Chapter 924: France’s Dilemma

Almost at the same time as the Brussels uprising, many cities in the Principality of Belgium launched large-scale uprisings.

This was mainly due to Charles Rogier, the shrewd and capable former Belgian Prime Minister and the French's incompetence.

Charles Rogier is known as the most versatile prime minister in Belgian history. He participated in the revolution against the Dutch, served as a guerrilla, and trained regular troops.

He served as prime minister and also served as the Minister of the Interior, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Education, Minister of Transportation, Minister of Public Affairs, and even supervised the construction of water conservancy projects and railways.

It may be a bit of a waste of talent to let such a versatile person do the work of the underground party, but it is precisely this kind of person who is most suitable to lead the resistance army.

The resistance to the French in rural areas was even worse, because the agricultural tax in France was ridiculously high in itself, and at this time the urban bourgeoisie was in power, so they naturally could not raise taxes on themselves.

As a result, the agricultural tax in France at this time was raised to an incredible height, and in Belgium, a French colony on the European continent, it was even to the point of sucking the marrow out of the bones.

However, in comparison, the uprisings in rural Belgium were more scattered, and they actually caused very limited casualties to the French.

Under the French military suppression, the insurgents in rural areas quickly surrendered.

The insurgents in the city were much more determined. Most of them were composed of citizens and the army of the principality, and their combat effectiveness was much higher than those of the peasants.

However, this was still not enough in the eyes of the French. Although those French officials only brought a few troops, they stabilized the situation with these French troops and the guides recruited from Belgium.

The news soon spread to Paris, and the French Provisional Government was particularly unanimous in its opinion on attacking the Belgians.

If they were still a little hesitant about going to war with Austria, then they really had no hesitation in going to war with the Belgians.

In fact, the reason why the French Provisional Government levied heavy taxes in Belgium was because France was too poor now.

Want to collect taxes from those merchants and factory owners? Don't you see who is in power at this time?

Therefore, the economic crisis and food crisis worsened during the rule of the French Provisional Government, but they didn't dare to continue to collect taxes from the French mobs.

So the first thing the French Provisional Government thought of was to suck blood from the colonies, and this idea was not wrong.

But the first step the British took to deal with the French was to block their sea routes, which directly cut off the possibility of this plan.

In fact, in addition to the British's greed for money and arbitrary interference, the authority of the French Provisional Government was also a big problem.

Officials in France's overseas colonies did not recognize this so-called provisional government. This was not because they had much nostalgia for the past Orleans Dynasty, nor was it out of personal loyalty to Louis Philippe.

Rather, the conditions of the French Provisional Government were too harsh. They required those frontier officials to unconditionally hand over all power in their hands and obey the arrangements of the provisional government.

Historically, the French Provisional Government's acceptance work was very rough, but at that time France's largest colony was Algeria, and it also needed supplies from France, so there was no rebellion.

However, this time was completely different. France was the largest colonial country besides Britain.

In particular, the Texas colony had long been dissatisfied with French rule, and Guizot himself was also dissatisfied with this so-called provisional government.

The most ridiculous thing is that the French Provisional Government actually sent a team of 200 people to take over the Texas colony, and Guizot himself and his staff had to go to Paris to report.

So this special mission mysteriously disappeared in the Texas colony.

Most of the governors of other colonies also disdained this so-called provisional government, and the Governor of Algeria directly raised the banner of rebellion.

This rebellion did not exist in history, because in Algeria's situation, without local assistance, it would not last for half a year.

Historically, the Duke of Omar (Louis Philippe's fourth son) was the Governor of Algeria, and he had a force of less than 100,000 people.

But the last hope of the Orleans Dynasty left his troops to Yuan Shikai of France-Eugène Cavaignac without firing a shot.

However, history quietly changed at this time. Although Louis Philippe changed from the King of France to the Duke of Alsace-Lorraine, the French Provisional Government was unpopular, and the Duke of Omar's rebellion was supported by a large number of officers and nobles.

Especially those officers, politicians, and nobles who were excluded and exiled to Algeria, they all demanded to fight back to the French mainland.

The British also took the opportunity to throw an olive branch to this group of "French traitors", but with the complete annihilation of the British Mediterranean Fleet, the plan to counterattack France became a distant prospect.

Although they failed to counterattack the French mainland, the benefits given by the British this time were real. That is food and supplies, which were the most lacking things in Algeria at this time.

Although these supplies were not much, they were enough to stabilize the morale of the rebels.

And Eugene Cavaignac was actually inexperienced in the army at that time, and he often beat and scolded the soldiers. Naturally, he could not recover Algeria and become a Republican leader as in history.

(There is actually a very big disagreement here, which will be mentioned slowly later.)

So the situation faced by the French Provisional Government at this time was much worse than in history, but for some reason, the French Provisional Government took the old path of increasing agricultural taxes again, but this was simply a drop in the bucket for the French economy on the verge of collapse.

Increasing agricultural taxes during an agricultural crisis will undoubtedly aggravate the crisis.

The desperate French placed their hopes on plundering Belgium, a French colony on the European continent.

Belgium was once indeed rich, but after the Luxembourg crisis, this country with the fastest economic growth in Europe has declined.

Even without the Luxembourg crisis, Belgium's size could not solve the crisis in France.

But the French provisional government still did it, not because they were stupid, but because they had no choice.

Only in this way can they satisfy the interest groups behind them and have votes to continue to govern.

However, the result is that it seems to be a series of stupid moves in the eyes of outsiders, but the decision was made by the top talents in France at that time.

On the issue of declaring war, facing the powerful Austrian Empire, the French may still be hesitant, but facing the Belgians, they all seem confident.

The French provisional government almost unanimously passed the proposal to declare war on Belgium and annex Belgium.

However, before the French made a decision, the Frankfurt Parliament of the German Confederation received news of the Brussels uprising.

Although the entire German Confederation was in a state of national frenzy, the Frankfurt Parliament, especially the Constitutional Assembly, did not want to get too involved in European affairs at this time.

And the French-speaking residents in Belgium did not look like Germans at all.