Welcome to 19th-century Europe, where strength reigns supreme

After the Franco-Prussian War, there were still some unresolved issues, such as the annexation of the four southern countries and Luxembourg. Luxembourg has been an integral part of the German region since ancient times.

Bismarck, the iron-blooded prime minister in otl, unified North Germany and all of South Germany except Austria, but failed to include Luxembourg into the territory of the German Empire.

This is the lifeblood of France. If Luxembourg is annexed, it can directly threaten the hinterland of France. In the history of OTL, Bismarck understands the balance of power on the continent better than the British. It can also be seen that although the British are still heroic, they are in a new round of struggle for hegemony. In 1880, the overall economy of the United States was almost the same as that of the United Kingdom. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the GDP of the United States had surpassed that of the United Kingdom.

He did not want any conflict with Britain. When it started fighting with the United States, Germany would benefit from it. In order to appease Britain, he did not annex Luxembourg.

But in this world line, Britain started a new round of industrial revolution by relying on the resources it already had and the wealth it had collected from the world over the past century. Lillian used the money to establish institutions to protect workers' rights, and It is to expand civil servants throughout the Commonwealth and use a huge bureaucracy to support the behemoth of the British Empire.

Therefore, August could only expand his territory as much as possible in order to gain a certain advantage in the subsequent struggle for hegemony.

The Grand Duke of Luxembourg is also William III, who is also the King of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. William III is quite good. August personally came to Amsterdam to talk to him, hoping to win over this land with his mouth.

When Augustus faced William III, he said, "The German Empire has been established. I think all the countries in the German region should be unified. Luxembourg has been a part of the German region since ancient times, and now it should return to its motherland. "

William III smiled and said, "What about the opinions of Britain and France?"

"France? It has already joined the EU. Its vitality was severely damaged after the Franco-Prussian War, and Britain is alone overseas. There is no need to be afraid of it. If the Netherlands is isolated by the UK, the entire EU will safeguard the interests of the Netherlands."

William III was not very interested in Luxembourg. It was quite satisfying to be a king in the Netherlands, and after joining the European Union, it opened its borders. If Germany wanted to fight itself, it would definitely not be able to fight it.

William III finally relented and returned Luxembourg to Germany. This matter soon spread to the United Kingdom, and many British MPs opposed it.

"Luxembourg is a barrier between France and Germany. We cannot give this place to Germany." said a parliamentarian.

Some people even say that Germany should be blocked. If someone can compete with Britain for world hegemony, they will not think that it is the United States, but Germany.

"The Germans have just entered their back garden, we just mind our own business." Joseph Chamberlain said.

Under Lillian's coercion and inducement, Cecil finally switched to the Social Democratic Party. He believed that Chamberlain was letting a powerful country go. Cecil still felt that glorious independence was still needed and that the balance of power on the mainland was necessary.

"The European Union's sphere of influence has encompassed the entire Western Europe, including France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy...Germany returned half of the Belgian territory occupied by France to Belgium, and now that Belgium has merged with the Netherlands, we should Looking at them as a whole, the entire Western Europe has basically fallen! August is the second Napoleon on the European continent!"

"Then what are you going to do now? After all, the European Union has a mutual defense treaty. Unlike Napoleon, Auguste's war is limited to Germany. Who will form an anti-German alliance with us? There are only two countries on the European continent. There is only one Russia left.”

Chamberlain was telling him that because Germany's expansion policy was not just about territorial expansion, if Britain wanted to respond to this, it would be tantamount to going to war with half of Europe, unless you bet that August would attack Russia.

Although Luxembourg has declared itself a neutral country in the last conference, on the European continent, neutral countries will also be beaten. It's just a matter of whether they beat you or not. It's not that they are not interested in you, but whether they can beat you or not. To what benefit.

In the end, Britain's position was not very firm, mainly because Lilian's attitude towards Germany was relatively negative, so the matter was dropped. After annexing Luxembourg, Germany's territory had basically taken shape, except for Austria, which was already half dead. , in fact, you don’t need to worry about it.

But in the current situation, it turns out that the industrial strength of the Prussian region is far behind that of the newly arrived Luxembourg, the four southern states, and Alsace-Lorraine. The people in these areas are not living a very good life. The aristocracy was originally squeezed very seriously. It got to the point where I couldn't survive.

The Kaiser in the otl world line squeezed Germany like crazy after it annexed Alsace-Lorraine. He sucked out the bones and marrow at that time. Since the German Empire was sewn together by Bismarck, many princes still had huge power, which led to the fact that the German Emperor had no control over it at all. If you don't move them, will it make you feel comfortable to finally win two pieces of land through war?

It has to be squeezed as hard as possible, making these places not very happy, and the core has not been built even after decades.

Auguste gave many preferential treatment to these places. She allocated a lot of money to the newly occupied areas to help them establish poverty subsidies, social medical care, and workers' rights protection. She was also very respectable towards the bourgeoisie. She gave them low-interest loans, and tried her best to appease and treat the aristocratic class as much as possible.

In order to allow the newly added territories to quickly integrate into the empire, August issued many benefits and wiped out all the princes. Although Nande is still retained, they are estimated to not survive long. When the storm is over, The lunch is on their heads.

There is no need to just focus on one sheep when gathering wool. More resources can be diverted to build Germany. August used a large amount of money to prioritize the construction of Alsace-Lorraine and South Germany.

A lot of fortifications have been built in these two areas. Railways have been built in this area, water conservancy facilities have been built, taxes have been reduced, infrastructure construction has been carried out, and employment has been created.

Anyway, there was a lot of activity in infrastructure construction in Germany. Of course, the French had to fill these fiscal holes. August spent all the first wave of compensation from the French on construction.

Basic education is also very important. August decided to build a large number of primary and secondary schools in these places. People of this generation will definitely not be able to fully identify with the German Empire. That doesn’t matter. As long as the next generation is well educated, the next generation will slowly will identify with this motherland.

After the regional education reform in Alsace-Lorraine, August ordered that future teaching materials must be in German, universal compulsory education, children's German is a compulsory course, and all currencies originally used were changed to euros.

Unifying weights and measures is very important, but it will also have extremely serious problems. August's actions were too fast, which also caused dissatisfaction among people in most areas. The prices of everything had to be recalculated, and all currencies They all have to be exchanged for new currency, but not everyone can do this math.

And having people in Alsace-Lorraine suddenly learn German would cause a lot of trouble. After all, French has been used for hundreds of years, and weren't you occupying it? Why do you want us to learn German?

I don’t know if we will be Germans thirty years from now!

The people of Alsace-Lorraine expressed strong dissatisfaction, and there were rising voices of resistance to German rule. Most people were unwilling to follow Germany. People in South Germany were not satisfied with German rule. They did not want to change their currency, and they did not want to use it. German Weights and Measures.