Holy Roman Empire

Chapter 27: February Revolution

This issue, that noble officers were dominant in the army, existed not only in Austria, but also in Prussia, France, Britain, Russia, and other European countries.

This situation continued until after World War I. After World War I, the noble officers suffered heavy losses and did not have enough reserve forces to supplement them. Finally, they lost their dominance in the Army.

In contrast, the dominant German nobles in Austria were lucky. Because of tradition, most of them had good military qualities.

The noble officers in that era were all rare high-level intellectuals, who could perform well as basic military officers if someone whipped them into shape.

For the future of Austria, for the happiness of the European people, and for the development of all mankind, Franz felt the call of his destiny, no, the will of God.

Thus, he had decided to take over the responsibility of training the next generation of Austrian nobles, and what he did then was only the beginning.

...

The wheel of history rolled on and on. After the outbreak of the January revolution in Sicily, in no time, revolution spread to northern Italy. In order to protect the safety of Lombardy and Venice, the Vienna government sent additional reinforcements to that area, and the situation there was stabilized for the time being.

Before the great revolution broke out, the working class in Europe was in hot water. Take France, for example:

The wages of the workers were very low. The daily wage of male workers was about 2 francs, while that of female workers was about 1 franc. That of child workers of 13 - 16 years old was only 75 centimes, and for 8 - 12 years old child workers, only 45 centimes.

At that time, the price of the cheapest black bread was over 30 centimes per kilogram, which meant the working class could only barely make a living.

(Data from 1840)

On the surface, it seemed that the treatment of male workers was not bad, though the treatment of female workers and child laborers was very poor.

In fact, the capitalists were not fools. They always maximized their profits. The money was exchanged for workers' lives. Male workers needed to bear more heavy physical labor.

They worked as many as fifteen or sixteen hours a day. If they worked more, they would naturally consume more; thus, of course, the energy they needed to supplement was indispensable.

This fact could be seen from the life span: the hard labor made the average life span of workers less than 40 years, and in many heavy manual labor industries it was less than 35 years.

In 1846, due to the heat and drought, the wheat and bean crops failed, and France's staple food supply was seriously short, causing food prices to soar.

In 1845, the price of 100 liters of wheat was 17.15 francs, but in 1847 it rose to 43 francs, soaring to 49.5 francs in the Upper Rhine, and exceeding 50 francs in some areas.

Especially in northern and northeastern France, grain prices generally rose by 100% to 150%, and bread prices doubled.

The price of everything went up; meanwhile, wages did not rise, which made the lives of the working class into a hell.

Bad luck never came alone, and the British economic crisis in 1847 affected France.

The rise in food prices had nothing to do with the farmers. A sharp drop in income of the workers, because of the decline in food production, caused a decline in France's internal purchasing power.

Against this background, cheap British industrial products rushed in, and French industry and commerce were immediately hit hard.

In 1847, the industrial output value of Paris was 1.463 billion francs, but it dropped to 677 million francs in early 1848.

After it was cut in half, it made another 10% drop. Looking at this figure, it's clear that the French industry and commerce were suffering. In a short time, thousands of French companies closed down.

Thanks to the rush of bankruptcies, the growth of unemployment was unavoidable, and social tensions in France were increasingly acute.

Even under such circumstances, the July dynasty did not take any effective measures. Instead, corruption became commonplace, and scandals emerged one after another.

When news of the Labor Protection Act enacted by the Austrian government reached Paris, it quickly caused a sensation within the working class.

It was too late for the Paris government to block the news by the time they realized anything. Of course, even they had, they did not have the ability to do such a thing effectively.

A large-scale workers' strike began in Paris and quickly spread to the rest of France, then to other parts of Europe.

At the same time that the workers went on strike, the peasant class began the anti-hunger campaigns. Since 1847, farmers who had gone bankrupt due to poor grain harvest and the debt crisis had set off a wave of grain robbery.

They smashed the manors, seized the grain stores, and killed the food speculators. The movement also spread to cities, and the unemployed workers who were too hungry to bear it also joined in. Later, these events would be called "bread riots" in history.

The unstoppable collapse of social order had also caused the capitalists' dissatisfaction with the government.

Already, in the economic crisis, capitalists had suffered heavy losses. They were ready to make a fortune on food to make up for their injuries.

It turned out that the French peasants were too fierce, and the combat power of the working class was quite strong. If people couldn't afford it, they would just grab it, which meant the capitalists couldn't survive.

At that time, the French capitalists also split. Except for some with vested interests, most of them were opponents of the July dynasty.

The parties of opposition included the anti-dynasty party and the Republican party, which was divided into the national newspaper faction and the reformist faction.

Although the political views of each faction were different, they temporarily stood together in order to oppose the July dynasty.

The incompetence of the Guizot government was so obvious: the government failed to suppress the opposition, and the opposition launched 70 banquets, large and small, across the country. In many places, people had publicly shouted the slogans of revolution.

The incompetence of the government allowed the revolutionaries to see their actual situation and to begin to prepare for the armed uprising.

The demonstrations were like a guiding star for the people of Paris. On February 22, 1848, people in Paris took to the streets to protest against the government's ban on the banquet movement.

Franz did not know exactly what happened. In a word, history had seemingly changed slightly. The people in Paris revolted that night, and the February revolution broke out.

After the uprising, opposition to the revolution expanded sharply. Students, workers, citizens, and capitalists all participated in it. Of course, few capitalists took up arms and went into battle; they all just provided support behind the scenes.

The Guizot government, which was awakened by the revolution, quickly transferred troops to suppress the revolution. It was a pity that they underestimated the relationship between the French military and civilians.

Even in the Army, there were plenty of supporters of the revolution. Most of the national defense forces refused to carry out the government's orders, and some of the troops completely changed sides.

For the latter part of these events, Franz could only rely on his imagination. More detailed information was not so easy to obtain.

After all, on the afternoon of February 23, 1848, in order to ease the situation, the King of France, Louis Philippe, dismissed the government of Guizot. He appointed the liberal Molle to form a cabinet, in an attempt to calm the anger of the capitalists.

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