Chapter 462 The crisis caused by Germany: The wolf is coming!
April 1876.
Germany, which suffered a new round of economic crisis, was obviously dissatisfied, especially those Junker nobles who wanted to take advantage of the situation but ended up losing more than they gained.
In the Imperial Parliament, a Prussian member said: "The fundamental reason for this new round of economic crisis in Germany is that we do not have the vast colonies and population like Britain and France to digest our agricultural and industrial products, nor do we have the vast territory and abundant resources like the United States to offset the crisis. Therefore, as an important political force in the world, Germany must have its own colonies. It is unreasonable that Germany's current international status does not have colonies that match each other."
This remark by the Prussian parliamentarian reflects the mentality of the Prussian Junker nobles during this economic crisis. Facts have proved that when ordinary people encounter difficulties, they will first consider the environment and then look for problems within themselves.
But the overall environment was indeed unfavorable to Germany, so this made the Prussian nobles firmly believe that the crisis was caused by the lack of colonies.
Bismarck was so angry about the words of the Prussian parliamentarians that he was stabbed in the back! Originally, it was wrong for Bismarck to force domestic enterprises through administrative means, but the Junker nobles had promised him that they would support Bismarck as long as the Berlin Agricultural Company went bankrupt. Now that they had collapsed, they wanted to default on their debts?
This made Bismarck furious, but as a rational politician, he suppressed his anger and said humbly: "Although Germany is now unified, our crisis has not been resolved. The French are always thinking about revenge. The relationship between Britain, Tsarist Russia, and Austria needs to be balanced. If Germany loses its international credibility due to irrational behavior, then Germany will be in extreme danger."
Bismarck's foreign policy and Ernst's foreign policy are similar in nature, both of which aim to weaken their negative image in the international community.
The difference with Germany is that it is located in the center of the European continent, a hotspot among hotspots, 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.
Therefore, Germany certainly could not stay out of it like it did in East Africa. Any disputes on the European continent had to be carefully controlled to avoid setbacks. Bismarck's idea was to disguise the German tiger as harmless, and wait until Germany was fully fleshed out to seize European hegemony in one fell swoop.
However, the interest groups in Germany, especially the Prussian nobles who had been doing well in recent years, inevitably became a little arrogant.
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, so the confidence is established. There is only Britain in front of Germany, and Germany is definitely unable to challenge Britain at present. The British Royal Navy is like a mountain looming over the heads of all countries in the world and cannot be shaken.
"Mr. Prime Minister, I agree with what you said about the international order being very unfavorable to us, but this unfavorable factor is essentially caused by the lack of colonies. The British and French mainlands are not necessarily much stronger than us, and the most powerful support behind them is the colonies. They can continuously provide blood transfusions to their mainland through the colonies, so that they can mobilize countless people and resources to gain an advantage in the war against us."
Bismarck asked in return: "Then what do you want our government to do? Go overseas and seize colonies from Britain and France? At present, valuable land in the overseas world has been divided up by Britain and France. Their colonial activities have lasted for hundreds of years. Countries like Portugal and Spain have hundreds of years of overseas colonial history. So what advantages do we have over these colonial countries that have been rooted overseas for many years?"
"Moreover, our navy is very weak. Germany's waters are quite closed. It is even a question whether we can get out of the Atlantic Ocean. Under such circumstances, the navy will certainly not be able to effectively support the development of colonies. Even if we develop colonies overseas, I am afraid that we will only serve others."
"Finally, let's talk about the management of colonies. As we all know, colonization is risky and requires a lot of investment. The rich regions have already been occupied by countries like Britain and France. How much can we gain by investing in those rotten lands overseas? Do we have to get a bunch of rotten lands that lose money every year to maintain the appearance of the empire? Or do you think that Germany is now the best in the world and can wage war against those traditional colonial countries without fear of challenges from other countries?"
Bismarck's rapid-fire attack left the German parliamentarians speechless. The navy representatives wanted to refute, but considering their own strength, they decided not to do so. The army chose to watch the show, because they had the advantage and the navy could not make a difference.
However, this did not satisfy the Junker nobles who represented the Prussian parliamentarians. They suffered heavy losses in this new economic crisis. They had already lost money in the previous economic crisis when grain prices plummeted. This time, the Berlin Agricultural Company (an agricultural sales and processing company under the Hechingen Consortium) was doing well. However, the agricultural company had to charge fees, and it was impossible for them to do charity and purchase grain, so the money was still borne by the Junker nobles. The Junker nobles who were overcharged were of course psychologically unbalanced. Their income was not high to begin with, and they were charged handling fees. So they thought about bringing down the Berlin Agricultural Company and selling their own products. As a result, the Berlin Agricultural Company went bankrupt! But the problem of selling their own agricultural products became even more serious.
This is inevitable. The Berlin Agricultural Company went bankrupt, but the sales channels built 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. If the Prussian landlords do not welcome us, we will go to Bavaria to do business. And don't think that the earth will stop turning if we leave Prussia. The only bargaining chip of the Prussian landlords is land. Does the Hechingen Consortium lack this?
Moreover, Bavaria has a very special position in Germany. As the second largest state after Prussia and a Catholic region, the Heart of Bavaria is known to everyone. The Prussian Junkers have no way to deal with the Munich Agricultural Company.
At the Imperial Conference, Bavarian parliamentarians gave Prussia a cold shoulder: "We fully support Prime Minister Bismarck. Peace is the most important thing for Germany. We should maintain long-term peace, at least to ensure long-term peace in Europe, so we should not conflict with other countries."
Most of the parliamentarians from the southern German states also took the same attitude. Apart from some awkwardness with Prussia, the most important reason was that they really did not want to be involved in the war, because the southern German region was the victim in every war.
Although the southern German region is not active, this does not affect the overall situation. If Prussia cannot even deal with the parliament, can it still be called unified?
In fact, the ones who could really calm the situation in the Imperial Parliament were William I and Bismarck. Although William I had some small thoughts, he generally supported Bismarck because facts always proved that Bismarck was right.
In the battle of wits and courage between Bismarck and the Junkers, Bismarck had the upper hand because many of the Junkers supported him. With the support of the southern German region, the German radicals were suppressed. However, as a compromise, Bismarck decided to make a small opening and allow non-governmental German civilian forces to participate in overseas colonial strategies first.
In other words, Germany still embarked on the path of overseas expansion. The non-governmental ones were 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 thought that he was just doing it for the sake of it and had no real intention of going overseas to compete with countries like Britain and France. So he let the radicals do it themselves, as the government would not pay much money anyway.
(End of this chapter)
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