1874 was destined to be an extraordinary year. Apart from the Near East War and the Russian-Polish War, the Asia-Pacific region was also unstable.

First, the French and Annan government signed the Treaty of Peace and Annan, and then the Japanese war of invasion of Taiwan broke out.

Needless to say, the latter naturally ended in failure. The Treaty of Peaceful Alliance between France and Annan sounds very harmonious, but in fact it has a good name, and is essentially serving colonial invasions.

After the strategy has been shrinking for so long, some people in France are unwilling to be lonely. The world has been divided up, and only a little bit of scraps is left. No matter how slow it is, you will be able to get nothing.

In the struggle for power in the Paris government, the Paris government was unwilling to cause trouble outside, and still could not stop the enthusiasm for domestic colonial expansion.

Colonial expansion may not necessarily depend on fighting. For example, this time, the signing of a treaty with the Annan people was based on diplomatic fraud, coaxing and deceiving the Annan government to sign it.

What seems ordinary treaties actually provide legal basis for France to interfere in Annan's internal affairs. No matter what the Annan people think, the French only need to have a statement that European countries accept.

Britain, France and the Austrians have formed an alliance, and the relaxed international situation has created opportunities for the French to expand on the Indochina Peninsula.

The Indochina Peninsula is not within the scope of Austrian colonial plans and does not involve its own interests. Naturally, the Vienna government will not jump out to act as an envoy of justice.

...

At the Vienna Palace, Franz's attention was attracted to the Kingdom of Poland and turned into a melon-eating crowd, watching the performances of both PAS and Russia.

Foreign Minister Wesenberg reported: "Two days ago, reinforcements from the Kingdom of Prussia arrived at the front line and yesterday they had a small-scale exchange of fire with the Russian army.

However, both sides were very restrained and looked like they were playing the show. Now the Russians have occupied most of Polish Ukraine, accounting for about one-third of the Polish territory.

According to preliminary judgment, this should be the reward promised by the Berlin government to the Russians. Next, the two countries will probably sit down to negotiate and confirm the content of the agreement.

Affected by this, this morning, the British Minister invited European countries, including us, to form an international interference alliance and mediate the war.

The London government can't sit still, and the smoke bombs we released some time ago have already played a role. In order to curb our continued expansion in Europe 6, the British couldn't help but take action."

The Russian-Polish war and the Polish throne election, such a big thing, France and Austria were watching coldly. What would be strange if there was no problem?

It wasn't that there was no action at all. Franz was still calling on everyone to keep restrained and sit down and talk slowly if there was something. The Paris government also warned both PAS and Russia not to play with fire.

Specific actions? Unfortunately, France and Austria are both busy and have no time to intervene in these trivial matters.

If France and Austria cannot interfere, there will naturally be interest in transactions behind this. With a little analysis of the British, you can guess the content of the transaction, and there is no need to say that it must be destroyed.

Otherwise, will it be John's bull?

Franz pointed: "When things have come to this point, the public pressure we face next will be very high, and the British are playing a big game.

The government must do a good job in guiding public opinion, and we must not let the British lead the pace, otherwise there will be a big mess."

Judging from all the signs, Franz judged that the British wanted to take the opportunity to provoke the French-Austrian conflict and at the same time differentiate the relationship between Austria and the German Federation.

This is an open conspiracy that cannot be avoided. The French wanted to annex the Rhineland region. In order to be politically correct, the Vienna government could only stand up and oppose it.

The German region has been divided for many years, and various states have become accustomed to being the masters of their own country. Under the pressure of nationalism, everyone is forced to look like they support unity, but in fact they still want to maintain their independent kingdom.

Austria is powerful and has the strength to unify the German region. In order to protect its own interests, the senior governments of various states have to move closer to the Vienna government.

However, once they now restrain Austria from being unable to unify the German region, or they are strong enough to get rid of this threat, the situation will change.

Just like the current Prussian Kingdom, it simply withdrew from the German region, and did not regard itself as a German state, and played with the Great Prussian Kingdom.

Even if you know, Franz can only passively deal with it. Even if the conflict between France and the Apollo broke out, the two sides could not fight.

The only border area is in Italy, and although the French have occupied the Kingdom of Sardinia for many years, they still have no mass base here.

This is the sequelae of Napoleon III's ugly appearance and no legal basis. More than ten years have passed, and the local people still do not agree with the French rule.

If they fight with Austria in Italy, they will go on an expedition with Lao Shi and go deep into the enemy territory without any area. They will not only fight with the Austrian army, but also be careful of civil guerrillas.

The boss of the Italian Independence League is the former King Sardinian, which is a ready-made pawn. If the French remained unmoved, no one could do anything to them. As long as they were defeated once on the battlefield, the fragile French Empire might collapse.

Overall, the Great French Empire existed for a longer time, which was more beneficial to Austria. It not only helped Austria share international pressure, but also accelerated the national integration movement in Lombardy and Venice.

When there were a lot of states in Italy, the Italians in Lombardy and Venetian also wanted to make independence, and the progress of national integration was very unsuccessful.

Since the French annexed Italy, the national independence movement in Lombardy and Venetian suddenly fell to a low point.

This round of social beatings has made many people sober. Local capitalists are no longer supporting the independence movement, but are actively moving towards Austria.

In recent years, Austrian language and writing have become more popular in the local area. The newspapers, books and advertisements on the streets are all Austrian, and traditional Italian has been abandoned.

The social atmosphere has changed. If you don’t have Austrian, you will be despised. If you don’t have Austrian, you will be unable to move forward in the city. No capitalist will hire workers who don’t have Austrian.

Before Napoleon III's death, he once wanted to follow Austria's policy of national integration, but unfortunately he was forced to give up at the beginning.

It is not easy to be a socialist emperor, and social welfare benefits have been improved, and financial expenses have inevitably increased.

In addition to financial issues, there was also resistance from the Italian local government. The French forced annexed the Italian region, but they could not replace all local officials with French.

Without the cooperation of local officials, how can the central government continue to implement the policies?

This is different from Lombardy and Venice. When Franz promoted national integration, there were hundreds of thousands of Germans in the local area, as well as a group of nobles loyal to the Habsburg dynasty. If they were not obedient, they would change people and would not worry about not having supporters.

All Italians, how can the French government change? Even if it is changed, people will still be passive and slacken. It is not possible to establish a government loyal to the French Empire in the local area.

The national integration policy that Napoleon III could not implement was only more difficult now that it was in the hands of Napoleon IV.

If national integration cannot be truly achieved, the Great France is just a powder keg, and it may explode at any time.

Enemies with weaknesses are not scary. The French have such obvious weaknesses, so Franz naturally would not worry about France becoming bigger.

...

The German Federal Empire itself was a joke, and Franz had never worried that this alliance would become a threat.

At the beginning, European countries wanted to forcibly upgrade them to empires. In addition to the kingdoms within the German Federation, they were more worried about the peaceful evolution of Austria to achieve unification.

No matter how much the British provoked relations, they could not change the essence of the same culture as both sides. The ruling class also had to consider the feelings of the people. The Prussian Kingdom could not get rid of the influence of German nationalism, let alone the German Federal Empire?

...

At the call of the British government, on July 16, 1874, European countries held an international conference in London to discuss the resolution of the current Russian-Polish war and the Near East War.

The Austrian Embassy in London, China, Britain and Austria are in secret talks.

British Foreign Secretary Marquis McLean: "Mr. Minister, this world needs peace, and a stable Europe is the basis for world peace.

On the issue of maintaining European stability, the interests of our two countries are consistent, and now your country needs to take more active measures to contribute to European stability.”

Austrian Minister Hummel smiled slightly and put down the coffee in his hand: "Sir, we are also happy to work for world peace, but the facts tell us that world peace needs to be maintained by everyone's republic.

Maintaining the stability of Europe Big 6 is the common responsibility of all European countries, not the responsibility of one or two countries. We have done enough for European stability.

The lessons of history tell us that sometimes doing too much will have a counterproductive effect. If you let it go occasionally, you may gain unexpected results.”

There is no doubt that Hummel is talking about the Metternier era. At that time, the Vienna government was an active defender of the European order. However, Austria maintained European stability and its greatest interests were taken away by the British.

After the Anti-French War, Europe was stable for 30 years, creating favorable conditions for Britain's overseas colonial expansion. However, Austria, which was striving to maintain European order, locked itself in the Great Sixties of Europe and was unable to carry out colonial expansion.

It was not until Franz succeeded to the throne that the Vienna government abandoned Metternich's European balance strategy that it could catch up with the train of colonial expansion.

McLin was unmoved and said as if nothing had happened: "That's not necessarily the case. It's also risky to let the situation go. Once the situation gets out of control, everyone's losses will be even greater.

Instead of letting the situation develop, it is better to take the initiative. I believe your country does not want to see the French continue to expand.

If they were allowed to get the Rhineland region, it would be difficult for Belgium to preserve it, and even the German Federal Empire would be cut by them."

This is an inevitable result. With the resources from the Rhineland region, France's strength will further grow.

It is almost impossible to stop them from annexing the territory west of the Rhine by then. For Austria, this has crossed the bottom line of tolerance.

Hummel nodded: "The whole of Europe does not want to see such a thing happening, so we are no exception. I don't know what your country has plans. As long as it can prevent this thing from happening, we are happy to cooperate."

...
Chapter completed!