Chapter 941 On the Verge of Breaking Out

In the eyes of Louis Philippe and the Orleans family, it is obviously more realistic to secede than to counterattack France.

Alsace-Lorraine is protected by the German Confederation, and the millions of Germans living there are their best amulets.

After all, if the French government wants to forcefully take back the control of Alsace-Lorraine at this time, it will become a war between the two nations.

As long as the Orleans family still holds the title of the German Duke, the French government will be cautious.

Compared with the interests of the entire family, Louis Philippe's life seems insignificant.

In fact, as a 75-year-old man, Louis Philippe doesn't care so much about his own safety.

In contrast, leaving more inheritance to future generations is what he wants to do most now, so after getting Franz's promise, he agreed without hesitation.

Everything went much more smoothly than Franz imagined. Louis Philippe officially handed over the Orleans Dynasty's protection of Belgium to the Frankfurt Parliament.

Frankfurt, the National Assembly of the German Empire.

When the speaker Edward Simsong and the deputy speaker Gabriel Rissel saw the transfer letter, their mouths twitched at the same time. This was not a transfer of rights, but a death warrant.

But they had to pretend to be flattered in this place where nationalists gathered, and accept this death warrant with a smile. [6][9][s][h][u][x][.][c][o][m]

On the surface, this solved the legal basis for the German Confederation to support Belgium, but in fact it put the Frankfurt National Assembly in a dilemma.

The unauthorized actions of the Luxembourgers and the Dutch directly turned into support with official endorsement. Even in the eyes of the French, this was a conspiracy. Everything was planned by Belgium and the German Confederation.

What was even more terrifying was that the reason to prevent Belgium from joining the German Confederation no longer existed.

After all, the sovereign had transferred the rights. If it was forcibly rejected, the National Assembly would probably be killed by those angry nationalists.

But if it was not rejected, then the war between the German Confederation and France would probably be inevitable.

In theory, the Frankfurt National Assembly has the highest power in the German Empire (Confederation), but because there is no emperor (no real central government), their power is only theoretical.

In fact, the Frankfurt National Assembly did not have its own troops. The reason why it dared to attack Denmark was because of Prussia, coupled with fanatical nationalism, and the most important thing was that Denmark was not a strong country.

However, France at this time was completely different. It was a real power, and this was a mountain that the Germans had been unable to climb for hundreds of years.

However, the German nationalists did not care. They only knew that the German Confederation was the victorious party in the previous two Luxembourg crises and the Alsace-Lorraine crisis.

Just because Alsace-Lorraine was a member of the German Confederation, the French Provisional Government did not dare to pursue Louis Philippe.

In Belgium, the elite French army was defeated by the volunteers from Germany, and they did not consider the possibility of failure at all.

However, there were not many ordinary people in the Frankfurt National Assembly who were overwhelmed by nationalism. They knew very well that in the previous two crises, if the Austrian Empire had not participated in the war, the German Confederation would have been crushed long ago.

In addition, Archduke Franz did not agree to be crowned the Emperor of the German Empire, so the Austrian Empire would probably choose to stay out of it, or even help the French to suppress the Frankfurt National Assembly.

After all, the Frankfurt National Assembly at this time was actually a product of the revolution in a sense, and it was intended to overthrow the German princes.

Under this circumstance, it is not impossible that the Austrian Imperial Government and the Second French Republic would join forces to strangle the German Revolution.

Especially at this time, not many princes recognized the so-called German Empire, and many people were even deeply affected by it.

In addition, the Jewish ancestry of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, as well as nearly half of the members, was also exposed.

This greatly weakened the legitimacy of the Frankfurt Parliament. If they rejected Louis Philippe, they would immediately be drowned by the rage of nationalists.

If the German Confederation was defeated in the war with the French, they would also be crushed to pieces.

They had only one way to survive, that is, to win the war against France by all means and use victory to maintain everything in front of them.

On the one hand, the Frankfurt National Assembly offered Franz more favorable conditions, such as the emperor could retain some power and represent the country on certain occasions, hoping to draw Austria into the game.

On the other hand, it vigorously advocated war against France, and at the same time mobilized all the troops and materials they could mobilize to the Belgian battlefield.

In fact, the representatives of the Frankfurt National Assembly could not figure out one thing, that is, they could coerce Bavaria and Prussia, why couldn't they coerce Austria?

In fact, over the years, Franz has never stopped suppressing German nationalism in Austria.

Franz was very clear about its side effects, so he had been avoiding it from becoming bigger and trying to guide it in a more moderate direction.

However, due to the historical trend and some unintentional events, Austrian nationalism still exceeded Franz's imagination.

But in general, the number of Germans in the Austrian Empire was seriously insufficient, and it was still difficult to use 25% of the population to coerce a country. (The historical figure was 19% at the same time)

The large population became Austria's amulet at this time.

On the other side, France, Paris.

The National and Reform parties temporarily stopped arguing, and both sides agreed to the proposal of forming an alliance with Britain and the Ottoman Empire to fight against Austria.

However, there were huge differences between the two sides in the mode of confrontation. Lamartine, the chairman of the National, firmly opposed a total war. He felt that it was enough to send a fleet to cooperate with the British to blockade the Austrian coastline for pressure.

But the coastline of the Austrian Empire.

Those who have seen the map know that if more ships are sent, the narrow coastline may not be able to accommodate them.

The Reform party wanted a comprehensive victory and was ready to attack Austria from Belgium, Switzerland, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the sea at the same time.

The reason for the Reform party was simple, to clear the obstacles for the future of France and let the wavering fence-sitters around figure out who is the boss.

Lamartine was a staunch supporter of peaceful diplomacy in history. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and the de facto head of government in the Second Republic.

His peaceful foreign policy won a relaxed political environment for the Second French Republic in history.

Lamartine's "Manifesto to Europe" is a model of peaceful diplomacy. The contents proposed in it, such as seeking common ground while reserving differences, peaceful coexistence, equality and mutual benefit, and non-interference in each other's internal affairs, have far-reaching influence.

However, not everyone is against war. In fact, due to the constant compromise and concessions made by the king and Louis Philippe to Britain, coupled with the influence of nationalism, quite a number of French people hate peace.