Recaps

Ababonel discovered that Appel Commercial Bank’s Spanish loan was a risky scheme arranged by Adler and Rivera, who planned to use shell companies to raise money from investors. As the deal gained publicity and investment pitches began, Rivera’s group calculated the fees and commissions they could extract, leaving the scheme underway.

• Ababonel told Adler that Spain wanted at least ten percent of the loan disbursed in the first week, and Adler instructed him to negotiate slower payments and tighter limits.
• Adler persuaded Ababonel that Spain would need more money for its wars and that small lending companies would bear most of the risk.
• Adler called Rivera, who urged him to hurry the Spanish contract and promised that Appel Commercial Bank would become his if he helped the scheme succeed.
• Rivera recalled how debts from the stock market crash had driven him to create shell investment and lending companies and acquire Appel Commercial Bank for his swindle.
• Newspapers publicized Appel Commercial Bank’s seventy-million-Divine-Shield loan, while investment companies promoted contracts to investors.
• Rivera’s associates calculated how fees, interest, and brokerage commissions could let them recover a large share of the loan funds.

Rivera launched a global investment scheme built around Spain’s loans, recruiting investors and employees while even convincing himself of its promise. Meanwhile, Franz reviewed the Holy Roman Empire’s third-anniversary military parade, which ended with a brief flyover by the air force.

• Rivera used the Vienna Government’s focus on parade preparations to establish investment companies and began raising money internationally with help from Jewish financiers.
• Rivera promoted the scheme as a way for ordinary investors to profit from buying cheap assets during the crisis, while using new investors’ money to pay earlier investors and fund further investments.
• Rivera launched a global lecture tour in the second half of 1895 and recruited employees who also invested their family fortunes, leaving Adler doubtful that Rivera was a swindler.
• Franz rode a horse to review the troops and then ordered the military parade to begin from the city gate tower.
• The honor guard raised the national flag, and formations of soldiers, armored vehicles, tanks, and artillery marched through Vienna Palace Square.
• One hundred aircraft circled the square briefly and returned to their bases, avoiding Franz after he had restricted aerial displays for safety.

After the Holy Roman Empire’s military parade sparked a surge in demand for its weapons, Spanish officials weighed how to spend their borrowed funds. Junior chose to monitor the Jewish lenders and buy limited arms, leaving Spain dependent on Austrian supplies as it prepared to suppress rebellions.

• Franz saw that the Holy Roman Empire’s parade had impressed spectators, and its aircraft, tanks, and artillery became popular exports, including in Britain.
• Junior weighed buying aircraft and tanks against Spain’s limited funds and mountainous terrain, while recognizing that Vienna expected Spain to help contain France.
• Junior asked Minister Brad whether the Jewish lenders could secure further loans, then ordered him to monitor them and cooperate as long as payments arrived on schedule.
• Junior considered gathering evidence against the lenders and reporting them after Spain received the full loan, despite the risk to the government’s reputation.
• Minister Brad asked about arms purchases, and Junior ordered standard weapons and ammunition from a prepared list, limited aircraft purchases to twenty bombers, and rejected tanks as unnecessary against rebels.

British leaders watched a film of the Austrian army and debated how Britain should acquire and organize modern military equipment. Robert Cecil proposed separating aerial forces from the Army, while Skybrew tried to preserve the Army’s control and funding.

• Robert Cecil showed the government’s senior officials a film of the Austrian army, and Skybrew argued that Britain’s Army had fallen far behind and needed more investment.
• Cameron said Britain had purchased samples of Austrian aircraft, tanks, and armored vehicles so domestic companies could reproduce them.
• Robert Cecil proposed creating an independent service branch for Britain’s aerial forces, alarming Skybrew because it threatened the Army’s resources and his position.
• Robert Cecil said the air force would remain under the War Office for now, but its flying forces would establish an independent leadership structure.
• Skybrew urged the government to place the new aircraft in a flying division under the War Office and learn from the Holy Roman Empire’s organization of air power.

Franz assessed the world’s military powers and concluded that the Holy Roman Empire faced no serious army rival. Meanwhile, Rivera’s investment group grew through profitable purchases and acclaim, but employees began stealing funds, forcing Rivera to confront a threat that could destroy the business.

• Franz judged that Russia relied on retired Austrian equipment and that no other country could match the Holy Roman Empire’s army.
• Franz evaluated the armies of Europe and overseas, finding their weaknesses in size, industrial capacity, equipment, or command.
• Rivera reinvested his funds in Austrian companies and the Suez Canal, earning profits on paper and praise from the media.
• Rivera’s employees withheld investments and then fled with money, leaving the investment group liable for investors’ contracts.
• Rivera gathered his associates and urged them to propose ways to stop the repeated embezzlement and absconding.

Rivera tried to curb theft in his investment group by arranging tighter oversight and cooperation among banks, insurers, and law firms, while his fame and reforms spread across Europe. Meanwhile, Franz considered Spain’s wars and the Holy Roman Empire’s covert arms sales in Morocco, deciding he would offer to buy Morocco the next time Spain approached him.

• Rivera identified poor personnel and weak fund supervision as the causes of employees absconding with investors’ money, then sought financial partners to secure deposits and oversee cross-border transactions.
• Rivera’s daily flights and investment success made him famous across Europe, boosted the aviation industry, and encouraged banks and insurers to adopt new financial services.
• Franz heard of Rivera’s rise, confirmed that Rivera was not a fellow transmigrator, and otherwise paid little attention to his ambitions.
• European leaders watched Spain’s conflicts in Cuba and the Philippines, while Britain sought to suppress Spain rather than win it as an ally.
• Franz learned that people within the Holy Roman Empire had secretly sold weapons to Moroccan tribes hostile to Spain, and he decided to offer to buy Morocco the next time the Spanish came to him.

Spain struggled to respond to unrest among Moroccan tribes, which Britain had secretly armed, while its wars in Cuba and the Philippines strained its resources. In London, Robert Cecil’s cabinet sought a way to break the Russo-Austrian Alliance, and Aquina proposed redirecting Russian expansion toward the east by helping build the Siberian Railway.

• Moroccan tribes used weapons secretly supplied under British pretenses to attack Spanish immigrants, while the Moroccan Sultan Government failed to control them.
• Prime Minister Antonio convened Spain’s cabinet, where officials argued that military action was unaffordable and negotiations with Morocco’s tribes would be ineffective.
• British Prime Minister Robert Cecil warned his cabinet that the Russo-Austrian Alliance threatened Britain and that the Central Asian Railway might open before 1900.
• Foreign Secretary Cameron explained that shared interests and a common enemy made the Russo-Austrian Alliance difficult to divide.
• Economic Minister Aquina proposed that Britain help Russia build the Siberian Railway to encourage Russian ambitions in the east and weaken its alignment with Austria.

British ministers debated how to fund a Siberian Railway that could lure Russia eastward and weaken its alliance with Austria, but public distrust and Parliament made British support difficult. Robert Cecil ordered the Foreign Office to approach Russia through a third party and planned to seek Queen Victoria’s help against parliamentary opposition.

• Pavel Lisitsian asked where the money for the railway would come from as the Tsarist Government weighed the costly Siberian and Central Asian railway plans.
• Flora warned that Russia would distrust British involvement and that Britain could not trust Russia to spend any funds on the railway rather than military expansion.
• Cameron proposed using a third country to approach Russia, arguing that Nicholas II’s desire for revenge on Japan could draw Russia eastward and fracture the Russo-Austrian Alliance.
• Cameron identified Parliament as the main obstacle to funding, since members would oppose subsidizing Russia after the Anglo-Russian Afghan War.
• Robert Cecil directed the Foreign Office to contact Russia through an intermediary, planned private talks with party members of Parliament, and decided to visit Queen Victoria.

The British searched for a country that could secretly finance the Siberian Railway, while the United States of America seemed too timid to take the risk. Meanwhile, unrest in France forced Franz to consider the Russian Army’s abuses and the Carlos Government’s deliberate failure to stop them.

• The British concluded that the United States of America was the only plausible intermediary for secretly funding the Siberian Railway, but doubted that Americans would dare challenge the Russo-Austrian Alliance.
• The First Sino-Japanese War ended, and international intervention prepared to curb Japan after its victory.
• France’s mercenary scheme failed to provide meaningful relief, while the Russian Army’s arbitrary collection of reparations impoverished and enraged French civilians.
• French civilians and some government forces attacked the Russian Army, and King Carlos led his government in a strike against the occupation forces.
• Franz judged that the Russians had caused the unrest but suspected the Carlos Government had intentionally let matters escalate to win sympathy and benefits from the alliance.

Nicholas II's government debated how to contain the French crisis after Russian troops' violence damaged Russia's reputation. Nicholas ordered diplomacy first and threatened military force if France refused, leaving officials to work out who would lead the response.

• Franz's government left the French crisis to Russia, while Allied Headquarters authorized the Russian Army in Paris to handle the aftermath.
• Nicholas II reviewed damaging footage of Russian abuses and called for decisive action to repair Russia's international image.
• Pobedonostsev urged Nicholas to stabilize Paris before holding commanders accountable, and Sergei Witte proposed sending a delegation to negotiate with the French government.
• Mikhailovich warned that France would demand a Russian troop withdrawal, which Russia could not accept without jeopardizing reparations and allied relations.
• Nicholas ordered the Foreign Ministry to negotiate first and told officials to use bayonets if the French rejected Russia's goodwill, without specifying whether diplomats or the military would take charge.

Franz discussed France’s growing unrest with Foreign Minister Wessenberg and learned that King Carlos was secretly preparing a French uprising, while the Russians’ actions had accelerated the crisis. Franz decided to expose France’s arms smuggling and Vienna Treaty violations to give Russia ammunition in the war of public opinion.

• King Carlos fled Paris as the French Government shut down, leaving social order and relief efforts to collapse.
• Foreign Minister Wessenberg told Franz that French resistance forces were secretly smuggling weapons and that Carlos might be preparing to restore the French Empire.
• Franz recognized that the Vienna Government had quietly allowed France’s unrest to grow and that the Russians had become the public face of suppressing it.
• Franz ordered the media to publish evidence of French arms smuggling and Vienna Treaty violations so Russia could use it against Carlos.

French resistance began a war against the Russian Army, while the Vienna Government kept its distance despite supplying Russian troops with potatoes. In Vienna, Carlos and French officials sought support, but Pietro concluded that Austria intended to let France and Russia weaken each other, leaving France uncertain it could win.

• On December 21, 1895, French resistance ambushed a Russian Army logistics battalion outside Paris and began the war against Russia.
• Franz offered the Russian Army unlimited free potatoes, easing its supply burden and leading Carlos to believe Vienna was signaling support for Russia.
• Carlos told the French officials gathered in Vienna that Franz and the Vienna Government's senior officials were avoiding him.
• Pietro argued that Vienna's silence left room for maneuver and that Austria likely benefited most from France and Russia fighting each other.
• The French officials could not bring themselves to answer whether France, in its weakened state, could defeat the Russians.

As the Franco-Russian War intensified, Russian reprisals against French civilians fueled public outrage, though allied newspapers selectively covered the suffering. Near the end of 1895, Franz reflected on his age and considered retirement, but decided he first had to remove the Holy Roman Empire’s final obstacle and stabilize the world.

• The Russian Army imposed collective punishment on French towns and streets after guerrilla attacks, exiling civilians to Siberia under deadly conditions.
• Newspapers and commentators condemned both France and Russia, while Anti-French Alliance media downplayed French suffering and favored Russia.
• As 1895 ended after wars across four continents, Franz celebrated Christmas in Vienna and privately acknowledged that he had grown old.
• Franz considered retiring but decided to resolve the Holy Roman Empire’s remaining obstacle and stabilize the world before undertaking major internal reforms.

Grover Cleveland pursued a strategy of provoking European rivalries to create an opportunity to reunify the South, since anti-war sentiment and divisions within the Union made a direct campaign impossible. His plan helped ignite the Cuban independence movement and set Spain against Britain, but Spain’s decline limited its success.

• The Union’s weak central government, ethnic divisions, and widespread unwillingness to fight left support for forced reunification of the South concentrated among eastern capitalists.
• A previous president’s reunification plan collapsed after state governments refused to send troops, and the Continental War ended before the Union could agree on a course of action.
• European powers warned that a renewed American Civil War could bring intervention and the partition of the Union under a zonal occupation plan.
• Grover Cleveland avoided repeating his predecessor’s failure and sought to stir up conflicts among European powers to clear a path toward national unification.
• Grover Cleveland covertly sent weapons to Cuban independence fighters, helping set Britain against Spain and sow suspicion between Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, but Spain’s decline reduced the plan’s impact.

Grover Cleveland and Juan Tripp considered the British proposal for the Union to help fund Russia’s Siberian Railway, while seeking concessions and a way to keep Austria from interfering. In Russia, Nicholas II dismissed calls to seek allied help against French resistance and agreed to use prisoners of war as labor on the Central Asian Railway.

• Grover Cleveland asked Juan Tripp what terms Britain had offered for the Union’s help with the Siberian Railway.
• Juan explained that Britain had promised an interest-free loan of ten million pounds, and proposed that the Union demand a share of Russia’s Far Eastern profits in exchange for supplying workers.
• Cleveland said they needed to settle the Austrians first, while Juan argued that Nicholas II and the Vienna Government would not stop the railway plan.
• Pobedonostsev urged Nicholas II to ask Russia’s allies to help suppress French resistance, but Nicholas refused and insisted the Russian Army could handle it.
• Sergei Witte proposed sending captured French prisoners to build the Central Asian Railway, and Nicholas ordered the troops to capture more prisoners for the work.

After a massacre of Spanish colonists in Morocco, Spain prepared to retaliate and considered withdrawing its troops from France. Franz accepted the withdrawal and decided to keep supporting Russia’s war against France, while remaining wary of Russia’s growing population and power.

• Moroccan tribes slaughtered more than a thousand people in a Spanish immigrant town, prompting Spain to announce military retaliation.
• Franz learned that Spain wanted to withdraw its garrison from France, and Prime Minister Karl explained that Spain was prioritizing the safety of its expatriates in Morocco.
• Franz agreed to Spain’s withdrawal because Russia was already weakening France and the Holy Roman Empire did not need Spanish troops for now.
• Franz considered increasing support for Russia so the Russians could further cripple France, while recognizing that their growing population made them a potential future threat.
• Franz concluded that repeated wars could limit Russian strength by consuming the empire’s resources, so he favored letting Russia and France exhaust each other.

Franz decided to support Spain’s campaign in Morocco only with words, while French nobles gathered in occupied Paris to discuss Russian rule and the country’s worsening plight. The gathering revealed that resistance members were present, as the nobles quietly considered opposition to the Russians.

• Franz ruled out material or direct assistance to Spain and chose to offer spiritual encouragement instead.
• Breya and Maria traveled through snowbound Paris under Russian occupation, and Maria warned Breya not to provoke the Russians.
• Breya arrived at a noble gathering in a suburban manor, where Retes described Russian abuses, prisoner deportations, and France’s population losses.
• Breya said Spain’s troop withdrawal from Morocco might ease pressure on France’s southern region because the Alliance did not appear ready to replace them.
• Retes pointed out unfamiliar guests, and the nobles realized they were resistance members attending openly.

France’s guerrilla resistance trapped the Tsarist Government in a costly occupation, while the Holy Roman Empire resumed rapid development under Franz and Crown Prince Friedrich’s growing leadership. Franz approved Friedrich’s petrochemical plans but ordered him to reduce the royal family’s visible oil holdings, take charge of the restructuring, and organize the industry.

• French resistance groups targeted Russian troops, and the Tsarist Government avoided seeking aid or compromise to protect its prestige.
• The Holy Roman Empire recovered from the economic crisis and began drafting a new five-year plan as Friedrich took on more state responsibilities.
• Franz questioned Friedrich’s proposal to develop the petrochemical industry, and Friedrich cited wasted byproducts, economic growth, job creation, and royal oil holdings as reasons.
• Franz told Friedrich to take the royal companies public, reduce the family’s visible shareholdings, and form an industry association to raise barriers to entry.
• Friedrich accepted responsibility for the plan, and Franz approved of his composure as a sign of his fitness as heir.

Friedrich oversaw the Royal Consortium’s plan to list four oil companies, which aimed to raise 200 million Divine Shield for building out the petrochemical industry. After the preparations were completed, trading was scheduled to begin on December 21, leaving Friedrich feeling hollow once the work was done.

• As the market recovered from the crash, demand for the Holy Roman Empire’s oil and petrochemical products continued to grow.
• Friedrich weighed whether to merge the Royal Consortium’s oil companies or list them separately, then signed the documents launching the plan for four simultaneous listings.
• European financial media reacted to the companies’ planned 200-million-Divine-Shield IPO and their high valuations.
• The Royal Consortium completed pre-listing equity incentives and advance subscriptions, and trading was scheduled to begin on December 21.
• Friedrich instructed his aide to proceed with the original plan and felt hollow after the preparations were finished.

Franz planned to turn the Holy Roman Empire’s overseas colonies into autonomous constituent states and appointed his son Peter Governor of Central America as a first step. Peter accepted a five-year trial to prove he could rule the region and become its king.

• Franz reasoned that granting colonies greater autonomy through an enfeoffment system would preserve their ties to the empire better than the governor system.
• Franz appointed Peter Governor of Central America and asked whether he was prepared to take on the role.
• Peter said he had prepared for years, and Franz gave him five years to bring the region under his control and earn the future title of King of Central America.
• Franz advised Peter to follow the rules unless his safety or the monarch’s authority was threatened.
• Franz planned to appoint other governors gradually, avoiding the appearance of handing every colony to his sons before the conflict with Britain was settled.

After the Heden Disaster ruined Nicholas II’s reputation, his government struggled to respond while European monarchs took the incident as a warning. Franz and Friedrich discussed the Tsarist Government’s decline and how Nicholas II might use the crisis to restore his authority.

• The Heden Square celebration became a deadly crowd crush, and officials concealed the losses while Nicholas II remained unaware and held the planned banquet.
• Nicholas II angrily demanded answers from his ministers, and Sergei Witte urged him to address the aftermath and repair his public image.
• Franz reflected on how the disaster had benefited Europe’s monarchs and questioned Friedrich about what the Russian crisis revealed.
• Friedrich judged the Tsarist Government decayed, and Franz suggested local elites might have enabled the gathering and that a purge could expose them.
• Friedrich advised Nicholas II to deploy troops, punish selected figures, and use the crisis to establish authority and advance reforms.

General Okinets sought help from Allied Command as Russian supplies failed to arrive, risking Vienna’s control over Russian forces in France. Meanwhile, Nicholas II confronted demands for local autonomy and received an American proposal to build a railway across Russia.

• Nicholas II’s distrust after the Heden Massacre fueled bureaucratic resistance and demands for local autonomy, open parliaments, and relaxed elections.
• General Okinets learned that repeated requests for supplies had gone unanswered and ordered his aide to ask Allied Command for assistance.
• Okinets weighed the political cost of accepting Vienna’s help, knowing Allied Command could gain real control over the Russian Army in France.
• Nicholas II rejected the self-government representatives’ demands and defended the autocratic system, citing Russia’s ethnic divisions and France’s defeat.
• Foreign Minister Mikhailovich told Nicholas II that the United States had proposed closer economic ties and a railway linking Central Asia to the Far East.

Nicholas II weighed an American proposal to build the Siberian Railway, while Friedrich faced a dilemma over a Russian Army request for supplies in France. Friedrich chose to provide the supplies, leaving the Vienna Government to address relations with Russia afterward.

• Mikhailovich explained that American steel magnates wanted the railway project, operating rights, and favorable trade terms to support American expansion in the Far East and clear surplus steel.
• Sergei Witte proposed delaying construction for three years, but Mikhailovich warned that the American investors and government would not wait; Nicholas II remained undecided.
• Franz spent the summer touring the Albis Mountains while Friedrich handled the burden of government affairs.
• Prime Minister Karl told Friedrich that the Russian Army in France had requested help with its logistical problems.
• Friedrich rejected the option of urging the Tsarist Government to supply its own troops and ordered the Vienna Government to provide the Russian Army with supplies first.

Carlos sought Holy Roman Empire intervention as Russia forcibly conscripted French men for the Siberian Railway, but the Vienna Government refused to help. Public outrage over Russian atrocities spread across Europe, while Friedrich rejected Carlos’s appeals and told him France would have to face the consequences of its past actions.

• Nicholas II ordered the Siberian Railway built and planned to conscript French laborers, prompting Carlos to fear France would lose another generation of men.
• Carlos asked Austria to intervene, but Foreign Minister Pietro reported that the Vienna Government would only condemn the conscription and had no intention of stopping Russia.
• French citizens joined resistance organizations and expatriates spread reports of Russian abuses, causing public outrage across Europe and within the Holy Roman Empire.
• Friedrich received Carlos again and rejected his request for intervention, arguing that France had brought its suffering upon itself through its past aggression.
• Carlos blamed the Napoleon government and capitalists for the war, but Friedrich ended the argument and said France could not expect support while Luxembourg and the Rhineland still hated it.

Robert Cecil learned that Vienna was supporting the Russian Army’s devastation of France, exposing Britain’s failed effort to turn Russia against the Holy Roman Empire. He decided Britain must abandon France and focus on drawing the Russians into the costly Siberian Railway project while backing movements that could weaken them.

• Robert Cecil restrained himself from ordering the Royal Navy to block Russian access to France because it would not stop Russian reinforcements and could jeopardize Britain’s broader strategy.
• Cameron reported that Vienna was supplying the Russian Army and that the Russians had likely traded their campaign against France for Vienna’s approval of the Siberian Railway.
• Robert Cecil acknowledged that Britain had underestimated Russian diplomacy and viewed the Tsarist Government as its most immediate threat.
• Pavel urged Britain to ensure construction of the Siberian Railway and support anti-Russian groups, including French resistance organizations, Polish revolutionaries, Bulgarian independence groups, Russian revolutionaries, and Afghan guerrillas.
• Robert Cecil’s government accepted that France was beyond saving and resolved to redirect the crisis eastward against Russia.