Chapter 78: Austro-Hungarian Empire

May 29, 1867.

Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph and Deak finally reached a consensus and signed the Austro-Hungarian Compromise on May 29, 1867, restoring the Hungarian Parliament.

From today on, the Austrian Empire came to an end, and the center of power of the Austrian Empire was divided into two.

Citizens in the country can only choose between Austrian and Hungarian nationality and cannot hold passports of both the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary at the same time.

The foundation for the existence of this country is the Habsburg Emperor, who also serves as the king of two countries. This shows how absurd and fragile the political system of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is.

From now on, all decisions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had to be negotiated by the Austrian and Hungarian governments, which was the beginning of serious administrative infighting.

Naturally, no ceremony was held in the current Austro-Hungarian Empire; everything was completed through a silent agreement between the nobles of the two countries.

Ernst came to the Austro-Hungarian Empire again, and this time he was forced to do business. After all, it was related to the immigration from Europe and he could not be careless.

The new Hungarian government was about to part ways with the Austrian government, and Ernst's dealings with the government changed from the Austrian government to the Hungarian government.

Now that Hungary has autonomy, Ernst wants to test whether the new government will cause trouble for his actions.

After a few days of contact, Ernst found that the new Austro-Hungarian Empire was easier to deal with than the Austrian Empire.

As a true Prussian, the Hungarian government treated Ernst with great courtesy when it came to immigration issues.

This group of people did not object and even hoped to cooperate with Ernst.

This is not surprising. The Hungarian nobles' independence movement is essentially for their own interests. If they really drive Austria out, they will have no place to cry.

After all, without Austria, Hungary alone would not be a dish on the Tsarist Russia's plate, although the current Tsarist Russia had experienced the defeat in the Crimean War.

But for Europe, especially the countries in Central and Eastern Europe, it is still a behemoth.

And they were always thinking about further expansion to the West, which was the basis for Britain and France to allow the Austro-Hungarian Empire to continue to exist.

The reason why Hungary is afraid of the Russians is because of the large Slavic community in its territory.

Among the many ethnic groups in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Yugoslavs were not only extremely numerous, but also at the bottom of society, especially the Serbs.

There are widespread Serbian communities in Hungary, and even if all the Germans and Hungarians in the Austro-Hungarian Empire were added together, they would not constitute a majority ethnic group.

Therefore, the new Austro-Hungarian Empire faced extremely severe tests. Austria and Hungary compromised, and those ethnic groups with large populations naturally became more ambitious.

This is not only aimed at Austria, but also at Hungary, which is also a hard-hit area of ​​ethnic separatism.

This was the basis of Ernst's cooperation with the Hungarian nobility to reduce the population of other ethnic groups in Hungary as much as possible.

The Hungarian nobility allowed Ernst to continue exporting any non-Magyar population from Hungary to the East African colonies.

This made Ernst's immigration work in the Austro-Hungarian Empire smoother. From the Austrian side, Ernst could carry out large-scale emigration of immigrants from Slovenia, Croatia, Galicia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and other places.

In Hungary, Ernst could devour the population of other ethnic groups with impunity.

This is different from Ernst's original belief that after the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as the situation in the Austro-Hungarian Empire stabilized, the authorities might be able to curb population loss.

The top leaders of the Austrian and Hungarian governments are not stupid, especially the Hungarian government, which made its fortune by relying on nationalism. Wouldn't others do the same? So it is better to take precautions before it happens.

Now Ernst has to persuade Franz to prevent him from hindering Hungary.

This has to be discussed. In order to balance the power of Hungary, one of the measures Franz took was to bribe the lower-class people in Hungary.

Franz demanded that the Hungarian government guarantee the rights of non-Hungarian nobles, that is, other ethnic groups besides the Magyars.

Now Ernst can't let Franz do the same as what happened in history. If the Hungarians don't harm the people below them, how can Ernst have the opportunity to undermine the Austro-Hungarian Empire?

…

Schönbrunn Palace.

"Ernst, you are so diligent. You go to Austria every few days. What do you want to do this time?" Franz said to Ernst.

Ernst was not afraid either, and said, "Your Majesty, Austria is like my home to me, so of course I will come here often."

"What do you think of Austria, kid?" Franz, who was always old-fashioned and steady, felt a little funny when he heard Ernst's shameless words.

This guy has always been a man who never does anything without a profit. To say such things means that I was blindly agreeing to my mother's arrangement of marriage for Karina.

Although he thought so in his heart, Franz actually recognized Ernst. Although the British were so cunning and insidious in diplomacy, Franz had to admit that the British were always on the winning side.

Although Franz himself was rigid and conservative in his dealings with people, it did not prevent him from appreciating those who were tactful and unconventional. Otherwise, he would not have been attracted by Princess Sissi's free and romantic personality.

"There are no outsiders here. Tell me! What tricks are you trying to play this time?" Franz said to Ernst.

Ernst was not polite and said directly: "Your Majesty, now that Hungary has achieved equal status with Austria, I wonder how Your Majesty plans to deal with the attitude of people of other ethnic groups in Hungary?"

When Hungary was mentioned, Franz's mood immediately turned bad. He said: "All ethnic groups in Hungary are my people. Of course I must treat them equally."

Ernst immediately said: "I hope Your Majesty will think twice before acting, and do not easily make any substantive promises to the lower classes of Hungary."

"Ernst, what do you mean by that?" Franz asked.

Ernst replied: "Your Majesty, it is understandable that you love your people, but the Austrian Empire is no longer the Austrian Empire! I think you are angry about Hungary splitting the power of the empire, but anger often makes people lose their minds."

"For example, you are the emperor of the entire empire, but it is actually the nobles and officials under you who maintain you and the entire empire. Now that Hungary has become independent and has established its own government, you must not act rashly. In the past, you only needed to be in charge of Austrian affairs to command the entire empire, but now you have to deal with two governments, so you must be cautious."

"Hungary has certainly weakened the power of the central government, but now that the matter is done, we can't add fuel to the fire. After all, Hungary is still Habsburg. Instead of causing trouble for the Hungarians, it is better to let Hungary cause trouble for itself."

"If you personally take part, the Hungarian nobles will definitely think that you are biased, and they will make more noise. In fact, local nobles always have more advantages than the central government in public opinion. As long as the Hungarians deceive and lie, the confused people will point the finger at the central government's decision..."

In short, Ernst meant that Franz could not take the initiative to safeguard the interests of other ethnic groups in Hungary. It would be enough to just express concern. Taking the initiative to go against the Hungarian nobles would easily get you into trouble.

(End of this chapter)