Chapter 614: No Longer the Main Character

  Chapter 601: No Longer the Main Character

After some research and discussion, Franz finally came up with an unexpected answer – the British couldn’t hold out any longer.

This “can’t hold out” does not mean that the British will be finished immediately, in fact, the British Empire is in the peak state, no one can threaten their world empire.

But the colonial empire is essentially to make money, and now there are too many international conflicts, countries stabbing each other, digging holes, greatly increasing the cost of maintenance of the colonies.

The investment was getting bigger and bigger, while the revenue gained was not growing in tandem, and was sometimes reduced due to turmoil. Against this background, it is not surprising that the London government wants to stop this unnecessary fighting and reduce the cost of colonization.

There was also a colonial conference (Berlin Conference) in the original time and space, but it was the Belgians who came up with it, and Leopold II managed to get the Congo region by taking advantage of the conflicts between the powers.

Now the Congo region fell into the hands of Austria early, the African continent are divided almost, Leopold II naturally will not do useless.

The Berlin Conference is not going to happen now, the major colonial empires still lack an opportunity for in-depth communication and mediation of conflicts.

Britain, France and Austria, although the three countries are allied, that is only in the core issues reached agreement, specific to the details of each colony, we are still too late to discuss.

Don’t look at the three big countries in the colonial division of the advantage, think they can do whatever they want, in fact, the major colonial empires are not easy to mess with.

Maybe their military strength was not as good as the three countries, but they were still able to stab in the dark, for example: spreading nationalism and supporting the colonial independence movement.

In the last few years, the colonies have been on the rise is the best proof of this. If one were to keep count, one would realize that the number of uprisings in the colonies is rising year after year.

If this situation continues, no one should think of making money happily. Especially the British, who have the most colonies, will have to pay the highest cost of rule.

The Vienna government doesn’t feel it obviously, that’s due to Austria’s colonial policy, and the special geography.

Although Austria’s colonies were not small, the indigenous population was small. There weren’t many people, so how much more chaotic could it be?

A rebellion that can be suppressed by the police is not worth mentioning at all. In contrast, the British are tragic, not only the largest territory, but also the largest population.

Nearly half of the colonial uprisings that have broken out in recent years have occurred in the British colonies, and it would be a problem if the London government wasn’t anxious.

This is the result of the British pulling hatred around, on the surface, people dare not do anything to them, but secretly stabbing a knife but no pressure.

Other than that, Austria alone invests millions of guilders every year, specifically for the export of various doctrines and ideas, most of which are aimed at the British.

It’s not that the London government didn’t fight back, the problem was that they couldn’t find the right pawns, otherwise the British wouldn’t have gone to great lengths to preserve the Ottoman Empire.

The British ate the most and offended the most people in the colonial movement. Now not only Austria, but almost every major colonial empire in Europe is secretly making small moves.

This kind of thing, as long as you can’t catch the evidence, there’s nothing the London government can do about it in the open, except retaliate in secret.

Even if they want to find an excuse to exert diplomatic pressure on small countries, France and Austria will also jump out to play rounds, so that they have nowhere to vent.

This is the disadvantage of many people, the total population of the British colonies up to four or five hundred million, the total population of the French colonies is only forty to fifty million, the total population of the Austrian colonies is less than thirty million, not at all on an equal level.

In the colonial movement, the British received the richest rewards and likewise paid the highest cost of domination.

The saying “population is wealth” is not always true, but requires a process of transformation. Wealth can only be created if the population is utilized.

There is no doubt that the British could not have utilized so many people in the colonies. Otherwise, not to mention the French and Austrians, even the European countries together were no match for them.

In the development of the colonies, the most fully utilized labor force was still Austria. It was not Franz’s openness or how well the Vienna government managed, it was entirely determined by the quality of the population.

The population of the Austrian colonies was small, but the European immigrants and their descendants occupied more than half of the total population.

This figure is not comparable to Britain and France, the population base decided that they can not take so many immigrants. Without enough immigrants and with the productivity of the local natives being very backward, the wealth created was naturally limited.

This point should be felt most deeply by the French, purely from the point of view of colonial revenue, the French colonies have been losing money for many years.

There is nothing strange, colonial loss of money and not only France has experienced, almost all colonial empires have experienced.

However, usually at the beginning of the development of the colonies, development to a certain extent will turn losses into profits, has been losing money colonies are only a few.

Austria is one of the representatives, the peak of the annual loss of tens of millions of guilders, even now there are still a lot of places in the loss of money, the overall point of view is just to achieve a break-even.

Of course, this is only purely calculating the direct financial income of the colonial government. If one calculates the colonies’ addition to the domestic economy, then the situation changes.

The British invited hatred, that is they occupied the most fertile land. Even with the most backward forms of rule, they could make a direct profit and make more than everyone else.

The French, by contrast, were a tragedy, and compared to their historical contemporaries, they carried out their “desert empire” a little more thoroughly.

Since it was a desert empire, it was natural not to expect the land to be fertile. Until the natural resources under the ground were developed, French Africa was a concentration camp of bad land.

If Napoleon III hadn’t immigrated from the Balkans and Italy and developed North Africa to a certain extent, I’m afraid that he would have lost even more money now.

Of course, more deserts are not without their benefits. At least in terms of the cost of rule, the French overhead is not great.

Other regions rebels can roam around and drill ravines, desert regions as long as far away from the oasis is dead. So, the French rule in North Africa was still quite solid.

Clearing his mind, Franz is very clear: mediation of international strife through negotiation and reduction of international conflict has been the general trend.

Driven by profit, almost all colonial empires have the demand to reduce the cost of colonial rule. To stand in the way of this would be to stand in opposition to all of them.

Franz didn’t like to stand in the way. Since it was a common demand, it was better to participate in it.

Austria was a member of the colonial empire, and was also a beneficiary of the reduction of the disputes, just not as much as the British.

Franz: “De-escalating international conflict and reducing the cost of maintaining colonies is good for everyone, we don’t have to be the villain.

Now let’s all just think about which regions we can get this time.”

Can colony maintenance costs really be reduced?

Deep down Franz didn’t believe it!

Perhaps it could indeed be reduced in the short term, but it was destined to grow in the long term. Especially in densely populated areas, the cost of future rule was bound to increase dramatically.

Everything else was easy to deal with, except for ideas and doctrines, which were uncontrollable, and once passed on, could not be taken back.

The seeds have been sown, and no one knows when they will take root and blossom.

Prime Minister Felix: “Your Majesty, with this division meeting, we have actually been reduced to spectators. There are too few places that suit us and that we can get our hands on.

The only areas left to colonize are the Ottoman Empire, Persia, the Far East, parts of the Central and Southern Peninsula, and parts of East Africa.

South America barely counts, but they’re already independent, and for reasons of the cost of rule, these areas are only suitable for economic colonization.

The most suitable for us is the Ottoman Empire, the other regions are either too strong for our competitors or too far away for us to reach, and it’s not worth it if we get them.

Britain and France won’t let us annex the Ottoman Empire, so it’s hard for us to gain anything from this division feast.”

“Economic colonies” is a new concept put forward by European scholars as the cost of colonization has risen.

Simply put, it means that the cost of direct rule is too high, so it was changed to support the rule of proxies to seize wealth through unequal trade agreements.

There are many advocates of this concept, and in everyone’s perception colonies are meant to make money, and as long as they can make money, it doesn’t matter how they are ruled.

All that Prime Minister Felix had proposed were large colonies, and beyond that, there were plenty of marginal ones, only too small in size, or too low in economic value, to be worth paying much attention to.

Of these areas that needed to be divided, the richest was undoubtedly the Far East, but it was the most complicated situation, with a concentration of powers.

Austria had no roots in the region and had missed the opportunity to get involved. Moreover, the distance was too far, exceeding the limit of Austria’s strength.

Persia is regarded as the British in the bag, but also in the proximity of the Indian region, was John Bull looked dead, who touched and who turned his face.

The Prussian Kingdom of the Central and Southern Peninsula occupied a corner, the British participated in a hand, the French are desperately scrambling, this time Austria to participate in, will certainly be squeezed out.

East Africa is already a dispensable “chicken ribs” for Austria. The economic value is limited, will lose money for a long time, and the strategic land has been preempted by the British, so it is almost impossible to get your hands on it.

Although the South American countries are suitable as economic colonies, but because of the distance, Britain and France in the local influence is greater, Austria has influence on the proximity of the Central American colonies in Colombia.

Franz nodded helplessly, this last colonial feast, Austria is no longer the protagonist. Venture to participate in it, will also be sidelined by the joint.

“It’s me who is too greedy, Austria has gotten enough benefits, it’s already very inviting, now it’s time to digest it.

This time to divide the feast, we keep the existing interests is enough. It’s an unexpected pleasure to have a gain, and don’t feel bad if you don’t. It’s not worth getting angry over some edges.”

Having adjusted his mindset in time, Franz’s entire being was much more relaxed. Greed was the original sin of mankind, and if one was unable to control greed, sooner or later one would be on the road of no return.

There were quite a few countries involved in this spoils sharing feast. It seemed that the remaining benefits were not small, but in reality, not much was allocated to a specific country.

(End of chapter)