Chapter 483 New Nation
The Hechingen Consortium's involvement in the Bosnia region attracted little attention. Military occupation did not mean that the Austro-Hungarian Empire brought the local area under its rule. Historically, the Austro-Hungarian Empire wanted to incorporate Bosnia into its territory, but that was already in the early 20th century.
The main reason for this is that the benefits are not in place. Bosnia is short of resources. Although coal resources are relatively abundant, local transportation is very blocked, making development difficult.
Bosnia is almost the poorest region in the Balkan Peninsula at any time, so it really has no economic value. For example, due to the impact of the agricultural crisis, there are almost no businessmen willing to go to Bosnia to engage in agricultural development.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire attached great importance to Bosnia, but it had nothing to do with the economy here. The main reason was that it used to be the Ottoman Empire's forward station to the north to threaten Austria and Europe.
Sarajvo was a military stronghold established by the Ottoman Empire to the north, and it gradually developed into the most important city in Bosnia.
If the Austro-Hungarian Empire wanted to provide economic support to Bosnia, it would be impossible. After all, who would pay was a big problem. Hungary would definitely not give a penny. Even if the Hexingen Consortium entered Bosnia, it was not for poverty alleviation, but for political purposes.
As for obtaining economic benefits from the local area, Ernst had never thought about this. The conditions in Bosnia and Herzegovina were too bad, and the goal would be achieved if the company could operate without losing money.
Ferdinand: "Then the main purpose of your investment in Bosnia is to change the local population, but this is not an easy task. After all, it is impossible for the Austro-Hungarian government to accomplish it, let alone an agricultural company!"
Ernst: "We invested in Bosnia not for the sake of local development, but to change the local people's sense of identity. Faith and national identity are indeed a headache for all countries, but they are nothing compared to economic interests. Why could the Ottoman Empire transform the local Slavs? It was all about economic reasons. If you don't follow the Ottoman Empire, you are destined to become poor, which is much more terrible than any belief."
Ferdinand: "So how do you plan to do this?"
Ernst: "Now we have 30% of Bosnia's arable land in our hands. Bosnia is a completely agricultural region, and agriculture accounts for nearly 100% of the economy. So we control the economic lifeline of Bosnia, which means that we can now easily decide the fate of the Slavs in Bosnia."
"First, the Hexingen Consortium wants to violently reduce the local Arab population. The basis for this is to make it unprofitable for local Arabs."
Ferdinand: "You mean to force Arabs to convert by distributing land use rights?"
Ernst shook his head and said, "That's not the case. It's a physical reduction!"
"You're crazy!" Archduke Ferdinand said incredulously, "Aren't you afraid that the locals will rebel?"
"Even if Bosnia rebels, it won't affect us in East Africa. This is just an attempt. What I mean by physical reduction is not a massacre, but forcing the locals to leave. Bosnia has a good geographical location anyway, and it is convenient to find a job anywhere. If agriculture cannot support a family, most locals can only try their luck outside."
Ferdinand: "What if the local people insist on resisting? If you embarrass Franz, I believe he will directly hold you accountable."
Ernst: "So we have to use one faction to fight two factions and turn the local Croats into our own people. Serbs and Arabs are our targets for expulsion. Serbs can go to Serbia or come to East Africa, and Arabs can go to any Arab region, but they cannot stay there."
"But if it's just the Croatians, it won't be good for Austria-Hungary's rule over the region. I'm afraid it will increase the power of the Croatians in the future empire. Hungary alone is enough to give Austria a headache, so why does it need a Greater Croatia?"
"You misunderstood, father-in-law." Ernst said, "What I mean by wooing is the people who give up their Croatian identity. They believe in Catholicism, so we let them bind themselves to the Hechingen Consortium economically. One prerequisite is that they must join the German nation."
Ferdinand was still a little worried and said, "This kind of thing is not that easy. It is difficult to eliminate the national stigma."
"So we have to actively promote cultural transformation of the local people. The beliefs and living habits of the local Croatians are actually the smallest compared to the Germans, especially the Catholic Germans."
"Plus, the local Croats have always been at the bottom of the society and, except for religious figures, have little cultural level. This provides us with the conditions to tamper with the history of the local Croats."
This aroused Ferdinand's interest: "How are you going to tamper with the history of the locals?"
"We can claim that the locals are Germans who entered Bosnia from southern Germany in the Middle Ages. They had to give up their ancestral identities under the coercion of the Ottoman Empire, and this period of history was cut off because of the cover-up of the Ottoman Empire. Now that Bosnia has returned to Germany, it is natural for them to recognize their ancestors,"
Archduke Ferdinand: "Are you kidding me?"
"As long as we can make the local people willing to be deceived, we will be successful." Ernst said shamelessly.
"How could they possibly believe it? Just relying on your propaganda? The locals are not fools. They should know how their family came here!"
Ernst: "As long as you have a lot of ideas, you don't have to worry about the locals not following your lead."
"What's your weird idea?"
Ernst: "Everything depends on evidence, and we can completely forge evidence. For example, there is definitely not a lot of population flowing into Bosnia from southern Germany, but we can make it up ourselves."
This kind of thing is easy to handle. After all, the Principality of Hechingen can provide evidence. Many Hechingen people left their homes and went to live in Bosnia because of war or famine. It is not difficult to forge some ancient books. Moreover, the cultural level of the local people is that they believe whatever others say. Even if they don't believe it, they will choose to believe it in order to avoid being affected. As long as lies are told enough, there will always be people who believe it. After a few generations, it becomes history. After all, the Bible can be used as a historical basis, so Ernst's approach is not excessive.
Ernst went on to say: "The second is to discredit the Ottoman Empire and the entire Arab region. After we control local public opinion, we can use the disparagement of the Ottoman Empire to encourage local people to actively clear their relationship with the Ottoman Empire."
This move is actually regional slander. The power of regional slander is so great that as long as it is used properly, it can become a very good cultural weapon.
Moreover, the mutual slander between the Western world and the Arab region has always been going on, and Ernst was just doing it as a matter of course.
“Then reshape the local new generation’s national identity through education.”
Archduke Ferdinand: "I don't quite understand this. Do you want to implement compulsory education in Bosnia?"
Ernst: "No, it's about promoting corporate education. If you want to make a living as an employee of the Bosnian Agricultural Development Company, then the employees of the Bosnian Agricultural Development Company must send their children to the company school to receive a thorough German education."
The Bosnian Agricultural Development Corporation now controls 30 percent of Bosnia's arable land, which means that 30 percent of Bosnians must rely on the Bosnian Agricultural Development Corporation for survival, so it is necessary for these people to convert to German and receive German education.
Moreover, the proportion of arable land owned by the Bosnian Agricultural Development Corporation will continue to rise. According to the Ernst Plan, grain will be dumped in the local area for a long time to force local farmers into bankruptcy and finally bring more land into the hands of the Bosnian Agricultural Development Corporation.
"Your plan is indeed good, but the problem is that Catholic Croatians only account for 20 to 30 percent of the local population," said Ferdinand.
Ernst: "My plan certainly includes Serbs and Arabs. As long as they are willing to voluntarily give up their Orthodox and Arab beliefs and their ethnic identities other than German, they can stay in Bosnia. The same goes for Catholic Croats. Croats are just the easiest to transform, but they must also give up their Croatian identity to integrate into our German family. Otherwise, their lives will be no different from those of pagans under Ottoman rule."
"The problem is that local forces are resisting fiercely. What should we do if they don't cooperate?"
"Don't we have the Austro-Hungarian army to help us? We have already established a good relationship with the local garrison. As long as they side with us in our actions against the local resistance forces, that will be fine."
"The military alone may not be enough."
"So I have one last trick, which is to inject water into Bosnia, just like in East Africa, and change the local population structure through foreign immigration."
"You're planning to move Germans to Bosnia?"
"Not just Germans, but also people from the Far East. After all, we don't even have enough Germans in East Africa."
"Relocate people from the Far East to Bosnia? Are you sure you don't want to cause public outrage?"
"We also need thugs. These things require a sufficient number of people. The Austro-Hungarian army is not convenient to do this, but we can do it. We want to make those Bosnians who are unwilling to give up their alien and pagan identities like the East African natives, unable to do anything to us!"
Of course, Ernst also had another idea, which was to turn Bosnia into a region within the Austro-Hungarian Empire that was naturally biased towards East Africa. So sending them some Orientals for intermarriage would help East Africa to exert influence in the local area in the future. After all, the population structure of East Africa will be dominated by mixed blood in the future, and the purely German regions may not necessarily regard East Africa as their own people. Adding color to the Austro-Hungarian Empire would help the Germans in East Africa to exert their influence in the future.
Ernst's ideas were not limited to this. In the Lanfang Republic, Ernst intended to implement measures opposite to those in Bosnia, turning it into a mixed-race country with German culture as the main focus by introducing white people.
It just so happens that the population of the Bosnian region can be filled into East Africa and the Lanfang Republic, so that the mixed-race Germans can form three fulcrums in Europe, Africa and Asia. In the future, it may even develop into a new nation spanning three continents and with global influence.
(End of this chapter)
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