Chapter Summaries

Franz organized a nationwide military parade in Vienna for the third anniversary of the Holy Roman Empire’s restoration, presenting it as a celebration and a show of the Empire’s presence. Schlieffen and Friedrich arrived with Prussia’s all-officer company, hoping its performance would win the struggling Prussian military better funding.

• Franz arranged a National Day parade with randomly selected units from across the Empire and its overseas territories.
• More than twelve thousand troops, including units from the colonies, the states, and the central army, navy, and air force, gathered in Vienna for inspection.
• Prussia sent a company composed entirely of officers to demonstrate the value of its military and seek greater funding from the Emperor.
• The Prussian military’s budget remained strained as the bankrupt Berlin Government delayed payments, while central allocations kept the army operating.
• Schlieffen called Friedrich over after the young officer fell behind in the crowd, then led him onward with the Prussian delegation.

Schlieffen and Mackensen faced the Prussian army’s funding problems and the Holy Roman Empire’s efforts to gain influence over state armies. Mackensen urged closer ties with Vienna Palace, and the chapter ended with him warning that Prussia’s past hostility toward Austria could invite obstruction.

• The chapter explained how battlefield losses and missing the colonial boom weakened the Junker Nobility and left Prussia with little influence in the Holy Roman Empire.
• Schlieffen struggled to find grounds for more imperial military funding without inviting central troops to take control of Prussia’s frontier defense.
• At a military camp, Mackensen reminded Schlieffen that unified officer assignments and rotating garrisons threatened the autonomy of state armies.
• Schlieffen dismissed those proposals as unconstitutional and asked whether Mackensen had gained anything from meeting friends.
• Mackensen said his friend had advised Prussian officers to strengthen ties with Vienna Palace because Austrian officials might otherwise obstruct them.

Schlieffen watched the Prussian army struggle to stand out at the Holy Roman Empire’s National Day parade, while Spain’s Foreign Minister Junior sought a loan in Vienna and learned that speculative bankers wanted Spain’s peseta issuance rights as collateral. Junior suspected the financiers had powerful backers and decided to investigate before making any deal.

• Schlieffen saw that the Prussian contingent looked shabby beside the other armies, though all participating state troops would march in infantry formations.
• Junior asked Ambassador Brad whether the parade was meant to threaten Britain, and Brad judged that Emperor Franz was chiefly warning Russia under Tsar Nicholas II.
• Junior asked about Spain’s loan negotiations, and Brad revealed that the bankers demanded the right to issue pesetas as collateral.
• Brad said the bankers were Jewish financiers operating speculative banks and denied that the Vienna Government was behind their offer.
• Junior suspected someone was backing the financiers and said Spain should identify that supporter or seek a deal with the Vienna Government instead.

Junior sought a seventy-million-Divine-Shield loan from the Vienna Government while Spain struggled to fund wars in Cuba and the Philippines. Wessenberg rejected Spain’s offer to sell Morocco and considered the risks of lending as Junior revealed the size of Spain’s shortfall.

• Junior went to the Vienna Government before the investigation concluded because he feared the bankers who had offered Spain a loan might not provide the funds.
• Wessenberg refused Spain’s offer to sell Morocco, arguing that the Empire had no interest in taking on a territory threatened by unrest and war.
• Junior acknowledged Spain’s financial desperation and said it had offered Morocco to raise money after successive wars drained its resources.
• Wessenberg offered to help Spain resolve its funding shortage through a loan from the Holy Roman Empire.
• Junior explained that Japan backed rebels in the Philippine Islands and Britain supported Cuban independence, then disclosed that Spain still needed seventy million Divine Shields.
• Wessenberg frowned at the amount, weighing the risk of lending such a large sum to Spain.

Junior sought additional financing for Spain’s war while negotiating with Jewish capitalists, whose shadowy background and unusual loan terms raised concerns. He agreed to their conditions only if they increased the first installment and released it within a week.

• Junior lamented that Spain would become the world’s third-largest debtor and considered the risks of borrowing from commercial banks.
• Junior asked Minister Brad what he had learned about the Jewish financiers, and Brad described their predecessors’ losses and the group’s concealed ties and motives.
• Junior questioned why the financiers would offer such a risky loan and asked how soon they could provide the money.
• Brad said the financiers would start disbursing within a month, supervise the funds, and release weekly installments beginning with one million Divine Shield.
• Junior agreed in principle but demanded that the first installment be at least ten percent of the loan and arrive within one week.

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.