To be able to establish the Vienna System, maintain the stability of the European continent for more than 30 years, and sit in the position of Austria's prime minister for more than 20 years, suppressing his political opponents, how could Prime Minister Metternich be an ordinary person?
Count Kloft was obviously trying to provoke him today. Only people who were provoked were prone to make mistakes. How could Metternich not know this?
This was an overt conspiracy. Prime Minister Metternich already felt the pressure. This pressure wasn't brought by Count Kloft, but by the Austrian conservatives and the Vienna Court.
It was impossible for Metternich not to know Franz's role in this. He didn't need any evidence. Just based on his rich political experience, he could judge it.
As early as a year ago, Franz discussed this issue with him, but Metternich wanted to maintain the balance of power in the country, so he didn't suppress the bourgeoisie.
Now that Franz was mixed up with the conservatives, there was no doubt that this meant that the Vienna Court's tolerance for the reformist party had reached its limit.
Not to mention the royal family, even Prime Minister Metternich was disappointed with the reformist party. The idealistic reform plan that they proposed didn't consider the actual situation at all.
The bourgeoisie wanted to seize power, and they didn't even bother to restrain their ambitions. The demands that they proposed weren't something that the government could agree to.
In fact, Metternich was certain that if the bourgeoisie's conditions were accepted, the Austrian Empire would immediately become history.
In order to seize power, the bourgeoisie had already united with the splinter group. Their so-called American-style autonomy didn't consider the actual situation at all.
There were so many countries on the European continent. Once Austria disbanded, they would be prepared to split. The enemy wouldn't give up this opportunity.
A group of idealists, under the encouragement of the bourgeoisie, became the vanguard of the reformist party. The proposal was completely presumptuous and didn't consider the consequences. This kind of reformist party couldn't stand it.
"Come, notify that there will be a cabinet meeting tomorrow. Invite the Regent Council to participate!"
It was apparent that Metternich had made up her mind. Since the Reformist Party was no longer under her control, she could sacrifice it for the sake of politics.
No, it should not be counted as a sacrifice. It was just that the bourgeoisie was unlucky. This group of idealistic intellectuals had already been divided. A group of people who had less connections with the bourgeoisie also supported the enactment of the Labor Protection Act.
Some people even thought that they could go one step further and directly calculate the wages according to the profits of the factory. Everyone would receive dividends, so that the working class could benefit together.
Alright, Metternich had nothing to say about such an idealist. He was willing to bet that if he brought up this idea, he wouldn't be able to leave the house in the future.
A labor protection law would make the capitalists go crazy. If the capitalists were deprived of most of their profits, it would be strange if the bourgeoisie didn't tear the prime minister apart!
"Yes, Prime Minister!" The attendant quickly said.
…
After the victory of the July Revolution, the expansion of capitalism in France made the masses of workers, peasants and petty bourgeoisie even more impoverished.
The development of the Industrial Revolution made the capitalists rich. While their wealth continued to increase, thousands of craftsmen and small proprietors went bankrupt due to the competition from the big capitalists.
The social crisis in France continued to deepen, and the calls for social change were getting louder. However, all of this did not attract the attention of the July Dynasty.
(July Dynasty: After the July Revolution in France in 1830, the Orleans Dynasty was established. It was the dynasty representing the French financial conglomerates. The usury empire had already begun from this time.)
By 1847, Franz had already begun to pay close attention to the situation in France. As the wind vane of European revolutions, basically every revolution started in Paris.
Looking at the news from France, Franz knew that a revolution was brewing in France. The prelude to the revolution, the "Banquet Movement", had already begun to flourish.
(French Banquet Movement: The French Reformist Party and various social forces opposed the rule of the July Dynasty. They gathered in the name of holding banquets to make speeches and state their political views.)
Without a doubt, the upcoming revolution was still led by the bourgeoisie. From Franz's point of view, this was because the French bourgeoisie did not distribute the spoils evenly.
The capitalists who lost in the competition were not willing to let their interests be usurped, so they united various anti-government forces and took advantage of the people's dissatisfaction with the government to launch the February Revolution.
Franz knew that a new wave of revolution was coming. In history, in 1848, all the cities in Europe with a population of more than 100,000 people had erupted in revolutions.
The fuse of this revolution was the February Revolution in France. The success of the French set an example for everyone, so everyone followed suit. Other than the Hairy Bear, which was still an agricultural country, the whole of Europe was in chaos.
Franz said cautiously, "Teren, infiltrate the social groups in Vienna. Keep track of their movements at all times, including the low-level workers' groups!"
"Yes, Grand Duke!" The intelligence chief, Teren, replied.
That's right, this intelligence organization was the secret army of the royal family. After Franz came into contact with them, he incorporated them into the army.
Of course, the letter of appointment that Franz tricked from his uncle, Ferdinand I, also played a crucial role.
As a price, Franz had to pay eight hundred Rhine Guilders as operating expenses every month, which made his wallet shrink day by day.
There was no other way. Even if most of the people were doing voluntary work, the intelligence organization needed money to operate.
However, it was all worth it. Now that Franz understood a lot about the domestic situation in Austria, he was surprised that the bourgeoisie hadn't planned a revolution yet.
In other words, the historical March Revolution in Vienna wasn't premeditated for a long time, but was influenced by the February Revolution in France. A group of people slapped their heads and launched it!
Many of these people weren't even revolutionaries. There were the bourgeoisie, students, and workers. This could be seen from the conditions put forward by the revolutionary groups after the March Revolution.
Even because the government proposed the Labor Protection Act, which diverted the people's attention, most of the low-level people still had expectations for the Government of Vienna.
They were still waiting for the law to come out and improve their poor living conditions.
This made Franz see a new possibility. Once the government put the Labor Protection Act into place, the upcoming March Revolution might fail due to a lack of supporters.
Because of the conflict of interests between the working class and the bourgeoisie, they might even stand on the side of the government to suppress the bourgeoisie's rebellion.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
