Chapter 422: Win-Win Cooperation

  Chapter 412 Win-Win Cooperation

The Treaty of Sixty-six is obviously not to be seen in the light of day, France and Austria to join forces to partition the European continent if the news spreads, the government in London will not go crazy?

The European continent to maintain a balance, but also not so a balance law. If you really want to let the Great France and the Great God Luo Empire appeared, the European continent is really a three-legged tripod. Because at that time, the European continent would probably not be able to find a fourth country.

Like Pandora’s Box, once this thing of ambition is opened, it will be difficult to take it back.

Napoleon left the French people not only the brilliant achievements, but also a big country dream. With the sensibility of the French people, once the enthusiasm for expansion was mobilized, half of Italy and Belgium could not satisfy their desire.

Plus Spain and Portugal is not too much, right? Back then, Napoleon occupied the Spanish region, must inherit this fine tradition ah!

French unification of Western Europe, Austria unified the German region, in this context, sandwiched between the two giants of Switzerland, the Netherlands have no choice?

Either take the initiative to join one side, or be forcibly annexed, this is the destiny of small countries.

The three Scandinavian countries, which had been left out, did not want to be left alone, and the Russians would not let them go for strategic reasons.

The three great powers are expanding outward, the British can only be dumbfounded. They can’t interfere even if they want to, so they might as well clear them out before they all turn their backs on each other.

There is even a basis for an alliance between the three powers. After completing the expansion, it will definitely need time to digest, which means that there will be no fight on the European continent in the short term.

Then the British, who held the most colonies in the world, were in danger. You can’t just go and ally with the Americans. Besides, it’s useless to ally with them!

Of course, the chances of that happening were very small. After the annexation of Italy and Belgium, France had to deal with internal conflicts and simply couldn’t afford to keep expanding.

Austria, not to mention the unification of the German region Franz are just as a slogan to shout, carve up the European continent, this is not awake, right?

Now that nationalism has awakened, the unification of the German region is almost the end of Austria’s expansion in the European continent.

However, the limitations of the times, many people believe that Austria will continue to expand after the unification of the German region.

The reason was very simple: Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands were all split off from the Holy Roman Empire and belonged to the same cultural circle, and the radical Greater Germanists counted them all.

In order not to cause panic and to ensure the smooth implementation of the plan, France and Austria coincidentally chose a high degree of secrecy, and many people knew about the existence of the treaty, but only a few knew about its content.

In Austria there were only three people who knew about the treaty, the prime minister, the foreign minister and Franz himself, and in France it was more or less the same.

In recent years, the French economy has been developing well, the throne of Napoleon III has been stabilized, and the people’s call for the establishment of a Greater France has been growing day by day.

It was definitely a popular call in France, and Franz had at best channeled it. There is evidence for this: in the original time and space, Emperor Napoleon III did a good job, and was ousted only because he lost the war and was unable to fulfill the populace’s dream of a great power.

Compared to the original owner who lost twice in a row and still sat on the throne, the French public’s desire for a great power is visible.

What really contributed to this Franco-Austrian alliance was not Napoleon III, but the vast number of French people. Their inadvertent cries invariably exerted pressure on the emperor. Since the people elected the emperor, Napoleon III naturally had to respect the people’s choice.

On June 8, 1866, the French and Austrian foreign ministries signed again a “Transaction of sovereignty between France and Austria over part of the Italian, Balkan and African colonies”.

This was a cover-up of the Treaty of June 6, with only the territorial sovereignty deals of Articles III and IV. Anyway, this could not be hidden, and once the two countries started handing over, it all came to light.

It can be traded on European soil, let alone suzerainty and colonies. The most that will happen with a deal you love is that the British will get upset and create some sales for the newspapers.

Konrad Holman is the editor of the Austrian daily newspaper, and occasionally has to skewer the current affairs commentators with some official opinions.

Of course, being a commercial newspaper, this opinion is usually very subtle and usually comes out of the side.

The news of the French-Austrian territorial deal case had just come back, when Conrad Holman’s job came up. There’s no doubt that this kind of news must be sung in praise!

Spinning his pen, Conrad Holman fell into deep thought. The news must be eye-catching, and for the highly commercialized Viennese daily newspaper, a straightforward official article was not pleasing.

How could the thousands of people who wrote them ensure newspaper sales? The Wiener Zeitung was a big paper with a daily sales of 100,000, and playing like that would drop readers.

Looking at the wind-blown globe on the table, Conrad had an idea and lifted his pen to write on the paper.

Headline: on the thoughts brought by the colonial and suzerainty deals between France and Austria – a win-win cooperation

This was no longer news, but rather an argumentative essay. Commercial newspapers, as long as it complies with Austrian law, to ensure that the news is true and reliable on the line, the content of how to publish, there are not so many requirements.

Conrad directly from the international competition, citing a few historical cases, and then take the French and Austrian treatment program for comparison.

Finally, he concludes that cooperation is the only way to win. By the way, he praised the French and Austrian governments for their efforts for world peace.

From the standpoint of France and Austria, this deal is indeed a win-win situation.

The French paid a part of their colonies in exchange for an absolute say in Central and South Italy, laying the foundation for the swallowing of Italy.

In terms of Mediterranean strategy, the French took the initiative. Controlling Sicily and Tunisia, the French could split the Mediterranean in two if necessary.

The British strategic layout in Malta was scrapped, and the strategic value of this Mediterranean heart was greatly reduced. Unless we wait for the age of the airplane to come, we will be able to play the role that Britain expects to play again.

By exchanging the dispensable suzerainty of the Italian states for the French Balkans and part of the West African colonies, Austria not only pulled out a nail, but also consolidated its colonial hegemony in West Africa.

Incidentally adding another bargaining chip to the deal with the Russians, the Dardanelles were still very tempting to the Tsarist government, at least until they abandoned the Mediterranean.

The manuscript was written, proofread a few times, and a few writing errors corrected. Seeing that there were no more problems, Conrad Holman handed the manuscript over to the editor-in-chief for review.

There usually wasn’t just one press release for a big story like this; usually three or five people wrote the manuscripts at the same time, and the editor-in-chief chose the one that was best suited for publication.

Occasionally there might be a meeting to discuss it, but since news was time-sensitive, such discussions rarely happened.

Not surprisingly, Conrad’s press release went through. “Win-Win Cooperation” surpassed the others in terms of intent, news is never far from politics, and the slogan “Win-Win Cooperation” fits perfectly with Austrian diplomacy at the moment.

Although the government has not openly shouted this slogan, in fact, it has been doing it for a long time. From the beginning of the Russian-Austrian alliance, the prelude to win-win cooperation has been drawn.

For example, in the Near East War, the Russians got Bulgaria and the coveted Constantinople, while Austria unified South Germany and annexed part of the Balkan Peninsula.

This is the embodiment of win-win cooperation, of course, this example can not be taken out to say, otherwise it is too hateful.

Not only Britain and France to storm, even the tsarist government is expected to have a problem. Their own family knows their own business, they are only nominal winners, paid a heavy price, the gain is only a political victory.

This war result, take out to fool the general public no problem, the czarist government high level or very clear, they failed strategically, lost the best opportunity to enter the Mediterranean Sea.

Take this Franco-Austrian deal, then there is no problem. Anyway, France and Austria each take what they need, just one reason is enough to satisfy the people at home.

The slogan of “win-win cooperation” was shouted out by Conrad, but the impact was not what he could have predicted.

With the publication of the news, it soon caused a sensation in Vienna, and in time it became the official slogan of France and Austria.

With the signing of the treaty, French-Austrian diplomatic relations also entered a honeymoon period. Many people were optimistic that the Franco-Austrian conflict no longer existed.

Regardless of what others think, Franz was very clear that the Franco-Austrian conflict was only artificially suppressed under the common interest.

None of this was the point. The point was that Austria could withdraw its troops from Italy. The effect of practicing the army had been achieved, all cut up with the French, and almost proved the fighting ability of the army.

The rest of the Italian partisans, it’s better to let the French take care of themselves! Sovereignty is more than just benefits, it likewise means responsibility.

In a way, this unfriendly force-cutting also accelerated the pace of the alliance between the two countries. On the battlefield, the French and Austrian armies did not fight one-sidedly, and both sides fought almost equally.

Of course, this was due to the fact that the geographical area of the conflict was too small and there were not many soldiers engaged, both sides were mostly fighting hard power, and the officers did not have much room to play.

This situation made both the French and Austrian high command fearful. The Viennese government was jealous of the prestige of the French, and the French were jealous of the large number of Austrian soldiers.

This is the population advantage decided, even after the annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the population gap between France and Austria is still huge. Once evolved into a war of attrition, the first can not stand is definitely the French.

Franz knows very well that the French are not weak. Can not be because the original time and space Napoleon III play crashed, it is taken for granted that the French army combat power can not be.

To know the Franco-Prussian War, both sides of the strength ratio is 47:22, because Napoleon III’s blind command, the first General Assembly battle – the Battle of Vicksburg in the Prussian army to ten times the strength of the French army; immediately after two days after the Battle of the Volta, Prussia and France, both sides of the strength ratio of 130,000 VS 40,000, the result is naturally self-evident.

The later battles were basically the same, almost every battle, Prussia had more than three times the strength of the French army in the engagement.

Don’t ask why this happened, that’s a question only Napoleon III can answer. That’s how history works anyway, so who knows why he commanded his troops to give away their heads.

In Paris, the French public was already celebrating. Thanks to the newspapers that helped them popularize their knowledge of strategy, many of the French public believed that this marked the establishment of French hegemony in the Mediterranean.

Even though this had not yet been recognized by Britain and Austria, neither could stop the French people from reveling. The annexation of the Italian region had become the consensus of French radical groups.

While the people celebrated, the reaction of the Parisian government was very different. Many feared that the deal, when it was finalized, would attract the hostility of the British.

Pro-British officials saw it as an Austrian plot to sow discord in Anglo-French relations, a conjecture that came close to the truth, except that it was not a conspiracy but a phallic one.

The reaction of the Parisian public had already told them that to stop the deal – no way.

“Anglo-French friendship”, did it ever exist?

Just open a French history book, can prove that Britain and France have hatred is enough, friendship is too extravagant.

The centuries-old feud between Britain and France cannot be eliminated in a day or two. In fact, the Paris government has never made any effort in this regard.

Whoever wants to try, please be prepared to accept the honorable title of “traitor of the country”. Although there are many pro-British people in the government, there are still more anti-British people in the public.

Napoleon III was recently annoyed, he suddenly realized that too many pro-British people in the government was not a good thing, even if he himself was pro-British in his position.

But in front of the interests, personal position must give way ah! Whether to carry out an official cleansing, this is a question worth thinking about.

PS: “I will never be the emperor” old author vest. Introduction, the hall of the crown prince, even if starved to death, poor death do not want to be the emperor, behind this is the distortion of human nature, or ……

(End of chapter)