"Atrocities"

In fact, Franz had given these people other options. They could take the money and continue their noble lives in the cities, or head to the colonies and carry on as landlords.

Though landed nobility had fallen behind the times, they were perfectly suited to the colonies. Not only would they not impede social development, they could also strengthen Austria's hold over the region.

Still, Franz hoped they would choose the first path. After all, the growth of cities and industry required vast amounts of capital, and financial and industrial nobles were much easier to control than landed nobles.

Franz had made quite a spectacle of things, but he had not quelled the rebellion. Since no one could be sure whether the railway had been damaged, he sent people to inspect it along the entire route, while he himself led his men onward to "see justice done."

The atrocities Franz committed against the Polish nobles soon reached Vienna. They did not, however, cause much of a stir, mainly because Austria's nobles did not regard Polish nobles as their countrymen.

Even among nobles, there was a pecking order, and at the very bottom of the Austrian Empire's ladder stood this group of Polish nobles.

There was no special reason for it; they had simply arrived late. Northern Italy had joined the Austrian Empire even later, but the two sides shared close blood ties. The branch of the House of Habsburg that ruled Austria now had even come from Italy.

Before succeeding Joseph II to the throne, Leopold II had been Grand Duke of Tuscany. The old Emperor Francis II, meanwhile, had believed himself Italian right up until his dying day.

The Polish nobles, by contrast, were a far more motley bunch. Galicia had once been the poorest part of Poland, and