Chapter 345: Autonomous Provinces

  Chapter 335: Autonomous Province

The shipbuilding program of the Kingdom of Prussia surprised Franz. He could not have imagined that Prussia, who was bent on the army, would suddenly run to develop a navy.

But after consulting the development of the Kingdom of Prussia in the last few years, Franz understood their approach.

Domestic industry and commerce needed cheap raw materials and markets, the European continent had been stabilized, and the Kingdom of Prussia could no longer see any hope of growing.

According to the current situation, if they continued to delay, even if the German region was unified, they would still be the object of unification.

No one is willing to do to wait for death, use the peacetime outbreak of a wave of naval, perhaps also can Jedi survival.

In order to make the Junker nobles accept this cruel reality, William I also personally acted as a lobbyist and promised benefits.

Whether or not the government could profit from overseas colonial expansion was an open question, but the domestic capitalists could certainly profit.

If the nobles were willing to act as the main force of colonization, they would naturally have their share.

This is why many colonial empires were financially in the red. Vested interests took too much, were unwilling to pay taxes to the government, and dumped administrative expenses on the government.

This situation was even more pronounced in the older empires, where the government was powerless to suppress these interests and could not collect taxes. Combined with the corruption of the bureaucracy, it gobbled up the wealth and ended up with a deficit.

In the short term, the losses were acceptable, but over time, when the government’s finances exceeded the limits of what it could afford, the domestic interests were unwilling to continue paying for it and simply let the colonies become independent.

The most typical representative is the British to create a self-governing territories, who would have thought that the colonial governments of South Africa, Australia and India would actually lose money?

The Americans also suffered this loss initially, in the hands of the Spaniards can still win tens of millions of dollars a year in the Philippines and Cuba, to their hands has been a bloody loss.

In the end, they lost more than a billion dollars and simply couldn’t take it anymore and simply let go. It is the result of the joint role of capitalists and bureaucratic groups.

After this lesson, the U.S. government clearly recognized its own shortcomings, even the domestic capitalists can not be suppressed, let alone overseas colonies.

This is also the reason why Franz defined the African colonies as Germany’s second home from the very beginning.

Since it was a second home, it could not be purely colonial, and when the number of immigrants reached a certain number, they would be localized.

It was also a good time to catch up with the breakthroughs in telegraph technology, and the undersea cables to the African continent had already been laid.

Convenient communication was a necessary element in the management of indigenization. It also only worked for the new colonies, which were established too soon for the local interests to build up and get big, and the bureaucracy had not yet degenerated.

If an old colony with interest groups already formed, it would only be possible by force of arms, or a major purge.

To do this, there would have to be a strong government, and the strength to suppress the rebellion.

……

The head of intelligence, Tyrone, handed Franz a document and whispered, “Your Majesty, the French are rampaging through the Balkans and have purged many people who oppose them. Here are the details, please take a look.”

Going over the information, Franz was in a state of confusion. I don’t know which genius gave Napoleon III the good idea to actually want to use the Balkan immigrants to develop overseas colonies.

It was really good idea. The Balkan Peninsula was a tough people, and these people were naturally not so easy to rule if they stayed where they were. Once they went to the colonies, it was different, they were unfamiliar with the land and had no choice but to depend on the French.

Anyway, the French had many colonies, so if these people were dispersed and resettled, they would not be mainstreamed in any place.

This is something that Franz knows very well, the Balkans are not much else but ethnic, which means that the population of each ethnic group is small.

Anyone with a million is considered a large ethnic group, and at the moment there are only two, Bulgaria and Romania, and the Greeks are close to a million.

In addition to the most influential war factors, this and the Vienna government’s immigration policy also has a relationship, directly let the Bulgarians become the Balkan Peninsula’s first large ethnic groups.

French Balkan Peninsula is even no main nationalities, large and small more than twenty nationalities, adding up to less than four million people, but also internal contradictions, we know that these people want to embrace the group can not hold up.

Franz hesitated, he did not know whether to do something now, to cause some trouble to the French.

After all, the French immigration tactics are a bit trashy, relying on the poll tax to increase immigration, it is easy to cause a backlash. As long as there is a push in the back, an armed explosion will happen.

“Continue to keep an eye on the actions of the French, and if you have the chance, you can provoke a conflict between the Duchy of Montenegro and them.”

Franz is not John Bull didn’t do anything detrimental. The French emigration from the Balkans is also beneficial to Austria, saving this source of unrest from breaking out again at any time and spreading to Austria.

But the instincts of the powers still have, not to destroy the French emigration, is not the same as can not give them a knife.

The Duchy of Montenegro is also not a peaceful Lord, only the surrounding two neighbors are too horrible, temporarily curbed ambitions.

In order to stabilize the Austrian Balkan Peninsula, Franz did not hesitate to decide to wreak havoc.

This is only a small trouble, can not affect the French plan, even if there is a conflict, I believe that Napoleon III can also cover.

Perhaps it was not even necessary to provoke, they themselves existed in conflict. The arrival of the French cost the Duchy of Montenegro the opportunity to annex Albania, and relations between the two sides have never been good.

……

In Kalimantan, an event was taking place that shocked the South Seas region when on September 12, 1861 the flag of the double-headed eagle flew over the Republic of Lanfang.

Anyone with some international knowledge knows what this flag means.

The Republic of Lan Phuong was downgraded and became the autonomous province of Lan Phuong under the flag of the new Holy Roman Empire, and the name of the Republic was thrown into the river of history.

No, the Republic of Lanfang was given the name by the Europeans, and in Chinese circles it has always been called the Lanfang Company.

The change from a private company of its own to an autonomous province could only be considered as an incorporation. The Governor of Lanfang, Lau Ah Sang, was appointed as the first Governor.

Outside the grand celebration banquet, Governor Liu was unprecedentedly absent. He is still studying the new Holy Roman bill of state, don’t look to have joined in, in fact, his heart is still not sure.

East and West are not the same culture, in the European view of very normal things, the Oriental people seem to be very shocked.

In the view of many Orientals, these states are not vassals? Even the rights of the government of the state are greater than the vassal king, are close to the Zhou Tianzi divided into vassals.

A young man walked in and smiled, “Father, you are studying these codes again.”

Governor Liu nodded and said, “Chun’er ah, the more I look at these codes, the more they alarm my father, won’t the emperor cut the feuds?”

The young man said confidently, “Father don’t worry, Europe attaches great importance to jurisprudence. I learned about the history of the Holy Roman Empire when I was studying in England, and this system has continued for hundreds of years.

Even in the unification war that broke out a few years ago, the king of Bavaria stood against the emperor and only transferred Lombardy.

If the Emperor had wanted to cut the feud, he would not have needed to do that at all. Austria was much more powerful than all these states combined, yet His Majesty Franz still adhered strictly to the code.

Let’s not worry even more, the mainland is still like that, how could the Emperor violate the code he made just for a piece of overseas autonomous territory?”

People are profit-seekers, and the top brass of the Lanfang Company wouldn’t have joined the New Holy Roman Empire if there weren’t enough benefits.

Aside from being able to obtain security protection, the most important thing was that everyone’s interests were safeguarded. Other than having to share the military expenses and pay the royal annuity, their substantial interests were not damaged.

Externally, on the contrary, they could fly the flag of the divine Luo and block other colonial empires from prying eyes.

At least the Dutch, who were pressing against them, stopped in their tracks for now. The Vienna representative also made a promise that the privileges of the countries in Lanfang would be taken care of by someone sent by the Imperial Foreign Ministry.

Governor Liu said, “It had better be so, or else this protection fee will be paid in vain by us.”

Consciousness concept is not so easy to change, in the old generation’s mind this is to spend money to buy peace, with the help of Austria’s strength to protect their own safety.

In any case, all matters are at their own disposal, but also has its own army, the autonomy of all retained.

Diplomatic affairs thrown out just right, they are too lazy to deal with the foreigners, almost every contact with the loss is them.

The younger generation had received a Western-style education and knew how to use the rules to protect their interests, and they were the ones who were most in favor of joining the new Holy Roman Empire.

Originally, initially, people wanted to join the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and even internal annexation was acceptable, but unfortunately, the Qing government was too troublesome to accept.

In this era, the Chinese who were in the Nanyang area were all crisis-conscious, fearing that they would be in danger of extinction if they were not careful.

Without strength, wealth is the source of disaster.

As the earliest to open their eyes to the world, they knew very well that Lanfang was in danger. Without a powerful backstage, they could not survive with their own strength.

That’s why there was a big celebration outside after signing the agreement with the Vienna government.

It wasn’t that everyone really liked joining the New Shinra Empire so much. It was still essentially to pull the tiger’s skin, and the bigger the noise made, the more benefits it would bring.

This time, the Lanfang government sent invitations to all the representatives of the various countries in the South Seas, just to tell everyone that the Republic of Lanfang was now the Lanfang Autonomous Province of the New Shinra Empire, and that if you wanted to take advantage of it from here to go and talk to the Vienna government.

Governor Liu also had a political purpose in not attending the banquet. By doing so, he told the representatives of the various countries that as a high-ranking official of the New Shinra Empire, he was qualified to say: no to them.

(End of chapter)