Chapter 806 Undercurrent is surging

Chapter 806 Undercurrent is surging

The surging public opinion even affected powerful states such as Prussia, Hanover, and Bavaria to a certain extent.

In fact, even empires like Austria had been kidnapped by it before, but Prussia's problems were actually mainly caused by Franz.

Franz has been supporting the Archbishop of Cologne. His original purpose was to give Prussia a taste of what dualism is.

Note: In this era, the Rhineland was not bordering the mainland of the Kingdom of Prussia, and most of it was the spoils of the Napoleonic Wars.

At the same time, the people in the region mainly believe in Catholicism, and the King of Prussia is a Protestant. The Archbishop of Cologne has been quarreling with the Hohenzollern family on this matter for decades.

However, there is really no good solution for the latter, because except for some Prussian nobles like Krupp, other people in the local area don't care at all, so Bavaria has always been eyeing the Rhineland.

When Franz funded the Archbishop of Cologne, he also wanted him to cause trouble for Prussia. However, the Archbishop skillfully combined religion and nationalism.

Now there is a problem. Usually nationalists are suppressed by their own country, but Prussia's power in the Rhine region cannot form a crushing advantage over the Archbishop of Cologne and can only seek compromise. Austria is absolutely impossible to do this on Prussian territory. Kind of a thing.

Putting aside whether Prussia is willing or not, Austria cannot bear the international influence alone. The latter will become the leader of the reaction at worst, and will be surrounded at worst.

As a result, the Archbishop of Cologne had no one to rule in the Rhineland, and he acted like a leader of the German nation. In addition, he was a missionary himself, and he had great agitation capabilities.

But fortunately, the archbishop is a big Germanist and still openly supports Austria.

But under the temptation of monstrous power and the pressure of nearly tsunami-like public opinion, it is uncertain how long the archbishop can maintain his true intentions.

In fact, the area where German nationalism was most serious was not Cologne, but Bohemia in the Austrian Empire.

Unlike the Archbishop of Cologne's empty target shooting, Bohemia had a ready-made enemy, the Czech nationalists.

After so many years of development, the local German immigrant population has exceeded the local Czech population. Bohemia was originally the industrial center of Austria, and at this time it became the foreign trade center within the German Confederation.

Coupled with the support of Franz's various technologies and policies, the local economy took off directly.

But it also further intensified the contradiction between outsiders (Germans) and locals (Czech nationalists).

Note: Czech nationalists are not necessarily Czechs. Czech nationalism was originally invented by local German nobles to fight against the Austrian central government.

But there are some lies that you start to believe if you tell them enough. In short, German nationalists and Czech nationalists faced off in Bohemia, Austria.

Czech nationalists say this is their territory, while German nationalists feel that this is Austrian territory, and the Austrian Empire is the chairman of the German Confederation, so this is also German territory.

The Czechs began to open the book, saying that it was the Czechs who established the kingdom in Bohemia first, and that the Austrian Habsburg family was the thief.

German nationalists also read the book and said that the Czechs were outsiders who migrated from the east and expelled the local Germans. Austria's return of Bohemia was the restoration of Bohemia.

There are often heated debates and fights between the two sides, which may seem like a flood but may actually be a tsunami.

In addition, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are also the areas hardest hit by German nationalism. King William II of the Netherlands was not a very talented king.

He wanted to continue his father's reforms, but he did not have enough courage, so he began to compete with the people for profit.

The Netherlands has the highest tax rate in Germany, which has led to the Dutch economy not taking off as expected after joining Germany.

Wilhelm II decided to do it himself, but he also liked nepotism, which led to rampant corruption. At the same time, his religious and ethnic policies have also been criticized, and his control of overseas affairs is even worse.

King William II of the Netherlands was afraid that the Netherlands would be assimilated by Germany, so he forced Calvinism. His original purpose was to separate from Lutheranism in North Germany.

But the result is that it has seriously harmed some citizens, and at the same time, this kind of religious hegemony is also very hateful.

Note: Calvinism and Lutheranism have had significant differences in the past.

As the earliest region in Europe to develop capitalism, people have taken things like religion and ethnicity very lightly, but this does not mean that they like to accept things as they come.

Nationally, he did not recognize the Dutch as Germans. William II also showed off his Anglo-Saxon ancestry all day long, often talking about his glorious deeds of serving the British army with the Duke of Wellington.

If this were more than ten years ago, the Dutch would have admired him, but now they would only feel disgusted.

The loose German Confederation on one side and the highly exploitative and oppressive Dutch government on the other caused some Dutch people to feel that they were not Dutch, while others felt that being German had more advantages than being Dutch.

At first it was just complaints and jokes from some people, but with the advent of nationalism and the participation of a large number of speculators, conflicts within the Netherlands rapidly escalated.

As a result, Caroline, a spy, had to often come forward to help stabilize the situation, but William II only felt that this was just a pain of reform.

Luxembourg has embarked on a road of national fanaticism since the old Couldre carried gold in a coffin to Frankfurt.

First, the German Confederation responded to the request of the Luxembourgers, defeating the Belgians and French on their doorstep, while excluding the Dutch.

The three mountains that were weighing on the Luxembourgers were directly removed, and the resumption of their homeland doubled the population of Luxembourg and quadrupled the land. How could the Luxembourgers not be fanatical?

After the war, a sea of ​​construction aid materials from the German Confederation filled every warehouse in Luxembourg. In fact, this was also a means for various states to win over them, but it was completely different from the perspective of Luxembourgers.

Luxembourg's economic growth has been above 40% every year since then, which is a game-changing change for the already wealthy Luxembourgers, and for those West Luxembourgers and Limburgers who have been poor for generations or even dozens of generations. It is an unimaginable happiness.

The highly transparent and almost universal participation in politics and the almost fanatical national sentiment make it difficult for corruption to flourish, allowing the poor relatives of the Luxembourgers to truly become serfs and sing.

As a result, during the Alsace-Lorraine crisis, businessmen, workers and students across Luxembourg went on strike, and government members took the lead in joining the army.

A country with a population of one million managed to gather 100,000 troops and 100,000 civilians. It was the country in the German Confederation that sent the most troops besides Austria and Prussia.