Chapter 550 Making Mistakes
Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.
A piece of news made Franz dumbfounded. Austria had twice rejected the agreement to annex Montenegro at the negotiation table. Not long ago, it even rejected the active application of the Archbishop of Montenegro.
But now something even more outrageous happened. The Montenegrins revolted in order to join the Austrian Empire and overthrew the regime that had ruled the area since 1389.
Montenegro is a theocratic country. Although it was surrounded by the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years, it never surrendered.
However, this country is not a true clerical state. The church is only the nominal leader and is actually controlled by several large local families.
Franz hated areas where local power was too strong, and there were already too many such powerful "warlords" in the Austrian Empire.
In fact, the main reason why the Montenegrins want to join the Austrian Empire is because they have seen the changes in Western Bosnia over the years.
The former "Laiya" became the owners of the land, and they received a large amount of food, farm tools, clothing, and even weapons.
("Raya" means livestock in Ottoman, which is the so-called third-class people. In the past, the first-class people were obviously Bosniaks, the second-class people were the larger number of Serbs, and the third-class people were Croatians. )
Those "Laiya" were once "free-range" livestock of the Montenegrins. The land in Montenegro was mountainous and too barren, making it impossible to grow crops on a large scale and to feed too many livestock.
Therefore, the local population cannot exceed 100,000 people for a long time. In fact, the local land resources can provide food supply for up to two-thirds of the population.
Looting is necessary. Almost everyone in Montenegro is a bandit and makes a living by robbing all year round. Of course, if the price is right, they will also become mercenaries.
The Montenegrin Army was once famous in Europe for its brutality and bloodthirsty. They were excellent hunters and a nightmare for city defenders.
The Montenegrin army wore red cloaks and climbed the city wall with steel knives in their mouths. Their appearance almost became the European stereotype of barbarian siegeers.
After the 19th century, the long-term stable life led to a surge in Montenegro's population, which has exceeded 130,000.
But with the annexation of Western Bosnia to Austria, those "animals" who would have only been hiding in the corner and shivering now took up arms and never took a step back in the face of the invaders.
The wisdom of the bandits is to "pick the weak ones", so they had no choice but to plunder within the Ottoman Empire.
However, the Ottoman barren land could not support the "huge" population of Montenegro at this time. If they continued to penetrate deeper, they would lose the protection of the mountains. They would be easily defeated by the cavalry.
This group of highland desperadoes had repeatedly jumped between the Habsburg family and Tsarist Russia, so the Austrian Empire had a low opinion of this bad land.
In fact, Russia provides Montenegro with a subsidy every year in order to prevent them from falling to Austria. (from 1796)
However, this allowance was only 10,000 rubles per year, which was too little for Montenegro in 1844. Compared to the stingy Tsar, the Habsburgs were far too generous.
The latter allowed the "raiyas" of West Bosnia to become autonomous, and then invested tens of millions of florins every year. Schools, hospitals, and churches were built one after another, and the Austrians even built railways here.
The area of West Bosnia is suitable for the growth of helichrysum, which was a very valuable spice in nineteenth-century Europe.
At the same time, due to the development of traditional Chinese medicine in the Austrian Empire, the demand for Chinese herbal medicines was also increasing, and transporting them from Asia was obviously unrealistic.
Then the remote land of West Bosnia was found to be very suitable for the cultivation of some Chinese herbal medicines, especially Aristolochiaceae plants.
Moreover, the Royal Farm has specialized personnel to monitor the situation, so at least the farmers never have to worry about how to sell their products.
Of course, the money will eventually return to Franz's hands. After all, those farmers need to consume, and almost all local industries belong to the royal family.
But in any case, the people of West Bosnia have indeed become rich and can live with dignity, which makes the Montenegrins very envious.
So there was a scene where the Archbishop of Montenegro came to Vienna to ask for asylum, but the Austrian side was very disgusted with him. It was difficult to be satisfied with both his history and his behavior.
Franz tried his best to stop it. Although Austria's evaluation of the Croats was warm and friendly, he knew very well that it was only for the Germans.
In fact, Croatians are not generally xenophobic. Franz's partition of East and West was out of fear of a recurrence of the Bosnia-Herzegovina War.
After all, the Serbs and Croatians have the same roots. If it were Franz from Montenegro, he really doesn't know what these guys can do.
Now the Montenegrins staged an uprising and hung up the double eagle flag, leaving Franz speechless.
In fact, everyone in the Regency Council was equally speechless.
"I have never seen such shameless people! They say they are Austrians because they are Austrians?! Did we agree?!" Count Korolaf shouted.
Metternich: "Don't worry, I think the Russians and the Ottomans may have different views..."
"Your Majesty Prime Minister, the Russian Ambassador congratulates our country."
"Your Majesty Prime Minister, Ambassador Osman congratulates our country"
"Pa" This time it was Metternich's turn to throw the cup.
"These damn bastards! Why don't you protest today?!"
Count Latour: "Why are you like this? I think the terrain of Montenegro is good, but don't forget the grand plan of Emperor Joseph the Great."
"Then civil strife broke out and the people were in dire straits? What's the use of that piece of rotten land?!" Count Korolaf said sarcastically.
Count Latour: "You said before that Western Bosnia was a bad land, but in just a few years it has become a model colony."
(For the Austrian nobility, Western Bosnia is actually regarded more as a colony than as a territory of the Austrian Empire, even if it bears the title of royal territory.)
Count Korolav snorted coldly and said: "Do you know how much money the empire invests in West Bosnia every year? Do you know how much the royal family invests in West Bosnia?
you do not know! That money is enough for you to expand the Austrian Empire's army to 600,000! "
"So many?" Count Latour looked in disbelief.
"Then what should we do now? They want to join us. Do we need to send troops to stop them?"
Metternich: "This is a way. We can send an army to help Montenegro restore order."
"What do the royal family think?"
Grand Duke Louis: "I think it is a good thing for Montenegro to join. After all, it will increase local tax revenue."
Count Korolav: "That is the largest bandit den in Europe. If you don't want to suppress bandits every day in the future, you'd better give up this idea."
The final decision fell to Emperor Ferdinand I and his brother Archduke Franz Karl.