He believed that enhanced connectivity between regions would encourage trade, commerce and industrialization in Europe and the Ottoman Empire, and that this was the only way to foster political harmony. This vision tied “public w'orks” (as infrastructure was then known) intimately with the economic, political and industrial progress of Europe at the time. The essential features of this plan were indeed adopted by France as well as a number of European countries that became independent between 1830 and 1871, including Belgium, the German Empire, Greece, Italy, Serbia and Romania, and it even led to cross-country multilateral initiatives for infrastructure expansion (Ambrosius and Henrich-Franke, 2016).