War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

In the eyes of Louis Philippe and the Orleans family, separatism is obviously more realistic than counterattacking France.

Alsace-Lorraine was protected by the German Confederation, and the millions of Germans living there were their best talisman.

After all, if the French government at this time wants to take back control of Alsace-Lorraine, it will turn into a war between the two nations.

As long as the Orleans family still holds the title of German Duke, the French government will be afraid of it.

Compared with the interests of the entire family, Louis Philippe's own life seemed insignificant.

In fact, as a 75-year-old man, Louis Philippe is not that concerned about his own safety.

In contrast, leaving more legacy to future generations is what he wants to do most now, so after getting Franz's promise, he agreed without hesitation.

Everything went much smoother than Franz imagined. Louis Philippe officially handed over the protection of Belgium from the House of Orleans to the Frankfurt Parliament.

Frankfurt, National Assembly of the German Empire.

Speaker Edward Simsson and Deputy Speaker Gabriel Riesel twitched their mouths at the same time when they saw the transfer letter. This was not a transfer of rights, it was clearly a reminder.

But they must pretend to be flattered in this gathering place of nationalists and accept the reminder. 【6】【9】【s】【h】【u】【x】【.】【c】【o】【m】

This superficially solved the legal basis for the German Confederation to support Belgium, but in fact it put the Frankfurt National Assembly in a dilemma.

The unauthorized actions of the Luxembourgers and the Dutch directly turned into officially endorsed support. Even in the eyes of the French, this was a conspiracy. Everything was planned by Belgium and the German Confederation.

What is even more frightening is that the reason to prevent Belgium from joining the German Confederation no longer exists.

After all, the sovereign state has handed over its power. If it is forcibly shut out, the National Assembly may be overthrown by those angry nationalists.

But if we don't keep it out, then the war between the German Confederation and France may be inevitable.

Theoretically, the Frankfurt National Assembly held the highest power in the German Empire (Confederation), but since there was no emperor (no real central government), their power was only theoretical.

In fact, the Frankfurt National Assembly did not have its own troops. The reason why it dared to attack Denmark was because of Prussia's presence, coupled with fanatical nationalism. The most important thing was that Denmark was not a strong country.

However, France at this time was completely different. This was a real power. This was a mountain that the Germans had not been able to climb for hundreds of years.

But the German nationalists don't care. They only know that the German Confederation was the victor in the previous two Luxembourg crises and the Alsace-Lorraine crisis.

Simply because Alsace-Lorraine was a member of the German Confederation, the French Provisional Government did not dare to pursue Louis Philippe.

In Belgium, the elite French army was defeated by volunteers from Germany. They did not even consider the possibility of failure.

However, the members of the Frankfurt National Assembly were not ordinary people who were dazzled by nationalism. They knew very well that during the previous two crises, if the Austrian Empire had not participated in the war, the German Confederation would have been crushed long ago.

In addition, Archduke Franz did not agree to be crowned Emperor of the German Empire, so the Austrian Empire is likely to choose to stay out of the matter, and even help the French suppress the Frankfurt National Assembly.

After all, the Frankfurt National Assembly at this time was actually a product of the revolution in a sense, and it planned to kill the German princes.

Under these circumstances, it is not impossible that the Austrian Imperial Government and the French Second Republic would join forces to strangle the German revolution.

Especially at this time, not many princes recognized this so-called German Empire, and many people even suffered from it.

In addition, the Jewish ancestry of the chairman and deputy speakers of the National Assembly, as well as nearly half of the members, was also exposed.

This left the Frankfurt Assembly with much less legitimacy, and if they had rejected Louis Philippe, they would have been immediately overwhelmed by a wave of nationalist fury.

If the German Confederation were defeated in a war with the French, they would also be shattered.

There is only one way for them to survive, and that is to win the war against France by any means, and use victory to maintain everything in front of them.

The National Assembly in Frankfurt offered Franz more favorable conditions, such as the emperor being able to retain part of his power and being able to represent the country on certain occasions, hoping to bring Austria into the fold.

On the other hand, they vigorously advocated war against France, and at the same time mobilized all the troops and materials they could use to invest in the Belgian battlefield.

In fact, the representatives of the Frankfurt National Assembly have never been able to figure out one thing, that is, they can coerce Bavaria and Prussia, but why can't they coerce Austria?

In fact, Franz has never stopped suppressing German nationalism in Austria over the years.

Franz is very aware of its side effects, so he has been avoiding making it bigger and trying to guide it in a gentler direction.

However, due to historical trends and some unintentional events, Austrian nationalism still exceeded Franz's imagination.

But generally speaking, the number of Germans in the Austrian Empire is seriously insufficient, and it is still difficult to coerce a country with 25% of the population. (19% during the same period in history)

At this time, the huge population became Austria's talisman.

On the other side, France, Paris.

The Nationalist and Reformist factions temporarily stopped quarreling, and both sides fully recognized the proposal to form an alliance with Britain and the Ottomans against Austria.

However, there were huge differences between the two sides on the mode of confrontation. Lamartine, the chairman of the National News Party, firmly opposed all-out war. He felt that sending a fleet to cooperate with the British to block the Austrian coastline to exert pressure was enough.

But the coastline of the Austrian Empire.

Anyone who has seen the map knows that the narrow coastline may not be able to accommodate more ships.

The Reformists wanted a comprehensive victory and were preparing to attack Austria simultaneously from four directions: Belgium, Switzerland, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the sea.

The reason for the reformist faction is simple: to clear the way for the future of France, and at the same time let the wavering outsiders around them figure out who is the boss.

Lamartine has historically been a staunch supporter of peaceful diplomacy. Historically, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and de facto head of government in the Second Republic.

His peaceful foreign policy historically won a relaxed political environment for the Second French Republic.

Lamartine's "Declaration to Europe" is a model of peaceful diplomacy, and its contents such as seeking common ground while reserving differences, peaceful coexistence, equality and reciprocity, and non-interference in each other's internal affairs have far-reaching influence.

But not everyone was opposed to the war. In fact, due to the pedestal and Louis Philippe's constant compromises with the British, coupled with the influence of nationalism, quite a few French people hated peace.