Legacy of Metternich - Chapter Four(tyTwo, the meaning of life)
Chapter Four
The Military Academy, somewhat uncertain what would actually improve state of military, decided to send 50 officer strong fact gathering mission to France who had been our strong allies for whole 26 years now. Of course, the strenght of the alliance was guaranteed by the fact that it was never tested, both sides only engaged in wars they could manage themselves and never called upon each other. Still, it had diplomatic value of turning British and Russian ambitions elsewhere. It might have been better to send said officers to less wine and cognac filled country, but alas, slowly some of them started returning, first group of 4, these being the absolutists of the group, returned back to Vienna with concepts of Army Professionalism in mid 1852. Next, the 2 gamblers of the group returned in early in 1854, having won plans for Muzzle-loaded rifles in a gamble but without any more money as, of course, no frenchman had wanted to gamble for plans to rifles they knew how to make. When the next 5 returned in 1855, reporting that rest of the mission had gone rather native, and indeed, they had lost contact with 5 of them, possibly lost in bar fights, or just deserted to marry some french wench. They did however, also bring new military plans for the cavalry, for formation of Dragoon units. Disheartened with such news, the Academy stopped sending funds to those officers still in France and ordered them to return. 14 more then made their way back to Austria, as usual, casualties of any Austrian military operation still remained at ~50%. On their way, they had however visited various french fortifications and actually done their work for change, thus arriving to Vienna in late 1856 they brought with them concepts for improved fortifications and reconnaissance.
The industrial situation was steadily improving under the guiding hand of goverment, even if some capitalists had found the cash to start themselves some luxury product factories. It was also goverment policy not to share money just like that, thus there were no unemployment or pension plans, instead, work was provided for everyone, even if that work was not very profitable. This was the case with Istrian and Venetian shipbuilders, indeed, the whole Austrian fleet of 10 men of wars had been originally ordered to give those factories some work, alas, keeping them in repair wasn't nearly enough work and exports were nonexistent, thus the coasts were filled with empty hulls of ships, with sails, as this was very profitable place for our fabric factories to sell their produce. Not the most sensible arrangement this perhaps, but, oh well, employed people are happy people, after all, if you only work and sleep, you have no time to plot revolutions. Suprisingly, despite all this industrialization, Austrias major exports were still unrefined goods and unsuprisingly we were mainly importing tea, tobacco and timber, first two we had none domestically and wood industries had overgrown what our forests could support. (Following from 1855)
Diplomatic situation had gotten a lot better and Austrian sphere was now safe thanks to efforts of Mettenich, despite problem with Two Sicilies and Bavaria attempting to steal some of the Austrias Sphere, and indeed, Bavaria rising to such station it could no longer be considered part of Austria's. Luckily, they were also competing for the positiong among great powers between themselves and this helped some in keeping their rise in check. However, when Mettenich died in early 1858 it was unclear what would happen to the nation, as the true leader for last 14 years was now gone and power was split between the inept Ferdinand and other ministers of the goverment. The following 6 months were a true chaos with not coherent line from the goverment, and lead to a Jacobin rebelling in August of 1858.
While the Military managed to put down that rebellion rather easily, it clarified the unpopularity of monarch among the people. With Metternich gone, the imperial family managed to convince Ferdinand to finally abdicate in favor of his nephew, Francis Joseph I. He was rather more popular among the people and also able to, if slowly, wrest back the control of the empire from his ministers.
Although the French expedition had lead to modernization of Austrian military, it was still only 30 regiments strong, thus expansion was one of the first directives from Francis Joseph. It had become clear in the previous wars that infantry took heaviest losses... Err, that South Germans made bad infantry men, and would from now on be assigned primarily to artillery or cavalry and the rougher minorities would be recruited to infantry. By 1860 size of Austrian army had been doubled to 6 Armee's of 30000 men each, the VII. Armee was recruited during 1862 to bring total peace time army of Austria to 210000 men.
While Europe had remained mostly peaceful, there were various 'colonial' wars in progress when the year turned to 1863. American civil war had begun, and British took this opportunity to strike USA in the back, seeking to reclaim 'New England'.
French occupied themselves in Africa, with war against Ottomans and their allies for Tripoli and Russia was occupied with a war in.. Vietnam. With such setting having almost all great powers occupied, Francis Joseph felt now was the time to take war to Prussia again, the diplomatic means had failed after all, and Austria had only managed to steal Saxe-Weimar to it's sphere from Prussia. Thus, the war began in on January 19th.
