Chapter 133

"The Tsarist Russians have always been the poorest country in Europe. Even after the systematic transformation of Peter the Great, it has not been able to fundamentally change this. However, the land and population of the Tsarist Russian Empire have always been the first in Europe. In 18 By the end of the century, the population of Tsarist Russia had reached 35 million, while France, the second most populous country in Europe, had just exceeded 20 million."

Just entering the early 18th century, Tsarist Russia defeated the Nordic overlord Sweden and the Central European overlord Poland one after another through the Northern War, and swept away the obstacles to westward entry into Central Europe.

The sphere of influence in Poland was soon divided with the Austrian Empire.

However, this still did not benefit the bottom people of Tsarist Russia, because Tsarist Russia was still blindly expanding.

This made Tsarist Russia more and more poor, and in order to support the war cost they implemented a cruel agricultural system.

The peasants have no land and are burdened with very heavy labor, and the state's surplus and output have all been expropriated by the state.

Not only that, during the entire 100 years of Tsarist Russia in the 18th century, each peasant household had to send a male to serve the Emperor of Tsarist Russia for 25 years.

But the Tsarist Russian army has always been known for its fierce style.

Frederick the Great, the greatest of Prussia, once commented on the Russian army: "To kill a Russian soldier requires two bullets, one to bring him down, and the other to shoot him in the head again. use"

The people present listened to Calvin Colin's eloquent talk, but they felt pressured by the tenacity of the Tsarist Russian soldiers in his words. How strong were the Dutch soldiers? In terms of willpower and ferocity, can it be compared with them?

"The Tsarist military service is long and dangerous, but the peasant system is still willing to send the strongest son of the family to serve as a soldier, because in Tsarist Russia, even if you need to go to the battlefield, it is better than being a serf at home."

This cruel rule enabled Tsarist Russia to use labor resources almost free, and the long-term enslavement also made the Tsarist Russian army extremely obedient to the orders of the upper echelons of the country.

Therefore, the army of the Tsarist Empire was also ridiculed by the British as the best humanoid animal in the world.

The number of these very obedient Tsarist Russian army soldiers remained at more than 300,000 in the 18th century, roughly equivalent to the sum of the British and French armies in the same period. "

"Some people in the UK have recently been inspired by this and believe that the UK should learn from the practice of Tsarist Russia, so that the scale of the British navy should be that of countries in continental Europe, and even in the world, to build a navy comparable to the sum of the navies of the second and third countries, the United Kingdom. The navy is in line with the status of Britain today.

It is precisely because the number of Tsarist and Russian armies is so large that it is easy to use loyalty, so in the Anglo-French hegemony, the main line of international relations in Europe in the 18th century, when these two countries formed gangs in Europe, they often formed a situation of even strength. At this time, whoever can win over the Tsarist Russian Empire will win the diplomatic victory.

For this reason, in the era of Catherine II, the Russian Empire earned itself the reputation of the "European Gendarmerie".

However, the countries of Central and Western Europe were originally afraid of France. After Napoleon I was defeated by various countries, the object of fear became Tsarist Russia. Therefore, Tsarist Russia also became the target country of Central and Western Europe. The Austrian Emperor Franz I also stabbed the Tsarist Russian Emperor Nicholas I in the back during the Crimean War, causing the final southward strategy of Tsarist Russia to fail. "

So from then on, Tsarist Russia also realized the role of diplomacy and should not be reckless. So after Alexander II succeeded to the throne, he suppressed the diplomatic advisors of Prussian descent in Tsarist Russia and reused the pure Slavs, including the Tsarist Russian ambassador to France Gorcha. Cove is the new foreign minister of Tsarist Russia, and Tsarist Russia has begun to implement a two-way development strategy of military diplomacy.

However, Tsarist Russia has already set its sights on the Austrian Empire, to be precise, it began to use diplomatic attacks against the Austrian Empire to retaliate against the other party..."

"Tsarist Russia is our ally, but how to say it, the other party does have obstacles to development, but Europe has never had pure friendship and covenant. You are weak and need stronger backers. Just like when we were at the Vienna Peace Conference, restore The country also needs the approval of other countries, and the Netherlands itself is strong in development to prevent it from happening again.

Jason Ma, you became the Dutch ambassador to the Austrian Empire last year. Among all the Dutch diplomatic envoys, you are also relatively young. Let me tell you, what is the situation in Austria where you are? I think other people are too. Just as curious about the most powerful country in Central Europe"

After Jason Ma nodded, he said, "Austria's strength is among the top five European powers. From the former strong front, it has weakened to almost the same as its former younger brother and new opponent Prussia.

In the eyes of all countries, what they fear most about Austria is not their military strength."

"What is that?" William IV asked everyone again.

Jason Ma replied with a smile, "It's diplomacy. Austria is most famous for its diplomacy, which I call acrobatic diplomacy."

"Acrobatic diplomacy?"

The name attracted everyone's interest.

"Austria, like Tsarist Russia, is a feudal serfdom country, but the situation in Austria is much more complicated."

In terms of geopolitics, Austria is divided by Prussia, a new military power in the north, the giant Tsarist Empire in the east, the Ottoman Empire in the south, which is weak but still able to survive, and the closest ally, the Kingdom of Bavaria, in the west, which is almost the same as France. connected.

Within the Austrian Empire, the number of Hungarians and Bohemians is comparable to the number of Germans in the Austrian Empire. A little oppression by the Austrian government is likely to provoke uprisings of other nations.

The financing strength of the Austrian Empire is actually not much better than that of the Tsarist Russian Empire, and it is even more worrying.

The economy was dominated by agriculture, and the commodity economy was even less of a concern in the 18th century. Such a country was basically in the 18th century, and even if it has improved a little now, economically, it is still difficult to match Prussia in the north with the North German Customs Union as its sphere of influence. Therefore, the Southern Customs Union even has a form. UU read www.uukanshu. com is useless, just loose alliances.

Such an Austrian Empire simply cannot achieve large-scale borrowing, and capital does not believe in their ability to repay their debts.

It is precisely because of this that when Austria's military strength and economic strength are difficult to match with other powerful countries, Austria wants to continue to maintain its status as a great power, so there is only one choice left: if we can talk, don't do it.

Austrian monarchs and ministers were outstanding diplomats.

During the War of Austrian Succession, Empress Teresa used the covenant between the emperor and the great powers to win over Britain, Russia and other countries to jointly deal with the ambitious Prussia, so she survived all the internal difficulties.

Not long after, during the Seven Years War, Prime Minister Kaunitz of the Austrian Empire and France turned enemies into friends, and then invited Tsarist Russia to besiege the British-Prussian alliance with the Three Kingdoms, and made Britain retreat. The remaining Prussia could only humiliate in order to preserve its strength. Respect Austria as a big brother.

After arriving in France, Emperor Franz organized the Imperium to besiege France.

God, almost except for the nearby Tsarist Russia, they have not yet dealt with, and other countries have been used by them in turn. "