Chapter 100: The Prussian-Russian Conflict

  Chapter 100 The Prussian-Russian Conflict

Metternich replied helplessly, “Your Highness, the French government is consistently inefficient, and at this hour they are still discussing it in parliament!”

He was also convinced about the efficiency of the French, both sides had signed a treaty, all the conditions were agreed upon in advance, and when it came to the time of action, they actually managed to drop the ball.

“How is it that the French have suddenly lost interest in the Italian region and now want to renege?” Prime Minister Felix asked suspiciously

Metternich cried and laughed, “No, the French government has no intention of backtracking, what they are disputing now is how many troops to send, who will be the commander, and which troops to send there.”

Thinking about it is also drunk, on such a little thing, but also let the parliament to make a decision, it is estimated that not waiting for them to negotiate the results, Austria has already finished cleaning up the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Franz rubbed his forehead and said, “Forget it, this French ally of ours is unreliable, good thing we didn’t expect them to do anything, as long as they don’t add to the chaos on the line.

The Foreign Ministry is focusing on the British, with their style, they will definitely do something at this time, don’t give them a chance.”

According to the Austro-French secret treaty, during the Battle of Venice, the French should have sent their troops to plunge the Sardinians’ lair and destroy the Kingdom of Sardinia, and then the two families would divide the land of the Kingdom of Sardinia in equal shares two by one.

Now that the Battle of Venice was over and the French Parliament had not yet come up with a result, Franz no longer expected the French to contribute much.

“Your Highness, the French Parliament is slow to come up with a result, which has the handiwork of the British, many pro-British parliamentarians are still opposed to sending troops.

It’s only that the temptation of Italy is so great that the powerhouses within France simply can’t help themselves, and the French bourgeoisie and the military are pushing for this military action to overpower the opposition.” Metternich replied.

The British intervention Franz was not surprised, France and Austria divided the Kingdom of Sardinia, John Bull had to lose at least tens of millions of pounds in loans, as well as a large chunk of interests in the Italian region.

Only the internal problems of France are still somewhat out of his expectation, originally thought that this partition of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Austria made major concessions, and there is a bourgeoisie and military promotion can be carried out smoothly, I did not expect that it is still stuck.

As the saying goes, the longer the night, the longer the delay, the more the British can do, the more the two countries can partition the Kingdom of Sardinia, the smaller the opportunity.

However, the French would certainly not give up easily, and no matter who the government was, they had to consider the cries of the interest groups.

France has been suppressed for too long, and after being silent for so long, the interest groups are crying out for help, and it’s not easy to get them to give up the fat meat that’s been delivered to their door at this time.

“Your Highness, if the French can’t honor their promises, then can’t we also tear up the agreement?

A strong France is not in our interest, especially if we let them expand their power into the Italian region!” Archduke Louis thought for a moment and said

The temptation to monopolize Italy was too great, and the too-smooth military campaign had fueled the ambitions of certain people within Austria, and Archduke Louis was merely speaking on behalf of those people.

“It is too risky for us to eat the Kingdom of Sardinia alone, and the attitudes of the Great Powers have to be taken into account, when the time comes, we may face a joint effort of Britain and France to suppress it.” Franz thought about it and said

He is still very sober, knowing that Austria has a few pounds, if the current Austria has the strength of the historical German II, then it is not impossible to swallow Italy alone.

Obviously this is non-existent, the light of Britain and France to join forces to let Austria can not eat.

Did not mention Russia and Prussia, that is because now Russia and Prussia on the two countries, temporarily can not care about the Italian side.

After the March Revolution in Berlin, Baron Arnim, a Prussian liberal foreign minister, came to power and pursued a pro-British and anti-Russian foreign policy.

He saw through the weakness of the Russians and thought that Russia was just a giant with feet of clay. The Prussian liberals led by him advocated supporting the Polish revolution to weaken the Russians.

Of course, the Prussian liberals were not internationalist fighters. They supported the Franco-Republican movement and even went so far as to throw out Prussian Poland, but their main purpose was still to keep the Russians in check and create favorable conditions for the unification of the German region.

Fortunately, Frederick William IV prevented this action in time, otherwise by this time Prussia had already started a war with the Russians.

However, the liberals were not idle, they had their eyes on the two German principalities of Schleswig and Holstein. As soon as the Berlin Revolution was over, they demanded from Denmark the annexation of these two duchies to Germany.

It was obvious that this could not be negotiated, and when civil struggle failed, military struggle was resorted to. On April 10th Prussia took military action against Denmark, and on April 23rd the two countries formally declared war.

Undoubtedly, the Danish Kingdom has been declined is not able to do Prussia, by the Prussians all the way hanging, to May 21, the Prussian army has killed to the Jutland Peninsula.

The Danish government looked, this can not go on, the enemy is really too strong, was forced to make the ultimate move – summon the boss.

Seeing the little brother was bullied, Russia, the boss naturally have to take the lead, otherwise let the face of the woolly bear where to put it?

“Your Highness is right, the risk of annexing the Sardinian Kingdom alone is too great. Just look at Prussia, they wanted to annex Schleswig and Holstein, and now they’re riding the tiger.” Prime Minister Felix concurred

Thinking about Frederick William IV, Franz was about to be in a much better mood. Also sharpening his knives for the slaughter of the sheep, the Austrian government was in a much better situation diplomatically.

This Austro-Saxon war is the Sardinian Kingdom initiative to start the war, Sardinian Kingdom itself is a disadvantage, all the responsibility of the war can only be their own resistance, the international public opinion is mostly in favor of Austria.

In this era, Italy was just a place name, no one ever recognized it as a country. The so-called unification of Italy could not be used as a legal basis for waging war.

In the eyes of the international community, the war was a war of aggression waged by the Sardinians, for which Austria was not morally responsible. This is also the reason why the British, who clearly supported the Kingdom of Sardinia, did not take any real action.

The German region as well was just a place name, and the two German duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, in the eyes of the outside world, had not a single thing to do with Prussia.

Of course even if there was a relationship, people would not recognize it, otherwise then shouldn’t Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg be part of Germany?

At least at the Frankfurt Conference, these regions and the two duchies of Schleswig and Holstein were considered part of Germany.

The lack of legal justification made Prussia’s military action unjustified and put her in a passive situation diplomatically.

(End of chapter)