Chapter 766: Eyeball Effect
Chapter 749 1867 Eyeball Effect
“Find out clearly, the Austrian’s real purpose?” Prime Minister Gladstone asked
After Prussia announced the debt extension, the first time the government in London suspected Austria, and a check revealed what role the government in Vienna played.
There is no way to keep this kind of thing a secret, and the Berlin government didn’t have the guts to do it without Austria jumping in to cheer them on.
Foreign Minister Granville Georg Leveson Gower: “On the bright side, the Austrians were trying to drive a wedge between us and Prussia, and this they have succeeded in doing.
Our intelligence officers have discovered that Austrian railroad shipments have skyrocketed in recent times, and a deeper investigation has revealed a large amount of strategic materials converging on the ports.
The Austrians seem to be preparing for a war, though their armies have not been abnormally mobilized, and should not be heading towards France.”
After the outbreak of the Paris revolution, the government in London had closely watched Austria’s movements, fearing that if they didn’t pay attention, the balance of Europe would be broken.
In terms of interest, France and Austria had been fighting around the continental hegemony for many years, and now that France was ill, Austria had enough incentive to fall on its sword.
But France was no soft touch, even if civil unrest broke out. Without adequate preparation, Austria could not possibly strike blindly.
Looking at the world map, Gladstone nodded his head and said thoughtfully, ”There is no military mobilization, so the strength of the target that Austria is going to make a move this time should not be good.
The Vienna system has just been established, the Austrians will not hit their own face, this war is mostly outside of Europe.
The Far East, South America, the Near East, or the African colonies are up for grabs, where do you think the Austrians want to attack?”
Colonial Minister Primrose analyzed, “The Far East is unlikely, Austria’s strength over there is limited and not their strategic center of gravity.
South America is also very unlikely, the Panama independence movement is going very well, unless they are prepared to swallow the Republic of Colombia in one bite, there is no need to increase their commitment.
Near East and African colonial rivalries are both possible, the Ottomans were the Habsburgs’ sworn enemy, and Franz has repeatedly stated in public that he wants to destroy this ……
France and Austria’s colonial core are in the African continent, the two countries are jealous of each other’s strength, coupled with geographic constraints, so as not to break out into large-scale conflict, the government of Vienna has the motivation to fall on the well.
I think they are more suspicious of making a move on Egypt. Attacking the Ottoman Empire can be done anytime, the opportunity to seize the Suez Canal may be this one time.
France was tough on the outside and offended a lot of people in the colonial battles. After the civil war broke out, a lot of countries made small moves, including us who wanted a piece of the action.
No war broke out, that’s the lack of a leader. If Austria takes the lead, the feast of dividing the French colonies is about to break out.
With the loss of its overseas colonies, even if France ends the civil war, it will be hard to threaten Austria again with one increase and one decrease.”
France and Austria shared the Suez Canal, that was a no-brainer, it doesn’t mean that people didn’t want to have it all to themselves.
Today’s times are different, and now have the strength to monopolize the Suez Canal. As long as the Egyptian region is taken, the Austrian colonies in Asia and Africa are connected, and there is no fear of prying eyes.
Foreign Minister George retorted, “My opinion is just the opposite, judging from the current international situation, the chances of Austria laying its hands on the Egyptian region are slim to none.”
Then he picked up a baton and walked over to the hanging world map and pointed it out, “This is Austria, and you can see from the map how bad their strategic location is, which can be described as being surrounded by strong enemies.
In recent years, the Vienna government through diplomacy + military strikes, the success of the Ottoman Empire abolished, and the use of the Russo-Prussian War so that the end of Prussia, the Russians were greatly injured, the situation is gradually improving.
In the short term the seizure of Egypt and striking at the French Empire might be more profitable; but it would worsen Franco-Austrian relations, and France would be Austria’s greatest enemy after the civil war.
History would again repeat the old story of the joint formation of France and the Ottomans against the Habsburgs. In the trend of interest, the Russians would most likely join in as well.
Against this background, Austria would find it hard to find allies, and even the pro-Austrian German states would more than likely fall to the anti-Habsburg alliance.”
George drew a circle on the map with his baton and pointed with force, “With enemies on all sides, once a war breaks out Austria will be exhausted, even the strongest national strength can’t withstand such a toss.
In the long run, continue to maintain friendly relations with the French, take the opportunity to destroy the Ottoman Empire, to obtain a stable rear, is what Austria needs most.”
Geographic location of the “strategy” can not be fooled, the map is there, a look know.
Located in the heart of Europe, Austria’s revival is a miracle in itself.
Behind this miracle, is a series of diplomatic vertical and horizontal, and at the same time and a number of countries to maintain friendly relations, for the revival of the conditions created.
It goes without saying that, having discovered Austria’s plans, it was of course necessary to sabotage them, otherwise it would have failed to live up to its reputation as a “shit-stirrer”.
……
The British were still a step too slow. The success of the Paris revolution had emboldened Austria, and the government in Vienna had decided to act quickly and not wait for diplomatic results.
Franz: “Has the pretext for war been found?”
The key to constraining Austria from going to war was no longer the international situation.
A shot fired in Paris had brought the European revolutions to a climax again, and no one dared risk the world to go to war in defense of the Ottoman Empire.
Much less the strength, after two Near East wars, the Ottoman Empire has long been wounded.
Now everything is ready, just need a war “excuse”. For this reasonable excuse, Franz’s hair is about to fall out.
Foreign Minister Weissenberg: “We have evidence of the massacre of the Amerindians by the Ottoman government, including 1,867 citizens of the Empire.”
After saying that, Weissenberg took out a thick stack of photographs from an envelope, on which were the very images of the massacre carried out by the Ottoman soldiers.
Franz would have almost believed it if he hadn’t felt some familiarity after looking through a few of them.
The photos were definitely real, and with the photographic technology these days, it would be unrealistic to try to fake them.
Only the time of occurrence, there may be a little error, just a few years ahead of time.
The point in time is not the key, as long as the content of the photo is real, it is enough.
After a moment’s hesitation, Franz took out the most impressive photo of the “Gatling refugees”: “If it has already been published in the newspaper, don’t publicize it.”
Wiesenberg replied without changing his expression: “Your Majesty, please don’t worry, these photos have not been published.
The fact that you find them familiar may be due to the fact that the content of the photographs is somewhat similar, but there is still a difference in substance.”
Franz nodded, he still trusted the eyes of professionals. The main reason for giving the Foreign Ministry the task of creating a pretext for war, rather than the military, was because of “professionalism”.
Otherwise, what with the missing soldiers and shipwrecks, such a stifled excuse to take out would not make sense at all.
Not to mention whether people will believe it internationally, even domestically no one will believe it.
In contrast, the killing of thousands of Imperial citizens at the Foreign Ministry was far more shocking.
Anyway, the people are dead, the Vienna government said they are Austrian citizens, then Austrian citizens, it is just a matter of replacing a nationality.
The number is too big to matter. The reason for the big number itself is to divert attention.
By shifting everyone’s focus to the numbers, deep down they can’t help but accept the claim that Austrian citizens were killed in the Ottoman Empire.
The numbers matter, the big thing is to vindicate them after the war. Replace citizens with “immigrants with pending applications”, revise the number of citizens killed downwards, and blame it on the uncritical media.
Until the dust settles, the Viennese government will not state the number of people killed in official documents. The outside world is free to interpret this as it sees fit.
……
On April 20, 1882, while the European world was still reeling from the Paris revolution, a news story published in a Balkan daily newspaper, “Massacre of Austrian Citizens in the Ottoman Empire,” came out of nowhere to break the news.
The red number “1867” attracted a crowd of spectators. It was followed up by several other newspapers, only with a different number.
The highest number was over 10,000 people, the lowest was only 2 people died, or in the Ottoman Empire massacre of domestic minorities in the wrong side of the car.
It does not matter how many, but the Austrians were furious. That a picture full of blood, has touched the bottom line of everyone’s heart, the community has asked the government to punish the Ottoman Empire.
Influenced by this, on April 22, 1882, the government in Vienna officially sent a note to the Ottoman Empire to negotiate over the massacre.
The Ottoman government, which knew nothing, received the Austrian diplomatic note in a daze, and was confused for a while before reacting – no, danger.
Naturally, the negotiations were not going to go well, as they were meant to be. on April 24, 1882, the government in Vienna unilaterally declared that the negotiations had broken down.
The reason: Austria asked to send an investigation team, deep into the territory of the Ottoman Empire to carry out field investigations, was rejected by the Ottoman government.
Massacres of minorities existed, and just recently several Armenian villages had been destroyed in the course of internal ethnic conflicts, but this was not the main reason for the Ottoman government’s refusal.
As long as it can be proved that there were no massacres of Austrian citizens, these things are minor issues, the big deal is to be scolded by public opinion for a while, and they have always been slammed by European public opinion anyway.
The problem was that while sending an investigation team, Austria also asked for troops to protect them, and this number was as high as one division, which was not tolerable.
The Russo-Prussian War had already proven the transportation capability of airships, and putting an Austrian infantry division inland would have been suicide.
The reason for the refusal was naturally selectively ignored by the Austrian media. Ottoman Empire that are barbarians, for the sake of the safety of the investigation team, surely must send troops to protect ah!
More people?
Just one infantry division, as long as the Ottoman government has no ghosts in its heart, it should not be afraid.
Both sides think about the angle of the problem, are not in a channel, the final conclusion is naturally different.
After the breakdown of the negotiations, the voice of Austria’s domestic clamor for retaliation, all of a sudden rose high.
The voice of the main war faction gradually overpowered the anti-war faction, and the atmosphere of war became more and more intense.
……
(End of chapter)