Chapter 1860： A new page of history (1/2)
February 3, 1914. When the artillery fire and smoke of the world war still enveloped most of Europe, the world's attention once again focused on Austria, this European power that has stretched for hundreds of years. On this day, the ancient empire once again confirmed it. Under the auspices of the Austrian Emperor, Princess Mary finally completed the transition from princess to heir to the throne in Vienna’s Hoffman Palace. The whole process took only 2 hours, and behind these two hours, it was Lu The Precht couple and their subordinates have worked hard for more than ten years! And then, history opened a new page!
”Ruprecht, I really didn't expect that being the heir to an empire would be so tired. At the beginning, you were very relaxed when you ruled Bavaria and Bohemia.” Looking at the pile on the desk A pile of documents to be reviewed, Prince Mary said to the crown prince.
”After all, what you are going to take over is an empire whose area is several times larger than the area we controlled before. It is more complicated than what we have dealt with before.” Ruprecht said to his wife with a smile.
”Well then, tell me about your suggestion, my regent.” Prince Mary stood up and put his hands over her husband's neck and said affectionately.
”The war is about to end, and as the ruler of the empire, you need to do two things. The first thing is how to divide the victory cake and quickly resume production. The second thing is to deal with ethnic issues.”
”For the first thing, my opinion is that land can be used to meet the needs of nobles and commoners. The Austro-Hungarian Empire is different from Germany. Germany has too much population, while the Austro-Hungarian Empire has a population of only over 40 million, but it has 650,000 square meters Kilometers of land, and now, we have acquired half of Ukraine and part of Belarus, as well as the Balkans and Poland. Our area now exceeds 1.1 million square kilometers. Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire will inherit approximately With a population of 20 million, but there is still enough arable land, it is the cheapest to use agriculture to meet the needs of nobles and civilians,” said the prince.
In fact, during the war, the Russians, in order to prevent the Allies from gaining population on Russian soil, with the defeat of the Russian army, a large number of people were forced to move, especially in the southern route to Ukraine, so the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not There are not many alien populations, and compared with Poles, Ukrainians have a very poor independence tendency. As long as their lives and land are guaranteed, it is not difficult to stabilize them. If you look at the opposite side In the case of chaotic Russia, they might still be grateful to be ruled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, right?
”So what about industry?” Prince Mary asked.
”In terms of industry, Bavaria and the Austro-Hungarian Empire have to establish their own systems. We have no shortage of markets now, and Bavaria does not lack technology. As long as we work step by step and establish an efficient management team, then our future industry will not be weak. Domestic private Capital can also develop and can provide support. The industrial monopoly of Austria-Hungary is far less deadly than Germany, so there is no need to worry about some people doing too much.”
”We also don't have big problems with finance, because after all, only our government can get a lot of financial loans from Americans, and there is very little private hot money.” Ruprecht said. Sometimes, backwardness has the advantages of backwardness. For example, like the current Austro-Hungarian Empire, it can be said to be a waste of time. There are not so many oligarchs in the country. This makes Ruprecht want to promote his own policy very much. Easy.
Of course, there are still some serious problems in Austria-Hungary, that is, the old problem of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the national problem... With the influx of 20 million people from other nations, the proportion of the German population within the empire was further reduced... And there are many of these peoples like the Romanians who fought to death on the battlefield before the empire! People like Romania and some Russians are not so honest! As for the Hungarians? Some of them are also unstable factors.