The Brewing Great Revolution (Seeking Votes)

To have established the Vienna System, maintained stability across the European Continent for over thirty years, and sat in the position of Austrian Prime Minister for more than two decades while ruthlessly suppressing political rivals—how could Metternich be anything but extraordinary?

Count Kolowrat's actions today were clearly intended to provoke him; Metternich knew full well that people are prone to mistakes only when provoked.

This was an overt conspiracy. Prime Minister Metternich had already felt the mounting pressure, a pressure not brought by Count Kolowrat alone, but exerted collectively by the Austrian conservatives and the Viennese court.

Metternich could not have been unaware of the role Franz played in this. He did not even need evidence; his extensive experience in political struggle was enough for him to discern the truth.

As early as a year ago, Franz had discussed this issue with him, but Metternich had wanted to maintain the domestic balance of power and had refrained from suppressing the bourgeoisie.

Now that Franz had aligned himself with the conservatives, it was beyond doubt that the Viennese court's tolerance for the reformists had reached its limit.

Never mind the imperial family; even Prime Minister Metternich himself had grown disappointed with the reformists, whose idealistic reform proposals completely ignored practical realities.

The bourgeoisie wanted to seize power, no longer even bothering to conceal their ambition, and the demands they put forward were simply impossible for the government to accept.

Metternich could even be certain that if the bourgeoisie's conditions were accepted in their entirety, the Austrian Empire would immediately become a thing of the past.

In their quest for power, the bourgeoisie had united with separatist factions, and their so-called American-style autonomy took no account of actual circumstances whatsoever.

With so many nations on the European Continent, once Austria began to unravel, it would be ripe for disintegration; their enemies would never let such an opportunity pass.

A group of idealists, incited by the bourgeoisie, had become the vanguard of the reformists, proposing schemes based on wishful thinking without the slightest regard for the consequences. Such reformists were intolerable to anyone.

"Someone, come here! Send word: a cabinet meeting will be held tomorrow, and the Regency Council is invited to attend!"

Clearly, Metternich had made up his mind. Since the reformists had slipped out of his control, they could be sacrificed for the sake of political necessity.

No, that was not quite a sacrifice; it was merely the bourgeoisie's misfortune. These idealistic intellectuals had already begun to fracture, and those with fewer ties to the bourgeoisie were actually in favor of enacting the Labor Protection Act.

Some even felt they could go further, calculating wages directly based on factory profits and sharing the benefits so that the working class could profit alongside them.

Well, Metternich had nothing to say to such idealists. He would bet his life that if this idea were ever proposed, the proposer would never be able to step out of his house again.

The capitalists were already going mad over a mere Labor Protection Act; if he dared to strip away the vast majority of their profits, the bourgeoisie would surely tear him, the Prime Minister, to pieces!

"Yes, Prime Minister!" the attendant replied hastily.

After the victory of the July Revolution, the development of capitalism in France left the vast majority of workers, peasants, and the petty bourgeoisie even more impoverished.

The progress of the Industrial Revolution had lined the pockets of the capitalists with gold, but while their wealth continued to grow, thousands of artisans and small business owners went bankrupt one after another due to competition from the big capitalists.

France's social crisis was deepening, and the clamor for social reform grew ever louder, yet none of this drew the attention of the Orleans Dynasty.

(Orleans Dynasty: Established after the French July Revolution of 1830, it was a dynasty representing the French financial groups; the era of the usury empire began from this time.)

By 1847, Franz had already begun to monitor the situation in France closely. As the weather vane of European revolution, almost every major revolution began in Paris.

Watching the news arriving from France, Franz knew that a revolution was brewing within the country; the prelude to the revolution, the "Banquet Campaign," had already begun to flourish.

(French Banquet Campaign: A method of political struggle used by French reformists and various social forces to oppose the rule of the Orleans Dynasty, where they held banquets as a pretext to gather and deliver speeches stating their political views.)

Undoubtedly, the revolution about to erupt would still be led by the bourgeoisie; in Franz's view, this was a result of the French bourgeoisie failing to divide the spoils of power among themselves.

The capitalists who had lost out in the competition were unwilling to see their interests usurped, so they united with various anti-government forces and exploited the public's dissatisfaction with the government to launch the February Revolution.

Franz knew that a new wave of revolution was approaching. Historically, in 1848, every city in Europe with a population of over one hundred thousand erupted in revolution.

The fuse for this revolution was the French February Revolution. The success of the French served as an example for everyone, and so they followed suit. Except for the Russian Bear, which remained an agrarian state, the entire European Continent descended into chaos.

Franz said gravely, "Tyrone, infiltrate the social organizations in Vienna. You must keep track of their movements at all times, including the grassroots worker groups!"

"Yes, Your Highness!" replied Tyrone, the intelligence chief.

Indeed, this intelligence organization was the secret unit belonging to the imperial family; after Franz had made contact with them, he had brought them under his command.

Of course, the appointment letter Franz had swindled from his uncle, Ferdinand I, had played a crucial role.

As the price for this, Franz had to pay eight hundred Rhenish Guilders in operating expenses every month, causing his wallet to grow increasingly thin.

There was no other way; even if most of the staff worked voluntarily, an intelligence organization still required funds to operate.

However, it was all worth it. Franz now had a much better understanding of the domestic situation in Austria, and to his surprise, the bourgeoisie had not yet plotted a revolution.

This meant that the historical March Revolution of Vienna was not a long-planned conspiracy, but rather a spontaneous outburst by a group of people acting on impulse, influenced by the outbreak of the French February Revolution!

Many of these people were not even part of any revolutionary party; they were a mix of bourgeoisie, students, and workers. This was evident from the demands put forward by the revolutionary groups after the March Revolution.

Because the government had proposed the Labor Protection Act, it had diverted the public's attention, and most of the lower classes still held expectations for the Viennese government.

They were still waiting for this law to be enacted to improve their dire living conditions.

This revealed a new possibility to Franz: once the government implemented the Labor Protection Act, the impending March Revolution might wither away due to a lack of supporters.

Because of the conflict of interests between the working class and the bourgeoisie, the workers might even stand with the government to suppress the bourgeois rebellion.