Chapter 501

Putting down the "African Strategy" in his hand, Franz could only sigh at everyone's lofty goals, taking over half of the African continent.

That's right, it was taking over, not occupying. Currently, Austria hadn't completed one-third of the above plan, and the actual controlled area was probably less than one-fifth.

Even though Franz had tried his best to migrate, the current population of Austrian Africa was still less than five million.

With such a small population controlling seven to eight million square kilometers of land, it was easy to imagine how sparsely populated it was.

Of course, this didn't include the local natives, or else the population would have already exceeded ten million.

To complete the next part of the strategy, it was impossible without a population of tens of millions. However, the entire population of the new Holy Roman Empire had just crossed the threshold of sixty million.

Now that the world was almost divided up, the last piece of unclaimed land was bound to be a fierce battle.

Currently, the Fao and Austria were at the forefront of colonizing Africa, closely followed by the United Kingdom, Portugal, and the Dutch also had small colonies.

The macro strategy of the Department of Colonization should be described as an "ideal strategy."

As long as the countries weren't stupid, they wouldn't let this plan become a reality.

Roughly looking at the map, it was roughly: Guinea and Mali in the west, Libya in the north, the Boer Republic in the south, and Somalia in the east.

Although there was no satellite positioning in this era, Franz roughly estimated that the total area of these areas added up to twenty million square kilometers.

After thinking about it, Franz picked up a pen and began to draw a cross on it, ready to send it back to the Department of Colonization.

This kind of unrealistic strategy was not feasible at all. Unless a world war was started and Austria became the big winner, they wouldn't have the capital to implement it.

However, Franz wasn't a war maniac, and Austria wasn't the German-German Empire in history that had to challenge the world.

Although many people thought that the German-German Empire started the war because of economic development, resources, and markets, Franz believed that the main reason was resources, because the market problem could be solved.

The world economy was a large cycle, and the national economy was a small cycle. In theory, as long as this cycle continued to operate normally, the economy could continue to develop.

The core of this economic cycle was population and resources, and the current population of the world was only about one billion.

Europe had about 275 million, and Russia, Austria, France, and the United Kingdom added up to more than 200 million.

Asia had about 820 million, and the two eastern countries added up to 700 million. The remaining areas were also sparsely populated.

The African continent had about 60 million, and the colonial activities caused the local population to increase. Due to the large number of immigrants in recent years, many areas had already experienced negative growth.

There were about 60 million people in the Americas. This was the true definition of a vast land with a sparse population. There were only so few people in North and South America, and the two United States alone accounted for half of the population.

Currently, the volume of international trade was not large, and the economy of each country was mainly dependent on domestic trade. Take Austria for example, the proportion of international trade in the economy was less than 5% of the total.

If the colonial trade was included in the local economy, then the international trade in the Austrian economy was even more insignificant.

This was determined by productivity. The total wealth of society was limited, and the goods that could be exported were too limited. The trade volume could not be increased at all.

In the current international market, the biggest export commodity is textiles, followed by grains. The total exports of the Made, and Continent, and the world.

In the entire international market, the total value of all exports added up was less than one billion pounds, or even less than seven hundred million pounds.

The market was only so big, and the main force of each country's economy was the local market. Britain, France, and Austria's economy was not something that could be measured by one billion. It would take at least two or three billion.

In an era dominated by the domestic economy, the most important thing was the internal cycle. As long as there were enough resources, the economy could develop normally.

Take the United States for example. Many people thought Latin America was their backyard, the dumping ground for American industrial and commercial products.

However, the reality was that there were only about two million people in Latin America, and sixty to seventy percent of them were Native American tribes.

The South American countries didn't buy American products. They would rather import European goods than buy American garbage.

However, from the late 19th century onwards, the U.S. economy continued to grow by leaps and bounds, growing nine times in forty years.

This was the power of resources. They both lacked an export market. The Germans were forced into the battlefield by capital, while the U.S. capital was able to stabilize, relying on its abundant resources.

In Franz's view, "resources" were the core of colonization. Under this concept, there was the movement to localize colonies.

After hesitating again and again, Franz didn't directly reject this "whimsical plan." He was very disgusted with flattery, but he had to admit that flattery was very effective.

Otherwise, there would not be so many whimsical plans in history. For example, the British 2C plan, from Cairo to South Africa, directly from south to north.

Including: Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania.

The plan was huge, but John Bull carried it out in the end. However, it didn't last long before the colonial empire collapsed.

As a latecomer, the Germans also came up with the "Teutonic Africa Plan." This plan was not ambitious and only included: Namibia, Angola, Congo, and Tanzania.

The success of the strategy depended on strength and had nothing to do with the size of the ambition, so this strategy died prematurely.

The French "2S Plan" was a bit crazy. After occupying North Africa, the French also planned to attack from Senegal to Somalia.

This plan was similar to Austria's strategic plan. "Guinea to Somalia" and "Senegal to Somalia" were not much different.

As for Austria's South African Boer Republic, it had barely been achieved, and a thousand-person colonial base had appeared in the Zimbabwe area.

It was not difficult to go north to Libya. After all, it was an inland area in Africa, and competitors could not reach this area.

Only Somalia in the east was still far away, with Sudan and Ethiopia in the middle. Of course, it could be bypassed from Uganda and Kenya.

In reality, it was definitely not that simple to implement. Because of Austria's colonial strategy, these areas were included together.

In any case, the spirit was worth affirming. Since this plan was sent, it meant that the Department of Colonization thought there was a possibility of success.

Of course, this success did not mean that all the goals were achieved. It only meant that the plan was strategically completed. It was inevitable that a few colonies would be lost in the middle.

Considering that it was now a critical time for the localization of colonies, Franz acquiesced to the existence of this plan. Of course, when it came to the specific implementation, it must not be so rigid.

For example: areas connected by rivers should be prioritized, desert areas should be put aside, and areas with strong indigenous strength should be restrained from expanding in areas that might cause conflict...

In this era, there were no national boundaries on the African continent. Most of them were a group of indigenous tribes. It was still too nonsensical to talk about the concept of national boundaries.

This colonial strategy would naturally not follow the national boundaries of future generations. In fact, Franz had no way to find the national boundaries of future generations on a map.

After some revision, Franz successfully compressed this strategic plan.

For example: the desert in North Africa would not be contested with the French. They could not control it in this era anyway.

To be specific: most of Mali would be abandoned, and the Niger region would basically be abandoned. If it were not for the connection to Libya, Franz was ready to give up Chad. Now, he reluctantly stayed.

Ethiopia and Somalia in the east were also ranked last by Franz. Before the other areas were occupied, he would not pay attention to these areas.

Namibia and Tanzania were ranked second to last and basically belonged to abandoned areas. The remaining areas would depend on the ability of his subordinates and how much they could take.

In this way, the plan shrank by almost one-third, and the feasibility was greatly improved.

Occupying more than half of the African continent would attract too much hatred, but occupying one-third, or about 40% of the African continent, Franz believed it was possible to succeed.

This was determined by the combination of strength and first-mover advantage. Once the localization strategy was successful, it would be another peak period of immigration. As long as there was enough population, Franz was not afraid of any challenges on the African continent.

For example, the current West Africa region and the Congo region had millions of local people. Who had the ability to take these places away?

War also required costs. Without enough benefits, it was simply not enough to make colonial empires wage war.

On the African continent, except for the gold mines in South Africa, there were no other areas that could trigger a war between the major powers.

In fact, the gold mines in South Africa were not worth the two major powers fighting. Although the gold reserves were high, before they were mined, it was nothing much.

Although the annual output was only a few hundred tons, in fact, gold mining also required costs. To rely on gold to recover the cost of war, Franz did not think it could be achieved in his lifetime.