In Saint Petersburg, ever since Crown Prince Alexandrovich's trip to Austria had ended in failure, the Tsarist Government had realized that the Russo-Austrian Alliance had reached its end.
Three feet of ice did not form in a single day. As time passed, the conflicts between Russia and Austria had steadily accumulated.
Previously, the two governments had relied on their alliance treaty to suppress the discordant voices. Now, they could no longer keep them down.
Russo-Austrian relations had begun to change when Alexander II ascended the throne. In a monarchy, the emperor's personal inclinations could not be underestimated in their political influence.
After the outbreak of the Prusso-Russian War, Austria had not given the Russians its full support. Beyond matters of interest, it was even more an expression of dissatisfaction with the Tsarist Government.
No great power was willing to be someone else's little brother, especially after the balance of strength between the two sides had shifted. The earliest contest between Russia and Austria had, in truth, been a struggle for leadership of the alliance.
Alexander II had done nothing wrong; it was simply that the Tsarist Government's bureaucrats had failed to measure up. They lost the Prusso-Russian War, and from then on the Russian Empire declined from its height, losing its leadership of the alliance.
If the Tsarist Government had been willing to admit defeat, then the matter would have ended there, and the Russo-Austrian Alliance would still have remained Europe's most important political bloc.
Clearly, that was impossible. The Russian Empire's pride could not be beaten out of it by a single war. Looking through the long history of the Russian Empire, it had weathered times even worse than this. How could the Tsar truly abandon his ambition for hegemony over the continent?
Franz had little interest in continental