The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 591 Allies on the Island of Ireland
In 1845, there were already many organizations trying to fight for the rights of the Irish on the island of Ireland. In addition to the two more radical organizations of Young Ireland and the Irish Liberator, there were:

For example, the "Orange Order" composed of Irish Protestants was supported by the French "Defenders Alliance" dominated by Catholics.

And of course Daniel O'Connell's Catholic Association, an organization equally radical but with extraordinary leadership, who accomplished what many Irish people hadn't dreamed of for hundreds of years, the Catholic Emancipation Act.

O'Connell's political skills are brilliant. He can always find a balance between turmoil and protests. He likes to use large-scale rallies to put pressure on the government. The above-mentioned large-scale gatherings, but there were no violent incidents.

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

In addition, he is also looking for supporters overseas, but this person is very smart. When he asks for help, he will not leave any promises, and he will not contact any political figures to leave others with treason.

The first thing Robert Peel's government came to power was to put him in prison, and tried to intimidate and lure him with all his property and his status as a member of the House of Lords.

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

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

O'Connell believes that only through parliamentary reform can Ireland gain self-government. His ideas are obviously not in line with history. After all, both the Tory Party and the Whig Party only regard it as a tool for political struggle.

Franz also disagreed with 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, it is reasonable and reasonable for the Austrian Imperial Church to send priests who are "proficient in teaching" to the island of Ireland. Who made the Irish literacy rate low?

At this time, the number of priests sent by Austria to the island of Ireland has exceeded 3000, and there are nearly 500 other affairs officers.

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

After all, judging from the collected information, this place only has one word of poverty. The people are terribly poor. The priests can only live off their own relief, and 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 from a historical point of view, Spain, the Netherlands, and France have all supported the Irish one after another, but the results were all crushing defeats.

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

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

Franz didn't expect this incident at first. He always felt that the Irish national hero shouldn't do such a nasty thing, but after thinking about it, it was actually quite normal. After all, this is the reality. Ireland is not in conflict.

Fortunately, Franz had already prepared that the officers all entered through other channels, and it didn't matter if the identities of the priests were exposed. It would be better to say that exposure would be more conducive to the next step of the plan.

Potato late blight has begun to wreak havoc in Belgium (the Flemish region of the Netherlands at this time), 900 kilometers away from Ireland.

The German Customs Union immediately issued an emergency decree announcing the ban on the import of Dutch potatoes, on the grounds that potato late blight might be contagious.

This proposal was put forward by a small state that couldn't beat it. The first responder was Prussia. After all, they competed with Dutch agricultural products. Forbidding Dutch potatoes from entering the German market, Frederick William IV would be happy. Yes, the Junker nobles are planning to set off cannons to celebrate.

The Austrian Empire urgently issued an order to reduce the proportion of potato planting. After all, Franz is not absolutely sure that the disaster will not spread to Austria.

Although this virus is powerful, as long as you don't grow potatoes, you won't have this problem.It's just that this doesn't apply on the island of Ireland. This is not because potatoes can only be grown there, but only potatoes can feed so many people.

The Irish who can rent five acres of land like the Jennings family are very few. Generally speaking, they rent no more than three acres of land, and in some areas they even have less than one acre of land.

In fact, Franz has also tried other high-yielding crops, but the year-round temperature in Ireland is too low and the sunshine duration is too short, so it is only suitable for planting those cool-loving crops, such as cassava, sweet potato and other potato crops that need greenhouses to grow.

Most of the cool crops are vegetables, and only wheat, potato, barley (highland barley) and sugar beet can be used as staple food.

Franz first set his sights on sugar beets. After all, Austria has advanced sugar extraction technology. It seems reasonable to let these Irishmen grow sugar beets and use the money they earn to buy food.

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

The Irish, on the other hand, were not subsidized to grow sugar beets, and as second-class citizens they were only entitled to grow food crops.

So the only thing left is wheat and barley. At this time, the yield of wheat per mu is really appalling. Coupled with the lack of fertilizers and scientific farming methods on the island of Ireland, it is 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. Long-term consumption is prone to disease. Generally speaking, it is used to feed livestock or brew beer .

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

Just imagine the food you worked so hard to grow and be eaten directly by those animals, and you feel hopeless because you can't do anything about it.

And because of the restrictions of the Corn Laws, the price of livestock sold to England has been rising.The great nobles and landowners have been considering the restoration of grazing.

But farmers and small farmers who had experienced the tragedy of sheep cannibalism firmly resisted it, and the big landowners had to slow down their actions.

But between 1820 and 1845, the land used for animal husbandry quadrupled, accounting for 85% of the total agricultural land area.

(End of this chapter)