Chapter 114: Forced National Policy

  Chapter 114 – Forced National Policy

At the critical moment of the Anglo-Australian negotiations, his mother, Princess Sophie, brought him a piece of news that attracted Franz’s full attention.

His uncle Ferdinand I is going to abdicate early, so that he can prepare for his early accession to the throne.

Heaven and earth, Franz dares to swear in the name of God that there is no handiwork on his part. As the rightful heir to Austria, he was not in such a hurry to force his uncle to abdicate.

Nor was it Ferdinand I, the person in question, who really made this decision, but the Habsburgs collectively.

Despite Austria’s reputation for conservatism, so many years had passed that the public’s tolerance for the retarded emperor had reached its limit, and the Vienna Rebellion had a factor in this.

This was a disaster for the Habsburgs. The monarch’s majesty was in ruins and jokes were frequent, which would have shaken the royal family’s position if it had gone on for a long time.

At this time, Franz came out of nowhere as regent, took control of the power in a short period of time, and pacified the domestic rebellion, which made many people see the hope.

The Austrian Empire is declining, members of the royal family is also in the eyes, anxious in the heart, but this group of Archdukes are all heart, no ability to save the tide.

Franz’s outstanding performance, let them light up, it seems that the Habsburg family is about to usher in a revitalization of the Lord.

Then everyone privately a total, think can’t let Ferdinand I continue in the emperor’s position disgrace, the Habsburg family in recent decades are contracted to the aristocratic circle of the laughing stock.

In order to consider the long-term interests, they unanimously decided to let Ferdinand I abdicate early, and replace Franz, who had outstanding ability, to take the throne, and reshape the glory of the Habsburg family.

Having made the decision, everyone took turns to persuade Ferdinand I to abdicate. No, it should be to persuade Empress Maria Anna to agree to the Emperor’s abdication.

Ferdinand I was sometimes sober, sometimes confused. He may have just agreed in the first place, and then immediately forgot it in the second. What he remembers most vividly is his order to the cook: I am the emperor, I want to eat gnocchi.

When he was sober, he was not very different from normal, just a little slower reflexes, IQ is a little bit lower than normal, and once he was sick, he didn’t know anything.

The most critical thing is that he has to be sick several times a day, and no one knows when he is awake and when he is sick. It was too unreliable to let him make decisions, so everyone decided to do it for him.

In order to avoid making a joke, everyone had to convince Empress Maria Anna that as long as she didn’t object, Ferdinand I’s own opinion could be ignored.

There was no doubt that Empress Maria Anna had never been power-hungry, and because of her husband’s inability to wield power, the Viennese court was more of a prison for her.

Especially after the outbreak of the Revolution in Vienna, she was afraid to follow in the footsteps of Louis XVI.

It was happily agreed that Ferdinand I would abdicate as soon as possible and Franz would take the throne to clean up the mess.

Yes, the Austrian Empire was a mess in the eyes of many. Although the rebellion had been quelled, the problems at home were still serious.

In the opinion of many people, one of the main reasons for the outbreak of this nationwide rebellion was that the monarch’s authority had been damaged, and Ferdinand I was no longer able to gain the recognition of the Austrian people of all races.

An early accession to the throne was not rejected by Franz. If the name is not correct, it is easier for the Emperor to do many things than for the Crown Prince to do them.

Perhaps having endured enough, everyone unanimously chose to cut the Gordian knot, and the time of Ferdinand I’s abdication was soon fixed, and Franz’s accession to the throne was likewise fixed, both on September 1, 1848.

It was now the end of June, with just over two months left, and Franz had to arrange his domestic affairs to ensure that no jokes were made at his enthronement.

……

The result of the Anglo-Australian negotiation, Franz is generally satisfied. Not only from the Sardinian Kingdom side knocked a sum of money, but also gained the support of the British in the Austrian Balkan issue, and got the ticket to overseas colonization.

The only headache was the British position on the German issue, all the powers the same, everyone was against Austrian expansion into the German region.

Unlike the Kingdom of Prussia, Austria’s influence in the German region was too great, and the signboard of the Habsburg Dynasty was too loud. Once the German region was unified, the impact caused was much greater.

Not to mention, Switzerland, Holland and Belgium were all once Habsburg Dynasty homelands, and the idea of great unification that prevailed in the German region also existed within these countries.

Who knows if Austria had the means to integrate them? Whether it works or not, people are not willing to take the risk.

The influence of the Habsburg dynasty is very scrupulous, once Austria is ready to unify the German region, it will have to encounter the same situation as Napoleon.

Even before the unification of the German region, the intervention armies of various countries had already set out. This conclusion hurt everyone, especially the Greater Germanists.

There was no way that an Austria with only eight million core nationalities was everyone’s best ally, and an Austria with a core population of more than forty to fifty million was a European nightmare.

After the unification of the German region, Austria surpassed Russia in population, surpassed France in industry, and was a complete Central European giant.

The British saw it clearly, so they encouraged Austria to expand into the Balkans, as long as the main nation did not have absolute dominance, internal conflict is inevitable.

A serious internal conflict Austria, is unable to threaten the British Empire’s world hegemony, we can still be good friends.

Franz consoled: “the British position would have been expected, now the headache is not us, the Kingdom of Prussia also want to unify the German region, their choice is even smaller.

Unable to expand into the German region, we can go to the Balkans and still open up colonies, the Austrian advance will not stop.”

This is also self-congratulatory, Prussia is just an excuse to take out, the Kingdom of Prussia in this era is not strong enough to unify the German region.

Austria is itself has the strength to unify the German region, the international environment does not allow it.

The British, who were most likely to stay out of it, were strongly opposed to the unification of Germany, not to mention Russia, which was next door, and could not sleep soundly on the side of the couch.

If Austria could not annex the German region, it could only solve the national conflicts in the country first, and then slowly build up its strength by farming honestly.

The so-called expansion, just pick up some scraps, in the Balkans had to give in to the Russians, open up overseas colonies and had to compromise with Britain and France.

Felix proposed: “Since the British are against the unification of the German region, how about we settle for the second best and divide the German region with the Kingdom of Prussia?

If we can annex South Germany, we can do it even if we have to pay some price, the big deal is to give up the Italian region in exchange for the support of Britain and France, and cede Austrian Poland to the Russians in exchange for their understanding.”

Metternich sighed and said, “It’s not that simple, the many states of South Germany are our allies, how can we expand?

If we go after our allies, do we even want a reputation? Who would dare to ally with us in future diplomacy?”

If he had known that the international situation would turn out to be like this, when he first constructed the Vienna system, he would have sent the Wittelsbach family to the Italian region, and Austria would have directly annexed the Kingdom of Bavaria.

Unfortunately, history has no ifs and buts, in order to beware of the French, Austria then supported the Kingdom of Bavaria as an ally as a buffer, and now this ally is blocking Austria’s path of expansion.

Before the rise of nationalism, people did not feel the importance of the main nationalities, but after the Revolution, everyone understood the weakness of the multinational state.

Hungarians wanted independence, Italians wanted independence, Poles wanted independence, Czechs wanted autonomy ……

Luckily, nationalism didn’t penetrate the whole society, and those who rose up for independence were only capitalists and some nobles, before Austria suppressed them.

The greatest wealth of the South German region was none other than the 15 million people.

If the South German states with the same religious beliefs, language and culture were annexed, the main Austrian nation could instantly be more than half, and the crisis of secession would be minimized.

Franz thought for a moment and said, “People should not just think about expansion, to solve the ethnic problem, we can also think of ways internally.

There are more than twenty million illiterate people in the entire Austrian Empire who are illiterate, how many of these people know to which ethnic group they belong?

The Ministry of Education will make up a textbook for me, linking all the ethnic groups in each region and finding out the roots of their Germanic ethnicity.

If you can’t relate to them, you can talk about the integration of ethnic groups. I don’t believe that all of their ancestors have nothing to do with the Germanic peoples.

As long as they don’t know what ethnicity they are, just tell them they are Germanic.

For minorities with cultural heritage, propagate the Austrian system to them. Emphasis on the pedigree that we are all mixed, have multi-ethnic blood, which naturally includes Germanic blood, do not believe that let them go home to look for their family history to go.

After so many years of ethnic integration, I don’t believe there are many pure-bloods left?

Let’s clear up the ethnic relations first, then we can promote German, nay Austrian, to the whole country and gradually replace the local dialects.”

Franz was ready to play the rogue, there were not enough subject ethnicities, so just make your own.

Whether it is really Germanic or not, first fooled to try, as long as they themselves think it is that will be fine.

As long as the bureaucrats work hard, it won’t take long for the Germanic people to expand rapidly.

Historically, the Kingdom of Prussia also carried out a Germanization, their own Germanic ethnicity is also not dominant, hard to rely on the language and text assimilation to occupy a dominant position.

(End of chapter)