Chapter 462: The Poorest Tsar
Chapter 451 – The Poorest Tsar
Time flies like an arrow, and the sun and the moon fly like a shuttle. After so many years of hard work, Austria has jumped to the world’s second colonial empire, covering six continents and seven oceans.
Have to be glad that there is no satellite map in this era, otherwise someone will see the strategic layout of Austria, I am afraid that it will immediately cause an uproar.
The Americas, Austria occupied Central America, North and South America into two, the original time and space of the famous Panama Canal has become a distant memory.
Unless one day, Austria is strong enough to cope with all the challenges, or the United States federal split again, completely enough not to threaten, or this canal will not have to consider.
The African continent is even more terrifying, and if anyone pays attention, they’ll realize that Austria has divided up the colonies of the countries so that they can’t be linked together.
Of course, the French still had a large area of North Africa, except that seeing the desert area necessitated a change in that statement.
A large area is good, but a large desert area changes the situation. Apart from the coastal areas, which could be inhabited, there were only a few oases of value in this vast desert.
Mineral resources may exist, but they are worthless on the African continent, and even more so if they are under the sand.
The British area of South Africa was, in effect, in jeopardy. It wasn’t seized, and that was only because Franz didn’t want to go up against the British so early.
The French’s other colony, Egypt, also looked good and was actually in crisis. If the Sudanese region could not be taken soon to connect the two regions, it was going to be surrounded by Britain and Austria.
Analyzed purely militarily, this is simply trying to monopolize the African continent.
In fact, this is just idealism in the fantasy, the African continent is now a convergence of the British, French, Austrian, Spanish and Portuguese five countries of power, how can easily expelled out of it?
Moreover, Austria does not have such a population to fill this huge pit, the European emperor into a non-common thing Franz is still very jealous.
The original time and space but there are a lot of Africans who claim to be French, only in Africa tanned, only to become a non-commonwealth.
Whether it is true or not, just this possibility makes Franz not dare to mess around.
In the context of the indigenization policy, it would be a headache in case the African continent outpopulated the homeland and they cried out to move their capital.
Well, that’s a minor problem that Franz is unlikely to encounter anyway. The main thing is that you don’t have enough power, and you can get into trouble if you’re too wavy.
Not to mention continental Europe, where the pressure on Austria’s defense would be crushing enough right now if they hadn’t decisively created a conflict and pushed behind the scenes to start a Russo-Prussian war.
There is no way, geographic location achieved Austria, but also limited Austria.
If Franz did not take flexible diplomatic measures to polarize the relationship between the powers, Austria would have become a target.
The current situation in Europe can be said to be Franz single-handedly made. There were some changes in it, but generally speaking, it was still within the plan.
East according to Russia, west blocking France, in the middle but also to suppress Prussia, this looks very cool strategy, in fact, as long as the implementation, safekeeping death than the German two empire is more thorough.
Although the “Austrian threat” has not become the mainstream of public opinion, it has appeared in the minds of many politicians. The French were too active for it to explode.
After all, the Habsburg dynasty’s ancestors were once more brilliant than now, the result of the unification of the German region did not do, and now Franz also did not unify the German region, is still within the scope of acceptance.
It is estimated that many people are calculating that another outbreak of German regional chaos, and can pull down the Habsburg dynasty’s again.
Perhaps it is the Napoleonic era to fight out of the prestige, created the arrogant French, think of the world’s land forces first, even the heyday of the Russian Empire they are not convinced, Austria is even less in the eyes.
Although France has a lot of hatred, but they are lucky! Spain tossed itself into decline, and now is on the verge of a civil war over the throne.
There is no threat to the rear, alone against any country they do not goad, Napoleon III naturally have the courage to toss.
Of course, this is both an advantage and a disadvantage. That is, the road of expansion of France is difficult to go, the French people’s dream of a great power is difficult to fulfill.
Napoleon III is not young, but his son is still young, now accelerate the pace of expansion, is Napoleon III anxious.
If not in he could not support to his son in power, then it is necessary to create a big French empire out first, otherwise France is in danger, or Bonaparte family throne is in danger.
This is also the reason why France and Austria can be allied, there is Franz this pusher in the speculation of public opinion, the essence of the French public has been very exuberant.
The desire for great power has been deeply rooted in people’s hearts, Napoleon III can still be suppressed, the next generation may not be.
In this case, either realize this goal; or suppress it and change everyone’s perception.
There was no doubt that the second one could not be done. Even if Napoleon III wanted to do it, those whose interests were damaged in his reforms, the capitalists, would not agree.
If the expansion succeeded, the increased market could feed the capitalists; if it failed, it was time to trigger another political change, and a change of government to one of their own could reap the same massive benefits.
Here is where the masculine conspiracy is more frightening than the intrigue. Now that France’s internal contradictions are also serious, the best way to alleviate them is to expand.
The best way to alleviate internal conflicts is to expand, using the plundered wealth to make up for the losses of those whose interests have been damaged by the reforms. Modern reforms that have been successful have basically done the same thing.
The British, after the Revolution, carried out colonial expansion and used their colonies to resolve internal conflicts;
When Austria reformed, it likewise relied on external expansion to resolve internal conflicts;
The Kingdom of Prussia did the same until the end of the Russo-Prussian War, when the conflicts between the capitalists and the Junker nobility were alleviated.
The present stability of France is likewise founded on external expansion. If the government had not opened up so many colonies, the capitalists whose interests were damaged would have revolted long ago.
Alexander II, who was in the midst of reforms, was now encountering the same problem. There was no shortage of land in the Russian Empire, but those whose interests had been damaged by the reforms still needed to be compensated.
Money, Alexander II could not afford to give. In the original time and space, many people criticized Alexander II for his incomplete reforms, which led to the fall of the Russian Empire, but in fact, it was out of the question, and he had really tried his best.
As a spokesman for the interests of the aristocracy, he had to move the knife into his own class, and if the reforms had been thorough, there would have been no need to think about the future, and the tsar would have been replaced before the reforms were completed.
Even so, the Russians expanded in Central Asia, the Far East, and the Near East, and relied on foreign plunder to ease internal conflicts.
Now the Russian Empire, which had lost the opportunity for expansion, became more internally conflicted. Alexander II’s reforms would not have been possible had there not been a major purge.
In St. Petersburg, Alexander II again changed the top of the government. There was no choice but to replace them. Three ministers had already been assassinated and the rest had turned into cowards.
There are always hot-blooded men in any country, and the reformers now in power were a group of men who were willing to lay down their lives for the Russian Empire.
Alexander II knew the art of compromise. His reforms were not radical and many of his policies took care of the interests of the nobility.
In the distribution of land, he again made concessions. Nobles who refused to redeem their land were not forced to do so, and the government paid for the organization of peasants to clear the land.
There was plenty of land in the Russian Empire, it just wasn’t developed. Not to mention the undeveloped land in Europe, even the Siberian plains could actually house tens of millions of people, and farms were developed in the Far East in later times.
Anyway, the peasants at the bottom didn’t mind the remoteness, people didn’t mind suffering as long as the government was willing to pay to help them clear the land.
With this policy shift, the resistance of the nobles was instantly weaker. In the era of mechanized agriculture, the demand for labor was no longer that great.
As a price, the Tsarist government’s wallet dried up fast. Government-funded support required real money, or at least the provision of farming tools, seeds, and incidentally, the responsibility to take care of food.
The newly freed peasants were so poor that the cost of clearing the land had to be paid by the government. The money was considered an interest-free loan from the government to the people, which would have to be returned in the future, but that was the future.
What about the tens of millions of people who were now counting on the Tsarist government for their food? The financial problem, had become the biggest problem for the government of Alexander II.
……
Promoting the book “My America”, a new book by an old foreign history author, the one who wrote about the Soviet Union.
It’s Mid-Autumn Festival, you all don’t bring the tickets, I still push the book so diligently, can you afford me?
(End of chapter)