Chapter 996: Detention of Warships
Chapter 976 – Detaining Warships
For Austria, the greatest significance of the signing of the Treaty of Vienna did not lie in restricting France, but in clearing the last obstacle to the unification of the German region.
Russia and West than Switzerland and other countries have been bought, the remaining Netherlands, Portugal, the Nordic Confederation, even if you want to oppose, but also have to consider their own body bones can not carry the retaliation.
Continental countries do not oppose, overseas countries are even more needless. These days only the European powers interfere in overseas affairs, there has never been an overseas country to meddle in European affairs.
Can not find like-minded supporters, the British are also very helpless. Diplomatic protests were ineffective, but not armed intervention, right?
The British government had no choice but to compromise. In exchange for recognizing Austria’s annexation of the German Confederation, the Vienna government recognized their annexation of the French Central and Southern Peninsula.
Anyone with eyesight knows that such recognition is similar to no recognition at all. Britain can not prevent the merger of Germany and Austria, Vienna can not interfere with the British annexation of the French Central and Southern Peninsula, mutual recognition is only a face to look better.
On June 12, 1892, in the presence of the international community, Austria and the German states signed the Holy Roman Treaty.
Almost at the same time, the German Bundestag declared the dissolution of the North German Empire. In the afternoon, George I issued a declaration of abdication.
As witnesses of history, witnessing the overthrow of a nation and the rebirth of a country in a single day, the impact on the crowd was undoubtedly enormous.
Anyone with a little bit of political savvy knew that the sky had changed, that the continent of Europe had once again returned to the era of the Holy Roman Empire, and that the international situation had changed from a triumvirate to a two-power situation.
Luckily, the conflict between Britain and Austria did not intensify, or else just standing in line would have worried people to death. However, we all know that this stability is only temporary, for the sake of world hegemony, Britain and Austria will turn over sooner or later.
……
As night fell, a sigh of relief came from the Japanese Embassy in Vienna.
“If you don’t come out for a walk, you don’t know how fast the world is changing. There’s an old Chinese saying, “Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river.”
How long has it been since the unrivaled French Empire fell. We thought we were developing fast enough, but we are still too far behind compared to the great powers.
It seems that reform can’t stop, when this war is over, we still have to continue to deepen our institutional reforms, and strive to catch up as soon as possible.”
At the end of the day is Ito Hirobumi, after lamenting quickly firm confidence. Only the sorrow between the eyebrows, but delayed to dissipate.
Political speculation has never been a high-yield, high-risk job, the Japanese government in the previous operation mistakes, not able to jump on the bandwagon in time, and now have to pay for it.
Thankfully this time the speculation left a hand, did not jump directly to the French boat, otherwise now will have to follow the big ship sinking.
“Reform, isn’t Austria the most conservative country in Europe? Apart from the Russian Empire, they are the most conservative.”
Saigo asked suspiciously from the road.
This was also the impression of the outside world, compared to France, which was a pioneer of “freedom”, Austria was indeed called “conservative”.
Now that the “liberal” had lost to the “conservative”, many people were reflecting on whether France had gone too far in being “liberal”. The causes and consequences of the Continental War have been disclosed by the newspapers, and we all know that France was pushed into the war by capital and “public opinion”, and finally embarked on the road of no return.
Ito Hirobumi shook his head: “Where do you see Austria conservative? In addition to the lack of a group of big spray, no everywhere in the crowd of strikes and marches, not posted around the election manifesto, what they lack?”
Thanks to the strict enforcement of the Press Act, where newspapers are held accountable for the veracity of their content, the social climate of being kidnapped by money has been reversed.
In this context, it doesn’t matter if it’s spewed, but it has to be factual, and randomly spewed articles simply don’t get published by newspapers.
There were still strike marches, just not as frequent as in France, and even less likely to happen in Vienna. After all, the factories have moved out, so where is the workers’ movement?
The Austrian capitalists, who had to compete with the colonies to get people, didn’t dare to squeeze the workers too much because the colonies had been recruiting immigrants for a long time.
It’s not like the reverse case hasn’t happened before. For example, which …… factory, because of the serious labor conflict, the workers collectively directly carry barrels to run away, no one to do the order, the boss was almost driven crazy by the liquidated damages.
The “election manifesto” is not to mention. This is explicitly prohibited by Austrian law, small advertisements posted out to put themselves in, naturally, no one to do it.
In the eyes of Ito Hirobumi, this is a sign of order. Eastern and Western culture is not the same, Japan is particularly important rules.
Especially with Austria’s current prosperity, but also amplify these advantages. Ito Hirobumi, who is good at learning, naturally wants to learn from it.
After contemplating for a while, Saigo from the road thoughtfully nodded.
Austria is now vast, resource-rich, industrially developed, economic prosperity, strong army, political stability, specifically to say “what is missing”?
This question, I guess not many people can answer up. If you insist on saying insufficient, only the navy is not the world’s first.
However, this is not a shortcoming, Austria is not incapable of developing a navy, compared with the Royal Navy, the difference is only the number and experience.
These can be solved, the number of money can be spent, experience can be accumulated. There is no qualitative difference between the two sides, and this second and first are not that far apart.
For Japan, the second largest navy in the world they could not even think of. In any case, it is impossible to say that Austria lacks a navy.
After half a sound of effort, Saigo Congdao slowly said, “Ito-kun, are you preparing to restart the Vienna route?”
Japan at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, respectively, visited a number of European countries, and therefore produced a number of sets of reform routes, modeled on Austria’s Vienna route is also among them.
Only because of various factors, the Vienna route was eventually rejected, and the Meiji Restoration mainly modeled its own development route after Britain, France, and Prussia, taking into account the actual situation.
The original time and space Japanese reform route was basically considered a success except for politics. Now it is different. With the successive failures of Prussia and France, there were doubts within Japan about this reform route.
Ito Hirobumi waved his hand, “No! Austria’s development route simply can not be copied, we do not have their so strong heritage, even if you want to learn can not learn ah!
You should know that they were one of the four great powers of the world at the time of their greatest decline, and after Franz the Great succeeded to the throne, he immediately joined the wave of colonization after solving the internal problems.
Successively opened up the Austrian Africa, Austrian America, Austrian South Seas, the strength of the development of strong, and then turned back to annex the Ottoman Empire, only today’s Austrian Empire.”
In a sense, the strategy of the Japanese government was also imitating Austria, but unfortunately, their luck was not good, and they just stepped out of the country and ran into a hard case.
In the past, European countries competed for colonies, and after grabbing the territory, as long as they showed enough strength to let their rivals know that the loss was not worth the gain, everyone could solve the problem at the negotiation table, and rarely happened to die to the end of the situation.
Judging from the current situation, even if the Spaniards were able to retake the Philippine Islands, they would have to pay a terrible price. The risks involved are so great that the gains are not proportional to the payments.
It is logical that the time has come to go to the negotiating table, and as long as the Japanese government pays a certain price, things can be understood.
Unfortunately, none of these lessons apply now. Losing to the Europeans is fine, but losing to the Japanese is nothing. Spain can’t afford to lose.
Especially after the defeat of France, Spain’s nationalism became active, and the voice of vengeance went up to the sky.
With the proceeds of the war against France, the Spaniards soon formed an expeditionary fleet and had the capital to take revenge.
The first step taken was met with a hard blow, and the blow to the Japanese government was unprecedented. Continuing to follow the Austrian colonization strategy, Ito Hirobumi could not even think of it.
If possible, he would prefer to pack up and go home, stop the pace of expansion, and slowly farm to save the family.
Japan’s lack of resources, simply rely on farming, the development speed will certainly be very slow, but safe ah!
Radical development is indeed fast, but also die fast. Some years ago, Prussia, and now France, are all the opposite of falling on the road of expansion.
Saigo from the road: “Indeed can not learn, our family base is too weak. If we were to replace our old neighbor next door, I guess there are still a few points of success.
Let’s not talk about that, it’s better to take care of the immediate future! The Antifa Alliance has offered to perform a maintenance on the warships before delivery, which will take a month.
If there is no accident, the Spanish expeditionary fleet, will also depart within a month. Trying to rush the warships back home before the battle is fought is probably hopeless.”
Ito Hirobumi: “This is to be expected. As a member of the Antifa Alliance, the Spaniards still have this bit of face. Even if the Antifa alliance doesn’t detain them, it will be hard for us to get ahead of the game and send these warships back home.
This is today’s paper. The Suez Canal is back in navigation. With the French finished, ownership of the canal has fallen entirely into Austrian hands.
Under the Austro-Spanish Port Agreement of more than thirty years ago, Spanish warships could dock with the help of Austrian ports, and passing through the Suez Canal was naturally not a problem.
We wouldn’t have to think about it. Not to mention the previous misguided statements in favor of the French, even if we go back a few decades in time, our relations with Austria are cold.
As for the warships, we can only think about them from the British side. So they also have a conflict with Spain, and are happy to see the Spaniards in bad luck.”
There were two main reasons for the cold Austrian-Japanese relations: first, the Japanese reforms were mainly to learn from Britain, France and Prussia, and trade orders went to the three countries, with minimal trade with Austria.
Secondly, Franz was not yet able to control his emotions perfectly at the beginning of his succession, and showed his dislike for the Japanese.
Without sufficient economic benefits, the relationship between the two countries naturally could not be deepened. Coupled with the Emperor’s cold attitude, the bureaucrats naturally did not bother for a dispensable Japan.
At that time, Austria was far from being as powerful as it is now, and after the cold reception, the Japanese government did not make any efforts to improve the relationship between the two countries.
If you don’t burn incense in normal times, it’s not so easy to hold on to your feet when the time comes.
If the British are not worried about the recovery of the Roussillon area of the Spanish revival, threatening the security of the Strait of Gibraltar, the Japanese is now the real tragedy.
Hear the warships have landed, Saigo from the road hanging heart all of a sudden put down, can not help but say: “great, with the support of the British, to defeat Spain will not be difficult.”
Had a hand-to-hand experience, the Japanese navy on the Spanish still have the advantage of the heart, the only worry is the gap between the two sides of the fleet strength is too disparate.
Ito Hirobumi dew a bitter face and replied, “It’s not that simple, Spain is a member of the anti-French alliance, even if the war is over, the flavor is still there.
Once the British intervene in the war, the Antifa Alliance will not sit idly by, and it is even more unlikely that the British will turn their backs on the Antifa Alliance for us.
In order not to irritate the Antifa, the British will not be able to give us much support. If we want to win this war, we still have to rely on ourselves.”
Facts once again proved that it was very crucial for a country to find teammates if it wanted to achieve success.
The British were clearly the representatives of unreliability. Ito Hirobumi hadn’t forgotten how the French had been sold out in the recently concluded Continental War.
It should be realized that at the beginning of the war Britain and France were allies, and even though the British government did side with France, they did not give up any opportunity to take advantage of the fire.
Seemingly in support of France, but in fact is trying to maintain the balance of power between the two warring sides, wanting France and Austria to lose both.
However, the plan did not change quickly, the London government did not expect Austria actually hide strength, at the critical moment directly to the French to a fatal blow.
Seeing that France has lost the momentum, the first reaction of the British is not to pull the ally a hand, but is unilaterally tear up the alliance, fall on the well.
There are many similar cases, such as the previous Belgium, initially also followed the British to mix, was betrayed before falling to Austria.
Allies can be betrayed, then not even an ally of Japan, the British betrayed even less pressure.
Knowing that, Ito Hirobumi still had no choice, or the Japanese government had no choice. Although Spain has always been the bottom line of the Great Powers, but the Great Powers is the Great Powers, international influence is still extraordinary.
In addition to the British, there is no country willing to risk offending the Spanish at this time, selling warships to them.
What’s more tragic is that if we don’t get a number of warships back from the British, we can’t fight the war later.
Saigo from the road thought for a while, half a sound of effort before slowly said: “In any case, the British are willing to provide support is better than nothing.
As long as we can win the war, now we can agree to any conditions, everything after the end of the war.”
The two looked at each other and ended this heavy topic. What followed was too shocking, and if word got out Japan would be doomed, so it could only be all in good time.
(End of chapter)