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A new chapter. Have fun and keep the comments coming please!
5. A Crisis, new faces and the axe in the Cherry tree forest
"Prussia was lucky that no one caught on how serious the internal crisis in 1861 was. The great return of the Eulenburg expedition covered the deep divide in the Landtag, still even deepened it. That an army and now even a navy reform were needed was clear to everybody, but the fight for power between conservatives and liberals paralysed all. - My old reputation did not help me. My first cabinet was full of people I took because they were available, not for their potential. Actually the number of ministers knowing what they were doing, could be counted with the fingers of one hand.
I admit freely that back then I had more in common with the conservatives, but if I wanted to make the best out of the foreign political windfall, I needed the liberals. That nearly became a disaster, because they did not trust me at first."
Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany
"The American Civil War hit us hard. A very important market nearly dried up overnight. When these polite yellowish fellows came into my factory and I talked with them, I knew my prayers had been heard.
Japan needed a lot and more importantly, a lot of what we could produce: Railway wheels, tracks, cannons, ... It cost a fortune to charter a ship for the first trade convoy to Japan, but the end justified the means. Not only did we start to sell well in Japan, but the trade with the East fired on the development in Germany too. I knew that we would grow big, but that we became the biggest steel corporation in the world was only possible due to Japan being in the Zollverein"
Alfred Krupp, industry magnate
"There are things worse than to cooperate with a group you despise. It is to recognise that people you thought were loyal to your course, were in it only to become the rulers themselves.- And to see them change allegiance to top it off."
Tenno Komei, 121st Tenno of Japan
"The most frightening moment in my life was understanding that I suddenly had more in common with my political enemy than most of my old allies."
Shogun Iemochi, during the first phase of the end of the old Shogunate
Excerpt form the periodical "Was war wichtig (What had been important) 1861"
Prussia - her external reputation was polished up, but the internal crisis was sapping strength. The treaties made in East Asia helped a lot in foreign matters, but at home the situation had become even more complicated. The army reform had already blocked everything, now the navy needed to be reformed as well due to the new circumstances.
Most historians are sure that the government could have held out longer if the East Asia expedition had returned later, but now this return hastened the developments. In May, Karl Anton von Hohenzollern resigned as prime minister and the crisis became state-threatening. Government and legislative stalemated, it was minister Albrecht von Roon, who made a desperate gambit to give the conservatives the needed power to regain the steering in Prussia.
He recalled Otto von Bismarck to Berlin and in a night and fog action Bismarck became the new prime minister of Prussia.
The progressives in Prussia were less than amused. The later Chancellor had a reputation as an arc-conservative and so no liberals wanted to serve under him. Bismarck was forced to take in ministers he did not like one bit and considered useless.
Bismarck was close to the conservatives points of view, but his uncanny talent for foreign policy told him what a boon the successful East Asia expedition was. To use that to the fullest, Prussia had to get manoeuvrable again. Therefore he needed the liberals, but that was easier said than done.
Most progressives in Prussia mistrusted the new man at the helm, so Bismarck began to, had to reach out to them. His first speech in that direction was a disaster. He came across as exactly what the liberals feared. His second speech, the famous "Eisen, Blut und Fernhandel"-speech, seemed destined to turn out that way again. It was the last part Bismarck had inserted rather late, which finally gave him a connection to the progressives.
The Prince had talked in length about the chances of the treaty with Japan, about trade, patriotism, the need for Prussia to be united in itself, a united Germany, which was needed sooner than later, industry and a lot more points. While not fully convinced of Bismarck´s intentions, the liberals saw the chance to further their course in Prussia, if, well, if they helped Bismarck. This led to a schism in the liberals.
Many thought that was one thing the government had hoped for, but today we knew it was a development which by that time had already begun, if quietly. The newly formed "Nationalliberalen" (National Liberals) would become a cornerstone of Bismarck´s powerbase for decades to come.
His first risk taking had paid off. During the summer Bismarck could remove a lot of ministers and put better qualified personal from the progressives in. While he stayed defence minister, Roon was mildly shocked by Bismarck´s turn. By the time the first Japan convoy left the german ports, a now firmer in the saddle sitting prime minister led the official good bye celebrations.
For the enemies of Prussia a big chance had finally gone by unused.
Edo, Japan, summer 1861
The two man sitting in one room of the Shogun´s residence playing a game of Go, conversing about the situation in Japan, disliked each with quite a passion. It was doubtful if they would ever see the other really neutral, not to speak of friendly.
But the circumstances left them no choice. The upper echelons of Japan, the people in charge, had begun to fully take sides ever faster the more about the potential changes came to light. Simply put, after a handful of months the Tenno and the Shogun had to admit that only together would they have a majority of the leaders on their side.
The shock of losing support once considered steadfast was not confined to the Tenno alone. Shogun Iemochi, had seen the need for some reform too, he was equally shocked how strong the old power establishment was. But if Japan did nothing, sticking the head in the sand, like many on the side of Matsusaida preferred, Japan would soon be lost.
This duty to Japan, to better her position, was the main glue keeping two sides together which under different circumstances would happily try to undermine the other.
The biggest irony and on this even the so dissimilar leaders conformed, was that the defenders of the hardline bakufu now tried for outside help as well. Naturally this was not advertised, that the champions of a gaijin-free Nippon would make common cause with them, but there were reports that they stretched out feelers to the French.
The Clans and groups loyal to either the Tenno or the Shogun got their help from the provisory "german embassy". That would change, when further ships from Europe arrived, but until then the 6 people from various german states in one of the rededicated guest houses of Castle Edo were ad hoc, but de facto ambassadors and advisors.
It was not easy for the "Longnoses". The culture was different, in many things very much so and while the progressives among the Japanese were very inquisitive, the anti-foreigner factions in Japan showed subtle and less subtle harassment.
For the Europeans it was not only clear that their own behaviour had to be impeccable as much as the culture shock allowed, since they were the face of Germany, but that they had to help the progressives in Japan. Not only for the best of Japan, but for the best for the german states as well.
Foreigners had a mostly bad reputation in Japan for the unfair treaties and methods they had used to force Japan to sign them. The german states had been an exception on that, so if the Tenno and the Shogun won the inevitable confrontation with the hardliner Bakufu side, the german states would be the uncontested preferred type of gaijin in Japan.
Correctly seeing their duty not only in being the envoys they were, but in curtailing the activities of the competitors, the small group started various activities. The unknown Herr Krüger (the documents with his given name on it were destroyed during the Kanto earthquake) busied himself with his main thing, building up the japanese Zollverein dependence, but he also gave lessons in modern bookkeeping and economic theory, german type.
The leader of the german delegation was often with the Tenno and the Shogun, using his knowledge of law and state theory to give ideas how Japan could modernize without losing her "soul". Having brainstormed often with Carl Theodor Welcker, Eduard von Simson and Georg Waitz surely helped in that.
If it was correct that the opposition in Japan was in contact with the french envoys, he hoped that a full "real" group of envoys and advisors would soon come from Germany. Little did he know that while a merchant fleet from all Zollverein states, filled with ambassadors and advisors as well, had started the voyage to Japan, he would ultimately stay a further five years in Edo. His book on the conflict between reactionaries and progressives during the early Dakyou Era would become a bestseller.
