Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

As a symbol of the coexistence of competition and cooperation between Prussia and Austria, the Gothenburg Peace Treaty signed by Austria-Prussia and Denmark in 1864 under the witness of various countries to stop the Schleswig War can be said to be the latest example of cooperation between Austria and Prussia.

But since it is called the coexistence of cooperation and competition, when there is cooperation, there is only competition.

The two countries have gradually penetrated other countries economically. Even the Kingdom of Bavaria, a country that once surrendered to the Austrian Empire, has begun to become a battlefield for the economic influence of Austria and Prussia.

Therefore, a large part of the country's vested interests are unwilling to continue to follow Austria.

This is why when Austria invaded Saxony, the Bavarian Palace gathered other countries to form the West German Confederation.

Although the signing of the "Gothenburg Peace Treaty" temporarily prevented the outbreak of disputes between the two countries between Austria and Prussia, it only addressed the symptoms rather than the root cause.

This made the hostile parties in Austria and Prussia dissatisfied with the government's operation.

So both countries are just accumulating hatred.

Prussia believed that Austria had compromised, while Austria believed that Prussia was trying to ease relations between Austria and Prussia.

It is precisely because of this speculation that the conservative forces in each country began to launch a counterattack against the moderate side, which extremely worsened the relationship between the two countries.

On November 4, 1865, the Prussian ambassador proposed to the Austrian Empire a comprehensive certification of the border issues between the two countries in Schleswig and Holstein.

But the Austrian Empire refused, because Austria should just implement the current blurred borders.

A deputy foreign minister of the country believes that as Austria joins the British camp, the relationship between Austria and the United Kingdom will be affected.

Prussia once again wanted to ease Prussian-Austrian relations, so it came to Vienna to request clarification of relations and avoid miscalculation.

This made the senior officials in Vienna look proud.

It was like grabbing Prussia's pigtails.

Therefore, the arranged deputy minister made a list: asking the Prussian government to pay the Austrian Empire huge compensation for the Schleswig War and repair the Austrian Empire's losses in the war.

Austria can expand southward to the pre-Schleswig border line according to the previous Danish rule, and Austria can return to the pre-1850 border line.

Faced with the arrogant attitude of the Austrian Empire and such unreasonable claims for compensation, the Prussian ambassador naturally would not agree and left angrily. His news was sent back to Berlin.

Berlin has accused Austria of its shameless behavior and claimed that even if it spends this huge amount of compensation to increase defense expenses and military expenditures, it will not humiliate and spend a penny to pray to Austria.

This statement by the Bismarck government caused the entire Kingdom of Prussia to boil.

Everyone admired Bismarck's haircut, and their dislike of Austria reached its peak.

Negotiations for this public action by the Prussian ambassador failed, and the peace faction in Prussia placed the blame on him. He demanded that he be punished for destroying relations between Prussia and Austria.

However, Prime Minister Bismarck rejected this request and even promoted him to the position of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs to show his support.

This made the conservative Junker aristocratic forces in Prussia support Bismarck to its highest point.

At this point, the hard-line forces in Prussia finally overwhelmed the peace faction from a distance.

Therefore, at the Prussian parliament meeting, the newly returned deputy minister of Prussia read out on behalf of the government the changes in the evolution of Prussia and Austria over the years, pointing out that the Austrian Empire would always choose to insult the Prussian Empire when it repeatedly fought with Prussia. Prussia came to improve its status in the German Confederation. This was a provocation and extreme insult to Prussia, and the Austrian Empire must be made to pay the price for its actions.

So after discussions in the Prussian Parliament, Prussia was ready to respond strongly to Austria's insult, and Prussia must be ready for war at any time and be ready to fight for Prussia's honor at any time.

Once the war machine is started, it is difficult to stop it.

So this time after Prussia's head-on decision was passed by the parliament, Prussia began to proactively launch multiple advancement strategies on the border between the former Holstein (Prussian) and Schleswig (Austria), causing Vienna to begin Frequently received a lot of information about the Schleswig crisis, but everyone, including Joseph I of Vienna, believed that this was just a bluff by the Bismarck government.

Ignore it.

On November 10, 1865, Prussian Prime Minister Bismarck announced his itinerary. He visited St. Petersburg in the eastern Baltic Sea. He greeted Alexander II on behalf of William I, and after talks with Prime Minister Gorchakov of the Tsarist Russian Empire, the two countries publicly communicated with each other. supported practices.

However, the alliance between the two countries, which made the Austrian Empire raise its spirits both physically and mentally, did not happen. He just breathed a sigh of relief, but Bismarck, who returned to Berlin, did not make Austria's worries unnecessary.

On November 14, 1865, Austria followed the Ottoman Empire and Britain on the Balkan Peninsula to advance towards Romania occupied by Tsarist Russia, hoping to further repel the Tsarist Russian Empire.

However, the Kingdom of Prussia suddenly launched an attack on Schleswig.

Austria only deployed 30,000 people in Schleswig. This figure is neither too much nor too little. However, in order to prepare for the counterattack of Denmark, a small country, Vienna felt that 30,000 was enough. After all, Denmark's post-war The army also numbered less than 100,000 people.

Vienna didn't even believe that Prussia would attack them.

In just three days, Schleswig was captured.

When Vienna reacted, Prussia had already deployed more than 200,000 troops to the west of Austria. At this time, more than two-thirds of Austria's national troops had been deployed in the east to defend against the Tsarist Russian Empire and in the Romanian-occupied areas in the south to participate in driving away the Tsarist Russian Empire.

Only a third in the west and north are in critical condition.

The Austrian Empire denounced Prussia.

Britain even demanded that Prussia withdraw its troops immediately and return Schleswig to Austria. Britain stated that it would not recognize Prussia's status in Schleswig.

However, what is surprising is that as Denmark who signed the document, Christian IX stated that it was a matter within the German Confederation and had nothing to do with Denmark. Denmark remains neutral.

The same is true for Sweden's stance.

The Tsarist Empire naturally hoped that Prussia would alleviate the pressure it faced from the three countries.

So Alexander II personally stood up to express his support for Prussia.

Surprisingly, the Kingdom of Italy expressed its support for Prussia's reasonable approach and stated that Italy asked Austria to return Venice to Italy. Even Emmanuel II ordered the Italian military to send more than 100,000 people to the northern Adriatic Gulf. Threaten the western part of the Austrian Empire.

"How could this happen? How dare Prussia do this." Joseph I felt cold sweat starting to break out on his forehead.

The evolution of the situation made him never expect it to be like this.

"Italy is also involved?"

Archduke Rainer Ferdinand also felt his scalp numb for a while.