Chapter 309 Checks and Balances

Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

Franz dressed up and came to Madame Sophie's bedroom early in the morning, but the latter chose to avoid him. The palace people speculated what the mother and son were up to.

The reason was that Franz planned to go to sea with Friedrich and test the performance of the new warship. Of course, this reason was unconvincing to Madame Sophie. She felt that her eldest son, who always did his own thing, must have taken another risky move, otherwise he would never come to say goodbye to her.

But at this time, Franz was no longer the child who had just left the nursery. He not only had his own thoughts and insights, but also cultivated and managed his own power.

So even a fierce and domineering mother could not just spank him as in the past, so the two sides were deadlocked.

After a cup of tea, Franz got up and left. After all, he had other things to do and didn't have much time to stay here for tea.

The voyage had been planned, but before Franz left, he needed to ask his subordinates to deal with the three biggest unstable factors, Britain, France and the United States.

As for what kind of bloody storm the three parties will stir up in Central and North America, it is none of Austria's business; after all, this is how the colonies of the 19th century were. If someone eats more, someone eats less; if some countries cannot be satisfied for a long time, they will not be satisfied, and dissatisfaction will cause friction, and escalation will lead to war.

In history, it was not the Monroe Doctrine that maintained peace in the Western Hemisphere, but the colonial policy of the British Empire in Latin America that allowed the powers to reach a delicate balance.

When the Holy Alliance held a meeting in Verona, Austrian Italy in 1822, it authorized France to send troops to suppress the Latin American independence movement in the name of the Holy Alliance.

What stopped all this was not the piece of paper, but the strong ships and guns of the Anglo-Saxons. Of course, John Bull was not a messenger of justice. The reason for doing this was not because of the word "interest".

Look at the fact that Austria's industrial development had just started, and Franz was overwhelmed by various resource issues and even planned to take risks. Think about Britain as the world's factory. Their demand for raw materials and markets is endless.

Latin America has a large number of exclusive resources and no industrial base, which provides the British with another option, economic colonization.

On the one hand, Britain seized a large amount of cheap American resources in the form of loans and aid, and on the other hand, it dumped a large amount of cheap industrial products to it, destroying its economic foundation.

The most famous of these is Argentina, which owed the British money until the end of World War II.

When the Holy Alliance intended to interfere in the American independence movement, Britain had already established extensive trade relations in America and was in an absolutely dominant position. How could it give up this advantage?

The man behind the plan to let the French interfere in the American independence movement was Metternich, which was also the beginning of the diplomatic conflict between Austria and Britain.

Some people think that Metternich is just a cross-dressing boss, but in fact it is not; this "European Prime Minister" did make a lot of plans, but unfortunately, given the weak national strength and lack of real power, he encountered several powerful politicians in succession, which made him a little exhausted; but he still brought decades of precious peace to the European continent that suffered from war.

But now it is different. The British have stretched their front lines around the world too far, chosen too many places to start the war, and faced countless enemies.

The Afghan War had already cost Britain 15 million pounds, which was equivalent to the sum of all the British wars after the Napoleonic Wars, excluding the Turkish-Egyptian War.

The cost of the Opium War was only 4.215 million pounds.

What's more terrible is that Russia did not sign the Straits Convention, which means that they still have the hegemony of the Black Sea and can shut the British out at any time, directly threatening the interests of the Near East.

According to London's estimates, they need at least 200,000 land forces to deal with the Russians, one-third of the Royal Navy, and a period of five to ten years to ensure victory in the war.

John Tyler of the United States was not an incompetent president. On the contrary, he had been looking for opportunities to drive the British out of Oregon, and resolutely fought back against the provocations of the Canadian colonial government.

At the same time, he increased investment in the navy and promoted the reform of its military system, accelerating the pace of approval for the construction of a batch of battleships.

(All of them are 3,200-ton Pennsylvania-class)

This North American politician's combination of punches made his northern neighbor somewhat at a loss, and he had to ask for help from his motherland. Although the annoyed British wanted to intervene, they had to express their helplessness due to the opposition of domestic capitalists and the excessive hostility of the United States.

Because at this time, America was the largest raw material producer in Britain, and Latin America, which was very inefficient, could not replace it at all.

A famous American cotton merchant once said.

"As long as American cotton is not delivered to Britain for three months, their factories will have to stop production. If it is not shipped to Britain for half a year, the world's number one position in the textile industry will be replaced. If American cotton stops supplying Britain for a year, they will kneel down and beg us."

In fact, the British also deeply understand this, so they keep opening up new cotton producing areas in order to reduce their dependence on Americans.

So London had no way to deal with Washington at this time. It could only give verbal warnings and did not dare to use blockades and embargoes, because that was no different from sanctioning itself.

In addition, the emerging industrial country Belgium was also not at peace. They had been flirting with their neighbor France. Of course, the French were not only very happy to see this situation, but also allowed the Belgians to invest and develop in French colonies.

In fact, this is not difficult to understand, because Guizot had always wanted to establish a Franco-Belgian alliance and take the opportunity to control the entire lowland area.

But the lowlands of the Netherlands were the forbidden fruit of the British, so when the French proposed to build a friendly railway from Paris to Brussels, the British were the first to jump out and oppose it.

Although the French gave in in the end, this also made the British uncomfortable.

Austria's expansion in Italy and its act of retaking Belgrade made the British unhappy.

But in the face of so many global affairs, the number of British officials has always remained at around 3,000. At this time, the number of civil servants in France was as high as 100,000, and Austria was close to 80,000.

Maybe many people can't understand what this concept is. For example, the number of American civil servants in 2021 is 19.68 million, accounting for 6.5% of the US population.

At this time, the number of people controlled by the United Kingdom in the world is close to 400 million, and its civil servant population accounts for only about 0.00075% of the total population, so in the face of such a complex international situation, it can only rely on a large number of temporary workers.

In this way, their administrative efficiency can be imagined. Moreover, compared with formal officials, these temporary workers with different backgrounds are more likely to become targets of bribery, and they are also more likely to sell their own intelligence.

It is precisely because of this that Franz knows the British intelligence well and makes corresponding strategies to counter it.

Of course, in addition to Britain's own problems, France reawakened the genes of the colonists after acquiring the Texas colony, which is also an important reason.

After all, as long as the hungry wolf has tasted the taste of flesh and blood, he will remember it.

Thanks to the book friends Shixianzhiling and Tang Seng's hair washing with Rejoice 00 for their rewards, as well as the support of all book friends. , Thank you.