Holy Roman Empire - Chapter 49

In Austria in 1848, revolution seemed to have become the trend of the country, and there was no peace anywhere.

On March 28, a rebellion broke out in the Dalmatian region. Fortunately, the local people suppressed the revolution themselves before the Austrian government had to send troops.

Looking at the intelligence in his hand, Franz felt like cursing somebody. The self-defense army formed by the local government had launched the rebellion, and it was the local capitalists and serfs who had helped the government suppress the revolution.

In other words, it was the nobles and nationalists who launched the rebellion, and the capitalists and serfs suppressed them.

The main reason for this rebellion was that the local nobles were dissatisfied with the government’s damage to their interests in the reform. With the coaxing of nationalists, they stupidly announced a revolution.

This kind of foolishness was not uncommon at all times and in all countries. Franz had become inured to that.

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Every year, there were always some nobles in Austria who declared their independence only because they’d drunk too much wine. After they sobered up, they would immediately cancel their independence and run to the Emperor to plead guilty.

These idiots were lucky to have been born on the European continent. If their efforts had not caused serious consequences, the Emperor usually did not do anything to them.

It was normal for serfs to help suppress the noble rebellions. The Vienna government already announced the abolition of serfdom and gave them personal freedom, but the nobles wanted to continue to enslave them.

Needless to say, the nobility had to be suppressed. It was for freedom.

It happened that these nobles actually armed the serfs under their control to make a revolutionary force, which was also the reason that Franz thought they were fools.

Only to Franz’s surprise, the local capitalists stood together with the Vienna government and contributed to the suppression of the rebellion. It happened so fast that it seemed to be premeditated.

Even so, Franz doubted that the nobles and the capitalists would have really agreed to join the revolution together. As a result, when the capitalists saw it was impossible to succeed, they gave away the nobles.

Dalmatia had a low sense of belonging in Austria, as a seemingly dispensable border province. It was economically underdeveloped and did not have strategic value, so it was easy to ignore.

Looking at Franz, who looked confused, Prime Minister Felix spoke up.

“Your Highness, this Dalmatian rebellion was carried out by the noble officials of the local government. In the name of loyalty to the royal family, they were trying to get more benefits.

After their interests were damaged, these bastards actually wanted to unite Trieste to rebel and prepare to build a country alongside the rebellion in Italy.

However, they forgot that the self-defense army in their hands was loyal to the Empire, and this rebellion was doomed to failure from the beginning.

Moreover, their geographical position makes them heavily dependent on the Empire economically, and if they become independent, the local area would decline immediately.

It was inevitable that the capitalists would go their own way to protect their own interests.”

Franz nodded thoughtfully. It seemed that the most likely possibility was that the capitalists felt that the rebellion was hopeless and they could not obtain greater benefits, so they simply sold out their partner.

Franz could only think of a few reasons the nobles of Dalmatia would be so stupid: general lack of knowledge, too many ignorant people among them, and loss of reason due to greed.

“Then send people to confiscate the rebels’ property, and at the same time reward the heroes who participated in the suppression of the rebellion. Also, immediately implement the abolition of serfdom.

Exempt the meritorious capitalists from this year’s tax, take a part of their land, and give it to the serfs who participated in the suppression of the rebellion. Give a pension to the families of the dead and wounded.”

(The Act to Abolish Serfdom had taken time to implement, so not all serfs had been liberated yet.)

Franz was setting an example: no matter what their purpose or motive was, anyone who helped the Empire suppress rebellion would be rewarded.

In particular, the awards for serfs needed to be publicized. It would be best to make sure everyone in Austria knew.

At that time, Franz had already decided to distribute the land and encourage workers and peasants to fight against the reactionary nobles and capitalists; that way, no one would follow their rebellious lead.

“Your Highness, this is too much. It is fine to reward the capitalists. But we have already given the serfs freedom, so there is no need to give them land, too!”

Prime Minister Felix, because of his class position, did not want this kind of thing to happen.

If the emperor started using this weapon to bring down the noble class, the monarch’s power would be further expanded, and the nobles’ political voice would be restricted.

“Prime Minister, this is just a matter of expediency. The rebellion in the Italian region has not yet been annihilated, and some people want to loot the burning house.

A rebellion may break out at any time in Prague, and the Polish in the Galicia region are also ready to make trouble. Meanwhile, the ambitious Hungarians are preparing to further split the country.

Now we need to unite all the forces that can be united and wipe all these rebellion parties out cleanly. It is natural to reward heroes. Why is it too much to contribute a little land for this purpose?”

There was no doubt that Franz was just pretending to be confused. Anyway, as long as the present situation could be used as a shield, the nobles had no reason to oppose the plan.

If no nobles took part in the rebellion, there was nothing Franz could do about them. However, some nobles had rebelled, so as the Prince, he had reason to doubt their loyalty.

In this context, it was reasonable that he supported the serfs who were about to obtain the status of a free citizen.

These people were illiterate, and their concept of judgment was very simple: right or wrong.

Given land of their own, for the next few decades, these people would be Franz’s most loyal subjects, and even their descendants would be supporters of the Hapsburg family.

All rulers needed support as a foundation of their authority. At that time, the foundation of the Austrian Empire was the nobility, which wasn’t going to change anytime soon. Franz had just added farmers behind the nobles.

These problems were just for politicians to consider. The vast majority of nobles would not think in such a long term way. Even if they were told his reasoning, no one would believe it.

After a moment of hesitation, Prime Minister Felix chose to retreat.

Unlike in history, this prime minister was appointed by Franz, and his advice was not so influential. If anyone thought they could check the monarch’s power with officials’ power like in history, they had to be daydreaming.

Seeing the Prime Minister’s acquiescence, there was no need for Franz to be aggressive. It was enough to achieve the goal. It was not easy for the Prime Minister to take the blame for Franz every day, so Franz showed him respect.

Then the policy of “dividing up the capitalists’ land” began, perhaps better called “dividing up the rebels’ land.” Only the land of rebels would be divided up; others had no need to worry.