Chapter 462 Crisis caused by Germany: The wolf is coming!
April 1876.
Germany, which has suffered a new round of economic crisis, is obviously dissatisfied, especially those Junker nobles who wanted to take advantage of the situation, but ended up stealing the chicken but losing the rice.
In the Imperial Parliament, a Prussian member of parliament said: "The fundamental reason why this new round of economic crisis has occurred in Germany is because we in Germany do not have the vast colonies and population like the United Kingdom and France to absorb our agriculture and industry. products, we also don’t have the huge territory and rich resources of the United States to offset the crisis, so we in Germany, as the world’s An important political force in the world must have its own colonies. It is unreasonable that Germany’s current international status does not have colonies that match each other.”
The words of the Prussian MP reflect the Prussian Junker nobles. People's psychology during this economic crisis, it turns out that when ordinary people encounter difficulties, they will first consider the environment, and then look for problems within themselves.
But the general environment is indeed very unfavorable to Germany, so this convinced the Prussian nobles that this crisis was caused by the lack of colonies.
Bismarck was so angry at the words of the Prussian congressman that he was stabbed in the back! Originally, it was wrong for Bismarck to use administrative means to force domestic enterprises. But before, the Junker nobles promised themselves that they would support Bismarck as long as the Berlin Agricultural Company went bankrupt. But now that they have failed, they want to default on their debt?
This made Bismarck furious, but as a rational politician, he still suppressed his anger and said humbly: "Although Germany has been unified now, our crisis has not been resolved. The French are always Thinking about revenge, the relationship between Britain, Tsarist Russia, and Austria All relations need to be balanced. If Germany loses its international credibility due to irrational behavior, then Germany will be in extreme danger."
Bismarck's foreign policy is similar to Ernst's. Wonderful, they all hope to weaken their negative image in the world.
The difference between Germany is that it is in the center of the European continent, a hotspot within a hotspot, so it cannot escape the international community, while East Africa is located in Africa, and many people, at least Europeans, know very little about Africa. few.
Therefore, Germany will definitely not be able to stay out of the situation like East Africa. Any disputes on the European continent must be carefully controlled to avoid overturning. Bismarck's idea is to disguise the German tiger as a harmless human and animal, and wait until Germany is fully fleshed out. Seize continental hegemony.
But the German interest groups, especially the Prussian aristocrats who have had smooth sailing over the years, are inevitably a little drifting in mentality.
After all, there are only two big mountains in front of Germany, one is Britain and the other is France. France has been defeated by Germany once, and this confidence is built up. Only the United Kingdom is left in front of Germany. Currently, Germany is definitely unable to challenge the United Kingdom. The British Royal Navy is like a mountain that hangs over the heads of all countries in the world and cannot be shaken.
"Mr. Prime Minister, I agree with what you said that the international order is very unfavorable to us, but this unfavorable factor is essentially not caused by the colonies. The British and French mainland may not be much stronger than us, and the most powerful people behind them are The strong support is the colonies, which can continuously inject blood to the native land, so that they can mobilize countless populations and resources to gain an advantage in the war against us."
Bismarck asked: "Then what do you want our government to do? Go overseas to snatch colonies from Britain and France? At present, the valuable land in the overseas world has been divided up by Britain and France, and their colonial activities continue. For hundreds of years, Portugal and Spain have a history of overseas colonization for hundreds of years, so what advantages do we have over these colonial countries that have been rooted overseas for many years? ”
"Furthermore, our navy is very fragile. Germany's sea area is quite closed. Whether it can get out of the Atlantic is a problem. In this case, the navy will inevitably not be able to effectively support the development of colonies. In that case, even if we develop colonies overseas, I am afraid that we will not be able to Others make wedding dresses. "Finally, we are talking about the management of colonies. As we all know, colonization is risky and the investment is quite high, and those rich areas have been occupied by countries such as Britain and France. Leader, how much gain can we get from investing in those bad lands overseas? Do we want to get a bunch of bad lands that are losing money every year to maintain the empire's ranking? Or do we think that Germany is now the best in the world and can go anywhere without fear of challenges from other countries? Are those traditional colonial countries launching a war? "
Bismarck's barrage of artillery silenced the German parliamentarians. The naval representatives were willing to refute, but considering their own strength, it still counts. Come on! The army chose to watch the show. Anyway, the advantage lies with me, and the navy cannot make a difference.
However, this cannot satisfy the Juncker nobles represented behind the Prussian parliamentarians. This new economic crisis has caused heavy losses. Originally, the food prices plummeted in the last round of economic crisis and they already lost money. This time, look at the Berlin Agricultural Company (Black Agricultural sales and processing enterprises under the Xinggen Consortium) are doing well, but the agricultural Business companies have to charge fees, and it is impossible to do charity and purchase grain, so the money is still borne by the Junker nobles. Of course, the Juncker nobles who were overcharged are mentally unbalanced. Their income is not high in the first place. You They also wanted to charge handling fees, so they thought of destroying Berlin Agricultural Company and doing sales by themselves. As a result, Berlin Agricultural Company went bankrupt! But the marketing problem of our own agricultural products has become more serious.
This is inevitable. The Berlin Agricultural Company went bankrupt, but the sales channels established by the Hechingen Consortium are still controlled by their own people. They just handed over the business of the Berlin Agricultural Company to the Munich Agricultural Company. The Prussian landowners If we are not welcome, we will go to Bavaria to do business. And don’t think that the earth will stop turning after leaving Prussia. The only bargaining chip for Prussian landowners is land. Does the Hechingen Consortium lack this?
Moreover, Bavaria has a very special status in Germany. As the second largest state after Prussia, and as a Catholic region, the heart of Bavaria can be said to be well known to all passers-by. The Prussian Junkers have nothing to do with the Munich Agricultural Company.
At the Imperial Conference, the Bavarian MP gave Prussia eye drops: "We fully support Prime Minister Bismarck. Peace is the most important thing for Germany. We should maintain long-term peace, at least to ensure the long-term stability of Europe. Peace, so there should be no conflicts with other countries.”
Most of the members of the South German Parliament also adopt the same attitude. Apart from some awkwardness with Prussia, the most important thing is that they really don’t want to get involved in the war, because everyone. In the second war, South Germany was a victim.
Although the South German region is not active, this does not affect the overall situation. If Prussia cannot even settle the matter in parliament, is it still called unification?
In fact, it was William I and Bismarck who could really calm down the situation in the Imperial Parliament. Although William I had some careful thoughts, he generally supported Bismarck, because facts always proved that Bismarck was right.
In the battle of wits between Bismarck and the Junkers, Bismarck had the upper hand, because many people among the Junkers supported him, and with the support of the South German region, the German radicals were suppressed. However, as a compromise, Bismarck decided to let go A small opening was opened to allow non-governmental German civil forces to participate in overseas colonial strategies first.
In other words, Germany is still embarking on the road of overseas expansion. The non-governmental ones are colonial companies or groups. In fact, the colonies acquired by Germany in the previous life were first completed by colonial companies and then taken over by the government.
However, at the moment, Bismarck thinks that he is just being mean and has no real intention to compete overseas with Britain, France and other countries. He will let the radicals do it themselves. Anyway, the government will not pay much money.
(End of this chapter)