Chapter 425: Radicalism ≠ Death-defying

  Chapter 415: Radicals ≠ Death-defying Faction

Colonial indigenization was a long-term state policy that might last for hundreds of years. The Vienna government could not just let Austrian Africa be annexed to the mainland, that would mean disaster.

The cost of domination, long-term security, culture, and strategic placement all had to be considered.

Cost-wise, first of all, the local economy must have developed to a certain level, at least without the central government sticking money into it.

After all, administrative costs will increase after localization, and social welfare expenditures will also increase substantially, for example: health care, education, transportation ……

All of these need money, and if the central government collects enough taxes from the localities, then nothing is a problem. Taking from the people and giving to the people is one of the functions of the government.

On the contrary, if the local economy does not grow, and the central government cannot collect taxes, then there will be problems in allocating money for these constructions.

With the economic conditions met, the next step was to look at the composition of the population. In order to ensure long-term peace and security, the number of people who possessed the citizenship of the Holy Roman Empire must not be less than eighty percent of the total population.

This restriction was not a problem for the Austrian colonies in Africa. The local population was dominated by native immigrants, followed by immigrants from North Germany, and not many immigrants from other parts of Europe.

It was easy for these people to obtain citizenship, all with the back door open. As long as there was no criminal record and the level of thought and morality was sufficient it was not a problem.

With the demographics satisfied, the next step was to look at the numbers. The requirements are not too high, the population density must not be less than 10 people per square kilometer.

Population size is a non-compulsory requirement that can be compensated for by other conditions, the main purpose of which is to limit the size of the administrative district after localization.

Otherwise, if millions of square kilometers of colonies are localized at once, when these places develop in the future, there will be a situation where the place becomes bigger.

With this threshold limit, there was no need to worry. The entire Austrian Africa has less than six million people, even if the nobles and bureaucrats want to expand the area of their jurisdiction, it is impossible to do so.

Having the colony in a fragmented mode, joining the mainland is the best option. This fragmentation is also relative, with hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of provinces as a unit, in fact, is already large enough.

Culturally required, not in terms of education, but simply in terms of the use of the German language.

Most of the Austrian colonies don’t have a problem with this, the use of German for all is a basic national policy, and you can’t even get a local domicile without knowing German, you’re not a citizen at all.

Even for the sake of localization then, the local nobility would get rid of them. Don’t talk about cheap labor, do these people lack money?

If you want to make money, the best way is to colonize rule forever. It’s only under colonial rule that you can do whatever you want, and once you localize consider whether the law allows it or not.

Colonial indigenization is mainly the result of the old aristocracy wanting to go further, the new aristocracy wanting to establish a family base, the capitalists seeing it as their shortcut to the aristocracy, and the colonial bureaucrats wanting …… to get in on the ground floor.

This was a common interest of the ruling class. All of these constraints are scored at the end of the day. The higher the final total score, the higher the chances of getting approval for localization from the Reichstag.

The front are all necessary conditions, the back of the natural conditions, resources, strategic position, these are equivalent to additional points, if the front score is not enough, you can rely on these extra points to make up for it.

This is a realistic demand, otherwise, like Libya and other desert countries, never think of localization, population size this item can not meet.

This is just the beginning, and if the conditions are met, it will only be discussed in the parliament, and it will have to be considered whether or not it will be adopted.

After all, no one has any experience, no one is sure how many loopholes exist here. Franz simply left the last link, ready to patch at any time, can not let people exploit the loopholes.

A lot of things can be faked, such as population, economy, as long as the willingness to spend money can create a region of false prosperity.

There is no need to doubt that someone of the great and rich has done it. What’s a little investment for political gain?

If a huge sum of money could turn a tens of thousands of square kilometers of fertile land into their own family fiefdom, joining the empire as a fiefdom of nobles, and becoming a top noble in a single leap, it was estimated that not many tycoons would refuse.

Obviously, this kind of behavior that broke the rules of the game, Franz would not allow to happen.

Are you kidding me, is it possible for a king to be abusive? What was the difference between a fiefdom of tens of thousands of square kilometers, or even hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, and a king?

So circling so much land was fine, as long as you had the money to develop it, Franz didn’t mind if the agricultural company was gigantic. Want to turn these lands into fiefdoms, where to find such a big credit?

Unless the world war suddenly broke out, incarnated as Long Aotian all the way to God to kill God, Buddha to kill Buddha, establish supreme merit; either reincarnation, directly born in the big nobles, rely on family power to achieve the purpose.

Otherwise, it’s better to honestly struggle upwards one step at a time! One step to heaven is not a good thing for anyone, “virtue is not worthy of the position” will end in tragedy.

This “virtue” is not only “moral” enough, not only ability, more or match the vision, outlook on life, social outlook.

In addition, there are social relationships. In this “wood show in the forest, the wind will destroy it” era, there is not enough anti-risk strength, or do not go too far.

Heroes come out of troubled times, not only troubled times have heroes, but mainly only troubled times can accommodate these “heroes”.

Colonial indigenization did not cause a shock to the whole world as Franz imagined, and all countries did not look favorably on this policy.

In the view of many people, the purpose of opening up colonies is to make money. Once the colonies were localized, they could not continue to plunder the wealth, and the loss would be more than offset by the gain.

This is a difference in business philosophy. Austria opened up overseas colonies and first planted land on them, following the path of sustainable development; while other colonial empires opened up overseas colonies simply to plunder wealth.

The French were the exception, and Napoleon III was also interested in indigenizing Africa, only taking smaller steps.

Franz’s playbook was something the French simply could not learn. There wasn’t enough population, and there was no assimilation system with compulsory education to limit the speed of their immigrant assimilation.

This was exposed when the French government immigrated over from the Balkans. These immigrants retained their original cultural traditions when they entered the French African colonies.

Due to the lack of sufficient language teachers and supporting systems, the spread of the French language has not been fast, and the number of native immigrants is too small, making assimilation much more difficult.

This is an insoluble problem. It is easy for 100,000 people to assimilate 10,000 people; to ask 10,000 people to assimilate 100,000 people, and in the end who assimilates who, is a question that deserves vigilance.

……

Berlin, since the French and Austrian compromise on the Italian question, William I had a strong sense of crisis. He did not think that it was as much simple as a superficial deal of interests.

France and Austria have always been rivals, in order to Italy both sides deadlocked for hundreds of years, how can easily give up?

Can make the Vienna government to give up the Italian region, then there is only a greater interest. There is no doubt that this interest is only the North German region that has not yet been united.

With the simple information in his hands, Wilhelm I pretty much rolled out the truth of the matter. There was nothing strange about it, who made the Kingdom of Prussia the enemy of France and Austria at the same time?

Of course, this was only what the Prussian government thought of itself, and in reality they had no business being treated as a life-and-death enemy by Paris and Vienna.

Knowing one’s enemy is an instinct, and the Berlin government never relaxed its attention to the movements of France and Austria.

When the news of the adoption of the “Indigenization of the Colonies” by the Reichstag came, Wilhelm I immediately drew a new conclusion – “Austria’s state policy has changed”.

This conclusion contradicted the previous one. The unification of Germany and the localization of the colonies were not the same thing, and it was almost impossible to combine the two strategies at the same time.

William I asked expectantly, “What do you think the government in Vienna is trying to do here?”

On the premise of a Franco-Austrian compromise, if Austria were to unify the North German region, the Kingdom of Prussia would be out of luck.

Unlike other states, the Kingdom of Prussia was a little too powerful. Even though the gap with Austria was too large to threaten the Austrian lands; but what they did before had long sparked the Vienna government’s discontent.

This meant that the Kingdom of Prussia was going to be suppressed, and still suppressed hard. The reluctance of the Junker nobles to merge with Austria actually had a factor in this regard.

Prime Minister Frank said with an expressionless face, ”It is not important what the Vienna government wants to do, the important thing is what we want to do.

What seems like an opportunity now could also be a trap.

In the case of a Franco-Austrian compromise, we propose a merger with the Comedy Empire, the British shouldn’t object, the French might wait and see, and the Austrians ……”

At the end of his sentence, Prime Minister Frank didn’t know how to organize his words.

He felt that the likelihood of this being a trap was very high, the Russo-Prussian War was still going on, and if Austria stabbed them again, they were going to be finished.

Who can guarantee that Austria will abandon the unification of Germany after opening the “African Strategy”?

If the gamble is wrong, they will send the excuse for war to the door. By the way, they also helped the Vienna government to solve the problem of the “Comedy Empire”.

Chief of the General Staff Mauch said with a sneer: “There is nothing wrong with Austria’s change of policy, but they have not declared that they will give up the unification of Germany either.

The main reason for this lack of action is that they are concerned about international repercussions and are afraid of triggering the intervention of other countries.

The situation is different now, we are still fighting the Russians, and they can gain Russian acquiescence by ceding Prussian Poland to the Tsarist government.

It is also possible that the French have been bought off, or perhaps are in the process of being bought off, and the Austrians are now just short of an excuse to move against us.”

The atmosphere cooled down. The annexation of the “Comedy Empire” was the long-term plan of the Kingdom of Prussia. It has not been acted upon because it was opposed by the major powers of Europe.

Now it is hard to have a chance to get rid of Britain and France, however, there is no effect, Russia and Austria will not be able to agree.

The Russians could still find a way out, as soon as the Russo-Prussian War was over, the position of the Tsar’s government was likely to change, and Alexander II likewise didn’t mind pitting his allies.

The only ultimate obstructionist was Austria, and here in the matter as far as the Vienna government was concerned it would not budge.

Attempts to take advantage of the timing of Austria’s combing of the French Balkans, and the push for colonial indigenization to take action, in Mauch’s view this is wishful thinking.

He was a radical, but not a death wish. The Russo-Prussian War was still going on, and wouldn’t splitting up the Comedy Empire at this time create an opportunity for Austria?

Although this is done, there is a certain chance of triggering a European war, so that Austria will be defeated and sink down; but before that, Prussia will definitely sink early.

Moreover, the comedy empire is not good to bully, from the comprehensive national strength, they are only here in Britain, France, Austria, Spain, Russia and Prussia six countries, Europe ranked seventh.

Their strength is indeed not as good as the Kingdom of Prussia in its heyday, but when faced with Prussia in the Russo-Prussian War, it was not a wimp at all.

Diplomacy? I’m sorry, this is not the scope of the soldier’s consideration, and Prussia is not a diplomatic powerhouse.

Army and Navy Minister Ron rounded off the conversation by saying: “These issues, we discuss after the war is more appropriate.

Right now finding a way to send the revolutionaries back to the Russian Empire is the most important thing right now.”

This was not an afterthought on their part, it was mainly the British who sent the revolutionaries over. Otherwise, relying on Prussian influence, not many Russian revolutionary groups would give a damn about them.

This Prussian-Russian war, the battlefield is Prussia and Russia in the game, diplomacy is Britain and Russia in the fight. If John Bull hadn’t made a big effort, they wouldn’t have had the chance to meet here.

Foreign Minister McKnight concurred, ”That’s right, it is imperative to end this war as soon as possible. The situation in Europe is changing too quickly, with France and Austria leaning in, and the London government’s foreign policy is changing.

The unification of the three Nordic countries is imminent, and if it drags on for too long, there is a chance that the British will give up on supporting us.”

This was not a guess out of thin air, the British had sold out their teammates far too often. After the unification of the three Nordic countries, the British have added another pawn, and Prussia is no longer the only option.

William I sighed inwardly, even if the Austrian state policy did change, Prussia did not have the strength to act.

It is not that the British support for them is not strong, the gap in the comprehensive national strength, not by support can make up for.

The European continent is too small, powerful countries and a little too much. Did not leave Prussia can rise to the resources, and development and growth of space.

William I made a decision: “Let’s do it, after sending the revolutionaries back to Russia, it is the time for us to fight the Russians.

Having consecutive major defeats should create the basis for them to revolt. When the Russian beacon is lit, we will negotiate with the Tsarist government.”

It was easy to defeat the Russians, but it was difficult to defeat the Russian Empire. The war had awakened the Prussian government to what the national power gap was.

(End of chapter)