Chapter 739: Something’s about to happen.
Chapter 722: Going to make things happen
The Vienna Conference was still continuing, and the refugee issue, which should have received twice the attention, was subconsciously ignored by everyone.
Russian representatives do not mention, Prussian representatives play dumb, no one asked for help, the international community naturally when things have passed.
I don’t know when the main task of the Russian and Prussian armies on the border changed from fighting to suppressing refugee riots.
From April onwards, the number of refugees fleeing to Austria decreased dramatically, and by May there were almost no more crossings.
What happened in the meantime Franz did not know and did not dare to ask.
According to the estimates of the information gathered by the Vienna government, the Russo-Prussian War had resulted in the loss of at least four million lives and the displacement of more than six million people.
Including local troops and partisans, the Prussian army suffered about 1,768,000 killed and 382,000 disabled; the Russian army suffered about 1,433,000 killed and 671,000 disabled; and there were about 800,000 direct civilian casualties, most of which were in the Prussian-Polish Confederation.
There’s nothing surprising that the battle losses of Prussia and Russia were so close to each other, and a large part of it was contributed by local Polish troops and partisans.
Mountain bandits and bandits may also have been rounded up, there’s no way to differentiate this stuff, and the Russians counted all the resistance forces in the battle.
After the abandonment of the Warsaw area, Poland became an enemy war zone, naturally there was no casualties, the Russians could not salvage the enemy’s wounded, the number of casualties in the Prussian army came from the soldiers of the Kingdom of Prussia.
Counting the Kingdom of Prussia alone, the number of battle deaths would have been around 566,000, plus 382,000 wounded and disabled, approaching the million mark, plus civilian casualties would have crossed over.
With the Prussian Kingdom’s population base of over 10 million, the war had knocked out a generation of their people. Because of the massive loss of young and strong, the labor force dropped drastically, and the development of the Kingdom of Prussia after the war was not optimistic.
In contrast, the Russian Empire was much better off. Although they also suffered heavy casualties, compared to the Russian Empire’s population base of 80 million, the battlefield losses were less than 3 percentage points.
Theoretically, this loss of labor could be made up in the next five to ten years.
Of course the accounts can’t be calculated this way, the massive loss of young adults will also affect the future population growth, which is an ongoing problem.
In war, it is always the civilians who suffer the most, and this time was no exception. Because of the Russian scorched earth program, the number of refugees was additionally increased.
Just because six million people were displaced does not mean that all these people became refugees.
Those who were better off economically ran away early to seek refuge in other countries, and this was the smallest group, probably less than 100,000 people.
Another 200,000 or so, through Austrian immigration applications, went to settle in the colonies.
Before the fall of the Warsaw area, the Berlin government was still providing relief to the refugees, and some of the lucky ones found work again and established new homes.
This portion of the population numbered around 300,000 or so, most of whom were Rhineland immigrants previously resettled by the Berlin government, and had a skill and ability to survive themselves.
Apart from these people, the rest were genuine refugees.
Of course this 5.4 million is a theoretical figure, in practice there must not be so many, many frail and sickly just started to flee to see God, can run out at most 4.7 or 8 million.
Before and after the outbreak of the Russo-Prussian War, Austria received a total of 1,436,000 refugees, according to the current situation, it is difficult to exceed 1.5 million.
The protests of the Vienna government played a role, the Russians and Prussians did not have the courage to drive the refugees over, Franz’s most feared refugee tide did not happen.
More than four months had passed since the refugee crisis had broken out in full force. After so long without relief, there were practically not many left.
This meant that the number of deaths caused by the refugee crisis directly exceeded the combined number of casualties in Prussia and Russia.
If you add up all the figures, the direct population loss caused by the Russo-Prussian War is more than eight million, and the indirect population loss is more than ten million.
This year, the population of more than eight million countries, the world can not find fifteen, the European continent is only: Austria, Russia, France, Britain, West, Germany, Prussia, the Nordic countries.
Among them, the Nordic Federation only has a population of eight million, the German Federal Empire has a population of only thirteen million, and it is not known whether the Kingdom of Prussia can keep its population of eight million after the war.
There was no choice but to release such shocking figures. Without letting everyone know the horrors of war, how can they appreciate the preciousness of peace?
Looking at this golden statistics table, Prime Minister Felix exclaimed, “The Prussian-Russian War is the pinnacle in the history of human warfare, and after this battle, the era of the Great European War is over!”
Looking at the cautious-looking Prime Minister, Franz very much suspected that he was intimidated, otherwise how could he come to this conclusion?
Scanning the crowd, Franz helplessly realized that he, the emperor, was the only one who didn’t have a reaction, everyone else was immersed in the big data of “eight million deaths”.
Looking at the expression of the crowd, Franz very much doubt that after the release of this data, Europe will erupt in a wave of anti-war.
Especially for the many small countries, their total population is less than 8 million, how to fill the bottomless pit of war?
Franz interrupted, “All right, gentlemen. No matter how big the losses of the Russo-Prussian War are, it shouldn’t be our headache.
Whether or not a major war will still break out on the European continent is still left to time to prove, and now we need to think about the next international changes.
The brutality of the war exceeded our previous expectations, and the impact it caused likewise exceeded projections, and it is now necessary to plan anew.”
There was no way around it, international politics was just so changeable, going according to plan that was impossible. The international situation had changed, and if one didn’t immediately keep up, one was doomed.
After pausing for a few moments of effort, Foreign Minister Weissenberg, “Your Majesty, the Russo-Prussian War has shown everyone the cruelty of war, and in the future when making decisions, everyone will be more cautious.
Under normal circumstances, everyone will deliberately avoid waging war on the European continent, and future international competition will gradually shift from the European continent to overseas.
This world has been pretty much carved up, and I’m afraid that the next competition for overseas colonies and markets will become unprecedentedly fierce.”
This is the inevitable result, the cost of waging war on the European continent is too high, if not careful, it is also easy to trigger the public anger, and the benefits grabbed are not necessarily able to make up for the war expenses.
Specific reference can be made to this Prussian-Russian war, the tsarist government won the war with great difficulty, the harvested booty, but not enough to make up for half of the war losses.
In this context, if not necessary, everyone will certainly avoid the outbreak of war.
In a sense, the Russo-Prussian War also enhanced Austria’s international influence. The Russians piled up the Prussian-Polish Confederation by the sea of men tactic, refreshing everyone’s three views.
Before this, the great European wars that broke out never had to consider only whether there was money or not, but now it was different, everyone also had to consider whether there were people.
As the scale of the war became bigger, the traditional idea of having soldiers when you have money has been eliminated by the times.
In terms of the number of openings, Russia and Austria were undoubtedly in the first rank, plus after the overseas territories, Austria’s war potential was still above that of the Russian Empire.
Close behind was Great France, with a total population of nearly 60 million, leaving the other countries far behind.
The Russians proved their strength in numbers, sitting firmly as the fourth power on the European continent. The political pattern of the three major European powers had a tendency to develop towards the four major powers.
On the sea, the Royal Navy one over two strong pattern is very stable, Britain’s maritime supremacy is as stable as Mount Tai, France and Austria two catching up can only look behind.
On land, France and Austria stand side by side, followed by the Russians.
Before the Russo-Prussian War, everyone agreed that the French army was more powerful, and now the ideology has been shocked and the view has changed.
The French Army had a more glorious record, but Austria was able to explode in greater numbers and with greater combined national power, giving the impression of equal strength.
Everyone at sea couldn’t beat the British, and everyone on land was so close that a fight was a toss-up.
This background, expect the British, French and Austrian pk, that is unrealistic. Taking the largest share of the three giants can not rob each other, then can only go overseas to hold the strong and weak.
Franz nodded: ”That’s right. Most of the next international struggles will take place overseas, and after the no man’s land is divided up, it’s the small countries’ turn to be unlucky.
If nothing else, the naval feast will begin again. But as long as no one challenges the British maritime hegemony, this naval feast won’t last long.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs can make secret contact with France and Russia to try and see if a treaty can be signed to limit the size of the army’s armaments to avoid the outbreak of a continental war.”
Frankly speaking, Franz also wanted to challenge the British maritime hegemony, how could he not be strong enough and had to give up.
This is not to spell shipbuilding on the line, alone shipbuilding industry Austria also really have the opportunity to fight with the British, other aspects will not be able to.
The Austrian navy really did not meet any decent rivals, naturally, no opportunity to accumulate war experience, the best war experience or eliminate pirates.
If this aspect of the shortcomings, can also rely on the number of warships to make up for, then no money is really hard.
Austria’s financial income is not low at all, but in the maintenance of the continental army under the premise, and then play a sea battle can not roar.
The army is different from the navy, even if the size of the army is limited, wartime can be quickly mobilized.
Mash arms limitation treaty, heart comfort significance, greater than the substance of the binding.
Of course, something is better than nothing. Before the war broke out, it did save a lot of financial expenses. With savings on the army, everyone had more money to invest in the navy.
Even if you can’t shake the British maritime supremacy, it’s still a great victory to narrow the gap with the Royal Navy.
……
(End of chapter)