Chapter 1364 Accomplice

Among the colonists of the Austrian Empire, the Italians were the most polite to the black natives. No matter what the country, the church, and other nations said, they always had an indifferent attitude towards blacks.

However, under the deliberate guidance of Franz, the Italians also hated the black slaves who made them work more.

The Germans, influenced by Greater Germanism and religion, had no good impression of blacks at all. They were the main force in waging war.

As for other ethnic groups in the Austrian Empire, they were all skilled, but the Austrians were too kind compared to the Irish.

When the Irish heard that blacks might compete with them for food and work, they joined the army without hesitation and tried their best to kill every black they could.

However, when it comes to brutality, it has to be the Spanish. They don't need any incitement or even any reason.

(The above words seem a bit inadequate, but due to the scale problem, they can only be written like this.)

One of the most criticized shortcomings of black tribes is short-sightedness. Except for some real black kingdoms, most black tribes do not know how to store food. What they call food is herds of beasts and cattle.

Due to the limited technology at the time, it was difficult to transport the livestock to the Austrian Empire.

Franz first thought of refrigerated ships. After all, the Austrian Empire had simple ice machines many years ago, and even used them as air conditioners.

Many important churches and government officials' residences have also adopted this technology over the years, but they have not frozen meat.

However, the reality is that lowering the temperature from 30 degrees to 16 degrees and from 30 degrees to minus 16 degrees are completely different concepts, but the Austrian Empire's technical department has spoiled Franz a little.

Franz personally attaches great importance to scientific and technological research, and the most important manifestation of this is his generosity in research funding.

Therefore, the most common practice of the Austrian Empire's scientific research department is to increase investment, and the highlight is a powerful brick flying.

Isn't it just insufficient power? Wouldn't it be done with a few more steam engines?

However, this approach is fine in the fields of national defense and exploration, but it is obviously inappropriate in the civilian field.

The result is that the price of coal consumed by the Austrian Empire's refrigerated ships is almost equal to the price of transporting meat, which makes this invention meaningless.

Fortunately, Franz had other plans, such as building a canning factory in the colony. After being canned, it is easy to store and transport, but the biggest problem is that it tastes bad.

But for people of this era, it is not a problem to taste bad, as long as they can fill their stomachs.

As for how to defeat those African tribes, it can only be said that this is a stupid question. In fact, due to the emergence of quinine and allicin, there is nothing in Africa that can stop Europeans from going deep into the interior.

Of course, the only country that can provide these two drugs cheaply at this time is the Austrian Empire. After all, Franz has been planning for many years, and the output of quinine is enough for Austrian colonists.

In fact, any army or organization with some combat effectiveness is difficult to lose to the African native army, even if they use the same weapons. Moreover, Franz, who had this plan long ago, never thought of selling new weapons to the natives from the beginning.

The army of the primitive tribe, whether in terms of organization or training, cannot be compared with the European army at this time.

Moreover, Franz knew that even a lion will use all its strength to fight a rabbit. He sent out well-equipped colonial troops, and the officers he appointed were experts in dealing with natives.

There was no so-called war at all, and there was only one-sided slaughter on the battlefield.

As the Austrian Empire was a mountainous country, it never stopped pursuing lightweight infantry guns. And due to the rise of shrapnel shells, the Austrian Empire had a considerable number of three-pound guns and four-pound guns.

If these guys were placed in the European battlefield except for the mountains, they would be a joke, but in Africa, they would be a magical weapon for attacking cities and strongholds.

Moreover, most of the black tribes did not even have a decent fence, often only a few sticks poking there.

What was more terrifying than the three-pound gun and the four-pound gun was the Austrian Empire's anti-infantry rocket, and the shrapnel was terrifying for unarmored targets.

In addition to the dimensionality reduction attack by the Austrian colonial army on the battlefield, those indigenous tribes had to face another problem, that is, slave rebellion and the anger of the tribesmen.

It goes without saying that the defeated slaves of other tribes took the opportunity to rebel. The indigenous tribes were not united. After all, where there are people, there are rivers and lakes. Franz suppressed this contradiction before just to let them kill each other at this time.

The colonies of the Austrian Empire did not need slaves, and there were no Arabs in West Africa to buy slaves, but there was Dahomey.

The Kingdom of Dahomey had some friction with the Austrian Empire when it first arrived in Africa, but after being beaten by the Austrian Empire Army, King Gezo of Dahomey learned his lesson.

Not only did he give up half of the southern part of the country, he even appointed Marquis Heinrich von Gross, the Governor-General of West Africa of the Austrian Empire, as "Yevogang" (similar to the Minister of General Affairs of White Affairs).

(There were some problems on the map before, and the Austrian Empire did not completely annex Dahomey.)

King Gezo of Dahomey did not become depressed after losing the southern coast and nearly a quarter of the country's troops. Instead, he conquered Oyo through alliances and brutal wars and regained access to the sea.

King Gezo of Dahomey was considered a wise ruler in Africa at that time, but Franz did not take him seriously.

Cooperation with the Kingdom of Dahomey was not a loss for both parties. The Austrian Empire could clear the blacks and prisoners of war in the colonies, and at the same time exchange for scarce materials and precious metals.

The Kingdom of Dahomey, on the one hand, expanded its business, and on the other hand, it could use these cheap black slaves to exchange for more things they wanted in other countries.

King Gezo of Dahomey was actually very afraid of the Austrian Empire. He would pay tribute to the Austrian Empire every year. Franz never refused anyone except those blacks.

King Gezo of Dahomey was also one of the few African monarchs willing to learn agricultural technology from the Austrian Empire, and his country was spared because of its good performance.

The loss of black slaves did not have much impact on the colonies of the Austrian Empire. In fact, the colonies of the Austrian Empire were the areas with the highest degree of agricultural mechanization except for the royal territory.

There was no way that the colonies of the Austrian Empire were too short of people, and the impression left by black Africa on Europeans was too terrible. Some people would rather starve to death than come, and Franz had no good way to deal with these people.

However, the problem of insufficient manpower is much easier to solve. The efficiency of a seed drill is thirty times that of manual labor, and the efficiency of a harvester is fifty times that of manual labor, not to mention those steam-driven machines.