Chapter 464 Persuasion

For the time being, he took Ferdinand's words seriously, but Franz could not easily agree to let the Austro-Hungarian Empire protect East Africa, even if East Africa sent his younger brother.

"Population does not equal national strength. Although East Africa has a large territory, this cannot change the fact that it is a small country," Franz said.

There is nothing wrong with this statement. In today's world, a country cannot be considered a big or powerful country just by having population and land. If that were the case, the Far East and India should be at the forefront.

Franz's plan for East Africa's territory remains the same as last time. Even if East Africa has expanded without limit in recent years, it is at most more than three million square kilometers.

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 natives are, it will take time for East Africa to digest these natives. The United States did not complete the massacre of Indians within ten years. In fact, Americans are still persecuting the remaining Indians in the West.

"East Africa is not a strong country as a whole, and its geographical location is not very important, but the strategic position of our East Africa is very important to the Austro-Hungarian Empire!" Ferdinand said, "The Austro-Hungarian Empire's naval power is in the Mediterranean, and it can even be said that it can only radiate to the eastern Mediterranean region. Now the Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean with 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 if we look at the map, East Africa is to the south of the Suez Canal, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire is to the north of the Suez Canal. If the navies of our two countries join forces, do you know what this means?"

What does it mean? The Suez Canal is sandwiched between the two navies, which means that the Suez Canal is indirectly controlled. However, does the East African Navy have the strength to do so?

The answer is yes, at least on paper. Others may not know the strength of the East African Navy, but the Austro-Hungarian Navy certainly knows it. Most of the ship orders in East Africa are completed by Austria. In fact, in the comparison of the strength of the two countries, the East African Navy is already the closest indicator to the Austrian Navy.

There are currently three main ironclad ships in service in East Africa, far fewer than the Austro-Hungarian Navy, but three are still under construction and one has already begun designing. In addition, the East African Navy is going to order another top-level ironclad ship with a displacement of 7,500 tons. By this time next year, the number of active ironclad ships 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 Austrian Navy currently has ten ironclad ships, two of which were captured from the Italian Navy. Thanks to the East African order, the Austro-Hungarian Navy also began construction of two additional ironclad ships last year, so this number will increase to twelve next year. By 1880, the number of Austro-Hungarian ironclad ships will probably remain at around fifteen.

By 1880, the number of ironclad ships in East Africa would not exceed that of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Even at Ferdinand's suggestion, East Africa added an ironclad ship. Together with the Friedrich ironclad, the number of East African ironclad ships only reached nine. It is not known whether the Austro-Hungarian Empire had any new shipbuilding needs in recent years. Of course, most of the Austro-Hungarian Navy's ships were old, and seven of them were in service before the Battle of Lissa.

However, the East African Navy's strength on paper was not bad, but its core was not a little bit worse than that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It lacked a supporting naval training system and was extremely short of experienced sailors and senior naval officers.

Although the Austrian Navy supported this, the naval officers sent to East Africa by the Austrian Navy were all unwelcome newcomers with no experience in commanding naval battles. As for Archduke Ferdinand, he had the maximum ability in naval construction, but no one knew how capable he was in command.

Therefore, as an emerging force, the specific combat effectiveness of the East African Navy is unknown. A huge amount of investment has been made in equipment in recent years, but the talent cannot keep up. However, just relying on the equipment data, it is indeed as intimidating as the Beiyang Fleet.

"Well, the East African Navy has grown in strength over the years. Even I am a little envious and jealous. If we cooperate with them in terms of the navy, they will indeed be able to match the strength of 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 a lot of money. Perhaps only the British Royal Navy could surpass the East African Navy.

In fact, the Austro-Hungarian Navy also wanted to sell old ships to East Africa and build new ships at the beginning, but East Africa was a buyer's market, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire could not strangle East Africa, and Ernst was not very willing to take over those "antiques".

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 to begin with, and its equipment was poor, so the situation of the East African Navy was embarrassing.

Moreover, Ernst mainly wanted to use this batch of purchased warships to cope with the situation for 20 to 30 years, delaying the time to the 20th century, and only new ships could meet this requirement.

East Africa could place orders with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as well as with Britain, France, Italy and even Germany and Tsarist Russia.

In fact, if Ernst's own shipyard spends a little more effort, it can also build ironclad ships. After so many years of huge investment and the support of the Hexingen 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 the first domestically-produced ironclad ship in East Africa, although its displacement is only 2,500 tons.

"But our desire for the ocean is not strong. The location of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is naturally not conducive to the struggle for maritime hegemony. Since you are my brother, I am not afraid of you laughing at me. Even in the struggle for hegemony over the European continent, the Empire has actually given up because we have lost Germany, so we no longer have this opportunity. Now the Empire is like a large ship drifting on the sea, but as the helmsman of this ship, I don't know where to sail. I can only try my best to appease the sailors and let the ship continue to move forward!"

It was the first time that Ferdinand heard Franz's pessimism. He said, "Franz, you have done a good job. The problems of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had already been planted by the predecessors of the empire. They could not have imagined the impact of such strong national sentiment on the empire. It can only be said that the times have abandoned the empire. By the time you take control of this country, it will be difficult to turn it around."

Franz was very happy to hear Ferdinand's comfort. This brother who once gave him headaches and worries now began 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. If other nations follow Hungary's successful experience, the fate of the future Empire will only be torn apart. When the Empire does not exist, it means that the Habsburg family is also in danger."

"Can we resolve this dilemma by forming an alliance with East Africa?"

"Of course not!" Archduke Ferdinand affirmed, "But we are capable of digesting some of the unstable factors in the empire."

Ferdinand took a sip of tea and continued, "In fact, East Africa has been implementing a plan, which is to prevent the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The focus is on weakening the risk of independence of some important regions around Austria through East African immigration strategies."

Ferdinand's words really aroused Franz's interest. East Africa interfering in the internal affairs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? It felt like a fairy tale.

"This plan has no written documents, but the effect has been achieved. It aims to improve the population of Slovenia, Croatia and the Czech Republic. Since the economic crisis in 1873, we have planned to immigrate from these regions, focusing on the Slavs in these three regions, mainly unemployed workers and farmers, and introduce them to East Africa to weaken the nationalist sentiment and foundation of the three regions."

"In fact, do you remember who was the culprit in the previous Italo-Austrian War?"

"Ernst!"

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

"But the Empire took the risk in this matter, and Ernst also made a lot of money in the war."

"But the final choice is in your hands, isn't it? You were tempted, and you won the bet. Italy didn't have time to absorb its own national strength, and France was entangled by Prussia. The Austro-Hungarian Empire regained its lost territory, and the glory of the empire seemed to have returned!"

The Italo-Austrian War was a shot in the arm for the self-confidence of the people of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, proving that the ancient empire was still powerful.

Ferdinand went on to say, "Including this economic crisis, I don't need to say much about the role played by the Hexingen Consortium in stabilizing the empire's economy. The steel orders alone ensured that the empire's economy did not completely collapse."

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

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

This made Archduke Ferdinand a little embarrassed: "Ahem, you've already said it, Germany is very strong now, but this is exactly not the cooperation partner that East Africa wants, because the basis of cooperation is mutual need, and more importantly, equal strength. It is obvious that the German government is a bit too strong, and East Africa is certainly not as confident in cooperating with such a country as with the Austro-Hungarian Empire." The subtext is that the Austro-Hungarian Empire is not a threat to East Africa.

Franz's face darkened after hearing this: "Just finish your tea and leave!"

"That alliance thing!"

"Wait for my news."

(End of this chapter)