Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

On June 22, 1881, Dutch Foreign Minister Joseph Beit and Austria-Hungary Reichberg met on the sidelines of the Balkan Peninsula Summit. This stimulated the other side of the German-Austrian Alliance, the German Empire, and caused Germany to dispatch one of the German Iron Triangle. Minister of Military Affairs and Logistics Ron made a hurried two-day visit to Groningen and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and finally rushed to express Germany's easing of tense relations with the Netherlands before Austria-Hungary released friendly relations with the Netherlands.

In response, Emperor Franz Joseph I of the Austro-Hungarian Empire seemed to have a constipated expression on his face.

Although he was distressed, he was unwilling to give in. However, facing the powerful German Empire and currently having poor relations with Italy, Tsarist Russia, the Ottomans, and now the Netherlands, Vienna was unwilling to go too far with Berlin, so it could only treat it as a no-brainer. knew.

“However, relations with the Netherlands should not lag behind Berlin.

So under the decision of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

On June 26, 1881, the Netherlands and the Austro-Hungarian Empire signed an agreement in Tirana, the capital of the Dutch Balkan Peninsula territory of Albania Province. Austria-Hungary recognized the existence of the Dutch Balkan Peninsula territory of Albania Province. The Netherlands was the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire over the Principality of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The two countries expressed their willingness to further negotiate on the Balkan Peninsula issue to inject more peaceful factors into peace in the region.

This was good news. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was separated from the Netherlands by the Kingdom of Montenegro, and to the east of the Kingdom of Montenegro was the Kingdom of Serbia, an important ally of the Russian Empire in the Balkans. For a time, the most important players in the Balkans gathered around Montenegro, such as Italy and Montenegro to the west of the Adriatic Sea can be said to have become sandwich cheese.

Kingdom of the Netherlands, Melbourne.

Mexican President Manuel Gonzalez has left Melbourne this morning on a Dutch warship escorted delegation, heading back to Mexico City.

"This man is a talented person, but in the environment like Mexico, everyone's protection of their own interests is the most important. Therefore, sooner or later, he and former President Porfirio Díaz will have a conflict."

William IV concluded.

Nicolas Pearson serves as the First Deputy Foreign Minister. Because Foreign Minister Joseph Beit is in the Balkans, he temporarily takes over the duties of the Dutch Foreign Minister.

Regarding Nicholas Pierson, William IV had to admire him because of his strong diplomatic ability. Since 1859, on his recommendation, he was appointed by his father William III as the then Dutch Ambassador to the Kingdom of Prussia. The fourth generation planned in Prussia in advance and waited for Bismarck to appear. With Bismarck coming to power in 1862, Pearson can be said to have provided the most solid foundation for the Netherlands and Prussia to form an alliance against France in those years, and finally to win over France and Prussia to expand their territories in Africa. The Netherlands also relied on the mutual checks and balances between the two countries to protect itself, and at the same time received tangible benefits. It also made the United Kingdom, which had been very wary of the rise of the Netherlands in the early days, take into account the idea of ​​​​an alliance among France, Prussia and the Netherlands. Looking at the rise of the Netherlands step by step, especially the unwillingness of Viscount Palmerston before his death, it is funny to think that the other party is the culprit of Belgium's independence.

Therefore, he who appeared to be tolerant of the Netherlands was actually the most scrupulous about the Netherlands. Before his death in 1867, he saw the Netherlands rise into a first-class power, and even relied on the Boers and other Dutch descendants to defeat the British army of hundreds of thousands in South Africa.

Britain's prestige in the world was even disgraced after this war, and its military losses were huge. The two domestic parties even shirk responsibility for each other and attack each other.

Pearson played a major role in the results obtained from this series of planning.

Nicholas Pearson quite agrees with this point.

However, he served as a diplomat abroad for nearly ten years, and after returning to China in 1867, he continued to serve as the third deputy minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. The entire diplomatic system is a rigorous profession, so he maintained a certain attitude about what should be said and what should not be said. Spend.

William IV: "Let's not talk about Bismarck. Now let's talk about your understanding of the Austro-Hungarian Empire."

"Yes" Nicholas Pearson:

"The current Austro-Hungarian Empire is actually much the same as the previous Austria. In Austria, Joseph I was more powerful at that time, but when it came to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the other principalities except Austria had not changed much, but the powerful Hungary demanded the same status as Austria Even the Kingdom of Hungary, in addition to recognizing the Austro-Hungarian Emperor as the King of Hungary, also required that Hungary have its own cabinet government and parliament.

Therefore, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was actually a united empire composed of two kingdoms (Austria and Hungary) and multiple principalities. However, the emperor of this united empire was far less powerful than Queen Victoria in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Britain.

Therefore, I think that the Austro-Hungarian Empire is actually more likely to become a vulnerability for us to attack the German-Austrian Alliance than Germany."

William IV already understood the direction pointed out by the other party, but he still pretended not to know and asked curiously: "What do you mean?"

Nicholas Pearson: "There are currently six key points in the feudal governance of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As long as we grasp these five points, we can find out."

"First point, the current Austro-Hungarian Empire has benefited from the development of the Enlightenment Movement in the 18th century. The Habsburg Dynasty has a group of middle-class intellectuals who have received humanistic education and scientific education. They have performed well in the public political field of Austria-Hungary. Extremely active. The Austro-Hungarian government opened positions to them and selected officials (civil servants) from them. These civil servants will also be rewarded for their outstanding services. The data I collected, in Tre Forty percent of civil servants who received peerage in the time of Queen Elizabeth were born into the middle class.”

William IV thought to himself: Isn't this the only example in the history of the motherland where a poor family succeeded by leaping over the dragon's gate?

Nicholas Pearson didn't know what William IV was thinking, and continued: "Second, the Austro-Hungarian Empire taxed the nobility to stabilize the country's finances. The tax-free privileges enjoyed by the nobility and the church were regarded as nobility under the Habsburg royal family. The core power of tradition and freedom possessed by the Church was also the key to the Austro-Hungarian royal family winning the support of the nobility and the Church.”

William IV frowned and said: "The existence of tax-free privileges is a double-edged sword for Austria-Hungary. It has the support of those two groups of people, but facing the existence of privileges is not conducive to the unification of Austria-Hungary = 1 National finance, increasing taxes is not beneficial to the country.”

Nicholas Pearson: "Yes, Queen Maria Theresa at that time took the lead in canceling the tax-free privileges of the aristocracy and the hereditary territories of Bohemia and Austria-the church in the name of the royal family."

William IV secretly thought: "Looking at Queen Theresa living up to her reputation in Europe, it would be strange that the Austrian Empire did not rise."

Nicholas Pearson: "Relaxing and ending feudal land relations liberated peasants' productivity. The Habsburgs believed that peasants were a loyal group that could be used to win public support for the dynasty, and this group had long been persecuted by the nobility's corvee. There is no economic autonomy whatsoever.

Therefore, Queen Maria Theresa abolished many of the privileges that nobles had over peasants, such as personal control and the privilege of peasants to work without pay, so that peasants could pay cash to be responsible to the state instead of the nobles. In addition, Vienna jointly passed The Civil Code was promulgated, giving peasants and nobles the same legal status as free persons. "

Fourth, encourage the growth of capitalist industry and commerce, as well as the development of transportation networks.

Fifth, provide sexual moral education and practical education in society to ensure the order of moral education and steadily improve the national literacy rate.

Sixth, reform the Catholic Church through state control of religious activities. Basic education in Habsburg is usually the responsibility of local clergy. Many school teachers are priests, especially Initial education for children.

The relationship between state and religion is extremely close due to education issues. The start of public education depends on the attitude of local priests. Therefore, Theresa and her descendants adopted the form of state-supervised education to intervene in their rule. Church influence on Habsburg elementary education.

This practice gradually spread to the field of higher education, and the Jesuit influence in Austro-Hungarian universities was visibly reduced."

Nicholas Pearson said: "These policies began with Queen Theresa (reigned 1740-1780), Joseph II (Theresa's eldest son reigned 1780-1790), Leopold II (Queen Theresa's second Third son, reigned 1790-1792), Franz II (eldest son of Leopold II, reigned 1792-1835), Ferdinand I (eldest son of Franz II, reigned 1835-1848), Franz Joseph I (nephew of Ferdinand I, reigned 1848-present).

In 108 years, six emperors were in power. From Austria to the current Austro-Hungarian Empire, every Habsburg emperor followed similar governing lines.

So to find the weaknesses, you must look for them through the six major policies that Queen Theresa started formulating earlier.”

William IV listened very carefully. Everyone understands something from a different perspective. As the King of the Netherlands, when he looked at the Austrian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the past, the Prime Minister would look at them at eye level, looking at the royal family of this country.

Pearson, on the other hand, looks at the gains and losses of government and national governance.

Therefore, William IV listened to another perspective and combined what he got was more fair.

Pearson: “The first breakthrough is that the channels for Austria-Hungary’s poor families to advance to the nobility have become narrower.

The second is that because of the tax exemption, the relationship between Franz Joseph I and the church was very tense. The latter had always been obsessed with the tax exemption, while the former had little tax revenue from Austria and it was difficult to reach his goal. Because of his ambition, he will not give the church the privilege of not taxing. Therefore, the relationship between the Catholic Church and Vienna is definitely not as peaceful as it appears.”

William IV said nothing and just nodded.

Pearson said: "Third, Junker nobles"