Holy Roman Empire

Chapter 47: Outbreak of the First Italian-Austrian War

On March 27, 1848, the Vienna government announced the abolition of local tariffs and prohibited the local government from collecting tariffs in any name. For this, the Hungarian representative in Vienna slammed the door in their faces on the spot.

There was nothing strange about that. Although the Hungarians had also proposed to abolish local tariffs in their conditions, their request was actually that Austria unilaterally abolish its own tariffs, not that Hungary should also abandon collecting tariffs from the Austrians.

Otherwise, there was no need for them to argue about this issue at all. As early as the period of the Maria Reform in 1795, the abolition of local tariffs had been proposed, and by 1848 all the local governments had finished that abolition, except Hungary.

Hungary continued the tariffs due to the obstruction of interest groups. The truth of the matter and the public narrative were quite different, which happened a lot in the history of China.

If it weren't for that, it wouldn't have been necessary for the Vienna government to abolish the tariffs with Hungary until after the Hungarian Revolution was suppressed.

...

One piece of bad news after another!

Before the problem with the Czechs was resolved, another bit of bad news spread to Vienna: the Kingdom of Sardinia had declared war on Austria!

On the evening of March 23, Charles Albert, the King of Italy, delivered a speech on the palace square declaring war on Austria. Because of the war in Austria, the news didn't reach Vienna until the 27th.

"Have the reinforcements we sent to Marshal Radsky arrived?" Franz asked.

After the suppression of the Vienna rebellion, the Austrian government transferred fifty thousand troops to reinforce Marshal Radsky.

This was originally prepared by Franz for the war with the Kingdom of Sardinia; otherwise, the suppression of the Austrian Italian rebellion would not have required reinforcements.

If there were no reinforcements, the same thing would happen as in history: Marshal Radsky faced the Italians with a small number of troops and defeated them after the arrival of domestic reinforcements.

But the situation this time was different: the Vienna rebellion was suppressed in advance, and the rebellion in other places had not yet broken out, so Austria still had power to invest in the Italian battlefield.

"The day before yesterday, they arrived in the Venice area, and now they should have begun to suppress the rebellion!" Felix said angrily.

A small country like the Sardinian kingdom must be very sure of themselves if they dared to come and challenge Austria at that time.

Franz shook his head. The anti-Austrian storm started by Italians was not just limited to the Sardinian Kingdom: the Pope, the Duchy of Tuscany, and the Kingdom of Naples were all forced to participate in the war by the will of the people.

The embassies of Austria in various Italian regions had already sent the news that they should heighten military alert.

"Send the order to Marshal Radsky: let him figure it out himself, and do what he can do. If he needs reinforcements, let him wait another month!" Franz thought for a while and said.

He did not intend to discuss military issues with the Cabinet. These people were laymen, and their military literacy was surely inferior to his.

The risk of laymen leading the expert was too high. Besides, after the outbreak of the revolution, the telegraph lines in Vienna and Italy were damaged.

Franz did not know the details of the Italian battlefield, so the only thing he could do then was to delegate power and do a good job of logistics to support Marshal Radsky.

Historically, he suppressed the Italian rebellion and defeated the troops of the Italian countries. This time, Austria had a greater advantage, so there was no reason for him to lose.

Since the suppression of the Vienna rebellion, the Austrian government had been expanding its troops to prepare for war. In addition to suppressing the revolution, they were also worried that foreign forces would take advantage of the instability in Austria.

Sometimes, Franz really wanted to send an army to finish all those nobles and capitalists who might rebel and then carry out land reform. In that way, all problems would be solved.

Unfortunately, this was impossible. Even the nobles who participated in the rebellion had to be handed over to the noble Parliament, let alone those who had not yet rebelled.

Until then, there were only 12 rebel nobles executed by the noble Parliament, and the charge turned out to be that they killed other nobles by despicable means in an attempt to muddle through and seize their titles!

Franz was speechless hearing that. It was even the result that Archduke Louis had strived for in the noble Parliament because of the pain of losing his son.

Of course, Franz also did something: all the property of the 28 nobles wiped out was temporarily nationalized, and all the inheritors who had not proven that they had nothing to do with the rebellion were not allowed to inherit their titles.

Unfortunately, this was an unsolvable question: as long as the application for the inheritance of the title could be submitted, there was a motive for committing crimes.

Even if the applicant hadn't taken part in the rebellion, had his relatives and friends? Even if his neighbor or perhaps someone he knew had participated, the applicant could not clear his suspicion.

Franz didn't have any better answer, so he gave the right to decide a person's guilt to the noble Parliament. As long as at least eighty percent of the nobles were sure that a person was not guilty and was the legal first heir, he could inherit the title.

The relationship between the nobles was extremely chaotic. There were a lot of greedy relatives with inheritance claims, and the internal problems were always difficult to settle.

As long as it was proven that there was a problem with the first heir, then the title and fief would go the second heir.

Because of noble marriage practices, the first heir and the second heir were often not from the same family, and might even be hostile, which made the situation yet more difficult to settle.

Everyone had plenty of relatives and friends, so it was not difficult for them to hinder others from inheriting the title if they themselves wanted it.

...

"Your Highness, if all Italy's major states are participating in the war, Marshal Radsky may not have enough troops for it. Do you want us to transfer more reinforcements from other places?" Felix suggested.

"The Italians are not single-mindedly determined. They are catering to public opinion, and they are still bargaining.

As for the Sardinian kingdom, I don't think they'll launch an attack until the revolutionary party agrees to merge with them.

In Italy, we have already deployed forty thousand troops, plus the fifty thousand reinforcements already sent; even if this is not enough to defeat the enemy, it is not a problem to play around with the enemy for a while.

Now, the domestic situation is also unstable. If we continue to transfer troops, in case of rebellion in other areas, we will be overwhelmed.

You can tell Marshal Radsky: don't worry about the gains and losses for one city or one place; as long as he can win in the end, there is no harm now in losing a few places ."

Franz held himself back from the temptation to defeat the Italians quickly and chose to fight steadily.

In history, even though the Vienna government had ordered him to give up Italy, Marshal Radsky, without preparation, was able to persist in fighting off the enemy. There had been no reason to lose, even without reinforcements.

Franz had no idea of the power of the Austrian army, but when he thought about the Italian army's record, he was relieved.

In history, Austria and Italy fought many times, and, except for the one effort commanded by the original Franz personally with the French-Italian coalition forces, Austria had always beaten Italy soundly, even during the extremely decadent Austro-Hungarian Empire.