Chapter 572 Difficult Choice

After entering the 19th century, the polarization of the world became more and more serious. "The stronger the stronger the stronger, the weaker the weaker", the international pattern has undergone earth-shaking changes.

The old-fashioned empires seized the opportunity of the industrial revolution and occupied a large number of resources. For their own interests, they have begun to suppress the latecomers.

Ino's move this time seems to be aimed at curbing the expansion of France, but in fact it is also a collision between old and new imperialist countries.

Not every country is the United States, and the country has abundant resources and markets. If a new country wants to rise, it is bound to grab sufficient resources and markets. This is the contradiction between the old and new empires.

The Kingdom of Prussia is not weak, and it will be even stronger if it annexes the Kingdom of Poland. Possessing sufficient strength but not getting matching resources, the Kingdom of Prussia must be a challenger to order in the future.

It has nothing to do with whether the government loves peace or not. If the industry is not developed, it will be fine. Once the industry develops, the raw materials and the market are the driving force for them to challenge the world order.

The speed of the rise of the German Empire in the original time and space was too fast. The British overestimated the strength of the French. When they reacted, it was too late, and they had to end up in person to fight a world war.

In contrast, the Americans rising on the other side of the ocean are much luckier and have enough resources to disguise themselves as unthreatening "Uncle Sam" and successfully escape the suppression of the old empire.

After a long silence, Foreign Secretary Jeffrey Friedman said, "There is something wrong with the Ying-O conspiracy, so how could it be so easy for us to find out?

You know, it's not just about us, it's about the French as well. Even if the Paris government is unstable, it will not allow Britain and Austria to calculate them. "

Intelligence comes too easily, which is the biggest loophole. There are not necessarily more than ten people who know about such a conspiracy, and all of them are high-level officials of the country. Under normal circumstances, there is no possibility of leaking secrets.

William I's eyes lit up, and he asked expectantly, "You mean that one of the two countries, Britain and Austria, deliberately disclosed that this alliance is not reliable, and it was only temporarily united because of interests?"

Jeffrey Friedman shook his head: "No, both Britain and Austria really want to take the Rhineland from us, but there may be differences on how to hand it over to the German Federal Empire.

The German Federal Empire is scattered, that is, the Hanover Kingdom, which dominates the central government, has limited strength and has not integrated the country's strength.

Hannover's territory is only 40% of this country, and its population and economic aggregate are less than one-third of this country.

Affected by the system, the Reichstag, the highest authority in the German Federal Empire, still retains the traditional one state, one vote. Whatever the central government wants to do, the Imperial Parliament can easily veto it.

After so many years, the German Confederation is still the same. Hanover's several attempts to integrate the country were rejected by the Imperial Parliament.

The German region has been divided for hundreds of years, and everyone has become accustomed to state politics. It is almost impossible to change this situation.

However, the Rhineland region is different. If the Rhineland region is directly administered by the central government, the power balance will change.

Even if a single Kingdom of Hanover wanted to overturn the table, it was not an opponent of the group of states below, but with the addition of the central government of the Rhineland region, it had an absolute advantage.

From the standpoint of the Vienna government, there is no problem in giving the Rhineland to the German Federal Empire, but it must be joined as a state.

Making the Kingdom of Hanover bigger is not conducive to Austria's implementation of the German unification strategy. This is precisely what the British want to do most, and there have been serious differences between Britain and Austria from the beginning.

Maybe the talks between the two countries collapsed, and the Vienna government decided to sabotage the British plan and simply broke the news. "

This is close to the truth. Now that the news has leaked, it is impossible to complete the original plan.

Not only the outside world, but also the German Federal Empire does not agree. The central government wants to directly administer the Rhineland, and the following small states will not only not pay, but will also use the imperial parliament to legally veto this territorial transaction.

Unless it is done in secret to create an established fact, the German federal government will not even be able to handle it internally.

It was originally a loose federation, not much different from Germany in the Middle Ages. If the vassal states below do not buy it, what can the emperor do?

With the strength of the Kingdom of Hanover, even if they wanted to unite the German Confederation by force, they did not have that strength. What's more, there is still Austria eyeing, and one is not good enough to put himself in.

William I rubbed his forehead. He was over seventy years old, and his energy was no longer so abundant. This complex international situation was too brainless.

Now he is very contradictory. On the one hand, he does not want to see the German Federal Empire grow and increase the defense pressure of the Kingdom of Prussia; on the other hand, he wants the German Federal Empire to become stronger and cut off Austria's road to German unification.

At this time, he regretted it very much. If he was willing to take risks and divide the German region into two parts of Austria, the current situation would be very different.

"Ugh!"

With a sigh, William I said, "We don't have much choice, and now it's not just Britain and Austria that want to take the Rhineland from us.

It is estimated that the Paris government has the same idea. After all, whether the Rhineland region is independent, falls into the hands of the German Federal Empire, or merges with Belgium, it is easier to obtain it than to keep it in our hands.

What do you think is more in our interest now? "

Prime Minister Mooch: "First rule out a sale to France, if it falls into the hands of the French, the balance will be broken.

I am afraid that Austria will not be able to contain the French at that time. No one knows whether Napoleon IV is the second Napoleon. It is too dangerous to let France grow.

All that remains is to make the Rhineland independent, or sell it to Belgium and the German Federal Empire for a sum of money.

The latter also involves the British-Olympic dispute, which is another stand-up. From the current situation, we are not suitable to stand in the big country, it is too dangerous.

I think selling to Belgium in exchange for a sum of money is more in line with our current interests. The most important thing at the moment is to annex Poland, digest it, and prepare for war with the Russians. "

That's right, it's "present interests". From a long-term perspective, it is definitely in the best interest of Prussia to keep the Rhineland region.

However, this is impossible. The old empires are not stupid. Unless they give up the annexation of Poland, otherwise Britain and Austria, which are good at playing a balance, will definitely not give up.

In the long run, even allowing the Rhineland region to become independent and secretly controlling the Rhineland is more in the interest of Prussia than selling it.

It will be different in the short term. The Berlin government is very poor. Even if it can secretly control the Rhineland region, it is still in the future. It is better to solve the financial crisis first.

If you sell it to the German Confederation, you must stand in line. Now that the Berlin government owes the British a huge debt, they can only stand on the side of the British.

Now it is refreshing, but offending Austria, what will happen in the future of the Prussian-Russian war?

According to the plan, the Berlin government was ready to win over Austria to completely destroy the Russian Empire. Prussia will never be able to live without a solution to the mortal enemy of the Russians.

War Secretary Ron: "It's not that simple, let's not forget the French. What should we do if the Paris government risked sending troops to occupy the Rhineland?

I don't think Austria will fight the French for the Rhineland, and if they want to do it, they will do it when France annexes Italy.

I don't think the strategy of the Vienna government is to unify the German region. Austria has enough territory and enough population that it doesn't lack anything at all.

Judging from the approach of the Vienna government, this is more like a political slogan of theirs. Austria has occupied most of the Balkans and is now attacking the Ottoman Empire.

If the progress is successful and the Asia Minor peninsula is occupied, the eastern coast of the Mediterranean is their territory, and it is simply the second Byzantine Empire. "

The ambition to rebuild the Byzantine Empire is no less than the unification of Germany. Austria did not clamor to rebuild the Byzantine Empire, but the territorial boundaries had to be thought of by everyone.

William I interrupted: "We can't stop what Austria wants to do. It would be a good thing for us if they were so ambitious.

To reproduce the Byzantine Empire, the biggest conflicts of interest with them are the Russians and the French. Judging from the fact that the Vienna government allowed France to annex the Italian region, the Russians should be targeted first.

We can all work together until the fall of the Russian Empire. But the Habsburgs were best at diplomacy, not military.

Franz is one of the best among them. After taking the throne, Austria has continued to expand by diplomatic means. I don't think they will suddenly become so radical. This is probably a smoke bomb they deliberately released. "

...

The Berlin government is struggling, and the Paris government is very lively. Factional disputes in the government continued, and the republican, Orleanist, and orthodox factions suppressed by Napoleon III were all active.

Napoleon IV had insufficient prestige and did not have the ability to suppress the political forces of all parties. He could only play a balance among the various factions according to the plan left by Napoleon III.

The imperial power was guaranteed, but the party struggle became serious. It is very unfortunate that the same party and slashing differences are brought into government work, and it is more common to oppose for the sake of opposition.

The French Empire, which was feared by all parties, was unable to make a decision at this time, which made Napoleon IV very headache.

If it wasn't for his father's explanation, he would have to act arbitrarily and make decisions directly. Luckily he held back, otherwise he would soon know how low the bureaucrats are.