Chapter 258: Stability
Chapter 250 Steady
On September 1, 1854, Constantinople was lost in a solemn sound, the Russians realized their century-old wish, the Russian Empire boiled over, and the European continent lost its collective voice.
The day after the Battle of Constantinople ended, the New Holy Roman Empire sent diplomatic notes to both warring sides, making a high-profile announcement to mediate this war.
This responsible international attitude was immediately well received by France and Russia, and the Near East War, which lasted for more than two years, finally saw the dawn of peace.
The eyes of the world turned to – London. The Ottoman Empire and the Duchy of Montenegro have been ignored by everyone, and it is better for weak countries to be at peace.
10 Downing Street, George Prime Minister angrily threw out the water cup in his hand, Constantinople just lost its defense, letting go of water should not be too obvious, okay?
As early as a week ago, the Russians stopped attacking, the French army began to evacuate the wounded and sick from the city, the plague outbreak stopped the attack does not seem to be anything wrong.
Two days ago, the French minister swore to him that he would defend Constantinople to the death, and that 120,000 French troops would be enough to hold off any Russian attack.
Then, last night, he received the news of the loss of Constantinople, and that the 120,000-strong French army had collectively opened up, breaking out in the face of the loss of Constantinople, and capturing the heavily Russian-guarded Tekirda the same day.
Prime Minister George is tempted to say: cheating is not too obvious ah, you guys do this, really make me very difficult!
Thomas, the foreign minister, said with a pale face, “Gentlemen, the French have unilaterally ended this war, we must act immediately, or we will be passive behind!”
Not “about to be moved”, but already moved. No matter what agreement France and Russia had reached, it was very unfavorable to the British Empire.
Once the two countries allied, the British painstakingly European balance strategy will be bankrupt. In this era, there was no such thing as a bullish alliance that existed.
Minister of War Stanley said seriously, “The French have withdrawn and even sold Constantinople to the Russians, we can no longer fight this war.”
The London government has long not wanted to fight, only to withdraw from the war is not so simple, a bad by political opponents seized the handle, it will be happy.
Stanley is the most worried, in case the French sell teammates a little more thoroughly, or maybe before the armistice negotiations, the front line of the British army was swallowed by the Russians.
Considering the old Anglo-French feud, it was not impossible for this to happen. If it did happen, it is expected that all European countries would be happy to see it happen.
After hesitating for a few moments, Prime Minister George made a decision: “Now the situation is unclear, we can only improvise, first accept the mediation of the Austrians say, the rest of the matter rely on diplomatic means to solve it!
The next focus of the Foreign Ministry, is to find ways to isolate the Russians, absolutely can not let the French and Russian alliance, or the situation will be completely out of control.”
Taking a loss? In international politics, who hasn’t suffered losses? People who just want to take advantage and are not able to suffer losses are not fit to play politics.
Losses here today, and finding ways to make up for them tomorrow. Being able to give and take is a basic quality of a politician, and a momentary loss naturally does not frighten the British.
With the London government’s stance, the Vienna Peace Conference was put on the agenda, and after everyone’s consultation, it was finally decided to officially convene on September 21st.
History has changed, the Russians did not lose on the battlefield, on the contrary, a great advantage, the peace conference naturally could not be held in Paris, the tsarist government also want to face.
……
The port of Conakry, Guinea, the largest port in latter-day West Africa, is still a barren land.
Because of the existence of a natural port, it had the privilege of being one of the strongholds of the Austrian colonization of Africa, entering the age of civilization in advance.
Now this place is just like a big construction site, according to the plan of the Vienna government, the first step to colonize Africa – to build a city.
No, it could not be considered a city, but rather a town. According to the plan, eight thousand immigrants would be settled here, plus an Austrian infantry battalion.
Then, the town as the core, began to gradually expand in all directions, until it completely occupied the coastal plains.
The port of Conakry is now also not called Conakry, but the uniquely Austrian name – Neubrueck.
This is just the beginning, and if the colonization plan goes well, many of the names of future Austrian cities will be found here.
Lt. Colonel Stephen, the city’s owner and part-time garrison commander, looked at the report in his hands and shook his head helplessly, the fledgling New Brook was lacking in everything.
Especially the lack of people, the plan was to resettle eight thousand immigrants. As of now, only twelve hundred people have arrived, in less than two months, 56 people have already died from various causes, and there are still thirty-seven people lying in sickbeds.
This death rate is only slightly lower than the plague. If this situation continues, the average life expectancy of the new immigrants will probably not exceed 35 years.
Lt. Colonel Stephen asked with concern, “When will the next batch of immigrants be able to arrive?”
Aide Gold replied dryly, “I don’t know!”
The African colony was different from the mainland, and once they arrived here the only communication was by the ships that came and went, and if it wasn’t for the fact that supplies were sent over every month, they would have thought that they had been abandoned.
Of course, in order to maintain contact between the colonies, Stephen still had a few small boats in his hands that could communicate with other strongholds.
Within these three hundred or so kilometers of Guinea’s coastline, the Austrian government had set up three colonial sites, where the first colonists were spread out.
Learning from the successful experience of the colonization of various countries, the Austrian colonial army only stayed in the coastal area, deep into the inland area that is the future.
The few indigenous tribes in the plains had already been cleared, and for security reasons even the prisoners were disposed of to the Portuguese.
The slave trade was still rampant in this era, and the United States was the world’s largest buyer of slaves; nearly half of the growth in the U.S. population in recent years was contributed by the purchase of slaves.
The slave market was still in the stage of oversupply, after all, the African continent in this era was not a good place, infested with poisonous insects and beasts.
Just look at the mortality rate of immigrants, it is still only in the stronghold to build homes, if you want to go deeper into the interior, this mortality rate will have to increase dramatically.
Lieutenant Colonel Stephen casually said, “I don’t know, won’t you ask?”
Just after saying that, Lieutenant Colonel Stephen realized that he had done something stupid. This was a colony, not a country, so if you wanted to communicate directly with the country, you’d have to wait a few more decades!
Wired telegraph in the mainland was only popularized to the cities, the countryside and small towns were not even covered, let alone the African continent.
Undersea cable laying technology has already appeared, but considering the high cost, now the African colonies, obviously is not worth the Austrian government to put down such a big capital.
“Count me out!” Lt. Col. Stephan added promptly
Gold said seriously, “Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, I don’t think we can continue to wait like this, if you don’t want to be overtaken by other strongholds, you have to take a bit more aggressive measures now.
Since there is a lack of labor, we’ll just go ahead and grab it. You see it’s been over two months and we’re still in the same place, and there are no more peaceful colonists in the world than us.
Do we really have to wait for the enemy to hit us before we can make a passive counterattack? Learning from our Portuguese counterparts, even if we don’t find any precious minerals, we have to find a way to get our money back.
If we follow the current progress, I doubt very much that we will be able to recover our colonization costs in a hundred years. By then, let’s not talk about being knighted for our merits, our graves will have grown grass.”
Unlike Stephen, who came from a military background, Gold, who took the initiative to participate in the colonization activities, was not a peaceful master.
Originally, he came to the colony to get rich, but as a result, he is now building a stronghold here every day, the town is taking shape, but he hasn’t even seen the shadow of getting rich.
Coastal areas of those plains are really good, if it is the Austrian mainland, enough to let people crazy rob, unfortunately this is the African continent, the most worthless is the land.
According to the Austrian colonial regulations, any Austrian citizen has the right to reclaim these lands, and whoever opens up a farm belongs to whoever owns it, the precondition is that once the property right is confirmed, it is forbidden to throw away the land.
It was difficult to get rich by farming at home, and Gold didn’t think he could get rich by farming here; the land was mainly used to settle immigrants.
If you want to get rich in the colonies, the best way is to find mines, especially gold and silver mines, is the easiest way to get rich.
As the first colonizers, when they found minerals and reported them to the colonial government, they could get a share of the profits from the development of the minerals, or they could sell them directly to the government and get a large amount of cash.
Lieutenant Colonel Stephen shook his head and said: ”Gold be patient, the mood of the immigrants is still unstable, we need to keep an eye on them.
When the first grain harvest comes in, the situation will change, and then it will be time for us to launch our expansion.
For now, if you have time, you can organize the young and strong among the immigrants and conduct simple training. These people are no good, and it would be perfect to use them as cannon fodder.
A word of advice, the African continent is not a good place, and the inland areas are far less dangerous than the coastal areas.
This is a colony with many opportunities to get rich, but there is only one prerequisite, you must have the life to spend it!”
One word is – stable. From the moment the colonization program opened, the Austrian government was not prepared to see a return in the first year, which was very unrealistic.
The British opened the South African colony, and now have not even been able to make a profit, what right does Guinea have to recoup its costs in a short period of time?
If colonies were so easy to make a fortune, they would have been overcrowded long ago. Don’t underestimate the passion of the European people to make a fortune in this era.
(End of chapter)