Chapter 421: The Six-Six Treaty

  Chapter 411 The Six-Six Treaty

The arms race in Europe kicked off, and the Franco-Austrian negotiations were nearing their end. Napoleon III wanted to establish the Great France, Franz also wanted to establish the Great God Luo Empire, both sides have their own calculations.

Undoubtedly, the strategic conflict between France and Austria was almost destined. However, the time for the conflict to break out is definitely not now.

Before the establishment of the empire, France and Austria are still allies, need to join forces to share international pressure, this is a cooperation with the tiger for the skin.

On June 6, 1866, Wessenberg, Foreign Minister of the new Holy Roman Empire, and Abraham, Foreign Minister of France, signed the Covenant, the Treaty of Sixty-Six.

The treaty included the following: 1. France and the New Holy Roman Empire were formally allied, and the treaty was valid for ten years;

2, The two countries recognized each other’s respective spheres of influence, with the current area of actual control as the main focus;

3, Austria sold the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Papal States, Tuscany and other Italian states suzerainty to France for 20 million guilders (250 million francs);

4, France sold the French Balkans to Austria at a price of 200 million francs (16 million guilders), and the colonies in the cross section of the two West African states to the new Holy Roman Empire at a price of 50 million francs;

5, Austria acquiesced to the annexation of Belgium, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Papal States, Tuscany and other regions by France, as a price for France not to interfere with Austria’s unification of the German region; (disputed areas were put aside for the time being)

6. The two countries divided their spheres of influence on the African continent:

The French gained most of North Africa and part of West Africa;

(Remarks: mainly parts of present-day Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Western Sahara, Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Niger, Wade and Sudan ……)

The New Holy Roman Empire, in turn, gained most of West and Central Africa, North Africa, and parts of South Africa;

(mainly present-day: Libya, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Central Africa, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Waddell, and part of Sudan …… )

Note: Most of East Africa and South Africa, which have not yet been included in the spheres of influence of the two countries, will go to whoever grabs them first, and the two countries will recognize each other’s expanding spheres of influence on the African continent.

……

There is no doubt that this six-six treaty is full of compromises and uncertainties, and with both alliances lasting only ten years, both sides are mentally prepared for a future flip-flop.

The core conflict, the Rhineland region, was not clearly agreed upon in the treaty, which sowed hidden dangers for the two countries in the future.

Of course, there is no verbal agreement on the treaty or yes, whoever occupies it goes to who. In other words, whoever has the biggest fist goes to who.

Exactly how to determine, when the French people’s big empire is built, or the German region is unified first, is the time to solve the problem.

In Franz’s view, this treaty, in addition to sharing the diplomatic pressure with the French, there is only the division of interests in the African continent, France and Austria each circled one-third of the African continent.

If not for the two countries in the East and South Africa region of the lack of strength, it is not likely that the last is two and one for five, direct division of the African continent.

The enclosure is also just an agreement, the African continent can not be small, even if it is one-third of that is more than 10 million square kilometers.

Franz sent so many immigrants over, the actual control area in the African continent are less than five million square kilometers, the rest are only nominal rule.

The French, not to mention, even if Napoleon III large number of immigrants from the Balkans, the French African colonies on the immigrants is only a million or so, control of the coastal areas is okay, further need not think about it.

Austria’s colonization is okay, even if there are still countries of colonial strongholds, that is not a climate, want to remove it is not difficult.

The French will have to be busy, for example: the Egyptian region, the British promised? Another example: Morocco, but also to ask Spain and John Bull agreed or not.

East Africa and South Africa is not divided for the time being, it makes sense. The French really can not swallow, sign a paper treaty is easy, but there is no strength to become a reality, that is a joke.

The two divisions of the African continent is just France and Austria behind closed doors in the self-importance, in fact, in the absence of the British, the Portuguese, the Spanish and the Dutch kicked out before, this plan is impossible to realize.

For Franz, the Dutch could be ignored, as could the Spanish, both of which had a small sphere of influence on the continent and were not in tune with the new Holy Roman Empire not answering to much.

In the treaty a moment Austria, a moment the new Holy Roman Empire, this is the tradition of European Europe no way, otherwise there is no legal effect.

The suzerainty of the Italian state is in Austria, although this is only everyone’s default, but since the French now recognize it, it can only be purchased from Austria.

Similarly, Franz was going to annex the French Balkans to Austria, and that could only be done at Austria’s own expense, or the other states would have a problem with it.

The colonies were to be owned by the new Holy Roman Empire, so naturally they were to be purchased with funds from the central government. Although for Franz, it was a matter of left hand inverted right hand, what should be done still had to be done according to the legal procedure.

All the states in the empire were benefiting from the colonies, so the cost of colonization had to be shared by all of them.

There would be more problems encountered after the colonies in Africa were localized, and these systems had to be clarified now.

Franz was still very satisfied with this treaty. Austria had long since lost control over the Italian states, or had never really had control.

If the Italian regions were annexed, within ten years Austria would become a replica of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which should be called the “Austro-Italian Empire”.

Franz had already experienced how difficult it was to assimilate the 25 million people in Italy, who had a unified cultural tradition.

After so many years, Lombardy-Venetia still has a strong Italian flavor, while the rest of Austria has basically changed under the influence of Germanic culture.

It was easy to learn German and German language, just send the children to school, but it took a lot of time to wash away the local customs and culture.

In any case, with each passing generation, the imprint of Italy will fade a little bit, according to the current progress of two or three generations before the Austro-Italian region basically completed the integration of the nationalities.

Many of the other nationalities in Austria have already become Germans.

For example, the Czechs have long been culturally assimilated, except for the different language and writing, by the aristocratic influence of the local life, customs and the Germans do not have any difference. Now that the language and writing are unified, the last problem no longer exists.

Franz took more than 20 million Italians can not do anything, then it can only be sent to the scourge of the French. No matter how powerful it could make the French Empire in the short term, as long as France and Italy merged together, sooner or later they would follow in the footsteps of Austria-Hungary.

Don’t look at the fact that the total population of France is now more than forty-four million, which is the result of the annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia that brought more than six million people. The main ethnic groups in France now include: the French, the Corsicans, the Bretons, and the Italians.

Only the French, Corsicans, and Bretons had already completed their national integration, while the newcomers, the Italians, were at odds with them.

With the annexation of a few more Italian states, then the first major ethnic group in Napoleon III’s Great French Empire became the Italians.

This is a problem that he probably wouldn’t have cared about, is it even a problem that Italians became the first great nation when the Emperor himself was Italian?

It is too early to talk about this problem, now for Napoleon III, the biggest problem is how to annex these Italian states, instead of thinking about the trouble brought after the annexation.

It was impossible to swallow them alive, and the European countries would not let this happen. France was also not the Shinra Empire, which could add a few more seats for the states.

Legally, the Kingdom of Sardinia are all still independent states, they are co-ruling the country with the French and are not part of France.

Even though the Paris government controls the internal and external affairs of the Kingdom of Sardinia, it still doesn’t change that. The French wanted to merge the Kingdom of Sardinia, are a long way to go.

What Napoleon III thought Franz didn’t know yet, but the plans for the annexation of the Italian states, Franz had helped to make.

When the conditions were ripe, it would appear in the hands of Napoleon III. The solution was very simple: first form the Italian Confederation, let the Italian states join it, and then let the Italian Confederation and Franz form a new federal empire.

Doesn’t it look very familiar? Yes, this was Franz’s reference to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, designed specifically for Napoleon III.

Anyway, no one knows how pitiful a binary empire can be without experiencing it. Just as in the original time period, the formation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is still considered a great revival of the Habsburg dynasty.

Coupled with the fact that Napoleon III simply did not have the Italian region of the law, civil supporters are rare, and now can only rely on force to the throne, this hidden danger is even greater.

Prime Minister Felix said worriedly, “Your Majesty, we got the French Balkans, there are a series of problems to deal with later, a bad one will also lead to bigger trouble.

There was a clear agreement in the Russo-Austrian secret treaty that the current French Balkans were given to the Russians. Even though we bought it from the French, the explicit provisions of the treaty were also a big problem.

Especially the Dardanelles, which the Russians had been eyeing. Now that they are busy with the Russo-Prussian War, they may not say anything, but in the future these are hidden dangers in Russian-Austrian relations.”

The annexation of the French Balkans was certainly a good thing for Austria. Not only did it pull out a nail in its back, but it also extended its power to the Aegean region.

However, the backlash brought about was not small, Austria acted as a European gatekeeper, blocking the Russians in the Black Sea, and the Russian-Austrian alliance was bound to be polarized.

The west has ambitious France and shit stirrer John Bull, and then and the east of the Russians against, Austria’s future days can not be easy.

Franz said indifferently, “It doesn’t matter, this is our deal with the French. If the Russians are interested in these areas, they can pay for them, just multiply the price by 10.

We can also accept land swaps, and if the Tsarist government is bent on entering the Mediterranean, let them pay their fair share!

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs can approach the Russians and accept all areas bordering our mainland except for the Polish area, which we don’t want.”

This is nonsense, if the Tsarist government was so rich, it would have taken the entire Balkans in one fell swoop back in the day, and the Russo-Prussian War ended last year.

At that time, the Polish region hadn’t been lost yet, military food could be solved locally for the most part, there were waterways connecting to Austria, logistics was not a problem. As long as you are willing to spend money, millions of troops pressed all the way through, the Prussians have long been kneeling.

No money that can only be territorial replacement, do not look at the Russian family is big, but the territory bordering Austria, in addition to Russian Poland, only the Western Ukraine region. This is almost like telling the Russians that they have their eyes on Western Ukraine.

How the land was exchanged, and whether the Tsarist government agreed or not, is beside the point. There was no way the Russians were going to make a comeback for twenty years anyway.

Twenty years is enough time to change a lot of things, and by that time Austria’s African strategy would be almost complete, if nothing else the French would have jumped the shark.

With a bit of luck, there was no chance that the French would play themselves into a meltdown. Napoleon III are almost sixty years old, the body is already not very good, the original time and space in 1873 on the hanging, and now can still live for how long is also a question mark.

He had a number of illegitimate children, but only one legitimate son, born in 1856, if Napoleon III did not live a few more years, his son would not be able to control the empire.

A binary empire is not for the faint of heart, and without enough prestige and power to keep the opposition at bay, it is a matter of speaking up and speaking out.

In Paris, the mecca of the revolution, where any movement could trigger a revolution, a young monarch would be a disaster.

Even if there was no disaster, it could be created artificially, for example, by supporting the independence of the Italians, or the sudden outbreak of the Franco-Austrian war.

As long as we dry up France and get rid of the two-front war crisis, Russia and Austria can really be friendly.

(End of chapter)