If the failure of Foreign Secretary Gemini Bacona's visit to Britain was expected, then the failure of Count Beverley Garland's visit to Germany caught the Italian government somewhat off guard.
You must know that Germany has considerable overlapping interests with Italy in some aspects, and it should be a natural candidate to become an ally. Moreover, Germany's investment in Italy has not been small at all in recent years. Funds from Germany currently account for 37.1% of Italy's foreign investment.
It surpassed Britain and France and took the first place.
Since the political and economic ties are so close, the relationship between the two countries should be further developed. However, what is somewhat unexpected is that Germany is careless about wooing Italy, as they only care about economic interests.
Of course, as Prime Minister, Depretis also knows the reason, that is, there is Austria between the two countries. From Germany's perspective, Austria is much better than Italy.
Even so, Depretis believes that the importance of Italy is no less important than Austria, and during this visit to Germany, he also gave Earl Beverly Garland a briefing. If necessary, he can hint that as long as Germany is willing
Alliance with Italy, then Italy is willing to make some concessions on tariffs.
This condition is a huge concession for Italy to insist on. As we all know, the quality of German products is not very good at present. In addition to being cheap, they have no strength to compete with British and French products (yes, Germany in this era is like
China in the twentieth century).
If Italy lowers its tariffs on Germany, it will further reduce the selling price of German products in Italy, expand its share of sales in Italy, and even harm local Italian companies.
The reason why De Pretis did this was not to find a reliable ally. After all considerations, the Germans were slightly more reliable. If nothing else, their world-famous army was worthy of trust.
However, what people didn't expect was that even if Italy gave up such huge benefits, Germany still remained unmoved and firmly stood on Austria's side. This made Depretis miscalculate.
In fact, this is not a miscalculation. The main reason is that Italy is not as powerful as Austria. Austria has its own heavy industry. Although its Skoda heavy artillery is not as famous as Krupp, it is not much weaker. Its domestic population is slightly more than half that of Italy.
For farmers, life is still better. As for the army, although the Austro-Hungarian army is not known for its bravery and fighting skills, compared with the Italian army's repeated defeats, it is like heaven and earth.
As a practical consideration, why would the Germans choose a weak ally instead of a strong one?
In addition, the Austrians all have historical origins. They are both Germanic and can communicate with each other in culture and language. How many Germans know about Italy's Latin language?
Besides, Germany is not as strong as it was in the future and had no friends, but there are still people who can rival the Germans. Therefore, it is reasonable for Germany to choose the Austrians as allies.
As for the Germans' talk of resolving the conflict with Austria, this seems completely impossible to Depretis.
First we need to look at the dispute between Italy and Austria.
The current dispute between Italy and Austria is mainly in the Tyrol region, which is currently under the control of Austria-Hungary, but Italy has never given up its claim to sovereignty over the region.
Why do the two countries attach so much importance to Tyrol that they would not hesitate to fight?
Tyrol is located in the eastern section of the Alps. Its territory is dominated by mountains (in the north) and plains (in the south). In addition, the Inn and Drava river valleys within its territory are the main routes from Vienna to Italy.
Today it is a battleground for military strategists. The area was annexed by the Habsburg family in 1363 and became the main route for their control of northern Italy.
During the Italian Unification War, the Italian army tried to regain the Tyrol region many times, but failed due to various reasons (mainly because they never fought). Therefore, this became the reason why Italy would never forget it after the unification.
In addition, Italy's terrain is very suitable for defense. The Alps separate Italy from other countries, but only in Tyrol, Italy has no danger of defense.
This is like the relationship between the Northern Song Dynasty and the Sixteenth State of Yanyun in the Liao Kingdom. Of course Italy would not accept it. Doesn't this put its elite northern region under threat from Vienna at any time?
Therefore, the focus of Italian diplomacy in recent years has been on how to recapture the Tyrol region from the Austrians. Whether it was in 1878 when it joined forces with Russia and France to try to start a war against Austria, or before that, Italy always kept its eyes on the Austrians' every move.
Therefore, it is even harder to get Italy to recognize that Tyrol belongs to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If Prime Minister Despretis dares to agree to this condition, the angry people will be enough to tear him apart.
Therefore, if you want to resolve the conflict with Austria, you will need to have a powerful mediator to suppress the conflict between the two countries. Currently, only Germans are qualified to be mediators, but Germany has no intention of getting involved.
Since the Germans have no intention of interfering, the negotiations for an alliance between Italy and Germany have reached a deadlock. Even he, the prime minister, has no good solution to such a deadlock.
However, under the current circumstances, Austria can also send people to test it out.
Thinking of this, Depretis called someone. "Send a telegram to Count Beverly Garland and ask him to go to Vienna and try Austria's attitude."
Following Despretis's order, Count Garland, who was originally planning to return directly to his country, was preparing to get off the bus in Vienna. I hope his visit to Austria will be fruitful.
