Chapter 52 Trieste
December 15, 1866.
Trieste, the most important port in the Austrian Empire.
Since the end of the Austro-Prussian War, when Austria handed Venice over to Italy through France, Trieste automatically became the only most important port of the soon-to-be-born Austro-Hungarian Empire (February 1867).
The Austrian government is currently negotiating with the Magyar nobility in Hungary, and the two sides are engaged in a fierce debate over rights and obligations.
In February of the following year, the two sides reached a compromise, in which the Hungarian Magyar nobles obtained equal rights with Austria, but the Magyars had to ensure that Hungary remained within the empire. This was the dual empire.
Trieste was the shipbuilding center and commercial and shipping center of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
After two centuries of war with Venice, the locals later sought asylum from the Habsburgs and were incorporated into the Austrian Empire. It has been the core territory of Austria ever since.
Trieste actually has its own dialect, but due to the increase in the number of Italians, the temporary strength of the Republic of Venice, the influence of Italian culture in Europe and other factors, speaking Italian has become the mainstream.
After World War I, Italy annexed Trieste on the grounds that Trieste spoke Italian. In this way, Austria lost Trieste, which it had ruled for 500 years. This was a land that had existed since ancient times. This shows the overall inefficiency and incompetence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Today, this city still retains a strong Viennese style and there are many people who speak German. As long as the Austrian government started to promote German education here, Austria would not have become a landlocked country after World War I.
Later, Trieste changed from the pearl of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to an ordinary city in Italy.
This shows the power of cultural influence. Originally, Trieste spoke the local dialect, but in the long-term dealings with Italian countries (especially Venice), it began to speak Italian and was finally annexed by Italy.
This is also the reason why Ernst wanted to reform the education of immigrants in the East African colonies. As long as you successfully shape the identity of the immigrants, there will only be authentic "Germans" in the East African colonies in the future.
Today, Trieste is directly connected to the Austrian capital of Vienna. In 1857, a railway directly to Vienna was built.
With the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire as its economic hinterland, Trieste became the third largest city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire after Vienna and Prague.
As the largest seaport city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was responsible for the empire's coal supply and external cargo transportation, and was also the headquarters of the Austro-Hungarian Navy.
Known as the "Austrian-Hungarian Riviera", Trieste was definitely one of the largest cities in Europe and the world at that time.
When Trieste fell into the hands of Italy, it became the frontier of the country. Having lost its economic hinterland, Trieste had no presence among the many Italian ports in later generations.
Even many Italians don't know the city of Trieste.
People in the future world can only know from Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech that “there used to be such a place in Europe.”
"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across Europe." - Churchill
…
Ernst was walking on the streets of Trieste. Now Ernst was considered half-son-in-law of the Habsburgs, which was a good opportunity for him to use the Habsburgs' skin to make some investments in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Trieste was one of Ernst's targets, and he planned to build a center for the East African ocean-going trade fleet here.
Although there is functional overlap between Venice and here, Ernst still wants to put his eggs in two baskets.
After all, Venice and the Austro-Hungarian Empire are now two different countries. If goods are transferred from Austria to Venice, the Italian government will collect an additional tax.
Therefore, the shipyard remains in Venice, while the fleet directly changes the map to Trieste.
In addition to economic reasons, the main reason for choosing Trieste was to import population to the East African colonies.
The issue of white immigration has always troubled Ernst. It is difficult to trick the Germans in Prussia into going to East Africa. The high level of education (compared with other parts of Europe) is secondary. Now that Prussia is thriving and there are many opportunities, few people choose to develop overseas.
The Germans who went to America to try their luck did so because America had been developed earlier and had a better environment. Another reason was that they could no longer make it in Prussia. Many of them were criminals and hooligans who were on record by the Prussian government. Of course, some ambitious people who wanted to get rich were not excluded.
It can be seen at a glance that these two types of people are not needed by the East African colonies, and their presence in East Africa will also threaten the stability of the East African colonies.
But the Austro-Hungarian Empire was different. It had been on a downward trend since the moment it was founded. Its national power declined, its industrialization level was low, and ethnic conflicts were serious. This gave Ernst the opportunity to poach its talents.
The population of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was second only to Tsarist Russia and Germany (it had been excluded from Germany), and the education level of its people was far inferior to that of Germany, and only slightly better than that of Tsarist Russia. There were quite a lot of illiterate peasants.
Uneducated farmers meant that their cultural identity could be transformed through education, and these were exactly the high-quality immigrants that the East African colonies needed.
Uneducated peasants have the strongest ability to reproduce in any era, but the land of the Austro-Hungarian Empire could not be increased for nothing, and the nobles in the Austro-Hungarian Empire exploited it.
These farmers could either go to the city to work, but it was obvious that the Austro-Hungarian Empire's industry could not absorb so many people, and working in the city's unscrupulous factories was not necessarily easier than farming.
Or they could choose to revolt against the exploitation of local nobles, but in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where conservative forces were strong, the success rate was basically zero.
Finally, they go overseas to look for employment opportunities in other regions.
Unlike the educated people in Germany, if you tell a German that you want to go to East Africa to work and live, he will definitely think you are a liar. Only mercenaries and people who specialize in colonial activities will go there.
If you tell the lower-class people of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that you want to go to East Africa, they might first ask where East Africa is?
At this time, all you have to do is increase your deception efforts, portray East Africa as a paradise, and finally find a few people to persuade them that since you have no land and can't find a job in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, you might as well try your luck overseas.
These farmers from the Austro-Hungarian Empire were no easier to fool than the Chinese immigrants. After all, the Chinese had nowhere else to turn, while the farmers from the Austro-Hungarian Empire could barely survive.
If we go back further, to the time of serfdom, there is no need to even think about it. After all, serfs were the private property of the nobles. If you wanted to trick local people into immigrating, you had to deal with the local nobles.
Now it happened that serfdom had been abolished not long ago, and these peasants no longer needed the responsibility of the nobles, and they had to take care of their own food, clothing, housing and transportation.
Farmers who have no land can only choose to continue farming for the nobles. The problem is that the population is constantly growing, and the efficiency of production tools is also improving, so it doesn't take so many people to farm.
At this time, farmers who had no land to farm could only go to the city to work in unscrupulous factories to support their families.
A large number of farmers moved to the cities in search of job opportunities, but the level of industrialization in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not very high, so it could not accommodate so many workers.
Ernst organized his company's people to recruit workers in various cities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and deceived unemployed farmers into going to East Africa for development.
Not only is there a salary, but food and accommodation are also provided, and you can return to Europe when you make money in the future.
Agricultural workers are also workers, and Ernst was not lying. It is true that food and accommodation are provided, but they still have to build their own homes, and the food they eat is grown from their own fields.
As for the salary, it's basically better than nothing, but you can save some money. What? You say it's not enough to support your family, then you're in luck.
Encourage the whole family to go to the East African colonies to work, so that your family will basically have no worries about food and clothing, and the colonies also provide free education for children.
As for returning to Europe in the future, that is indeed possible. There is still hope in four or five years. After all, the merchant ships in the East African colonies can only carry people in but not out, and there are only a few of them.
If one wanted to return to Europe via merchant ships from other countries, the price of a ticket was not cheap, and one could not save up enough money without working in the East African colonies for four or five years.
If you want to develop in East Africa now, you can only support your family, forget about getting rich. East African colonies do not have as many messy industries as America, so there is no such thing as starting a business.
The only valuable land was owned by the colonial government, and it was impossible to enclose the land and build farms like the Americans did in the West.
However, the East African colonies took the initiative to pay for the immigrants' shipping costs to East Africa, which was better than going to America. After all, the US government would not take the initiative to pay for your shipping costs to cross the Atlantic.
Another advantage of going to East Africa is that you can still do farming. If you go to America without any skills, you will just be a laborer, right? Farming is something you already know how to do, and no one can fool you. Moreover, no matter how bad your life is, it will not be as bad as the days when you were a serf.
(End of this chapter)
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