Chapter 350:
Chapter 340: The Plot
On October 11, 1862, the first ironclad ship of the Kingdom of Prussia, Frederick the Great, was commissioned, and Wilhelm I personally presided over the ceremony to show his determination to develop the navy.
They were really determined. Seeing that the Austrian nobles next door had made a fortune in the overseas colonization campaign, and being encouraged by the manipulation of public opinion by the capitalists at home, the Junker nobles could not help themselves.
Many young people, in particular, had long been dissatisfied with the government’s conservatism. It is important to know that Austria has opened up overseas colonies in less than ten years, and has a territory five or six times the size of the mainland.
Many people were optimistic that by joining the colonization movement, they would soon be rich and knighted and be on their way to the peak of their lives.
“The future of the world is in the sea”, who first said this sentence is no longer verifiable, anyway, has now been widely recognized by the European society.
At the beginning of the opening of overseas colonies, Franz also contributed to the propagation of this theory, which is now widely spread in the German region.
Ironclad is recognized as the highest level of contemporary naval technology, only a few years after its introduction, Britain, France, the United States, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands and other naval powers, have built their own ironclad.
Now that the Kingdom of Prussia finally had its own ironclad, many people were celebrating. Only the top government officials were aware of the gap between their ironclads and the naval powers.
After all, the Prussian navy is a dry duck, for a long time the Prussian navy is a dispensable existence, more often than not act as the role of the sea police, even next door to Denmark can not compare.
The fanfare of the ironclad is still meant to be uplifting. The Kingdom of Prussia had been going very badly in recent years, and the people needed good news.
William I asked with concern, “How is the navy training going, when can we open up overseas colonies?”
Ron, the Minister of War who was also the Minister of Navy, blushed and replied with a bitter smile, “Your Majesty, our naval base is too thin.
Before the expansion, the navy only had over 1,300 officers and men, and that includes the civilian staff up and down the navy ministry.
It will take at least two to three years before we can form a fighting force. Of course none of this is a problem if the enemy is just natives.”
The fact that the Minister of War was still also the Minister of the Navy was the result of a compromise between all parties. Even though the Junker nobles were salivating at the benefits of opening up overseas colonies, they were still unwilling to give up their dominance over the military.
There was nothing wrong with the Army leading the Navy, and anyway, the Navy officers and men were all directly transferred over from active Army units. Even the Marines were saved, they were definitely the strongest navy in land warfare, bar none.
Ron, who was supposed to lead the army reform, tragically realized that he was going to lead the Prussian naval construction again. Other countries are at most amateurs leading the insiders, he is here directly amateurs leading the outsiders.
Anyway, before the Prussian Navy, is the Prussian Kingdom’s marine police, the usual business is to combat smuggling activities.
Now added in a few thousand army that is even more amateur, from top to bottom are amateurs, Ron is naturally under a lot of pressure.
The navy is not the army, training for a few months and then they can go to war. Even ordinary soldiers have to spend several years training.
Obviously, this is what Ron found out after he had a deeper understanding, the upper echelons of the Prussian government or the army mentality, including Wilhelm I did not distinguish the difference between the army and the navy, or else he would not have asked this question.
William I was surprised and asked, “It actually takes so long, so how did the Austrians expand their navy, or is it that their officers and soldiers are simply not qualified in their training?”
It is true that in recent years the Austrian navy expanded somewhat violently, from 1850 to the present, the Austrian navy tonnage increased several times, jumped to become the world’s third naval power.
Ron explained, “Your Majesty, the Austrian navy has been operating in the Mediterranean before, and its popularity is a bit low, but in reality their naval heritage is very thick, and the Venetia region is a traditional naval power.
They have a complete naval technology inheritance and talent training system.
The lack of attention to naval development during the Metternich era is what made the Austrian navy fade in everyone’s mind, and now that the Vienna government is paying attention to it, it’s natural that it’s quickly catching up.”
In fact, the rapid development of the Austrian Navy was also luck. Sail battleship era, naval technology has reached a bottleneck, that even the British technology to the countries are not advanced.
After the era of ironclad ships descended, the sail battleships were directly eliminated, the past experience technology has fallen behind, and again to start reshuffling the cards.
In a way, now is the easiest time for countries to catch up with the British. After all, ironclad technology had only just been developed by everyone, and this gap had not yet reached a desperate point.
Hearing this explanation, William I sighed, originally he thought that the 100 year navy was blown out of proportion by the British, but he didn’t think that it was true.
If there is no heritage, to build a strong navy from scratch, even if it does not take a hundred years, a few decades is still necessary.
“Not long ago the Austrians proposed to us to jointly develop the Southern Ocean region. This is a rare opportunity.
If the cooperation goes well, we can directly use the Austrians’ overseas colonial strongholds to obtain supplies and get our first colony in the Southern Ocean region.”
Logistical resupply, this was also the obstacle that the colonial empire had put up for those who came after them. Everyone just welcomed merchant ships from various countries to resupply, and warships had to communicate in advance if they wanted to be resupplied.
If it was just a visit abroad, then fine everyone was happy to do the business. If you want to open up an overseas colony, it requires a deeper level of communication.
In short, without sufficient cost, do not want to get everyone’s help.
This is quite discordant to those who come after us, and it’s not possible to ship everything from home to open an overseas colony, sourcing nearby is the best way to reduce costs.
In order to get logistical supplies, Austria all signed an agreement with the West Portuguese and Dutch countries, promising not to seek their colonies in any way, before gaining everyone’s understanding.
These pacts Franz has honored, in the overseas colonization activities, Austria has not seized any country’s colonies, take all the unclaimed land.
Now the Kingdom of Prussia was facing the same problem, and the cost of colonization could just make anyone despair if the logistical supply problem could not be solved.
Signing a similar agreement? Don’t dream of it, the Kingdom of Prussia’s political influence is deteriorating, so why should it make everyone save face?
In a world where fists speak for themselves, with the strength of the Prussian navy, countries simply don’t give a damn. Even the Portuguese can destroy the Prussian Navy two or three times.
Especially the army directly into the navy, but also in Europe has become a laughing stock. People simply do not think that the Kingdom of Prussia in the development of the Navy, many newspapers directly satirize the Prussian Navy as an army fleet.
Ron asked with concern, “Your Majesty, what do we need to pay?”
Pies don’t fall from the sky, and if they do, they are capable of smashing people to death. Ron does not think Austria will help Prussia for free, this big bargain is certainly not good to pick up.
William I sneered and said, “They still consider themselves as the German regional boss, ready to pull us as a little brother over as a fighter.
The South Seas region of the countries gathered forces, these years the Austrians spread too big, can be put into the South Seas region of the strength is limited.
In order to ensure their interests in the South China Sea region, the Vienna government invited us and the German Federal Empire to join this time.
Of course, they also have the intention of pulling in our domestic nobles here. That little brat Franz hangs on to Unified Germany every day, as if he’s afraid that others won’t know about it.”
It was a phallic plot, that even knowing that the bait might be poisoned, Wilhelm I had to swallow it.
You can’t stop opening up overseas colonies just because there might be hidden dangers, can you?
It was not once or twice that Austria had been pulling the strings in the Prussian state. The number of Prussian immigrants who entered the Austrian colonies alone over the years exceeded one hundred and fifty thousand.
Many of the overseas colonial teams in the Prussian Kingdom are now under the banner of the Austrians, and if these people hadn’t fallen to Austria, the Vienna government wouldn’t have sheltered them unless they were crazy.
William I is a sense of crisis, he was very worried to continue so, do not know when the people under the hand to sell, specific reference can be made to the Kingdom of Bavaria.
After joining Austria. The Kingdom of Bavaria developed well. The traditional textile center of the German region, once again a second spring.
The Viennese government opened cotton plantations in West Africa in order to supply raw materials for the industry.
In contrast, stayed in the German federal empire of Baden on the tragedy. The same is the German region of the cotton industry center, is now subject to the lack of raw material supply, gradually decline.
With the power of example in place, Wilhelm I had no confidence in the people under his hand. Even the Junker nobility he could not trust.
After all, change the boss nobles or nobles, capitalists or capitalists, everyone’s core interests will not be damaged, and may even take more.
In order to avoid the worst, William I had to find a way to open a new road out, otherwise sooner or later the Kingdom of Prussia will be annexed by Austria.
William I was not willing to play politics with the Habsburgs, which was not his strong point.
(End of chapter)