Chapter 214 Worry

Schönbrunn Palace, Franz's study.

After Metternich left, Franz began to think seriously about how nationalism had spread in the Austrian Empire.

If Metternich hadn't mentioned it himself, Franz really didn't know that the nationalist trend in Austria had developed to such an extent.

Although historians at the time and in later generations liked to claim that Metternich was a dictator with absolute power, as long as you analyze it a little bit, you will know that this is nonsense.

Metternich knew very well what these nationalist trends meant, but he could not effectively gather manpower and material resources to effectively respond to this challenge.

The "foreign ideas" that Metternich had been banning actually originated in Austria during the reign of Joseph II, and under Franz's intervention, the German Customs Union and the Apennine Customs Union continuously brought some messy ideas into Austria.

Although the number of cross-border law enforcement by Metternich's secret police continued to increase, they still could not stop the spread of these ideas.

The nationalist trend in Austria is now much more turbulent than in history. The reason why Franz didn't feel it at all is that the country's stability and rapid development have temporarily covered it up.

At the same time, Franz also focused too much on the grassroots people, especially the recent flood of the Danube River, which took up a lot of his time, so he ignored this increasingly serious problem.

What's more terrible is that Franz inadvertently sheltered a large number of radicals because he had very low requirements for scientists in all aspects except professional level.

During this period, the relationship between the Austrian government and universities was actually antagonistic. Metternich believed that universities were a hotbed for cultivating opposition, so almost all presidents of public universities were members of the secret police, and one of their duties was to reduce the number of university students and scholars as much as possible.

So Franz saw the scene of the security guards of the University of Vienna openly bullying a scholar.

In the face of the surging nationalist trend, Metternich thought of building a high wall, using a high wall composed of censorship, spies and comprehensive repression to stop the pace of the times, as well as other attempts to slow down social class mobility and policies to reduce university enrollment rates.

All of this became a devastating flood in 1848, and Metternich himself had to step down in disgrace, and even plunged the entire Austria into a desperate turmoil.

Franz felt that the national elites were not difficult to deal with, nor were the local nobles, nor were the workers and peasants who revolted.

(National elites refer to: businessmen, factory owners, scholars, and some bureaucrats)

But the terrible thing is that the national elites and local nobles united together, and then dragged in refugees and the poor, accompanied by natural disasters and man-made disasters. The above factors combined made it even more difficult.

Compared with Prince Metternich's checking for deficiencies and filling in the gaps, Franz preferred to take advantage of the situation.

The spread of various ideas is not all bad, such as the Greater German idea. Due to the strength of the Austrian Empire, more people are willing to accept this view.

Especially after the natural disaster in 1838, many civilians who fled the disaster and participated in disaster relief were exposed to the Greater German idea.

The effect of the song adapted by Franz was much better than the saliva-filled speeches of those professors.

However, the spread of Greater German thought caused headaches for the states in northern Germany.

In the Kingdom of Hanover, Ernst August I, as the king, had a lot of troubles. First, his eldest son lost his eyesight due to an accident.

In the second year after he took over the kingdom, a series of terrible natural disasters almost emptied the treasury of Hanover. At the same time, as the second heir to the British throne in theory, he was strongly resisted by the parliament.

As the scale of the German Customs Union continued to expand, the market in Hanover was shrinking, and the deterioration of the financial situation was a hotbed for the opposition.

Ernst August I was a representative of the reactionaries. Faced with a precarious situation, he chose to abolish the liberal constitution, sent troops to suppress the opposition, and created the Göttingen Massacre.

Dozens of professors and hundreds of college students were arrested, a considerable number of whom died in prison, and the rest were also cruelly abused.

The situation in Prussia was similar. Frederick William IV faced a much worse situation than in history. Not only did the sudden death of William III make him ascend the throne early, but the series of impacts brought about by Austria's joining the German Customs Union also made him anxious.

The army needed money to update its equipment. The Prussian generals assured him that as long as they were equipped with breech-loading rifles, his army would be invincible.

Frederick William IV didn't know whether his army could be invincible, but he knew that his treasury was empty and he could only survive by issuing national debt.

The Minister of Agriculture required the construction of water conservancy, the development of new fertilizers, and the use of new agricultural tools. The Minister of Industry required increased investment in mines and new equipment. The most outrageous thing was that the Minister of Transport required the construction of tens of thousands of kilometers of railways and the dredging of all rivers in Prussia.

At this time, Prussia's finances were far inferior to those of the Austrian Empire. If it wanted to increase investment, it had to increase taxes. However, the number of domestic opposition parties was increasing day by day.

The previous food crisis further exacerbated land annexation. Farmers who lost their land could only choose to enter factories or flee to the Austrian Empire.

Historically, this food crisis created a large number of landless farmers, providing a large number of cheap labor for Prussian factories and promoting industrial development.

However, since Franz had been trying to attract immigrants, the Prussian peasants who had lost their land had another choice.

Although the number of landless peasants entering the city decreased, the factory owners' exploitation of cheap labor did not decrease.

At the same time, due to the fierce collision of various ideas in the German Confederation, the call for a constitution became louder and louder. The Hohenzollern family could not accept this demand to limit the king's rights.

So the relationship between Prussia and Austria changed from the previous hostility to joint law enforcement.

Unlike the fierce opposition and strong suppression of Austria, Prussia, and Hanover, the King of Bavaria chose to lie down.

Ludwig I himself was a conservative, but he was more addicted to enjoyment than cruel politics.

Ludwig I was a playboy. The portraits of 36 beauties in the Nymphenburg Palace witnessed this history. The scandal with his mistress Lola Munster made the whole of Europe know about it.

He spent all his money on pleasure, so naturally he didn't have enough money to suppress heresy, so he told the German Confederation that any country could suppress the "reformers".

Other German states are also facing the same problem, more or less, and the whole situation is becoming more and more difficult to figure out.

Although the Austrian Empire is much stronger than in history, the potential energy of this storm seems to be much stronger than in history.

Faced with such a strong wave, Franz didn't dare to point all the flows to Greater Germany, because a super empire that emerged out of thin air would inevitably be besieged by the whole of Europe.

Moreover, the position and situation of this empire are worse than what France faced back then, and it is more difficult to break through.

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