Austria, Vienna.
Aside from the Church and scholars who advocated a war economy, most people in the Austrian Empire seemed not to care.
In bars and cafés, people talked more about what plays would be showing at the theater over the weekend, what new dishes restaurants had added to their menus, what exotic and never-before-seen goods had arrived from the overseas colonies, and what new inventions the Empire had come up with and how they might improve people's lives.
The fervor for war with Spain had surpassed that for the Russian-controlled Poland uprising, but only just.
Compared with Austrians outside the imperial capital, the people of Vienna were even more fond of enjoying life. The storm of 1848 had passed, but its lingering memories still filled people with fear.
Of course, few in Vienna opposed the war. They feared standing against the Emperor and the Empire even more than they feared war itself.
But that did not include the university students, who spent their days gathering the latest intelligence on the Austrian Empire's army.
They discussed what sense of justice had prompted the Empire to send forth this righteous army, and how Austrian diplomats had argued their case on the diplomatic stage, trying to persuade the Spaniards to avoid war.
What the students discussed most was how Spain would be dealt with after the war. After all, judging by the situation now, it was only a matter of time before the Austrian Empire liberated Spain.
The students' discussions were less constrained, but there were three main schools of thought. The first was to install a family friendly to the Austrian Empire on the throne, in keeping with the Empire's longstanding diplomatic strategy.
The second was to restore the glory of the House of Habsburg: choose someone from the House of