Chapter 369: The Second Collapse of the Vienna System

  Chapter 359 – Second Vienna System Collapse

The sudden outbreak of the Prussian-Danish War instantly made the situation in Europe grim.

The Danish government demanded that all countries intervene in this war according to the Pdan Armistice Treaty, and the agreement reached by the countries of the Vienna System, and sanctioned the Kingdom of Prussia for breaking the rules.

Theoretically, the Danish government’s demand was supported, and the Kingdom of Prussia was suppressed by a coalition of European countries, and even had to pay huge war reparations, or cede land as punishment.

There is no doubt that with the complex relationship between Britain, France, Russia and Austria, the Danish demands were difficult to fulfill.

……

After experiencing the lessons of a Near Eastern war, isolationism prevailed within the British government, and they advocated avoiding being involved in European strife as much as possible.

At the Prime Minister’s residence in Downing Street, deliberations were underway as to how the London government should conduct itself amidst the shifting winds of the European situation.

Foreign Secretary Raistlin analyzed: “The Prussians suddenly provoked this Prussian-Danish war, mainly because Russia, France and Austria gave them too much pressure.

At the same time and the three big countries border, the mainland is separated from the two, Berlin government has always had a strong sense of worry, afraid of not paying attention to be divided by the three countries.

As early as the Paris Conference of 1853, when the division of Germany was discussed, we had proposed the exchange of land between the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Federal Empire, but it did not succeed because of the great differences between the two sides.

The Kingdom of Prussia lost an opportunity to consolidate its territory and had to maintain a huge armament to secure its territory.

Now the French are looking at their Rhineland, the Austrians want Silesia and Prussian Saxony back, and the Russians have ambitions for Prussian Poland.

The three countries did not make a move, mainly because they were tied to each other and their interests could not be agreed upon.

The Austrians and the French could not reach a compromise on the Rhineland, and the Russians and Austrians also disputed over the Silesia region.

Taking advantage of the conflicts between the three countries, coupled with its own strength, the Kingdom of Prussia was temporarily saved, but the crisis was still not lifted.

In fact, as early as 1853, some people in the country proposed to support Prussia and merge the German Confederation and the Kingdom of Prussia, so that the European continent would be a quadruple power.

This plan was aborted before it was even started. The price we had to pay for supporting Prussia was too high, and the effect it could have was very limited.

Even as soon as this country was established, it was decimated. The government of Vienna, in order to secure their position as leader of the German region, they will most likely compromise with France and Russia in exchange for an incomplete unification of the German region.

Both: the French gained the German territories west of the Rhine and Austria gave up the Italian regions; the Russians gained the regions of East Prussia, West Prussia, Pomerania, Posen, Silesia, and parts of Austrian Poland; and Austria united the remaining German regions.

In order to avoid the worst case scenario, we opted for the plan of dividing the German area into three, which in turn facilitated the establishment of the Second Vienna System and created peace and stability on the European continent for more than a decade.

After the annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia by the French, everyone realized that the Vienna System was going to be finished, and the Kingdom of Prussia had the deepest sense of crisis.

They chose to undertake military adventures when the Russians were at their weakest and were forced to do so. Whenever there was turmoil on the European continent, they would be involved.

Now the Berlin government is trying to take advantage of the fact that no European country, and that includes us, wants to see the Russians complete their reforms, to act as a sharp weapon for everyone against the Russians.”

“Supporting the Kingdom of Prussia is out of the question, it’s the industrial age now, where are we going to find a market for them?

But supporting them against the Russians still looks somewhat feasible. It would be best if we could take this opportunity to join hands with the European countries to interrupt the Russians’ path of reform, or even split Russia.” Finance Minister Agarwal said

This is the reality of the matter, and if you look in the history books, you can see that the British have supported a number of countries. But in reality this support has been very limited and has never been at the expense of others.

There is no such ingrate on the European continent now, and none of Prussia’s neighbors are good enough to be messed with and carved up without waiting for them to grow up.

To put it bluntly, now the cake has been divided up, the rise of new countries can only grab food from the hands of the old empire, Russia, France and Austria will not give them this opportunity. The stronger the British support, the faster Prussia will die.

Edward, the Minister of the Navy, objected, “It’s not that easy, if the Russians were to collapse so easily, they wouldn’t deserve to be our greatest enemy.

Whether it’s the Polish Independence Movement or the Kingdom of Prussia, they can only give the Russians a bit of trouble, unless it’s the French and Austrians themselves who are going to crush this great empire. I don’t think France and Austria can be persuaded to join forces against the Russians now.

The Austrians have maintained the Russo-Austrian alliance for fear of being the target of a Russian invasion, even going so far as to put the Russians in the Balkans.

They have too much territory bordering the Russians for the Viennese government to risk it unless they can convince the Austrians that they can cripple the Russians.

I would suggest a limited commitment to just add to the Russian mess. It’s very unrealistic to solve the Russian problem all at once, and there’s no need for us to risk it.”

Foreign Minister Raistlin said, “I also support limited input, and can give loans and arms and ammunition to the Kingdom of Prussia and the Polish Independence Organization, there is no need to take the field personally.

The Russian government seems to be in trouble, but the Tsarist government’s army is not in disarray. The armies that were wiped out in the Polish region were all Polish natives that had just been drafted and were not at all representative of the true strength of the Tsar’s army.

This time, if we can consume a part of the Russians’ strength and interrupt or delay their reform process, it will be considered a success.”

……

Paris, the French government almost made a decision similar to the British within, giving money, weapons, and volunteers, except that they would not send troops themselves.

Even Napoleon III was ready to take advantage of the fire, except that the object of the robbery was not the Russians, but Prussia, which was still barely an ally.

The successful annexation of the kingdom of Sardinia had already induced French ambitions. The capitalists, unable to endure the dilemma of the insufficient supply of coal, which had to be imported at a high price, kept agitating the government to take action against the Rhineland.

The power of capital is strong, and the French government inevitably suffered under the money offensive. No action was taken, that is Napoleon III brain on the line, know the bottom line of each country.

Don’t think that the joint defense treaty is a joke, if they really cross the line, it may be another anti-French alliance.

The chances of this happening are as high as eighty percent, so Napoleon III naturally could not risk it. Even if he was going to do it, then he had to pull people down and share the international pressure together.

Supporting the Kingdom of Prussia now was nothing more than a way to pump up the Berlin government. Win or lose, the French could profit from it.

In case the Prussians got lucky and pulled the Russians down from their position as the hegemon of the European continent, they would even make a big profit.

Whether the Prussian kingdom would become bigger or not was totally out of Napoleon III’s consideration. Even if they wanted to expand, they had to have a place to do so.

If the Prussians dared to annex the Russians’ land, it was estimated that all the European countries would support their righteous action, which was simply a great joy.

The prerequisite was to be able to survive the retaliation of the Tsarist government, otherwise all the benefits would only exist temporarily and would be destined to be lost anyway.

……

Undoubtedly, the decision of Britain and France directly announced the collapse of the Second Vienna System, as the dominant two big powers have taken the lead to break the rules, and how can it be maintained?

After Britain and France had made their positions clear, Franz naturally would not choose to stick to it with no effort, anyway, the historical role of this system had already been played out.

After more than a decade of development, Austria’s strength has undergone a sea change and can withstand the impact of European chaos.

The only great power left that adheres to this system is the Russian Empire, and they are going to continue to maintain it, and that too now that the terms in the Vienna system are in their favor.

For example: in the matter of the Prussian-Danish War, the Tsarist government could use the agreements reached in the Second Vienna System as a legal basis for striking the Kingdom of Prussia.

With the legal basis in hand, the immediate consequence was that European public opinion was mostly in favor of the Kingdom of Denmark, and the war was recognized by the public as a Prussian invasion of Denmark.

Forced by the pressure of public opinion, Britain and France’s support for Prussia were confined to the dark side, except for the German Confederation and Austria, all countries were condemning the Prussian government.

Failure to condemn the Prussian government was not the same as supporting them. After the last Prussian-Danish War, the people of the German region had no confidence in the Prussian government.

The Munich Daily News slammed the Prussian government as a looter, accusing the Prussian government of sending troops to Denmark to loot in order to get out of financial difficulties, not at all for the purpose of safeguarding German sovereignty.

This is information left over from the last Prussian-Danish War, with pictures to prove that the Prussian army organized looting activities.

It doesn’t even need to be explained, that’s what the armies of all European countries did in this era. Any army that didn’t loot on home soil could be considered to have good military discipline.

The Viennese daily newspaper commented directly that the Prussian government was running out of money and was again preparing to use the Prussian-Danish war to cheat donations.

The people who were cheated had the most to say, and many of them remembered it vividly. Even after more than a decade, the Prussian government has been pulled out and flogged by everyone from time to time.

In response to public opinion, the Foreign Ministry in Vienna was the first to issue a declaration of neutrality. Support that was non-existent, not even verbal support.

The Prussian government did not even dare to cry out in defense of German sovereignty, and the German nationalists were very dissatisfied.

Those who originally intended to support the Prussian Kingdom in recovering the two duchies also backed off at this time. Many people feared that Prussia’s approach was to cut itself off from Germany completely and learn to form its own system like Switzerland and Holland.

(End of chapter)