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On April 21, 1874, Napoleon III passed away at the Palace of Versailles. This news swiftly overshadowed the Eastern Crisis, and everyone’s attention turned to Paris.
At the Vienna Palace, Franz sighed deeply. A rival had left the stage.
After regaining his composure, Franz quickly recovered.
"With the passing of Napoleon III, the transfer of power in France will inevitably lead to turmoil. For the short term, we need not worry about threats from the west; we must hasten our next move.
Our people in Berlin and London can start their operations. This change in the European situation affects the international landscape for decades to come; we must not let the situation spiral out of control."
It must be said, strategic planning is troublesome. A misstep anywhere could set off a chain reaction.
Even the death of Napoleon III fell within the scope of our calculations. If he had held on for a few more years, all of Franz’s European strategies would need to be completely redrawn.
Foreign Minister Weisenberg: "Your Majesty, the situation in France is even more chaotic than we had anticipated. Right after the death of Napoleon III, the French government has plunged into a power struggle.
The soon-to-be Napoleon IV lacks the authority to control the elders in the government, and the factions are fiercely at odds with each other.
If the internal strife does not end, I’m afraid the French will be too preoccupied to interfere in international affairs, and our ruse to lure the enemy may very well fail."
The infighting within the French government was deliberately orchestrated by Napoleon III, as only through the ministers’ contention could the Emperor’s power be secured.
Napoleon III died too early, and the time to pave the way for Crown Prince Eugénie was too short; he did not manage to establish his prestige and thus could not command obedience.
Under these circumstances, it’s beneficial to let the ministers feud, and then let the young Emperor emerge as an arbitrator. After a few years, once the Emperor’s position is solidified, he can replace the quarreling ministers.
This is a very clever tactic of power politics, capable of ensuring a smooth transition of imperial authority. However, it also has significant drawbacks, as a government constantly at odds will waste a tremendous amount of energy, affecting the country’s development.
But for France, a great house with a vast business, developing slowly isn’t a major issue. There are virtually no external threats, as no nation would be foolish enough to invade France.
A France preoccupied with internal strife is unlikely to cause trouble. Even though they might covet the resources of Belgium and the Rhineland region, with so many teammates holding them back, it is difficult to make it a reality.
As long as the main force of the French Army does not deploy, Austria can do nothing against the French. As planned, that was to tempt France to deploy its troops to the Rhineland region, with Austria pulling together European countries to form an Anti-French Alliance.
Despite France’s strong military, they are not as battle-capable as in the Napoleonic Era. Another Anti-French war, and they simply wouldn’t hold up.
Franz nodded his head: "It doesn’t matter; the likelihood of this plan was always very low. If it succeeds, well and good; if it fails, no harm is done.
France is not our real enemy, nor are the other countries of Europe. Our real enemy is always ourselves."
When Franz uttered these last words, he, too, could not help but feel stirred. After so many years of development, Austria had finally reached the point where it could ignore external threats.
The situation on the European Continent has been turned upside down. With Prussia and Russia deadlocked, a weakened France no longer poses a threat to Austria’s security.
From the start, the Vienna Government had two plans: to balance Prusso-Russian power or to bring down France.
Accomplishing either would free Austria from the threat of multi-front warfare. If France proved too difficult to defeat, they would continue with the Prusso-Russian balancing strategy.
This was learned from the British—John Bull not only maintained a balance in Europe but also maximized his interests. Naturally, Franz wanted to emulate him.
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In Berlin, upon receiving word of Napoleon III’s death, Wilhelm I was elated to the point of delirium—it was as if he had longed for sleep and was handed a pillow.
With Russia and Austria occupied beating down the Ottoman Empire and the French Emperor dead, the major obstacles to Wilhelm I ascending the Polish throne seemed to be gone.
Foreign Minister Geoffrey Friedman warned: "Your Majesty, things are not as optimistic as they seem. The death of Napoleon III only means that French intervention is less likely, not that it won’t happen at all.
While the Near Eastern War has occupied a part of Austria’s attention, they still possess the ability to intervene. We must also consider the reaction of the British; the London Government doesn’t wish to see us genuinely rise.
To annex Poland, we would ideally want the support—or at least the tacit approval—of two out of the three nations of England, France, and Austria."
Wilhelm I’s excitement was immediately tempered, realizing it was too early to celebrate. Without appeasing the three great powers first, annexing Poland was but a pipe dream.
"That is indeed a problem. What would be the cost if we were to make a deal with both France and Austria?"
Interest is always the best solution to any problem; if it’s not solved, it’s simply because the incentive isn’t substantial enough. It may seem like European countries oppose Prussian annexation of Poland, but as long as the stakes are right, opposition can turn into support.
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Opting to bribe France and Austria was also a practical necessity. The Russian Empire was a mortal enemy, and it was impossible for the Berlin Government to bribe them; Britain’s strength lay at sea, so the likelihood of sending troops to intervene was very small.
Geoffrey Friedman thought for a moment and said, "Given the current situation, we can promise France and Austria support for Austria’s annexation of the Ottoman Empire and the German Federation, and support for France’s annexation of Belgium as part of the trade.
If necessary, we can also promise the French the sale of the Rhineland region and promise Austria the sale of parts of the southern territory of the Kingdom of Poland."
Promises were promises, but whether they could be fulfilled would depend on the actual situation. Just as when they partitioned the Ottoman Empire, Franz even promised most of the Balkan Peninsula to the Russians, but in the end, most of the territories fell into Austria’s hands.
The Vienna Government did not breach the agreement either; the extra territory had been bought from the French, not taken from the Ottoman Empire.
However, when it came to Prussia, the situation changed. France and Austria were a bit too strong, and the possibility of unforeseen events was minor. The promises made now were very likely to become reality in the future.
The room fell silent, everyone weighing the pros and cons. In this regard, they had even greater audacity than Bismarck, issuing empty promises to Napoleon III and then reneging on them at the earliest opportunity.
After some hesitation, Prime Minister Maoqi broke the silence: "We can try to win them over. As long as we can annex Poland, the gap in strength between us and France and Austria will be significantly narrowed, and the situation will be different then.
In the future, we can also divert France’s attention to the Low Countries, and Austria’s attention to the Ottoman Empire.
Let’s not forget the reaction of the other European countries, perhaps the promises we make now don’t need to be fulfilled in full."
This was not the first time such a thing had occurred on the European Continent. If other European countries interfered and prevented the trade from proceeding smoothly, France and Austria would have no grounds to blame Prussia for breach of contract.
This was in line with Wilhelm I’s plan; he had long been ready to have Britain come in at the last moment and disrupt the expansion of France and Austria into the Central European Region.
After a pause, Wilhelm I made a decision: "Then let’s take action. First, create a fait accompli, then negotiate afterward, which will be more advantageous for us."
If it were possible, Wilhelm I would have preferred to annex the German Federation Empire. Unfortunately, the difficulty was just too great; England, France, and Austria would likely never agree.
Austria’s strategy for German unification was well known, even for the sake of political propaganda, the Vienna Government would intervene with all its might.
The French still wanted to annex the territories west of the Rhine River. The German Federation was in the way, with Prussian Rhineland being an enclave. If Prussia were to annex the German Federation and the territories were to become contiguous, it would be much more difficult for France to pursue its interests.
Unlike in the original timeline, to prevent Austria from annexing the German Federation, John Bull invested quite a lot in the German Federation, treating it like its own child.
The relationship between the two was even closer than that with Belgium and the Netherlands. The German Federation was also playing a balancing act, with a navy completely equipped in the British style and an army mostly equipped with Austrian weaponry.
Relying solely on good diplomatic relations, even the Vienna Government couldn’t take military action against the German Federation. To unify the Germany Region, they’d only need to conclude the negotiations well. As long as Austria could calm the European countries, they would not be opposed.
While the actions seemed cooperative, they were, in reality, highly shrewd political maneuvers, shifting the responsibility for disrupting the unification of the Germany Region entirely onto international forces.
Regardless of the final outcome, the interests of the ruling class would not be harmed. They did not even need to worry about national defense security; in times of trouble, they could rightfully seek Austria’s assistance.
The Vienna Government abandoned its national policy of German unification partly for these reasons.
While the unification seemed cooperative, it was fraught with complexity. Completing peaceful unification through negotiation would leave the government with mere nominal unity, sowing the seeds of division within the Empire.
Franz was not one to fish for fame; mere nominal sovereignty was not worth staking the entire Empire on.
Then everyone started playing their parts; the more the German Federation cooperated, the more the other European countries worried that Austria, after unifying the Germany Region, would quickly integrate its power and surge in strength, and they would desperately prevent Austria from incorporating the German Federation.
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Warsaw seemed to become overnight the center of attention for the succession to the Polish throne, with experts and scholars publishing comments in newspapers, attributing all the problems Poland faced to the absence of a king.
This was no nonsense, they even had evidence. All the powerful nations in Europe had monarchs, either kings or emperors.
The republican states couldn’t even select a proper representative; the American Civil War’s division had been promoted in Europe as a negative example. "The Emperor takes turns" was seen as one of the main causes of the American Civil War.
Who knows if it was true or not? Anyway, that’s how the monarchist countries propagandized it, and after repeating it enough, everyone started to believe it.
The more radical newspapers had begun openly accusing the government, alleging that they deliberately prevented the emergence of the king for the sake of holding onto power.
This claim couldn’t be entirely denied. The Polish Government didn’t indeed wish for a king to emerge, to preserve their hold on power.
But now that the lid was blown off, they couldn’t possibly admit to it. It was the age of monarchism, and when Poland gained independence, it was determined to be a constitutional monarchy.
It was clearly written in the constitution, the Polish Provisional Government couldn’t bear the blame. Looking at the crowd protesting outside, Prime Minister Dombrovsky knew they couldn’t drag this out any longer.
