Chapter XXVII. The February Revolution
This problem was not only in Austria, but also in European countries such as Prussia, France, England, and Russia, where aristocratic officers predominated.
This situation continued until after the World War, after the baptism of the World War, the noble officers suffered heavy losses, did not have enough reserves to replenish, and finally lost their dominance in the army.
Austria, by contrast, was lucky, and it was the German aristocracy that dominated the country, most of whom had good military literacy because of their traditional relationships.
These aristocratic officers were rare high-level intellectuals in this era, and if someone forced them to work hard with a whip behind them, there was no problem in serving as grassroots officers.
For the sake of Austria's future, for the happiness of the European people, and for the development of all mankind, Franz felt that it was God's will to be manifested.
Anyway, he has decided to take over the task of transforming the next generation of Austrian nobles, and it is only the beginning.
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After the outbreak of the January Revolution in Sicily, it soon spread to northern Italy, and in order to protect the safety of Lombardy and Venice, the Viennese government also sent additional reinforcements there, and the situation was temporarily stabilized.
Before the Revolution, the European working class was in dire straits, as in France:
The wage level of workers is very low, the daily wage of male workers is about 2 francs, and the daily wage of female workers is about 1 franc, and the salary of child laborers aged 13~16 is only 75 centime, and the salary of child laborers aged 8~12 is only 45 centime.
At that time, the cheapest brown bread also cost more than 30 centimes per kilogram, and the income of the working class could barely make ends meet.
(1840 data)
On the surface, it seems that the treatment of male workers is okay, and the treatment of female workers and child workers is very low.
In fact, the capitalists are not stupid, they will maximize the profits, and the money is exchanged for their lives, and the male workers need to bear more heavy manual labor.
Almost all of them work up to fifteen or sixteen hours a day, and the more they work, the faster their physical strength will naturally deplete themselves, and the energy they need to replenish is of course indispensable.
This can be seen from the life expectancy, the heavy labor force, so that the average life expectancy of workers is less than 40 years old, and even many heavy manual labor industries are less than 35 years old.
In 1846, heat and drought caused a failure in wheat and beans, which seriously threatened France's staple grains and caused food prices to soar.
In 1845, the price of 100 litres of wheat was 17.15 francs, but by 1847 it had risen to 43 francs, in Haut-Rhine it had risen to 49.5 francs, and in some regions it had risen to more than 50 francs.
Especially in the north and north-east of France, the price of cereals has generally risen by 100 to 150 percent, and the price of bread has doubled.
If everything goes up, even if wages don't go up, the life of the working class will naturally be difficult.
The leak happened to rain overnight, and the British economic crisis of 1847 spread to France.
The rise in grain prices has nothing to do with the peasants' dime, but only because of the decline in grain production, the sharp drop in income, and the decline in France's internal purchasing power.
Against this background, cheap British industrial products rushed in, and French industry and commerce were immediately hit in the face.
The industrial output of Paris in 1847 was 1,463 million francs, which fell to 6.77 francs by the beginning of 1848.
Just looking at this figure, you can see that French industry and commerce have been wailing, and in just one year, thousands of French enterprises have closed down.
Behind the crazy collapse of enterprises, the birth of an army of unemployed people is indispensable, and the social contradictions in France are becoming increasingly acute.
Against this background, instead of taking any effective measures, the July Dynasty became corrupt and scandals emerged one after another.
When the Austrian government's Labour Protection Act reached Paris, it quickly caused a stir within the working class.
The Paris government, which is an afterthought, wants to block the news too late, and of course they do not have the power to enforce it.
Mass workers' strikes began in Paris and quickly spread to France and other parts of Europe.
At the same time as the workers' general strike, the peasant class also broke out in the anti-hunger movement, and from July 1847 onwards, the peasants, who had gone bankrupt due to the lack of grain harvest and the debt crisis, set off a rush for grain.
They smashed the landlords' estates, seized grain stores, and killed grain speculators. The movement also spread to the cities, where hungry and unemployed workers joined in, in what became known as the "Bread Riot." ”
The continuous collapse of the social order also caused dissatisfaction among the bourgeoisie against the government.
Originally, in the economic crisis, everyone suffered heavy losses, and they were just ready to make a fortune on food to make up for their wounded hearts.
It turned out that the French peasants were too fierce, and the fighting power of the working class was also quite strong, and people couldn't afford to buy it, so they directly robbed it, which made it impossible for the capitalists to live?
At this time, the French bourgeoisie was also divided, and most of them, with the exception of some vested interests, were opponents of the July Dynasty.
Including the dynastic opposition and the republicans, of which the republicans were divided into: the national newspaper faction and the reformist faction. Although the political views of the various factions differed, they had temporarily sided with each other in opposition to the July Dynasty.
The incompetence of the Guizo government was evident, and the opposition held 70 banquets across the country, large and small, and in many places openly shouted revolutionary slogans, but they were not suppressed.
The incompetence of the government made the revolutionaries see their reality and began to prepare for an armed uprising.
Demonstrations were a daily occurrence for Parisians. On February 22, 1848, dissatisfied with the government's ban on banquet movements, the people of Paris took to the streets in protest.
What exactly happened, Franz is not clear. In short, history seems to have changed slightly, and that night the people of Paris revolted, and the February Revolution broke out.
After the outbreak of the uprising, the revolutionary rivalry expanded dramatically, with students, workers, burghers, capitalists all taking part, and of course few capitalists took up arms, they all supported behind the scenes.
The Guizot government, awakened by the revolution, hurriedly dispatched troops to suppress the revolution, and it is a pity that they underestimated the situation of the military and civilians in France.
Even in the army, there was no shortage of supporters of the revolution, most of the National Guard refused to carry out the government's revolution, and some of the army defected.
The rest of the matter, Franz can only rely on his brain to make up, more detailed information, is no longer so easy to obtain.
In short, on the afternoon of February 23, 1848, King Louis-Philippe of France, in an attempt to calm the situation, deposed the government of Guizot and appointed the liberal Molay to form a cabinet, in an attempt to appease the anger of the bourgeoisie.