War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

In 1845, there were already many organizations on the island of Ireland trying to fight for the rights of the Irish. In addition to the two more radical organizations, Young Ireland and the Irish Liberator, there were:

For example, the "Orange Order" composed of Irish Protestants, and the "Defender League", which was mainly Catholic, was supported by the French.

Of course, there is also Daniel O'Connell's Catholic Association. This organization is equally radical, but its leadership is extraordinary. He accomplished something that many Irish people had not dared to think of for hundreds of years, the Catholic Emancipation Act.

O'Connell's political skills were superb. He could always find a balance between unrest and protest. He liked to use large rallies to put pressure on the government. In 1843 alone, he mobilized more than 30 people and hundreds of thousands of people. Although there were large gatherings mentioned above, no violence occurred.

At the same time, O'Connell also formed an alliance with the Whigs because the two had a common enemy, the Tories.

In addition, he is also looking for supporters overseas, but this man is very smart. He will not leave any promises when asking for help, let alone contact any political figures to leave others with evidence of treason.

The first thing Robert Peel's government did when they came to power was to imprison him and try to coerce him into using his entire family fortune and his status as a member of the House of Lords.

But Daniel O'Connell did not surrender, but regained his freedom under the active rescue of his allies, the Whigs.

Robert Peel later tried to divide O'Connell's organization by increasing grants to Maynooth Seminary and creating three universities open to some Catholics, but failed.

O'Connell believed that only through parliamentary reform could Ireland gain self-government. His idea was clearly unhistorical. After all, both the Tories and the Whigs regarded it as a tool in political struggle.

Franz also had different views from O'Connell, and Ireland's "peaceful self-government" was not in line with the interests of the Austrian Empire, but this did not affect the cooperation between the two.

Moreover, the Austrian Imperial Church sent "doctrinally proficient" priests to the island of Ireland to support it in a reasonable manner. Who makes the Irish people's literacy rate low?

At this time, the number of Austrian priests stationed on the island of Ireland exceeded 3,000, and there were nearly 500 other affairs officers.

This made Archbishop Rauscher very confused. He didn't know what would happen in this land and what was worth doing.

After all, judging from the intelligence collected, this place only highlights the word poverty. The people are terribly poor. The priests can only rely on relief from their own country to survive. The tithes paid by the Irish are almost negligible.

Even if you want to use it to contain the British, you can't do it. After all, they have neither weapons nor training. And historically speaking, Spain, the Netherlands, and France have all supported the Irish, but the results were a complete failure.

This is enough to prove the stability of British rule in Ireland, and the church does not like O'Connell very much.

Because there are many indications that the latter had been selling lists of his supporters and Austrian missionaries to the British government.

Franz didn't expect this at first. He always felt that this Irish national hero should not do such a dirty thing, but after thinking about it, it was actually quite normal. After all, this was the reality. He betrayed his allies and what he wanted to save. Ireland is not in conflict.

Fortunately, Franz had already made preparations. The affairs officers had entered through other channels, and it didn't matter if the priests' identities were exposed. Rather, the exposure would be more conducive to the next plan.

In Belgium, 900 kilometers away from Ireland (the Flemish region of the Netherlands at this time), potato late blight has begun to rage.

The German Customs Union immediately issued an emergency decree banning the import of Dutch potatoes on the grounds that potato late blight may be contagious.

This proposal was put forward by a small country that could not reach the 18th pole. The first one to respond was Prussia. After all, they competed with Dutch agricultural products. They banned Dutch potatoes from entering the German market. Frederick William IV would be happy to death. , the Junkers nobles planned to celebrate with fireworks.

The Austrian Empire issued an emergency order to reduce the proportion of potato planting. After all, Franz was not absolutely sure that this disaster would not affect Austria.

Although this virus is serious, as long as you don’t grow potatoes, you won’t have this problem. However, this does not apply on the island of Ireland. This is not because potatoes can only be grown locally, but only potatoes can feed such a large population.

There were only a very small number of Irish people like the Jennings who could rent five acres of land. Generally speaking, the land they rented would not exceed three acres, and in some areas it was even less than one acre.

In fact, Franz also tried other high-yielding crops, but the year-round temperature in Ireland is too low and the sunshine duration is too short, making it only suitable for growing cool-loving crops, such as cassava, sweet potatoes and other potato crops that require greenhouses.

Most of the cool-loving crops are vegetables, and the only ones that can be used as staple foods are wheat, potatoes, barley (highland barley), and sugar beets.

Franz first took a fancy to sugar beets. After all, Austria had advanced sugar-pressing technology. It seemed reasonable to let the Irish grow sugar beets and then use the money earned to buy food.

However, the reality is that because cheap sugar from the Americas occupies the market, beet sugar does not have much market in the UK. The reason why those Scots and Welsh people grow sugar beets is because of state subsidies.

There is no subsidy for the Irish to grow sugar beets. As second-class citizens, they are only allowed to grow food crops.

So all that was left were wheat and barley. At this time, the yield of wheat per acre was really terrible. Coupled with the lack of fertilizers and scientific farming methods on the island of Ireland, it was really impossible to grow wheat on more than ten acres of land to feed the whole family. .

In addition, the land of Irish farmers is generally relatively poor, and these lands are not suitable for wheat growth.

(1 acre = 6.07 acres)

The yield of barley is much higher than that of wheat at this time, and the adaptability is also strong, but the taste is very poor, and the nutrients are not easily absorbed by the human body, and long-term consumption is prone to illness. Generally speaking, it is used to feed livestock or brew beer. .

Moreover, according to tradition, local landowners can let their animals eat the barley grown by farmers, which makes many farmers afraid of growing this crop.

Just imagine that the food you have worked so hard to grow is directly eaten by those animals, but you are helpless and feel desperate.

And because of Corn Law restrictions, the price of livestock sold into Britain has been rising. The great nobles and landowners had been considering the restoration of grazing.

However, farmers and small farmers who had experienced the tragedy of sheep eating people firmly resisted it, and large landowners had to slow down their actions.

However, between 1820 and 1845, the land used for livestock production still quadrupled, accounting for 85% of the total agricultural land area.