Chapter 720 Track Gauge

Saxony was once the strongest state in North Germany, allied with France, and united with Poland and Austria to fight against each other.

However, during the Thirty Years' War, Saxony joined the Protestant Alliance led by the French, but was vulnerable to Wallenstein's army and the whole territory fell.

Wallenstein's mercenaries were not good people, and coupled with the religious contradictions promoted by the church, the war on Saxony's land never stopped, and the first powerful state was directly turned into a scorched earth in the past 20 years.

Although Saxony avoided the Spanish throne war, the Duke of Saxony at that time also served as the King of Poland, and was inexplicably involved in the Great Northern War (February 22, 1700-September 10, 1721).

As luck would have it, their opponent was the greatest commander of the Kingdom of Sweden after Gu Erye, Charles XII. The Prussian coalition was defeated repeatedly and finally had to choose to defect.

As a result, this great commander suddenly wanted to go on an expedition to Russia.

Saxony had just taken a breath, and seeing that Prussia next door was making a lot of money in the War of the Austrian Succession (December 16, 1740-October 18, 1748), it wanted to get a piece of the pie, but was beaten up by the Hungarians who had the queen buffed.

As for the discipline of nomadic peoples, everyone knows it.

Then in the following Seven Years' War (1756-1763), the Saxons became the first target of Prussia, and the latter's commander happened to be Frederick II.

As a result, Saxony was defeated in just one month. Frederick the Great took away 86% of Saxony's annual income without hesitation, and then incorporated all the surrendered Saxon troops into the Prussian army.

Then, as a puppet army, Saxony was beaten up by Austria, France, and Russia.

After finally making it to the Napoleonic Wars, Saxony saw that the two big brothers next door (Austria and Prussia) were all defeated by the French barbarians, so if they couldn't beat them, they would naturally join.

Napoleon's expedition to Russia in 1812

Although the Kingdom of Saxony is no longer as brave as it used to be, marriage with it is still a viable option.

Although Saxony is no longer a military power, its strategic position is still important. In addition, thanks to the establishment of the German Customs Union, Saxony's economy has been rising in recent years.

At the same time, as a transit station between North and South Germany, its voice and status in the German Confederation are also rising.

The southern German region is basically the same standard gauge as Austria, while the northern German region is basically a wide-gauge railway under the influence of Prussia.

Most countries choose to take sides, only Saxony has built half wide-gauge and half standard-gauge.

This practice, which seemed extremely stupid at the time, actually won it huge benefits.

Regarding the track gauge, the standard track gauge is 1435mm. Narrow gauge railways are lower than this value, and wide gauge railways are higher than this value.

In the early 19th century, the railways were mainly 600mm, 1000mm, and British railways (1435mm).

In fact, the freight pressure at that time was not so great, and the mines and industrial cities were often the ones that needed railways the most, so it was easy to turn and the 1435mm railways with small footprints were popular.

Don't underestimate the turning problem, especially on mountain roads, where the area is limited. If the railway is too wide, it is not just a matter of floor space, and even a viaduct needs to be connected, and the additional cost will be astronomical.

In addition, in order to ensure the passage of wider and heavier carriages, the cost of bridges and tunnels will also rise sharply, and the maintenance cost is more painful than the construction cost.

As a country with many mountains and rivers, the Austrian Empire is obviously not suitable for wide-gauge railways.

However, the ambitious engineers of the Austrian Empire still proposed a 1500mm track gauge, because in addition to slightly increasing the transport capacity, the most important thing is to reflect the style of a great power, because the widest railway at that time was the British 1435mm.

Franz obviously would not do such a thing that would bring real trouble for the sake of false reputation, but after a lot of investigation, he found that 6.5 cm would not have much impact, and it would also be conducive to standardized production, as well as slightly improving the transport capacity and stability.

This decision made by Franz after careful consideration and a lot of research will make him suffer in the future.

There are not many countries that use wide-gauge railways in later generations, and there are even fewer powerful countries. The most famous of them is the Indian Railway, but its transport capacity is not as bad as that of Spain.

In history, Americans also used wide-gauge railways for a period of time, but they soon found problems. No matter how wide the railway is, it is not as good as increasing the speed and power of the locomotive.

As for the so-called more and larger space, it is just a matter of adding one more carriage. And the so-called safety is just so-so. Whether there is an accident depends mainly on management and maintenance.

Russia, Spain, and Portugal adopted broad-gauge railways mainly for military defense considerations.

In the book, Prussia adopted 1600mm railways at the instigation of Friedrich List for national defense security considerations.

After all, the Austrian Empire was stronger than Prussia at that time.

Back to the point, Saxony was still very pro-Austrian at this time, especially because the Queen of Saxony and Lady Sophie were twins, and King Friedrich August II was not in charge of the affairs, so they were even closer.

However, Franz's marriage partner was not the child of Mrs. Sophie's sister, but the daughter of the next King of Saxony, John I, because Friedrich August II had no children.

John I had many daughters, the eldest of whom was already married; the second daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was not married, but there were many rumors about her, which was unacceptable to the Habsburg family.

Of the remaining four princesses, three were not in good health, and only Princess Stephanie was still healthy (born in 1836).

Except for Prussia, the great powers basically would not object to the marriage between Austria and Saxony, and Prussia's opposition was actually useless.

At this time, John I was not the king yet. If the marriage was arranged, he would be very happy to make a decision for his daughter.

As a princess of the same age as his sister, Franz was basically familiar with her, after all, little Maria liked to talk about her friends when she had nothing to do.

Princess Stephanie did not have a strong personality. She did not like reading books or playing. She just liked to stay alone quietly. She was a competent vase.

The biggest resistance came from Franz's mother, Mrs. Sophie, because she felt that John's family was too poor to give birth to a healthy baby.

Although Mrs. Sophie had four sons, she was very clear about the importance of the heir.

This was mainly due to the medical level at the time. It was normal for the heir to have an accident, such as the "well-cared" Roman king.

Therefore, in the traditional concept, whether a monarchy can be strong and continue depends mainly on whether it can give birth.

In addition to better relations with this transit point between North and South Germany, the marriage with Saxony also had a strong desire for revenge against Prussia.