Chapter 49: Chapter 49 – Land Distribution

In the year 1848, revolution seemed to have become the trend in Austria; there was no longer any region of Austria where peace and order prevailed.

On March 28, a revolution finally broke out in the region of Dalmatia. Fortunately, the influence of the Habsburgs was strong in Dalmatia and its neighboring Croatia as the local Croats suppressed the revolution themselves before the Vienna government had even decided to deploy troops.

After reading the intelligence report in his hand, Franz learnt that the local City Defense Force had led the rebellion, but it was suppressed by the capitalists and released serfs in Dalmatia. In other words, the nobles and nationalists had started the rebellion while the capitalists and serfs had helped suppress it.

According to the intelligence report, the rebellion was started due to the dissatisfaction of the local nobles with the Vienna government for passing the land and serfdom reforms which had harmed their interests. With the incitement of the radical nationalists, the nobles had foolishly rebelled.

It was hard to believe, but there were many such foolish nobles in Europe at the time. These idiots were lucky to have been born in Europe where nobles were united, at least in the face of the king. As a result, the king usually ignored them as long as their foolishness didn’t cause any serious harm to the kingdom and they publicly apologized for their actions. Rebellion, however, was one thing that could not be ignored or forgiven.

In addition, it was normal for the released serfs to help suppress the rebellion initiated by the nobles. The Vienna government had already announced the abolition of serfdom and had broken the chains which fettered them, but the nobles wanted to continue to enslave them. Needless to say, they had to oppose the nobility if they wanted freedom.

The most amusing part was that these rebellious nobles had actually armed the serfs whom they previously owned in order to form their own personal armies, which was also the reason that Franz found them foolish.

One thing which did catch Franz by surprise was that the Dalmatian capitalists, who had always been close with the Dalmatian nobles, had supported the Vienna government and contributed to the suppression of the rebellion. And the efficiency of this suppression was startling. However, Franz believed that these capitalists had likely realized that a revolution led by foolish and incompetent nobles was impossible to succeed, so they betrayed the nobles to get in his good graces.

After all, Dalmatia had a low sense of belonging in Austria, as a seemingly dispensable border province. It was economically underdeveloped and did not have much strategic value, so it was easy to ignore.

Looking at Franz's confused expression, Minister-President von Schwarzenberg said, “Your Imperial Highness, this Dalmatian rebellion was carried out by the noble officials in the local government after their interests were slightly damaged due to our reforms.

These bastards even wanted to get Trieste involved in their rebellion to build a country bordering Lombardy-Venetia and obtain support from the rebels and Sardinians there. However, they failed to realize that the local City Defense Force was loyal to the Empire and their rebellion was doomed to fail, sooner or later.

Moreover, their geographical location leaves them heavily dependent on the Empire economically, so if they became independent, Dalmatia’s economy would plummet very quickly. It was inevitable that the capitalists would go their own way to protect their own interests.”

Franz nodded thoughtfully. It seemed that the most likely possibility was that the capitalists felt that the rebellion was hopeless and they would not obtain any greater benefits, so they simply sold out their partner.

Franz could only think of a few reasons the nobles of Dalmatia would be so stupid: general lack of knowledge, too many ignorant people among them, and loss of reason due to greed, all of which were common among nobles that had grown up being pampered and wasting their days away in debauchery and profligacy.

“Deploy the soldiers to confiscate the rebels’ property and land, and immediately implement the abolition of serfdom.

As a reward for those who helped suppress the rebellion, exempt the capitalists from this year’s tax and reward the released serfs with a part of rebels’ land. Also, give a pension to the families of the deceased and wounded.”