War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

"Mr. Metternich, the Turkish-British Commercial Treaty was a devastating blow to Egypt's economy. It can even be said that as long as this treaty comes into effect, Egypt will never be able to recover. If we continue to attack the Egyptian government, it is very likely to lead to uprising.

If someone replaces Ali, and this person turns to the British, then the British power in the Near East will become unprecedentedly powerful and will pose a huge threat to the development of our country. They can expel the French under the pretext of helping the Ottomans, and they can also expel us. "

Metternich admired Franz's words very much. He felt that the Archduke would be his most outstanding student.

"But the Egyptians are allies of the French, and weakening them is equivalent to weakening France." Metternich said.

"This is only half correct. Egypt is indeed an ally of the French, but weakening it will only allow the French to stop their losses in time. Once France gives up Egypt, it can devote more energy and troops to Africa and America, and even going to Asia to fight for Vietnam.”

At this time, most of western North Africa has fallen into French hands. Currently, only Togo, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Lion Rock, and Liberia have not fallen into French hands in West Africa.

Among them, Liberia is an American colony, Togo and Guinea were invaded by the Portuguese, Lion Rock and Ghana were backed by the British, and only the Ivory Coast is still a terra nullius.

Even in the Ivory Coast, there were trade wars established by the five countries of France, Spain, Britain, Portugal, and the Netherlands. However, since the Ivory Coast abolished the slave trade in 1814, these trade wars were basically empty.

You must know that in areas where the slave trade is prevalent, there must be very warlike ethnic groups there, such as the Kingdom of Dahomey in Benin.

Although the historical Kingdom of Dahomey was not as powerful as in the movie, it was indeed a country where all people were martial.

The same is true in the Ivory Coast region. There are three very powerful tribes who have been engaged in bloody and cruel battles for a long time. However, due to the decline of the slave trade, the strength of these originally strong tribes was declining rapidly.

Ivory Coast is rich in agricultural and mineral resources. It later ranked first in cocoa production in the world. It is rich in gold, oil, iron, bauxite, nickel, manganese and other resources buried underground.

However, it is still covered by grasslands and rain forests at this time. Development requires a lot of manpower and material resources, and the initial investment is a huge amount.

Franz had sent several waves of people to negotiate with the local chiefs, but all failed. The reason was simple, because Austria did not have cannons and ships, and they were not afraid.

Instead, several white adventurers were executed in front of Franz's envoy to demonstrate their strength.

The people sent by Franz did not offend the chiefs. On the contrary, they brought rich gifts, as well as the muskets and bullets they needed most, as well as trade contracts.

In fact, those chiefs also wanted to trade with Austria, no matter what, but because Austria did not have enough maritime strength, it was difficult to gain their trust.

Most of the white adventurers executed by the chiefs were actually liars. Many white liars pretended to be European businessmen in an attempt to gain nothing, or exchange cheap Western industrial products for huge profits.

As everyone knows, the slave trade has been carried out in this land for hundreds of years, and the chiefs have long been familiar with Westerners' routines.

To put it bluntly, if you don’t have the strength, Uncle Hei won’t even play with you. I believe that soon after the first batch of warships of the Austrian Navy are refitted, the chiefs will be very happy to trade with Austria.

As for the half-dead Western trading stations, Franz was prepared to spend money to eliminate the disaster. After all, the Austrian navy at this time could only be regarded as a deterrent force, not the dominant force like the British navy.

In fact, in addition to acquiring this road, there is also the method of squeezing out the local indigenous people. On the one hand, this method is slow to achieve results, and on the other hand, it can easily arouse the anger of Western countries.

Lion Rock and Ghana are in the hands of the British, and it is basically impossible for Austria to take them away.

As for Liberia, although it has basically severed ties with the United States, the cost of conquering this land will be relatively high.

You must know that Liberia is very brave, and even dared to seize British and French ships. Although they were beaten by British and French warships in the end, no major power dared to refuse to pay taxes in Liberia.

There is still a lot of African land that can be colonized in this era. It is a good time for horse racing. Franz does not want to lose too much blood on a colony.

Togo and Guinea in the hands of the Portuguese can be considered. Although they have the support of the British, these two colonies have always been in a semi-abandoned state. Historically, the Germans took them into their pockets at a very small cost.

At this time, Portugal was still continuing the slave trade. As long as the slave trade in these two lands could be stopped, the Portuguese could easily sell these two colonies.

Moreover, the Portuguese's willingness to defend their territory is not strong, and Austria can send people to infiltrate them unscrupulously.

Back to the story, Metternich did not take Franz's words seriously. He felt that as long as the French did not keep an eye on Italy, everything would be fine.

"Isn't that better? While Britain and France are competing for colonies around the world, our Austrian Empire can better integrate the power of Italy. A complete Italy can definitely bring the Habsburg family back to its peak .”

Franz could only complain in his heart, by the time you finish integrating Italy, the world will be almost divided.

Moreover, Italy's potential is not great. The north and central areas are just fine, but the south is a big piece of bad land. In addition, the northern and central parts were originally owned by the Habsburg family, but they were simply not defended historically.

"The family's current development in Italy has reached its limit. The Kingdom of Sardinia exists as a buffer state for Austria and France. This is what you set in the Vienna Agreement. Although the Papal States in the south rely on us, they want Consolidating its lands comes at a huge political cost."

At this time, Austria's rapid development had covered up many contradictions, and Austria's rule in Italy was far from strong as imagined. Now is not a good time to continue to expand in Italy. Instead, we should first consolidate the original land.

The Papal States, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies will sooner or later reveal their flaws, and that's when Austria's real opportunity will be.

Austria's strength inadvertently fueled Metternich's ambitions. Especially after the establishment of the Apennine Customs Union, there was almost no response from Britain and France, which made him feel that the time had come to unify Italy.

Metternich's diplomatic skills were indeed very clever, and he easily got Gregory XVI to sign a customs union agreement.

Sardinia and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies were isolated. They either watched their economies shrink day by day, or they joined the Apennine Customs Union and were cannibalized bit by bit by Austria.

However, as the flow of people in Italy increased and trade with Austria deepened, the national consciousness of Italian industrial and commercial owners was gradually awakening.