Chapter Summaries

Ernst visited Bender Town, East Africa’s remote naval and air force base on the Gulf of Aden, and considered its potential as a strategic military port. He left Shaven with plans to submit a reconstruction survey and instructions to maintain the garrison’s readiness and welfare.

• Hans Leighton argued that East Africa should strengthen market intervention and oversight during the agricultural crisis, while Crown Prince Friedrich called for advancing the Ecological Environmental Protection Act.
• Ernst inspected the troops in Bender Town, where Shaven described the small population, existing naval and air force deployments, and the port’s limited facilities.
• Ernst recognized Bender Port’s strategic value and asked Shaven to submit a detailed survey so personnel could assess its reconstruction.
• Shaven said preliminary reconstruction could allow Bender Port to berth warships exceeding fifty thousand tons and potentially support a carrier fleet in the Gulf of Aden.
• Ernst warned Shaven that the remote garrison needed rigorous training, constant vigilance, fair treatment, proper meals, and cultural and recreational support.

Ernst ordered Bender’s distinctive buildings demolished as East Africa continued reshaping the Horn of Africa. In Mombasa, Fulier and Zhao Dan condemned Adolf’s Aryan theories as false and dangerous to East Africa’s Germanic identity, and planned a newspaper campaign against them.

• Ernst rejected Shaven’s suggestion to preserve Bender’s architectural style and ordered the town’s buildings demolished.
• Fulier denounced Adolf’s Aryan bloodline theory in the Mombasa office of International News Monthly, arguing that Aryans had no connection to Germans.
• Fulier explained that East African scholars believed Germanic civilization had developed through contact with Rome, while the Aryan purity theory threatened East Africa’s mixed-race population.
• Zhao Dan urged the newspaper to separate East Africa from German racists and publish a rebuttal to their claims.
• Fulier assigned Zhao Dan to write a feature exposing Adolf’s theories for International News Monthly’s international news section the following month.

The International News Monthly challenged Adolf’s Aryan theory, prompting him to order the suppression of hostile newspapers and enlist the Brownshirts. Brownshirts set fire to the publication’s Stuttgart branch, and the arson remained unsolved as the newspaper attacked Adolf from outside Germany.

• Lorraine and a Stuttgart newsstand owner agreed that the International News Monthly’s account of India and Persia undermined the German National Party’s Aryan claims.
• Alfred told Adolf that the newspaper was spreading across Germany and that East African shareholders backed it, and Adolf ordered its suppression with Brownshirt support.
• Over the next two months, Brownshirts confiscated publications they considered hostile to Adolf and the German National Party.
• Cole and Hans led Brownshirts in looting the International News Monthly’s Stuttgart branch and setting it alight with gasoline.
• The branch manager found fuel cans in the ruins and suspected the Brownshirts, but police could not solve the arson.
• The International News Monthly responded by attacking Adolf and the German National Party in places beyond their reach, including the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After Stuttgart police covered up the International News Monthly arson and blamed dead criminals, East African officials concluded that the German National Party and its leader Adolf posed a growing threat. Ernst ordered closer monitoring of Germany and preparations to reduce East Africa’s dependence on it as relations worsened.

• Consul Manfred protested to Chief Kun, who refused to investigate the arson because it might implicate the German National Party.
• Chief Kun told Nopede to choose scapegoats, and Stuttgart police soon claimed the culprits had been shot dead.
• Manfred told Ron that the police explanation was dubious and that the International News Monthly would likely receive no compensation.
• Manfred reported the case and his assessment of the German National Party to East Africa’s Foreign Ministry.
• Ernst warned that Adolf’s hostility and Germany’s nationalist politics threatened East African businesses and citizens.
• Ernst ordered East Africa to watch Germany’s political changes and accelerate decoupling in certain fields.

East Africa’s survey team crossed the newly incorporated Kufra region as Professor Kabu explained its sparse settlements, deep groundwater, and ancient remains. The Empire planned to use the water for the Libyan Railway and its protective greenbelts, while Jof’s strategic location could support future military expansion toward Europe and the Mediterranean.

• East Africa had incorporated the sparsely populated Kufra region into Darfur Colony and dispatched Professor Kabu’s survey team to explore it.
• Professor Kabu described how the Tubu people survived around Jof and other small oases in the harsh desert.
• Zhang Shulin questioned how the Empire could build a railway across the waterless region, and Professor Kabu explained that deep wells tapped abundant underground water.
• Professor Kabu said the Libyan Railway would use wells to supply stations and ecological protection belts that would help keep sand from burying the tracks.
• Professor Kabu described rock paintings and ancient trade relics, then explained that British obstruction had pushed East Africa toward a Libyan route instead of a railway through Egypt.
• The convoy continued toward Jof, which was expected to become a key railway hub and a base for extending East African military power toward Europe and the Middle East.

In Jiaofu Town, Boer and Kamosido discussed life in the remote desert settlement as an East African convoy arrived. Professor Kabu met Mayor Cowen and described the slow progress of the North African Railway, which might take five or six years to reach Jiaofu.

• Boer and Kamosido discussed Boer’s Mogadishu chili plants, Jiaofu’s limited water and farmland, and the town’s reliance on grain shipped from the mainland.
• Boer and Kamosido saw a large convoy approaching Jiaofu and joined the townspeople waiting to greet its passengers.
• Professor Kabu arrived with his students, and Mayor Cowen welcomed them and confirmed that lodging and supplies had been prepared.
• Kabu told Cowen that railway construction was underway between El Fasher and Ad-Dabbah but remained sparse farther north toward Jiaofu.
• Cowen and Kabu discussed how Benghazi port renovations were delaying the northern railway section and how the desert route’s lack of roads made travel difficult.

East Africa pursued overseas railway projects and reciprocal trade as the global economic crisis deepened, while the Far East Empire suffered catastrophic floods and faced growing Japanese pressure in the Northeast. At the East African consulate in Kaifeng, Consul General Rendell and Ye Zhen discussed the flood danger and East Africa’s shifting priorities in the Far East Empire.

• East Africa advanced the North African Railway and other overseas projects to strengthen trade while supporting partner economies during the global crisis.
• The 1931 rainy season brought catastrophic flooding across the Far East Empire, affecting more than half the country and leaving millions of people at risk from famine and disease.
• Ye Zhen worried that rising Yellow River waters might threaten the Kaifeng consulate, but Consul General Rendell said the city had passed its most dangerous period.
• Rendell warned that Japan could use Korea as a base to enter the Northeast while the Northeastern Army’s strongest troops remained inside the passes.
• Rendell told Ye Zhen that East Africa might reduce its focus on the Huaihai Economic Zone, while East Africa planned to expand diplomatic work in Xi'an and Shancheng.

East Africa organized an enormous relief effort for the Far East Empire’s devastating floods, sending supplies and grain while arranging oversight to prevent aid from being diverted. Donations from Chinese communities across East Africa and Nanyang added to the effort, which the chapter linked to the Far East Empire’s economic recovery and future resistance to foreign invasion.

• East Africa and several industrialized nations prepared aid for the Far East Empire, whose floods had drawn international attention.
• At Mogadishu Port, Mayor Lahore told Zhou Tongshu that East Africa sympathized with the Far East Empire and sent a ship loaded with government aid and public donations.
• Zhou Tongshu promised to help ensure the supplies reached those in need, while Lahore voiced concern that the Nanjing government might embezzle them.
• The Central Government of the Rhine Empire dispatched an investigation team to oversee delivery of East Africa’s first aid shipment, valued at seven hundred million Rheinland Shields and including seven hundred thousand tons of grain.
• Chinese merchants and overseas Chinese across East Africa’s Nanyang colonies and neighboring countries contributed extensive donations to the Far East Empire’s relief effort.
• The chapter described how the aid helped limit flood losses and supported the Far East Empire’s economic and industrial recovery during the Golden Decade.

Ernst argued that East Africa could not protect its interests in the Far East Empire from a Japanese invasion, so it should shift investment away from exposed coastal and northeastern regions toward the Guanzhong Plains and Sichuan-Chongqing Basin. He left Friedrich with plans to relocate industry westward and develop Xi'an and Shenmu as strategic rear areas.

• Ernst explained that Japan was likely to invade the Far East Empire and that East Africa could not intervene without risking greater losses.
• Ernst rejected Friedrich's optimism about the Nanjing government, citing its weakness and the danger that Japan would dominate the Northeast.
• Ernst instructed East African enterprises to prioritize investment in the Guanzhong Plains and Sichuan-Chongqing Basin and to move damaged Huaibei coal mines and ironworks west.
• Friedrich asked whether investment in warlord-controlled regions would anger Nanjing, but Ernst said the government lacked the power to stop commercial activity.
• Ernst singled out Xi'an and Shenmu for industrial development, emphasizing their potential coal and steel resources as the Far East Empire's rear areas.
• Ernst said strengthening the Far East Empire could weaken Japan and encourage it to turn south toward Nanyang and the South Pacific.

Kaitel inspected the lower Zambezi River and reviewed plans to improve navigation, reinforce the riverbanks, and develop the region alongside the construction of Cahora Bassa Hydroelectric Power Station. The project was expected to connect four industrial zones and establish the Lower Zambezi as a major economic center, while provincial agencies competed to lead the work.

• The director of the Zambezi River Province River Affairs Bureau explained how erosion and sediment threatened downstream navigation and proposed using the reservoir's filling period to deepen and widen the river channel.
• Kaitel said the Empire planned a broad overhaul of the lower Zambezi, including channel dredging, embankment reconstruction, riverbank reinforcement, and ecological protection belts.
• Kaitel described how improved shipping would connect the Central, Bohemia, Malawi, and emerging Lower Zambezi industrial zones and boost Tete City and Xindai city.
• Kaitel said the Zambezi River Province River Affairs Bureau would compete with the Rhodesia Province River Affairs Bureau for investment and results in the Lower Zambezi development project.

Koboda’s team used East African sonar to survey the Zambezi River between Tete City and Cahora Bassa Gorge, locating hidden reefs and mapping the riverbed for a future shipping channel. Their work supported the government’s plan to open the middle and lower Zambezi to navigation alongside dredging and construction of the Cahora Bassa ship locks.

• Koboda explained sonar’s development and described East Africa’s advanced equipment and experience using it for military and research purposes.
• Koboda said his team had found more than a dozen concealed reefs in ten days of surveying the Zambezi River.
• Koboda explained that surveying and clearing the bedrock channel between Tete City and Cahora Bassa Gorge was essential to the wider navigation project.
• Koboda’s team continued mapping the riverbed and marking hazards so engineering troops could prepare a stable channel for large vessels.

As Austria’s economic crisis intensified, Alfred Frauenfeld met with Schneider and other bourgeois figures, who proposed using the Austrian National Party to overthrow the Imperial Government and pursue German-Austrian unification. Frauenfeld considered the plan but made cooperation depend on Adolf becoming Germany’s prime minister, warning that a coup without German backing could cause the Empire to disintegrate.

• Austria’s unemployment and Labor Party influence grew, while Emperor Rudolf’s attempted reforms alienated the bourgeoisie.
• Schneider met Frauenfeld and said Austria’s industrial and commercial community wanted him to overthrow the Imperial Government.
• Schneider argued that Frauenfeld could not gain power under the Empire’s existing system and proposed replacing the government with a constitutional system.
• Schneider urged Frauenfeld to cooperate with the German National Party and Adolf, offering the prospect of German-Austrian unification and a powerful role for Frauenfeld.
• Frauenfeld said unification was inevitable but insisted they wait until Adolf became Germany’s prime minister, since acting alone could break up the Empire.

Frauenfeld and Adolf agreed to secretly unite the Austrian and German National Parties and pursue German-led unification of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Their plan left Rudolf unaware as he remained consumed by Labor Party uprisings, ethnic unrest, and the economic crisis.

• Frauenfeld proposed cooperating with Adolf’s German National Party rather than risking a coup, and Schneider pledged support for the Austrian National Party.
• Frauenfeld and other Austrian National Party leaders traveled to Berlin in August and reached an agreement with Adolf and senior German National Party members.
• Adolf and Frauenfeld argued that unification would strengthen Germany against the Soviet Union and make it the dominant power in Europe.
• Frauenfeld accepted that the German National Party would lead unification, and Adolf promised Austrian leaders roles in the future government and a merged Germanic National Party.
• Adolf ordered the Austrian National Party to recruit Germans in Hungary, Bohemia, and other regions while keeping their agreement secret.
• Rudolf remained focused on suppressing Labor Party uprisings, managing ethnic conflict, and confronting the economic crisis, unaware of the parties’ plans.

The chapter described East Africa’s economic boom and urban redevelopment before following Alexei, the exiled Tsar, as he questioned whether restoring the Romanov dynasty remained possible. His wife argued that the Soviet regime was secure and that their exile government had become little more than a gathering place for disillusioned Russians.

• East Africa’s Seventh Five-Year Plan revived the economy, reducing unemployment and leaving little room for opposition parties to gain support.
• Dar es Salaam’s old districts were demolished and rebuilt, while the city faced growing competition from other East African ports and cities.
• Alexei and his wife discussed the Soviet Union’s industrial growth and its resilience during the economic crisis.
• Alexei lamented that nearly ten years in East Africa had brought no progress toward restoring the Romanov dynasty.
• Alexei’s wife explained that East African support for the exile government had dwindled and said restoration was unrealistic, while their safety remained secure.

Alexei and his wife discussed new investments as East Africa recovered from the economic crisis, with his wife urging him to use their status and wealth to enter stable, promising industries. She left Alexei convinced that building a luxury goods business under the Russian imperial family name was their best long-term opportunity.

• Alexei asked his wife whether they should make new investments as the economy recovered, and she criticized the money they had wasted supporting restoration of the Russian Empire.
• Alexei agreed to follow his wife's cautious approach, and she proposed investing in emerging industries that had survived the economic crisis and in East African companies with official backing.
• Alexei's wife argued that East Africa would attract international capital and that their recognized status as the Tsar's family could give them advantages in business.
• Alexei's wife recommended investing in home appliances and luxury goods, including perfume, handicrafts, and medicine, using the Romanov imperial family name to raise their products' prestige.
• Alexei accepted that the crisis could be an opportunity and listened as his wife identified a luxury goods company as their best investment for future generations.

Alexei and his wife established Romanov as an East African luxury brand, while Soviet officials secretly arranged to buy East African grain to cover a shortfall caused by declining harvests. Yosef ordered grain imports and demanded that Soviet-ruled Ukraine avoid famine, leaving the trade mission to carry out the secret purchases.

• Alexei and his wife established Romanov in East Africa, where government support helped the luxury brand grow.
• On October 7, 1931, Kantorovich told the Rhine City trade mission that Yosef had ordered it to expand grain exports to East Africa while secretly importing cheap East African grain.
• Abram questioned the contradictory trade plan, and Kantorovich explained that the Soviet Union faced a temporary grain shortage.
• Kantorovich's explanation persuaded the trade mission officials that imports were needed to meet the livestock industry's rising demand for grain.
• Yosef angrily blamed Ukrainian officials for falling grain output and ordered the Foreign Trade Committee to buy grain abroad to prevent famine in Soviet-ruled Ukraine.

Yosef arranged covert grain imports to ease the Soviet Union’s shortage and secure funds for industrialization, then mobilized the Cheka to exploit the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s crisis and support an armed revolution there. He chose Artuzov to lead the foreign operation.

• Yosef ordered Rosenberg to keep grain trade secret, import cheaper rice from East Africa, and exchange mineral exports for grain and foreign currency.
• Yosef summoned Myanysky, head of the Cheka, and explained that the agency should help divert international attention while preparing foreign operations.
• Yosef proposed supporting the Austrian Labour Party and launching an armed revolution in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, whose economic and political problems had weakened Habsburg rule.
• Myanysky agreed that the time was right but said his health prevented him from commanding the operation.
• Myanysky recommended Artuzov for the mission because of his knowledge of Western Europe, and Yosef approved the choice.

Yosef and Myanysky chose Artuzov to lead Soviet efforts to stir unrest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, judging that the global economic crisis limited other countries’ ability to respond. In Arusha, Lever and Kasi debated the city’s economic prospects, with Kasi arguing that its natural attractions could support tourism.

• Yosef stressed that the operation against the Austro-Hungarian Empire needed a detailed plan and should aim to raise the red flag in Vienna.
• Myanysky said Soviet support could help the Austrian Labor Party expand the World Labor Party’s influence while exploiting the empire’s internal divisions.
• In an Arusha restaurant, Lever blamed Nairobi’s status as provincial capital for Arusha’s relative decline, while Kasi pointed to Nairobi’s trunk-railway connections and Kisumu’s port trade.
• Kasi argued that Arusha should develop tourism around Kilimanjaro, Gem Lake, the Serengeti Plains, volcanoes, and the East African Rift Valley.
• Lever dismissed tourism as less promising than industry, reflecting the era’s preference for industrial development.

At a regional meeting in Arusha, Mayor Galen Tower proposed promoting the Northern Plateau’s natural attractions through film and television and coordinating tourism across five provinces. The delegates supported making Arusha the project’s hub, and the meeting turned toward establishing routes, services, and a long-term regional coordination center.

• Galen Tower welcomed representatives from five provinces and outlined the Northern Plateau’s varied landscapes and famous attractions.
• Galen Tower proposed using newspapers, books, radio, film, and television to raise the region’s international profile, with Mombasa and Dar es Salaam city helping lead film-based promotion.
• Owen and the representatives from Mombasa city and Dar es Salaam city endorsed Galen Tower’s proposal, and other delegates voiced their support.
• Galen Tower called for an integrated tourism loop with transportation, lodging, dining, and activities ranging from sightseeing to hunting and mountaineering.
• Galen Tower proposed establishing a long-term tourism meeting venue in Arusha, and the delegates accepted Arusha as the natural center of the regional project.

East African Foreign Minister Freer negotiated the Paraná River Merchant Shipping Agreement with South American countries, using promises of economic development to secure free navigation and expand East African influence. Argentina and Brazil accepted East African involvement, while the agreement left East Africa poised to establish a naval base in Uruguay and strengthen its hold over the river basin.

• Freer led East Africa’s delegation in Montevideo and argued that the Paraná River basin should be managed and developed jointly, defining the Paraná, Uruguay, and Río de la Plata as one waterway.
• Freer offered investment in ports, cities, industry, and agriculture, including projects at Asuncion, Rosario, Corumbá, Suárez, and Salto.
• Uriburu’s Argentine government cooperated with East Africa because it needed economic support and feared East African interference in its unstable rule.
• East Africa made economic cooperation with Argentina conditional on an agreement guaranteeing free navigation for East African merchant ships.
• Brazil agreed to cooperate on Corumbá, while East Africa planned to develop Suárez Port as Bolivia’s outlet for iron ore exports.
• Freer warned that countries could not obstruct free passage and indicated East Africa would expand its military presence, including leasing a large-fleet port in Uruguay.