18th century total war

Chapter 293 The Fall of the Austrian Empire

"Since the Anti-French Coalition has received the news, a cabinet meeting will be held. I will ask the Ministry of War to convey an order to Karl. The Central Route Army and the Southern Route Army will storm the defense line stationed by the Austrian Army!"

"Yes, Your Majesty, your will will be fully implemented!"

…………

In the spring of 1800, after receiving the order, Karl issued the order for the spring general offensive.

The Southern Route Army launched a fierce attack towards the Tyrol area, where there were relatively few Austrian defenders.

The main force of the Central Route Army, led by Karl himself, stormed towards Vienna, while the Northern Route Army was responsible for containing the Allied forces led by the main force of the Kingdom of Prussia.

Franz I had not recovered from the pain of the fall of the capital of Vienna when he received bad news from the front.

The Austrian regiments garrisoned with layers of fortifications, like deflated rubber balls, quickly collapsed under the fierce attack of the French army. They lost one line of defense a day, causing the entire front to collapse at an incredible speed.

In the end, a sweeping trend even formed, more than ten Austrian generals died in battle, and more than 30 Austrian generals fled!
In just one month, the Austrian Empire lost all the territories in the west and southwest of Vienna one after another!

Hundreds of thousands of Austrian troops were captured or fled in defeat.

Franz I was forced to flee to Budapest, the regional capital of Hungary, where he established a temporary royal central government.

Seeing the avalanche of the Austrian army and being unable to break through the interception of the Northern Route Army of the French Defense Forces, the Kingdom of Prussia quickly dispatched its army to the rich Kingdom of Bohemia (a direct vassal state of the Austrian Empire and one of the territories of Francis I).

The Austrian Empire is actually a large patchwork empire, but all the territories and state leaders below are concurrently held by Franz I, so the unified regime can be achieved.

As a result, except for the Kingdom of Dalmatia, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, the Kingdom of Croatia and Slovenia, the Duchy of Silesia, the Grand Duchy of Transylvania, and the Marquis of Moravia, other territories are not French occupation means being stationed by the allies on the grounds of strategic defense.

As for the original Austrian royal territory, when Francis I fled and the front line was rout, it was annexed by the Republic of Austria.

Soon, the central and southern main forces of the French Defense Forces joined together, advancing until the Austrian Republic controlled the area before stopping.

Subsequently, the Allen government of the Austrian Republic had close exchanges with Lieutenant General Karl of the French Empire.

In the Austrian Republic at this time, the Austrian Liberal Party was led by Allen during the Battle of Vienna and suffered heavy casualties. Eight or nine out of ten key members were involved. Later, Allen used the authority of the President to abolish the ten-member committee of the Austrian Liberal Party. Legally merge the Austrian Freedom Party and the Lindenwan Brotherhood into one political party.

Alleyne calls it the Lindenwan Liberal Party.

The Army of the Republic of Austria was called the Lindenwan Free Corps.

Of course, these are transitional titles, and they may change after the war is over.

When the revolutionary party takes power, it must become a regular official to wash away the smell of dirt on its legs.

Allen led the Austrian Republic to negotiate with Karl when he was in power alone, so the talks between the two parties were very harmonious.

After all, Elaine is also Li Wei's own.

Not surprisingly, the Allen government, on behalf of the Republic of Austria, recognized that all territories occupied by the French army belonged to the French Empire in exchange for peace and military alliance with the French Empire!

Yes, the Alleyne government pulled the Austrian Republic into the chariot of the French Empire!
In this regard, the original Austrian Empire was divided into two. Franz I collected the defeated troops in Budapest, reorganized the army, and planned to defend the remaining territories and regain the capital of Vienna.

Budapest is the site of the Hungarian nobles, and they are not too satisfied with the settlement of the defeated emperor Franz I.

Because Francis I did not come alone, he also brought a large number of Austrian nobles and the entire cabinet government team.

After coming to Budapest, it directly replaced the original government of the Kingdom of Hungary!
This naturally caused serious dissatisfaction among the Hungarian aristocracy...

It's a pity that after Franz I experienced the great defeat in Vienna, he knew that his power would not be guaranteed, and his methods became more ruthless. For the continuation of the Habsburg dynasty, Franz I showed iron and blood methods for the first time , Any Hungarian nobleman who raises objections, ranging from dismissal to deprivation of noble titles and privileges, or even being thrown into prison!

The Hungarian army also suffered heavy losses in previous wars, so the Kingdom of Hungary simply did not have enough military power to resist the violent rule of Franz I.

Compared with the Kingdom of Hungary, which was suppressed by Francis I, other national territories of Franz I showed a tendency to become centrifugal.

After the news spread that the French Empire and the Austrian Republic had formed a military alliance and that the French Empire had sent a division to help Moravia, the capital of the Austrian Empire, the Marquis of Moravia immediately started private peace talks with the Austrian Republic.

On the one hand, Franz I had just established the authority of the monarch in front of the Hungarian nobles, on the other hand, the Marquis of Moravia disappeared and was merged into the mainland by the Republic of Austria!
The Republic of Austria is a republic, and naturally there will be no nobility, so Moravia can only exist as a region and cannot continue to maintain its status as a princely state.

However, in the face of the betrayal of the Principality of Moravia, Franz I had no strength to fight back. The Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia were busy fighting fiercely with the French Empire and had no experience in helping the Austrian Empire.

After seeing this scene, the remaining countries of the Austrian Empire began to follow suit.

Under the coercion of the French army, the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slovenia took the initiative to merge into the Austrian Republic, and then the Kingdom of Dalmatia and the Principality of Silesia were also merged into the Austrian Republic!
Rather than being annexed by the French Empire or becoming its vassals, these territories controlled by the Austrian Empire were more likely to join the Austrian Republic.

Of course, this has a lot to do with Alleyn's magnanimity in establishing the Republic Assembly and allowing those local governments that surrendered to send representatives to the Republic Assembly.

Seeing that the Austrian Empire was only one step away from disintegration, the Russian Empire also followed the example of the Kingdom of Prussia and dispatched a large army to fully occupy Galicia and the Kingdom of Lodomeria (Austrian Poland) in the name of defense.

The Ottoman Empire was stunned by this scene, and couldn't help sending an army of 2 people to take the Grand Duchy of Transylvania, Serbia and Tamis-Banat from the Austrian Empire. Principality.

However, the reputation of the Ottoman Empire in Europe was too bad. These two Habsburg vassal states had no intention of surrendering, even though the main force had been taken away by Franz I before that, joined the Anti-French Allied Forces, and was then The French National Defense Forces were almost completely wiped out, but they still looted all local garrisons and even militias, and started a homeland defense war with the Ottoman Empire.

In the end, the Grand Duchy of Transylvania won the victory and repelled the attack of the Ottoman Empire, but Serbia and the Duchy of Tamis-Banat were annexed by the Ottoman Empire...

During the bloody battle between these two vassal states, the Austrian Empire did not intend to send reinforcements at all, mainly because the troops in Franz I's hands were to be used to suppress the Hungarian nobles, and they did not dare to transfer them away.

As a result, the Grand Duchy of Transylvania and the Habsburg Dynasty, which suffered a lot of losses, were separated from Germany. Under the instigation of the Alene government of the Austrian Republic, the Grand Duchy of Transylvania announced its separation from the Habsburg Dynasty of the Austrian Empire. , independent as the Republic of Transylvania!

The Republic of Transylvania did not adopt a presidential system, but a parliamentary system.

The members of the parliament are actually native nobles of the original Grand Duchy of Transylvania.

Although the nobles in Transylvania have no titles, they still maintain their privileges by relying on their status as members of the parliament, and have promulgated many laws that are beneficial to their own class through the parliament, which is equivalent to elevating members to nobles in disguise , compared with the original aristocratic privileges, there is no loss.

The reason why Transylvania was not incorporated into the Austrian Republic was mainly because the Kingdom of Hungary was separated between the two.

As the territories and dependent countries of the Habsburg dynasty of the Austrian Empire left one after another, Franz I was horrified to find that the Austrian Empire had become a veritable Kingdom of Hungary!
Because the only territory left in the Austrian Empire is the Kingdom of Hungary.

The most terrible thing is that most of the Hungarian nobles in the Kingdom of Hungary do not support Franz I...

Franz I, who was depressed and ill, and who was a bit older, has been sick since then, and can no longer be in charge of the power of the Austrian Empire. The central government of the Austrian Empire is supported by the cabinet and the prince.

This gave the Hungarian nobles a chance to fight back.

The decline of the Austrian Empire gave Hungarian nobles hope of independence. The Republic of Transylvania is a very good example.

With the series of victories of the French Empire, the Republic seemed to be becoming a fashionable national system on the European continent, and the reforms of the Republic of Transylvania allowed the Hungarian nobility to see a republican system in which their rights had not been weakened at all.

If such a republic is established, it can hold the lap of the Austrian Republic without being invaded by the French Empire, that would be a great result.

At the same time, the rapid expansion of the Austrian Republic allowed Karl to end the war on the Eastern Front, because the eastern part of the French-controlled area was fully bordered by the Austrian Republic.

As for the remnants of the Austrian Empire, the Lindenwan Free Corps of the Austrian Republic will naturally deal with it.

The Elaine government has taken great pains for Li Wei's great cause. After annexing those territories, it immediately began to recruit people to join the army. In just one month, by merging the armies of other regions and reorganizing the militia, Linden Ten thousand free corps expanded to more than sixty thousand people!
Afterwards, Alleyne sent his trusted French generals to lead the Lindenvan Free Corps to attack the Austrian Empire, which had only one territory left in the Kingdom of Hungary.

At this time, Emperor Franz I of the Austrian Empire fell ill, and the abominable thing was that Franz I just fell ill and hadn't gone to see God yet!
This made it impossible for the legal heir of the Austrian Empire to ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor. Even though he had already entered the cabinet and began to govern, the Hungarian nobles did not agree!
Facing the attack of the Austrian Republic, the Hungarian aristocracy began to frequently send people to contact the Elaine government.

Not long after, the Kingdom of Hungary went out to many big cities in Budapest, and uprisings led by Hungarian nobles broke out.

It was not a revolutionary uprising, but an uprising by the Hungarian nobles with their own private and serf armies!
Since these local cities were originally controlled by the Hungarian nobles, they only expelled the officials sent by the Austrian Empire to complete the uprising...

Faced with uprisings led by Hungarian nobles in many places, the cabinet of the Austrian Empire hurriedly dispatched a small number of Austrian troops to counter the rebellion. On the other hand, it had to deal with the weak but powerful Austrian Republic Army.

Amid internal and external troubles, the morale of the Austrian Imperial Army was low. The Hungarian nobles shouted slogans for the establishment of an independent Kingdom of Hungary, and quickly defeated the scattered Austrian Imperial Army.

When the Hungarian aristocratic coalition troops came to Budapest, Franz I, who was already sick, vomited three liters of blood, and finally passed away and went to see God...

It is a pity that the death of Franz I did not help the current Austrian Empire. Under the persecution of the Hungarian aristocratic coalition forces, the last cabinet government of the Austrian Empire asked the representatives of the princes of the Habsburg dynasty to sign the instrument of surrender.

In this way, the Austrian Empire was completely destroyed and the Kingdom of Hungary became independent.

However, the Habsburg family was not destroyed. After they got rid of the entanglement of the Hungarian nobles, they were treated generously. The main members and property were smoothly and secretly transferred to the major cities of the Austrian Republic to hide.

These members of the Habsburg family and loyal followers of the Habsburg family will contact the Austrian nobles who have lost power, form the Austrian royalist front, and plot restoration.

In the territories directly under the jurisdiction of Austria, the conservative forces are still very strong. The French Defense Forces only destroyed the conservative forces' apparent power. The hidden forces behind the scenes are still very strong. Even many civilians and farmers are hostile to the Habsburgs. Dynasty had a favorable impression.

These are the shadows left by the Habsburg dynasty, and it will take massacres and time to wear them away!
Of course, the French Empire is now in a state of turmoil, and the royalist forces established by the Habsburg family dare not show themselves at all. Like the Lindenwan Brotherhood at the beginning, they developed silently.

After the independence of Hungary, the Aileen government of the Austrian Republic required Hungary to establish a republican system in order to end the war. Naturally, the Hungarian aristocrats who were afraid of the French Empire did not dare to disagree. They followed the methods of the Republic of Transylvania and established the Republic of Hungary.

(End of this chapter)