Chapter 260: Vienna Peace Conference
Chapter 252 The Vienna Peace Conference
Time rushed by, the much-anticipated Vienna peace talks began. The protagonist is naturally Britain, France and Russia, the three countries involved, supporting role is much more, all European countries sent representatives.
I do not know, this is from when it started, as long as the European continent occurred a big event, no matter and their own relationship or not, everyone loves to run over to join in the fun.
Beautiful name: concern for international politics. In Franz’s opinion, this is in order to brush the sense of existence, to cause the attention of the big countries.
Don’t see these small countries don’t have much say, think their attitude is not important. On the contrary, when the big powers are at an impasse, the position of these small countries determines the final outcome.
Now there is no superpower in the European continent, the gap between the strength of the major powers is not too great, and there is no country that can really fight one against two, not to mention overpowering all the countries.
It is not that who is stronger than the other, it must take the other side how, really if the outbreak of war, the greater likelihood is still a lose-lose situation.
The facts of the war in the Near East have already told us that modern warfare requires high costs, and the ultimate benefits and costs are often disproportionate.
In front of the cruel reality, everyone’s concept has changed, governments are trying to avoid war with big countries as much as possible.
Against that background, all parties had come to the Vienna Conference in good faith.
The British wanted to withdraw as soon as possible from the war in the Near East and devote themselves to the movement of colonial expansion, the speed of their colonization having been delayed because of the war.
The French were no exception. Napoleon III, influenced by the British colonial movement, was very interested in opening up overseas colonies.
The Near East War was essentially not going to do France any favors other than curbing Russian expansion, and now that it was Britain and Russia who were vying for world hegemony, there was no need for them to continue to fight to the death.
The Russians were the ones who wanted the war to end the most, and with Constantinople all but secured, albeit through backroom deals, Nicholas I didn’t care.
The political and religious interests were all in hand, and if the war continued, it would do no good at all except to worsen the finances of the Russian Empire.
Now the Russian Empire is already externally strong, in addition to the surface of the strong, internal conflicts have long been heavy, the Tsar’s government is in urgent need of rest and recuperation.
The Ottoman Empire, not to mention, the Sultan’s rule is already shaky, and if the fight goes on, the national uprising in the country will be enough for them to suffer.
The Duchy of Montenegro had no say, even though they fought very bravely and inflicted a large number of casualties on the British, it still didn’t give them a voice.
……
Inside St. Stefan’s Cathedral in Vienna, the presiding officer of the meeting, Metternich, said with a solemn face, “Welcome to Vienna, all of you, this meeting today, we are convened for the sake of world peace.
Throughout the history of mankind there have been too many wars that have broken out, and these wars have often brought about disasters, in fact, many of these wars can be avoided, as long as everyone strengthens their exchanges and communication more, many misunderstandings will not exist.
……”
Metternich is a pacifist, this point is recognized throughout Europe, hold up the banner of peace, is also the “European Chancellor” habit.
Politicians know how to frame, and the representatives of various countries have begun to put on a show, as if everyone was a pacifist at this moment.
After everyone had finished pretending, the journalists were invited out, the negotiations were officially opened, and the harmonious atmosphere disappeared.
As the representative of the little brother Ottoman Empire, Banner Ade, was the first to open his mouth to accuse the Russians of atrocities:
“This war is entirely provoked by the Russian Empire, they should take full responsibility for this war …….”
Not waiting for Ader to finish, the Russian foreign minister Karl Worcel said: “Your Excellency, please pay attention to your words, we are only recovering lost ground.
Constantinople is the holy land of Christendom, and just because it has been invaded by you for hundreds of years, it doesn’t make you the master of the place.
In the beginning, you were the aggressors. We are only accomplishing what the Crusades did not accomplish, so please do not defame this holy and just war.”
The Ottoman Empire suffered when religion was brought into the picture. On this issue, Britain and France would not dare to deny that Constantinople was the Holy Land of Christendom, much less recognize it as Ottoman territory.
That is, the place has long been recognized by everyone, but in the negotiation meetings, which were recorded in written documents, everyone dared not say it.
Seeing that the Ottoman representative was brought to the pit at the very beginning, Thomas made a decisive decision to change the topic and said: ”Duke Karl, these historical legacy issues cannot be clarified in a few words.
The war is being fought now, there is no need to accuse anyone of responsibility, now let’s discuss how to end this!”
“No problem.” Russian Foreign Minister Karl Worcel replied coldly
Thomas said in a serious manner, “For the sake of world peace, for the sake of the stability of the European continent, I propose that the warring parties now return to the pre-war state and end this unnecessary war!”
With his own interests involved, Russian Foreign Minister Karl Worcel immediately objected, “Impossible, we absolutely cannot tolerate Constantinople falling into the hands of infidels.”
Thomas said without changing his face, “Karl asks the Duke to rest assured that we will not allow Constantinople to fall into the hands of the infidels either.
As the Holy Land of Christendom, Constantinople should be shared by all Christians, and I propose an international co-administration of Constantinople.”
……
Obviously, this was something the Russians could not accept; how could Constantinople, which had cost so much to capture, be given up so easily?
British and Russian representatives began a war of words, a series of arguments for more than an hour, there is still no result, surprisingly, the French actually paddled on the side.
Early found the wrong Thomas pretended as if nothing had happened, not his thick skin in pretending to be confused, in fact, he was testing the relationship between France and Russia to that point.
Metternich smiled and said, “The two of you have arrived at lunchtime, why don’t you continue in the afternoon!”
Negotiations can not be so easy to end, and now it is still only the Anglo-Russian controversy, behind the French-Russian interests division of contradictions, Anglo-French contradictions, Austria and the Ottoman Empire contradictions ……
The Vienna Conference, in addition to mediating this Near Eastern War, also has the purpose of constructing a new international order, and there are many more issues involved.
Ever since the collapse of the Vienna system, in just a few years, the European continent has seen the outbreak of: the Austro-Saxon War, the Pudan War, the War of German Unification, and the Near Eastern War.
Britain, France, Russia, Austria and Prussia were all involved, plus the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Kingdom of Denmark, the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Duchy of Montenegro, the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Greece, most of the countries of all of Europe participated in the war.
If this continues, it won’t be long before a new continental war breaks out again, which is not what everyone wants.
The benefits that everyone could gain from fighting and killing each other on the European continent were very limited. Under the mutual restraint of the countries, no one should try to eat the fat meat.
At this moment, everyone realized the importance of the Vienna system, the call to rebuild the Vienna system, naturally became higher.
Especially in Europe, many small countries are even more insecure, they urgently need a stable order to protect their own interests.
Under the demand of common interests, Metternich, who led the establishment of the first Vienna System, was once again pushed out by everyone.
Can the Vienna system be rebuilt? No one can answer this question. In short, everyone now needs a stable international system.
The Russians needed to carry out internal social reforms, Britain, France and Austria needed to carry out overseas colonial expansion, and numerous small European countries needed an international order to defend their own security, which all required a stable European continent.
In the evening, the results of the first day of peace talks were passed to Franz, and there was no surprise that the British were at a disadvantage in this negotiation.
What can not be taken on the battlefield, want to get back on the negotiation table, and how can it be simple?
The hairy bear is not a good bully, the French began to paddle, so that the British a lot of threats can not be used.
Now the biggest bargaining chip in their hands is still the maritime advantage. Once the negotiations failed, the Russians foreign trade can not start normally, mainly grain exports can not go smoothly.
Grain exports are the Russians’ largest source of foreign exchange, because of the Near East War, grain export trade cut off.
In order to buy strategic materials, the tsarist government had to take out a large amount of gold and silver for trade, the rate of gold and silver outflow increased greatly, bringing serious pressure on the tsarist government’s finances.
Although the Russian Empire has long been in a state of trade deficit, but the annual trade deficit of a few million rubles, and the annual trade deficit of hundreds of millions of rubles is not a concept at all.
The Russian Empire has minerals, gold and silver is really not a shortage, the area of a few million rubles is not as much as the gold and silver they excavated in a year.
But hundreds of millions of rubles is different, this degree of gold and silver outflow, has affected the Russian financial markets, mining gold and silver is also need time, in the short term simply can not make up for this loss.
But since the war was over and there was no need to import arms and ammunition from the outside world, this trade deficit would soon come down, and this threat from the British was not enough to make the Russians give in.
(End of chapter)