Chapter 442: The Czar Plays Plots
Chapter 432 – The Czar Plotted
There are still a lot of smart people in this world, after the Habsburgs gave up the fight for the throne of Poland, there were a few more European king professionals who announced that they had given up.
This also included the Bonaparte family, and Napoleon III was very wise to give up the giant pit of Poland. Although he wanted to support Poland as a counterweight to Austria, Napoleon III still didn’t see Poland making it.
Whether or not there was a factor in this that the Poles didn’t see eye to eye with them, I don’t know. Anyway, in this era, the Bonaparte family is still explosive, under normal circumstances is not qualified to become a candidate.
Wouldn’t it be embarrassing in case the Poles took down the alternative list? With the Big Bobo’s ability to die, there’s nothing surprising about doing such a thing.
The Gotha family, another strong competitor, also dropped out, cowed by Poland’s poor strategic location.
The so-called elective king system in Europe has never been a game of forces, with political and diplomatic maneuvers. It also depends on the willingness of the protagonist, and there are plenty of people who don’t want to be king.
Now all the major European powers have supporters, making the situation even more confusing.
Prussia supported Wilhelm I to be the King of Poland concurrently, which was opposed by France and Austria, and then supported Karol of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family, a side branch of the royal family, to be the King of Poland, which was still opposed by France and Austria;
Spain and Austria supported the House of Bourbon to become King of Poland, however it was strongly opposed by France and Prussia;
The Russians supported George, son of Christian IX of Denmark, as King of Poland, which was strongly opposed by the Kingdom of Prussia;
……
It’s worth noting that Austria also supported George for the Kingdom of Poland, which is not a contradiction, and no one rules that you can only support one candidate.
It was all about causing trouble for Prussia anyway, and as long as it wasn’t Wilhelm I, it was the same for Franz whoever was King of Poland.
Prussia and Poland together are not 1+1=2, in fact they completed the integration of their resources to be one European power.
For the security of the Northern Front, Franz naturally would not let them merge easily. For Austria, Prussia and Poland joining forces against the Russian Empire was enough, letting them merge was asking for trouble.
Just as Germany dared not annex Austria-Hungary in the original time and space, Franz also dared not annex the Pupo Federation, that thing will really explode.
The Powers had different positions, and the Polish parliament agonized, not knowing who to vote for at all.
The Polish people could not understand the suffering of the parliament, and now they were exercising their right to freedom by marching through the streets with signs and slogans, and by the way they surrounded the parliament building.
If one listens carefully, one can also hear: ‘George’, ‘William’, ‘Carol’ ……
That’s right, the people who were concerned about the return of the King of Poland made their voices heard.
How many of these were genuine and how many were pulled over to make up the numbers is a matter of judgment.
The nascent Polish Parliament had never seen such a big scene before. Once upon a time they were the ones who organized the manpower to shout outside, and now the wind and water had turned and it was their turn to be shouted slogans.
The tsar is not to be messed with, when they shouted slogans, but they were scared, not at all outside those who are so arrogant, directly around the parliament to force them to make decisions.
“Send someone out to ask what the hell they’re up to? Hell, why do I still hear Napoleon, could it be that they want a dead man to be the King of Poland?”
Speaker Alex stormed out, he was on the verge of being pissed off. If the king was so easy to elect, why did they even have to fret?
It was easy to share the pain, but hard to share the wealth.
When they were fighting, they could still work closely together when there was a common enemy, the Russians. Now that Poland is independent, the parties are fighting for power.
The demonstrations outside are organized by the losers in the power struggle. The aim is self-evident: to turn the tables on political speculation by supporting the king.
In fact, the republican wing of the government was not small. It is only that people are afraid to adopt a republican system for fear of interference from European countries.
The republicans also contributed to the delay in the decision of the Polish parliament. They messed up the vote and delayed the parliament’s decision-making time, ready to turn into a substantial republic first.
As soon as the governmental institutions were stabilized, creating an established fact. The future is the election of a king, which is just a rubber stamp.
No one wanted an extra yoke on their head, and the top of the provisional government were all working to hollow out the king. The demonstration outside now could be said to have broken many people’s plans.
……
On November 11, 1867, the world was shocked by the “Double Eleven” tragedy in Poland. The crowds of demonstrators, guided by the authorities, quickly lost control of the situation and stormed the parliament building.
By the time the police arrived late to disperse the crowd, 17 members of parliament had already been killed and dozens of others, including the Speaker of Parliament, Alex, had been injured in the chaos.
The Polish government couldn’t let go of the situation, and white terror gripped the streets of Warsaw.
The culprits had not been found, and those who had participated in the march had been locked up in prisons. Whatever the remedy, the Polish parliament lost its authority as a result.
The news reached Vienna, and Franz laughed it off. There was no need to discuss something so obvious; repression of marches happened all the time, and the occupation of parliament by marching crowds was nothing new, but it was the first time that so many deputies had been killed.
A place like the parliament was stormed by marching crowds, and the police were actually late? Do we need to discuss such a simple issue?
Under normal circumstances, as soon as the procession was found to be heading towards the Parliament building, the police should have sent a large number of police officers to protect the Parliament, even if they did not intercept the procession.
There is no doubt that this is the result of an internal power struggle. With the majesty of the Parliament in tatters, the power of the Government has naturally been strengthened.
It can also take the opportunity to strike a blow at its rivals, and any revolutionary group involved in organizing the march can no longer say it is clear.
Protest demonstrations can still be said to be exercising civil rights, storming the parliament and killing MPs is a terrorist attack.
The only victor is the current Polish government. No, they may not be the victors either, maybe they are just pawns, being used.
In Franz’s opinion, it is highly probable that the Prussians orchestrated this plot. The Polish government appeared to have increased its power, but in fact it was in a position of embarrassment.
It was not a good thing for the Polish government that the rules of the power struggle in the country had been broken. The government was the rule maker and the rule maintainer.
Now that someone has broken the rules, it is clear that others will not continue to follow them. The bottom line that political struggles don’t involve personal safety has been broken, and everyone will have to be prepared to be assassinated in the future.
The foundation of the Polish government’s rule was shaken, and they couldn’t get away from Prussia’s support if they wanted to stabilize the domestic situation, and the Kingdom of Prussia’s infiltration of Poland was sure to go even further next.
If not Franz did not want to go to trip this puddle of muddy water, Austria now intervene in, there is a great possibility of intercepting Prussia.
Just this kind of infiltration is useless to Austria, the Kingdom of Poland again delicious, Franz now also has no appetite. Can only see, can not eat the delicious, it is better to discard not.
……
In the Berlin Royal Palace, Wilhelm I was also suspecting the real culprit of this incident. He didn’t believe that the Polish government’s top brass would be so stupid as to break the unspoken rules for the sake of a momentary advantage.
Wilhelm I asked, “Prime Minister, who do you think is most likely to have planned this operation?”
Soldiers are also tricky, and having Mauch answer this question was considered a professional counterpart. Definitely not intentionally difficult, William I was not so petty.
Mauch analyzed, “Your Majesty, I think the Polish government should be innocent. According to the current international situation inferred, I think the Austrians are the most suspicious, looking at the last two European wars, they are the victors.
The ones who are best at creating trouble, provoking international relations and creating international conflicts are Britain and Austria. The British need us and the Poles to join forces against Russia and Austria, it makes no sense to do it at this time.
Austria is different, they only need us and Poland to join forces against Russia but don’t want to see the two countries merge. Creating a little tension between us and Poland would be necessary.
Of course, the French and the Russians are also suspect. But being so far away from Poland and possessing limited influence, I’m afraid it won’t be easy to plan this operation.
The Russians, not to mention the fact that the conflict between Russia and Poland is so deep that even if the Czarist government wants to make things happen, the Poles may not be willing to cooperate with them.”
This answer sounds very reasonable, William I always feel that something is not right, this is somewhat unlike the style of the Vienna government.
Austria’s influence in Poland is not small, when running to participate in the Polish independence movement volunteers, inside do not know how many Austrian spies.
These people seem inconspicuous, in fact, in the Polish government also occupies a lot of important positions, to provoke the relationship between the two countries more ways, do not need to be so extreme.
In case the matter is exposed, then bring the international influence will be big. Thinking about it, William I did not say the meaning, let Austria take the blame does not matter.
In the absence of evidence, whether or not Austria did it, in fact, does not matter, in any case, the Poles do not have the ability to retaliate back.
Franz did not yet know that a black pot had fallen from the sky. Franz believed that the Prussians were behind the plot, and the Prussians believed that Austria was provoking their relations with Poland.
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St. Petersburg, Alexander II was listening to the reports of his men. If the contents got out, it would absolutely shock the entire continent of Europe.
According to the inference of profit, whoever profits the most is the most suspicious. The Polish government and Prussia became the biggest suspects, who would have thought of the unrelated Russia?
I’m afraid that the Polish government has now put this account to Prussia, even if it is not possible to leave the short-term support of the Prussians, the relationship between the two countries is still overshadowed by a layer of shadow.
An ally who wants to interfere in his own internal affairs, I guess no one will like it. Once the Polish king stabilized, the Prussian-Polish relationship was about to change.
It’s not just a conspiracy, but also comes with a yang conspiracy. Without evidence, the Prussians simply can’t wash their hands of it.
To take a step back, even if innocence is proved. Could the Prussian-Polish relations be restored as before? Obviously not, unless the Berlin government gives up this opportunity to infiltrate Poland.
Alexander II only provided the two countries with an excuse for conflict, and there are too many possible conflicts of interest between Prussia and Poland. As long as they cannot merge into one, they are doomed to be in conflict.
If Austria took the blame, then Alexander II’s calculation would be even more perfect. The deterioration of relations between Prussia and Poland and Austria meant that the Russian Empire had another ally in future wars.
It was not at all wonderful to be alone, and Alexander II did not want to come back a second time.
Learn from your mistakes.
After this lesson, Alexander II knew the importance of allies. In his youth, he advocated “pro-Prussian and anti-Austrian”, which now seemed more like a joke.
It is a fool’s errand to make foreign policy decisions based on personal preference among nations.
Unlike the old empires, Prussia had to expand if it wanted to be strong. At that time, the three major neighboring empires could not be defeated, and finally chose to take on the Russian Empire.
This is not because the Russian Empire is weak, but Russia has no allies. And by breaking through from the Russian Empire, you can also harvest the friendship of Britain and France without worrying about money and food.
Of course transportation is also a very important factor, France and Austria have a complete railroad network, as the first to recognize the importance of railroads to the war for Prussia, they have done the assessment before provoking the war.
France and Austria can put too many troops, screwed up a wave was taken away, they chose to put a limited number of troops in the Russian Empire.
No matter how many reasons, the first in line is still that the Russian Empire is isolated. Sensei’s justification or not, attacking the Russian Empire was justified in the eyes of the European nations.
If you attacked other countries, you would easily be met with hostility. Before Russia entered the war, Prussia’s attack on Denmark was condemned by European nations, and many were calling for international sanctions.
As a result, the situation changed instantly when the Tsarist government entered the war. People condemned Prussia’s invasion of Poland on the one hand, and supported Prussia’s war with Russia on the other.
Austria, the only weighty ally of the Russian Empire, was also alienated by the succession of Alexander II. The change in diplomacy had a direct effect on the war, and Austria’s support for them dropped more than just a notch from the Near Eastern War period.
After summarizing the lessons learned, Alexander II also began to pay attention to diplomacy, and dividing the Prussian-Polish relations was only one part of it.
(End of chapter)