Schönbrunn Palace, Franz's study.

After Metternich left, Franz began to think seriously about how nationalism could flourish in the Austrian Empire.

Had it not been for Metternich himself, Franz would not have known that nationalism in Austria had developed to such an extent.

Although historians of the time and later generations were fond of claiming that Metternich was a dictator with absolute power, a little analysis shows that this is nonsense.

Metternich was well aware of what these nationalist currents meant, but he was unable to effectively muster the human and material resources to effectively address such challenges.

The "foreign ideas" that Metternich had been prohibiting actually originated in Austria in the time of Joseph II, and under the intervention of Franz, the German Customs Union and the Apennine Customs Union continued to bring some messy ideas into Austria.

Although the number of cross-border law enforcement efforts by Metternich's secret police continued to increase, it was not enough to stop the spread of these ideas.

The nationalist currents in Austria are much more intense now than they have been in the past, and the reason why Franz is completely unaware of them is that the stability and rapid development of the country have temporarily obscured them.

At the same time, Franz also neglected this growing problem because he focused too much on the people at the bottom, especially the recent flooding of the Danube, which took a lot of time.

What's even more terrifying is that Franz inadvertently sheltered a large number of radicals, because he had very low requirements for scientists in all aspects except for their professional level.

During this period, the relationship between the Austrian government and universities was actually antagonistic. Metternich believed that universities were breeding grounds for the opposition, so almost all the presidents of public universities were members of the secret police, and one of their duties was to reduce the number of university students and scholars as much as possible.

That's why Franz saw the image of the security guard at the University of Vienna openly bullying a scholar.

In the face of the surge of nationalism, Metternich thought of building a wall of censorship, spies, and outright repression, as well as other attempts to slow down social mobility and policies to reduce university enrollment.

All of this became the Flood of 1848, which forced Metternich himself to step down, and even plunged the whole of Austria into a desperate upheaval.

Franz felt that the national elite was not difficult to deal with, nor was it difficult for the local aristocracy to deal with, nor was it difficult for the workers and peasants who revolted.

(National elites refer to: businessmen, factory owners, scholars, and some bureaucrats)

But what is terrible is that the national elite and the local aristocracy are united, and then the upper and lower people are coerced, and at the same time, accompanied by natural and man-made disasters, all the above factors are added together, and it is even more difficult.

Rather than Prince Metternich's shortcomings, Franz preferred to take advantage of the situation.

The spread of ideas was not all bad, such as the idea of Greater Germany, which was more open to the power of the Austrian Empire.

Especially after the natural disaster of 1838, many civilians who had fled the disaster and participated in disaster relief came into contact with the ideas of Greater Germany.

Franz's adaptation of the song was much better than the professors' drooling speeches.

It's just that the spread of Greater German ideas is a headache for the North German states.

In the Kingdom of Hanover, Ernst August I, as king, could be said to have had a bad time, first his eldest son lost his eyesight due to an accident.

In the second year of his assuming over the kingdom, one terrible natural disaster after another almost emptied the treasury of Hanover. At the same time, as the theoretical second heir to the British throne, he was strongly resisted by Parliament.

Due to the growing size of the German Customs Union, the market in Hanover is shrinking, and the deterioration of the financial situation is a hotbed of opposition.

Ernst August I was a representative of the reactionary faction, and in the face of a precarious situation, he chose to abolish the liberal constitution and send troops to suppress the opposition in an all-out way, causing the Göttingen massacre.

Dozens of professors and hundreds of university students were arrested, a significant number of whom died in prison, and the rest were brutally abused.

The situation in Prussia was similar, and Frederick Wilhelm IV faced a much worse situation than it has historically, not only because of the sudden death of Wilhelm III, but also because of the effects of Austria's accession to the German Customs Union.

The army asked for money to upgrade its equipment, and the Prussian generals assured him that as long as they were equipped with breech guns, his army would be invincible.

Frederick William IV did not know whether his army could be invincible, but he knew that his treasury was empty, and he had to live by issuing national debt.

The Minister of Agriculture demanded the construction of water conservancy, the development of new fertilizers, the introduction of new agricultural implements, the Minister of Industry demanded greater investment in mines and new equipment, and most outrageously the Minister of Transport demanded the construction of tens of thousands of kilometers of railways and the dredging of all rivers in Prussia.

At this time, Prussia's finances were far inferior to those of the Austrian Empire, and if it wanted to increase its investment, it had to increase taxes, but the number of opposition in the country was growing day by day.

The previous food crisis further exacerbated the land annexation, and the peasants who lost their land had no choice but to enter the factories or flee to the Austrian Empire.

Historically, this food crisis created a large number of landless peasants, provided Prussian factories with a large number of cheap labor, and promoted the development of industry.

But because Franz had been trying to attract immigrants, the Prussian peasants who had lost their land had another option.

Although the number of landless peasants moving into the cities has decreased, the exploitation of cheap labor by factory owners has not diminished.

At the same time, as various ideas collided fiercely within the German Confederation, the call for a constitution became louder and louder, and the Hohenzollerns could not accept such a demand to limit the rights of the king.

As a result, the relationship between Prussia and Austria changed from the previous hostility to a joint law enforcement.

Unlike the fierce opposition and forceful repression of Austria, Prussia, and Hanover, the Bavarian king chose to lie flat.

Ludwig I himself was a conservative, but he was more indulged in pleasure than brutal politics.

Ludwig I was romantic, and the portraits of 36 beauties in the Nymphenburg Palace bear witness to this history, and the scandal with his mistress Laura Munster caused the whole of Europe to know about it.

He spent all his money on pleasures, and naturally there was not enough money to suppress heresy, so he told the German Confederation states that any country could come and suppress "reformers".

The other states of the German states were faced with the same problems to a greater or lesser extent, and the whole situation became more and more difficult to fathom.

Although the Austrian Empire was much stronger than it was historically, the momentum of this storm also seems to be much stronger than it was historically.

In the face of such powerful waves, Franz did not dare to direct all the flows to Greater Germany, because a super-empire that appeared out of thin air would inevitably be besieged by all of Europe.

Moreover, the position and situation of this empire were worse than those faced by France back then, and it was even more difficult to break through.

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(End of chapter)