Since the defeat in the Prusso-Russian War, the University of Berlin had become the cradle of German nationalism, with all manner of radical ideas emerging one after another.
Because of the war's defeat, the Kingdom of Prussia had been saddled with enormous debts. In order to repay them, the Prussian Government had long since been crushed to the point of gasping for breath, with no money at all to develop the economy.
The public faced immense pressure in their lives and harbored deep dissatisfaction with society, naturally accelerating the spread of such ideas.
After joining the German Federation, Prussia had received economic assistance from the central government, and its domestic economy had improved ever so slightly.
Yet now, all of that had come to an end. With the signing of the coal export treaty with France, the era in which the German Federation reaped enormous profits from high-priced coal was over, and the central government's fiscal revenues had plummeted.
Without that source of income, while the various states were unwilling to remit taxes to the central government, the central government itself had fallen into a state where its expenditures exceeded its income. Naturally, it no longer had the means to aid the Kingdom of Prussia.
Against this backdrop, apart from the coal-rich Rhineland, the Kingdom of Prussia reacted most fiercely.
From the very beginning, the Prussian Government had firmly opposed negotiations with France, but its voice carried little weight within the Federation.
Their admission into the Imperial Parliament had already been the result of years of diplomatic effort; they had no decision-making power whatsoever.
An arm could not twist a thigh. The Berlin Government could only accept it passively. The government had accepted reality, but the people could not hold themselves back.
Just like every other region of the German