War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Saxony was once the strongest state in North Germany, allied with France, and unified Poland and Austria to compete with each other.

However, during the Thirty Years' War, Saxony joined the Protestant Alliance led by the French. As a result, it was vulnerable to Wallenstein's army and the entire territory fell.

Wallenstein's mercenaries were not good people. Coupled with the religious contradictions promoted by the church, the war on the land of Saxony never stopped. In the past twenty years, this first powerful country was directly reduced to scorched earth.

Although Saxony avoided the War of the Spanish Throne, the Duke of Saxony was also the King of Poland and was inexplicably involved in the Great Northern War (February 22, 1700 - September 10, 1721).

As luck would have it, their opponent was Karl XII, the greatest commander in the Kingdom of Sweden after the Second Master Gu. The Bossa coalition suffered repeated defeats, and finally had to choose to rebel.

As a result, the great commander suddenly wanted to expedition to Russia.

Saxony had just taken a breath and saw that Prussia next door was making a lot of money during the War for the Austrian Throne (December 16, 1740 - October 18, 1748) and wanted to get a share of the pie, but the Queen fell in love with it. BUFF's Hungarian was beaten violently.

As for the discipline of nomadic people, everyone knows it.

Then in the following Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763), the Saxons became the first target of Prussia's attack, and the latter's commander happened to be Frederick II.

As a result, Saxony was defeated in just one month. Frederick the Great directly and unceremoniously took away 86% of Saxony's annual income, and then incorporated all the surrendered Saxon troops into the Prussian army.

Then Saxony, as a puppet army, was beaten in turn by Austria, France, and Russia.

After finally surviving the Napoleonic Wars, Saxony saw that the two big brothers next door (Austria and Prussia) had been taken care of by the French barbarians, so naturally they would join if they couldn't beat them.

Napoleon's expedition to Russia in 1812

Although the Kingdom of Saxony has long lost its former glory, marriage with it is still a feasible option.

Although Saxony is no longer a military power, its strategic position is still important. In addition, thanks to the establishment of the German Customs Union, Saxony's economy has also been growing in recent years.

At the same time, as a transit point between North and South Germany, its voice and status within the German Confederation are also rising.

The southern German region basically has the same standard gauge as Austria, while the northern German region basically has broad gauge railways under the influence of Prussia.

Most countries chose sides, with only Saxony building half broad gauge and half standard gauge.

What seemed foolish at the time actually paid huge dividends.

Regarding the track gauge, the standard track gauge is 1435mm. Those below this value are narrow gauge railways, and those above this value are broad gauge railways.

In the early nineteenth century, the railways were mainly ruler-gauge railways (600mm), meter-gauge railways (1000mm), and British-style railways (1435mm).

In fact, the freight pressure at that time was not that great, and the cities that needed railways most were often mining and industrial cities, so it was easy to turn, and the small-footprint railways became popular.

Don't underestimate the problem of turning, especially on mountain roads where the area is limited. If the railway is too wide, it is not just a matter of floor space. It may even require a section of viaduct, and the additional cost will be astronomical.

In addition, in order to ensure the passage of wider and heavier carriages, the cost of bridges and tunnels will also rise sharply, and the maintenance cost is more painful than the construction cost.

The Austrian Empire, as a country with many mountains and rivers, is obviously not suitable for broad gauge railways.

However, the ambitious engineers of the Austrian Empire still put forward the suggestion of 1500mm gauge, because in addition to slightly increasing the transportation capacity, the most important thing is to reflect the style of a big country, because the widest railway at that time was the British 1435mm.

Franz obviously would not do something that would lead to real disaster in vain, but after doing a lot of research, he found that 6.5 centimeters would not have much impact, and it would also help standardize production and slightly improve transportation capacity and stability. sex.

Franz made this decision after careful consideration and extensive research, which would set him up for trouble in the future.

Not many countries adopted broad-gauge railways in later generations, and even fewer powerful countries. The most famous of them is the Indian Railway, but its transportation capacity is not as good as that of Spain.

In history, Americans also used wide-gauge railways for a period of time, but they soon discovered the problem. No matter how wide the railway was, it was not as good as increasing the speed and power of the locomotives.

As for the so-called more and larger space, it is just a matter of adding an extra carriage. And the so-called safety is just that. Whether or not an accident occurs mainly depends on management and maintenance.

Russia, Spain, and Portugal adopted broad-gauge railways mainly for military defense considerations.

In the book, the 1600mm railway adopted by Prussia at the instigation of Friedrich List was also based on national defense and security considerations.

After all, the Austrian Empire was stronger than Prussia at this time.

Closer to home, Saxony in this era was still very close to Austria, especially because the Queen of Saxony and Mrs. Sophie were twins, and the King Friedrich August II was not too busy, so they were even closer.

However, the object of Franz's marriage was not the child of Lady Sophie's sister, but the daughter of the next King of Saxony, John I, because Friedrich August II had no heirs.

John I had many daughters, the eldest of whom was married; the second daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was not married, but there were many rumors about her, which was unacceptable to the Habsburg family.

Of the remaining four princesses, three were in poor health, and only Princess Stephanie (born in 1836) was relatively healthy.

Most of the great powers except Prussia would not object to the marriage between Austria and Saxony, and Prussia's opposition was actually of little use.

John I was not yet the king at this time, and he would be very happy to make decisions for his daughter if there was a marriage.

As a princess of the same age as his sister, Franz was basically familiar with her. After all, little Maria liked to chatter about her children when they had nothing to do.

Princess Stephanie doesn't have a strong personality. She doesn't like reading or playing around. She just likes to be alone quietly. She is a competent flower vase.

The biggest resistance came from Franz's mother, Mrs. Sophie, because the latter felt that John's family's physical fitness was too poor to give birth to a healthy baby.

Although Lady Sophie has four sons, she is well aware of the importance of an heir.

This was mainly due to the medical level at that time. It was normal for heirs to have accidents, such as the King of Rome who was "protected".

Therefore, according to the traditional concept, whether a monarchy can be strong and sustainable mainly depends on whether it can survive.

In addition to having a better relationship with this transit station in North and South Germany, marrying Saxony also has a strong desire for revenge against Prussia.