Chapter Summaries

Paraguayan merchant Robert traveled to Lubango with Masud to inspect East African industrial equipment and explore business opportunities. After learning that industrial upgrades had put unused machinery on the market at low prices, Robert decided to have local experts assess equipment for rebuilding Paraguay’s cast iron foundry.

• Robert told Masud that Port of Alexandria had impressed him and that he wanted to look for business opportunities in East Africa.
• Masud explained that Lubango was Letania Province’s industrial and transportation center, and Robert compared its population with Paraguay’s.
• Robert described his plans to rebuild Paraguay’s cast iron foundry and use imported East African steel materials to produce basic iron goods.
• Masud explained that East Africa’s industrial restructuring had left new and lightly used equipment available cheaply, including machinery in Lubango.
• Robert became excited about purchasing the equipment, and Masud recommended that he hire a local professional to assess it.

In 1925, Ernst assessed the newly founded Soviet Union as a rising industrial power and saw an opportunity to profit from its need for capital and equipment. He instructed Friedrich to pursue short-term exchanges of East African machinery for Soviet resources and cultural relics before Yosef reshaped the Soviet economy.

• Robert described Paraguay's efforts to develop domestic industry and asked Masud to help him find affordable investment opportunities in East Africa.
• In 1925, Ernst read Pravda and told Friedrich that the Soviet Union had replaced Russia as a new power after Yosef consolidated control.
• Friedrich dismissed the Soviet Union as a weakened Tsarist Russia, but Ernst predicted that political stability and resource consolidation would drive its economic recovery.
• Ernst explained that East Africa could profit by selling machinery to the Soviet Union while avoiding deep, long-term investment that could be endangered by future nationalization.
• Ernst told Friedrich to exchange obsolete equipment for Soviet mineral resources or cultural relics, which the Soviet government might sell to fund industrial development.

East African captain Malazov brought his merchant ship to Odessa and discussed the Soviet Union’s economy and political changes with his sailors. After Soviet officials inspected the vessel, Director Kurzuf welcomed the crew and encouraged them to spend money in the city.

• The Malazov docked in Odessa on February 11, 1925, as East African trade with the Soviet Union resumed its growth.
• Captain Malazov told his sailors that Odessa had changed governments repeatedly and that he viewed the Soviet economy as struggling after years of war.
• Malazov compared Soviet economic policies with East Africa’s past planned economy and warned that bureaucracy and private interests could undermine any system.
• Soviet officials inspected the Malazov, its cargo, and its crew, then reported that everything matched the customs declaration.
• Director Kurzuf welcomed Malazov and offered the crew assistance in Odessa, hoping to draw their spending into government-linked businesses.

Malazov and his crew waited in Odessa while Soviet officials and Cheka agents watched them, suspecting East Africans amid rising tensions over East Africa’s support for the Romanov exiles. After several days, the Cheka concluded the sailors were ordinary men and withdrew its agents, though Odessa remained a tense center of international espionage.

• Krikel told Malazov that he felt watched, and Malazov admitted Soviet authorities had been tailing the crew since their arrival in Odessa.
• Malazov urged his sailors to ignore the surveillance and drink while they waited for their cargo to be handled.
• Odoyev told a Foreign Trade Bureau colleague that the East African sailors had shown no suspicious behavior and were merely drinking and pursuing pleasure.
• Mikhailov and Dmitriyevka concluded after three days of observation that Malazov’s crew were ordinary sailors with no intelligence value.
• Mikhailov and Dmitriyevka discussed the Cheka’s heightened concern about East African arrivals and Odessa’s crowded network of foreign and exile intelligence forces.
• The Cheka agents decided to withdraw from watching Malazov’s crew, while the chapter described the Soviet Union’s continuing suspicion of East Africa and its Romanov exiles.

East African antiquities dealer Sherman talked Soviet seller Petrov into selling a truckload of Far Eastern relics for a fraction of their value. The Soviet government traded many more cultural treasures to East Africa during 1925 to raise funds for development.

• Sherman haggled with Petrov over the price of Far Eastern antiquities, arguing that they were plentiful, hard to value, and largely looted during the Tsarist era.
• Sherman flattered Petrov and portrayed himself as a struggling middleman to weaken Petrov’s resistance to a low offer.
• Petrov sold Sherman an entire truckload of relics for a little over seven hundred rubles, and Sherman expected their value to multiply many times over in East Africa.
• The Soviet government continued selling relics and collectibles to East Africa throughout 1925, including Western Xia relics, while using the proceeds to fund national development.

In 1925, Xindai City mayor Li Sen urged local aluminum enterprises to raise output above fifty thousand tons and strengthen downstream production and overseas sales. Xindai faced growing competition from Soyu and Maputo, but its industrial chain and economic advantages supported its continued growth.

• The chapter described East Africa’s rise as the world’s leading aluminum producer, with Xindai City producing over forty thousand tons in 1924.
• Mayor Li Sen called on Xindai’s aluminum plants to push annual output above fifty thousand tons in the final year of the Fifth Five-Year Plan.
• Li Sen warned that Soyu and Maputo were closing the production gap and urged local firms to defend their markets and seek overseas customers.
• Li Sen called for downstream industries to expand aluminum processing and end-product manufacturing, building on Xindai’s completed aluminum industrial chain.
• The chapter contrasted Xindai’s fertile, well-connected Zambezi hinterland with Soyu’s lower Congo constraints, while noting that Soyu still had long-term hydropower potential.

In 1925, Finance Minister Logens presented East Africa’s Fifth Five-Year Plan results, describing an economy that had recovered from crises and made major advances in industry, energy, and infrastructure. The report left East Africa with a broadly satisfactory record, though its growth had slowed compared with earlier plans.

• The East African government planned to extend navigation along the lower Zambezi but deferred larger river projects until technology and assessments matured.
• Logens told officials at Rhine Palace that the Fifth Five-Year Plan had faced global depression, European flu, and economic restructuring, while several industries still achieved breakthroughs.
• Logens explained that East African shipbuilding and textiles had grown slowly because of postwar naval cutbacks and intensified international competition.
• Logens reported that East Africa’s 1925 steel output exceeded forty-two million tons, oil output exceeded six hundred million barrels, and electricity generation surpassed 120 billion kilowatt-hours.
• Logens said railway operating mileage had increased by more than 3,000 kilometers as the government addressed flawed routes, safety problems, and reconstruction needs.
• East Africa’s Fifth Five-Year Plan was judged satisfactory overall, although its economic growth had lagged behind earlier plans.

Ernst reviewed the Fifth Five-Year Plan and urged East Africa to pursue more careful development as it reached an economic bottleneck. He outlined the Sixth Five-Year Plan’s goal of strengthening the financial industry and making Mombasa a major international financial center, while leaving the task of catching up with Europe and the United States ahead.

• Ernst said the Fifth Five-Year Plan had produced barely passable results and warned that East Africa’s rough-and-ready development had reached its limits.
• Ernst called for the Sixth Five-Year Plan to prioritize technological innovation, financial development, military strength, and expansion of East Africa’s international economic influence.
• Ernst identified the United States and East Africa as the leading contenders to become the next global financial center after London’s wartime decline.
• Ernst explained how East Africa’s industrial base, trade network, colonies, and naval power could support the Rheinland Shield and Mombasa’s financial growth.
• Ernst urged the government to improve financial institutions, the Rheinland Shield’s credibility, and market fairness, aiming to narrow East Africa’s financial gap with Europe and the United States within ten years.

Ernst warned East African officials that an unprecedented global economic crisis could arrive during the Sixth Five-Year Plan and urged them to strengthen domestic resilience through social protections, consumption, industrial upgrading, and a broader service sector. He left them preparing the plan around that risk, while acknowledging that the crisis could not be avoided.

• Ernst argued that industrial competition and unequal distribution had destabilized the world economy, and that East Africa needed to improve labor rights and social security.
• Ernst warned that a global economic crisis might strike during the Sixth Five-Year Plan with greater force than the crisis he remembered, potentially reshuffling the world order.
• An official asked whether the Sixth Five-Year Plan should be more conservative, and Ernst said East Africa should instead invest proactively in industrial upgrading, domestic markets, and technological innovation.
• Ernst said the plan should place greater emphasis on distributing national wealth, raising wages, ensuring employment, and developing the tertiary sector.
• Ernst explained that services such as finance, dining, tourism, entertainment, film, and television could create jobs as industrial productivity reduced factory labor needs.

In Budapest, Tomo and his comrades received orders from the Hungarian party to launch an uprising on February 1, 1926, and seize key sites across the city. They prepared for the revolt as Hungary’s political and social tensions continued to intensify.

• Tomo spoke with café owner Middleton about fair business, the Hungarian government, and the possibility of a government that served the people.
• Heins told Tomo that the organization had an important mission and asked him to meet the others at Heins’s home that evening.
• Heins informed the assembled comrades that the Hungarian party had ordered a Budapest-wide uprising on February 1, 1926.
• Heins assigned Tomo, Bled, and the other members tasks to organize workers and seize important sites, including the National Assembly, police stations, city hall, and radio stations.
• The comrades confirmed their assignments and left Heins’s home to prepare for the uprising.

The Hungarian Labor Party launched a coordinated uprising in Budapest and established a regime after seizing key strategic locations. As uprisings spread across Hungary, Habsburg began assembling troops to suppress the revolt.

• Kun and Gergely discussed the uprising planned for eleven that night, with Gergely responsible for organizing military operations in Budapest.
• At the Vihor Machinery Manufacturing Plant, Bled briefed armed workers on their assignments, including seizing Balint Armory.
• Three gunshots signaled the uprising, and Labor Party units seized Budapest's City Hall, Police Departments, and military camps.
• The Hungarian Labor Party announced the establishment of its regime over the radio and urged people to overthrow Habsburg rule.
• Uprisings spread through Hungary and other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while Habsburg began sending troops to suppress them.

Franz and Crown Prince Rudolf discussed the Hungarian Labor Party’s seizure of Budapest and the danger it posed to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They prepared to suppress the revolt with German support and tighten control across the Empire, while Franz warned that unrest could spread and leave the state near collapse.

• Rudolf turned off a Budapest Radio broadcast denouncing the Habsburgs, but Franz demanded to hear it and warned that the Labor Party threatened the Empire’s stability.
• Rudolf told Franz he had sent troops into Hungary and ordered local governments to assist in suppressing the Labor Party.
• Franz worried that unrest could spread to Bosnia, Galicia, Croatia, and other regions, and that Poland might exploit the crisis by stirring separatism in Galicia.
• Rudolf reported that Wilhelm II had promised German support, while Franz cautioned that the Empire must remain vigilant and impose martial law elsewhere.
• Franz called for the Labor Party to be crushed and purged from the army; Rudolf said the crisis could also help the central government reclaim authority and reorganize the military.

Wilhelm II and German officials agreed to prepare military intervention to help the Habsburgs suppress the Hungarian Labor Party and preserve the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Germany stood ready to act if the rebellion worsened, but it would wait for the empire to request help.

• Wilhelm II ordered German troops in Bavaria to prepare for combat in case the Hungarian crisis required intervention.
• Wilhelm II and Hermann described the Austro-Hungarian Empire as Germany’s indispensable ally and approved plans to support the Habsburgs.
• German officials debated whether the Hungarian Labor Party’s rebellion could weaken Hungary’s elite and help the empire address its national divisions.
• Hermann warned that the Austro-Hungarian Empire might fail to contain the rebellion and said German forces should enter if the situation crossed a threshold.
• The German government approved contingency plans and made military preparations, but waited for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to formally request assistance.

Ernst and Friedrich discussed East Africa’s response to the Hungarian Labor Party rebellion and the importance of preserving the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They agreed to offer limited economic assistance, while Ernst warned that a large-scale conflict could destroy the weakened empire.

• Ernst told Friedrich that East Africa should support the Austro-Hungarian Empire against the Hungarian Labor Party and asked him to contact the Habsburgs.
• Friedrich explained that Crown Prince Rudolf viewed the rebellion as a crisis comparable to 1848 and feared nationalist unrest, Soviet intervention, and neighboring countries’ moves.
• Ernst argued that preserving the empire would protect German’s influence and strengthen East Africa’s proposed German-Speaking Countries Organization.
• Friedrich noted that East Africa could offer economic help but could not send troops as Germany could.
• Ernst authorized forgiving or extending non-critical Austro-Hungarian debts and warned that an extensive civil war might bring about the empire’s disintegration.

Crown Prince Friedrich and Ambassador Poinzhausen argued over whether East Africa or Germany should lead the German-Speaking Countries Organization. They agreed to establish dual headquarters, dividing responsibility for promoting German across different regions of the world.

• Ambassador Poinzhausen argued that Germany should host the organization’s headquarters and first summit because Europe had the largest concentration of German-speaking countries.
• Crown Prince Friedrich argued that East Africa’s global reach and rise in Africa made it better suited to promote German worldwide.
• Poinzhausen defended Germany’s industrial development and history of overcoming adversity as reasons it should lead the organization.
• Friedrich proposed two headquarters, with Germany and East Africa handling German promotion in different regions according to their influence.
• Friedrich and Poinzhausen agreed that the two headquarters would share information, consult regularly, and divide their regional responsibilities.

Croatian nationalists carried out a suicide bombing in Zadar amid rising unrest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Dalmatian government responded with martial law and restrictions on Croatia, worsening tensions between the neighboring kingdoms.

• Horovich gave Olov a crude explosive pack and urged him to attack Germans in Zadar.
• Olov charged into a crowded street with the bomb strapped to his chest, killing himself and six pedestrians and injuring fifteen others.
• Horovich scattered anti-German flyers and escaped while police rushed to secure the blast site.
• Kurt identified the attack as the work of Croatian extremist nationalists and ordered a citywide hunt for the perpetrators.
• The Dalmatian government imposed martial law in northern Dalmatia, closed the border with Croatia, and tightened inspections of Croatian merchant ships.

Ploče met the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s conscription quota, and its newly recruited soldiers were sent through Mostar to Bosnia to guard the Serbian border. The chapter revealed that Serbia was also facing a Labor Party uprising backed by the Soviet Union, while the Empire struggled with unrest in Hungary.

• Second Lieutenant Hull told Ploče’s reservists that Dalmatia had to recruit about twenty thousand soldiers, including a minimum of two thousand from Ploče, for stability duties in Bosnia.
• Fred asked Hull about the Hungarian rebellion and said he hoped to return to military service for a stable job and a chance to earn money.
• Hull discussed the Empire’s economic weakness and argued that its divided government and many languages hindered industry and the army.
• Ploče completed its quota in less than half a month, and the recruits were sent to Mostar for reorganization before deployment to Bosnia and the Serbian border.
• The Serbian Labor Party began an uprising against the Kingdom of Serbia, and the Soviet Union supported it more openly than it supported Hungary’s Labor Party.

East Africa hosted the first German-Speaking Countries Organization conference in Luanda, using the gathering to promote German and showcase its development. The conference concluded with East Africa and Germany leading discussions on expanding German education and cultural influence.

• Rodner praised Luanda’s urban design and compared it favorably with Rio de Janeiro while traveling to the conference center with Last.
• Friedrich opened the conference and argued that learning German would help countries access technology, trade, and international affairs.
• Representatives from Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland addressed the gathering.
• Delegates proposed expanding German-language schools and producing films, radio, books, music, and other cultural materials.
• East Africa and Germany led the conference, which also gave East Africa a chance to display its recent development to foreign guests.

Kun and the Hungarian Labor Party leadership planned how to defend their new regime against Austro-Hungarian forces while suppressing domestic opponents and restoring the economy. The chapter ended with Hungary facing severe shortages of weapons and industrial supplies as its army expanded.

• Kun and Varga agreed to seize Komárno, destroy its railway bridge if necessary, and prepare troops to defend the northwestern front.
• Kun identified the northwest and Romania as the main external threats, while ordering forces to crush noble and bourgeois resistance and redistribute land.
• Varga proposed encouraging uprisings in Bosnia and Croatia, and Kun urged the Soviet Union to support labor movements elsewhere in the empire.
• Kun told his colleagues that Hungary had to rely on itself, then directed the government and Red Guard to carry out their strategy.
• Kun turned to restoring production, including at Hungarian armories, as the expanding army faced severe shortages of weapons and supplies.

In April 1926, Hungarian forces fought to delay the Austro-Hungarian advance at Komárno, destroying key transport infrastructure before the city fell. Meanwhile, Soviet experts arrived in Dar es Salaam to study East Africa’s economic rise and its former planned economy.

• Frablay reported that Hungarian defenses outside Komárno had collapsed, and Šurányi ordered him to destroy the shipyards and railway bridge while evacuating troops and equipment to Komárom Fortress.
• Frablay’s forces blew up the shipyards and railway bridge, while Šurányi and several hundred Labor Party members stayed behind to defend Komárno.
• After three days of street fighting, Austro-Hungarian forces wiped out Šurányi’s remaining defenders and captured the city, but the destroyed infrastructure hindered their next operations.
• A group of Soviet experts arrived in Dar es Salaam aboard a Greek passenger liner to investigate East Africa’s rapid economic development.
• The Soviet visitors discussed how Yosef had sent them to study East Africa, particularly its planned economy before 1910.