Chapter Summaries

Franz challenged Maximilian’s idealistic plan for governing Mexico and explained that an emperor had to understand the country’s interests, factions, and resources. Maximilian remained determined to take the Mexican throne despite learning that Franz and the Habsburg Family would offer him little more than verbal support.

• Franz criticized Maximilian’s liberal plan and questioned his knowledge of Mexico’s social conflicts, resources, and industries.
• Franz told Maximilian that political power depended on managing competing interests and securing the people’s material well-being, leaving Maximilian shaken by his brother’s methods and success.
• Maximilian asked Princess Charlotte whether he was suited to be emperor, then admitted his jealousy of Franz and his desire to prove himself.
• Princess Charlotte encouraged Maximilian and reminded him that his marksmanship surpassed Franz’s, renewing his confidence in pursuing Mexico.
• Franz warned Maximilian that Mexico was dangerous and that Austria would not invest in his bid for the throne, offering only moral encouragement.
• Maximilian realized he could not count on Habsburg support and would have to rely on the French while pursuing the Mexican throne.

Franz enforced Austria’s military service traditions, while Alexander II faced unrest and a growing fiscal crisis after Russia’s incomplete emancipation of the serfs. The chapter ended with Alexander agreeing to ask Franz for financial help, preserving the Russo-Austrian alliance.

• Franz sent his two younger brothers to the barracks, where noble sons endured strict military training as part of Austria’s service tradition.
• Alexander II’s emancipation decree granted serfs personal freedom but left peasants burdened by costly land redemption payments.
• Minister of Police Jialinuoweisi reported thirty-eight serf uprisings in one month, and Alexander ordered strict vigilance against further unrest.
• Finance Minister Ku'erdaxiyabi warned that Russia faced a fiscal deficit exceeding forty million Rubles and suggested delaying tax reforms and selling Alaska.
• Alexander rejected using Alaska to offset debts to Austria, but agreed to write Franz asking for financial assistance.

After France annexed the Kingdom of Sardinia, Franz rejected an Italian appeal for help and argued that the new territory would be difficult for France to integrate. He expected France to remain occupied with resistance for several years, leaving Austria time to pursue its plans while Europe’s balance of power held.

• More than six hundred pro-French Sardinian representatives unanimously elected Napoleon III king, prompting international criticism and Italian petitions for help.
• Franz dismissed the Italian petition, blaming the Sardinian Government and populace for supporting extremists and declaring that they had to bear the consequences.
• Prime Minister Felix proposed aiding Italian nationalists against France, but Franz refused to support them because they were also Austria’s enemies.
• Felix warned that France’s expansion into central and southern Italy threatened Austrian interests, but Franz predicted that integrating Sardinia would occupy France for three to five years.
• Franz explained that Austria’s slow integration of its Italian regions showed how difficult it would be for France to win the loyalty of Sardinians without compulsory education or popular support.

Maximilian left Vienna for France to seek French backing for his claim to the Mexican throne, rejecting the political resources of the Habsburg Family. Napoleon III decided to support him, and Maximilian and Princess Charlotte sailed for Mexico at the end of 1863, while the family treated them as having given up their inheritance rights.

• Tyrone told Franz that Maximilian and his wife had left Vienna for France, and Franz chose not to support their venture in Mexico.
• Napoleon III welcomed Maximilian in Paris and asked his confidants whether the French should back him.
• Pélissis and Patti discussed Maximilian’s motives and abilities, while Napoleon III worried that an incompetent emperor could not stabilize Mexico.
• The French decided Maximilian was worth supporting despite the risk, and Maximilian and Princess Charlotte sailed for Mexico aboard a French warship at the end of 1863.
• Franz ignored Maximilian’s departure, while Empress Dowager Sophie reprimanded him and the Habsburg Family treated him and his descendants as having relinquished their inheritance rights.

After Maximilian I’s disputed coronation, Britain, France, Austria, and Spain formed an intervention coalition as the North and South prepared for a decisive battle in the American Civil War. The four powers agreed to send fleets and troops, leaving the United States facing foreign intervention.

• Maximilian I was crowned Emperor of Mexico amid Republican protests and an attempted disruption of the ceremony.
• The North and South assembled hundreds of thousands of troops for a decisive battle along the Pennsylvania–Ohio border.
• Austria’s Drucker proposed immediate military intervention in the American Civil War, while France’s Alfred argued for waiting.
• Britain’s Mario Oliver and Spain’s Francisco backed intervention, passing the proposal by a three-to-one vote.
• Britain, Austria, Spain, and France each pledged fleets and troops for the intervention force.

Franz learned that Britain, France, Austria, and Spain had formed an Intervention Coalition capable of sustaining the American Civil War, and he ordered Austria to accelerate immigration from the United States. With France proposing an international conference to partition Africa, Franz agreed to have the Foreign Ministry contact the French about their competing interests.

• Franz canceled plans to transfer Austrian troops from Africa and the South Seas after learning that the Intervention Coalition had assembled more than a hundred warships and 260,000 troops.
• Franz ordered Governor Hummel to speed up the organization of immigrants from the United States before the civil war ended.
• Wessenberg reported that Napoleon III planned to convene an international conference to divide Africa, and he suspected the move was linked to France’s annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia.
• Wessenberg argued that France was signaling Austria to negotiate rather than genuinely surrendering its African interests.
• Franz instructed the Foreign Ministry to approach France and discuss a deal if the terms suited Austria.

The Northern and Southern Governments remained locked in a costly war of attrition, with neither side able to secure a decisive advantage. Jefferson Davis ordered secret contact with the North to propose recognizing Southern independence, while the leaders feared Britain would intervene after the campaign weakened both sides.

• Lincoln received another request for reinforcements and asked Simon Cameron how long the campaign would last.
• Cameron blamed the Federal army’s heavy losses on inadequate training and poor-quality recruits, while Lincoln insisted all Federal soldiers be treated equally.
• Jefferson Davis learned that Britain was delaying intervention as the Northern and Southern armies suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties.
• Robert argued that neither government could continue fighting for long, while Alexander maintained that the campaign’s victor might retain enough morale and mobile troops to prevail.
• Davis ordered Robert to contact the Northern Government secretly and offer to end the war if it recognized Southern independence.

Governor Hummel pressed Austria’s immigration strategy in Central America and Colombia despite Colombia’s resistance, then confronted the colony’s mounting costs. The chapter left the colony politically established but economically unprofitable, with Hummel under pressure to prove its value.

• John-Radf told Governor Hummel that Colombia had barred immigrants from Panama and that British and possibly French influence was behind the opposition.
• Hummel ordered officials to bribe Panama’s authorities, forge immigrants’ identities, and settle the newcomers in Panama or Colombia’s interior.
• John-Radf reported that Austria had settled 380,000 immigrants in Central America and sent more than 60,000 into Colombia, while Hummel prepared a final immigration wave.
• Klaus estimated Central America’s revenue at 7 million Divine Shields and its deficit at 6 to 7 million, with fiscal balance expected in five years and investment recovery taking at least twenty.
• Hummel faced growing criticism at home because the costly colony offered little immediate economic return and its strategic value remained difficult to demonstrate.

Franz weighed Austria’s covert support for Polish independence against the need to preserve its alliance with Russia, while Roon and Moltke discussed a Prussian plan to exploit the rebellion and seize Schleswig-Holstein. The chapter ended with the Prussians preparing a risky strategy to weaken Russia and strengthen Prussia’s position.

• Wessenberg told Franz that a large-scale rebellion had begun in Russian Poland and that Britain, France, Prussia, and other countries were assisting Polish independence organizations.
• Franz ordered Austria’s anti-Russian faction to restrain itself and conceal any involvement so Russia could not use it as leverage.
• Roon worried that the Junker plan to promote Polish independence would provoke Russia, while the continental Junkers hoped to delay naval expansion and protect their influence in the military.
• Moltke advised Roon to use the Polish movement to tie down Russia while Prussia seized Schleswig-Holstein before the Tsarist Government could respond.

The Polish War of Independence erupted after foreign powers backed Polish revolutionary organizations, while the Tsarist Government initially treated the rebellion as routine unrest. In the summer of 1864, Alexander II approved a military expansion into Central Asia as Russia struggled to sell its industrial goods, leaving the Polish uprising unattended.

• Alexander II granted concessions to the Poles, including pardons, new institutions, and a consultative State Representative Conference, while the Berlin Government feared Russia planned to seize Prussian Poland.
• Polish independence organizations allied with Russian revolutionaries and gained support from the United Kingdom, France, and Prussia, which helped them expand and prepare an uprising.
• The Polish War of Independence erupted, but Franz dismissed it as an ordinary independence movement and Alexander II's Government ordered local authorities to suppress it as routine unrest.
• Russian industry expanded in quantity after serfdom was abolished, but poor quality and high costs left machinery and other goods unsold.
• Alexander II approved the War Ministry's plan to expand into Central Asia in the summer of 1864 while the Polish uprising continued to be ignored.

Franz weighed Austria’s role in the Polish uprising and the danger of Russian unrest, then decided Austria should publicly support the Tsarist Government while denying involvement with Polish volunteers. He also recognized that Austria’s growing strength left it well positioned even without his former advantage of foreknowledge.

• Franz learned that hundreds of Austrian Poles had joined the Polish uprising, and he ordered the Foreign Ministry to explain the volunteers’ actions to Russia while declaring Poland an internal Russian affair.
• Wessenberg reported that more than one hundred thousand Polish insurgents had routed Russian troops and that trained volunteers and Russian revolutionaries were aiding them.
• Franz considered preparing to intervene in Russia, but Prime Minister Felix argued that the Russian army remained loyal and the uprising would likely be suppressed without British or French troops.
• Franz agreed that Austria should avoid intervention, tell the Tsarist Government it supported its actions in Poland, and blame Britain and France for the foreign volunteers.
• Franz reconsidered Austria’s position and concluded that its educational, industrial, and strategic advantages gave it a strong position against its rivals despite his vanished foreknowledge.

Alexander II confronted the diplomatic isolation caused by Russia’s victory and ordered the Polish rebellion suppressed while seeking new allies. Russia later backed the Northern Government in the American Civil War, and its fleet’s visit to San Francisco drew it into a British-backed threat involving pirates.

• Alexander II learned that Austria blamed Britain and France for supporting Polish rebels while Prussia disowned its own citizens, and he ordered the rebellion crushed while seeking new allies.
• In autumn 1864, Russia sent a naval fleet to visit the American Federation and later supported the Northern Government as the Civil War approached its decisive moment.
• Russian Major General Popov received a warm welcome in California after his fleet destroyed a pirate ship, then promised to crack down on pirates attacking the west coast.
• British representative Rhodes warned Austrian representative Carter that the Russians risked being defeated by the pirates, while Carter implied that the fleet might be sacrificed for profit.
• Rhodes’s concern centered on the Russian fleet threatening the pirate network that brought him wealth, and Britain hoped a Russian defeat would undermine its support for the Northern Government.

Prussian military leaders revealed that they had prepared an attack on Denmark without the king’s approval, arguing that seizing Schleswig-Holstein offered Prussia its best chance to strengthen itself. William I and Prime Minister Frank ordered the military to bear responsibility and sought to limit the fallout, but the offensive could no longer be stopped.

• Frank and William I confronted Roon and Moltke after learning the Junker-led military had planned an attack on Denmark without consulting them.
• Roon argued that Prussia’s dangerous position between France, Russia, and Austria made recovering Schleswig-Holstein a necessary gamble, with British and French support likely against Russia.
• William I rejected the military’s justification, ordered all operations halted, and demanded a valid pretext for war.
• Roon revealed that the troops had cut telegraph communications and could not be notified in time, so the offensive would proceed and the government had only time to declare war.
• William I left in anger, and Frank ordered Roon and Moltke to deliver the declaration of war themselves while the government convened separately.

Franz and his ministers assessed Prussia’s sudden war against Denmark over Schleswig–Holstein and debated how Austria should respond as a conflict with Russia threatened to follow. Felix proposed making Russian aid conditional on dividing Prussia, while Franz recognized that the proposal was chiefly meant to block Russian demands for Austrian assistance.

• Franz learned that Prussia and Denmark had declared war, and he convened a cabinet meeting to determine Austria’s position.
• Wessenberg argued that Britain and France were likely backing Prussia to weaken Russia, while Felix questioned why Prussia would risk becoming Russia’s enemy for two duchies.
• Franz reasoned that Prussia feared Russian designs on Prussian Poland and hoped British and French support would help it seize Schleswig–Holstein and create a buffer in Russian Poland.
• Felix proposed that Austria offer Russia aid only in exchange for partitioning Prussia, with Russia taking Prussian Poland and Austria taking the German territories; otherwise, Austria would remain neutral.
• Franz recognized that Felix’s proposal was designed to prevent Russia from invoking their alliance to demand Austrian loans and military assistance.

Prussia declared war on Denmark and invaded after Denmark annexed Schleswig and Holstein, leaving Christian IX scrambling to mobilize and seek Russian support. As Prussian forces prepared to fight, Moltke ordered military documents to remove references to Germany and center the campaign on Prussia.

• Prussia declared war on October 24, mobilized the next day, and sent troops into Denmark on October 27.
• Christian IX demanded an explanation, and Prime Minister Rashir advised nationwide mobilization and diplomatic efforts to secure Russian support.
• In a Copenhagen bakery, Colefgen urged Robertla to enlist, but Robertla argued that Denmark could not defeat Prussia and should rely on the great powers.
• Lux reflected on Denmark’s decline as Danish citizens placed their hopes in outside intervention while Prussian reservists rushed to assemble.
• Moltke ordered Major General Amanda to replace references to Germany in military documents with language centered on Prussia.

Britain and France decided to aid Prussia against Russia only with money, weapons, and volunteers, while refusing to send troops. Austria declared neutrality, leaving Prussia diplomatically isolated as the Second Vienna System collapsed.

• Reslin explained that Prussia had started the war out of fear of being divided by Russia, France, and Austria, and wanted to use the conflict to disrupt Russia’s reforms.
• Agawar urged Britain to support Prussia’s campaign against Russia, but Edward and Reslin favored limited aid rather than direct intervention.
• The French Government also chose to supply Prussia without sending troops, while Napoleon III considered using the conflict to seize opportunities against Prussia.
• Britain and France’s decisions effectively ended the Second Vienna System, and Franz chose not to defend it.
• The Tsarist Government cited the system’s agreements against Prussia, while European public opinion backed Denmark and condemned Prussia’s invasion.
• Austria declared neutrality, and German supporters of Prussia began to withdraw amid fears that Prussia intended to break away from Germany.

Alexander II decided to seek Austria’s support for war against Prussia, offering it Silesia, while Maximilian I’s impartial rule alienated his Mexican supporters and brought him into conflict with France over control of customs revenue. Maximilian rejected a French treaty, but his hold on power remained precarious.

• Alexander II heard Clarence-Ivanov explain that diplomacy could not save Denmark and that Austria might support Russia against Prussia.
• Alexander II ordered the Foreign Ministry to offer Austria Silesia in exchange for its support in the war against Prussia.
• Maximilian I’s pardons, reforms, and refusal to favor his supporters deepened opposition among Mexico’s political factions.
• Maximilian I accepted the Miramar Agreement’s costly debts, leaving Mexico with little of the borrowed money and facing French demands to mortgage customs tariffs.
• Bazaine presented Maximilian I with a treaty transferring control of Mexican customs to France, and Maximilian tore it up and ordered him to leave.

Juárez rejected Maximilian’s offer of pardon and prepared to keep fighting, while Lincoln ordered American-backed revolutionary organizations to distract the European powers from the Civil War. In Delaware, Hungarian Independence Organization leaders were pressured to stage unrest in Austria, and Stephen promised results within half a year.

• Maximilian offered to pardon the rebels if Juárez recognized his throne, but Juárez rejected the proposal and rallied his followers to continue the struggle.
• Juárez predicted that the end of the American Civil War would bring weapons and ammunition to the Free Army, while his aide proposed using the pardon to defeat the government troops surrounding them.
• Safar warned Lincoln that a European war could end Russia’s support for the North, and Lincoln ordered revolutionary organizations to stir up trouble and distract Britain, France, Austria, and Spain.
• Arest demanded that Stephen make the Hungarian Independence Organization demonstrate against the Vienna Government, threatening the group’s American support if it failed to act.
• Stephen promised Arest that the organization would give the operation its full effort and produce results within half a year.

Stephen and the Hungarian Independence Organization debated how to respond to American pressure to organize demonstrations in Austria, while the Polish Independence Organization argued over whether to expand its uprising against Russia into Austrian territory. The Hungarians chose to seek allies, and the Polish group decided to focus on Russian Poland and leave Galicia for later.

• Stephen and Cesar warned that the Hungarian Independence Organization lacked the members and connections to organize major demonstrations, and that Austria treated political prisoners harshly.
• Stephen rejected Mr. Suzali's suggestion to abandon the Americans and decided to contact the Italian and Polish Independence Organizations rather than dissolve his group.
• At a meeting outside New York, Alexandra argued that the Polish Independence Organization should focus on its uprising against Russia, while Kasia worried about losing American funding.
• Ladsi urged the Poles to rise against Austria as well, prompting Alexandra to punch him and starting a brawl before the group expelled Ladsi as a suspected federal informant.
• Qiusikete heard the members' views, and Alexandra argued that Galicia lacked support for Polish independence and that Austria had stronger local control than Russia.
• Qiusikete ordered the Polish Independence Organization to stick to its original plan and told Pugar to send its opinions to Traugutt.

Italian revolutionary leaders in America debated whether to accept federal support and launch another uprising, with Gaboli urging them to target central and southern Italy instead of the stronger north. They agreed to pursue armed revolts there, while leaving the fate of Sardinia, Lombardy, and Venetia unresolved.

• Gulate asked Italian American leaders what they thought of the Americans’ offer of money and weapons in exchange for uprisings in Italy.
• Gaboli supported accepting the offer and argued that the revolutionaries should avoid northern Italy and begin by uniting central and southern Italy.
• Antonio warned that France and Austria could crush an uprising, while Vargis doubted that the great powers would leave the southern regions alone.
• Gaboli argued that coordinated uprisings by allied revolutionary groups could distract the great powers and give the Italians time to build strength.
• After arguing, the Italian revolutionary leaders agreed to launch armed uprisings across central and southern Italy and leave Sardinia, Lombardy, and Venetia aside.