Holy Roman Empire

Chapter 343: Falling Into A Pit

On April 15, 1863, the Kingdom of Sardinia passed a nationwide referendum, electing Napoleon III as their king, marking the beginning of Frances annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Undoubtedly, this referendum could not have been truly nationwide. Only the social elites who supported France were eligible to vote.

Over six hundred representatives of the Kingdom of Sardinia unanimously elected Napoleon III as their king. If this vote count were magnified by ten thousand times and rounded off, it would represent the entire population of Sardinia electing Napoleon III as their king.

Before this, all those implicated in the regicide case had been tried. Those sentenced to death were executed, those imprisoned were jailed, and those who fled were declared wanted.

In any case, regicides must be punished severely; this was the shared will of all monarchies.

As for the truth of the matter, it was no longer important; all traces had been eradicated by the French, making any attempt to overturn the verdict impossible.

Those who managed to escape from prison were all clever individuals who immediately cooperated with the French.

To put it bluntly, everyone understood that the so-called suspects were simply a fallacy. Those who truly got involved either fled or were executed.

Now that the French sought to annex the Kingdom of Sardinia, they inevitably needed to eliminate dissidents. However, this required a pretext; they couldnt just go around killing people arbitrarily. Fabricating false accusations provided a convenient solution.

With all the international delegations having left the Kingdom of Sardinia, leaving France as the sole power, they naturally had the final say in all matters.

After the referendum results came out, the international community was naturally in an uproar. Although other countries tacitly accepted Frances annexation of Sardinia, it did not mean they would support it.

In public opinion, the French were heavily criticized. Many international figures also called for vigilance against French expansionism to prevent the outbreak of a second European war.

As the victims, the Italians organized a petition group, seeking help from European countries and hoping to use international pressure to force the French to abandon their annexation of Sardinia.

As one of the major European powers, the Austrian government also received petitions. After reading the heartfelt pleas submitted by the Italians, Franz had to admit they were touching, but unfortunately, they were of little use.

Franz sneered, Tell them that we regret this incident, but it was a disaster brought on by the Sardinian government itself.

Everyone must take responsibility for their actions. When the Sardinian government supported extremist groups, they should have considered the consequences it may bring.

After the incident, the Sardinian people also sided with the extremists, harboring the culprits who escaped. Now its time for the Sardinian people to pay the price for it.

In a sense, the annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia by France is also a good thing.

From now on, the greatest enemy of Italian nationalists would no longer be Austria, but the ambitious French.

Annexing Sardinia was just the beginning. Once Pandoras box was opened, it could not be closed again.

Emboldened by the successful annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the French radicals would surely become more arrogant, and Napoleon III wouldnt be able to suppress them.

The proud French have always dreamed of world domination.

Without this stimulation, Napoleon III could barely keep things under control. Now, he was about to be pushed onto the warpath by nationalists!

Prime Minister Felix proposed, Your Majesty, should we support the Italians a bit and make trouble for the French, lest they get carried away?

Clearly, after annexing Sardinia, the French had become conceited, behaving as if they were the worlds rulers.

Prime Minister Felix naturally felt very annoyed seeing this, wanting to teach them a lesson.

Franz smiled faintly and said, Theres no need. Italian nationalists are also our enemies. Let the French deal with them now. Since the French have become arrogant, let them continue to be so for a while. The dominant power on the European continent is now the Russians and the maritime power is the British. If neither Britain nor Russia intervenes, why should we join in the fray?

Currently, Britain and Russia jointly dominate the world, with France and Austria being secondary challengers. Since their strengths are too close, France and Austria naturally refuse to accept inferiority.

Franz had no intention of initiating a challenge, as the odds of success were too low and the potential gains insufficient.

The most lucrative opportunities were at sea, but unfortunately, Austria could not compete with Britain, so they could only bide their time. On land, the profits are not high, and with so many countries on the European continent, any action could set off a chain reaction, making it easy for the Russians to drag Austria down.

France faced a similar situation, but even more trouble. Being the worlds second power is not easy, especially when both on land and at sea, they are second best, inherently drawing the hatred of the top dogs.

Add the name Napoleon and no one dares ignore it. Napoleon III inherited the legacy of Napoleon, including the hatred that came with it.

If they had kept a low profile, it would be tolerable. But acting so arrogantly was bound to provoke a backlash from other countries, especially those of the older generation who had experienced the Napoleonic Wars.

Prime Minister Felix objected, Your Majesty, Im afraid that wont work. In the current situation, even if Austria wanted to avoid it, we likely could not.

French influence has already reached deep into central and southern Italy. If we dont intervene, who knows what the overconfident French might do?

Simply put, theres already a conflict of interest between France and Austria in the southern regions of Italy, and a clash is just a matter of time.

Franz calmly said, It doesnt matter, that is a problem for the future. The Kingdom of Sardinia is not so easy to integrate. The French will likely remain calm on the European continent for the next three to five years.

After three to five years, the reforms of the Russian government will also be basically completed. The balance of power among the three major European powers will remain, and then we can move on to the next step of our plan.

Its not arrogance on Franzs part; its just reality. Is it so easy to annex the Italian region? Austria has been promoting ethnic integration for so many years, and the Austrian-Italian regions have made the slowest progress.

This is a cultural issue. Dont be fooled by the appearance of Italy as fragmented and weak; culturally, their heritage is very rich and not inferior to French culture.

Now in Lombardy and Veneto, locals have learned German and use it for writing every day, but the traditional Italian cultural heritage has not disappeared.

Over a period of more than ten years of effort, the only achievement was bringing back the Italianized Germanic peoples, while the goal of integrating the Italians themselves remained just a goal.

In comparison, Austrias efforts in Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia, and the Balkan Peninsula to promote ethnic integration have been much more successful.

Many smaller ethnic groups without cultural legacies have now been completely Germanized. Of course, the long-term management of the Habsburgs also played a role. Originally, these populations all recognized their rule.

What was the essence of ethnic integration?

The answer was: identification!

Once this was achieved, subsequent issues became easier to resolve.

If observed carefully, it could be seen that many minority ethnic groups within Austria shared very similar lifestyles and customs to the Germans.

Some groups were even called Slavic-speaking Germans, meaning their way of life, folklore, and customs had become Germanized apart from their language.

The main reason for this was that the aristocratic landlords came from German territories. The commoners unconsciously followed and imitated them, or under the feudal system, the aristocratic landlords ordered them to change their lifestyles.

These unique national conditions facilitated smooth ethnic integration. Even if the native ethnic languages still existed, they had become mere dialects.

This generation still largely spoke the dialects, but the next generation would only vaguely understand them. Especially for those living in cities, the heritage would likely be severed.

Even in rural areas, after two or three more generations, these languages and scripts would likely die out because there is no use learning them. People are inherently lazy. If a language was not used in the society they were born into, why bother learning it?

In this era, life expectancy is short, and people marry and have children at a relatively young age. Many people have children by the age of 17-18, and they become grandparents before they reach forty, which is very advantageous for ethnic integration.

As of now, German has become widespread. The generation that received compulsory education from a young age has embraced German culture.

In any city or town of the empire, German is used for communication and writing, except in the Italian regions. 70-80% of Italians still use Italian for communication in their daily lives.

Of course, due to the influx of other ethnic groups, the proportion of people who insist on using Italian has decreased to sixty percent of the total local population.

There was no way around it. Italian cultural heritage was not lagging behind. Coupled with frequent trade with the states of central Italy, this led to the current situation.

In rural areas, many had learned German but still habitually used Italian in daily life.

If not for initially freeing the serfs and using land grants to win over the peasants, cultivating their sense of belonging to Austria, the Italian territories under Austrian rule would not be so stable now.

The same cannot be said for the French, as the liberation of serfs had already been accomplished in the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Apart from courting local power brokers, the French government has no way to buy off the numerous common people, leaving room for nationalist movements.

Throughout history, the main force behind every revolution has always been the common people. When have you seen capitalists charging into battle?

Normally, as long as the common peoples lives were tolerable and their identification with the government was high, large-scale uprisings would not occur.

Ironically, gaining public identification was precisely Napoleon IIIs biggest weakness. The main reason the French people accepted him was because of his great uncle, not out of love for him personally.

Italians were delighted to see the Bonaparte family become the French royal family. However, asking them to pledge allegiance to the Bonaparte family is another matter entirely.

Initially, there was already a lack of recognition based on bloodline, and now being annexed by France? If their interests are further harmed, they will definitely revolt.

Promote ethnic integration? Sorry, France doesnt even have compulsory education. How could they provide compulsory education to the Kingdom of Sardinia first?

When their own interests were involved, the French people were highly sensitive. Even if the French government wanted to promote linguistic and cultural integration, they would have to start with compulsory education at home.

This raised a whole series of issues. In short, the French government could not accomplish it in the short term.

During the military administration period, the Kingdom of Sardinia would certainly remain obedient. But once normal order was restored, there was no telling what could happen.