Holy Roman Empire

1874 is destined to be an extraordinary year. In addition to the Near East War and the Russian-Polish War, the Asia-Pacific region is also unstable.

First, the French and the Annan government signed the "France and Annan Peace Alliance Treaty", and then the Japanese invasion of Taiwan broke out.

Needless to say, the latter naturally ends in failure.The "Treaty of France and Annan Peace Alliance" sounds very harmonious, in fact, it is a nice name, but it essentially serves colonial invasion.

With the strategy shrinking for so long, some people in France are unwilling to be lonely.The world has been divided up, and there is a little leftovers left. If you are slow, you will get nothing.

In the struggle for the rights of the Parisian government, if they did not intend to engage in outside affairs, they still could not resist the enthusiasm of domestic colonial expansion.

Colonial expansion does not necessarily depend on fighting. For example, this time the signing of a treaty with the Annan people relied on diplomatic fraud, and even tricked the government of Anan to sign it.

A seemingly ordinary treaty actually provided a legal basis for France ’s interference in Annan ’s internal affairs.No matter what the Annan thinks, anyway, as long as the French have a statement that is acceptable to European countries.

The three countries of Britain, France and Austria have formed an alliance, and the loose international situation has created opportunities for the French to expand on the Indo-China Peninsula.

The Indochina Peninsula is not within the scope of Austria ’s colonial plan and does not involve its own interests. The Vienna government will naturally not jump out and act as a messenger of justice.

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At the Vienna Palace, Franz ’s attention was drawn to the Kingdom of Poland, turned into a melon-eating crowd, and watched the performances of both Russia and Russia.

Foreign Minister Weissenberg reported: "Two days ago, the reinforcements of the Kingdom of Prussia arrived on the front line, and there was a small exchange of fire with the Russian army yesterday.

But both sides were very restrained and looked like they were acting.Now the Russians have occupied most of the Polish Ukrainian region, about one-third of the Polish territory.

According to preliminary judgment, this should be the reward promised by the Berlin government to the Russians.Next, the two countries will probably sit down to negotiate and settle down the agreed content.

Affected by this, the British Minister sent an invitation to European countries including us this morning to propose the formation of an international alliance of interventions to mediate this war.

The London government couldn't sit still, and the smoke bombs we released some time ago have already played a role.In order to stop us and the French from continuing to expand on the continent, the British couldn't help but shoot."

The Russo-Polish War and the election of the Polish throne are such big things that both France and Austria are ignoring each other. Is it strange if there is no problem?

It's not that there is no action at all. Franz is still calling on everyone to exercise restraint and sit down and talk slowly.The Paris government has also warned both Russia and Russia that they should not play with fire.

Specific actions?It is a pity that France and Austria are very busy and have no time to intervene in these trivial matters.

Let France and Austria not intervene, naturally there is an interest transaction behind this.With a little analysis, the British can guess the content of the transaction without saying that it must be destroyed.

Or if it disturbs the matter, is it still John Bull?

Franz nodded: "At this point, the pressure of public opinion we will face will be great, and the British are in the next game.

The government must do a good job of guiding public opinion, but it must not allow the British to take the rhythm, otherwise there will be a mess."

From all the signs, Franz judged that the British wanted to seize the opportunity to provoke the conflict between France and Austria, and at the same time divide the relationship between Austria and the German Confederation.

This is an inescapable conspiracy. The French wanted to annex the Rhineland region. For the sake of political correctness, the Vienna government could only stand up and oppose it.

The German region has been divided for many years, and all states are used to being their own masters.Under the pressure of nationalism, everyone was forced to look like they supported reunification, and actually wanted to keep their independent kingdom.

Austria has great power to unify the German region. In order to protect its own interests, high-level government officials have to move closer to the Vienna government.

But if they find that Austria cannot unify the German region under the control of the powers, or if they are strong enough to get rid of this threat, then the situation will change.

Just like the current Kingdom of Prussia, simply withdraw from the German region, do not consider yourself a German state, and play with the Kingdom of Prussia.

Knowing to know, in fact, Franz can only respond passively.Even if the Fao contradiction broke out, neither side could fight.

The only bordering area is in Italy. Although the French have occupied the Kingdom of Sardinia for many years, they still have no mass base here.

This is a sequelae of Napoleon III's ugly appearance and no legal basis.More than ten years have passed, the local people still do not agree with the French rule

If they fought in the Italian region and Austria, they had no expeditions with the laborers and went deep into the enemy's borders. They not only had to fight against the Austrian army, but also had to be careful with the civilian guerrillas.

The leader of the Italian Independent League is the former King of Sardinia, which is a ready-made pawn.If the French do not move, no one can help them, as long as the battlefield defeated once, the fragile Great French Empire may collapse.

Generally speaking, the existence of the Greater French Empire for a longer period is more beneficial to Austria.Not only can it help Austria to share international pressure, but it has also accelerated the national integration movement in Lombardy and Venetia.

At the beginning, when there were a lot of states in the Italian region, the Italians in Lombardy and Venezia also wanted to be independent, and the national integration was not going well.

Since the French annexed the Italian region, the national independence movement in Lombardy and Venezuela suddenly fell into a low tide.

This round of social beatings has made many people awake.Instead of supporting the independence movement, local capitalists actively moved closer to Austria.

In recent years, the popularity of Austrian languages ​​has rapidly increased.Newspapers, books, and advertisements on the streets are in Austrian language, and traditional Italian is abandoned.

The social atmosphere has changed and it will not be despised if you don't speak Austrian language. You can't do anything in the city. No capitalist will hire workers who don't speak Austrian language.

Before the death of Napoleon III, he wanted to emulate Austria's national integration policy, but was forced to give up at the beginning.

The socialist emperor was not good enough, improving social welfare treatment, and financial expenses inevitably increased.

In addition to financial problems, there is resistance from the Italian local government.The French forced the annexation of the Italian region, but there was no way to replace all local officials with French.

Without the cooperation of local officials, how can the central government's policies be implemented?

This is different from Lombardy and Venezia. When Franz promoted national integration, there were hundreds of thousands of Germans and a group of nobles loyal to the Habsburg dynasty. supporter.

All Italians, how does this change the French government?Even if they change people, they are still passively idle.The establishment of a local government loyal to the French Empire cannot be accomplished overnight.

The national integration policy that Napoleon III could not carry out will now be more difficult in the hands of Napoleon IV.

Unable to truly achieve national integration, Greater France is a gunpowder barrel that may explode at any time.

Enemies with weaknesses are not terrible. The French have such obvious weaknesses. Franz will naturally not worry about France becoming bigger.

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The German Federal Empire is a joke in itself, and Franz never worried that this alliance would become a threat.

At first, European countries had to forcibly upgrade them to empire. In addition to the existence of a kingdom within the German Federation, more worried about the peaceful evolution of Austria to achieve reunification.

No matter how the British provoked the relationship, they could not change the essence of cultural homology between the two sides.The ruling class must also consider the feelings of the people. The Kingdom of Prussia has no way to get rid of the influence of German nationalism, let alone the German Federal Empire?

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Called by the British government, on July 16, 1874, European countries convened an international conference in London to discuss a solution to the ongoing Russian-Polish war and the Near East War.

In the Austrian Embassy in London, Britain and Austria are in secret talks.

Marquis McLean, British Foreign Secretary: "My Excellency, this world needs peace, and a stable Europe is the foundation of world peace.

On the issue of maintaining European stability, the interests of our two countries are the same, and now we need your country to come up with more positive measures to contribute to European stability."

The Austrian Minister Humel smiled slightly and put down his coffee: "His Excellency, we are also happy to work for world peace, but the facts tell us that world peace requires the protection of everyone.

It is the responsibility of all European countries to maintain the stability of the European continent, not the responsibility of one or two countries.We have done enough for the stability of Europe.

Lessons from history tell us that sometimes too much is done, but it will be counterproductive.Occasionally let go, there may be unexpected gains."

There is no doubt that Hummel is talking about the era of Metternich.At that time, the government of Vienna was an active defender of the European order. However, Austria maintained European stability, and its biggest interests were taken away by the British.

After the Anti-French War, Europe has stabilized for 30 years, creating favorable conditions for the British overseas colonial expansion.Austria, which strives to maintain European order, has locked itself in the European continent and is unable to colonize and expand.

It wasn't until Franz's succession that the Vienna government abandoned Metternich's European balance strategy before it caught the train of colonial expansion.

Maclean was unimpressed and said, if nothing happened: "That is not necessarily the case, and letting the situation develop is risky. Once the situation is out of control, everyone's losses will be even greater.

Rather than letting the situation develop, it is better to take the initiative.Presumably your country does not want to see the French continue to expand.

If they were given the Rhineland, I am afraid that Belgium would be difficult to preserve, and even the German Federal Empire would be cut by them."

This is an inevitable result. With the resources of the Rhineland region, France's strength will be further strengthened.

At that time, it was almost impossible to prevent them from annexing the territory west of the Rhine.For Austria, this has exceeded the tolerance line.

Humel nodded: "All Europe does not want to see this happen, and we are naturally no exception. I don't know what plan your country has, as long as it can prevent this from happening, we are happy to cooperate."

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