Recaps

Joseph expanded France’s financial, cultural, and maritime plans while Austria, Poland, the Ottomans, and Russia pursued competing political and military goals. Britain prepared its own industrial and diplomatic responses as Alexander I faced the possible loss of Tbilisi.

• Joseph chose Marseille for France’s major financial institutions and secured the Crown Prince Faction’s victory in Paris’s House of Representatives election.
• Joseph introduced electric bells at Versailles and helped launch the European Drama Festival, which later drew contracts from more than ninety theater troupes.
• Metternich persuaded Franz II to restrict political freedoms and pursue reforms, while Joseph secretly pressured Basel to resist joining the Swiss Federation.
• Kościuszko prepared Polish forces for an offensive as the Society of Happiness planned an uprising, and Ottoman forces attacked Tbilisi with French weapons.
• Joseph promoted merchant shipping and a French-Spanish Combined Fleet, supported Poland with a loan, and created a bureau to oversee French theatrical productions and illustrated stories.
• Pitt the Younger pursued plans involving India and European alliances while Britain demonstrated its Engine70 and advanced railway, streetlighting, and drainage projects.
• Pitt the Younger arranged grain supplies and negotiations over sugar smuggling as Alexander I ordered Vorontsov to seek a ceasefire by offering the Ottomans territory including Tbilisi.

Joseph pursued industrial and naval expansion while France secured Egyptian cooperation and Austria faced defeat, financial unrest, and rebellion. The arc ended with Polish victories against Russia and the rebels at Pereyaslav preparing to retreat.

• Alexander I ordered Russia to cede Tbilisi to the Ottomans and Kartli and Imereti to Persia, while Joseph prepared a disguised trip to Brest and ordered Talleyrand to undermine British currency.
• Joseph and Queen Mary toured Saint-Malo’s canning factory, where Joseph protected a young worker from ruinous costs and proposed an oil-pressing plant linked to the factory.
• Joseph inspected The Decisive, ordered its iron ribs covered, and discussed ways to improve its stability and guns, while Queen Mary considered making him regent so Louis XVI could visit Brest.
• Charles agreed to help Queen Louise obtain cheaper coal for her friend’s ironworks through a concealed arrangement involving Baron Marechal and a shell coking plant in Cologne.
• Mirza coordinated Persian and Georgian forces with Prince Parnaoz’s uprising to capture Tbilisi, and Muhammad Ali later agreed to French access to the Suez Urban Area, Ibrahim Port, and Famara in exchange for industrial aid.
• Austrian troops retreated after Engelmann’s force and the Basel militia routed them near Aarau, while Joseph ordered Lavalette to publicize the defeat and encourage unrest among the Tax Farmers.
• Gloria and Lucas spread news of Austria’s defeat through pamphlets, and Lucas rallied the Stilz Society to demand a constitution as bread prices rose and Franz II ordered reinforcements to Switzerland.
• Kościuszko’s forces captured Mstislav and Smolensk, while rebels at Pereyaslav learned that Dolgurukov’s forces were approaching and considered retreating toward Lubny and Kursk.

Joseph assumed the regency while crises spread across Europe, from Prussia’s industrial expansion and the fall of Mecca to Poland’s failing invasion of Russia. Saint-Cyr helped Kościuszko turn the Polish retreat into a campaign of survival, and the arc ended with a Polish victory against Russian forces near Muregino.

• Sidorov led more than two thousand rebels across the frozen Dnieper toward Moldavia, while Queen Mary’s attempt to move the ailing Louis XVI prompted nobles to demand succession preparations.
• Queen Mary agreed to make Joseph Regent, and Joseph discovered that Louis XVI had faked his illness to secure permission for his parents to travel.
• Joseph ordered preparations to help the Polish Army retreat as the Russians advanced, while he backed Queen Louise’s efforts to secure Prussian coal and industrial growth through Baron Trudaine.
• Charles discovered Queen Louise’s affair with Trudaine, but Louise continued her plans to expand Prussian steel production as Krupp won major orders using French technology.
• Muhammad Ali gained Selim III’s authority to retake Mecca, eliminated Mamluk opposition in Egypt, and sent an army toward the city as the Great Sejm voted to continue Poland’s war.
• Joseph refused to send French troops to Poland and appointed Saint-Cyr to help Kościuszko withdraw as hunger, attacks on supply lines, and Russian encirclement threatened the Polish Army.
• Saint-Cyr persuaded Kościuszko to travel light and avoid the supply-stripped routes, while Madalinski’s forces evaded Russian pursuers and Polish detachments disrupted Russian supply convoys.
• Near Muregino, Kościuszko sent Mokronovsky against a Russian flank and the Winged Hussars through its formation, routing the Russians before releasing thousands of prisoners.

As the Polish retreat and Austrian military setbacks strained the empires, Joseph prepared for Alexandra’s pregnancy while inflation and repression drove Vienna’s people into revolution. The Republic of Austria was proclaimed, and Hungary formed a National Guard and advanced demands for self-government.

• Kutuzov pursued Kościuszko’s retreating army, but Saint-Cyr led the Poles through Seversk, raiding Russian supplies and eventually withdrawing across the Dnieper with just over 56,000 troops.
• Saint-Cyr persuaded Kościuszko to retake Kiev, while Mikhalevich sought reinforcements to suppress the Basel revolt and Franz II approved more troops despite Austria’s budget crisis.
• Joseph arranged medical examinations for himself and Alexandra, learned that she was pregnant, and instructed Bodlock to improve childbirth care with safer surgery, infection prevention, and research into anesthesia and transfusions.
• Gloria died in custody, prompting Lucas to turn the Stilz Society toward revolt and organize a secret student army as inflation, taxes, and police repression fueled public anger.
• After Secret Police killed protesters at a cafe, Adorno joined the march on Schönbrunn, helped seize the Royal Arsenal, and joined the uprising that forced Franz II to flee Vienna.
• Lucas and the Liberals established the Republic of Austria and prepared a provisional assembly, while Franz II ordered troops to gather against the rebels and Metternich sought French support.
• Hungarian legislators rejected the Emperor’s demand for German-language administration and 40,000 troops, passed the Hungarian National Guard Act, and began drafting demands for Magyar as the official language and the abolition of serfdom.