As the man who established the Congress of Vienna System, kept the European continent stable for over 30 years, held the position of the Austrian Chancellor for more than 20 years and firmly pinned down his political adversaries, could it be possible that Chancellor Metternich could be a fool?
Count Kolowrat had obviously tried to goad him. People were most prone to making mistakes while under stress.
Naturally, Chancellor Metternich was aware of Count Kolowrat’s conspiracy. But, despite being aware of it, Chancellor Metternich felt the pressure nonetheless. It was coming from all directions; exerted on him not only by Count Kolowrat, but also by Austrian conservatives, as well as the Vienna Court.
Chancellor Metternich was also aware that Franz had played an important role in this conspiracy based solely on his rich experience with political struggles; he didn’t need any evidence of it to be sure.
As early as a year prior, Franz had discussed this issue with him, but Chancellor Metternich had wanted to maintain the balance of powers inside Austria so he had dismissed Franz, choosing not to suppress the capitalists.
The fact that Franz had now teamed up with the conservatives showed that the Vienna Court’s tolerance for the reformists had reached its limit.
Even the royal family, and even Chancellor Metternich himself, was quite disappointed with the reformists. The reform proposals they put forward were too idealistic, ignoring the issue of their actual implementation.
The bourgeoisie wanted to seize power so badly that they didn’t even bother to cover up their ambitions anymore. Their reforms were simply impossible for the government to accept.
Chancellor Metternich was sure that if the bourgeoisie’s conditions, many of which called for giving autonomy to most provinces, were accepted, the Austrian Empire would come to an immediate end.
In order to be strong enough to seize power, the bourgeoisie had united with the provinces which desired autonomy, yet their so-called American-style autonomy had not taken into account the difference between Austria and America.
Once decentralization appeared in Austria, social disruption would follow rapidly due to their many enemies. The other nations of Europe could not possibly let go of the opportunity to forever weaken Austria.
Such idealists, encouraged by the bourgeoisie, had become the forerunners of the reform in Austria. They put forward any proposal they desired without ever considering the consequences. Who, in their right mind, could stand such a group of reformists?
Chancellor Metternich ordered his attendant, “Inform the relevant people regarding tomorrow’s cabinet meeting. Especially the Regency Council, make sure they appear in the meeting tomorrow!”
Obviously, Chancellor Metternich had made up his mind. Since the reformists were out of his control, they could certainly be sacrificed for political necessity.
In fact, it was not even a “sacrifice” per se; rather, it was bad luck for the bourgeoisie. Since talks of the Labor Protection Act in Vienna, there had been a split amongst the idealistic intellectuals, and some of those who were less involved with the capitalists were even openly in support of the Labor Protection Act.
In fact, some people even advocated that the terms of the Act should go further. The workers’ wages should be paid according to the profit of their factories, allowing everyone to obtain a share of the profit, including the working class.
When it came to such idealists, Chancellor Metternich was at a loss for words. He was sure that whoever came up with that idea wouldn’t have the balls to publicly say it.
The Labor Protection Act was already driving the capitalists crazy. If anyone dared to even mention depriving the capitalists of their profits, they would surely tear him apart.
“Yes, Lord Chancellor!” his attendant replied hurriedly.
***
After the triumph of the July Revolution, the unfettered development of capitalism in France had left most of the workers, farmers, and grassroots capitalists impoverished.
Meanwhile, the spread of the industrial revolution had made the capitalists very wealthy. Thanks to their growing wealth, they were able to cause thousands of craftsmen and small farmers to go bankrupt from vicious and unfair competition.
The social crisis in France was deepening while the cries for the transformation of society were growing louder and louder; however, the changes in society failed to attract the attention of the July Monarchy.
Since the start of the year 1847, Franz had begun keeping an eye on France, because, as the birthplace of the European revolutions, almost every revolution began in Paris.
Based on the news from France, Franz knew that a revolution was brewing because the prelude to the February Revolution, the Campagne des banquets, had begun to flourish.
Without a doubt, the upcoming revolution was promoted under the leadership of some capitalists, which, in Franz’s view, was due to the uneven distribution of interests among French capitalists.
The capitalists who failed in the political struggle were unwilling to be sidelined, so they united all the anarchist and revolutionary elements and channeled the public’s dissatisfaction with the government. Ultimately, they launched the February Revolution.
Franz knew the climax of a new wave of revolutions would soon arrive. Historically, in 1848, all European cities with a population of more than 100,000 would have revolutions.
The spark of this continent-wide wave of revolutions was the February Revolution in France. The success of revolutionaries in France gave others confidence. As a result, everyone followed suit, and soon the entirety of Continental Europe fell into chaos. The only exception was Russia, which was still an agricultural country.
“Schneider, we have to get inside the social groups in Vienna to keep up with their movements at all times. Even the grassroots union of labor groups!” Franz informed with caution.
“It shall be done, Your Imperial Highness!” replied Bernd Schneider, the head of the Agency.
Through his increasingly closer ties to the nobles in Vienna, Franz had managed to bring the Agency back under the fold of the Habsburgs.
Of course, the appointment letter that Franz had obtained from his uncle, Emperor Ferdinand I, played a crucial role in this process.
It had also come at a cost: Franz had to fund the Agency with 800 Austro-Hungarian guldens per month to get the intelligence.
Even though most of the agents were paid by the government, many times they needed money to obtain intelligence from various sources.
Still, the cost was all worth it. Thanks to the Agency, Franz had managed to grasp enough information about Austria’s domestic situation to find that the capitalists in Vienna, surprisingly, were not planning a revolution.
This meant that the March Revolution in Vienna had not been pre-meditated, but was instead caused by people impulsively revolting because of the influence of the success of the February Revolution in France.
Many of these people were not even members of revolutionary parties, being steadfast workers. This could be proven from the terms put forward by revolutionaries following the March Revolution.
In this timeline, however, the majority of the population still had a degree of trust in the Vienna Government because of the Labor Protection Act that the government had introduced.
They were still waiting for the law that would improve their difficult living conditions to be enacted.
Franz saw a new possibility in the fact that the impending March revolution might die for lack of supporters once the government formally enacted the Labor Protection Act.
The workers might even stand by the government because of the conflict of interests between the working class and the capitalists and help to quell the chaos that would surely be caused by the capitalists in retaliation for the enactment of the Labor Protection Act.
Interesting developments
Thank you for this chapnya!