Chapter 288 What Kind of Relationship Is There Between Countries?

Chapter 289 What kind of feelings are there between countries

Upon hearing this, Queen Mary immediately looked at Archbishop Briand: "My brother is suffering from illness, and this happened in the Southern Netherlands. I think we should help him deal with the rebellion."

She crossed her hands and thought: "The Dutch should have a considerable influence on the Southern Netherlands, and we have been supporting the Dutch Patriot Party. Now it is time for them to give back."

Archbishop Briand nodded immediately: "Of course, Your Majesty, but in fact, I think His Majesty Joseph II can easily suppress the thousands of thugs in Brabant."

Joseph recalled the information about the Brabant uprising, but frowned.

This is not a rebellion that Austria can easily solve!

In history, Britain, Prussia, and the Netherlands quickly intervened in this chaos, and then Liege in the east of the Southern Netherlands also broke out in an uprising. There were more than 20,000 rebels in the Southern Netherlands alone, plus the Prussian intervention army and the large amount of funds provided by the Netherlands, the combat effectiveness should not be underestimated.

The reality is that the Austrian army encountered a hard battle as soon as it entered the Southern Netherlands, and was almost wiped out by the Prussian and Netherlandish coalition forces.

The Austrian commander had no choice but to retreat to Luxembourg to set up defenses and urgently asked Vienna for help.

At that time, Joseph II died, and the newly crowned Leopold II saw that the situation was not good, so he had to revoke his brother Joseph II's reform measures to stabilize the Southern Netherlands and the domestic situation.

Later, Leopold II delivered a lot of benefits to the Hungarians under his rule, including completely withdrawing the reform measures here, and finally won the support of the Hungarian nobles.

Soon after, Austria assembled almost all the troops in Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, and Galicia in its territory, a total of 180,000 troops, as well as more than 10,000 troops of the Archduke of Bavaria, and marched to the Southern Netherlands in a mighty manner.

On the Prussian side, King William II also handed over more than 100,000 Prussian troops to the Duke of Brunswick, and won over Saxony, Mainz, Hesse and other countries to form a coalition army, a total of 150,000 troops, determined to interfere in the situation in the Southern Netherlands.

William II even asked the newly allied Poland to send troops to reinforce the Southern Netherlands. Prince Poniatowski prepared 30,000 troops, but because he did not want to offend Austria, he hesitated and did not send troops.

Even so, the Southern Netherlands uprising army plus the Prussian coalition army was comparable in number to the Austrian army.

At the end of 1790, a large-scale fierce battle broke out between the two sides, and all European countries at that time believed that this would be the beginning of another Seven Years' War.

However, just as the war became more and more intense, the conservatives and liberals in the Southern Netherlands uprising army had an internal conflict.

In the end, the liberal Van der Nott successfully seized power, the conservative Onck went into exile, and the uprising army fell into chaos.

The Austrian army took the opportunity to attack and quickly occupied Liege and Brussels and other important cities. The Prussian army retreated to the Netherlands for a time.

Just when William II was preparing to gather more troops to fight back, the French Revolution became more and more intense, attracting the attention of Prussia and Austria.

Then Louis XVI was beheaded, and the two countries immediately stopped fighting and issued the "Pillnitz Declaration" to form the first anti-French alliance. The armies of both sides on the front line of the Southern Netherlands gathered together and became a force to interfere with France.

It can be said that Louis XVI selflessly used his head to eliminate the possible "Second Seven Years' War".

Joseph's fingers tapped the armrest of the chair. Now that he had pressed down the French Revolution, the war situation caused by the Brabant Uprising would likely continue to expand.

In this war, how can France maximize its own interests with the least effort?

At the head of the conference table, Queen Marie said in a firm tone: "At least it will give my poor brother a break. We won't lose anything by saying hello to the Dutch, and we can also gain Austria's gratitude, so let's do it."

Joseph shook his head secretly. At present, Austria's main attention is on Prussia, but this does not mean that they have a deep friendship with France.

On the contrary, France is the biggest obstacle for Austria to become the hegemon of the European continent. They always regard France as the biggest imaginary enemy.

The reason why the anti-French alliance was born quickly in history was that "revenge for Louis XVI and his wife" was just a superficial rhetoric. The most core factor was that Austria, Prussia, Britain and others wanted to take advantage of the chaos and weakness of France due to the Great Revolution to solve the French problem in one fell swoop!

If it weren't for the emergence of Emperor Napoleon, France in the 19th century would probably be beaten to pieces by the anti-French coalition forces, and even split into a bunch of small countries.

Don't think that your mother is an Austrian princess, which doesn't mean anything at all. When Austria wants to take action, it will not hesitate at all. Speaking of relatives, the royal families of Europe are all relatives, but for hundreds of years, as long as there is a dispute over interests, they will immediately fight each other.

So there is no need to talk about feelings between countries, there are only interests!

Only by developing France into a powerful country can we gain real security in the European continent where there are many powerful countries.

Joseph quickly recalled the historical trends of Austria, Prussia and other countries in his mind, and gradually outlined the general framework of using the Brabant uprising to make profits for France.

He looked at Queen Marie: "Your Majesty, we should really help Austria."

Seeing the queen smile, he immediately added: "But we may also take this opportunity to get the Walloon region. You know, it is a very important place for France."

The Walloon region is the southern region of the Southern Netherlands, where almost all the people living there speak French and are naturally very close to France.

More importantly, there are some of the largest coal mines in Europe!

Coal is the blood of the Industrial Revolution, and it is even more precious to France, which is naturally short of coal.

The Saar region - that is, Alsace and Lorraine - can supply France with the most basic coal use, but if it wants to take off in the Industrial Revolution, it will appear that the reserves are insufficient.

This is also an important reason why France has always been unable to compete with Britain and Germany in the first Industrial Revolution.

It can be said that getting the coal of the Walloon region and the iron of Luxembourg can lay the foundation for the take-off of the French Industrial Revolution.

Of course, France's desire for the Walloon region at present is mainly the French population of more than 1.5 million and the Rhine River that is close at hand.

Queen Marie fell silent after hearing this. She didn't expect her son to point out France's interests so calmly. In contrast, she just thought about helping her sick brother.

She nodded slightly, agreeing with the Crown Prince's statement.

Although she was Joseph II's sister, she was first and foremost the Queen of France. For her, the interests of France must be put first!