Chapter Summaries

Austrian forces suppressed the unrest in Wallachia and Moldavia after changing their tactics, while bandit leaders Osescu and Adrian eventually split after heavy losses. The chapter then turned to the less successful consequences of Greece and the Ottoman Empire’s efforts to attract people from Russian-occupied lands.

• Outsiders from across the Danube joined local unrest in Wallachia and Moldavia, where Moldavian nationalists strengthened the resistance.
• Adrian repeatedly escaped Austrian pursuit by retreating into Russia, while Osescu’s Bulgarian fighters joined local gangs after crossing the Danube.
• Osescu and Adrian allied, raided villages and warehouses, and escaped Austrian forces across the Russian border.
• Austrian troops fortified settlements and cleared the surrounding countryside, defeating the bandits’ feigned attacks and main assault.
• Osescu and Adrian’s gangs fought among themselves and scattered, while the chapter noted that Greece and the Ottoman Empire faced troubling consequences from their immigration policies.

After unrest and violence spread through Macedonia, Otto I asked Franz for Austrian troops, but Franz refused and advised Greece to close its borders. Otto I followed the advice and began restoring order, while the Ottoman Empire continued to struggle with an open Eastern Rumelia and growing pressure on its land.

• Violence in Macedonia escalated when a bullet killed Otto I's imperial envoy, prompting Otto I to send troops against the unrest.
• Unable to control the mountain regions and facing mounting costs, Otto I telegraphed Franz to request Austrian troops.
• Franz rejected military intervention, citing Greece's weak local control and the risks of Austrian involvement, and told Otto I to close the borders.
• Otto I closed Greece's borders and began reorganizing domestic order, though refugees could still cross with difficulty.
• The Ottoman Empire continued to leave Eastern Rumelia open and faced mounting problems as its growing population exceeded the land's capacity.

Ottoman repression of Balkan refugees in East Thrace escalated into massacres, prompting Greek and Russian protests and a British demand that the violence stop. The Ottoman government introduced limited self-rule and accepted an Austrian-backed plan to relocate people to the Duchy of Aumale in North Africa, though the underlying population crisis remained unresolved.

• The Zaptiye extorted Balkan refugees, and locals killed several officers after violence and deaths mounted.
• The Ottoman New Army suppressed the unrest with widespread killing and looting, leaving tens of thousands dead.
• Greece protested the massacres, and Nicholas I threatened war while reinforcing Russia’s presence in the Balkans.
• Empress Dowager Shevkyevza sought British help, and John Russell ordered the Ottomans to halt the ethnic massacres.
• The Ottoman government introduced the Millet System in East Thrace and Rumelia and accepted an Austrian proposal to send refugees to the Duchy of Aumale in North Africa.

Franz pursued Austrian interests in Tripoli by arranging for Ottoman workers to build an east–west railway under the Duchy of Omar’s name. During Christmas, carp sales rose, Austrian chefs developed a cheap carp fish ball, and annual audits kept corrupt officials on edge.

• Franz planned to build a railway across Tripoli and intended to hire Ottoman workers through the Duchy of Omar without revealing Austria’s involvement.
• On Christmas, Austrian carp sales reached a new high, and chefs developed carp fish balls that cost far less than alternatives.
• Franz awarded the chef who developed the fish balls ten thousand Florins.
• Vienna’s royal family subsidized street performers, while people unable to travel home gathered in beer halls and cafés.
• The annual audit and unpredictable enforcement visits pressured corrupt officials, some of whom celebrated early, fled Vienna, or surrendered to the Supervisory Committee.

Franz uncovered widespread theft and collusion at the United Power Department Store, then stopped the public crackdown at the middlemen while ordering further internal investigations. Meanwhile, Napoleon III welcomed the new Britain-France telegraph cable, only for French fishermen to cut it and haul it off to sell.

• Franz's investigators traced the department store's losses to warehouse administrator Claudio Riley, whose thefts grew into a scheme involving suppliers and corrupt officials.
• The investigation expanded from 243 suspects to 3,755, and Franz ordered the leadership removed while limiting the public purge to the middlemen.
• Austrian authorities sentenced 177 people to death and exiled 3,152 to Africa, while the recovered money failed to cover Franz's losses.
• Fleglova saw the investigation as proof that corruption reached every level, and Austrian supervisory bodies shifted attention toward lower-level waste.
• Napoleon III was pleased when the Dover-Calais telegraph cable was completed, but six French fishermen mistook it for seaweed, cut it, and hauled sixteen kilometers of cable ashore to sell.

Britain avoided escalating its dispute with France as it focused on the greater Russian threat, while the United States’ sectional conflict erupted into a congressional brawl. In China, Hong Xiuquan’s movement survived early setbacks, founded the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and drew the wary attention of Pius IX.

• French newspapers mocked Napoleon III over the failed undersea cable, while Britain treated the loss as minor and prioritized containing Russia.
• Daniel Webster faced disputes over troop deployments in the northwest as Congress erupted into a fight between Northern and Southern lawmakers over fugitive slaves, labor, and state rights.
• Hong Xiuquan’s God Worshipping Society failed to free imprisoned members and suffered killings, but worsening disasters and local violence helped his followers rally at Jintian.
• Hong Xiuquan mustered his forces, won battles against Qing troops, and formally established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom on January 11, 1851.
• Pius IX condemned Songs of the Original Way to Save the World as heresy, then picked up the booklet to study it again.

At Xianfeng’s New Year audience, Qing officials praised the emperor and presented a vase of gifts, while Franz received a copy of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries in Vienna. Franz confronted British efforts to sabotage the Suez Canal project, but Sardinia challenged Britain at a shareholders’ meeting, revealing that Britain’s control had fallen below 20%.

• Yishan prompted Qi Junzao and Ji Zhichang to praise Xianfeng, who proudly displayed the Ten Thousand People Umbrella from western Guangdong.
• Yishan presented Xianfeng with the Vase of the Myriad Nations at Court, which the emperor accepted and rewarded.
• A Qing envoy presented Franz with a copied set of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries in Vienna.
• Franz learned that Britain had slowed Suez Canal construction by vetoing proposals, revising plans, and disrupting procurement.
• Belmondo armed Serampore and organized French forces that repelled East India Company expeditions, securing British recognition of French control.
• Cavour demanded that the Suez Canal Company reconsider its charter and procurement, and Britain discovered its shares had fallen below 20%.

Britain proposed a narrow Suez waterway and tried to discredit Franz with a smear campaign, but the publicity backfired and strengthened his reputation. At a shareholders’ meeting, Richard Metternich challenged the proposal and William Froude’s theoretical claims, leaving the canal’s future contested.

• William Froude and the Royal Academy of Sciences backed a five-meter-deep, twenty-five-meter-wide Suez waterway, while Franz and the Vienna Royal Scientific Society disputed its safe capacity.
• The Marquess of Lansdowne and John Russell arranged to publish a grotesque portrait of Ferdinand I alongside Franz’s name, but several newspapers printed Franz’s actual portrait instead.
• British readers discovered the deception, and Austrian intelligence agents helped turn the smear campaign against the government, spreading Franz’s popularity among the public.
• William Froude proposed opening the canal in its reduced form so shareholders could recover some funds, and small shareholders supported deciding the company’s future by vote.
• Richard Metternich argued that control should follow share ownership, condemned the canal’s limited capacity, and challenged William Froude over the gap between theoretical and safe navigation limits.

Franz’s proposal for a wider, deeper Suez Canal defeated British resistance after France backed Austria’s bid to lead the canal company in exchange for Austrian support for a French railway in Egypt. The canal plan was approved, and the Suez Railway was opened to public bidding, with Austria withdrawing from the competition.

• Franz proposed a canal fourteen meters deep and 122 meters wide, large enough for two-way traffic and vessels with an actual safe limit of 60,000 tons.
• Napoleon III agreed that France would support Austria’s leadership of the Suez Canal Company if Austria supported France’s Suez Railway project.
• William Froude objected that the Austrian canal plan required far more work, but Richard Metternich persuaded shareholders by emphasizing its greater potential profits.
• French and Spanish representatives supported the Austrian proposal, and the shareholders quickly approved the new Suez Canal plan.
• Franz put forward the Suez Railway project for public bidding, and Austria withdrew from the competition.

Britain failed to stop France and its partners from beginning the Suez Railway, and John Russell tried to shift responsibility to the Ottoman Empire. The Austrian Empire began expanding the canal project from four locations, while Egypt struggled with the costs and labor demands.

• Britain protested the Suez Railway, but Egypt's Abbas I did not challenge the great powers, and John Russell avoided calling for war with France.
• Viscount Stratford asked Shevkyevza and Murad V to resolve the dispute, but Shevkyevza rejected Britain's reliance on the Ottomans while Murad V wanted to side with Napoleon III.
• The Ottoman Empire imposed a symbolic annual tax of roughly one hundred thousand Francs on the railway, which Louis Napoleon paid and publicized in French newspapers.
• France's merchants backed the Suez Railway, and the Austrian Empire began canal work simultaneously at Port Said, the Great Bitter Lake, the Little Bitter Lake, and the Gulf of Suez.
• Egypt supplied three hundred thousand laborers and was required to pay ten percent of the expenses, leaving Abbas I's government burdened by debt and unable to meet the costs easily.

Franz inspected the secret four-stroke diesel engine developed by the Vienna Royal Scientific Society and directed Austrian engineers to focus on small internal-combustion engines. The engineers were stunned by his vision of vehicles eventually replacing steam locomotives and horse-drawn carriages.

• Franz considered the weaknesses of early coal-gas engines and steam locomotives, while Austria's abundance of diesel made a new engine especially useful.
• Étienne Lenoir questioned the extreme security around the test, and John Andreas Schubert reminded him that they were in Austria.
• The engineers showed Franz their four-stroke diesel engine, which used compression ignition and was far smaller than a steam engine of equivalent power.
• The engineers demonstrated a prototype internal-combustion locomotive, but Franz was unimpressed because he wanted smaller engines.
• Franz ordered the Empire to develop small internal-combustion engines and predicted that vehicles would eventually replace steam locomotives and horse-drawn carriages.

Franz rejected the Austrian Empire military’s enormous steam-powered Land Cruiser, while its engineers improved internal combustion engines and developed white phosphorus weapons. The military pursued armored trains and tested increasingly deadly weapons, which Franz restricted to special use in Europe.

• Franz rejected the 320-ton Land Cruiser because it could travel only on specially prepared ground, though Count Latour continued to advocate for it.
• Count Latour’s idea led the Austrian Empire military to develop armored trains and secretly plan to send them into Berlin to force Prussia to submit.
• Étienne Lenoir and John Andreas Schubert fitted an engine with a water tank to prevent overheating, joking about whether they would have to add a chimney next.
• The Austrian Empire military expanded white phosphorus production and developed grenades and specialized shells, despite deaths among weapons testers from the powder and its fumes.
• Franz classified white phosphorus weapons as special weapons, restricting their use unless necessary, though the military used them against natives in the colonies.

Bismarck urged Prince of Grapeshot William and Albrecht von Roon to save Prussia by challenging Austria’s growing power and forming an Anti-Austrian Alliance. The proposal met immediate doubts about whether any great power would support Prussia’s rise.

• Albrecht von Roon described Prussia’s military weakness and admitted that he had once considered seeking a position in the Austrian Empire.
• Bismarck told Prince of Grapeshot William that Prussia needed a stronger leader because its king could no longer guide the country.
• William questioned whether Prussia could overcome Austria’s greater population, territory, and influence in the German Confederation.
• Bismarck proposed forming an Anti-Austrian Alliance with Britain, France, Russia, and Italy.
• William pointed out the obstacles to the alliance, and Bismarck argued that the great powers would not allow Austria to dominate Central Europe.
• Albrecht von Roon objected that the great powers would also oppose Prussia’s rise.

Bismarck persuaded Albrecht von Roon and the others to risk secret agreements against Austria, arguing that Prussia had to act before the German people accepted Austrian rule. The group committed to the gamble, while Prince of Grapeshot hesitated and Bismarck asked for his help.

• Bismarck proposed that Prussia seek North Germany and present its ambitions as a balance-of-power measure that Britain could support.
• Albrecht von Roon warned that Austria’s vastly larger army and railway access left Prussia vulnerable to a sudden attack.
• Bismarck argued that the German people might accept Austrian rule rather than resist, and the room fell silent as the others considered Austria’s power.
• Albrecht von Roon agreed to gamble on the plan, and the others followed, but Prince of Grapeshot remained silent.
• Bismarck addressed Prince William and told him they needed his help.

Alexander Colonna Walewski traveled through the Russian winter to deliver Napoleon III’s proposal for a marriage alliance, hoping to break France’s diplomatic isolation. Nicholas I rejected the proposal outright and drove Walewski away, leaving France’s attempt to gain Russia as an ally in failure.

• Alexander Colonna Walewski endured a dangerous winter journey, stopped in Moscow, and mourned the French soldiers who had died there during Napoleon’s retreat.
• Walewski traveled to Saint Petersburg carrying Napoleon III’s proposal to form a marriage alliance with Russia.
• France’s leaders hoped an alliance with Russia would weaken Austria’s position and restore France’s influence in European diplomacy.
• Nicholas I tore up Napoleon III’s letter, rejected any marriage alliance, and insulted Walewski before sending him away.

After Austria, Russia, and smaller royal houses rejected his marriage proposals, Napoleon III chose Eugénie de Montijo as his Empress and quickly arranged their wedding. The ceremony drew few foreign dignitaries, but Murad V’s surprise arrival left Napoleon III responsible for keeping the Ottoman sultan safe, and Murad asked when France would attack Russia again.

• Nicholas I publicly condemned the House of Bonaparte, and the House of Nassau rejected Napoleon III’s proposal, leaving smaller royal houses afraid to marry into his family.
• Napoleon III comforted Alexander Colonna Walewski and insisted that he would choose a queen he liked rather than seek another royal alliance.
• Eugénie de Montijo returned from Vienna and became entangled with Napoleon III, while Franz abandoned the idea of recruiting her as a spy.
• Napoleon III and Eugénie arranged their wedding, which Richard Metternich attended for Austria; Nicholas I refused to send a Russian ambassador, while Prince Albert attended for Britain.
• Murad V arrived in Paris despite his mother’s objections, forcing Napoleon III to accompany the Ottoman sultan and attend to his safety.
• Murad V asked Napoleon III when he planned to attack Russia again.

Louis Napoleon answered Murad V’s questions about France and Russia during Napoleon III’s wedding, while Murad became an enthusiastic admirer of the French emperor. After Murad returned to Istanbul, European newspapers turned his secret visit into a scandal, and Franz speculated that Ottoman court factions had enabled the boy’s trip.

• Louis Napoleon evaded Murad V’s question about whether France would fight Russia by speaking of peace, treaties, and defending the weak.
• Murad V toasted to peace and spring with Louis Napoleon and kept him occupied with questions throughout Napoleon III’s wedding.
• The French escorted Murad V to Toulon Port and sent him back to Istanbul, while European newspapers publicized his visit and attacked France and the Ottomans.
• Franz reviewed intelligence on Murad V and suspected that Ottoman ministers had used the boy to challenge Empress Dowager Shevkyevza’s power.
• Russia sent ambassadors to France and the Ottoman Empire and reinforced its Balkan troops, while Nicholas I learned of Murad V’s visit a month later.

Britain debated how to counter Austria’s growing influence as Spain drew closer to Vienna, while Napoleon III’s attempt to court the French Church was rebuffed. The chapter left Britain considering support for Prussia and Sardinia, and the Church wary of the Napoleon family.

• Ferdinand II sought a state visit to Vienna, while John Russell and George Villiers discussed Murad V’s independent actions and rejected replacing him for lack of a safe opportunity.
• George Villiers proposed supporting Prussia and Sardinia against Austria, and he argued that Russian figures might also favor improved relations with Britain.
• John Russell considered funding and providing technology to Prussia and Sardinia, but suspected the proposal was an Austrian plot and suggested stirring opposition against Spain.
• The Archbishop of Paris refused to officiate Napoleon III’s wedding, claiming illness because the Church feared being used by the Napoleon family again.

Napoleon III’s government debated how to contain the French Church’s accusations but chose to ignore them, while the Church expanded its protests with help from Catholic powers. Nicholas I then condemned Louis-Napoleon and threatened to join the French people against him, leaving the French government struggling as the crisis widened.

• The French Church denounced France’s emperor as Judas and launched a nationwide bell-ringing campaign.
• Napoleon III rejected proposals to establish a state church or arrest the protesters, and his ministers decided to ignore the accusations and restrict newspaper coverage.
• French archbishops and Jesuit priests staged a sit-in at the Carmes Courtyard Martyr Site, prompting the Holy See, Austrian Church, and Spanish Church to pressure France.
• Nicholas I condemned Louis-Napoleon for colluding with the Ottoman Sultan and threatened to join the French people against him.
• The Ottoman Empire urgently contacted the Petersburg Hotel to clarify the situation, while the French Church remained silent and clergy from France and other Catholic countries joined the protests.

The Church united French workers, farmers, and townspeople in protest, forcing Napoleon III to accept reforms and grant the Church the right to form an armed force. At Schönbrunn Palace, Franz anxiously awaited Olga’s labor as tens of thousands gathered outside to pray for her and the child.

• Church priests and monks rallied farmers and factory workers by condemning low prices, harsh working conditions, and child labor, and protests spread across France.
• Napoleon III negotiated with the Church, accepting lower agricultural taxes, improved wages and working conditions, and other reforms while granting the Church an armed force and increasing its government funding by 50%; the Church abandoned its demand for the tithe.
• Napoleon III and Alexander Colonna Walewski discussed using bribery to divide the Church and regain influence over its followers.
• After Olga had been in labor for many hours, Franz panicked when the midwife rushed out, then learned Olga wanted food and later water.
• As night fell, Franz saw tens of thousands of people gathered outside Schönbrunn Palace, holding candles and praying for Olga and her child.