Chapter 844 Wildfire
The economic crisis in France is very special. Since the economic development of the entire France is very abnormal, the real big factory owners and big bankers do not feel the crisis deeply, but instead see it as an opportunity.
In fact, although French industry, agriculture, and finance are in mourning, the merger of leading forces has never stopped.
During this period, a large number of monopolies and joint companies were born, and even cross-border joint super consortiums emerged.
They are similar to the early Carthusian organizations. In response to the economic crisis, they maintained their high profits by entering into a series of agreements to control the output, prices, and even sales areas of goods on the market.
The result was to further accelerate France's descent into the abyss.
Bankers are even more exaggerated. They have gained astonishing wealth and transcendent political status through buying, selling and controlling the price of government bonds.
According to the evaluation of Democracy Daily at the time:
"In France today, only bankers follow their lead. All power institutions such as the king, government, and parliament can only survive if they satisfy them."
Bankers did use their superior political status to begin to enact laws that benefited them and at the same time controlled public opinion.
These, in turn, ensure that they can always enjoy privileges in economics, politics, and life.
But there are exceptions to everything, and at this point the French no longer want to talk about them.
Among them, the wealth election has caused widespread dissatisfaction. This law stipulates that only those who are thirty years old and have paid a direct tax of five hundred francs can be elected.
Only those who are over twenty-five years old and pay a direct tax of two hundred francs have the right to vote. Guizot's original design was to protect the interests of the domestic bourgeoisie.
Because only these 0.6% of people in the country have the right to vote and be elected, the interests of the bourgeoisie can be protected to the greatest extent.
Some moderates previously proposed lowering the conditions for property elections to 100 francs, but this was met with strong opposition from the top and ignored by the people at the bottom.
The higher-ups don't want to share the power, so even if the lower-level lowers their qualifications to 10 francs, it doesn't matter to them.
However, in this difficult time, people recalled this law, and the result was a demand for the abolition of property suffrage and the introduction of universal suffrage.
At the same time, the banquet movement became more and more intense, but Louis Philippe was not in the mood to care about the clowns in his heart.
At this time, Louis Philippe found an excellent opportunity, an opportunity for the Bourbons to regain dominance in the Apennines (Italy).
The Bourbon-Parma family returned to Parma, and at this time the Bourbon family in the Two Sicilies was deeply troubled by the uprising. If France sends troops at this time, can it create an axis on the Apennines?
Louis Philippe felt that this time, the French people would be moved by his ambitious hegemony. Although the situation in Spain is very bad, the good news is that the British can't afford it, so France has not lost.
In Louis Philippe's plan, France, Spain, Italy, plus Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt in West Africa, he will be able to turn the Mediterranean into France's inland sea, and by then he will have completed the great cause of surpassing the Sun King.
However, on February 1, 1848, rebels surrounded the city of Naples. On February 10, Ferdinand II announced his acceptance of the constitution.
When the news reached France, the whole country was shocked. Louis Philippe couldn't believe his ears. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies with a hundred thousand troops was defeated like this?
He immediately ordered Baron Pasquière to ban banquets in the country to prevent the tragedy of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from happening again.
Opposition lawmaker Lamartine immediately rushed to the parliamentary podium after learning of the incident.
"Gentlemen! The king and his thugs want to silence us with the help of the police! Do you remember the Tennis Court Declaration?
The king closes the meeting place, but the holy place in our hearts will not close! "
Liberal leader Odilon Barrow added fuel to the fire, saying with a heavy heart.
“Eighteen years have passed since the July Revolution, and I am compelled today, February 14, 1848, to oppose the government established in this great revolution and to defend the dignity that we had achieved even under the tyrant Charles X .”
This incident directly connected it with the French Revolution, and the memory of the dead Parisians came back to life.
Another storm is coming, but this February is not just for the French.
At the same time, due to the great development of railways, the speed of news dissemination at this time was much higher than the same period in history.
When the news that the King of the Two Sicilies admitted defeat reached Germany, the three southern German countries of Baden, Württemberg, and Bavaria were the first to go up in flames, followed by Saxony, Hesse, and Prussia.
Baden fell first. The citizens of Kaiserslautern, the capital, directly surrounded the palace. The army refused to fire on the people. The Grand Duke of Baden had to make concessions, dismissed his prime minister, appointed a liberal cabinet and accepted the constitution.
Almost at the same time, the Grand Duke of Württemberg also announced his acceptance of the constitution and immediately abdicated.
In Bavaria, Ludwig I was unmoved in the face of overwhelming petitions. He felt that Bavaria was one of the four major powers and he should not be threatened by the untouchables. Ludwig I not only rejected the petition, but even dismissed him. A minister who advocated compromise with the people.
However, what he did not expect was that the people of Munich took direct action. They used a grand parade to attack the weapons stores along the street and took control of the weapons depot before the city defense forces could react.
Then the angry people began to retaliate wildly. They attacked the residences of officials everywhere. In particular, Interior Secretary Birx and Chief of the Interior Hunter Berg received special attention.
Interior Minister Birx and Chamberlain Hunter Berg were well-known corrupt officials in Bavaria at the time, and it was believed that they had seduced the king.
People also attacked Lola Montes's mansion on the outskirts of the city, but they did not catch this beautiful woman who brought disaster to the country and the people.
Ludwig I's favorite lover was almost attacked, and he also wanted to imitate Lü Bu, who was so angry that he immediately mobilized an army to enter Munich.
However, due to a series of changes in historical outcomes, the power of German nationalism at this time is countless times stronger than at the same time in history.
The insurgents in Munich jumped out of the barricades and exchanged signals with the army. When the officer was confused, he had become a prisoner of the nationalists.
In the blink of an eye, King Qin's 50,000-strong army joined the force to force the palace into the palace. The Bavarians shouted slogans such as "Kill the slut!" and "Drive away the gangster king!"
Soon uprisings broke out in various parts of Bavaria. Seeing that the situation was over, Ludwig I announced his abdication and let his eldest son succeed to the throne in an attempt to save the rule of the Würtersbach family.
People at that time were generally relatively simple, and most people still believed that "the king was a good king, but he was deceived by bad people."
Interior Secretary Birx and Chief of the Interior Hunter Berg were sentenced to death, but Lola Montes, the "culprit", escaped the sanction of the law and the people.
When the angry people rushed into the secret manor mentioned by Ludwig I, she had already fled, and no one knew the whereabouts of this enchantress.