Holy Roman Empire

Franz had to lament that European politics is chaos. During his two-year emperor's career, Austria actually signed secret contracts with all European powers.

It is estimated that those who study international history in the future will see this pile of secret covenants, and will lament the work of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then leave a pile of unsolved mysteries in the political world.

The first is the "Fao Mieu", which is good, everyone share the Kingdom of Sardinia happily, because the French Revolution broke out in June.

Then came the "Memorandum on the British-Austrian Balkans" and the "Memorandum of Understanding on the British-Austrian Questions about Italy." The latter has been completed. Whether the former can be fulfilled depends on the British's morality.

It is needless to say that the Russian-Austrian secret treaty is nothing more than the continuation and expansion of the alliance between the two countries. The two countries have formed alliances for decades, and the two sides are each other's most important allies.

Not long ago, a secret contract was signed with the Kingdom of Prussia. The two countries jointly opposed the interference of foreign forces in German affairs. This treaty will be announced when the time is ripe. In essence, it is used to deter the British. Naturally, it will not be secret.

Is this the end?Facts have proved that the Austrian government really loves tossing, the secret negotiations between Austria and Spain have ended, and the two countries have reached a consensus on the development of colonization overseas-the "Ossi Colonial Treaty" was released.

According to the provisions of the treaty: The two countries mutually recognize the sovereignty of their respective overseas colonies, and they must provide assistance within their capabilities in the colonial activities, such as obtaining logistics supplies in the other colony ...

Now that there is no colony in Austria, it seems that the Spanish have suffered a loss. In fact, the Spanish government attaches more importance to this treaty than Austria.

There is no way. In this era, Spain's decline has been so severe that the sunless empire is far away from them. The British and French colonial empires stepped on top of their bones from the beginning.

Now that the Austrian empire is preparing to join overseas colonial activities, their soft persimmons are dangerous again, and they might be trampled on again.

If so, why not choose cooperation?The conditions in Austria are not excessive, except that when they colonize overseas, they need to get supplies from their ports, and they are not not paying money.

This inconspicuous treaty was completed under the auspices of the Admiralty.Persimmon is right to find a soft pinch, but Franz is not ready to lift the table as soon as he comes up?

If it were n’t for Spain to go downhill all the time, Franz wanted to form an alliance with them, stab France directly, and let them feel what a sandwich cookie is.

In any case, the Spanish powers are still there. The declining Spanish navy is a little stronger than the Austrian navy.

Not only Spain, but also the admiralty of the two small nations of the Netherlands and Portugal, is currently under negotiation.

This is the price of late entry. Taking advantage of the ports of these small countries as a springboard is more reassuring than using English and French.

Opening and expanding the colony is not easy. The first problem is the logistics supply. The early supplies must be shipped from outside.

Looking at the map, we know that Austria's geographical location is to open up overseas colonies. The distance is that far!In this context, it is important to be able to purchase supplies nearby.

Historically, the Russian Pacific Fleet Expedition was a negative teaching material. Under the British blockade, they lacked effective supplies along the way and ambushed the Japanese as soon as they arrived.

Franz will naturally learn a lesson. Anyway, it is not wrong to try to establish a good relationship with the colonial country first. Even if you want to grab the ground, it is also a matter of having a firm foothold.

In addition, overseas colonies also need to learn from experience. Now Austria is sending people to collect intelligence from the colonies of various countries to learn their management experience.

However, this method of gathering intelligence is not very reliable. You can only see some superficial things, and you need to learn more deep-level things.

Don't look at how many experts and professors in the later generations criticize the backwardness of the colonial management system every day.But in this era, it was a skill to be able to establish colonial rule and manage large areas of colonies with a small number of people and make a lot of profits.

If everyone cooperates, they can learn more in depth and learn from their successful experience, lest they will lose money in just a few days after the colony was opened.

In the final analysis, overseas colonization is still for the benefit. If you have been doing loss trading, it is estimated that no one will participate soon.

The Admiralty is not in a hurry, holding the signed treaty, and then asking the government for funding.

According to the shipbuilding plan proposed by the Admiralty, the government will allocate 50 million shields to build ships, and within five years will build a navy fleet second only to Britain and France.

This is not an exaggeration. The navy of all countries in this era is not large. Even the British tonnage is not more than one hundred thousand tons. As long as the navy's total tonnage exceeds 10,000, it is the highest in the world.

In terms of tonnage, the Austrian Navy is second only to Britain, France, Russia and the West.Obviously, the tonnage is not equal to combat power. The Austrian navy is all offshore navy. It is okay to run around the Mediterranean Sea. The ocean industry may not sink?

Who knows this?Anyway, a total of 18,000 tons of navy, in Franz's view this is a bean sprout navy, not comparable to a battleship of later generations, but the naval warships of this era have a small tonnage, this scale is not too small.

Let's put it this way, if the French suddenly broke out, they could still compete with the British PK for the position of the world's first naval power. The gap between the British and French navies is not as great as that of future generations.

At least the gap in tonnage is not that great. At the closest, the gap between the total tonnages of the navies of the two countries was less than 20%. In theory, a sudden attack might not win.

Anyway, everyone is a wooden battleship, and the shipbuilding technology of various countries has not widened the gap. It is ten years before the birth of the world's first armored ship.

Looking at the shipbuilding plan in hand, Franz didn't give face, and asked directly: "I remember last year, the Napoleon built by the French Navy was powered by a steam engine.

You build a bunch of sail warships, even when it's downwind, when you're headwinds, have you run away?"

Navy Secretary Philcos explained: "Your Majesty, the French steamboat battleships have high shipbuilding costs and difficult maintenance. After a full drive, a major repair is required.

Steam engine battleships have not shown obvious advantages on the battlefield. Now the main force of navies in various countries is still sail warships, and it is too risky to adopt new technologies."

Franz didn't care about him for so many reasons and asked directly: "Can we build it with our shipbuilding technology?"

Filcos thought for a while and said: "There is no problem in theory. The steam engine is used as a power on the ship. We have mature experience in building commercial ships. It is not a problem to apply to the battleship."

Franz is too lazy to vomit, this time the navy of all countries is terrible and conservative.It is estimated that many people do not think that it was not the British but the French who led the naval technological revolution in this era.

In 1849, the French took the lead in applying steam engines to warships, which kicked off the naval warship power revolution. In 1859, the French built the world's first iron armor, which ended the era of sail warships. In 1863, the French will use compressed air engines. Applied to the submarine, ended the human drive, and increased the submarine's range of activity ...

The naval technological revolution was the beginning of the French, and they still could not change their status as the second-best second.Later, it was difficult to change, it is estimated that the French would rather not change, from the second child to the third, fourth, fifth ...

Now the Austrian Navy is undoubtedly also a representative of the conservatives, the technological innovation of the horse, just look at the Austrian navy military expenditure to know, they have no money to be willful.

This is where Franz wonders. Isn't the new technology first applied in the military first, and then promoted for civilian use?

How did you get here and the other way round? With so many Austrian steam ships running on the Danube, how could the Navy never think of making steam engine battleships?

Difficult to maintain?This can also be regarded as a reason. Why haven't you seen the steam merchant ship continue to use sail power because of maintenance difficulties?

Franz said seriously: "The Navy should also pay attention to the application of technology. Even if you can't promote technological innovation and others have come up with results, can you always learn and use them?

Otherwise, what is the use of an outdated navy, no matter how large it is?On the battlefield, you can only target people!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Navy Secretary Philcos replied with a wry smile.

There is no doubt that the Admiralty ’s shipbuilding plan died here at Franz.

Technically speaking, it is not too difficult to build the original armored ship.As early as 1578, the Japanese made an armored ship, that is, a layer of iron sheet on the warship.

Franz didn't want to build a bunch of sail warships and used them as targets, although the chance of naval warfare in the Austrian navy in the short term was low.

He can't make an epoch-making invention, but it is a military technological innovation in concept. Isn't this difficult?

I didn't see that after the French had made the armored ship, the followers appeared only a few months later, and there were few technical obstacles.

The time when shipbuilding technology reflects the industrial level of various countries has not yet arrived. Now, the shipbuilding technology of sail warships is very mature, and the warship performance gap between countries is not large.

If you think about it, Franz did not put forward the theory of the armored ship for the first time. This is not something that an emperor should do. Even if it is to be done, it must be carried out in secret.

Otherwise, William II is an example. He designed the warship himself, and then went directly into the water and sank.This is strange if there is no problem. Are German technicians all idiots, do n’t you know to remind the emperor?

Franz does not give people an opportunity to promote technological innovation in secret. It is much better to fail. It is normal to fail. Any new technological innovation is not a successful one.

Success proves that under the leadership of the great emperor, Austria's technological innovation has taken another step forward.As for the credit for invention and creation, it is not necessary as an emperor.