Chapter 654 The Papal States
In fact, while Franz was causing trouble everywhere, Prime Minister Metternich was not idle either, but he still followed the historical trajectory and slid to Italy.
The four countries of Parma, Lucca, Modena, and Tuscany in Central Italy are actually controlled by Austria and are only nominally independent countries.
Especially with the construction of railways and the establishment of the Apennine Commercial Alliance, the continued strengthening of ties between these areas and the Austrian Empire has actually become part of the Austrian market.
As for the most powerful Kingdom of Sardinia in the entire Italian peninsula, it has also had many marriages with the Austrian Empire. It is also influenced by the latter to a certain extent, at least on the surface it is surrendered.
Ferdinand II of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies directly changed from an extreme liberal to an extreme conservative due to constant rebellions in the country and a deep fear of death.
Conservative to the point of being closed to the country, that's right, the king who established the first railway on the Italian peninsula, the first modern shipping company, and laid the first telegraph line.
Ferdinand II even cut off foreign trade routes for fear of revolutionaries landing from the sea, which eventually led to domestic famine and the decline of commerce.
The Kingdom of Two Sicilies was too far away from the Austrian mainland, and this insane way of governing was naturally not Metternich's cup of tea. He was targeting the Papal States.
If Tsarist Russia was the sewer of literacy among the great powers, then the Papal States was the bottomless pit of literacy among non-great powers.
Peasants, who make up the vast majority of the population, do not have the right to receive education or financial resources. The operation of the country does not depend on the government or the law, but depends on the mood of the pope and priests.
At that time, priests in the Papal States had great power. They could enter any house in the parish (similar to a community) at any time and judge whether the holy teachings of the Church were observed.
They are both police chiefs, judges, and prosecutors. In addition, they also hold the military and legislative power, as well as the functions of acting on behalf of the Holy See and judging heretics.
In short, priests are gods in their own diocese, and the things they do may make the benevolent African kings in later generations look much "wiser".
More than three million people out of a population of 3.3 million in the entire Papal State are chronically hungry. People live a medieval-like life and there is almost no public lighting at night.
The poor people's houses were made of mud and stones, and their roofs were covered with straw. Even the luxurious palaces where nobles and priests lived were covered in stench because they also had no sanitation system.
Piles of filth can be seen everywhere on both sides of the road, as well as buckets hanging by second-floor windows.
There are quite a few people who cannot afford iron tools, many people are not fully clothed, and some families even only have one pair of trousers. The terrible poverty is not only difficult for modern people to believe, but also for diplomats stationed in the Papal States.
Rudolf von Lützow, the Austrian ambassador to Rome, wrote in his diary.
"It's hard for me to believe that I saw the most blasphemous thing in the place closest to God.
People were hungry, poorly clothed, and unaware of themselves. Ridiculousness and ignorance are not enough to describe what I saw.
On the way to Rome I met a very cute child who seemed very interested in my cat.
Because the child had a good face, beautiful eyes, and a beautiful voice, but he had no clothes on and his hair was very long, so I couldn't tell his gender.
As a traditional Viennese, I love children, so I gave my cat to the cute little guy, a shirt, and a silver coin, hoping that he or she would have a happy life one day.
After about a quarter of an hour, I found that the child had forgotten to take the cat food. I didn’t want Mr. Saswa (the cat’s name) to leave his beloved dried fish, so I turned back.
However, what I saw was a dirty woman wearing the white shirt I gave away, and on the wooden shelf beside me was a bloody Mr. Saswa.
I angrily took out my single-shot pistol from the box and wanted to make the dirty woman in front of me pay for Mr. Saswa's life.
But when I saw the grateful and expectant eyes of the two children beside me, I chose to get back on the carriage and leave as fast as I could."
The poverty, backwardness, and ignorance of the Papal States can be seen. When the cardinals rode through the streets in extremely luxurious carriages, countless beggars were shuttled through the city.
They beg at every street corner, in every square, at every monument and at every church door. They are as omnipresent as the infinite power described by the Church.
Pope Gregory XVI was not a beloved ruler, and his incompetence and stupidity were deepening the country's crisis.
Pope Gregory XVI was born into a local aristocratic family in Lombardy, northern Italy. He has a tall nose, downturned lips, and a permanent frown expression. The most terrifying thing is the... The tumor forced him to live in seclusion.
Pope Gregory XVI regarded himself as an ascetic, but he successively established financial institutions such as the Discount Bank, the Bank of Rome, the Holy Spirit Bank and the Savings Bank. He also established a holy water company and appointed entrepreneurs to manage the internal affairs of the church. His desire for money far exceeded that of his predecessors. .
However, due to poor management, the Papal State could only borrow money to survive the current crisis. By 1846, the total debt had reached 36 million ztyro gold coins (1 ztyro gold coin = 0.4 pounds).
Among them, the French Rothschild Bank alone lent nearly 20 million francs, and the debt owed to the Austrian Empire exceeded 50 million florins.
In order to repay the debt, Gregory XVI mortgaged the tax cards of various places, as well as the trading privileges of wine, salt, fish, sugar, and cotton cloth to merchants.
This further exacerbated the gap between the rich and the poor. The "black nobility" controlled everything, while millions of people suffered from poverty and hunger.
The black nobility refers to the descendants of the pope and the relatives of the cardinals. Another saying is that the monks are called black nobility because they wear black clothes.
Under such rule, coupled with the spread of nationalist ideas, uprisings are inevitable.
At first, the Papal States did not realize the seriousness of the problem. Mastai Ferre (later Pius IX), the then Bishop of Bologna, did not evaluate the rebels:
"There are only 500 rioters in Perugia, Foligno, Spoleto and Terni"
"Without uniforms, without leadership, without courage, this group of people has no ability to scare anyone!"
Then the so-called 500 rioters defeated the 12,000-man army of the Papal States under the city of Bologna, and the team quickly expanded, rushing into the town to kill clergy and robbing the holy treasury everywhere.
Mastai Ferre abandoned the city and fled, but he did not think he lost, but that he was unable to lead the army in person due to an epileptic seizure, which led to a collapse of morale, and he applied to the Holy See to take charge again.
The top leaders of the Holy See thought he was very brave and decided to give him another chance.
As a result, they suffered another disastrous defeat in the Imola area, and the 30,000-man army of the Papal States was defeated in one blow. Gregory XVI had to send people to France and Austria overnight to ask for reinforcements.
In 1831, the July Monarchy had just overthrown the rule of the Bourbon Dynasty. Louis Philippe had no time to look east, so he only sent 250 soldiers to guard the Holy See.
Gregory XVI was so angry that he almost had a stroke. Fortunately, the Holy See's Chief Secretary of State, Luigi Lambruschini, invited the Austrians against all odds.
Both Emperor Franz II and Prime Minister Metternich thought this was a good opportunity.
So the Austrian army entered the territory of the Papal States to quell the rebellion, and the result was shocking. The rebels that the Pope had claimed to unite Catholics all over the world to fight against were easily defeated by the Austrian army in Bologna.
However, although the rebellion was quelled, the root cause of the problem was never solved. As time went by, when Franz II died in 1835, the Austrian Empire's annual military expenditure on the Papal States had reached millions.
After the death of the "Italian Emperor", Metternich, who had no support, could only cut spending and survive for the purpose of maintaining the Pope's rule.
However, history has changed at this time. With the Austrian Empire joining the German Customs Union in 1834, and the subsequent intervention of Franz, its economic strength far exceeded that of the same period in history.
Metternich was not stupid. He knew that the times were changing quietly, and those governments that failed to make changes in time would be swept into the garbage dump of history.
For example, the Bourbon dynasty that was successfully restored after the Napoleonic Wars was overthrown again by his people without knowing it.
The Papal States borders Lombardy and Venice, and is closely connected with the small states in central Italy. Its stability will directly affect Austria's rule in Italy.
Metternich was determined to strengthen the rule of the Papal States, but he had also been to the Papal States and met the Pope himself, so he believed that reform was necessary.
Metternich wanted to transform the Papal States with his ideas and let capable people lead the government, which was completely treasonous in the eyes of Gregory XVI.
The result was that a lot of money was spent, but the results were minimal, people became more miserable, and uprisings and riots occurred one after another. Tens of millions of florins were spent every year, but the Pope did not appreciate it and even had a tendency to lean towards France.
At this time, Franz intervened (mentioned in the previous article, but it is too long to briefly describe it here).
Franz's advice to Metternich was to treat this as a deal, because Gregory XVI was a businessman.
No matter how selflessly the Austrian Empire contributed, it was what the other party thought it should be. After all, Gregory XVI was the church, and the Austrian Empire was a Catholic country.
So before sending troops, they sent people to the Holy See to ask for the cost of sending troops, which would greatly ease the relationship between the two countries.
As a result, the Holy See's attitude towards the Austrian Empire changed significantly. It not only alienated France, but also gave the Austrian Empire two more cardinals.
However, this was only a temporary solution, and the Austrian Empire still needed a large amount of military funding every year to maintain the rule of the church.
While doing this, it also became the target of public criticism. The people regarded the Austrian Empire as an accomplice of the black nobility, and the people and nobles of the country felt that this support was a complete waste.
The great powers accused the Austrian Empire of interfering in the internal affairs of the Papal States with the intention of harming the Pope. Italian nationalists even listed Austria as their number one enemy.
Revolutionaries in other regions also listed the Austrian Empire as the number one reactionary force, and its reputation was even worse than that of Russia.
Franz did not agree with selling his head to support the United States, so he suggested to Metternich that he should change from suppression to governance. For Ferrara and Bologna, which are closer to Austria, it is possible to consider sending troops directly to them, because it is convenient for continuous suppression.
This proposal was actually approved by the Vatican. In the eyes of the Papal States, maintaining their status and security is more important than anything else. The long-term presence of the Austrian Empire's army can not only reduce rebellions, but also save the cost of going to Vienna for reinforcements every time.
Then Austria proposed to help the Papal States govern, after all, there may be dangerous elements in these rebellious areas.
Those people once killed Vatican officials. In order to avoid tragedies, the Austrian Empire can help govern and collect taxes.
The Vatican's high-level officials immediately expressed their support. On the one hand, they are indeed worried about security issues, and on the other hand, there is no reason to refuse to get something for nothing.
However, Gregory XVI is not a fool, but fortunately he is a leader who can negotiate.
Finally, after the Austrian Empire promised to donate 500,000 florins to the Pope's private treasury every year, Gregory XVI finally agreed to hand over the Ferrara and Bologna regions to the former for management.
However, Gregory XVI firmly opposed the construction of railways on the land of the Papal States, so the Austrian railway could only be built to the border of Ferrara.
Then the "corrupt" rule of the Austrian Empire won unanimous praise from the local people, and the Papal States' hundreds of years of ignorant education was not in vain.
As long as the Austrian side gave the people a little benefit, the latter would be grateful and prostrate. In fact, Austrian merchants still controlled most of the important industries, but the locals only asked for enough food.
It was not difficult to do this in this era of rapid agricultural development. So in comparison, the locals soon came to a conclusion that Austria's faith was more pious than Rome's faith, because under the former's governance, the land could produce more food.
This self-brainwashing consciousness was considered a very good quality by the rulers. In order to fulfill the old emperor's long-cherished wish, Metternich was also steadily advancing the area of Austria's governance.
However, the paper could not cover the fire. Someone noticed the intention of the Austrian Empire and informed the Holy See. Gregory XVI immediately ordered the return of Ravenna, Ancona and other places, but soon the war broke out again and he had to invite the Austrian army back.
In the following years, the rebellion never stopped, so that even a fool could see that it was Metternich's fault.
However, the Prime Minister's self-proclaimed clever strategy was actually playing with fire. Not to mention the opposition of the great powers, the Papal States alone could not allow Austria to continue to erode in this way.
All the achievements made at this time were made under the rule of Gregory XVI, a greedy and foolish ruler. If it were replaced by a more capable pope, Austria would be hindered and even have to give it up.
However, what Franz didn't know was that the new pope who was about to appear could be said to have interpreted the phrase "hated by people and dogs" to the extreme.
There are very few people in this world who are hated by both conservatives and liberals, by both the poor and the rich, and even he himself hates himself very much.