Chapter 179:
Chapter 176 The Price
St. Petersburg.
The Russian Foreign Minister Karl Worcel frowned and said, “Your Majesty, the Minister in Paris has sent word that Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was restored on January 1, 1852, calling himself Napoleon III.”
Upon hearing the news of Napoleon III’s restoration, Nicholas I became enraged. In his opinion the Napoleon family, an explosive family, was not qualified to act as Emperor of France.
It wasn’t just his personal opinion, there were tangible benefits as well. Napoleon came to power by popular vote, breaking the tradition of “divine right of kings” and shaking the foundations of all monarchies in Europe, which was also the origin of the war against France.
It was not easy to suppress this heresy, and now let Napoleon III restored, this is not an insult to all the participants in the Congress of Vienna? Above all it was an insult to Alexander I.
What infuriated him even more was that Napoleon III had the audacity to challenge the majesty of the Russian Empire, and after the crisis in the Holy Land broke out, the French government intervened to shake the Russians’ control over the Orthodox Church.
With the new hatred added to the old, Nicholas I naturally could not recognize the legitimacy of Napoleon III. If not for the distance between the two sides, he had already used practical actions to let the French know the power of the Russian Empire.
Nicholas I said disdainfully: ”Indeed, it is a little yakuza, just can play some unorthodox small tactics.
Order the minister in France to send a diplomatic note to the French government condemning Louis Napoleon Bonaparte’s shameless behavior of usurping the throne and ordering him to abdicate immediately.”
The restoration of Napoleon III was naturally fast and furious, and the exact timing was kept secret in order to avoid interference by international powers.
In the opinion of Nicholas I this was petty and without a trace of monarchical majesty, unworthy of being a member of the monarchical group.
Carl Worcel admonished, “Your Majesty, it’s not good for us to answer forcefully like this, it will continue to worsen the relationship between the two countries.”
To deny it without recognizing it, and to send a special diplomatic note to disgust Napoleon III, was undoubtedly adding insult to injury to Franco-Russian relations.
Because of the distance relationship, Russia’s influence on France is not great, this diplomatic reproach, but also at first to make Napoleon III face some ugly.
Anyway, even if the tsarist government roars again, Napoleon III is also impossible to abdicate, to this point no matter what is ahead, he has to continue to go on.
Nicholas I said disdainfully, “What are you afraid of, offended is also offended, anyway, Russian-French relations are like this, where else can it be bad?”
Broken, this is Nicholas I’s attitude. It is not that he is impulsive, but in the Ottoman issue, the French-Russian conflict has been white-hot, both sides refused to give in, the possibility of reconciliation is almost zero.
In the face of Nicholas I, the foreign minister Karl Wasser naturally will not respond to the top, the French people’s life and death and what does it matter to him?
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Karl Wasser replied.
Then he changed the topic again and said, “Your Majesty, the Constantinople negotiations have been determined to be unfruitful, and with the support of Britain and France the Ottoman Empire will not give in this time. The next step in our plan can be initiated.”
In other words war was coming and now a reasonable looking excuse was needed. Influenced by European culture, the Tsarist government was not as reckless as it was back then, and knew the importance of being a bitch and standing up for itself.
Nicholas I nodded and then said, “Order Duke Maeshkov to give the Ottoman Empire an ultimatum, if they still reject our goodwill, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will pick an excuse!”
Goodwill, who feels the “goodwill” of the Tsarist government? Their appetite is so big that the Sultan’s government, no matter how weak it is, will have to fight it?
Compromise is chronic suicide, hard resistance has a chance of survival, in the British and French support, the Ottoman Empire is not completely without a chance of victory.
“Yes, Your Majesty!” Karl Worcel replied
There are thousands of excuses, they will always be found, the Ottoman Empire itself is rotten, there are too many messy and rotten things, it’s just too easy to pick their thorns.
Constantinople was the dream of the Tsarist government for generations, it wasn’t just purely military and economic value, it also held great political and religious value.
In short, as long as the Tsarist government could succeed in capturing Constantinople, even if the losses were heavy, it would be acceptable.
In this respect, historically Nicholas II would have been too stupid to run into a dead heat with the Germans and Austria-Hungary.
If he would have bullied the Ottoman Empire first and captured the Constantinople region, he could have completely overwhelmed all domestic conflicts by relying on his political and religious bonuses.
In this respect, Nicholas I’s strategy is completely correct, snatched back Constantinople, with the strong prestige, and then go home to carry out reforms will be much easier.
Russia’s internal contradictions, in fact, has long attracted the attention of the tsarist government, but the opposition group is too powerful, Nicholas I did not dare to act rashly.
Including Nicholas I himself, a lot of Russia’s senior are opposed to serfdom, but the face of the entire aristocratic group, they are abashed.
Now the Tsar’s government put its hopes on the Russo-Turkish War, as long as the capture of Constantinople, everything will be fine, if it fails, there is nothing to do, but to risk the internal reforms.
……
Paris
After the restoration of Napoleon III, the country was not immediately stabilized. The opposition was still strong and on January 12, an anti-imperialist uprising broke out in Paris.
Half a month later, it spread to more than twenty provinces, including Toulouse, Marseille, Limoges, Perpignan, Ballena, Toulon and Bordeaux.
This was the time when the purchase of officers came into play, and Napoleon III reacted much better than the July dynasty, immediately ordering the suppression of the revolt.
Thirty-two of the country’s provinces were placed under martial law, and in just one month more than 26,000 people were arrested and more than 10,000 exiled, as the White Terror flooded France.
The insurgents were quickly suppressed as they lacked effective organization and were scattered throughout the country fighting for the cause.
Having secured the throne, Napoleon III had his share of troubles. First of all, there was the financial crisis. During the restoration, Napoleon III raised everyone’s salary drastically in order to buy people’s support.
For example, the salary of a senator in the parliament was 30,000 francs per year, the salary of a state councillor was 25,000 francs per year, the salary of a minister was 40,000 francs per year, and those who had a part-time job were paid more than one salary.
Napoleon himself received an annual salary of 26 million francs, and compared to France’s annual revenue of 1.2 to 3 billion francs, the emperor’s annuity was only 2.1%, which didn’t seem too high.
But the account obviously can not be so calculated, the upper level of the treatment increased, the lower level of the public service salary can not rise?
There is no doubt that Napoleon III is a good leader, concerned about everyone’s standard of living, so the French civil servants happy, “high pay” era came.
Government officials increased their salaries, Napoleon III also did not forget, and he was on the same front of the army, the promotion of the promotion, salary increases.
Even the Catholic Church, which had supported him, received in 1852 an appropriation of 42.8 million francs. Compared with Franz, the emperor who, as soon as he came to power, took the Church to task, Napoleon III was clearly a good boy.
On the occasion of his accession to the throne, a day of universal celebration, Napoleon III also took into account the interests of the common people and abolished a series of exorbitant taxes and levies.
Then everyone was happy and shouted “Long live the Emperor”, the only problem was the finance.
Under the increase and decrease of expenditure and income, the French government’s finance was not far from bankruptcy.
Playing with people’s hearts was Napoleon III’s strong point, but when it came to governing the country, he was still a novice, and he was just on his way.
In order to consolidate his rule, Napoleon III also enlarged the civil service, and the number of French administrative officials increased from 470,000 to 620,000.
It is worth mentioning that in order to cope with the crisis in the Near East, Napoleon III was also prepared to continue to expand the army, but due to financial difficulties, he was forced to shelve this plan.
Looking at the financial statements of the army on the verge of bankruptcy, Napoleon III asked with a headache, “Roue�, what is your solution to the financial crisis?”
Rouet smiled bitterly and replied, “Your Majesty, negotiate with the consortium, we need their support to get through this.”
I do not know who is this he took a “vice emperor” title, since then, in front of Napoleon III Rouet began to restrain.
Good thing here is the European continent, if changed to the eastern world, this time he has long been dead.
Even if it is still a high position of power, but Rouet knows that when the emperor of Napoleon III, and before the succession of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte is not the same.
As the number two man in the group, he had to watch his words and behavior. Being too cautious won’t work, it will affect their monarch-subject relationship; being too arrogant won’t work either, it will make Napoleon III resentful.
Seeking the support of the consortium, this proposal is moderate. Nothing innovative, yet very effective.
The French government is poor, but the French consortium is very rich. After years of capital accumulation, the name of usury empire had emerged.
However, this is not a permanent solution, to obtain the support of the consortium also needs to pay a price, without enough benefits is difficult to make them pay money.
(End of chapter)