Chapter 112: Anglo-Australian Negotiations

  Chapter 112 – Anglo-Austrian Negotiations

Under what circumstances would the conflict between Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia disappear?

It depends on the specific situation, anyway, Palmerston will not be naive to think that Austria rise to kill the Sardinian Kingdom, for the sake of the so-called world peace, it is easy to let go of the Sardinian Kingdom.

Then only let one side fall, a slap in the face, the enemy fell, the conflict will naturally cease to exist.

There is no doubt that the one who falls now is definitely the Sardinian Kingdom, Palmerston does not believe that the Sardinians can turn the tide.

Even if the remaining Sardinian soldiers were transformed into Spartan warriors, it would not change the ending of losing the war.

Palmerston thought for a moment and said, “Mr. Metternich, for the sake of world peace and stability, the British government suggests that your country end the Austro-Sardinian War as soon as possible and return to the pre-war state.”

The relationship between the British and Austria was complicated, they opposed Austria’s expansion in the Italian region, and because of their European strategic needs, they didn’t want to turn their backs on Austria, which led to this Parmeston’s trip to Vienna, where they attempted to resolve the strife between the two countries of Austria and Saar through diplomatic means.

It is important to know that after the war against France, Europe entered the era of the two powers of Britain and Russia. Austria dominated the Vienna system, although the British Empire isolated outside the European continent, the same also curbed the expansion of the Russians.

For the British, isolation is isolated, as long as the European continent to maintain the balance, their hegemony will not be shaken, the Vienna system also defended their core interests.

Now that the Vienna system has collapsed and the situation on the European continent is about to undergo a sea change, containing Russian expansion has become the first priority of the British.

As a block in the Russian westward expansion on the road of Austria, is the London government needs to fight for the most allies, non-necessary moments of the Anglo-Austrian relationship can not be broken.

The complexity of the British diplomatic strategy, naturally, could not be hidden from Metternich, Austria also need to cooperate with the British.

Don’t look at Russia and Austria are allies, Austria does not need to contain Russia to continue to expand its power, in fact, the most do not want Russia to expand abroad is the Austrian government.

Of course, this did not include Franz.

There were practically few roads left for the Russians to expand westward, and neither Prussia nor Austria were soft targets for the Tsarist government to set its sights on.

Sweden in the Nordic region was likewise a hard nut to crack, and the Russians would not touch it, leaving the Balkans as the only region of Europe where the Russians could expand.

People in this era thought that Russia had entered the Balkans, occupied Constantinople, and then rushed into the Mediterranean Sea and was out of control.

Franz’s judgment was the opposite: the Russians who stayed in the Ice Kingdom were the most terrifying, and after entering the Mediterranean, the British would teach the Woolly Bear to be a new man.

Being great on land was not the same as being great on the sea. It’s not that Franz despised the Russians, on land they could rely on man-to-man tactics, but the navy was a real rookie.

If you really want to talk about developing a navy, Austria has an advantage over the Russians, at least Venice used to be a naval power and still has enough sailors.

If you don’t have the sea, you have to be good at naval affairs. Russia does have a large sea area, but none of it is very suitable for naval development.

Even now then, the Russians are still a bunch of dry ducks, and that pocket version of a navy simply can’t be developed without decades.

Even when the Russians were expanding in the Balkans, Austria got a piece of the pie, maybe not the tastiest part.

But Franz’s attitude was that a thousand birds are better than one.

As long as the strength of Austria can be strengthened, as for the question of containing the Russian expansion, whoever likes to do it can do it, anyway, he did not have this kind of internationalist spirit.

If the Russians were led astray and ran off to vigorously develop their navy. He didn’t mind fully supporting the Russians and letting them go a little further down this road of death.

Franz’s attitude, to a certain extent, also affected Austria’s diplomacy, for many international affairs, are not as actively involved as in the era of Metternich.

Metternich shook his head and said: ”Mr. Palmerston, there is always a price to pay for doing something wrong, the Sardinian Kingdom dared to invade Austria, so naturally it has to bear the corresponding price.

The dignity of the Austrian Empire is not to be desecrated, the evil Sardinian Kingdom dared to violate the Vienna system to launch a war of aggression, so it must pay the price for it.”

Palmerston breathed a sigh of relief, Austria did not bite the bullet to annex the Kingdom of Sardinia, then there is still room for things to be eased, it is just a matter of interest.

Encouraging the Sardinian Kingdom to start a war and providing loans to the Sardinian Kingdom, there was also a part of his credit behind this. If the Kingdom of Sardinia is really finished, these loans have become bad debts, the British bankers can not forgive him.

Palmerston thought for a moment and said: ”Of course, the Sardinian Kingdom initiated this war of aggression, and naturally should pay the price for it.

For the sake of world peace, the British Empire is prepared to mediate this war, and we hope that your country can temporarily stop its military actions.”

Metternich smiled slightly and said, “Unfortunately, Mr. Palmerston, you came too late.

Now at this time the Kingdom of Sardinia has already been occupied by the Austrian army, and the King of Sardinia, Charles Albert, has already gone into exile, and it probably won’t be long before he arrives in London.

If your country can restrain the partisans of the Sardinians from continuing to make trouble, we can stop the next military operations.”

Did the Austrian army occupy the Kingdom of Sardinia?

If only referring to the major cities, Austria had indeed occupied the Kingdom of Sardinia by now; if referring to the whole country, Austria had only occupied half of the territory of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

This didn’t stop Metternich from bragging about it; most of the time military occupations in this era referred to major cities, and the vast rural areas were often ignored.

At this point, Palmerston has not bothered to continue to fight, the Sardinian Kingdom in the hands of the chips are lost, want to not hemorrhage are impossible.

Palmerston quickly entered the role, opened his mouth and asked, “Mr. Metternich, to end this war, what are the conditions of your government, we can convey them on behalf of you.”

Metternich did not answer, but handed over an already prepared armistice treaty.

Scanning the contents on it, Palmerston’s face changed, if it was done according to Austria’s requirements, the Kingdom of Sardinia was not far from becoming history.

“Mr. Metternich, the clauses on it, they are too harsh, aren’t they?” Palmerston said with a frown

More than harsh, it was clearly very harsh. This is to put the Sardinian Kingdom’s politics, military, finances, and territory all under Austria’s control, and there is not much difference between that and the annexation of the Sardinian Kingdom.

For example: the appointment of government ministers and above must be approved by the Austrian government;

Another example: the Kingdom of Sardinia was not allowed to keep an army, but only a police force of no more than 10,000 men, and fifty percent of the financial revenue was used to hire the Austrian army to protect their territorial security;

The right to issue the currency of the Kingdom of Sardinia, to be administered by the Austrian government;

All taxes in the Kingdom of Sardinia, with the rates set by the Austrian government;

The Kingdom of Sardinia was not allowed to produce weaponry and all weapons had to be imported from Austria;

All diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Sardinia and any country or region are under the authority of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs;

……

There aren’t any cession demands on this, except that compared to the demands on this, it’s assumed that the Sardinians would rather cede land and pay for it than become an Austrian colony.

Metternich said very kindly: “This is only a draft for negotiation, this invasion of the Sardinian kingdom has brought very heavy losses to Austria, Lombardy and Venice are nearly beaten into white.

It also caused hundreds of thousands of Austrian casualties, and millions of Austrian people were left homeless, how can you calculate such a serious loss?

If the Sardinians can’t accept our conditions, it’s not impossible, as long as they can compensate us in full for all our losses at once.”

……

(End of chapter)