Chapter 464 Persuasion

For now, take Ferdinand's words seriously, but Franz cannot easily agree to asking the Austro-Hungarian Empire to protect East Africa, even if East Africa sends his brother here.

"Population is not equal to national strength. Although the land in East Africa is not small, these cannot change the status of East Africa as a small country." Franz said.

There is no problem in saying this. In the current world, a country cannot be considered big and powerful just by having a population and land. If that were the case, then the Far East and India should be at the forefront.

Franz's view of East Africa's territory is still the same as before. Even if East Africa expands without restrictions in recent years, it will only cover more than three million square kilometers at most.

This is the stereotype. In Franz's view, there are other players in Africa, such as Portugal, Britain, France and other forces. No matter how much they pull, they will not just watch East Africa eat meat. Moreover, no matter how useless the indigenous people are, East Africa wants to digest them. I'm afraid it will take time for these natives. The United States will not complete the massacre of Indians within ten years. In fact, Americans are still continuing to persecute the remaining Indians in the West.

"East Africa as a whole is indeed not a powerful country, and its geographical location is not too important, but our strategic position in East Africa is very important to the Austro-Hungarian Empire!" Ferdinand said, "The naval power of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is in the Mediterranean, and it can even be said that it is only It can radiate to the Eastern Mediterranean area, and now the Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. The control of the Suez Canal is in the hands of Britain and France. This is also the development dilemma of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. But we see it from the map. East Africa is in the Suez Canal. In the south, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is north of the Suez Canal. If our two navies join forces, do you know what this means?"

What does it mean? That is, the Suez Canal is sandwiched between the two navies, which is equivalent to indirectly controlling the Suez Canal. But does the East African navy have this strength?

The answer is yes, at least in terms of paper strength. Others don’t know the strength of the East African Navy. The Austro-Hungarian Navy certainly knows that most orders for ships in East Africa are completed by Austria. In fact, in the comparison of the strength of the two countries, East African naval power is already the closest indicator to the Austrian navy.

There are currently three main ironclads in service in East Africa, which is far less than the Austro-Hungarian Navy. However, three more are under construction, and one has already begun design. In addition, this time the East African Navy is ordering another top-level ironclad with a displacement of 7,500 tons. By this time next year, the number of active ironclads in East Africa will reach six. By 1880, East Africa will have an Indian Ocean fleet comparable in size to the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

The current number of ironclads in the Austrian Navy is ten, two of which were taken from the Italian Navy. Thanks to the orders from East Africa, the Austro-Hungarian Navy also started building two new ironclads last year, so this number will increase next year. By 1880, the number of ironclad ships in the Austro-Hungarian Empire would probably remain at around fifteen.

By 1880, the number of ironclads in East Africa would not exceed that of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Even under Ferdinand's proposal, one new ironclad was added to East Africa. With the addition of the Friedrich, the number of ironclads in East Africa would only reach nine, and this number I don’t know if the Austro-Hungarian Empire will still have new shipbuilding needs for a few years. Of course, the Austro-Hungarian Navy has mostly old ships, and seven of the ironclads were in service before the Lisa Sea War.

However, the paper strength of the East African Navy is not bad, and its core strength is not even a little bit worse than that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It lacks a supporting naval training system, and there is an extreme shortage of experienced sailors and senior naval officers.

Although there is support from the Austrian Navy in this regard, the naval officers sent by the Austrian Navy to East Africa are all unpopular newcomers with no experience in commanding naval battles. As for Archduke Ferdinand, he has a full level of naval construction ability and has some success in commanding ability. , I’m afraid no one knows.

Therefore, as an emerging force, the specific combat effectiveness of the East African Navy is unknown. It has invested a lot in equipment in recent years, and its talents cannot keep up. However, relying only on equipment data can indeed be as bluffing as the Beiyang Navy.

"Well, the East African Navy has indeed grown in strength over the years. Even I am a little envious and jealous. If we cooperate with the navy, it will indeed have the strength to match the Imperial Navy."

When thinking about the development of the East African Navy, Franz had to admit that the Hechingen royal family was really rich and willing to spend money. I am afraid that only the British Royal Navy can surpass the East African Navy.

In fact, the Austro-Hungarian Navy originally wanted to sell its old ships to East Africa and build new ones itself. However, East Africa was a buyer's market. The Austro-Hungarian Empire could not control East Africa, and Ernst did not want to take over those ships. "antique".

In order to deal with the great powers, Ernst used money to build the East African Navy in a short period of time. The quality of the navy was not high in the first place, and the equipment was poor, so the East African Navy was in an embarrassing situation.

Moreover, Ernst mainly wanted to use this batch of purchased warships to cope with the situation for twenty or thirty years, delaying the time until the twentieth century. Only new ships can satisfy this.

East Africa can place orders with Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Italy, and even Germany and Tsarist Russia.

In fact, Ernst's own shipyard could have built ironclads with just a little more effort. After so many years of heavy investment and the support of the Hechingen Ocean Trading Company, the four major shipyards have accumulated rich experience in building large ships. Among them, the local Bagamoyo Shipyard has begun to test the waters and try to build East Africa's first domestic ironclad ship, although the displacement is only a mere 2,500 tons.

"However, our desire for the ocean is not strong. The position of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is naturally unfavorable for the fight for maritime hegemony. Because you are my brother, I am not afraid of your jokes. Even the fight for European hegemony has actually been given up by the empire. , because we lost Germany, we will never have this opportunity again. Now the empire is like a big ship drifting on the sea, but as the helmsman of this big ship, I don’t know where to sail, so I can only try my best to comfort the sailors. Let's keep this ship moving!"

This was the first time Ferdinand heard such pessimistic sentiments from Franz. He said: "Franz, you have actually done a very good job. In fact, the problems of the Austro-Hungarian Empire have been buried by the predecessors of the empire." They can't imagine the impact of today's strong national sentiment on the empire. They can only say that the times have abandoned the empire. By the time you take control of this country, it will be difficult to turn around."

Franz was very happy to hear Ferdinand's comfort. This brother who once caused him headaches and worries is now beginning to understand him!

However, Ferdinand changed his tone and said: "However, it is precisely because of this that the empire should join forces with East Africa, especially Austria. We have compromised too much with Hungary in recent years, and after other nations saw Hungary's successful experience, they If we follow the same example, the fate of the future empire will be torn apart, and when the empire does not exist, this means that the Habsburg family is also in danger."

“Can our alliance with East Africa solve this dilemma?”

"Of course not!" Archduke Ferdinand firmly concluded: "But we have the ability to digest some of the unstable factors in the empire."

After taking a sip of tea, Ferdinand continued: "Actually, East Africa has been implementing a plan, which is to avoid the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The focus is to weaken the risk of independence in some important areas around Austria through East Africa's immigration strategy. .”

Ferdinand's words really aroused Franz's interest. East Africa interfered in the internal affairs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? It feels like a fantasy.

"This plan does not have a written document, but the effect has been reflected. It is to improve the population of Slovenia, Croatia and the Czech Republic. Starting from the economic crisis in 1873, we have planned immigration from the above areas, focusing on the Slavs in the three areas. , mainly unemployed workers and farmers, introducing them into East Africa and weakening the nationalist sentiment and foundation in the three regions."

"Actually, there was also the previous Italian-Austrian war. Do you still remember who the culprit was?"

"Ernst!"

"That's him. His fundamental purpose is to strengthen the strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, especially to stabilize the people of the empire."

"But the Empire took the risk, and Ernst made a lot of money from the war."

"But the final choice is in your hands, isn't it? You were tempted, and you won the bet. Italy had no time to digest its own national power. Just as France was entangled by Prussia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire regained its lost territory, and the glory of the empire seemed to have returned. Same thing!"

The Italian-Austrian War was a boost to the self-confidence of the people of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, proving that the sword of the ancient empire was still young.

Ferdinand continued: "Including this economic crisis, I need not say more about the role played by the Hechingen Consortium in stabilizing the empire's economy. The steel orders alone ensured that the empire's economy did not completely collapse."

After Archduke Ferdinand said this, Franz realized that he seemed to have received a lot of care from Ernst.

"Why Austria-Hungary? Germany is obviously more powerful!" Franz asked his last question.

This made Archduke Ferdinand a little embarrassed: "Ahem, you have already said that Germany is very strong now, but this is not a desirable partner for cooperation in East Africa, because the basis of cooperation is mutual need, and more importantly, strength Equivalently, it is obvious that the German government is a bit too strong. Such a country in East Africa will definitely not feel at ease with the Austro-Hungarian Empire when it comes to cooperation." The subtext is that the Austro-Hungarian Empire is not a threat to East Africa.

Franz's face turned dark after hearing this: "Leave immediately after drinking tea!"

"That's about the alliance!"

"Wait for my news."