Recaps

Adam negotiated with Leo over harsh armistice terms, and Britain accepted the end of the war as its referendum overwhelmingly supported stopping the fighting. Britain formally withdrew from the war, leaving its territorial losses, reparations, and future military restrictions to be settled.

• Adam rejected the proposed cessions and 80 billion Divine Shields in reparations, while Leo defended the terms and warned that Britain risked unconditional surrender.
• Adam offered to give up most colonies and pay reparations if Britain’s homeland sovereignty and international standing were respected.
• Leo insisted on colonial surrender, reparations, and armament limits, while offering referendums on Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and demanding further concessions for the Holy Roman Empire.
• Leo asked Britain to remove its influence from Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, share technologies, and favor Holy Roman military products after the war.
• On December 16, 1905, the London Government announced that more than 90 percent of voters supported ending the war, and Parliament declared the vote valid as Britain withdrew from the conflict.

As the Continental Alliance gathered in Vienna to divide the spoils of victory, Russia was excluded from the settlement over South Asia while still engulfed in civil war. Nicholas II ordered Russia’s forces to intensify the rebellion’s suppression so the empire could regain a voice before the new international order was established.

• Leo welcomed the Continental Alliance’s representatives and opened discussions on dividing responsibility for the chaotic South Asian subcontinent.
• Roman Riquelme declared Spain’s willingness to participate, and representatives from the Nordic Federation, Belgium, and other countries joined the scramble.
• Nicholas II ordered Russian troops in India to abandon their positions and return home to suppress the rebellion.
• Witte warned that Afghanistan and much of Central Asia and the Caucasus were rebel-held, while Yevgeny cautioned that withdrawing the scattered troops without Allied support risked disaster.
• Nicholas II vowed to remember the Vienna Government’s exclusion and ordered newly formed troops sent to crush the domestic uprising before the international order was established.

Franz celebrated Christmas with his family while preparing to scatter his sons and grandsons across the Holy Roman Empire’s vast new territories through enfeoffment. In defeated Britain, Edward VII and Campbell faced the approaching surrender settlement as blockade shortages darkened Christmas for ordinary families like James’s.

• Franz spent Christmas with his family and reflected that the coming enfeoffments would send his sons and grandsons far away to establish new constituent states.
• Franz’s account described how military merit could earn land and titles, drawing settlers and soldiers to the Holy Roman Empire’s newly occupied territories.
• Edward VII grieved over Britain’s defeat, while the Vienna Government spared him to preserve stability and keep Britain’s existing bureaucracy in place.
• Campbell ordered the Foreign Ministry to send a representative to the Vienna Conference to sign for Britain, and Adam agreed to make the arrangements.
• British civilians endured meager rations because the blockade remained in place, and James could not afford the black-market food he wanted for Christmas.

As the Vienna Conference approached, the Union faced isolation after the British surrender while other late-switching nations feared punishment and exclusion. Franz managed royal gift-giving and backroom exchanges that strengthened the Holy Roman Empire’s ties with European states before the conference began.

• Theodore Roosevelt learned that Vienna had postponed a response to the Union’s requests to leave the war, and he ordered broader lobbying efforts.
• Late-switching nations faced distrust and exclusion from the spoils talks, while early Continental Alliance members gathered in Vienna.
• Delegations arrived for the Vienna Conference, and Franz received royal gifts that governments funded as a way to recover money and cultivate influence.
• Franz recognized the gift exchanges as a way for royal houses to gain legitimate income and accepted them as part of European political relationships.
• The Vienna Government finalized more than a hundred major commercial orders before the conference, leaving little to negotiate beyond disputes over the spoils.

The Vienna Agreement ended the World War by stripping Britain, Japan, and the Union of colonies, imposing reparations and military restrictions, and setting up plans for a United Nations. Franz left the organization’s powers deliberately undefined and proposed exploiting unrest in Japan and the Union to advance the Holy Roman Empire’s interests.

• The nations signed the Vienna Agreement on June 16, 1905, assigning Britain, the Union, and Japan responsibility for the war and imposing colonial losses, reparations, and military restrictions.
• The Japanese representatives signed after the alliance fleet blockaded the Sea of Japan and officials threatened a visit to Tokyo by the South Seas Fleet.
• Franz called for the United Nations to begin as a liaison organization, with its structure and powers developed gradually.
• Prime Minister Chandler warned Franz that Japan and the Union could face domestic turmoil over the treaty’s terms.
• Franz proposed selling Japanese colonies to the Far Eastern Empire if Japan resisted, while stoking divisions among the Union’s states and potentially waiving reparations for any newly independent nations.

Franz considered how to weaken the Russian Empire without destroying the Tsarist Government, and his ministers discussed whether rebels could seize Saint Petersburg. He assigned Friedrich responsibility for Russian affairs and unexpectedly announced that he planned to abdicate at the end of the year.

• Franz weighed supporting Russian independence movements to divide the empire while preserving the Tsarist Government, but recognized that the rebels lacked the strength to capture Saint Petersburg.
• Prime Minister Chandler explained that the rebels were fragmented and would need an elite force to break the stalemate, while Friedrich proposed letting French volunteers take the blame for intervening.
• Franz approved Friedrich's scheme and placed him in charge of overseeing Russian affairs and the subsequent cleanup.
• Franz announced that he intended to abdicate at the end of the year, leaving Friedrich and the others stunned.

Franz prepared to abdicate and began planning how to divide the Holy Roman Empire’s overseas territories into constituent states before Friedrich took the throne. Portugal negotiated a trade of its African colonies for new territories, while Japan faced mounting pressure to honor the Vienna Agreement.

• Franz decided to abdicate and considered how to enfeoff overseas territories without undermining the next emperor.
• Franz studied a map of the Holy Roman Empire and began marking out potential constituent states.
• Carlos I heard that the Vienna Government had offered Portugal either 50 million Divine Shields for its African colonies or a choice of three colonies in exchange.
• Carlos I accepted the proposals and sent them to Parliament for discussion.
• Japanese protests over the Vienna Agreement forced Katsura Tarō’s government to resign, while the overseas army refused to withdraw.
• Japan’s Council of Elders struggled to respond as the Vienna Government’s warning and the threat of treaty consequences loomed.

Theodore Roosevelt faced protests and impeachment over the Vienna Agreement, while Secretary of State Pitt warned that the Holy Roman Empire was using reparations to encourage the Union’s breakup. In Canada, Prime Minister Mackenzie Powell confronted the order to evacuate as Charles urged him to obey, leaving the Dominion’s abandonment imminent.

• Theodore Roosevelt considered the Vienna Agreement’s reparations and military restrictions impossible to reject because the Union could not withstand a war with the Continental Alliance.
• Secretary of State Pitt told Roosevelt that rumors of states escaping reparations by leaving the Union were likely part of Emperor Franz’s plan to split the country.
• Roosevelt ordered his government to placate the federal states, investigate the suspected plot, and preserve intelligence for the next administration if he was impeached.
• Mackenzie Powell complained that evacuating Canada would provoke public anger, while Charles insisted the London Government had ordered the withdrawal.
• Charles rejected Mackenzie Powell’s suggestion of resisting the Austrians and warned that defying the order could bring disaster upon Britain.

Mackenzie Powell announced Canada’s defeat and called for evacuation, while the Vienna Government prepared to empty Persia and East Africa under a public pretext. Friedrich also dismissed disputes over India’s borders, suspecting that the European powers’ quarrels might be staged.

• Mackenzie Powell announced that Britain had signed the Vienna Agreement, surrendering Canada, and urged Canadians to evacuate rather than resist.
• Canadians largely rejected Powell’s appeal, while the dominion governments suppressed resistance and used evacuation slogans to prepare for the handover.
• Prime Minister Chandler proposed presenting the removal of people from Persia and East Africa as a South American labor-import program.
• Friedrich suggested adding the Union as a destination to worsen its ethnic conflicts, and Chandler agreed.
• Leo reported renewed disputes over India’s boundary markers, and Friedrich told him to let the nations argue as long as they did not fight.
• Friedrich wondered whether the European powers’ disputes over India were a political performance staged for the Vienna Government.

Franz organized postwar rewards and prepared the Habsburg family to govern overseas territories as the empire’s constituent states took shape. He invested three sons as archdukes over vast colonial fiefs and appointed younger relatives to colonial posts, leaving the actual establishment of states for the future.

• Franz’s officials completed a plan for distributing military-merit fiefs, supported by government grants and low-interest loans for developing remote lands.
• Franz warned the younger Habsburgs that they would have to rely on their own abilities, while Maximilian I accepted that his son would lead Mexico’s restoration instead of returning himself.
• Franz reminded his relatives that family resources were limited and that political advancement depended on service and merit.
• On September 18, 1905, Franz invested Peter as Archduke of Latin America, William as Archduke of the South Seas, and George as Archduke of Maple Leaf, assigning each a vast overseas fief.
• Franz appointed several nephews and grandsons to the Colonial Ministry, preparing them to govern territories overseas while postponing further state creations.

Count Bru took control of Mexico City and planned reforms before restoring the monarchy, while seeking financial help from his family. In the Union, disputes over war reparations intensified into calls for secession.

• Count Bru entered Mexico City on October 16, 1905, and took power with support from royalists, reformists, and opportunists.
• Bru learned that his father had secured funding through the imperial family, though the Vienna Government had not fully backed the restoration.
• Bru proposed launching reforms before restoring the monarchy, and Philibert accepted his reasoning.
• The Union’s legislators and newspapers fought over how to distribute the war reparations after the Roosevelt administration abandoned office.
• Protests and calls for independence spread among some federal states as presidential candidates avoided stating their positions publicly.

The United States’ political deadlock weakened its central government, while rebellion and foreign intervention pushed Russia toward collapse. Franz arranged the elevation of three colonies into states and prepared to abdicate, leaving Friedrich to inherit the throne.

• The United States’ federal states remained deadlocked over war reparations, threatening to weaken the Union and its Washington Government.
• Independence movements and foreign-backed rebellions intensified across Russia, while the Russo-Austrian Alliance neared expiration.
• Franz had the Imperial Parliament elevate Austrian Central America, Austrian South Seas, and the Austrian North American colony into duchies and a principality.
• Franz approved an abdication edict and told Friedrich that he would step down after Christmas, citing poor health.
• Franz planned to pass the thrones of the three new states to his younger sons as part of his statehood plan.

Franz abdicated to Friedrich, spent his remaining years traveling, and died in 1931 after learning of William’s death and recovering memories of another life. The story ended with Li Mu waking in the modern world, confused by memories of Franz and Ferdinand, then rushing to catch his bus to work.

• On December 31, 1905, Franz abdicated in favor of Friedrich and began touring the Holy Roman Empire.
• After twenty-five years of travel, Franz returned to Vienna in his nineties and learned that William had died in the South Seas.
• Franz reflected on the empire’s secure position and the changing world before memories of Ferdinand and the Bulgarian Empire surfaced.
• On March 26, 1931, Franz died at the age of one hundred.
• Li Mu woke with memories of Li Mu, Franz, and Ferdinand, then hurried from his rented room to catch the bus to work.