Chapter 1,146 An Unexpected Promise 2
Chapter 1146 Unexpected Promise 2
"These guys are just grassroots. When the people can weaken the power of the nobility and royal family, they support the common people to cause trouble. And when they need the sword of the empire to acquire land, they will support the expansion policy of the empire. When the warriors of the empire After taking over a large territory with the monarch, they want to usurp the interests through parliament! This makes me feel like I am working for them!"
"And what if something goes wrong? All the blame can be thrown to the Parliament, or even to me! But they still sit back and stir up fights among various factions, and then profit from it! They think they have the economic lifeline of the empire, So they ignored my authority! Wrong! I want to tell them! The supreme arbiter of the empire is the royal family and his supporters, not those guys who only know how to make money but have no responsibility!" The Kaiser's roar shocked everyone present. Everyone felt uneasy. This is not only because of these harsh words, but also because the Kaiser decided to take action against certain people in the country!
What was the Kaiser's purpose in doing this? Appeasing Bavaria, allowing Bavaria to make greater contributions in the war, and providing corresponding rewards is only one aspect. More importantly, the Kaiser needs Bavaria's support to attack certain domestic forces! To put it more clearly, it is to attack the radicals in the Social Democratic Party and the capitalists and bankers who have ambitions for political power!
The biggest difference between the domestic power systems of Prussia and Bavaria was that the Kaiser only controlled the state power and the army, and even the actual controllers of the army were the Junker nobles. The economy is controlled by domestic capitalists, but what about Bavaria? The economy is dominated by the state-run economy led by the royal family. Since the army does not have Junker nobles, it is also controlled by the royal family. Not to mention the political power.
The Kaiser saw the hope of further centralization in the "Bavarian Model"! Yes, the Kaiser was not satisfied with the power in his hands now. The General Staff could resist the Kaiser's orders militarily, but economically it relied on capitalists and bankers. Politically, Germany's Social Democratic Party has always wanted to establish a parliamentary government and require the prime minister to be responsible to the parliament rather than to the Kaiser. These problems hardly exist in the government of the Kingdom of Bavaria. The power of the Bavarian royal family is bottom-up, and there is no one that can match it in the country.
This time, the Kaiser wanted not only to win the war, but also to reshape the domestic power system, especially in Prussia. He wanted to establish some companies controlled by the royal family and gain a certain degree of economic dominance. power, it was necessary to establish a new system of officer corps outside the Junker aristocracy. At the same time, we want to dispel the idea of some political parties calling for the establishment of a parliamentary government. And these cannot be achieved simply by relying on the Kaiser! Because the Kaiser did not establish a top-down power enforcement system, there were two actual executors between the Kaiser and the common people: the bourgeoisie and the Junker aristocracy!
In other words, the Kaiser actually had a tendency to be kidnapped or evaded, and this was true historically. For example, at the end of World War 1, when the Kaiser announced the suppression of the uprising, the German military almost unanimously opposed it, but then Woolen cloth? After signing the Albert-Gröner Agreement with the commander of the German Army, Gröner, it was guaranteed that as long as the army recognized the government,
After the government would not reform the army, the German Army decisively suppressed various uprisings. By the way, the Bavarian Soviet Republic was also dealt with! This illustrates a problem. It is not that the German army is incapable, but that it abandoned the Kaiser at the last moment.
Why did Wilhelm II vigorously build up the navy? The fight for territory under the sun is certainly an important reason, but another reason is the establishment of a military force independent of the Juncker system, allowing the middle and lower levels to have the possibility of promotion through naval channels. Moreover, the vigorous construction of the navy also allowed the German industry to receive a large number of government orders. Capitalists made money and ordinary people had a way to get promoted. Nationalism was the main internal driving force behind the construction of the Second Reich's navy.
In fact, in Germany, the Kaiser's power was based on everyone buying into his account. And if the situation changes, it will be completely different. The Kaiser saw an opportunity in this war, an opportunity to change this situation. It was impossible to move the Junker nobles militarily during the war, but in the post-war interest distribution and political system, he attacked the capitalists and political parties!
The resources directly controlled by the German royal family are limited. If there is competition, they will definitely not be able to defeat industrial giants such as Krupp and Rheinmetall. So good, the Kaiser needs allies, and this ally cannot be found reliable in the country, so it can only be among the German states. Bavaria wants to expand its territory, so good, this issue can be discussed, but in return, Bavaria must Economically, it helped the Kaiser establish a competitive economic entity.
Politically speaking, if Bavaria wants to maintain the stability of the states in the original Federal Parliament, and if the Kaiser wants to maintain the stability of the Imperial Parliament, then he also needs the support of Bavaria. After all, parties such as the Social Democratic Party not only have members in Prussia, but also in Prussia. There are other places too…. And if kingdoms such as Bavaria and Saxony can suppress these people and establish more smaller political parties, then the strength of the dispersed parliamentary parties will naturally be much smaller.
In the Kaiser's view, if this could be achieved, the Kaiser would not mind agreeing to Bavaria's "proportional expansion." As long as there is no imbalance in power, it is permissible for Bavaria to want to be stronger. What's more, if the Kaiser wants to restrict Bavaria, he can also start from other aspects. For example, in fact, Poland and Bavaria are not directly connected...
Therefore, from the Kaiser's perspective, it was a very cost-effective deal to give Bavaria some benefits and then use Bavaria to suppress domestic resistance. He is not afraid of Bavaria's overthrow. After all, Bavaria's population is too small. The gap between North and South Germany prevents Prussia from doing whatever it wants to Bavaria. So how can Bavaria, which is even weaker, affect Prussia?
Besides, based on the principle of equivalence between effort and reward, Bavaria has almost undertaken more than two-thirds of Germany's Eastern Front combat tasks, and has also helped on the Western Front. It can even be said that if Russian Poland is really taken down If so, it is almost a matter between the Bavarian Army and the Austro-Hungarian Army. The contribution of the Prussian Army is very small. At this time, if they ask you to take a part, it is enough. You still want to eat them all and kick out Bavaria who is in charge. ? What are you thinking about? What is the most basic trust between people? Can you still play happily in the future? !
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