Chapter 271: Suez Canal

  Chapter 262 The Suez Canal

Plans can never catch up with changes fast enough, originally the main purpose of the Vienna government was to create a conflict and use the military to threaten the Egyptian government and force them to sign a treaty.

Anyway, the Sinai Peninsula is not valued, the only role of existence is to act as a buffer between and the Ottoman Empire, the local indigenous tribes also accept the leadership of two governments at the same time.

As a result, the conflict was created, but the operation was overdone and the place was occupied. The Egyptians didn’t act aggressively either, they just ran over and protested.

If possible, Franz would prefer the Egyptians to fight over regardless, then the latter would be a good thing, and anyway, there was no pressure on him to take on Egypt alone.

Obviously the Egyptian government was not stupid and instead of coming up recklessly, they sent someone to reason with them. Military threats, this time is no longer appropriate.

Franz always pay attention to eat, create an excuse to find trouble at the door, have refreshed his lower limit, his conscience is very bad.

Now that he had taken over a place that could be considered a city, it would be too much to go looking for trouble.

The causes and consequences of the matter, the Egyptian government do not care, no matter whose fault, anyway, the parties involved are dead, people die debt canceled. Now it is only the Austrians who are evacuating, and none of them are claiming compensation.

Franz asked with a headache, “What do you think should be done about this problem?”

He admitted that he wasn’t black enough to do something so overbearing. If possible, he was more willing to solve the problem by peaceful means.

Unfortunately, Austria’s influence in Egypt was not big enough to compete with Britain and France, forcing him to resort to the next best thing, seeking a breakthrough in the Sinai Peninsula region.

Metternich replied calmly: “Your Majesty, the Sinai Peninsula itself is not of great value, and our occupation of this place is mainly to seize the opportunity to be able to intervene in the excavation of the Suez Canal.

Since the Egyptian government wants to negotiate, we’ll just talk to them. The big deal is to pay for these areas, it’s all sand and not worth much anyway.

Now Britain and France don’t know what we’re up to, and even if they intervene, they’re just worried that we’re continuing to expand our power into the Egyptian region and affecting their interests.

At most, we assure them that we will not continue to seek expansion into the Egyptian region. As for the issue of the Sinai Peninsula, we are also a great power also need to save face!”

Although the approach was a bit excessive, this was indeed very much a Great Power. Right or wrong, everyone was very overbearing when it came to overseas colonization.

The fact that the Vienna government was willing to spend some money symbolically was giving the Egyptian government a step down. If the Egyptian government does not agree, I will occupy the place anyway, see what you can do?

For a piece of nothing desert, and Austria in the Sinai Peninsula above the war? I guess the Egyptian government does not have the guts, if you lose the fight and lose your family, just waiting to be divided up!

Don’t look at the Egyptian government is preparing to carry out modernization construction, looks a bit rich and strong meaning. In fact, after losing the last war to the Ottoman Empire, they recognized their own strength.

Prime Minister Felix reminded, “The French have gotten the rights to open the Suez Canal, will this be a hindrance?”

Metternich explained, “Don’t worry, it’s not like we need to occupy the entire Sinai Peninsula when we hit the Sinai Peninsula, it’s enough if we get a landing spot on it.

Right now the Suez Canal has not yet been opened, and whether it will be navigable in the future is an unknown, right now we are just saving for a rainy day.

As far as I know, the British are strongly opposed to digging the Suez Canal. They are strategically located to access the Indian Ocean via the Cape of Good Hope and don’t need this Grand Canal.”

Such was the indifference of the British to the Suez Canal in this era that many of them believed that the opening of the Suez Canal would weaken their advantage in sea trade.

After all, in terms of distance, the opening of the Suez Canal was more favorable to the Mediterranean countries, and countries such as France, Austria, and Spain became closer to entering the Indian Ocean.

Originally the route on the road closest to them, all of a sudden became more distant than their competitors. This would undoubtedly make the cost of shipping British goods by sea exceed that of their competitors, reducing their competitiveness in the market.

Whether it was unfounded or not, there was always nothing wrong with this sense of crisis. It is this sense of crisis that has brought the British Empire to this point.

Whether the Suez Canal could be navigable or not, not only were the British skeptical, but even many in the Austrian government were skeptical.

The European continent has never seen such a long Grand Canal, the total length of 190 kilometers of this figure more than everyone’s heart capacity.

Franz could not convince everyone that the Suez Canal would be navigable, and even if it was, the cargo capacity would be a test.

If only a few small boats could pass through, then the same failed. For strategic reasons, Austria needed a Suez Canal capable of being navigated by ships of at least 40,000 tons.

Otherwise the canal would have been ruined in the age of the dreadnought. When the time comes to continue to expand the canal, the British will certainly hinder the construction, so that the Austrian warships can only be navigated from the Strait of Gibraltar, so as to establish a strategic advantage.

Franz said with confidence: “Do not worry about the problem of navigation, history records in the 7th century AD, there is a big empire in the east of the Sui dynasty opened a north-south Grand Canal, more than 2,700 kilometers long.

Even after geographic changes and later rerouting, the new Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is 1,797 kilometers long, and is now normally navigable for ships of five hundred tons.

With the technology of the ancients, without the use of any machinery can rely on manpower to dig out such a long Grand Canal, our current level of technology can not dig out a canal of less than 200 kilometers?

In terms of terrain, the construction difficulty of the Suez Canal is far from being comparable to that of the North-South Grand Canal, so what is there to worry about?”

Prime Minister Felix exclaimed, “Your Majesty, are you sure there is such a long Grand Canal in the East?”

Franz replied affirmatively, “Of course, do you think I would lie? The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is still in regular operation, right in that rotten Manchu Empire, just go check the information and you’ll know.”

Prime Minister Felix hurriedly explained, “No, I don’t mean to doubt you.

It’s just that it feels like it’s too unbelievable that someone dug a 2,700+ kilometer Grand Canal more than 1,200 years ago.

If it’s true, then this should be the greatest project in human history. That great empire must have been very powerful to actually be able to accomplish such a huge project.”

Franz smiled without saying anything, he couldn’t explain that because of the excessive consumption of the people’s power due to the excavation of this Grand Canal, this empire directly died in the second world, could he?

Then wouldn’t everyone have to ……

Oh, there is absolutely no need to worry. Digging the Suez Canal, do not need to draw laborers from within Austria, just prepare the money.

It’s even fine to just put out food, anyway, except for the technicians and managers who need to be paid, the regular laborers just manage to eat.

The biggest single expense labor costs, so saved. Historically the Suez Canal cost a total of £18.6 million, more than double the budgeted cost.

This was mainly due to the fact that the British, by orchestrating the slave labor riots and creating public pressure to condemn them, forced the French to pay salaries to hire people later, resulting in a significant increase in construction costs.

As a price for the canal’s navigation, 120,000 laborers were buried.

This question was not to be considered by the Austrian government. Franz also decisively chose to see no evil, any big project in this era is piled up with human lives.

Austria’s large railroad network is an example, just five or six years, so that Austria’s domestic railroads jumped according to the first in Europe, which behind the same tens of thousands of laborers fell.

Can be said, this era, the faster the construction speed, the greater the casualties of labor, efficiency is piled up with human life.

London.

Received the news of Austria’s Sinai Peninsula, the first reaction of the British Cabinet is: the Austrians are going to invade Egypt, no must be stopped.

Prime Minister Granville asked suspiciously, “Who tells me what the Austrians are up to, has the government of Vienna gone out of its mind and is going to run into the Sinai Peninsula to eat sand?”

On the face of it, the Sinai Peninsula has no colonial value. Egypt’s richest places are in the Nile Valley, and there are still hundreds of kilometers away from the Sinai Peninsula, with the desert blocking the middle trying to act as a springboard is not qualified.

Foreign Secretary John Russell laughed: “It is said to be the work of an Austrian civilian colonial army, which originally wanted to make things happen in the Egyptian region, but found itself insufficiently strong.

In order to recoup the cost of their colonization, they ran into the Sinai Peninsula to rob a tribe and take over an abandoned city.”

Colonial Minister William mocked, “This rookie colonial armed force must be the master of no brains, perhaps the booty they harvested was not enough to pay the pension for the loss of personnel.

The Sinai Peninsula, which we have long since sent out reconnaissance, the nomadic tribes on the island own nothing but camels outside and sheep.

These camels and sheep are worthless unless they can be shipped back home to be sold, and locally they can only be sold for their hides.

The locals are so poor that they can barely survive, and the Egyptian government doesn’t even bother to send people over to collect taxes, and people actually go and rob them.”

The crowd laughed out loud, this kind of thing had happened not once or twice in the colonization movement, and many folk armies that were just engaged in overseas colonization often made this kind of mistake.

Sheep and camels were indeed treasures, and in some places were worth a lot of money, unfortunately they were worthless in Sinai because there were no buyers for these contraptions.

At best, the animals were killed and the skins taken away to be sold to a fur trader. If they were to be shipped out to be sold, it would probably not be enough to pay for the shipping costs.

After laughing enough, Granville said, “Then the Foreign Ministry will continue to keep an eye on the Vienna government to see what their next move will be, and we will decide on a response.

Anyway, the biggest interest in the Egyptian region is the French, and now that they have added a competitor, it’s better to let them go through the headache first!”

To the end, Granville didn’t take this seriously. Overseas colonization was a game, a game of plundering wealth, and it was nothing like what was going on in continental Europe.

As long as it wasn’t a threat to India, the London government wasn’t going to overreact right away. Otherwise the daily news of the colonial conflict alone would be able to exasperate them to death.

This is not a joke, into the 19th century, the average down to the London government encountered the colonial conflict each year, are not less than a hundred cases.

Inside the small conflicts, most of the colonial officials will be able to handle, only the escalation of the conflict need to be personally dealt with.

If they don’t learn restraint and use force, it won’t take three months for them to fight all the colonial empires in Europe.

They were concerned about the Sinai Peninsula mainly because they were worried about the Austrian invasion of Egypt, and after they were sure that it was the work of civilian forces, their interest naturally died.

Specifically, you can refer to the British civilian colonial team, bullish a little bit, such as the East India Company, they are overseas to exterminate a few countries, the government in London are not necessarily aware of the news.

Weak a little bit of individual organization colonial armed forces, today robbed a certain area, tomorrow and robbed another area, the day after tomorrow got into a big enemy, was the enemy to the group destroyed ……

This kind of thing happens too much, anyway, profitable, the British government will be on the line to stand up for them, if there is no benefit even if they are wiped out by the regiment, the London government is too lazy to pay attention to it, and also can not manage to come over.

……

Paris.

Napoleon III said confidently, “The Austrians have taken their tentacles deep into Egypt, shall we cut them off immediately?”

France had a lot of power in the Egyptian region, so it was just a matter of agitating the Egyptian government to expel the Austrian invaders.

Of course, it is expected that the Egyptian government will not listen to them now. After all, in the last war with the Ottomans, the Egyptian government was screwed over by the French.

Said aid, the result in the pressure of the European countries, the Paris government decisively wimped out. Without their assistance of your weaponry, the Egyptian government was quickly pummeled by the Ottoman Empire.

Foreign Minister Auvergne persuaded, “Your Majesty, it is better to negotiate first! We can mediate this conflict, and if we can’t talk in the end, then it’s better to take extreme measures.”

He wasn’t as confident as Napoleon III that a little encouragement to the Egyptian government to move forward would settle things.

In case the situation got out of control and the Vienna government refused to admit defeat and caught the Egyptian government in the act, would they go on or not?

Just fought a war with the Russians, heavy losses of the French government, but did not want to fight a war with Austria, this kind of money-losing business we do not want to do.

Napoleon III was just talking, he didn’t really want to take the risk. Now he is already wearing shoes, is no longer young and struggling period, everything dare to bet.

The reality of the Near East War told him that the current France is no longer the same France that hanged the European continent.

Napoleon III nodded and said, “Then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will intercede to mediate this conflict, as long as it doesn’t harm our interests!”

NOTICE: “Rebirth as a Cop in South Africa” was released.

Scared me to death, thought the crackdown was back.

(End of chapter)