I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 289 What kind of feelings are discussed between countries?

After hearing this, Queen Mary immediately looked at Archbishop Brian: "My brother is suffering from illness, and this is what happened in the Southern Netherlands. I think we should help him deal with the rebellion."

She crossed her arms and thought: "The Dutch should have a lot of influence on the Southern Netherlands, and we have always supported the Dutch Patriot Party. Now it is time for them to reciprocate."

Archbishop Briand nodded immediately: "Of course it is possible, Your Majesty, but in fact, I think His Majesty Joseph II can easily suppress the thousands of thugs in Brabant."

Joseph frowned as he recalled the information about the Brabant uprising.

This is not a rebellion that Austria can easily resolve!

Historically, Britain, Prussia, and the Netherlands quickly intervened in this chaos, and then an uprising broke out in Liège in the eastern part of the Southern Netherlands. There were more than 20,000 rebels in the Southern Netherlands alone, plus The combat effectiveness of the Prussian intervention force and the large amount of funds provided by the Netherlands cannot be underestimated.

The reality is that the Austrian counter-rebellion army encountered a fierce battle as soon as it entered the Southern Netherlands, and was eventually almost wiped out by the Prussian and Nepalese coalition forces.

The Austrian commander had no choice but to withdraw to Luxembourg fortification, and urgently requested help from Vienna.

At that time, Joseph II passed away, and the newly enthroned Leopold II saw that the situation was not good, so he had to cancel the reform measures of his brother Joseph II in order to stabilize the situation in the Southern Netherlands and the country.

Later, Leopold II delivered many benefits to the Hungarians under his rule, including completely rolling back the reform measures here, and finally won the support of the Hungarian nobles.

Soon after, Austria assembled almost all the troops in Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, and Galicia, a total of 180,000 troops, as well as more than 10,000 troops of the Archduke of Bavaria, and marched to South Nederland in a mighty manner. orchid.

On the Prussian side, King William II also handed over more than 100,000 Prussian troops to the Duke of Brunswick, and roped in Saxony, Mainz, Hesse and other countries to form a coalition army with a total of 150,000 troops, determined to intervene. The situation in the Southern Netherlands.

Wilhelm II even asked newly-aligned Poland to send troops to reinforce the Southern Netherlands. Prince Poniatowski prepared 30,000 troops, but he hesitated to send troops because he did not want to offend Austria.

Even so, the Southern Netherlands rebels plus the Prussian coalition were as numerous as the Austrian army.

At the end of 1790, a large-scale fierce battle broke out between the two sides. At that time, all European countries believed that this would be the beginning of another Seven Years' War.

However, just as the war became more intense, internal strife broke out between the conservatives and liberals in the Southern Netherlands Rebels.

In the end, the liberal Van der Nott succeeded in seizing power, and the conservative Onk went into exile, and the rebel army suddenly fell into chaos.

The Austrian army took the opportunity to attack and quickly occupied important towns such as Liege and Brussels. The Prussian army once retreated to the Netherlands.

Just when William II was preparing to gather more troops to fight back, France's political ambitions intensified, attracting the attention of Prussia and Austria.

Then Louis XVI was beheaded, and the two countries immediately stopped fighting and issued the "Pilnitz Declaration" to form the first anti-French alliance. The armies of both sides on the Southern Netherlands front line gathered together and became a force to intervene in France.

It can be said that Louis XVI selflessly used his own brains to eliminate the possible "Second Seven Years' War".

Joseph's fingers tapped lightly on the armrest of the chair. Now that he has pressed the French Grand Order, the war situation caused by the Brabant Uprising is likely to continue to expand.

In this war, how can France maximize its own interests with the least effort?

At the top of the conference table, Queen Mary said in a firm tone: "It's good to give my poor brother a break. We have nothing to lose by going to say hello to the Dutch, and we can also gain the gratitude of Austria. That's it." go a head."

Joseph shook his head secretly. At the moment, Austria's main attention was on Prussia, but this did not mean that they had a deep friendship with France.

On the contrary, if Austria wants to become the hegemon of Europe, France is the biggest obstacle. They always regard France as their biggest imaginary enemy.

Historically, the reason why the anti-French alliance was born so quickly was that "revenge for Louis XVI and his wife" was just superficial rhetoric. The core factor was Austria, Prussia, and the United Kingdom, who wanted to take advantage of France's fall into chaos and weakness due to the Great Order. At this time, we can solve France's serious problem in one fell swoop!

Later, if the emperor had not been born out of nowhere, France in the 19th century would probably have been beaten to pieces by the anti-French coalition forces, and even split into a bunch of small countries.

Regardless of the fact that my mother is an Austrian princess, it doesn't mean anything at all. When Austria wants to take action, she won't hesitate at all. Speaking of relatives, the entire European royal family is related to each other, but over the past hundreds of years, whenever there is a dispute over interests, they will immediately get out of their wits.

Therefore, there is no need to talk about any feelings between countries, there are only interests!

Only by developing France into a country with superior strength can we obtain real security in a European continent full of powerful countries.

Joseph quickly recalled the historical trends of Austria, Prussia and other countries in his mind, and gradually outlined the general framework of using the momentum of the Brabant Uprising to benefit France.

He looked at Queen Mary: "Your Majesty, we should really help Austria."

Seeing the queen's smile, he immediately continued: "But we may also be able to take this opportunity to get the Walloon region. You know, that is a very important place for France."

Wallonia is a large region in the southern Netherlands. Almost all people living in it are French-speaking people, who are naturally very close to France.

And more importantly, there is one of the largest coal mines in Europe!

Coal is the blood of the Industrial Revolution, and it is even more precious for France, which is naturally short of coal.

The Saarland region—that is, Alsace and Lorraine—could supply France with its most basic coal needs, but had insufficient reserves to take off in the Industrial Revolution.

This is also an important reason why France fought so hard in history and was never able to defeat Britain and Germany in the first industrial revolution.

It can be said that obtaining coal from Wallonia and iron from Luxembourg will lay the foundation for the French Industrial Revolution to take off.

Of course, France's current desire for Wallonia is mainly due to its French-speaking population of more than 1.5 million and the nearby Rhine River.

Queen Mary fell silent upon hearing this. She didn't expect that her son would point out France's interests to her so calmly. In comparison, just now I only thought of helping my sick brother.

She nodded slightly, agreeing with the Crown Prince's statement.

Although she is the sister of Joseph II, she is first and foremost the queen of France. For her, the interests of France must come first!