Holy Roman Empire

Chapter 566: The British Plan

At the Austrian embassy, a staff member, about thirty years old, reported, “Your Excellency, this is the intelligence we’ve recently gathered.

It’s worth noting that while Lord Maclean was visiting, at the same time, Sir Claude, the Permanent Under-Secretary at the British Foreign Office, entered the French embassy.

The two held a private meeting, and no one knew the exact content of their conversation. Our preliminary assessment is that their discussion likely involved the Near East War and with a 50% chance of touching on the issue of German unification.”

To win over Austria and make them go against France, while simultaneously using France to counterbalance Austria, and leveraging a Franco-Austrian-British alliance to maintain stability on the European continent, thereby solidifying their world dominance—this was British foreign policy.

Hümmel wasn’t at all surprised by Britain’s contact with France. The British wanted to preserve the Ottoman Empire as a thorn. At the same time, the Austrian government was also prepared to let the decaying empire survive a little longer so they could gradually exploit it.

If the Ottoman Empire was suddenly destroyed, Austria wouldn’t be able to consume such a large “piece of meat.” A European partition would not only ruin Austria’s carefully crafted strategy of manipulation but would also let Britain and France into its backyard.

Shouting about “unifying the German lands” was just a slogan and taking it seriously would mean they already failed. As a senior government official, Hümmel knew very well that the Austrian government was not prepared to unify Germany.

Hümmel nodded, “Leave the documents here. I’ll review them when I have time. For now, keep a close eye on the British. I have a feeling things aren’t as simple as they seem.”

The situation was progressing too smoothly—so smoothly that Hümmel didn’t have to do anything to achieve the desired outcome.

If it were any other matter, they could start celebrating in advance. But in the cutthroat world of international diplomacy, the smoother things seemed the more vigilant one needed to be.

No one could guarantee that this wasn’t a smokescreen planted by their rivals. The agreement between Britain and Austria was only verbal and carried no binding force. It would be all too easy for them to go back on it.

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At the Prime Minister’s residence on Downing Street, the British Cabinet gathered.

Prime Minister Gladstone asked, “How is the plan progressing? Have France and Austria taken the bait?”

Foreign Secretary Maclean responded, “It’s going very well. Both France and Austria are highly wary of each other. As long as we control the timing and proceed step by step according to the plan, without giving them time to make any private deals, the outcome will be secured.

Compared to France and Austria, I’m more concerned about the German Federal Empire. There are too many states in the German region, and Austria has too much influence there. Nationalism has already awakened in the region.

I worry that even with our support behind the scenes, they may not follow our plan. If they don’t hold firm, our investment might go down the drain.

As of now, Hanover still hasn’t fully controlled the country. Their imperial parliament is still operating under the traditional model, with each state having one vote, and that’s proving to be quite a headache.”

“One state, one vote.” This was the foundational principle for establishing the German Federal Empire. Otherwise, why would all the various German states have chosen to follow the Kingdom of Hanover?

Behind the voting rights was Austria’s handiwork. From the very beginning, the political structure was designed to prevent the German Federal Empire from being fully unified.

Now, the results have been quite effective. After all these years, the German Federal Empire remains that “comedic empire,” always arguing whenever an issue arises.

Logically, such a political structure should hinder national development, but the reality is quite the opposite. The local economy has developed very well.

These states have a high degree of autonomy and can flexibly formulate economic policies without needing any intervention from the Hanover-led central government.

Economic foundations determine political structures, and due to a mix of geographic, cultural, and political-diplomatic factors, the numerous German states have inevitably tied their economies to Austria.

Not every small state has ambitions. For many smaller countries, developing their economy is enough. After all, no matter who becomes the leader, it won’t be them. As long as the leader is one of their own, they’re fine with it.

Some of the smallest states, on the level of villages or towns, have even abolished their military altogether. To them, whether or not they have an army makes no difference.

These days, duels are out of fashion. With armies of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, far exceeding their total population, they stand no chance against foreign invasion. It’s more reliable to rely on a powerful state for protection.

According to the British plan, the German Federal Empire would later separate itself from Austria, completely freeing itself from Austrian influence to become a truly independent nation.

The highest authority in the German Federal Empire is the Imperial Parliament. Under the “one state, one vote” system, these seemingly insignificant small states can, if united, veto any decision made by the central government.

Maclean’s concern is valid. If the German Federal Empire’s parliament decided to oppose the plan, it would become a laughingstock.

Prime Minister Gladstone frowned, “That is indeed a problem, but we can leave it to the German federal government to handle.

If they can’t convince those states, the Emperor can just order the parliament to be shut down. It might cause a bit of chaos, but I believe they’ll be able to overcome it.

Once the German Federal Empire annexes the Rhineland, their power will have a qualitative breakthrough. In terms of total economy and industry, they could rank among the top five in Europe.

If Austria were to annex the German Federal Empire, then the European continent would truly be dominated by a single power, which none of the European nations want to see.

Now that the German Federal Empire is being further cut off from Austria, completely ending the possibility of German unification, it’s the trend of the times. No matter how angry the Austrian government gets, they won’t be able to resist the collective will of the European nations.”

The German Federal Empire was already the most prosperous region in the German territories, and with the Rhineland, it would become even more powerful.

Looking at the map, it’s clear that the core strength of the original Second Reich (German Empire) lies here. In terms of industry and economy, this region is equivalent to half the power of the Second Reich during the same period in the original timeline.

This scale is already quite substantial. Its total economic output surpasses that of mainland Spain, and its per capita income exceeds that of both France and Austria.

The only shortcoming is the many internal states which dilute the strength of the nation, especially in terms of military power. Otherwise, the German Federal Empire could have already joined the ranks of the great powers.

If solely calculating the economic output of the mainland, both France and Austria now surpass Britain. Austria has already become the world’s largest economy.

Economic structure determines the superstructure. Once a country reaches a certain scale, developing both sea power and land power simultaneously is not impossible.

If Austria were to annex the German Federal Empire, it would possess the strength to develop both land and sea power at the same time, which would severely threaten Britain’s dominance.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Largo Lloyd said, “It seems we’ve overlooked something. Simply changing the name of the country might not achieve the desired outcome.

Let’s not forget that the German Federal Empire is already an independent country and has no legal connection with the Holy Roman Empire that Austria dabbles with. But even so, the Austrian government still holds up the banner of uniting the German territories, and the people of the German lands still support it.

The nationalism that the French stirred up has now flourished in the German territories, completely unaffected by the old rules of the game.

If we can’t separate the people ideologically, changing the country’s name will have limited actual effect and might even further stimulate nationalism.”

Legally speaking, Austria and the German Federal Empire have no connection whatsoever. In theory, the citizens of the German Federal Empire shouldn’t care about Austria.

But unfortunately, nationalism has changed the situation. Nationalists insist that the German territories are a unified whole. They recognize the new Holy Roman Empire as the successor to the defunct Holy Roman Empire’s legitimate legacy while refusing to acknowledge the current German Federal Empire.

This complicates matters. While the German Federal Empire is indeed independent, Austria still has a popular base for its ambition of uniting the German territories.

Britain’s idea of having the German Federal Empire change its name was actually a political move to further cut ties and lay the foundation for diluting the idea of a unified Germany.

Foreign Secretary Maclean shook his head, “German and Austrian cultural traditions are deeply intertwined, so separating them at the grassroots level will be very difficult.

Even among the countries that broke away from the Holy Roman Empire earlier, it’s really only the Netherlands that has done well in fully de-Germanizing.

Belgium and Switzerland are still heavily influenced by German culture, but they’ve managed to cut ties with Austria. That’s why the Austrian government doesn’t include them in its plans for German unification.

Prussia has also done a good job. In a few years, it could break free from the influence of the German unification ideology.

The German Federal Empire, due to internal issues and its lack of a strong central government, hasn’t made any moves.

Now we must give it a push, or one day when we take a nap, and the German territories will be unified.”