Chapter 569 The British Plan

A staff member of the Austrian embassy in his thirties reported: "Your Excellency, this is the information we have recently collected.

It is worth noting that at the same time as Marquis MacLean's visit, Crowe, the Permanent Undersecretary of the British Foreign Office, also entered the French embassy at the same time.

The two talked in the secret room, and no one knew the specific content. Preliminarily judged that the content of their conversation should be related to the war in the Near East, and half of them may involve the issue of German unification. "

To win over Austria to check and balance France, and to pull France to check and balance Austria, to use the British, French, and Austrian Tripartite Alliance to maintain the stability of the European continent and consolidate their world hegemony, is the foreign policy of the British.

Hummel was not surprised by the contact between the British and the French. The British want to keep the nail of the Ottoman Empire, and the Vienna government is also ready to leave this decaying empire to slowly shear the wool.

If the Ottoman Empire were killed all at once, Austria would not be able to swallow this piece of meat. At that time, the European countries will divide up together, which will not only destroy the fraudulent strategy implemented by the Vienna government, but also put Britain and France into their own back gardens.

Just shout the slogan "United Germany", if it is serious then you will lose. Hummel, a senior government official, knew very well that the Vienna government was not ready to unify the German regions.

Hummel nodded: "Put the document here, I will take time to read it. Now I continue to stare at the British, I always feel that things are not so simple."

Things were going so well that Hummel didn't have to do anything to get the results he wanted.

If it is anything else, it can be celebrated in advance. But in the international diplomacy of intrigue, the more it is like this, the more vigilant it is necessary to be vigilant.

No one can guarantee that this will be a smoke bomb released by competitors. Britain and Austria have only reached a verbal agreement, which is not binding at all, and it is too easy to go back on it.

...

Inside the Prime Minister's Residence in Downing Street, senior British cabinet members gathered.

Prime Minister Gerston: "How is the plan going, have France and Austria taken the bait?"

Foreign Secretary Maclean: "It's going very well, and both France and Austria are very vigilant about each other. As long as we control the timing, proceed step-by-step as planned, and don't leave them time for private transactions, the big picture is set.

Compared with France and Austria, I am more worried about the German Federal Empire. There are too many states in the German region, Austria has too much influence in the German region, and local nationalism has awakened.

I worry that even with our backing, they may not go according to our plan. If they don't hold on, our investment will be lost.

To know that so far, Hannover has not really mastered the country. Their imperial parliament is still in accordance with the traditional model, one state, one vote, which is very troublesome. "

"One country, one vote" is a prerequisite for the establishment of the German Federal Empire. Otherwise, why would many German countries follow Hannover?

Behind the right to vote, there is also Austria's handwriting. This model of political structure was created from the very beginning to prevent the German Confederation from being integrated.

The effect is very good now. After so many years, the German Federal Empire is still the "comedy empire", and it is noisy when it encounters things.

It stands to reason that such a political structure will affect the development of the country, but the fact is just the opposite, the local economy is developing very well.

These states have a high degree of autonomy and can formulate economic policies flexibly without the intervention of the central government dominated by Hanover.

The economic foundation determines the political structure. Influenced by many factors such as geography, culture, political diplomacy, etc., many states of the German Confederation inevitably tied the economy and Austria together.

Not every small country has ambitions. For many small countries, it is enough to develop the economy well. Anyway, no matter who is the boss, it is not their turn to be the boss, as long as they are their own people, they can accept it.

Many village-level states have even cancelled their army. For them, raising an army or not is the same.

Dueling is no longer popular these days, and tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of troops are more than their total population. They can't win when they encounter foreign invasions.

According to the British plan, the German Federal Empire will cut itself off with Austria, completely get rid of Austria's influence and become a truly independent country.

The highest authority of the German Federal Empire is the Reichstag. Under the basic system of one state, one vote, these inconspicuous small states can veto any decision of the central government if they unite.

Maclean's worry is justified. If the German Federal Reichstag stands up and sings, it will be a joke.

Prime Minister Gerston frowned: "This is indeed a problem, but it can be handled by the German federal government.

If these states cannot be persuaded, the big deal is to have the Emperor order the closure of the Imperial Council. It might cause a little mess, but I'm sure they can get over it.

After the German Federal Empire annexed the Rhineland region, their strength will have a qualitative breakthrough, and the total economic volume and industrial volume can be ranked in the top five in Europe.

If Austria annexes the German Confederation, then the European continent will really be dominated by one, which is what European countries do not want to see.

Now it is the general trend to further cut the German Confederation and Austria and completely cut off the possibility of German reunification. Even if the Vienna government is rejuvenated, there is no way to resist the common will of European countries. "

German and Italian

The Federal Empire was originally the most prosperous region in the German region, and the Rhineland region was even more powerful.

When you open the map, you will know that the essence of the former German Empire is here. Just looking at industry and economy, it is equivalent to the strength of half the German Empire in the same period of the original time.

This volume is not small, the total economic volume has surpassed that of Spain, and the per capita income has exceeded that of France and Austria.

The only shortcoming is that there are many internal states, which distracts the national strength, especially the military strength. Otherwise, the German Confederation could join the club of great powers.

If you simply calculate the total domestic economy, now both France and Austria have surpassed Britain, and Austria is already the largest economy in the world.

The economic structure determines the superstructure, and the volume is large to a certain extent. It is not impossible to develop sea power and land power at the same time.

Once Austria annexes the German Federal Empire, it has the power to develop land and sea power at the same time, which has seriously threatened the hegemony of Britain.

Lark Lloyd, Chancellor of the Exchequer: "We seem to have overlooked something, just changing the country's name may not achieve the goal.

Don't forget that the German Federal Empire is an independent country for a long time, and it has nothing to do with the Shinra Empire that the Austrians fiddled with, but the Vienna government still holds the banner of the unification of the German region, and the people of the German region buy it.

The nationalism invented by the French has now flourished in Germany and is not restricted by the rules of the game in the past.

If the people cannot be cut, changing the country name will actually have a very limited effect, and may even further stimulate nationalism. "

From a legal point of view, Austria has nothing to do with the German Confederation. It stands to reason that the people of the German Federal Empire will not buy Austria's account.

Unfortunately, with nationalism, the situation has changed. The nationalists insisted that the German region was a whole, and they recognized that the new Shinra Empire inherited the legal system of the fallen Shinra Empire, but did not recognize the current German Federal Empire.

This complicates things. It is true that the German Federal Empire is independent, but Austria still has a popular base to unify the German region.

The British wanted to change the name of the German Federal Empire, in fact, to make further political cuts, laying the foundation for downplaying the German Grand Unification Theory.

Foreign Minister Maclean shook his head: "Germany and Austria have the same cultural traditions, and it is very difficult to separate the people from each other.

Even if it was an independent country that had broken away from the Shinra Empire earlier, it was actually the Netherlands that did better, and basically completed its de-Germanization.

Belgium and Switzerland are deeply influenced by German culture, but they and Austria have been separated, and neither of them is in the German reunification strategy of the Vienna government.

The Kingdom of Prussia has also done a good job, and in a few years, it will be able to get rid of the influence of the German Grand Unification.

Due to internal problems, the German Federal Empire lacked a strong government, so it was slow to act.

Now we have to push it, or maybe one day, we will take a nap and the German region will be unified. "

...