Holy Roman Empire

The economic foundation determines the political structure. Affected by various factors such as geography, culture, politics and diplomacy, the many states of the German Federation inevitably tie the economy to Austria.

Not every small country has ambitions. For many small countries, it is enough to develop the economy well.Anyway, no matter who is the boss, it is not their turn to be the boss, as long as they are their own people, they can accept it.

Many village-level states have even cancelled their army.For them, raising an army or not is the same.

Dueling is no longer popular these days, and tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of troops are more than their total population. They can't win when they encounter foreign invasions.

According to the British plan, the German Federal Empire will cut itself off with Austria, completely get rid of Austria's influence and become a truly independent country.

The highest authority in the German Federal Empire is the Reichstag. Under the basic system of one state, one vote, if these small and inconspicuous states unite, they can veto any decision of the central government.

Maclean's worry is justified. If the German Federal Reichstag stands up and sings, it will be a joke.

Prime Minister Gerston frowned: "This is indeed a problem, but it can be handled by the German federal government.

If these states cannot be persuaded, the big deal is to have the Emperor order the closure of the Imperial Council.It might cause a little mess, but I'm sure they can get over it.

After the German Federal Empire annexed the Rhineland region, their strength will have a qualitative breakthrough, and the total economic volume and industrial volume can be ranked in the top five in Europe.

If Austria annexes the German Confederation, then the European continent will really be dominated by one, which is what European countries do not want to see.

Now it is the general trend to further cut the German Confederation and Austria and completely cut off the possibility of German reunification.Even if the Vienna government is rejuvenated, there is no way to resist the common will of European countries. "

The German Federal Empire was originally the most prosperous region in the German region, and the Rhineland region was even more powerful.

When you open the map, you will know that the essence of the former German Empire is here. Just looking at industry and economy, it is equivalent to the strength of half the German Empire in the same period of the original time.

This volume is not small, the total economic volume has surpassed that of Spain, and the per capita income has exceeded that of France and Austria.

The only shortcoming is that there are many internal states, which distracts the national strength, especially the military strength.Otherwise, the German Confederation could join the club of great powers.

If you simply calculate the total domestic economy, now both France and Austria have surpassed Britain, and Austria is already the largest economy in the world.

The economic structure determines the superstructure, and the volume is large to a certain extent. It is not impossible to develop sea power and land power at the same time.

Once Austria annexes the German Federal Empire, it has the power to develop land and sea power at the same time, which has seriously threatened the hegemony of Britain.

Lark Lloyd, Chancellor of the Exchequer: "We seem to have overlooked something, just changing the country's name may not achieve the goal.

Don't forget that the German Federal Empire is an independent country for a long time, and it has nothing to do with the Shinra Empire that the Austrians fiddled with, but the Vienna government still holds the banner of the unification of the German region, and the people of the German region buy it.

The nationalism invented by the French has now flourished in Germany and is not restricted by the rules of the game in the past.

If the people cannot be cut, changing the country name will actually have a very limited effect, and may even further stimulate nationalism. "

From a legal point of view, Austria has nothing to do with the German Confederation.It stands to reason that the people of the German Federal Empire will not buy Austria's account.

Unfortunately, with nationalism, the situation has changed.The nationalists insisted that the German region was a whole, and they recognized that the new Shinra Empire inherited the legal system of the fallen Shinra Empire, but did not recognize the current German Federal Empire.

This complicates things. It is true that the German Federal Empire is independent, but Austria still has a popular base to unify the German region.

The British wanted to change the name of the German Federal Empire, in fact, to make further political cuts, laying the foundation for downplaying the German Grand Unification Theory.

Foreign Minister Maclean shook his head: "Germany and Austria have the same cultural traditions, and it is very difficult to separate the people from each other.

Even if it was an independent country that had broken away from the Shinra Empire earlier, it was actually the Netherlands that did better, and basically completed its de-Germanization.

Belgium and Switzerland are deeply influenced by German culture, but they and Austria have been separated, and neither of them is in the German reunification strategy of the Vienna government.

The Kingdom of Prussia has also done a good job, and in a few years, it will be able to get rid of the influence of the German Grand Unification.

Due to internal problems, the German Federal Empire lacked a strong government, so it was slow to act.

Now we have to push it, or maybe one day, we will take a nap and the German region will be unified. "

Chapter 1 Turning the Table

The British are in action, and other countries are not idle, especially in the four countries of Prussia, Russia, Poland, and Ottoman, which are at the center of the whirlpool, and they are working hard on public relations.

In order to obtain the diplomatic support of European countries, the diplomats of the four countries are like diligent little bees, constantly shuttling in the embassies of various countries.

The three kingdoms of France, Austria, and Germany, which are also in the center of the vortex, seem to be in sleep, and there is no movement at all.

Hummel knows that things are not as simple as they seem. It's not that they don't want to move, but they can't. It's Austria's best choice to be constant and adapt to changes.

He also understood that the French did not move. Thanks to Napoleon's illustrious reputation, to this day, European countries have not relaxed their vigilance against France.

Under such circumstances, no matter what the Paris government's diplomacy does, European countries will not give up their fear of them.

If you want to annex the Rhineland, any country on the European continent will stand against them, except for Monaco, which is controlled by the French themselves.

Small countries can also coerce and lure them to keep them neutral. What about a few big countries?Even if they wanted to exchange benefits, France could not afford this price.Since it is destined to be useless, why waste energy?

The German Federal Empire has no action, which makes Hummel puzzled. If you want to grab food and gain the Rhineland region, you cannot do it without the support of European countries.

Leave everything to the British and they'll just sit back and enjoy?When John Bull was charitable, how could it be possible for them to do nothing without enough profit?

It is impossible for the German Federal Empire to have no interest in the Rhineland region. Taking the Rhineland region will greatly promote their domestic heavy industry.

There is no action at all, so he is so confident and bold to let the British deal with it, is he not afraid of being sold by John Bull.

You know, there are many countries interested in the Rhineland region.Besides the French, Belgium is also a competitor.

Under normal circumstances, Belgium's strength is too weak, and at most it is secretly thought.But once there is the support of foreign powers, it is not necessarily.

The German Federal Empire can pay enough to buy the Rhineland, and Belgium can also pay for it.

For the Kingdom of Prussia, rather than letting the Rhineland fall into the hands of the German Federal Empire, it is more in its own interest to hand it over to Belgium.

Belgium is also the younger brother of the British. It is not the best choice to hand over the Rhineland to Belgium, but as long as it does not fall into the hands of the French, the London government can also accept it.

Knowing that there are competitors, the German Federal Empire still believes in the British so much. There must be some unknown secrets.

Hummel ordered: "Hors, immediately send a telegram to Vienna, and let their intelligence organization find out the insider trading between Britain and Germany as soon as possible."

"Yes, Your Excellency the Minister!" Secretary Halls replied.

……

The London Conference was officially held on July 1874, 7. At the conference, Polish Foreign Minister Vlublewski justly accused the Russians of invading Poland and made three recommendations to the International Conference:

[-]. To condemn and sanction the crimes of Russia's aggression against Poland;

[-]. The immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Poland;

[-]. The tsarist government compensates the Polish kingdom for war losses.

There is no doubt that the Poles' proposal received diplomatic support from European countries, who condemned the atrocities of the Russians.

Perhaps to block the Russians, or to have other calculations, British Foreign Secretary Maclean, who presided over the meeting, proposed a vote.

The result was naturally one-sided. Thirteen of the sixteen representatives from Britain, France, Austria, Russia, Prussia, Poland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, Greece, Morocco, Black, Northern Europe, and Ottoman who participated in the meeting supported Poland. people.

Austria and Montenegro chose to abstain, and the only dissenting vote was the Russians themselves.Quite a veto means, because the Russians objected so the resolution was annulled.

Hummel was puzzled. He had no idea what medicine was sold in the British gourd.This international conference is not binding, and countries have not signed relevant treaties.

It does nothing but make the Russian representative look ugly.There is no problem for everyone to support Poland verbally. If you want countries to send troops to intervene in the Russian-Polish war, you should wash and sleep!

Hummel does not doubt the ability of the British to fool them. If the London government is willing to spend a lot of money to convince the Kingdom of Prussia that there is no problem, other countries should not think about it.

Obviously, the British have no intention of supporting the Prussians to fight a war, and this input is not proportional to the output.

If it really beats the Russians, the Berlin government should default and all the British investment will be lost.

It's not that the Berlin government wants to default, but at that point, they really haven't paid.

War is a beast of gold. The Berlin government repaid less than one-third of the debt owed in the last Russian-Prussian war. What will they pay again?

Even if you win the war and get rich spoils, these spoils cannot be cash, most of them are real estate and land, and they cannot be converted into wealth in a short period of time.

Even because of the war, more money needs to be invested in the development of newly occupied areas.For a long time, the financial contribution of these new territories was negative.

Unless the British continued to increase their loans and let the Berlin government borrow new debts to pay off old debts, the Prussian Kingdom, which had no money, was doomed to default.

……

The Vienna Palace, after receiving what happened at the London meeting, Franz's face changed greatly.The seemingly bland vote is actually a hidden murder.

The Russians don't feel it, because they are themselves isolated, and even if they fight against European countries, the situation will not be worse.

If you change to another country, it will be different, ignoring the attitudes of European countries, it also needs capital that can ignore European countries.

There are only two countries on the European continent that are not afraid of hostility. One is the Russian Empire. They have too much debt and have a geographical advantage.The vast territory + cold winter makes the Russian Empire invincible.

Other than that, Britain was left alone overseas.Even if everyone is unhappy with them, there is a strait barrier, and the Royal Navy is powerful, they can't help them at all.

Other European countries are different. If you want to mix on the mainland, you can't make yourself enemies all over the world.Every time we stand on the opposite side of European countries, it means that the crisis is approaching.

Napoleon's lesson from the past has already told everyone: without a superior strategic position, without the strength to single out the European continent, it is best not to wave well.

Franz can be sure that the British are not targeting the Russians this time, and the declining Russian Empire is no longer worth their thought.

It is worth the effort of the British to calculate, except for France and Austria, there is no third party to be found.Now that the Paris government is still fighting infighting, it is unlikely that things will happen in the short term, and most of them are aimed at Austria.

"The British have already made a move, how do you think we can handle it?"

Prime Minister Felix: "Your Majesty, it depends on what the British want to do. There are not many places we can be targeted at the moment, and even fewer places worth calculating.

The British made small moves at this time, either to disrupt our German unification strategy or to sabotage our eastward expansion plan.

If it is the former, most of them will start with the German Federal Empire.Nominally our German unification strategy is the last link left.

However, the internal division of the German Federal Empire is serious, and it seems that the strength is not small, but the power that can be exerted is very limited.

Even if they can integrate the German Federal Empire, there is no way to win the hearts of the people in the short term.It is not something that can be accomplished overnight to learn how to get rid of the influence of German nationalism in the Kingdom of Prussia.

If it is for the latter, then the British are going to keep the Ottoman Empire.This does not contradict our strategic goals. Anyway, the plan has been completed, and the war in the Near East just needs an excuse to stop.

Now the main goal of the British is to prevent the French from gaining access to the Rhineland, which should be incidental to us.The British, French and Austrian Tri-Nation Alliance is still there, so the British should not do too much. "

Is it that simple?Franz is very skeptical. He doesn't think that the British have so much foreshadowing in the early stage, and the final appetite is so small.

Foreign Minister Wesenberg: "I remember that two days ago, our embassy in London sent a telegram explaining that the German Federal Empire was behaving abnormally, and that intelligence agencies should investigate insider trading in Germany and England.

Combined with the current situation, it can be inferred that there may be unfavorable transactions between Britain and Germany. In order to avoid being found abnormal by us, the German Federal Empire chose to use static brakes.

Of course, there is also a very small possibility that it was a smoke bomb released by the British, and the German federal government just acted with them to confuse us.

It's very easy to break the game, the German Federal Empire thinks that annexing the Rhineland is a sure win, then we mix the water.

Didn't the Belgians show their intention to buy the Rhineland before?Then we will let them move, buy one more competitor, presumably the Prussians should be very happy. "

I don't know what the British plan is, it doesn't matter, it's right to disrupt their deployment first and mix the water.

At this time, let Belgium jump out, and the London government will have to make a choice. Only one of the two younger brothers can support, then the relationship between the British and the abandoned one will inevitably be affected.

After a little thought, Franz made a decision: "Then encourage Belgium to play, but this pressure is not enough.

At this stage, secrecy is meaningless. Presumably, Prussia and France have probably guessed the British plan.

So just make it clear and let them know that we and the British have joined forces to support the German Confederation in gaining the Rhineland.

Let Prussia and France also jump out and directly overturn the table. "

Chapter 141 Threats

Franz had no choice but to overturn the table.Despite Austria's great influence in the German Federal Empire, the Hanover-led central government was more pro-British.

From the standpoint of the German federal government, it is obviously more in line with the interests of the ruling class to be close to the British and to ensure their independent status with the help of the British.

In contrast, the Vienna government shouted the slogan of unifying the German region every day, which made it really difficult for them to get close.

This kind of worry is only limited to big countries. For most small countries, there are no such worries, and there is no defense against following Austria. Anyway, they are all little brothers.

Affected by nationalism, most small states in Germany are more inclined to return to the Shinra Empire and realize their dream of a great power.

In terms of strength, once the German region is unified, a European hegemon will be born, and this European hegemon is likely to become a world hegemon.

The overlord is not only a name, but also has hidden interests behind it.In addition to the secret support of Austria, many local capitalists and aristocrats have also contributed greatly to the development and growth of nationalism in the German region.

In addition to patriotism, it is more for profit.A hegemon can bring a bigger market to the capitalists, as well as glory and benefits to the nobility.

Although Austria has many supporters, most of these people are outside the scope of guerrilla power, perhaps distributed in small states, unable to influence the decision-making of the central government.

These people support the unification of the German region, in a sense, to reshuffle the cards and reorganize the rights and interests through the hands of Austria.

In Franz's view, most of these people are speculators, and it's okay to let them wave the flag, and it's okay to cooperate with the Austrian rule, but they can't be expected to give their lives.

Otherwise, the rule of the German federal government would have been subverted long ago.Franz has seen the fighting power of nationalism. If these people dare to take the lead, the German federal government will be replaced in an instant.

Now that the table is overturned, in addition to warning the German Federal Government not to play with fire, Franz is still beating these speculators, telling them with practical actions that leaving Austria, the German Federal Government is a small country with no right to speak.

So that after the annexation of the Rhineland, these people will float away and be fooled by the British to play Germanization.