The Austro-Prussian War was a long-prepared war with very clear sides taken across the entire German Empire.
Conflicts had started as early as April, but due to the Prussian King’s hesitation, it wasn’t until May that Prussia began its preparations for combat.
However, regarding this war, Prussia was clearly the more fully prepared side.
The Prussians had long been ready to unify Germany, whereas the Austrians were still immersed in the sweet dream of their empire, unaware that the Austrian Empire’s situation was already extremely dangerous.
As time entered June 1866, the flames on the border between Prussia and Austria were ignited further.
The Kingdom of Bavaria in southern Germany attempted to initiate a confederation vote to force both Prussia and Austria to halt their war preparations.
But the war preparations of the two nations had reached such a stage that a mere Bavaria couldn’t stop them.
As the Iron Chancellor Bismarck declared the parliament’s decision invalid and demanded the dissolution of the Confederate Diet, the entirety of Germany began a vigorous process of taking sides.
The imminent war wasn’t just to decide a victor, but also to determine the final master of the German region.
Standing with Prussia were Mecklenburg, Oldenburg, other northern German states, and the three free cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lübeck.
Standing with Austria were Saxony, Hanover, Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Darmstadt, and other member states of the German Confederation.
In terms of the number of states taking sides, population, and area, the Austrian side held the advantage.
But in terms of military strength, Prussia’s side was clearly stronger.
As June 14 officially arrived, this war, for which both sides had prepared for a long time, broke out.
Carlo wasn’t worried about this war at all.
Even in a one-on-one fight between Prussia and Austria, Austria absolutely couldn’t be a match for Prussia.
Although the Italian army wouldn’t play a major role, they could at least pin down a portion of the Austrian army in the early stages of the war.
Moreover, Garibaldi had prepared an army of over ten thousand men in advance; at the very least, this army wouldn’t be a burden holding them back.
If the Austrians truly underestimated the enemy, perhaps Italy could not only recover the Venice region but also make demands for the long-desired South Tyrol region.
It is worth mentioning that, out of concern over Garibaldi leading an army independently, Victor Emmanuel II also agreed to the request proposed by Carlo: inviting Garibaldi’s second son, Ricciotti, to act as Carlo’s Ducal Court Military Attaché.
This position held absolutely no real power, as Carlo wasn’t qualified to have his own guard unit.
Ricciotti’s daily tasks were to accompany Carlo to his studies at the military academy and incidentally handle some miscellaneous chores for Carlo.
During Carlo’s day-after-day of dry and boring military studies, the war between Prussia and Austria was also raging fiercely.
Although the entire battlefield was divided into three parts, the decisive one was located in Bohemia.
This was not only where the main forces of the Prussian and Austrian armies engaged in firefights but also the most essential part of the Austrian Empire.
The good news was that Carlo, relying on his connections, could easily obtain the latest battle reports from the front lines and then publish them in his Il Sole 24 Ore.
Along with dropping news about Garibaldi from time to time, this thoroughly solidified the status of Italy’s Il Sole 24 Ore in the Italian public opinion sector.
Riding the tailwind of the war’s outbreak, the daily sales volume of the Italian Sun newspaper broke through 15,000 copies and was rapidly advancing toward 20,000 copies.
If it weren’t for the era’s printing and communication technologies limiting the newspaper’s expansion, The Sun might have taken this opportunity to become Italy’s largest newspaper.
The entire war did not last long.
Because Prussia feared French intervention, the war started with a bang but ended rather anticlimactically.
The good news was that Italy successfully obtained the reward for its participation: the complete Venice region and a part of South Tyrol.
The bad news was that both the Italian army and Victor Emmanuel II displayed extremely poor performances in the war; the performance of an Italian army numbering over a hundred thousand was worse than Garibaldi’s army of just over ten thousand.
But as the saying goes, a flaw cannot obscure the jade.
Compared to the national celebration brought about by recovering Venice and annexing half of South Tyrol, Victor Emmanuel II’s terrible military command could be actively overlooked by the Italian people.
At least on this matter, Victor Emmanuel II and Garibaldi reached a compromise.
Garibaldi hoped to see a unified and strong Italy in his lifetime, and Victor Emmanuel II hoped to accomplish the great goal of unifying Italy during his term.
The two hit it off perfectly.
This was also beneficial for Carlo.
The idea of letting Garibaldi recruit troops and prepare for war was proposed by Carlo, and facts proved it to be very effective.
If it weren’t for Garibaldi’s army playing a major role on the southern front, it would have been hard enough for Italy to recover Venice, let alone annex a portion of the South Tyrol region.
The biggest factor in this was Prussia’s fear of French intervention.
In original history, after the Italian army was routed, Garibaldi took command in the crisis and, using a hastily assembled army of 38,000 men, repeatedly defeated the Austrian army, almost reaching the Tyrol region.
But at that time, Prussia, fearing French intervention, demanded the Italian government withdraw its troops with an extremely tough attitude.
Garibaldi was forced to withdraw from South Tyrol helplessly, which resulted in Italy only harvesting the Venice region that the Austrians voluntarily abandoned in that war.
But now, because of Garibaldi’s proactive strike, he had already conquered more than half of South Tyrol before the Prussians demanded a withdrawal.
This became the confidence for Italy’s diplomatic department to demand South Tyrol.
Although they ultimately received less than half of South Tyrol, it was still a bigger harvest than in original history.
Compared to Italy, the Kingdom of Prussia was absolutely the country that gained the most from this war.
After the war ended, the German Confederation announced its dissolution, and Austria completely lost control over the German region.
Meanwhile, Prussia leapt to become the leader of all states in the German region, annexed the Kingdom of Hanover, and became the new hegemon of Germany.
This was still very friendly to a country like Italy.
With Prussia drawing the attention of Britain and France, Italy could keep a low profile and develop for a period, and Carlo didn’t have to worry that his operations would attract larger accidents.
(END CHAPTER)