Chapter-14 His plans(Part-1)

4th January, 1832,

Otto opened his eyes after a long and nice sleep. He was terribly exhausted because of the long journey he had to go through. So, he slept soundly for a long time.

Now that his mind was clear, he remembered, he asked Ioannis Kapodistrias yesterday that he had to change his religion to Orthodox or not. Kapodistrias strictly advised him too not to do it. Otto understood his reasons for the objection.

Kapodistrias worked as a Russian ambassador before appointed as the first governor of Greece. He received his education at the University of Padua in Italy, where he studied law, medicine, and philosophy. He was an outstanding student and graduated at the top of his class. After graduating from Padua, Kapodistrias travelled extensively throughout Europe, where he met with leading figures in politics, philosophy, and science. In these times, he was influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, which emphasized the importance of reason, liberty, and equality.

His education and experiences from abroad shaped his images on government and society. He always considered that a strong and prosperous nation could only be built on the foundation of education, liberty, and equality. These principles guided his actions as the first governor of Greece. Even though his reforms were always not well received but he was always a dedicated, hardworking man. From his perspective, Kapodistrias had a lot of good idea. But his way and timing of execution of those ideas was bad. Otto had a firm belief that he could solve it. That's why Otto decided to save him and to make him his Prime Minister.

As for his religion, Otto gave a lot of time in thinking what to do with it.

He realized that large amount of Greek population was illiterate. They also followed the Orthodox Church somehow blindly. The Orthodox Church also had a significant amount of power which was sufficient enough to make a major problem for him. They would never support him if he remained as a Catholic. The ordinary Greek citizens also would never fully accept Otto as their monarch. It was also a big blunder that hunted Otto of Greece of his past timeline for the rest of his life. Another point was that there were small number of Catholic peoples in Greece who held no significant power. They were believed to be the descendants of Lombards and Venetians who settled in Greece during Middle Ages. There was also a rumour among citizens that they abided by the Pope more than the Greek government. So, he decided to ignore kapodistrias's advice and to convert into Orthodox religion. It might lower his prestige to other royal families and nobilities. But they could be solved with the flow of time.

Otto also wanted to use the Orthodox Church to slowly increase his reputation, authority and support among Greek peoples. He would let them bleed for him and when their need was over, he would take over all of their authority. On that time, they could only be remained as a spiritual institute with no political and economic power in their hands.

Otto murmured,

"That's my plan for Orthodox Church. For the growth of Greece, we need to attract Immigration from several countries. Immigration can be a source of talent if it is properly managed. USA was the perfect example of it from my past life. Religious tolerance needs to be installed here for proper immigration influx. Well, education is going to be the biggest weapon for that. We just need to make sure that they will accept everything without showing resistance."

"Now that I have decided to accept Orthodox religion. I need to setup a date for it. I need to make sure that it will happen with a simple ceremony. Some Nobels may think me weak-minded with my decision of accepting Orthodox Religion. So, they may have some inspiration of revolting against me to get some concessions. Because of this, I need to be wary of the revolts, since it can happen anytime if I let my guard down."

Then he remembered that he also needed to make a coronation ceremony for him. So, Otto decided that he would also complete his coronation ceremony with his religious conversion ceremony. It would not only save a lot of money but would also complete two tasks at the same time. As for guests, he would like to invite British, French, Russian, Austrian, American, Bavarian and Prussian ambassadors. Otto would never like to invite any Royal families since Greece did not have sufficient security to protect them. It would only waste the treasury of Greece if Otto invited them. Otto would express these issues properly in the invitation letter and exaggerate matters to make sure to earn some sympathy from them. If his plan got success, he could not only avoid strong diplomatic backlashes from Royal families but also strengthen the support from them.

Otto also decided to ignore Ottomans and would not invite them in his coronation ceremony. Ottomans were already in a great trouble for now. Since they were busy in ongoing Ottoman-Egyptian war. After this, Ottomans would become the market of British product in a few years. If British got interest in Ottoman lands, it could be a big trouble for Greek expansion. Otto's first target would be the expansion of Greek territory to Constantinople before 1840 to gain more resources like iron and coal. He needed to get into alliance with Egypt for that and made British busy with their own internal issues to complete his goal.

After reorganizing his thoughts inside his diary, he went to do his morning exercise. Thereafter, he took a nice bath and completed his breakfast. Then, he went to his personal office room to talk with his Prime Minister Ioannis Kapodistrias and started explaining him about his ideas that he thought throughout the morning.

After hearing everything,

Ioannis had one thought in his mind that Otto was really mad man. How could it possible for them to conquer Constantinople when those great powers existed. Ioannis just stared at Otto like looking at a madman. Seeing this, even though Otto realized the look of Ioannis, he still asked,

"Is there a problem with my idea? Do you think we will never make an alliance with Egypt? Or do you fear British?"

Ioannis replied to shift the embarrassing topic,

"Hmm. Your Majesty. Since you thought about alliance with Egypt, you also obviously have a way to convince Egypt. Am I right?"

Otto chuckled and responded with a confidence,

"That's right. With Egypt's abundant resources and manpower, Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali Pasha would never be happy to be a vassal state of Ottomans. So, they will happily support us if we support their independence. As for British and other great power, only British may be like to interfere. So, I already have a solution for them. Just wait and watch."

Otto had already bought two newspapers in Britain and two in France to use them to earn sympathy from British and French people. If British and French people supported Greeks in war, they could also make their government obey their words. It would be Otto's big weapon against British and French.

Ioannis realised that Otto had something at his disposal to stop British. So, he replied,

"Alright, as you wish. When will you like to do your coronation, Your Majesty?"

"Arrange the date in between one to two months. Can you do it, Ioannis?"

"No problem, Your Majesty. Everything will be done."