War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Austrian Empire, Port of Venice.

After months of traveling, Franz finally set foot on a long-lost land, and returning home felt like he was reborn.

Although he had made various preparations before sailing, when he actually arrived on the vast sea, he realized that he was too naive, not to mention the torturous West African weather.

Traveling in the nineteenth century was far more arduous than one imagined, and it was also full of dangers and challenges.

Although there were several battles of different sizes and even full-scale armed conflicts along the way, only 17 people on the Austrian side actually died due to the fighting, while the number of people who died due to storms, heat stroke, accidents, and diseases was as high as 450.

Most of the dead were colonists who went to sea for the first time. Some of them suffered from seasickness during the voyage and were relatively weak and had to endure the torment of wind and waves. In addition, they were not accustomed to the acclimatization after arriving in the colony and other reasons.

Franz's body can be said to be very strong due to long-term exercise, and he does not need to work for a long time. However, even so, he was still tortured by the wind and waves at sea, and even suffered from nausea and vomiting several times.

Friedrich said that this is a normal phenomenon, and you will get used to it after vomiting.

On the other hand, Oshio Shanyin seems to have no feelings, and the Ocean People are indeed terrifying.

Venice is known as the "Pearl of the Adriatic", the ancient world trade center, and the leader of the Mediterranean. Once upon a time, it was also the gathering place for the Crusaders in the Eastern Expedition.

With the opening of new shipping routes, Europe's commercial center shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, and the city inevitably declined.

But at this time, Franz reopened the door to ocean trade, allowing those old and young who missed the glory of the past to see hope again.

Mexico, the Ottomans, Egypt, Tripoli, West Africa (Guinea, Ivory Coast, Togo, Cameroon, Congo, Namibia), Austria's foreign trade partners are increasing rapidly.

In addition, trade between Austria and Brazil is also increasing rapidly, whether it is cotton, rubber, or coffee, which has caught up from behind. (In 1852, Brazil became the world’s largest coffee producer)

At the same time, the rubber shoes exported from Austria have been widely praised in Brazil. Although the price is four times that sold to the military, this seems to be nothing in the eyes of wealthy Brazilians.

Franz also considered whether the Brazilians would build their own vulcanized rubber factories, produce their own rubber shoes, or increase the export price of rubber.

However, this country seemed to be used to it, and they did not show a strong interest in building factories. Later, Franz roughly looked through the information on Brazil’s national conditions at the time and found that they not only lacked a supporting industrial system, but also lacked a labor force.

The labor force here is not just simple manual workers, there are no relevant technical personnel, and the educated ones are reluctant to work in factories. As for the slaves on the plantations, even if their whips are broken, they still learn No relevant knowledge.

The Brazilians proposed a plan that made Franz dumbfounded. They would provide rubber to Austria, but the condition was that Austria would provide them with rubber shoes and tires (solid) of the same price.

Franz did not expect that after he taught the indigenous people in Africa how to use money as a general equivalent, he would actually have to conduct ancient barter transactions with people when he returned to Europe.

At this time, Brazil was in civil strife, and they needed a lot of weapons and equipment. Of course, Franz would not be as hypocritical as France, and directly expressed his willingness to sell weapons to it without any concealment. In fact, it was just words.

In the early stages of the rebellion, the rebels defeated the Brazilian government forces and even the mercenaries joined the other side after being captured.

At that time, the major powers, including the United States, had a wait-and-see attitude towards the Brazilian Civil War. They believed that a divided Brazil would be more in the interest of the world, and some of the major powers even secretly supported its separatist forces.

Brazil's religious power was strong and it initially asked France and Austria, both Catholic countries, for help. France's response was lukewarm, and Metternich also said he was helpless.

The main reason is that this large South American country only gained independence from Portuguese rule in 1822. At this time, most European powers did not recognize this country. They felt that the country's political situation was unstable and would eventually break up.

As a time traveler, Franz knew that in the end Brazil won and the separatist forces lost, and that was enough.

Franz sent Archbishop Rauscher, an old magician who still had a high status in their circle. With the help of Archbishop Rauscher's series of matchmaking efforts, the Brazilians were able to trade their crops for weapons and even exchange future harvests as collateral for loans.

Many Brazilian officials were moved to tears on the spot, and the Brazilian priests who came with the team even sang praises for it. Franz also specifically asked Archbishop Rauscher to remind the Brazilians that a guy named Garibaldi among the rebels was very dangerous.

In fact, Franz still underestimated Garibaldi. In the early days of the war, this man had already made a name for himself and achieved miraculous victories one after another against the Brazilian government forces.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the incompetence of the Brazilian government forces, such as their mindless operation of sending cavalry to pursue the guerrillas in the rainforest. This kind of outrageous common sense mistake is usually not made by anyone.

However, this inadvertently made the Brazilian magicians admire Archbishop Rauscher even more. He did not greedy for credit, but instead shook off all the "miracles" he had about Archduke Franz.

Naturally, the magicians would not believe that this was what they were doing, but in order to make the boss happy, they had no choice but to let it go. Although the priests did not believe it, the Brazilian officials remembered Franz's name firmly.

Thanks to Franz's intervention, the Austrian Empire joined the German Customs Union, then the Apennine Customs Union, and now opened up to foreign trade.

All this is to extend the life of Venice. People here seem to have seen its former glory again, so the Venetians at this time are staunch supporters of the Habsburg royal family.

At the strong request of locals, Franz and Friedrich will receive the bishop's blessing at St. Martin's Cathedral.

At this time, Franz and Friedrich had changed into a small steamship and shuttled among the city's rivers to receive blessings from the Venetians.

Franz's trip to West Africa, under the propaganda of the Austrian Imperial Government, has turned into one great victory after another, with an impact comparable to the Crusades.

The tone of the propaganda is as follows: Archduke Franz led the army to rescue the Catholic compatriots who were threatened by the indigenous people in Africa, and defeated the evil chiefs, bringing the gospel of God and civilization to those lands.

After the blessing ceremony, there was another grand procession.

After all this was over, Franz had collapsed in his palace in Venice.

certain corners of continental Europe.

"Damn those stupid indigenous people, do they only brag? We provided them with accurate information, and even created conditions for them to assassinate. And those damn guys will only respond to us with one disastrous defeat after another? ?”

"The Austrians are occupying the colonies too quickly, and we must find some way to prevent them from continuing to expand their colonies."

"Austria and France compete for colonies, which is in our interests, or we should help them. For example, add more fire."