Chapter 515 The Era of the New Emperor (1)
I returned to Chang in the afternoon and took the time to update the chapter first.
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After attending the funeral of the old Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, monarchs and politicians from various countries stayed in Vienna for several days, waiting for the coronation ceremony of the new Austrian Emperor Carl I. During this short period of time, the world-famous music capital has become the political focus of the world. Now the Austro-Hungarian Empire is not strong in combat, its national strength is declining, and its influence is not as good as before. However, as a pillar of the Allies' camp, its position plays a very important role, even if it is not decisive. The aftermath of the Portuguese crisis is still there, and the United States and Britain are gradually standing against the Allies' camp led by Germany.
Facade, while the United States alone has many industrial and economic indicators above the entire Allied camp. However, military politics emphasizes strategic deterrence and diplomatic public opinion. Germany's failure in the Portuguese crisis does not mean that the United States and Britain occupy the high ground of military politics. In fact, the Allied camp controls most of the continental continent and the Mediterranean coastal areas, which are the traditional centers of modern civilization and the world center, and have unique advantages in the fields of public opinion and spirituality. As long as you avoid making similar tricks, wrong moves, or changes within the alliance, the momentum of suppressing the United States and Britain will continue to be maintained.
Due to the rift between the ally and the Allied camp during the Portuguese crisis, the number one wave of the United States and Britain will visit in the future, which more or less provides a way for the public opinion of the Allied countries, but it is not completely incompatible with the cleanup. US President Wilson was busy with the new presidential election and could not separate himself. King George V of England is said to be in a state of health and could not withstand long-distance travel across the continent, so both countries sent heavyweights to come.
Visiting celebrities, holding banquets, delivering speeches, and meetings. US Secretary of State Robert Lansing was particularly active after arriving in Vienna. Backed by the strong economic and financial strength of the United States, he was realistic about the temptation brought by this dual monarchy to revitalize national industries, promote foreign exports, and even improve the economic structure and improve social welfare. The upper class is very interested in such a development prospect. The middle class and the lower class yearn for this. Against the backdrop of the long-term downturn in the country's economy, the experienced US Secretary of State easily captured the favorable impression of the Austrian people. Immediately afterwards, the Hungarians also showed an acceptance attitude towards this friendly American.
Compared with Robert Lansing's high profile, British Crown Prince Edward and Princess Mary and his party seemed low-key and mysterious, but they frequently entered and exited the Habsburg family's palaces and became distinguished guests of Carl I. What they conveyed to this country was the willingness to resolve their feuds and seek common development. After the cooperation vision in several fields such as oil trade, industrial technology, and colonial development, lost the oil resources of the Persian Gulf, the United Kingdom had turned its attention to other oil production areas. The oil fields of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were currently the largest oil production area in Europe. The Austro-Hungarian Empire wanted to avoid the advantage of the Germans to seek development in the industrial field. The British did have a set of effective technologies...
The new emperor ascended the throne and generally did not make significant adjustments to the country's administrative system and operating structure immediately, but it is not difficult for those who are well versed in the ways of governing the country and political rules to see the special features of Carl I: in his youth when he formed an independent personality mind before the age of 27, he was not trained as a crown prince. He stayed away from the country's power circle for a long time and was relatively less affected by the traditional idea of governing the country. In the more than two years since he became the Austro-Hungarian crown prince, half of the country was deeply trapped in the quagmire of war, and the other half was escaping its own economy and society. The old Austro-Hungarian emperor fell ill due to exhaustion. The two parallel governments of Austria and Hungary often had disagreements, and the forces of various factions went in the opposite direction. *********** came one after another,
A country is like a pile of loose sand. In addition, the status of the victorious country did not bring the expected gains to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although the territories seized from Poland and Ukraine produced a lot of food, the management of these territories, especially the residents living here, gave Austria and Hungarian government officials a headache. The African colonies plundered from France and Britain were basically barren lands. If you want to mine resources available here, you must first invest a considerable amount of construction funds. However, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not receive the strong support of German allies like Ireland after the war... If Carl I did not want to rule inaction, he would have to take out some unconventional and effective means to get rid of the situation of many internal and external difficulties.
Because of this, the United States and Britain actively tried to keep the Austro-Hungarian Empire away from the core of the allies, and at least maintain good intentions when certain disputes came, and even became a restrictive force on Germany. For the same consideration, Germany, a traditional ally of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, also used various tricks to continue to tie it to its own chariot. In addition to the family cards, comrade cards, moral cards, William II and his powerful ministers also tempted temptations in the fields of economic interests, such as helping Austria restore Silesia's industrial facilities and Africa obtained after the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The colonies made investments and even allowed the Austro-Hungarian Empire to share the trade rights it gained in the Far East ports. In addition, the German emperor also tried to use his global strategy to arouse the ambition of the young monarch. He once again proposed the plan for the Great Allied Fleet that was shelved by the old Austro-Emperor, proposing that Germany provided funds and technology to modify and upgrade the Austro-Hungarian Empire's active ships, and incorporated the Austro-Hungarian Empire into the German-Ireland joint shipbuilding system, and built ships that the Austro-Hungarian Navy was interested in but capable of at the ports such as Pula and Bumu.
In the more than two years after becoming the crown prince, whether the young Carl received the careful teaching of the old Austrian Emperor, and whether he inherited the most precious spiritual wealth from his life experience that had been traversing for more than half a century, it is unknown, but if the huge and old ship of the Austro-Hungarian Empire wanted to continue sailing in the wind and waves, its helmsman must have enough wisdom. Before heading to Budapest to complete the coronation of the Hungarian King, Carl politely received guests from all sides. The visitors met with various cooperation intentions without refusing to express his tendencies easily. The more this happened, people became more and more curious about the new monarch, and somehow, the news that the new Austrian Emperor would hold a private meeting with the Irish king at Pula Military Port spread wildly.
In the field of economic and trade, Ireland and Austro-Hungary have very little cooperation, and mutual import and export trade only accounts for a small share of their own country. But just like selling shoes to people who are used to barefoot, it seems hopeless. In fact, it contains huge business opportunities. The key is to make barefoot people like wearing shoes. Ireland has cheap cars and high-quality dairy products. Austro-Hungary has high-quality artillery and guns and abundant food supply. The aviation and shipbuilding industries of the two have their own achievements. If we can cooperate closely, it will not be difficult to achieve a complementary and win-win situation.
In early December, Karl I, who completed the coronation of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, came to Pula Port. In this port with an extremely complex ethnic composition, he was warmly welcomed by all the people. However, the experience of Grand Duke Ferdinand had deep scars in the heart of the Habsburg family. People were afraid of repeating the same mistakes. Therefore, since the outbreak of the war, the old Austrian emperor rarely appeared in the public eye. After Carl I's royal convoy entered Pula Port, he only hurried by the downtown area, and did not even wave to the people through the car window.
Pula Port was the main base of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Karl I went to the review fleet without any surprise. However, this review was semi-public, and only a few guests were invited. The scale of the show was incomparable to the ascension of King George V of England in 1911, but it was finally much better than when William II ascended the throne. At that time, there were not many decent main battleships in the German Empire.
At the heavily guarded Naval Base of Pula Port, Carl I sat face to face with the Irish king who was born in Hohenzollern, because there was no verbal obstacle and there was no third person in the room.
"I am the admirer of His Majesty, and I dream of being a successful person who is respected and worshipped by the world like you."
As soon as the new Austro-Hungarian Emperor spoke, Natsuki should feel secretly happy. In a monarchy, whether it is an * or a democratic system, the influence of the monarch on a country's political and diplomatic strategy cannot be underestimated or even decisive. If Carl I did have such a psychological favor for him, then the cooperation between Ireland and Austro-Hungarian Empire could be twice the result with half the effort. However, Natsuki did not lose his mind because of the other party's seemingly sincere statement. He calmly thought about the private relationship between the two. In fact, the two had already met eleven years ago. At that time, the young little Carl was still a shy boy. Natsuki was already a celebrity with the halo of Hohenzollern's genius. There was also a gap in their identities, but they still spent a happy afternoon together.
But after that, the two had few chances to meet. They lived completely different lives under completely different circumstances, and now they sat on the same role as kings. The process between them was so touching. After the death of Grand Duke Ferdinand, Xia Shu knew that this young man with a bright eyes would sooner or later become the helm of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, the war came as scheduled. He not only had to be busy with his own affairs, but also had to worry about national strategic matters. Later, he devoted himself to the overall independence and development of Ireland, and had little energy to take care of anything else. After Ireland's political situation was stable and the economic operation gradually became on track, he took the time to write a letter to Carl. However, for various reasons, the communication between the two was intermittent, and except for warships, there seemed to be few common topics that both of them were very interested in.
In recent times, some unconfirmed news has spread in the diplomatic circle of Vienna, saying that the Austro-Hungarian Navy is quite interested in the construction technology of heavy cruisers and aircraft carriers mastered by Ireland. For a country with a complete shipbuilding industry system, they will not be willing to order such a specification of warships from foreign countries. They must hope that the construction project of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's own shipyard will be undertaken by purchasing technology. Ireland can obtain technology transfer fees, which can allow their technicians to further accumulate experience and improve technology in the construction process of Austro-Hungarian Empire's shipbuilding, which is a win-win cooperation. The biggest problem at the moment is Germany.
Chapter completed!