Chapter 152: A topic that has been sidetracked
Chapter 150: The Subjects Brought Off-Topic
On February 21, 1850, under diplomatic pressure from Britain, France and Russia, the Prussian government signed the Prussian-Danish Treaty of Berlin with the Kingdom of Denmark in Berlin.
The Prussian government recognized the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark over the two duchies of Schleswig-Holstein, and the Prussian-Danish War officially ended.
Prior to the signing of the treaty, under strong pressure from the Russians, Prussian troops had actually withdrawn from the Kingdom of Denmark, including the duchies of Schleswig-Holstein, which were abandoned.
After the signing of the treaty, the delegation of the German Confederation left in anger, refusing to recognize the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark over the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein.
The Prussian government was punked, and this time they were punked not only by the states of the German region, but also by the Russians, and it was clear that Nicholas I was warning the Prussians to be honest in practical terms.
During the negotiations, at first the delegation of the German Confederation was in favor of Prussia and had a heated argument with the Russian delegates, and soon the delegation wimped out under the unity of the British, French, and Russian positions and endorsed the British, French, and Russian mediation.
It was agreed that we would sign the treaty together, but in the end, after the Prussian government had signed the treaty, the Federal Delegation immediately deserted, putting all the blame on the Prussian government.
That’s right, it buggered off. The so-called angry departure was just for the public to hear; the Federal Delegation had not signed the treaty, so they could say whatever they wanted.
The Prussians thought that Britain, France and Russia would force the German Confederation to sign a treaty and settle the problem of the two duchies of Schleswig-Holstein once and for all, but it turned out that the Russian delegates left satisfied.
Without the Russians, Britain and France naturally did not bother.
In any case, only Prussia and the two duchies of Schleswig-Holstein bordered on the German Confederation, and the other states, no matter how loud their slogans were, could only shoot blanks in practice.
The attitude of the German Confederation was not important in this matter. Even this international organization, in essence, can not be considered a country, the diplomatic rights of the states are free, they themselves do not have the right to sign diplomatic treaties for everyone.
As a result of the Treaty of Pudan Berlin, the prestige of the Kingdom of Prussia in the German region was greatly reduced, and it was incapable of competing with Austria for the leadership of the German region.
At this time, outside the Prussian embassies of the states in the German region, they were all surrounded by people who were recovering donations, holding up signs of debt collection in protest and demonstration, and from time to time there were also rocks flying in.
The public opinion campaign was successful. When the donations were first collected, the newspapers published a strong statement from the Prussian government. Some of it was true, most of it was editorial brainstorming.
None of this mattered; the people thought it was true anyway. The people, who had been promised a war to the death with the Russians, but had been discouraged even before the war was fought, were venting their anger in this way.
The money will not come back, the Prussian government is so poor that even if they were scolded ten times harder, they would not be able to get the money back.
In the end, governments had to send troops to defend the Prussian embassy and provide them with a livelihood, and with everyone yelling at them, the Prussian embassy staff didn’t dare go out to buy food.
After the pit Prussia, Austria and the friendly relations of the German regional states, but also began to turn cold.
The German states, led by Bavaria, did not want to see the unification of the German region, and they attempted to play a balancing act between the two Austrian and Prussian states.
The proximity of these states to Austria, in addition to religious and political influence, also had something to do with the eating of the Kingdom of Prussia.
The Kingdom of Prussia was originally a small state, grew to become the second largest state in the German region, naturally, it is inevitable to expand all the way.
In just a few decades, the Kingdom of Prussia’s territorial area has expanded three times, the territorial expansion of the black history is naturally inevitable, which has caused everyone to be vigilant.
The foreign policy of the Metternich era was still valuable, at least it made the German states think that Austria had no ambition to unify the German region, ignoring the fact that Austria’s state policy had changed.
The Frankfurt Conference not long ago, where evidence of the Prussian government’s involvement was again poked out by Austria, sickened everyone, and it took the Austrian government throwing up its arms to raise the crowd.
Now that the Kingdom of Prussia has been suppressed, the position of the Kingdom of Bavaria has once again changed, and they are unwilling to see an imbalance in the power of Prussia and Austria and the emergence of a dominant situation.
The normal combination is the second to unite the third against the eldest, Austria can unite the third to suppress the second, in diplomacy is already a remarkable victory.
Now back on track, the Bavarian government’s diplomatic attitude has shifted again.
Affected by the revolution of 1848, King Ludwig I of Bavaria was forced to abdicate. Before abdicating, Ludwig I issued a statement on March 6, promising that the Bavarian government would work for the freedom and unity of Germany.
This planted a political bombshell for his son, Maximilian I, who succeeded him.
There was no way that the national unificationists in Bavaria would have preferred the unification of Germany by Austria, who shared their religious beliefs, to the unification of Germany by Prussia.
Historically Maximilian stood against the populace because he supported the constitution of the Frankfurt Conference and advocated the exclusion of Austria from the German region. In order to stabilize his rule, he turned pro-Austrian again in 1851.
Regardless of who it favored, the highest quest of the Bavarian government was still to establish an Austro-Prussian-Bavarian triumvirate model, and it was clear that the Kingdom of Bavaria was too far away from the Prussians and Austrians to do that.
The Kingdom of Bavaria moved closer to Prussia, something the Austrian westward faction was happy to see. To come down hard on an ally, that influence is too bad, and the Austrian government has a face to live up to.
If they couldn’t come down hard, even if Austria united the South German region, these states would still exist independently and would affect Austria’s centralization.
These states are mainly Bavaria, other small states are weak, without the lead brother, and do not dare to cause trouble to the central government.
The appearance of Maximilian I, the death-defying pro-Prussian king, undoubtedly provided the Austrian government with an opportunity to annex the Bavarian kingdom.
It now depended on his performance to create an excuse for Austria to abolish the Bavarian crown in name only.
In the Austrian Prime Minister’s office, Felix said in a deep voice: “Austria’s alliance with Bavaria has become an obstacle to our unification of the German region.
The dissolution of this pact is imperative, but Austria cannot renege on the alliance, and it would be best for the Bavarian government to betray it of its own accord. The time to dissolve this pact must also be well chosen, not too early, not too late.”
This degree is difficult to grasp, if the alliance is terminated early, because of geopolitics, then Austria’s influence in the German Confederation will be greatly affected, the Holy Roman Alliance may also be affected.
If the two sides still maintained their alliance when Austria initiated the War of Unification, it’s possible that Maximilian I would have simply declared the Kingdom of Bavaria to have changed its flag.
Bavaria can be led by anyone, but not by the king, the cost is too high.
If that happened, the Austrian government would have to cry.
Referring to the historical German Empire, the Kingdom of Bavaria retains independent political rights and can also recruit its own army.
The Bavarian Kingdom retained its political rights and was able to recruit its own army. The central government could not do anything about this state within a state, as it pulled several other states and had the right to veto unfavorable provisions in the Bundestag, which was the supreme body of power in the German empire.
Metternich frowned and said: “There will always be excuses, the problem is that our plan can succeed? If it plays out and falls apart, the Austrian Empire’s greatness will be gone.”
He didn’t like taking risks, and he didn’t agree with the Russian-Austrian secret pact. But the arm could not be twisted, and it was no longer his word in the Austrian government.
Felix thought for a moment and said, “Mr. Metternich, the risk of Austrian unification of the South German region is not military.
If we send troops under the banner of unifying Germany, the possibility of these state armies turning against us is very high, and most of them are in favor of German unification.
The enemy soldiers are not warlike, and the chances of our military defeat are almost nil.
The real risk comes from diplomacy, where you have the most to say.
The Russo-Austrian secret pact has been signed, and in the absence of accidents, the Russians will be on our side.
The British whip is out of reach, and the danger comes from two directions, France in the west and Prussia in the north, and if we can take care of one of them, we will be victorious.
If the Austrian government can make concessions elsewhere, do you think it is possible to persuade the French to support us?
It is not necessary for them to support us, just for the French government to acquiesce.
Or even make the French government waver internally, delaying their decision-making for a bit, we can unite with the Russians to overpower Prussia!”
Metternich fell into deep thought, easier said than done. There were many factors that affected the outcome of diplomacy, and they had to be well thought out, especially if the fate of the country was involved.
After thinking about it, Metternich frowned and said, “The chances of hemorrhaging money in the Italian region and promising to cede all the territories west of the Rhine in exchange for the French to support us are three tiers, and the possibility of neutrality is six tiers.
As for delaying the French government’s decision making, if it’s the current French government, even if they don’t do anything, they’ll be disputing it for months.”
It seemed to him that Felix was going off the deep end, was it good to be neighbors with the French?
In the future a lot of Austria’s defense budget will be spent on defense against the French, which is why the Russians let Austria annex South Germany.
Besides, the so-called strategic prognosis is not reliable at all now, who knows when the French government will change again?
Finance Minister Karl said with dissatisfaction, “Prime Minister, can this issue be discussed later, don’t forget our current mission, I am opposed to any expansionary actions until we have straightened out the country.”
Originally, the Austrian government’s finances were very generous, having confiscated a large number of aristocratic estates in 1848 and extorted back a huge sum of money in the Austro-Saxon War.
Since the passing of the Russo-Austrian pact, and seeing the Russian preparations for war, the Austrian government judged that the pattern of the European continent was about to be broken, and in order to cope with contingencies, this money was turned into a war reserve.
The Ministry of Finance was then obliged to be careful in its calculations and to live within its means.
The dispute over the line broke out in the palace not long ago, and when it was not discussed, His Majesty the Emperor put an end to it by proposing a purge of the official ranks.
Originally, the topic was now the purging of the official ranks, but now because of the news of the shift in Bavarian foreign policy, the topic was again brought to the side.
There was no doubt that this was Chancellor Felix’s attempt to get the cabinet to support his westward strategy, but unfortunately everyone was very opinionated and not everyone was interested in expansion.
Felix laughed and said, “I’m sorry, that’s my fault! I’ve been so full of questions about the South German region lately that I couldn’t help but get off topic.
Let’s also continue today’s topic about the specific program to clean up the official culture.”
(End of chapter)