Ethiopian regions (health or emergency protocols).
However, obviously not all these protocols would be effective, partly due to the difficulties of health, news and medicines to reach isolated regions, or the problems of contagion within various points of Ethiopian society such as the armies or some courts.
The problem in particular came when Emperor Yohannes IV was infected in 1888, and he died in early 1889.
Fortunately this did not discourage Alexander III or Menelik of Shewa, in fact the dream of the New Solomon Age was simply getting closer and closer.
The general crisis situation, and the formation of the triumvirate (Menelik of Shewa, Alexander III and Yohannes IV) would strengthen the Ethiopian central government, appease political enemies, etc.
Many dangers were removed, and many kings or local leaders would simply submit to what seemed like sensible, powerful and resourceful leadership behind the three central figures of the triumvirate in Ethiopia.
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[Central Asia: Agricultural Research]
Tsar Alexander III had many concerns about the ecological situation in the Russian Empire, that is why various types of actions were prohibited in particular regions, such as the introduction of potentially dangerous non-native species for the environment.
Or in the case of Central Asia, the massive diversion of various rivers in the Aral Sea region.
However, this notably limited and hampered the agricultural and therefore economic capacities of the Russian Turkestan region.
That is why Tsar Alexander III put various academic institutions of agricultural purposes in Russia to study ways to reduce the need for water consumption in crops in Central Asia, without the need to decrease production.
A new project that began to promote the Russian administration in the region.
(OOC: Basically emulate the model from the Netherlands).
Tsar Alexander III hopes that the investigations will last a few decades, but they should ultimately pay off for agricultural production in the region, which will be beneficial to Russia in several ways.
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[Natural reserves and animals]
Speaking of Central Asia, Tsar Alexander III received good news from some of his projects, on the one hand in Yakutia the Pleistocene Park was advancing, of course the resurrection of the Mammoth Steppe would still take decades, but the species carried were acclimatising and surviving with success.
The "Medved" (Медведи, Bears) of the park were also doing well.
In Central Asia on the other hand there was success in growing the Caspian tiger population. Perhaps one day the Caspian and Siberian tiger populations would be connected by land again, but it was not the primary target.
Socotra was well and peacefully.
And the population of European bison, Alyáska bison and wild horses (Tarpan) of Poland-Eastern Europe was also growing.
Curiously, Alyáska's reservation services received the news that an American, Theodore Roosevelt, was visiting the reservation.
Tsar Alexander III however had plans to further increase his projects related to wildlife, a huge botanical garden for the plant life of the empire's colonies, bring in other species that Russia did not have to save them from extinction, etc.
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[Estonia]
Tsar Alexander III visited the Baltic region, particularly the north of the region, Estonia (also called Esthonia, Eestimaa, Esthländisches, etc). There Tsar Alexander III gave the main Yuriev University a blue-black-white tricolor with the symbols of Tsar Alexander III (different from the green-purple-white flag of the governorate).
The gift was obviously accompanied by donations, inspections and other events related to the presence of the tsar in the institution, but the gesture is not purely symbolic or touristy.
In part it was a political gesture, where the last strongholds of Estonian separatism were being effectively crushed, the flag was a symbol recently taken over by some rebellious students.
The tsar simply decided that he would appropriate the symbol, and fight separatism through continuing to build loyalties. Converting the unknown rebel symbols into other symbols of Tsarist representation, meeting with the educational elites and putting them on the side of the government, etc.
The visit also allowed Tsar Alexander III to reunite the Estonian middle class, which owes much to the Tsarist government (railway construction, increased trade across the Baltic, etc).
The upper class of the Baltic Germans were useful, but they were losing because they were outnumbered, and the economic and administrative reforms of Tsar Alexander III led to a peaceful replacement.
The number of loyal Russian or native generals and administrators increased, the new economic elites were no longer German, etc.
This allowed Tsar Alexander III to now use loyal Estonians against other Estonians, allowing him to continue to use soft power tactics and elites to defeat popular movements.
After all, the lower-middle-class Estonian in the Russian Empire was more concerned with eating, drinking, having clothes, work, and money, rather than independence.
Of course all this construction of the Tsarist government was due to the fact that Estonia, like other regions of the Russian Empire, was going through a period of prosperity and development, so it was very easy to convince the growing middle classes (who precisely grew under the Alexandrian Tsarist government ) to be pro-tsarist and alienate in favor of the state rather than against the state.
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[International]
On October 1, the University of Veliko Tarnovo is established, the first university in Bulgaria liberated from the Ottoman Empire.
On October 9, for the first time the Washington Monument is officially opened to the public in Washington D.C.
On October 14, Louis Le Prince films the first motion picture, Roundhay Garden Scene in England, of 18 frames the recording is only 2 seconds.
October 30, the foundations of a new British colony are formed when King Lobengula cedes the rights to extract mineral resources from the territories of Matabeleland, Mashonaland and other areas to Charles Rudd, James Rochfort Maguire and Francis Thompson.
These men are representatives of the businessman of the British Empire, Cecil Rhodes, and with this concession the foundations of the colony of Rhodesia are given.
November 8, despite winning the popular vote, Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland loses the Electoral College vote to Republican candidate Benjamin Harrison.
Cleveland was the second Democratic candidate to win an election after the civil war, succeeding President Winfield Scott Hancock, however these elections were particular.
Tariff policy played a strong role in these elections of 1888, Cleveland proposed to lower tariffs supposedly harmful to the American consumer, but Harrison allied with many industrialists who wanted to keep tariffs high and therefore obtained the majority of industrial workers from area.
Of course the harmful Hancock tariff for industrial workers doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon, but that's another matter.
November 9, is the body of Mary Jane Kelly, considered the last victim of Jack the Ripper by the London authorities of the time.
December 18, in Colorado, Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law find the Native American ruins of Mesa Verde.
December 23, in a fit of mental problems and a lawsuit with Paul Gauguin, the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh cuts the lower lobe of his left ear.
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[Manchurian Project]
* Perspective of Nicholas Alexandrovich.
"Son, I bought Kodak." Nicholas reads aloud a letter from his father, there was no more writing in the aforementioned letter, the Tsesarevich was alone in his office at the time. "... What the hell old man?"
The Tsesarevich exclaims.
The Tsesarevich's time in Manchuria was not getting any longer, but he still needed quite a bit of time for the construction of the Transmanchurian.
The immigration of other citizens of the Russian Empire to the region was increasing, which was positive up to a point, many were farmers, builders, railway workers, etc.
Helpful people for the Tsesarevich's infrastructure projects would help pacify the region, aid economic growth, and accelerate the construction of major railway lines.
However now Nicholas Alexandrovich had to attend to other matters, matters between the native inhabitants (Manchu, Han, etc.) and the migrants from Russia (with a varied ethnic composition, but mainly other Slavs).
This meant that Nicholas now had to balance the local elites and populations, with other Russian citizens, who were pushing for their own goals (economic advancement, land, etc).
Faced with this situation and demographic growth (rising and constant but still manageable, since it was not yet a BIG explosion, but once the Transmanchurian is over, the population will undoubtedly explode) the Tsesarevich continued a pseudo-agrarian reform.
The excesses of land that Qing members, officials and other landowners who left Inner Manchuria were divided between new migrants and the native inhabitants of said lands (those who generally worked said lands).
This did something, on the one hand it continued to win the Tsesarevich support among the natives, and on the other it allowed him to gain popularity and trust with the new migrants if necessary.
The lands of the local nobility that were loyal to the Russian state were not touched, this also alienated the other nobility to submit to Russia or suffer possible consequences of suspected disloyalty.
Located in Port Arthur, the Tsesarevich continued to assemble his "little court" of trustworthy and helpful officials, the old elites of the nobility and the economy, the military, and the new money that is emerging in the region, etc.
This was useful for planning and progress in the region, there was still a lot of land to develop and a lot of work to do, but sadly it cannot be done overnight so Nicholas has to wait and continue to persevere (fortunately the railroad continues to advance ).