Shadow of great britain

Standing on the embankment of the streets of Paris and looking out, the Seine River is sparkling.

The streets are full of pedestrians and various carriages.

In one of the inconspicuous carriages, two British diplomats are making final preparations for the upcoming secret meeting.

Schneider took out a newly obtained document from his bag, took out a few pages from it, and handed the rest to Arthur.

"This is the news we recently received from the German states, which is about the diplomatic game between Prussia and Austria. As the two most powerful countries in the German region, they have been competing for the dominance of the German Confederation. Although Austria is currently the chairman of the German Confederation, Prussia has been secretly planning to overthrow its authoritarian brothers and then become the only big brother of the German states. The establishment of the German Customs Union is a crucial link."

This is not the first time Arthur has heard the term German Customs Union.

Although he was not a diplomat before, this thing is not a new thing. Anyone who reads books and newspapers often can understand it more or less.

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, at the Vienna Conference, all countries unanimously decided to establish the German Confederation to unite the remaining German states after the Holy Roman Empire was abolished by Napoleon in 1806.

Unfortunately, compared with the German Confederation, although the former Holy Roman Empire was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire, and although there were many mountains and more than 200 princes in the Holy Roman Empire, at least they still maintained the dignity of the same country.

But the German Confederation is different. Although there were only 36 princes who fought against Napoleon in Germany after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, after the Vienna Conference, these princes were all established as completely independent countries.

The member states only promised that they would bear the military obligations of defending each other and jointly defending the fortresses of Mainz, Luxembourg, Rastatt, Ulm and Landau.

But no matter what, at least the German Confederation still established a Confederation Parliament and nominated the Austrian Empire led by the last Holy Roman Emperor and the first Austrian Emperor Franz I as the chairman of the Confederation.

However, although the Confederation Charter stipulates that the German Confederation Parliament is led by the Austrian Prime Minister and holds regular meetings in the Free State of Frankfurt, in fact, the Austrian Emperor often personally takes the excuse of "the Prime Minister is too busy to get away, so this meeting will be presided over by me" and controls the power of the Confederation.

Some of the other German states welcomed this, while others dared not speak out against the Austrian Emperor's actions because of strength issues.

But the fact that other states dared not speak does not mean that Prussia dared not speak.

As the recognized second brother of Germany, an army disguised as a country, Prussia has always been unhappy with Austria's behavior of treating him as a little follower.

In the eyes of King Friedrich William III of Prussia: You Franz is an emperor, and I am also an emperor. What you want, I can't give it. You can't ignore me!

Therefore, Austria and Prussia often staged "palace intrigues" to compete for the "dragon head stick" of the German Confederation.

The small German states that survived between the two major German powers were made miserable by the two big brothers, and had to be cautious when speaking in the Confederation Parliament.

Prussia thought about it and secretly proposed: If it really doesn't work, then there will be two people in charge, Austria is the person in charge, and I am also the person in charge, so that everyone doesn't have to fight.

But it is obvious that there is no two suns in the sky, and Austria will never agree to a dual-person system in the Confederation.

Their idea was flatly rejected, and this approach instantly angered the Prussians who can do nothing but farming and fighting.

Difficult?

If it's difficult, don't do it!

At worst, everyone will fight with real swords and guns!

If you lose, don't hand over the stick, don't hand over the account book, damn, don't hand over anything.

Of course, although Prussia never liked to use its brain, it did not have to resort to violence when it was obvious that it could not defeat Austria.

Although Prussia was still in the German Confederation, they began to organize their own small groups to resist Austria.

As for how to win over the other small states to their side, this requires political art.

Not long after, a message reached Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire, and the ministers hurried to Schönbrunn Palace to report to Franz I: "Your Majesty, the Prussians are crazy. Friedrich William III said he wanted to make a new peace and victory!"

The official name of this so-called "new peace and victory" is the North German Customs Union.

From the name, we can know that Prussia's means of winning over small states is two words - add money!

"Benefiting" from the influence of the Holy Roman Empire, which was neither holy nor Roman, nor an empire, until the 19th century, there were still many checkpoints in Germany, and there were a variety of commercial laws, measurement systems and hundreds of local currencies. This situation did not improve much after the establishment of the German Confederation, which seriously affected the formation of a unified market in the German region and hindered the development of industry and commerce.

Frederick William III of Prussia was a rare king in Prussian history who was also good at internal politics in addition to fighting wars. He not only shouted the slogan "No matter how hard it is, we can't suffer the children, no matter how poor we are, we can't afford education." Schools were built on a large scale in the country and the campaign of 'arming Prussia with minds' was actively carried out.

Moreover, he also promulgated a decree in Prussia, declaring the abolition of checkpoints within the territory, canceling the collection of consumption taxes and domestic duties, and declaring the freedom of movement of goods. Only 10% ad valorem tax is levied on imported industrial products, and raw materials are allowed to be imported tax-free.

Although the impact of this decree was not all positive, in any case, Prussia's tariff policy brought them an active capital market. Under such conditions, Prussia also took the lead in starting industrialization among the states in the German region.

Due to Prussia's low tariff policy, the German states neighboring Prussia also regard this second German brother as their most important export market, and are getting closer to Prussia due to active economic and trade cooperation.

Under such conditions, in order to confront Austria, Prussia officially played its trump card in 1826 - the establishment of the North German Customs Union, and promised that all goods in the participating countries would circulate freely without any tariffs.

Under such temptation, as soon as the North German Customs Union was established, the six states neighboring Prussia immediately announced their participation.

The two large states of South Germany, Bavaria and Württemberg, saw that the North German Customs Union was doing so well, so they also announced the formation of the South German Customs Union the following year, and soon attracted several nearby small South German states. join in.

As soon as the Central German states see that North and South Germany have established a customs union, if they sit still and wait, domestic industrial and commercial capital will be continuously attracted to the North and South.

Therefore, in order to fight against these two customs unions, in 1828, Hanover, Saxony, Thuringia and the free cities of the original Hanseatic League announced the formation of the Sino-German Customs Union.

When Prussia saw that everyone was pursuing a customs union, how could this highlight my status as the eldest brother?

However, to use force because of this matter would seem to be too unjust for Prussia. Moreover, the Kingdom of Hanover, one of the leaders of the German Customs Union, also shares the king with the United Kingdom. If he is shot, it will not be easy to reconcile with the British. Explain!

Therefore, Prussia did not choose to use force this time, but chose a civilized approach and adopted methods to divide and disintegrate the neighboring Sino-German Customs Union.

They have established contact with some of these countries privately, trying to persuade them with emotion and reason. If that doesn't work, they can just add more money.

In this way, due to Prussia's continuous poaching, the Sino-German Customs Union collapsed after only three years of establishment.

Except for the Kingdom of Hanover, a German spy who relied on the trade agreement with Britain to have a rigid attitude and regarded itself as a superior German, the rest of the Central German Confederation countries basically joined the North German Customs Union led by Prussia.

However, this cannot be blamed on the betrayal of these franchised countries. After all, not everyone has as good conditions as Hanover and can do business with Britain casually, and British industrial capital also likes to conduct business in Hanover, which is communal and rich in human resources. invest.

You must know that whether it is mechanical manufacturing or industrial technology such as coal and steel, the British have long blocked European countries and prohibited the spread of it. But the Kingdom of Hanover is an exception. Whether it is banking, shipping, or resource extraction, joint ventures between Britain and Hanover can be seen everywhere.

And due to the relationship between the commonwealth and the commonwealth, Britain has always insisted on protecting Hanover's independence and territorial integrity in the diplomatic field.

During the Seven Years' War and the Napoleonic Wars, the two countries always stood on the same front. Even though Hanover was destroyed by the French in the Napoleonic Wars, it was immediately restored after Napoleon's defeat, and because of the British relationship , upgraded from an electorate to a kingdom.

Therefore, as long as the Kingdom of Hanover remains a fraternal ally of Great Britain, it can indeed ignore Prussia, and even not abandon Austria.

If it weren't for guarding against Prussia, he wouldn't have even bothered to join the Sino-German Customs Union before. After all, how could doing business with poor brothers compare to the pleasure of doing business with old friends from Great Britain?

The document that Schneider handed to Arthur revealed a more interesting piece of information.

Arthur simply flipped through the document, and couldn't help but smile: "I finally know why you want to talk to the Austrians about things. The North German Customs Union and the South German Customs Union are going to merge? What if this happens? , I guess the Austrians have big heads, right? In my opinion, the German Customs Union should be renamed, the German Customs Union (except for the Austrian Empire), this name should be more appropriate. "

Schneider smiled and said: "Arthur, you are so careful! In my opinion, how could you forget the Kingdom of Hanover? It should be the German Customs Union (except for the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hanover)! Prussia may not be the same Only for Austria.”

Arthur shrugged and put one hand on the car window: "I'm afraid the Austrians don't think so!"