The road to the unification of the Kingdom of Italy was completely blocked, and many territories were folded into it, but the population did not decrease on a large scale, so the Kingdom of Italy had to find a way out, and now there was only one way left, colonization.

Inspired by the Kingdom of East Africa, Emmanuel II also prepared to open a colony in Africa, most notably to solve the food deficit in the Kingdom of Italy.

Although temporarily financially hampered by the impossibility of imminent development, Emmanuel II had the collection of information on Africa begin.

There was so much information about Africa, and his men quickly gathered general information and reported it to Emmanuel II.

"Your Majesty, almost the entire African coast is scattered with various forces, among which West Africa has the most advantageous conditions, Britain, France, Portugal, West and Netherlands are all distributed here, North Africa is the closest to us, but most of them are desert areas, and there is no large-scale land suitable for farming, some oasis areas are controlled by France and the Ottoman Empire, East Africa is dominated by the Kingdom of East Africa and Portugal Mozambique, South Africa is the British Cape Town colony, and the climate is most similar to Italy itself, but Britain we can't afford to provoke."

Emmanuel II listened to the report of his subordinates, frowned and said: "It seems that the competition in Africa is also fierce!" I thought it was a barren place. I didn't expect that there were already so many European forces. ”

"Your Majesty, the main thing is that other countries have a large first-mover advantage, even the small Heixingen Kingdom in Prussia can go to Africa to seize a large area of territory, so the strength of the African natives can be seen, and although these countries have a stronghold in Africa, except for the East African Kingdom and Portugal, the Boers have almost no power to develop the interior of Africa on a large scale, and we still have many opportunities."

Hearing this, Emmanuel II also relieved himself: "Then do you have any general directions?" ”

"Your Majesty, in our search through the information on the African region and the intelligence of the past two years, we have carefully analyzed and concluded that the Abyssinian Empire on the Red Sea coast is a good place that is more suitable for the constitution of our Kingdom of Italy."

Emmanuel II asked, "The Abyssinian Empire?" What advantages does he have? ”

"Your Majesty, first of all, Abyssinia is located on the Red Sea coast, handing over the Suez Canal, which makes it convenient for us to attack this place."

Emmanuel II: "Then North Africa is not closer to us!" ”

"Alas! Your Majesty, if it was the original Kingdom of Italy, we would still have been able to open up in North Africa, but now we have been greatly weakened, and the weakest in North Africa is the Ottoman Empire, which has also become an existence that we cannot afford to offend, although the Ottoman Empire is weak, but the size is huge, we may not be afraid of the Ottomans when we were strong before, and now we have lost nearly half of the country, what do we use to compete with the Ottomans for national strength, and now if we really have a conflict with the Ottomans, I am afraid that Franz in Austria will wake up laughing at night in his dreams, Both of us are facing Austria-Hungary as a mortal enemy, so we should maintain good relations and work together to deal with the threat of Austria-Hungary. ”

The Kingdom of Italy was in danger of extinction in the face of the wolf-like Austro-Hungarian Empire, while the European territories of the Ottoman Empire were threatened by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although the Ottomans still had a sworn enemy, Tsarist Russia, there was also France to the west of the Kingdom of Italy, and historically, France was also a great threat to Italy.

"Secondly, which is the second point I want to mention, the Abyssinian Empire has a large amount of arable land, in this regard, North Africa is far inferior to the Abyssinian Empire, and what our Italian kingdom needs most now is arable land, and the arable land of the Abyssinian Empire is ready-made, their land has been developed for thousands of years, unlike other parts of Africa, there is uncertainty, as long as we can suppress the Abyssinian Empire by force, it will definitely be able to continuously import food to the mainland."

The agricultural conditions of the Ethiopian plateau are really good, if it is not too high, it is nearly a thousand meters higher than the East African plateau, the degree of civilization is too high, Ernst will be excited, the altitude is high, there are also the benefits of high altitude, the Ethiopian plateau topography influences, intercept rain, the average annual precipitation is between 1200mm and 1600mm, known as the East African water tower.

In particular, in the southwestern part of the Ethiopian plateau, which is occupied by the Kingdom of East Africa, the precipitation is maintained above 1300mm all year round, forming a unique rainy alpine plateau climate zone.

Of course, it is worth noting that in this time and space, the Abyssinian Empire cannot be equated with the Ethiopian Plateau, in the previous life Ethiopia as an independent country monopolized the Ethiopian Plateau, and now it is jointly owned by the Abyssinian Empire and the Kingdom of East Africa, but the main body of the Ethiopian Plateau is still within the territory of the Abyssinian Empire, East Africa only occupies the southwest, and the southeast is a relatively arid plain area.

The agricultural areas of the Abyssinian Empire are concentrated in the northwest region of the Ethiopian Plateau, which is also the foundation of the Abyssinian Empire, making it an agricultural country like Egypt, and the Sudan region in the middle is dominated by nomadic pastoralism, and only a small agricultural area depends on the confluence of the Blue and White Nile River, and it happens that its water volume depends on the water from the Blue Nile River originating in the Ethiopian Plateau.

Emmanuel II: "In that case, the Abyssinian Empire should not be bad, you are sure that it will not be a difficult bone to gnaw!" ”

"Your Majesty rest assured, we have chosen this area, naturally with this aspect in mind, this is also the last point we want to emphasize, the national strength of the Abyssinian Empire is not worth mentioning, three years ago the British broke through the capital of the Abyssinian Empire with a very small number of troops, its emperor committed suicide due to defeat, the Abyssinian Empire immediately fell into a state of fragmentation, and at the same time Egypt in the north also had a conflict with the Abyssinian Empire, and the two sides fought in the Sudan region, and now it is the weakest period in the history of the Abyssinian Empire."

As a local power, the Abyssinian Empire had several vassal states in the Sudan region, which was also the reason for the conflict between Egypt and the Abyssinian Empire, but Egypt's rule over the Sudan was relatively weak and the transportation was relatively poor, resulting in Egypt's strong national strength but the fragmented Abyssinian Empire had no way to do it.

In the era of Ali, the Egyptian expedition to Sudan caused Ali's conquest of Sudan to stop in northern Sudan because of the harsh desert environment, and imposed a restrained rule on Sudan similar to that of the Ottomans to Egypt.

After hearing this, Emmanuel II was very satisfied: "Sure enough, the natives are the natives, we can't beat Austria, I don't believe that there is no way to take the Abyssinian Empire, what the British can do, we will definitely be able to do." ”

Then Emmanuel II began to prepare for the Italian kingdom's invasion and colonization of Abyssinia, and the colonial department of the Italian kingdom also began to prepare, Abyssinia's opponent was large enough, the population was large, and the agricultural conditions were superior, all of which were needed by the Italian kingdom, and now the domestic industry and commerce were independent because of the Kingdom of Naples, and the market was needed, because the surplus population caused by the war also needed land, and there was nothing more tempting than the invasion of the Abyssinian Empire.

All parties in the kingdom also actively supported the decision of Emmanuel II, having experienced a crushing defeat in the Second Italian-Austrian War, what is the great ideal of unifying Italy, whoever loves to come, the Kingdom of Italy is afraid of being beaten anyway, and a weak opponent like Abyssinia is the preferred target of our Kingdom of Italy.

(End of chapter)