Chapter 597: Present – Future
Chapter 584 The Present – The Future
With Franz’s lifetime order, the Austrian army at the front moved in, and regardless of whether the Ottoman Empire agreed or not, the repatriation began.
These days the Ottomans still have no human rights, do not need so much explanation, direct forced expulsion on the line. No one felt that there was anything wrong, including the accompanying journalists were treated as if they did not see it.
As for the return, will not write nonsense that no one knows. Anyway, in order to newspaper sales, all kinds of news will have all kinds of news, the journalists’ integrity is just a little bit stronger than the latter days.
As long as to ensure that most of the mainstream media will not speak for the Ottomans, this is already enough, the street tabloids are never the opening of a pen, a piece of paper, the content of all the editorial.
Prepare in advance to guide public opinion is not difficult, as long as the money can be done; want to control public opinion, then do not dream.
These days there is no power that does not get scolded, the higher the frequency of the front page of the news, but also able to side reaction of a country more powerful, small countries are still no one wants to report.
After protesting to no avail, the Sudanese government chose to accept reality in silence. Don’t look at the European countries now support them, open the history book we are still enemies.
Keeping the Ottoman Empire that is a strategic need, does not mean that everyone is treating them as friends. Even France, which has a traditional friendship with the Ottoman Empire, is not likely to stand up for them.
Inside the Prime Minister’s residence on Downing Street, Gerston frowned and asked, “Are the greedy Russians still holding out?”
The government in London was also deeply resentful of the czarist government’s delay in signing the armistice treaty. Everyone was too busy to have time to fight around an issue.
Foreign Secretary Maclean: “The Tsarist government still hasn’t let go of the illusion of exterminating the Ottoman Empire, and they should be worried that the next time the Russo-Prussian War breaks out, the Ottoman Empire will stab them again.
However, the Vienna government has already compromised, and they are still not capable of destroying the Ottoman Empire with just the power of the Russians.
The Tsarist government was poor, and their insistence would only drag on for a few days at most to create some trouble for the Ottoman Empire. Austria only promised to provide military supplies for the year, and the Russians would compromise by the end of the year at the latest.
Instead, the Austrians’ approach in the Middle East is cause for alarm, as the Vienna government declared a twenty-year fallow period on the local land under the banner of protecting the Holy Land, followed by the expulsion of the local Ottomans.
The same thing was done by the Austrians more than a decade ago. By repatriating the Ottomans back and then emigrating from the country, rule could soon be established.
Though a bit more costly, late rule is cheap and has worked well so far. If nothing happens, it won’t take long for the Austrians to establish themselves in the Middle East.
Now we can’t reach the eastern Mediterranean coast, we can only watch the Austrians continue to expand, the occupation of Jerusalem is just the beginning, in the near future the Austrians will gradually eat up the Ottoman Empire.
If Austria’s ambition is realized, it will recreate half of the territory of the Roman Empire. We must remain vigilant enough, or else this behemoth will appear, and that will be heavenly trouble.”
Prime Minister Gerston had a worried look on his face, the international situation was getting out of their control, having just been put on the spot by the French, Austria was restless again.
This time the joint pressure from all European countries made the Austrians back down, so what about the next time?
European countries can not always stand together, once the position of the countries have been polarized, I am afraid that Austria can not be suppressed.
“Do you mean to support the Ottoman Empire so that they have a certain amount of strength to defend themselves and dampen Austria’s ambitions?”
Foreign Minister MacLean nodded, “That’s right, given the current situation, if the Ottoman Empire doesn’t increase its strength, sooner or later it will be divided between Austria and the Russians.
Under the joint sidelining of France and Austria, our influence in the Mediterranean Sea has been declining day by day over the years, and it is time for a change.
As long as we hold the Ottoman Empire in our hands, we will have more room for maneuver. But this will require joining forces with the French, it will be difficult to hold the Ottomans up with our power alone.”
The Ottoman Empire was rotten to the core, and the limited reforms of the Sultan’s government only tore down the east wall to mend the west wall to treat the symptoms but not the root cause, and the difficulty of trying to be strong again could be imagined.
In favor of the Ottoman Empire is a multi-ethnic country, once fallen will be divided, want to rebuild can not be.
Finance Minister Laluk Lloyd: “There is no problem in supporting the Ottoman Empire, the key is how to ensure that our investment can get a return.
Even if we pull in the French to share the risk, this is still a high-risk investment. Once the Ottoman Empire is finished, our investment will be wasted.
Now that the Ottoman government’s finances are bankrupt, it’s not a small figure to pay to get them back.”
Does the British Empire have money? Of course it does: yes! In this day and age they are still the most ostentatious government in the world, even France and Austria can’t compete.
But money can’t be used to make money. The Ottoman Empire was a mess, and Lalique Lloyd didn’t think the Sultan’s government could be revitalized by fire.
MacLean waved his hand, “We have no better choice, there is only one Ottoman left in the Near East that has the potential to become a power, we can’t be allowed to support the Greeks and check Austria, can we?”
Supporting the Greeks, that was a joke. A country with a population of no more than a million, no matter how much Britannia invested in them, it would be impossible to turn them into a powerhouse.
Prime Minister Gerston: “It is fine to support the Ottoman Empire, but we must grasp this degree, and once we realize that it is not possible, we must stop in time.
But what should the French do? Now that the Spanish government is pro-French, the French have stabilized their western front, and when they finish their internal struggle, I’m afraid that they’ll have to fight for continental hegemony again.
With the style of the Vienna government, they may not go against the French, and then it is likely that a new round of major merger activity will break out.”
This was the worst possible outcome; if the big powers were allowed to annex the smaller ones, Britain’s supremacy would be hard to secure.
MacLean shook his head, “Mr. Prime Minister, you are overthinking. Neither France, nor Austria will expand abroad in the short term.
With the rise of nationalism, the risk of expansion is growing. The French are an example of this, annexing the Italian region and not digesting it for so many years.
Austria shouted the slogan of unifying the German region to the skies, but was very conservative when it came to actual action. If they hadn’t been infiltrating the German Confederation, I’d even think they’d have given up.
Even if they hadn’t given up, the Vienna government was not very enthusiastic about unifying the German region.
The political system of the New Holy Roman Empire, although more tightly knit than the previous Holy Roman Empire, was still not small in terms of the rights of the states.
The German region was already accustomed to the politics of the states, and if it was forced to break this pattern, it would be easy to get into trouble.
The Austrians had realized this, and the New Holy Roman Empire took away at least some of the core rights and even tampered with the voting rules of the Imperial Council.
With the advantage of volume, Austria steadily suppressed a few states. But if the remaining German states had all entered the Reichstag, then the situation would have changed.
With a minimum of one vote per state, Austria would not have had an absolute majority in the Reichstag. A situation like that of the German Confederation, where a group of small states joined forces in the Reichstag to limit the power of the central government, would then arise.
If the rules of the game were changed, it would again affect imperial power. For an emperor, the position under his ass is far more important than occupying a little more territory.”
There is nothing wrong with these judgments, and given the current international situation, this is indeed the case. When the power gap between countries widens further in a few years, the situation will be different again.
Not to mention, the fact that the number of German states has been decreasing in the last hundred years is a real problem.
Certain states, whose monarchs became heirless and whose crowns fell into the hands of their relatives, were merged by marriage. The Habsburgs were the main representatives of this, and this is how the Austrian Empire came about.
In addition to one vote per state, the new Holy Roman Empire Parliament also had the rule of one vote for every three million people, which was actually the means Franz had buried in advance.
Austria’s population was growing fast, and after the colonies were localized, they also followed the central government’s jurisdiction, so even if they joined a bunch of states, it wasn’t hard for the central government to get more than half of the votes.
But diplomacy has to look to the future as much as to the present. What’s the point of talking about the future if you don’t take care of what’s in front of you?
……
(End of chapter)