Recaps

The Prusso-Russian War shattered the Prusso-Polish Federation, drove millions from their homes, and left Prussia facing territorial losses and massive debts. Austria brokered the settlement while Russia entered a new reign under Alexander III and Prussia passed to Friedrich III.

• Ivanov ordered Russian forces to withdraw from Warsaw, while Albrecht warned Franz that Prussia could not turn its victory there into a strategic advantage.
• Moltke abandoned Warsaw to counter the Russian advance toward Poznan, leaving Washi Kaiweis and the Third Group Army to defend the city.
• Russia took Warsaw after a month of resistance, and Alexander II approved a pause before the next offensive as the federation collapsed.
• Russian troops drove refugees from Poland, while Franz organized camps and work for those reaching Austria as violence and hunger spread.
• Moltke’s forces inflicted heavy casualties, but Ivanov won the East Prussian Campaign, and Franz arranged Austrian mediation while refusing to assume Prussia’s debts.
• Alexander II was assassinated, Alexandrovich launched a purge, and Moltke resigned as Britain and Hanover pressed Prussia over a North German settlement.
• Prussia and Russia signed a treaty transferring East Prussia, West Prussia, and Poznan to Russia in exchange for reparations, while Hanover bought Schleswig-Holstein and lands west of the Elbe.
• Alexander III rejected Austria’s proposal to annex the Ottoman Empire but agreed to negotiate over Finland, and Friedrich III became king after William I abdicated.

Franz exploited Europe’s economic turmoil and revolutions while Austria prepared to expand into Ottoman territory. After a coalition formed and declared war, Albrecht took command of allied forces, though coordination problems immediately emerged.

• Friedrich III cracked down on Prussian capitalists after protests and a mass shutdown, while financial turmoil spread from Prussia to France and triggered strikes and uprisings across Europe.
• Franz held Austrian naval expansion in reserve, planned colonial railways and sought access to Mesopotamian oil, then offered Russia territorial gains for support against the Ottoman Empire.
• French revolutionaries seized Paris on April 15, 1882, and Napoleon IV fled to Tours as Austria prepared for possible intervention.
• Prussia suspended its May debt payment to spend the money on grain as hunger protests swept the country.
• Franz used reports of Ottoman killings of Austrian citizens to demand an investigation, and Greece and Russia joined Austria in pressing the Ottoman Empire.
• Austria, Russia, Greece, and Montenegro signed the Anti-Ottoman Pact and declared war, while Franz delayed Austria’s offensive until its allies were ready.
• Albrecht coordinated the allied forces in Constantinople, disciplined unruly officers, and decided to keep Austrian troops apart from the Russian Army.

The Anti-Ottoman Alliance defeated the empire as Austria maneuvered to shape the postwar settlement and relocate its population. The Ottoman Empire was declared dead, Russia sold its claims to Austria, and Greece gave up its claims in exchange for compensation while the fate of Ottoman Greeks remained contested.

• Albrecht divided the allied forces among separate theaters, and Franz approved his plan after reviewing its drawbacks.
• Horman persuaded Draco to resist the Ottoman Government and arranged to protect the town’s children from conscription and wartime hardship.
• The Anti-Ottoman Alliance began its campaign on June 17, 1882, while Greek and Montenegrin forces struggled to make progress at the Sea of Marmara.
• Franz rejected Albrecht’s proposal to cut Ottoman supply routes through Persia, while Austria prepared a 120,000-man force for the battlefield.
• Ottoman rebels and guerrillas disrupted the Allied advance, and Albrecht confronted Publius after the Ottomans captured Greek artillery and used it against Russian troops.
• The allies converged on the Kızılırmak River, and Abdul Hamid II chose to keep fighting despite Midhat’s judgment that victory was nearly impossible.
• After the Ottomans rejected negotiations, Morkes let Baghdad’s officials leave under safe-conduct terms, while Austria considered how to depopulate and resettle the region.
• Franz offered Russia compensation and five battleships for its Ottoman territorial claims, and the Convention of the Four Anti-Ottoman Powers declared the Ottoman Empire had perished.
• Greece renounced its claims to Asia Minor for two battleships, while Ludwig I accepted that Russia would relocate some Ottoman Greeks.

Austria faced a deadly plague in the Near East while maneuvering against Britain and Russia and expanding its new territories. Austrian officers joined the Mahdi’s rebellion against France, leaving the rebel alliance fractured as France turned toward economic measures to recover from its losses.

• Franz backed Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich’s Armenian throne and unveiled a costly plan to develop Austria’s Near Eastern territories.
• The Vienna Government assigned land to military veterans and nobles, then halted immigration when plague spread through Ankara.
• Franz ordered epidemic controls and public blame against the Ottomans as plague ravaged Russian and Austrian forces and twenty-three cities were burned.
• Friedrich sent Austrian officers to aid the Mahdi’s rebels, where Huthier took command of the poorly equipped Eighth Division.
• Franz approved exposing Britain’s secret Persian pact, and Russia and Austria signed a free-trade agreement with Persia.
• Felix resigned after falling ill, and Franz appointed Karl as prime minister as the rebels’ dam attack devastated the French-led army in Egypt.
• Huthier’s officers pursued French forces and recruited along the Nile as the rebel alliance fractured, while France’s defeat triggered market turmoil.
• Elsa urged Napoleon IV to expand African food production and ease cotton imports as France faced falling markets and low foreign-exchange reserves.