Plans could never keep up with changes. Originally, the main purpose of the Government of Vienna was to create conflict and use military threats against the Egyptian government to force them to sign a treaty.
The Sinai Peninsula was not valued anyway. The only purpose of its existence was to act as a buffer between the Osman Empire and the local indigenous tribes were under the leadership of both governments.
As a result, the conflict was created, but the operation was too fierce and the place was occupied. The Egyptians did not take any drastic actions and just ran over to protest.
If possible, Franz would rather the Egyptians attack regardless of anything. Then things would be easy to deal with later. Anyway, he had no pressure to fight Egypt alone.
Obviously, the Egyptian government was not stupid. They did not act rashly and instead sent people to reason with them. Military threats were no longer appropriate at this time.
Franz had always been careful with his table manners. Creating an excuse to cause trouble had already broken his bottom line. His conscience was very apologetic.
Now that they had occupied what could be considered a city, it would be too much to cause trouble for them.
The Egyptian government did not care about the cause and effect of the matter. No matter who was at fault, the people involved were dead anyway. Now that the Austrians had evacuated, they did not ask for compensation.
Franz asked with a headache, "What do you think we should do about this problem?"
He admitted that he was not evil enough, so he could not do such a domineering thing. If possible, he was more willing to solve the problem peacefully.
Unfortunately, Austria's influence in Egypt was not strong enough to compete with Britain and France. As a last resort, they could only seek a breakthrough in the Sinai Peninsula.
Metternich replied calmly, "Your Majesty, the value of the Sinai Peninsula itself is not great. We occupy it mainly to seize the opportunity so that we can intervene when the Suez Canal is being dug.
Since the Egyptian government wants to negotiate, we will negotiate with them. At worst, we can buy these areas. Anyway, it's all sand and not worth much money.
Now Britain and France do not know our purpose. Even if they interfere, they are only worried that we will continue to expand into Egypt and affect their interests.
At most, we can assure them that we will not continue to seek expansion into Egypt. As for the problem of the Sinai Peninsula, we are also a great power and need face! "
Although the approach was a bit excessive, it was indeed a great power. Whether it was right or wrong, when colonizing overseas, everyone was very domineering.
If the Government of Vienna was willing to spend some money symbolically, it would give the Egyptian government a way out. If the Egyptian government doesn't agree, I'll just occupy the place and not leave. What can you do?
Were they going to fight a war with Austria on the Sinai Peninsula for a desert with nothing in it? The Egyptian government probably didn't have the guts to do so. If they lost, they would lose all their assets and just wait to be divided!
Don't look at the Egyptian government's preparations for modernization, which seemed to have the intention of enriching the country and strengthening the army. In fact, after losing to the Osman Empire in the last war, they recognized their own strength.
Prime Minister Felix reminded, "The French have already obtained the rights to dig the Suez Canal. Will this be an obstacle?"
Metternich explained, "Don't worry. We don't need to occupy the entire Sinai Peninsula. We just need to gain a foothold there.
The construction of the Suez Canal hasn't started yet, and it's still unknown whether it will be navigable in the future. We're just preparing for a rainy day.
As far as I know, the British are strongly opposed to the construction of the Suez Canal. Their geographical position is superior, and they can enter the Indian Ocean through the Cape of Good Hope. They don't need the Grand Canal. "
In this era, the British attitude toward the Suez Canal was so indifferent. Many British people thought that the navigation of the Suez Canal would weaken their advantage in sea trade.
After all, in terms of distance, the Suez Canal was more beneficial to the Mediterranean countries. France, Austria, Spain, and other countries would be closer to the Indian Ocean.
They, who were originally the closest on the route, suddenly became further away than their competitors. This would undoubtedly make the cost of shipping British goods by sea more than their competitors, reducing their market competitiveness.
Whether it was groundless or not, this sense of crisis was always right. It was this sense of crisis that had allowed the British Empire to reach this point today.
Whether the Suez Canal could be navigated, not only the British were skeptical, but even many people in the Government of Austria were skeptical.
There had never been such a long Grand Canal on the European continent. The total length of 190 kilometers was more than what everyone could bear.
Franz also couldn't make everyone believe that the Suez Canal would be navigable. Even if it was navigable, it would still be a test.
If it could only pass some small ships, then it would also fail. For strategic reasons, Austria needed the Suez Canal to be able to navigate at least 40,000 tons of ships.
Otherwise, the canal would be useless in the era of dreadnoughts. At that time, if they wanted to continue to expand the canal, the British would definitely obstruct the construction, so that Austrian warships could only navigate through the Strait of Gibraltar, thereby establishing a strategic advantage.
Franz said with confidence, "Don't worry about the navigation problem. According to historical records, in the 7th century AD, there was a great empire called the Sui Dynasty in the East that dug a North-South Grand Canal, which was more than 2,700 kilometers long.
Even after the geographical changes, and later the route was changed, the new Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was still 1,797 kilometers long, and now it can normally navigate ships of 500 tons.
With the technology of the ancients, they could dig such a long Grand Canal without using any machinery. With our current level of technology, can't we dig a canal of less than 200 kilometers?
Judging from the terrain, the difficulty of the construction of the Suez Canal is far less than that of the North-South Grand Canal. What's there to worry about? "
Prime Minister Felix exclaimed, "Your Majesty, are you sure there is such a long Grand Canal in the East?"
Franz replied affirmatively, "Of course, do you think I'll lie? The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is still operating normally in the decaying Manchurian Empire. You'll know if you check the information. "
Prime Minister Felix hurriedly explained, "No, I don't mean to doubt you.
I just feel that it's incredible. More than 1,200 years ago, someone dug a Grand Canal of more than 2,700 kilometers.
If that's true, then this should be the greatest project in human history. That great empire must be very powerful to be able to complete such a huge project. "
Franz smiled and didn't say anything. He couldn't explain that because the Grand Canal was dug, it consumed too much of the people's labor, and the empire was destroyed, right?
Then wouldn't everyone have to …
Oh, there was no need to worry at all. To dig the Suez Canal, there was no need to transfer labor from Austria. All they needed to do was prepare the money.
Even food could be provided directly. Anyway, except for the technical and managerial personnel who needed to be paid, ordinary laborers could be provided with meals.
The biggest expense, the labor cost, was saved just like that. In history, the Suez Canal cost a total of 18.6 million pounds, more than double the budgeted cost.
This was mainly because the British had planned the slave labor riots and created public opinion to condemn them, so the French had to pay wages and hire people later, causing a significant increase in the construction cost.
The price of opening the canal to navigation was the death of 120,000 labourers.
This issue was not within the consideration of the Government of Austria. Franz also decisively chose to ignore it. In this era, any big project was done with human lives.
Austria's large railway network was an example. In just five or six years, Austria's railway had become the first in Europe, and tens of thousands of laborers had also fallen behind it.
It could be said that in this era, the faster the construction speed, the greater the casualties. Efficiency was achieved with human lives.
Upon receiving the news of Austria's attack on the Sinai Peninsula, the British cabinet's first reaction was that the Austrians were going to invade Egypt. No, they had to stop them.
Prime Minister Granville asked doubtfully, "Who can tell me what the Austrians are doing? Is the Government of Vienna out of its mind and going to the Sinai Peninsula to eat sand?"
On the surface, there was no colonial value in the Sinai Peninsula. The richest places in Egypt were in the Nile River valley, hundreds of kilometers away from the Sinai Peninsula. There was a desert in the middle, so it was not qualified to be a springboard.
Foreign Minister John Russell laughed. "It is said that this was done by an Austrian civilian colonial force. They originally wanted to do something in Egypt, but found that they were not strong enough.
In order to recover their colonial costs, they ran to the Sinai Peninsula to rob a tribe and occupy an abandoned city. "
Colonial Minister William mocked, "This rookie colonial force must be stupid. Maybe the spoils of war they harvested were not enough to pay for the loss of personnel.
We have already sent people to investigate the Sinai Peninsula. The nomadic tribes on the island have nothing except camels and sheep.
These camels and sheep are not valuable at all, unless they can be shipped back to their country for sale. They can only sell their fur locally.
The local people are so poor that they can't live anymore. The Egyptian government is too lazy to send people to collect taxes, and there are people who rob them. "
Everyone laughed. This kind of thing had happened more than once or twice in the colonial movement. Many civilian forces who had just started overseas colonization often made this kind of mistake.
Sheep and camels were indeed valuable in some places. Unfortunately, they were worthless in the Sinai Peninsula because there were no buyers for these things.
At most, they would kill the animals and take the fur to sell to a fur merchant. If they wanted to sell these animals, it would probably not be enough to pay the freight.
After laughing enough, Granville said, "Then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to keep an eye on the Government of Vienna and see what they do next. We will decide on the measures to take.
Anyway, the French have the biggest interests in the Egyptian region. Now that there is another competitor, let them have a headache first! "
From beginning to end, Granville did not take this seriously. Overseas colonization was a game, a game of plundering wealth. This was completely different from the situation on the European continent.
As long as it did not threaten India, the Government of London would not immediately react. Otherwise, the news of colonial conflicts every day would be enough to anger them to death.
This was not a joke. In the 19th century, on average, the Government of London encountered no less than a hundred colonial conflicts every year.
Most of these small conflicts were settled by colonial officials. Only when the conflict escalated would they need to deal with it personally.
If they did not learn to restrain themselves and used force at every turn, then in less than three months, they would have to fight all the colonial empires in Europe.
They paid attention to the problem in the Sinai Peninsula mainly because they were worried that Austria would invade Egypt. After confirming that it was the civil armed forces, their interest was naturally gone.
Specifically, they could refer to the British civil colonial team. The more powerful ones, such as the East India Company, had destroyed several countries overseas, and the Government of London did not necessarily know about it.
The colonial armed forces organized by weaker individuals would rob an area one day and another the next. The day after that, they would provoke a powerful enemy and be destroyed by the enemy …
This kind of thing happened too often. Anyway, as long as there was profit to be made, the Government of the United Kingdom would go into battle to support them. If there was no profit, even if the group was destroyed, the Government of London would be too lazy to care.
…
Napoleon Napoleon III said confidently, "The Austrians have deep tentacles in Egypt. Should we cut them off immediately?"
France's power in the Egyptian region was not small. As long as they encouraged the Egyptian government to expel the Austrian invaders, it would be fine.
Of course, it was estimated that the Egyptian government would not listen to them now. After all, in the last war with the Osman, the Egyptian government had been badly tricked by the French.
They had agreed to help, but under the pressure of the European countries, the Government of Paris decisively gave in. Without their weapons and equipment, the Egyptian government would soon be beaten down by the Osman Empire.
The Foreign Minister Auvergne advised, "Your Majesty, let's negotiate first! We can mediate this conflict. If we can't reach an agreement in the end, then we can take extreme measures. "
He was not as confident as Napoleon Napoleon III. He could encourage the Egyptian government to rush forward, and the matter would be resolved.
If the situation was out of control, and the Government of Vienna refused to admit defeat and caught the Egyptian government and beat them up, should they go or not?
The Government of France, which had just fought a war with Russia and suffered heavy losses, did not want to fight another war with Austria. No one wanted to do such a losing deal.
Napoleon Napoleon III was just saying it. He did not really want to take the risk. Now that he was wearing shoes, he was no longer young and struggling, he dared to gamble on anything.
The reality of the war in the Near East had told him that the current France was no longer the France that had beaten the European continent.
Napoleon Napoleon III nodded and said, "Then let the Foreign Ministry mediate this conflict, as long as it does not harm our interests!"
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