Start 1861: I just inherited the Dutch throne

Chapter 1127 Declining Austria and unprecedentedly powerful Hungary

"We are opposed to being wary of the approach between France and the Russian Empire. We hope that the French government can reconcile with the United Kingdom and not let the situation get into further trouble."

The Prime Minister of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Count Andrassy, ​​publicly called out the French government in Vienna, expressing his dissatisfaction with the approach of France and Russia.

The Regent of France, Queen Eugenie, invited Queen Maria of the Russian Empire to visit Paris, mainly as a counterattack against the British invasion of the Suez Canal, which is jointly managed by France and Egypt. However, the British have not taken much action yet, and France's old enemy, the German Empire, has not responded much either. However, the Austro-Hungarian Empire stood up first. This surprised Europe and at the same time gradually understood the helplessness of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's diplomacy.

Since the second half of the 18th century, Europe has undoubtedly occupied the center of the world stage. In addition to the two established powers, Britain and France, there is also the rise of another group of emerging countries. They have relied on the residual power of the Industrial Revolution to rise up and become rising stars.

But in this list of emerging powers, there is one country that has fallen into decline, and that is the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Austrian Empire was once one of the five major powers in Europe, alongside Britain and France. It ranked among the best in terms of national area, population, and industrial output. Its national power reached its peak at the end of the 18th century.

However, what surprises the world is that after experiencing the Napoleonic Wars, the Austrian Empire, a country that relied on the German Confederation, seemed to have become powerless externally. Why, because the Kingdom of Prussia was rising and competing with the Austrian Empire for influence within the German Confederation.

However, at that time, the Russian Empire had closer relations with Austria, while Prussia was allied with Britain.

As a result, these two parties overturned a balance within the German Confederation.

Most of the time, among the many peripheral influences of the German Confederation, Britain was too far away and Russia was too close, so the Austrian Empire still suppressed Prussia and became the eldest brother.

However, as Prussia also used Bismarck as prime minister after William I came to power in the 1860s, Prussia's rise accelerated even more.

What's more, the Austrian Empire did not support the Tsarist Empire during the Crimean War, but wanted to ease relations with Britain and France, which made Nicholas I die with hatred. His son Alexander II immediately distanced himself from the Austrian Empire after he went to heaven, so Prussia King William I of the Kingdom married again with the United Kingdom, and in 1859, Crown Prince Frederick married Princess Victoria, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, as the Crown Princess.

Instantaneously rising and falling, the Austrian Empire became miserable.

In 1863, Bismarck deceived them into occupying Schleswig and Holstein, which were ruled by Denmark. Not only did the Austrian Empire lose troops and generals, but it also worsened its surrounding relations and made other diplomacy passive.

Then the Kingdom of Prussia in turn attacked the Austrian Empire, directly reaching the outskirts of its capital Vienna. Franz Joseph I finally begged for mercy, and the Austrian Empire was finally forced to leave the German Confederation, a large family that originally ruled by itself, and the Kingdom of Prussia took its place.

Subsequently, by integrating these principal kingdoms and other forces, the Austrian Empire was more directly surpassed by Prussia in all aspects.

Then in 1871, Prussia defeated France, the European land power, and replaced it, becoming the most powerful land power in Europe. Even the Russian Empire seemed to be unable to compare.

The previous Austrian Empire felt something was wrong, so it directly merged with Hungary to form the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They do not seek to be able to compete, but only seek to protect themselves and not be annexed.

As a result, in Central and Eastern Europe, it became the triangular pattern of Russia, Germany and Austria.

There is also the Ottoman Empire and medium-sized Italy in the south, France in the west, Britain across the sea, and a medium-sized Sweden in the north.

This is the current pattern in Europe.

But if France gets too close to the Russian Empire, will this existing balance be broken?

What should Austria-Hungary do?

Let’s go back and look at it again. After the direct rule of the Habsburg dynasty, which was closely related to France and Spain, ended at the end of the 18th century, the Lorraine family, as a subsidiary of it, took over Austria. But by this time, the empire was already at dusk, especially since Napoleon was in power. After the rise of France, the Holy Roman Empire collapsed in 1806, which greatly weakened the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty.

Unfortunately, misfortunes never come singly. At this time, the Kingdom of Prussia within the German Confederation gradually rose, and the Austrian Empire faced a real enemy. Prussia and Austria were once the two major states of the German Confederation, and the latter was ruled by the Habsburgs. For most of history, he held the status of the boss and had a great influence on the politics of the German Confederation.

At that time, Austria tried its best to establish a Central European empire that included all the countries in the German Confederation, and repeatedly proposed the plan to establish a Greater Germany.

At that time, after Bismarck became prime minister, he advocated Prussia to unify Germany. There was a fundamental contradiction in the positions of the two countries, so it was inevitable that they would fight each other. Bismarck then called for the German national movement and openly defeated the Austrian Empire in the Austro-Prussian War. This battle completely destroyed the Austrian Empire. Austria was excluded from the German Confederation.

This war not only reduced Austria's status in Europe, but also induced turmoil in its country. Austria is a multi-ethnic country. As the second most populous country in the country, the Hungarian democracy contributed nearly half of the empire's land area. At this time, it saw the national power. No, I also started to want to separate and live my own life.

In order to survive, the Habsburgs had no choice but to put aside their dignity and negotiate with the Magyar nobles of Hungary. Under the bottom line of maintaining national unity, the Hungarians proposed to be on an equal footing with the Habsburg royal family and share power.

In 1867, the Austrian Empire was forced to compromise with the Hungarians in the country and announced the establishment of a dual country, the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Even the flag is divided into two parts, one for Austria and one for Hungary.

The so-called dual system is to implement the joint rule of the two governments of Austria and Hungary while keeping the central government directly under the emperor unchanged, and these two local governments have their own parliaments and prime ministers, so Austria In this way, the Hungarian Empire had the strange phenomenon of three governments in one country.

During the Austrian Empire, the German Austrians were supposed to be the only superior ethnic group in the country. In contrast, although the Hungarians contributed a lot, they were seriously inconsistent with their status. The establishment of the Dual Empire allowed the Hungarians' status to be unprecedentedly improved. , the national independence movement was temporarily quelled, but this political system is inherently extremely unstable.

The Hungarian nobility took advantage of the internal and external difficulties of the Austrian Empire and split into threats to obtain power. This made the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty basically unable to weaken it and could only develop during the term. Although the Austria-Hungary Empire was nominally governed by one monarch Although the two governments are governed by a common federation, the real power is in the hands of the two local governments of Austria and Hungary. When it comes to handling national affairs, governments often veto each other, resulting in reduced administrative efficiency.

This time in response to the close relationship between Russia and France, there was such a quick response this time. It is obvious that the two nations have reached a unified opinion on jointly dealing with diplomacy. This shows how big the impact Russia and France have had on them. Many people I really want to see what the German Empire's reaction was?

(End of this chapter)