Chapter 107: Visiting the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Regardless of the eventual outcome, from Gao Da's current perspective, a marriage alliance with the Austro-Hungarian Empire is absolutely one of the most correct options.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire is one of the traditional five great powers of Europe (Britain, France, Germany, Austria, and Russia), possessing a quite powerful foundation in terms of economy and industry.

Although it was defeated by Prussia a few years ago, the powerful France also fell under the cannons of Prussia; comparing the two, one can see that the Austro-Hungarian Empire at this time is not as bad as imagined.

In fact, speaking of France, the power of the Prussian Krupp cannons in the several wars between Prussia and the Austrian Empire was not something they possessed from the very beginning.

As early as 1859, the country with the most powerful artillery technology on the European continent was still France at that time. A Franco-Austrian War allowed the Austrian Empire to see the power of French artillery, and they turned over a new leaf to build new, more powerful cannons.

The artillery that the Austrian Empire re-equipped with played a role in the Austro-Prussian War a few years later, causing the Prussian army to suffer greatly from the Austrian cannons.

If it were not for the significant gap between the Austrian army and the Prussian army in terms of rifles, I am afraid this Austro-Prussian War would not have ended so easily.

At that time, the Prussian army had already begun to equip breech-loading rifles with faster loading speeds, while the Austrian army still used paper-cartridge muzzle-loading rifles.

In terms of firing speed, for every shot the Austrian musketeers fired, the army on the Prussian side could counterattack 4 to 5 times.

Added to the cliché "line up and get shot" tactic, Austria's failure was actually inevitable.

Because the "line up and get shot" tactic caused the Austrian Empire to suffer heavy casualties, the French government did not even have time to intervene before the Austrian government had already requested peace talks with Prussia.

It was precisely because they suffered from artillery at the hands of Austria that the Prussian army reformed its artillery technology and massively armed itself with new steel cannons.

The result is also obvious; in last year's Franco-Prussian War, the newly manufactured Prussian Krupp steel cannons dealt a fatal blow to the French army, also causing the powerful Second French Empire to collapse instantly.

From this period of history, one can see that the gap in comprehensive strength between the three countries of Germany, France, and Austria in this era is not that large. The military industries of Germany, France, and Austria are all at the top level of this era, and for Spain, they are all a great help.

Since he has already decided to enter into a marriage alliance with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Gao Da naturally has nothing to hesitate about.

Regardless of what Archduchess Sophie is actually like, as long as the Austro-Hungarian Empire behind her can provide help to Spain, Gao Da's goal will have been achieved.

If Archduchess Sophie's personality is one he likes, then the result is of course a happy one for everyone. Even if it is not one he likes, Gao Da can still keep a few lovers he likes, ensuring he does not treat himself poorly.

At the very least, Archduchess Sophie's appearance is absolutely passable. Even without an emotional foundation, this marriage is at least acceptable to Gao Da.

If the other party's appearance were not quite passable, Gao Da might not necessarily be willing to accept this political marriage; after all, appearance is something that will be inherited by the next generation.

On March 25, 1871, at the invitation of the Austro-Hungarian government, Gao Da announced a diplomatic visit to the Austro-Hungarian Empire to promote economic cooperation between Spain and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In the eyes of the common people, this is just a normal diplomatic visit between two countries. Although Spain is not a great power, it is at least an old-fashioned colonial country, and among the non-great power countries in Europe, it is definitely second to none.

Economic cooperation between two such powerful countries is mutually beneficial, and there is no unusual reaction among the people of the two countries.

But in the eyes of the royal families and high-level government officials of other countries, this is not such a simple diplomatic visit.

Because an ordinary diplomatic visit would never involve the mobilization of a king; this is more like a meeting between the two royal families.

Why meet? Of course, because of some cooperation between the royal families, such as the major matter of Gao Da's marriage that previously attracted the attention of all the royal families in Europe.

Actually, Gao Da himself is not that important; a king's marriage matter theoretically cannot attract the attention of all European royal families.

But if it is a country of Spain's level, it is not strange to attract the attention of some great power royal families.

It is no exaggeration to say that the royal families of Britain, Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russia are all paying attention to Gao Da's marriage. If one adds Gao Da's father, Vittorio Emanuele II, it is equivalent to all the great powers of Europe paying attention to this matter.

The reason is, of course, not because of Gao Da, but because of the Kingdom of Spain behind Gao Da.

The strength of the Kingdom of Spain is not weak, and its geographical location is far too important. Britain is naturally unwilling for Germany and Russia to form a marriage alliance with Spain, because this is very likely to disrupt its strategic layout in the Mediterranean.

The French are also paying attention to this point; after all, who would want to be caught in a pincer attack? If the royal families of Germany and Spain were to come together, France, caught in the middle of Germany and Spain, would have a hard time.

Although Russia does not have such a strong intention to form a marriage alliance with Spain, if they could trip up the British, the Russians would also be willing to do so.

The remaining Austro-Hungarian Empire is naturally also willing to form a marriage alliance with Spain. The situation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is the same as that of Italy; its coastline is entirely along the Mediterranean.

This also means that if the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this powerful great power, wants to develop its navy, it will definitely be constrained by Britain.

The Austro-Hungarian navy has to look at the attitude of the British if it wants to leave the Mediterranean, and for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which is also a great power, how can this be tolerated?

If they befriend Spain, in the future, once a major event occurs, the Austro-Hungarian navy will also have hope of entering the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar.

Regarding Gao Da's diplomatic visit this time, the attitudes of various countries are also clearly different. However, considering that there are also conflicts between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy, in fact, this marriage alliance is also acceptable.

For the British Empire, a marriage alliance between Spain and the Austro-Hungarian Empire is much better than one with Germany or Russia.

And for France, avoiding the situation of being caught in a pincer attack can also be considered good news.

After traveling by sea and land, and after several twists and turns, Gao Da and his party finally arrived at the center of power of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the capital of Austria, Vienna.

It is worth mentioning that although the last trip to the Kingdom of Italy was just Gao Da's normal outing for fun, it was more like a formal diplomatic visit.

A large number of officials followed Gao Da to Italy, and Spain and Italy also reached certain cooperation agreements.

But this nominal diplomatic visit did not carry so many officials; besides the hundreds of members of the Imperial Guard protecting Gao Da's safety, there were only some servants and a small number of diplomatic officials following Gao Da.

As soon as Gao Da arrived at the border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he received a warm welcome from the Austro-Hungarian government. A unit of the Austro-Hungarian army followed Gao Da's party to provide protection, ensuring that Gao Da's visit would not encounter any problems within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After all, there are still some relatively radical people in this era, and various assassination incidents occur from time to time, mainly targeting high-level government officials and royal family members.

Gao Da is, after all, the King of Spain; if something were to go wrong on the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it would cause a huge impact on both the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Spain.

Therefore, Gao Da's safety is absolutely one of the topics that the Austro-Hungarian government attaches the most importance to, and it is also the reason why the Austro-Hungarian Empire directly mobilized a portion of its army to provide protection.

The train arrived all the way at the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Vienna, and Gao Da also met the high-level government officials and royal family members of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

As a relatively special dual monarchy country on the European continent, the imperial government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is also quite special.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire can be completely viewed as two parts: one part is composed of the original Austrian Empire, and the other part is composed of the Kingdom of Hungary, which possesses a high degree of autonomy.

As the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Joseph I is the Emperor of the Austrian Empire and also the King of the Kingdom of Hungary.

Although it looks like a single country, the government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is divided into two parts, which are the Austrian Empire government and the Hungarian Kingdom government.

One country, two governments; this also represents the biggest problem of the current Austro-Hungarian Empire, which is the conflict between the Austrians, who are the main body of the empire, and the Hungarians, who crave higher autonomy.

As the main body of the empire, and coupled with the fact that the Austrian Empire possesses more powerful industry and economy, the Austrians naturally look down on the Hungarians somewhat.

The Kingdom of Hungary, on the other hand, possesses powerful agriculture, and a considerable portion of this agricultural produce is transported to the Austrian Empire to be supplied to the Austrians.

This also leads to the Hungarians not being so balanced; the food grown on their side is transported to Austria, and the large farm owners do not even get much compensation. Is this not bullying people too much?

The various conflicts between the Hungarian Kingdom government and the Austrian Empire government also led to the direct disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after its defeat in the future, being divided into multiple small countries including Austria and Hungary, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, one of the five great powers of Europe, thus became history.

In fact, one can see the decline of the Austrian Empire from the Austro-Prussian War. The legitimacy of the Austrian Empire came from the Holy Roman Empire, and the former territory of the Holy Roman Empire commanded the entire German region and more than half of the Italian region.

The Habsburg family had always held the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Duchy of Austria at that time was also one of the most powerful states within the Holy Roman Empire.

But with the rise of the Kingdom of Prussia, Austria's rule over the Holy Roman Empire gradually faced more severe challenges.

Under the threat from the powerful enemy France, the then-Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire had to abandon the throne of the Holy Roman Empire and change his title to Emperor of the Austrians; this is also the origin of the establishment of the Austrian Empire.

The subsequent history is relatively familiar: the Austrian Empire failed completely in the competition with Prussia, and they were also completely excluded from Germany, watching as Prussia, this competitor, became the master of Germany.

Although they formed the Austro-Hungarian Empire together with Hungary, they still maintained their strength as a great power. But the main ethnic group of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Germans, are not numerous; there are a large number of Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, and so on.

This problem has always plagued the Austro-Hungarian Empire; if it cannot be solved, it is as if a time bomb is buried inside the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which could explode at any time and cause the disintegration of the entire empire.

The current Prime Minister of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is Gyula Andrássy; his previous position was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary, and it is said that he was also the lover of Empress Sisi.

Of course, such rumors of unknown origin are mentioned for now; the fact that the Hungarian Prime Minister serves as the Prime Minister of the Austro-Hungarian Empire already represents that the Austrian Empire has to attach importance to the opinions of the Hungarians, and they can no longer form an overwhelming rule over the Hungarians as before.

After a simple meeting with the government officials of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Gao Da, led by members of the Austro-Hungarian royal family, headed to one of the largest palaces in Europe, the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna.

The history of the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna can be traced back to 1743, when Empress Maria Theresa ordered the construction of a palace in the southwestern region of Vienna.

Because there was a spring near the palace, and one felt refreshed after drinking the spring water, this palace was also named Schönbrunn Palace; it is the summer palace of the Habsburg royal family of the Austrian Empire and is also one of the residences that the royal family has always used.

The entire Schönbrunn Palace is very large, worthy of being one of the largest palaces in Europe. The entire palace has about 1, 00 rooms, and because of its long history, it also possesses various architectural styles, even including classical Oriental-style architecture, focusing on luxury and grandeur.

Inside the Schönbrunn Palace, the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Joseph I, held a grand welcome ceremony for Gao Da.

Regardless of the purpose of Gao Da's trip, as the King of Spain, he is qualified to enjoy the grand welcome banquet held by the Austro-Hungarian government and royal family.

Although Spain has declined, that is also compared to the period of the Spanish Empire on which the sun never sets. The current Kingdom of Spain is still one of the more powerful countries in Europe; compared to small and medium-sized countries like Belgium and the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Spain is clearly more worthy of the respect of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

It is no exaggeration to say that among all the countries in Europe, except for the six countries of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria, and Italy, Spain should be ranked seventh in Europe, at least in the eyes of all European countries.

Of course, one of the reasons why Gao Da received a warm welcome is also his half-bloodline from the Austrian nobility.

Although Gao Da's mother, Archduchess Adelaide, is no longer here, that bloodline from the Austrian nobility cannot be faked.

The nobility of Europe was originally one family whose bones were broken but whose tendons were still connected; whether it is the King of Spain or a member of the House of Savoy, or the bloodline of the Austrian nobility, it is enough to attract the attention of the Habsburg family.

Franz Joseph also appeared at the welcome banquet for Gao Da, but he only had a brief conversation with Gao Da and then left on the grounds of being busy with government affairs.

Gao Da was also happy to be free; he enjoyed a dinner accompanied by the Habsburg royal family and then entered the room that had already been arranged to rest.

4, 00 words, first update, asking for support!

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(End of this chapter)