War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Britain obtained the monopoly on the slave trade from the Spanish, and at the same time weakened its trade rival the Netherlands, and truly began to dominate world trade.

In particular, the acquisition of Gibraltar and Minorca directly blocked the Mediterranean route. Even today, this is one of Britain's most valuable assets.

In addition, the British also forced the French to expel James Francis Edward Stuart, the pretender to the throne, and recognized the successor of Queen Anne (the daughter of James II) of the Stuart dynasty. The claim to the British throne by George I of the Nova dynasty.

This seemed to be just a bunch of meaningless recognitions without the benefit of actual territorial and trade rights, but in fact these seemingly useless provisions solved the biggest internal contradiction in Britain at the time and cleared up internal hidden dangers for development.

As mentioned earlier, the Jacobite party used to counter the British originated from here, but even if Franz did not take the initiative to fight for it, this title would eventually fall on the Habsburg family.

By the way, at this time, this title belonged to Francesco V of the Este family, who later became the Duke of Modena.

Modena is one of the four small states in Italy.

France also signed away its claims to Canada's northern Hudson Bay colony and ceded the eastern Canadian islands of Acadia and Newfoundland.

This, in a sense, led to the birth of Canada.

The last "Peace of Utrecht" brought all the blood shed and efforts made by the French to naught.

Although Anglo-Saxon history books describe the French as the first winners, in fact a country with a population of only 20 million lost two million people.

The world's number one navy at that time was completely wiped out, and it took twenty years for the world's number one army to recover. Financial collapse, social unrest, hunger and riots occurred one after another, and the former Sun King became the "Tai Sun King".

The "King of Taiyue" was deaf in one ear due to the late stage of Louis XIV's syphilis, coupled with the defeat of the war and changes in the domestic situation.

In addition, Louis XIV was once very loved by the French, but after the War of the Spanish Throne, his popularity plummeted, and people would curse him with a "dirty word" almost every time they mentioned him.

The country was in ruins, the overseas colonies were lost, and the important nodes at sea were lost, which made it subject to others in the subsequent overseas competition.

The "Peace of Utrecht" even stipulated that Spain and France could never merge, making all efforts in vain.

This is also the reason why the reaction of the European powers was surprisingly small when France and Spain were married again.

The second biggest winner among the Anglo-Saxon population was Austria, but in fact Charles VI only got a bunch of enclaves. At the same time, he was so damaged that he could no longer use force to suppress the minorities he ruled. He could only exchange rights by transferring rights. support.

If Prince Eugen (the other one on the Heroes' Square) hadn't appeared out of nowhere and violently beaten the Ottomans who had taken advantage of the situation, there would have been another siege of Vienna, and if the luck was bad enough, the country would be exterminated.

In addition, Spain, which is a loser to grandma's family, and the Netherlands, which has been directly reduced to a second-rate country, have also won money.

(The Netherlands was a first-rate power at that time, and the name "Sea Coachman" was not for nothing.)

According to the Anglo-Saxons, although Spain lost all European territories outside its homeland, it also lost its economic hegemony in overseas colonization.

At the same time, the Spanish mainland became the main battlefield, and almost every city changed hands several times. The people were in dire straits and suffered heavy casualties.

but! The Spaniards, who had been crazily violated, united, and the domestic separatist forces also suffered a heavy blow. After all, everyone was destroyed by the war, so this was a favorable condition for the implementation of the centralization policy.

The king from France brought advanced ideas: centralization, enlightenment ideas, science and technology. Without the French, technology and ideas would not have spread. Even the heroic view of history would not dare to boast like this.

Summary Although Spain was in ruins and lost more than half of its territory, it made progress.

Among them, the only one that "works hard without complaining" and still suffers a little bit is the United Kingdom.

For the sake of world peace, they traveled thousands of miles to Europe to participate in the war, and on the way, they also took away other countries' excess territory and trade privileges, and put all the dirty money in their own pockets. What kind of "internationalist spirit" is this? It actually attracted later generations to imitate.

"I am an Anglo-Saxon person who likes to help others. I have never been a fighter in my life, but I only like to resolve fights."

Although it is tempting to recast the glory of the Habsburg family, the fate of the Sun King is already in sight, and the decline of Spain in the industrial age, which lacks coal and iron, is almost inevitable, so Archbishop Rauscher can't talk too much. , Franz also lacked interest.

Prussia was the Austrian Empire's biggest rival in the German Confederation. Although it was still very weak at this time, people familiar with history know that Prussia shouldered the burden of unifying Germany, and finally defeated Austria and France to form Germany.

Historically, Austria also wanted to marry Prussia to strengthen its control within the German Confederation, but it encountered strong opposition from top to bottom.

However, the general background at that time was that the two countries were at odds over the Hessian issue, and the Austrian Empire itself had also suffered heavy losses during the Year of Storms and was at a low point.

But at this time, Austria was a complete behemoth in the eyes of Prussia. It was not only the chairman of the German Confederation, but also the largest entity in the German Customs Union.

At the same time, its international influence was terrifyingly large. Coupled with the tradition of the Holy Roman Empire, Prussia had no hope at all.

The previous refugee incident is the best proof that Prussia does not even have the right to say whether the Prussian-Austrian border should be opened.

The status gap and changes in mentality between the two are likely to affect the decisions made.

Marriage with Prussia would greatly ease the conflict between the two countries. However, it is unrealistic to annex Prussia. However, it may be possible to achieve the result of peaceful partition of Germany, or to maintain the status quo of the German Confederation.

If you want to rebuild the Holy Roman Empire or adopt the Greater Germany plan, then there must be a war between Prussia and Austria, and it will not be stopped by so-called alliances or in-laws.

As for maintaining the status quo, it is only temporary. When a careerist or a not-so-smart king comes to power, war is still unavoidable.

Because unification is the general trend, what Franz did was just postpone the war, and the root cause of the war did not disappear.

However, even if the war is won, it will be difficult to create the so-called Greater Germany, because the great powers are not fools, and multi-national interference and encirclement are inevitable.

If reunification is forced, it will be nothing more than a reenactment of World War I.

There are two marriageable princesses in Prussia, one is Princess Louise, the youngest daughter of Prince William I, and the other is Princess Charlotte, the fourth brother of the current King of Prussia, William IV.

Princess Louise was 10 years old when she was born in 1836. She was of marriageable age in 1851 and the Civil War had just ended.

Princess Charlotte was born in 1831 and was about the same age as Franz, but she was short-lived and died in 1855.

Both of them were favored at home and had no interest in politics. They were very typical images of nineteenth-century princesses.

The resistance to the marriage with Prussia came more from the Hohenzollern family and the church. Although the Habsburg family was not without pagan marriages, Franz's character as a born saint had already been established, and the Austrian church affirmed Will not give up.

The Prussian church will also be very opposed. In fact, before Bismarck came to power, no one in Prussia could solve domestic religious problems.

In particular, the Archbishop of Cologne even conspired with the bourgeoisie to overthrow the Prussian dynasty and establish a Catholic commercial republic.

In 1842, the King of Prussia had to order the continued construction of the hugely expensive Cologne Cathedral in exchange for the support of some clergy.