For Austria, the greatest significance of the signing of the Vienna Treaty was not to restrict France, but to clear the final obstacle for the unification of the German Region.
Russia and Russia were bought over, and even if the remaining Netherlands, Portugal, and the Nordic Federation wanted to oppose, they had to consider whether their bodies could withstand the retaliation.
The European countries did not oppose, and the overseas countries did not need to. These days, only the European powers interfered in overseas affairs, and no overseas countries had ever interfered in European affairs.
The British were also helpless when they could not find like-minded supporters. Diplomatic protests were ineffective, but they could not intervene with armed forces, right?
In desperation, the Government of the United Kingdom could only choose to compromise. In exchange for the recognition of Austria's annexation of the German Confederation, the Government of Vienna recognized their annexation of French Indochina.
Anyone with a discerning eye knew that this kind of recognition was almost the same as not. Britannia could not stop the German-Austrian merger, and Vienna could not interfere with the British annexation of French Indochina. Mutual recognition was nothing more than saving face.
On June 12, 1892, witnessed by the international community, Austria and the German states jointly signed the Holy Roman Treaty.
Almost at the same time, the Parliament of the German Confederation announced the dissolution of the North German Empire. In the afternoon, George I announced his abdication.
As a witness of history, witnessing the destruction of a country and the rebirth of a country in one day, the impact on everyone was undoubtedly huge.
Anyone with a little political sense knew that the world had changed. The European continent had once again returned to the era of the Holy Roman Empire, and the international situation had changed from three giants to two giants.
Fortunately, the conflict between Britain and Austria did not intensify, otherwise, it would be troublesome to just pick a side. However, everyone knew that this stability was only temporary, and it was only a matter of time before Britain and Austria fell out for the world hegemony.
…
As night fell, there were bursts of sighs coming from the Japanese embassy in Vienna.
"If you don't come out, you won't know how fast the world changes. The Chinese have an old saying, "the river flows east for thirty years, and the river flows west for thirty years."
How long has it been, and the indomitable France Empire has fallen just like that. I originally thought that we had developed fast enough, but compared to the great powers, we are still too behind.
It seems that the reform cannot stop. After this war, we have to continue to deepen the reform of the system and strive to catch up as soon as possible. "
Ito Hirobumi, on the other hand, quickly steadied his confidence after sighing. However, the worry between his brows didn't dissipate.
Political speculation had always been a high-return, high-risk activity. The Government of Japan had made a mistake in the previous operation and failed to jump ship in time. Now they had to pay the price for it.
Fortunately, he had held back this time and did not jump directly into the French ship. Otherwise, he would have gone down with the ship.
"Reform? Isn't Austria the most conservative country in Europe? Other than the Russian Empire, they are the most conservative. "
Saigo Congdo asked in confusion.
This was also the impression of the outside world. Compared to France, which was the vanguard of "freedom," Austria was indeed "conservative."
Now that "freedom" had lost to "conservatism," many people were reflecting on whether France was too "free." The causes and consequences of the European War had been exposed by the newspapers. Everyone knew that France was pushed onto the chariot by the capitalists and the "public will", and finally embarked on the road of no return.
Ito Hirobumi shook his head. "Where did you see Austria being conservative? Other than the lack of a bunch of trolls, the lack of strikes and demonstrations, and the lack of election manifestos everywhere, what else do they lack? "
Thanks to the strict implementation of the Press Act, the newspapers had to be responsible for the authenticity of the newspaper's content. The social atmosphere of being held hostage by money had been reversed.
In this context, it was okay to criticize, but it had to be realistic. Articles that were randomly criticized would not be published in the newspapers.
There were still strikes, but they were not as frequent as in France, and they would not happen in Vienna. After all, the factories had moved away, so where would the labor movement come from?
Because the colonies had been recruiting immigrants for a long time, the Austrian capitalists still had to compete with the colonies for people, so they didn't dare to exploit the workers too much.
It wasn't like the opposite had never happened before. For example, there was a factory where, because of a serious labor conflict, the workers all took the buckets and ran away. No one took the orders, and the boss almost went crazy from the liquidated damages.
"Election manifestos" were everywhere, so needless to say. This was prohibited by Austrian law. Once the small advertisement was posted, it would be the same as posting it, so naturally, no one would do it.
In Ito Hirobumi's eyes, this was a sign of order. Eastern and Western cultures were different, and Japan paid special attention to rules.
Especially when coupled with Austria's current prosperity, these advantages were magnified. Ito Hirobumi, who was good at learning, naturally wanted to learn from it.
After thinking for a while, Saigo Congdo nodded thoughtfully.
Austria now had a vast territory, rich resources, developed industry, prosperous economy, strong military, and political stability. Specifically, what did it lack?
Probably not many people could answer this question. If it had to be said that it was lacking, only the navy wasn't the world's number one.
But this couldn't be considered a weakness. It wasn't like Austria didn't have the ability to develop a navy. Compared to the Royal Navy, they only lacked numbers and experience.
These could be solved. Numbers could be spent, experience could be accumulated. There wasn't a qualitative difference between the two sides, and the difference between the second and first wasn't too great.
For Japan, they didn't even dare to think about the world's second navy. In any case, it was impossible to say that Austria lacked a navy.
After a long while, Saigo Congdo slowly said, "Ito-kun, are you preparing to restart the Vienna route?"
At the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, Japan separately investigated many European countries, and thus came up with many sets of reform routes. Emulating Austria's Vienna route was one of them.
But due to various factors, the Vienna route was eventually rejected. The Meiji Restoration mainly used Britain, France, and Prussia as blueprints, and combined with the actual situation to formulate their own development route.
In the original timeline, the Japanese reform route was basically successful, except for politics. Now it was different. With the successive failures of Prussia and France, Japan also had doubts about this reform route.
Ito Hirobumi waved his hand. "No! Austria's development route can't be replicated at all. We don't have their strong foundation. Even if we want to learn, we can't!
You have to know that they were one of the world's four great powers when they were at their weakest. After Emperor Franz succeeded the throne, he immediately joined the wave of colonization after solving the internal problems.
He successively opened up Austria's Africa, Austria's America, and Austria's Southeast Asia. After his strength grew, he turned around and annexed the Osman Empire. Only then did the Austrian Empire come into being. "
In a sense, the Government of Japan's strategy was also imitating Austria's. Unfortunately, they were unlucky and encountered a hard problem as soon as they stepped out of the country.
In the past, after European countries fought for colonies and seized territory, as long as they showed enough strength to let their opponents know that the gains were not worth the losses, everyone could solve the problem at the negotiating table. There were rarely situations where they fought to the death.
Judging from the current situation, even if the Spanish could recapture the Philippines, they would have to pay a heavy price. The risk was very high, and the benefits were not proportional to the costs.
It was reasonable to say that it was time to go to the negotiating table. As long as the Government of Japan paid a certain price, the matter could be resolved.
Unfortunately, none of these experiences were applicable now. Losing to European countries was fine, but what about losing to the Japanese? Spain couldn't afford to lose this face.
Especially after defeating France, Spanish nationalism became active, and the voice of revenge soared to the sky.
With the profits from the war against France, the Spanish quickly formed an expeditionary fleet and had the capital for revenge.
The first step they took was met with a hard bone, and the blow to the Government of Japan could be said to be unprecedented. Continuing to imitate Austria's colonial strategy, Ito Hirobumi didn't even dare to think about it.
If possible, he was more willing to pack up his things and go home, stop the pace of expansion, and slowly farm to accumulate wealth.
Japan lacked resources. Relying on farming alone would definitely be very slow, but it was safe!
Radical development was indeed fast, but it also died quickly. A few years ago, Prussia and now France were all negative examples of expansion.
Saigo Cong said, "It's true that we can't learn. Our family is too weak. If it was our old neighbor next door, I think we might have some chance of success.
Let's not talk about this, let's take care of the present first! The anti-French alliance proposed to carry out a maintenance on the warship before the delivery, which would take a month.
If there are no accidents, the Spanish expeditionary fleet will also set off within a month. It's probably impossible to send the warship back before the battle starts. "
Ito Hirobumi said, "This is expected. As a member of the anti-French alliance, the Spanish still have this bit of face. Even if the anti-French alliance doesn't detain them, it will be difficult for us to send these warships back first.
This is today's newspaper. The Suez Canal has been restored to navigation. With the defeat of the French, the ownership of the canal has completely fallen into the hands of Austria.
According to the "Aussie Port Agreement" from more than 30 years ago, the Spanish warships can use Austrian ports to dock, and passing through the Suez Canal naturally won't be a problem.
We don't have to think about it. Not to mention the previous mistake of leaning towards the French, even if we go back a few decades, our relationship with Austria will be very cold.
We can only think of a solution from the British for the warship. They also have a conflict with Spain, and they are happy to see the Spanish suffer. "
There were two main reasons for the cold relationship between Austria and Japan. First, Japan's reform was mainly to learn from Britain, France, and Prussia. Trade orders also flowed to the three countries, and the trade with Austria was minimal.
Second, Franz couldn't control his emotions perfectly at the beginning of his succession and showed disdain for the Japanese.
Without enough economic benefits, the relationship between the two countries naturally couldn't deepen. Coupled with the emperor's cold attitude, the bureaucrats naturally wouldn't waste time on a dispensable Japan.
At that time, Austria was far from being as powerful as it is now. After being treated coldly, the Government of Japan didn't work hard to improve the relationship between the two countries.
If they didn't burn incense usually, it naturally wouldn't be so easy to cram at a critical moment.
If it wasn't for the British worrying about the revival of Spain after recovering the Roussillon area and threatening the safety of the Strait of Gibraltar, the real tragedy for the Japanese would be now.
Hearing that the warship had landed, Saigo Congdao's worried heart suddenly relaxed, and he couldn't help but say, "Great, with the support of the British, it won't be difficult to defeat Spain."
With the experience of fighting the Spanish once, the Japanese Navy still had a psychological advantage over the Spanish. The only worry was the disparity in strength between the two fleets.
Ito Hirobumi replied with a bitter expression, "It's not that simple. Spain is a member of the anti-French alliance. Even if the war is over, the relationship will still be there.
Once the British intervene in the war, the anti-French alliance will not sit idly by, and the British will not fall out with the anti-French alliance for us.
In order not to provoke the anti-French alliance, the British will definitely not be able to support us too much. If we want to win this war, we still have to rely on ourselves. "
Once again, the facts proved that if a country wanted to achieve success, it was very important to find allies.
The British were obviously the representatives of unreliability. Ito Hirobumi didn't forget how the French were sold in the European war that had just ended.
One had to know that France and Britain were allies at the beginning of the war. Although the Government of the United Kingdom did stand on France's side, they didn't give up any opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
It seemed that they were supporting France, but in fact, they were working hard to maintain the balance of power between the two warring parties. They wanted Fao to suffer losses on both sides.
However, the Government of London didn't expect Austria to hide its strength and directly deal a fatal blow to the French at the critical moment.
Seeing that France's momentum was lost, the British's first reaction wasn't to help their ally. Instead, they unilaterally tore up the alliance and hit them when they were down.
There were many similar cases. For example, Belgium initially followed the British and only turned to Austria after being betrayed.
If they could betray their allies, then the British wouldn't feel any pressure to betray Japan, who wasn't even an ally.
Knowing was one thing, but Ito Hirobumi still had no choice. Or rather, the Government of Japan had no choice. Although Spain had always been the bottom line of the great powers, a great power was still a great power. Its international influence was still extraordinary.
Other than the British, no other country was willing to risk offending the Spanish at this time and sell them warships.
What was even more tragic was that if they didn't get a batch of warships from the British, they wouldn't be able to fight the next war at all.
Saigo Shundo was deep in thought. After a long while, he slowly said, "In any case, the British's willingness to provide support is better than nothing.
As long as we can win the war, we can agree to any conditions for now. Everything else can wait until the war is over. "
The two looked at each other and ended this heavy topic. The contents of the conversation were too shocking. If the news leaked out, Japan would be finished. They could only say everything without saying anything.
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