v3 Chapter 207： The Tsarist Empire is not alone anymore

With the beginning of June 4, 1865, the Kingdom of Prussia invaded the Kingdom of Hanover, and it took only two weeks to completely occupy it.

At the same time, the Austrian Empire also took four weeks to occupy the Kingdom of Saxony on June 20.

This seems to have brought the European continent into the law of the jungle where big fish eat small fish and small fish eat shrimp.

As the so-called "shrimp", the small countries of the German Confederation are naturally unwilling to be swallowed by the two big countries.

On June 28, 1865, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, a member of the German Confederation and the third largest kingdom, declared:

In order to oppose the two major hegemonic policies within the German Confederation, the 19-year-old king of Bavaria announced that the Kingdom of Bavaria will join forces with the Duchy of Nertellingen, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Duchy of Westphalia and The Duchy of Baden and the two duchies of Hesse, north and south, form the new Federal State of West Germany.

The establishment of this federal state marked Germany's entry into the era of the three powers, but because Ludwig II's mother was Princess Mary of Prussia and his grandmother was from the Austrian royal family, this made the Kingdom of Bavaria today The neutrality policy has been questioned.

But luckily something is better than nothing, isn't it?

On July 1, when the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire revealed that they would oppose the establishment of this federation and were ready to send a large army to attack the two newly established West German Federal States, Napoleon III broke the silence. Paris received Ludwig II and declared that the French Empire recognized the West German Commonwealth, and demanded that Austria and Prussia stop creating chaos and war in the German Confederation, and that countries should sit down and negotiate to resolve various concerns.

Obviously, Napoleon III's words resonated with a lot of people.

Württemberg, Baden and other countries have expressed their willingness to accept Napoleon III's reconciliation, affirming the role of France in the reconciler.

For a time, Napoleon III became the stabilizer of the European continent, and the United Kingdom came late later, expressing its willingness to cooperate with the French Empire, and do not act rashly to test the pressure on Prussia and Austria.

Perhaps it was the intervention of France and the pressure from the United Kingdom. In short, both Prussia and Austria chose to stop the march.

In just over a month, the German Confederation was torn apart, and the most beneficiaries of this were naturally the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire. They captured large tracts of land and increased the size of the country.

Among them, Prussia finally opened up the outlet directly out of the Atlantic Ocean. From then on, Prussian warships finally no longer need to pass through the Oresund strait controlled by Denmark and Sweden in the north and south, and can carry out large-scale ships at the estuaries of the Weser and Elbe rivers. Naval Construction.

It will bring invaluable benefits to the depth of Prussia's naval construction and self-protection in the future.

Austria's annexation of Saxony naturally increased its own strength, but because Austria has many nationalities in the country, and now with the addition of Saxony, Austria originally accounted for less than 40% of the domestic proportion, and because of the addition of Saxony The ratio is going to drop.

This may not have a positive effect on the rule of Joseph I. You must know that before, because of the struggle for power between the Austrian nation and the Hungarian nation, the leadership of Joseph I was unpleasant, and now the Saxons have been added. Many people wondered if Joseph I was broken and smashed and died and then came back to life.

Or want to use Saxony to balance Hungary?

But what His Majesty Joseph I didn't know was that he had fallen into some traps that had already been designed for him.

Austria was originally the most popular power in the German Confederation. This is not something that Prussia can match for a while, but with the dance with Prussia this time, it makes it more cohesive.

This makes Austria almost alone except for the special country of Silesia.

However, the war between Austria and Prussia caused the loss of more than 8,000 people in Prussia, and the casualties of Hanoverian soldiers and civilians exceeded 50,000. On Saxony's side, Ian and Austria also paid a price of 26,000, which defeated Saxony, and the latter was also killed and injured because of the war. Continued tragic, making more than 100,000 people.

This has caused the Austrian Empire to lose 150,000 troops in the more than one year since the Schleswig War in Denmark, which can be described as a very obvious weakening of Austria's national defense strength.

Many people even predict that Austria, among the six major powers, has long been the tail end of the crane, and it is not as good as the Ottoman Empire.

This means that Austria's own military strength and diplomacy have weakened the external environment due to the invasion of Saxony, which has made Austria's comprehensive strength even worse.

In the latest struggle for power within the German Confederation, many people are not optimistic about Austria.

On July 5, 1865, when the German Confederation seemed to have returned to peace due to the intervention of Britain and France, a small incident happened in the Bessarabia region of eastern Austria, but it welcomed the love of her daughter from all over the world. focus on.

It turned out that the Tsarist Russian Empire had been dissatisfied with the management of the Ottoman Empire's discriminatory policy on the ethnic groups in Tsarist Russia, and under the circumstances that many communications were useless, Tsarist Russia Alexander II had already sent troops to the north of Bessarabia. However, because of the pressure from other countries such as the United Kingdom, the Tsarist Russian army was only closely guarding the border, but it did not cross half a step.

But on July 4, 1865, a joint letter of more than 100,000 Tsarist Russian ethnic groups there was published in the Medical Tsarist Russian Parliament in St. Petersburg. In the joint letter, Otti was listed in detail. After the Man Empire seized the control of the Bessarabia region from the Tsarist Russia in 1856, the Ottomans immigrated to the Bessarabia region, running on the living space of the Tsarist Russians, and brainwashing the Tsarist Russians here. Ask the Tsarist Russian ethnic group to carry out their yearning against Tsarist Russia.

It's worth it!

All members of the Russian parliament in St. Petersburg cried out in anger.

So the parliament passed the appeal in this joint letter, that is, the Tsarist Russian Empire must take back the rule of Bessarabia in order to continue to have a peaceful environment for these Tsarist Russian compatriots So it passed After the parliamentary proposal was signed and confirmed by Alexander II, the imperial army of the Russian Empire in the northern part of the Bessarabia region set out.

In just one day, the northern part of Bessarabia was taken. Before other countries could respond, the 30,000 Russian troops took nearly half of the territory of Bessarabia on the third day.

The Ottoman Empire, which had occupied its own territory, was angry, and the British condemned it because the Austrian Empire in the west of Bessarabia was shocked.

France seems to be a conciliator and Napoleon III is addicted, and he reconciles again.

The Prussian and Dutch sides were silent.

Even Italy is eager to try, but no one knows what Emmanuel II is thinking.

For a time, the battle within the German Confederation that had just ended had not yet exhausted the countries, and the Tsarist Russian Empire staged another war in Bessarabia, which was dizzying.

Many people in various countries have to sigh: Europe has been really not peaceful in recent years!