Franz no longer had the time to concern himself with the shifting tides of international affairs. The Holy Roman Empire had only just been restored, and a mountain of problems awaited his attention.
The German states were easy enough to handle. In any case, they all enjoyed a high degree of autonomy, and the central government had no need to meddle in local administration. Once the rights and obligations of both sides had been agreed upon, the matter was more or less settled.
The Rhineland had been reduced to ruins. Aside from a mass of refugees, nothing remained. Postwar reconstruction became the Vienna Government's main task in 1892.
The newly acquired Duchy of Lorraine, Alsace Province, and Kingdom of Burgundy were in even worse condition. Though these regions had historically belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, the French had ruled them for more than a century and had long sunk their roots deep into the soil.
It was not as though no one welcomed the Holy Roman Empire, but they had become a tiny minority. Most of the populace stood with France.
There was nothing to discuss. The Vienna Government would not take on such trouble. From the moment the Austrian army occupied those territories, it had continuously repatriated French civilians.
Clearly, things would not go so smoothly. The French could be repatriated, but the Holy Roman Empire's people could not be expelled.
It was a muddled old debt. Go back far enough, and many people's ancestors had once been members of the Holy Roman Empire. As long as they could speak a few words of Austrian and stubbornly insisted that they were descendants of the Holy Roman Empire, there was simply no way to verify it.
People found it hard to leave their homeland. To avoid repatriation, everyone who