Port of Venice, Austrian Empire.

After months of traveling, Franz finally set foot on the land he had not seen for a long time, and it felt like he had been reborn when he returned home.

Despite all the preparations he had made before the voyage, he realized how naïve he was when he actually reached the vast sea, let alone the scorching West African weather.

Nineteenth-century travel was far more arduous than you imagined, and it was fraught with dangers and challenges.

Although there were several battles of varying scales and even full-scale armed conflicts along the way, only 17 people were actually killed by the war on the Austrian side, while the number of people who died from storms, heat stroke, accidents, and diseases was as high as 450.

Most of the dead were colonists who had gone to sea for the first time, and some of them suffered from seasickness during the voyage and were relatively weak and suffered from wind and waves, as well as the combination of water and soil adaptation after arriving at the colony.

Franz's body can be said to be very strong due to long-term exercise, and at the same time he does not have to work and work for a long time, but even so, he is still tortured by the wind and waves at sea, and even has nausea and vomiting several times.

Friedrich said that this is all normal, and you get used to it when you spit and spit it.

The big salt fir sound is suspected of having no feeling, and the sea people are really terrifying.

Venice is known as the "Pearl of the Adriatic", the ancient center of world trade, the backbone of the Mediterranean, and once upon a time it was also the meeting place of the Crusaders.

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

But at this time, Franz reopened the door to maritime trade, giving hope to those who were nostalgic for the glory of the past.

Mexico, Ottoman, Egypt, Tripoli, West Africa (Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Cameroon, Congo, Namibia), Austria's foreign trade partners are rapidly increasing.

In addition, Austria's trade with Brazil is increasing rapidly, whether it is cotton, rubber, or coffee. (Brazil became the world's largest coffee producer in 1852)

At the same time, rubber shoes exported from Austria were well received in Brazil, and although they cost four times as much as they were sold to the military, they seemed to be nothing in the eyes of Brazilians with deep pockets.

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

It's just that the country seems to be used to lying down, and they don't show a strong interest in building factories, and then Franz roughly looked through the information on the situation in Brazil at that time, and found that they not only lacked a supporting industrial system, but also lacked labor.

The labor force here was not just manual laborers, there were no skilled workers, and the educated were reluctant to work in the factories, and the slaves on the plantations would not be able to learn even if the whip was broken.

The Brazilians came up with a proposal that made Franz laugh and cry: they would supply Austria with rubber, but on the condition that Austria would supply them with rubber shoes and tires (solid) at the same price.

Franz did not expect that he would return to Europe to teach the natives how to use money as a general equivalent, and that he would have to trade in barter.

At this time, Brazil was in the midst of civil strife, and they needed a lot of weapons and equipment, and of course Franz would not be like France, and directly expressed his willingness to sell weapons to him without concealment, but in fact it was just lip service.

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

At that time, the great powers, including the United States, had a wait-and-see attitude towards the Brazilian civil war, believing that a divided Brazil was more in the interests of the world, and even some of the great powers secretly supported their separatist forces.

Brazil, a religiously powerful country, initially appealed to France and Austria, both Catholic countries, for help, but France responded lukewarmly, and Metternich said there was nothing they could do.

The main reason was that the South American power gained independence from Portuguese rule in 1822, and most of the European powers at this time did not recognize the country, believing that the country was politically unstable and would eventually be divided.

And Franz, who is a traverser, knows that in the end Brazil won and the separatist forces lost, and that was enough.

Franz sent Archbishop Rauscher, an old god who still had a lot of status in their circles. With the help of a series of matchmaking by Archbishop Rauscher, the Brazilians were able to trade their crops for weapons and even 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 sang praises for them. Franz also instructed Archbishop Rauscher to warn the Brazilians that one of the rebels, Garibaldi, was dangerous.

In fact, Franz still underestimated Garibaldi, who had already made a name for himself in the early stages of the war, and won one miraculous victory after another against the Brazilian government army.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the inadequacy of the command of the Brazilian government forces, such as the brainless operation of sending cavalry into the rainforest to pursue the guerrillas. This kind of common-sense mistake that is too outrageous is usually not made.

However, this inadvertently made the Brazilian gods admire Archbishop Rauscher even more, and he did not be greedy for merit, but shook off his various "miracles" of Archduke Franz.

The gods naturally won't believe it if they do this, but in order to make the big guy happy, they can only let it go. Although the priests did not believe it, the Brazilian officials remembered Franz's name.

As a result of Franz's intervention, the Austrian Empire joined the German Customs Union, which was later established in the Apennines, and now opened up to foreign trade.

All this was to renew the life of Venice, and the people here seemed to see the glory of the past, so the Venetians at this time were staunch supporters of the Habsburg royal family.

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

By this time, Franz and Friedrich had been replaced by a small steam ship, which shuttled between the city's rivers to receive blessings from the Venetians.

Franz's trip to West Africa, under the propaganda of the Austrian imperial government, had turned into one great victory after another, and its impact was comparable to that of the "Crusades".

The tone of the propaganda was as follows: Archduke Franz led an army to rescue his fellow Catholics who were threatened by the natives in Africa, defeated the evil chieftains, and brought the gospel of God and civilization to those lands

After the blessing ceremony, there was another grand procession.

By the end of all this, Franz was slumped in the Venetian palace.

Corners of the European continent.

"Damn those stupid natives, are they just bragging? We provided them with accurate information and even created the conditions for their assassination. And those damn guys will only respond to us with one fiasco after another? ”

"The Austrians are taking the colonies too quickly, and we have to think of something to prevent them from continuing to expand the colony."

"Austria and France are vying for colonies, and it's in our interest, or we should do them a favor. Like adding a fire."

(End of chapter)