Book Seven , '' The Age of Great Progress '' , is set during the 19th century and begins during a war between the Ottoman Empire and the Indian state of Travancore . The Indians have previously defeated the Mughals and the Safavids and have developed more modern forms of warfare , emphasising surprise and mobility , they have also invented steam engines and ironclad warships which they sail straight to the city of Konstantiniyye and capture it with the aid of military balloons . The Ottomans are defeated easily . A Muslim Armenian doctor named Ismail ibn Mani al-Dir , who had served the Ottoman Sultan , is captured and sent to Travancore where he learns of the amazing advancements that have been made on the sub-continent such as railways and factories . He happily joins the hospital of Travancore and begins work in anatomy and physiology . Ismail eventually meets their ruler , the Kerala of Travancore , who pursues scientific and philosophical advancement ( a kind of Enlightened Despot ) . The Kerala 's aim is to drive the Muslim invaders away and peacefully unify India into a kind of democratic confederation . Later , during the Xianfeng Emperor 's reign , in the Chinese colony known as Gold Mountain , major flooding in the Central Valley of California forces the evacuation of Chinese colonial towns and Japanese settlers alike . The Japanese had originally fled to the new world to escape Chinese oppression in their homeland , but find themselves once again under the Chinese yoke . A displaced Japanese slave , Kiyoaki , and a pregnant Chinese refugee , Peng-ti , manage to flee to the great coastal city of Fangzhang . There Kiyoaki joins a secret Japanese freedom movement which is being aided by Travancore , with Ismail acting as a go-between agent
major flooding
Great Flood of 1862
The Years of Rice and Salt