"Old" Friend

"Trieste has changed so much these past few years! I thought East Africa's development was shocking enough, but I never expected the Austro-Hungarian Empire to be the same!" Karina exclaimed.

Over the past dozen or so years, Trieste had changed almost every year. Karina and Ernst had spent so long in East Africa that Trieste was now utterly different from what they remembered.

Under the tide of the times, it was not only East Africa that was developing. Europe, the center of the world, was changing even more so. In the nineteenth century, with the two Industrial Revolutions flowing into one another, any country that seized the opportunity would undergo earth-shaking transformations.

Germany and the United States were the most typical examples. Just by looking at Trieste, one could see the Austro-Hungarian Empire's tremendous development. Germany and the United States, whose achievements were even more outstanding, would be all the more astonishing.

Even Ernst, who had once witnessed the "infrastructure maniacs" of the Far East Empire, felt a spiritual shock at Europe's current development.

"This is the change brought by technology. The two technological revolutions have driven the civilization of the entire world forward in an extremely significant way. Under such a tide, it is understandable that the Austro-Hungarian Empire has achieved such results," Ernst said to his wife.

"People always talk about how severe the 1873 economic crisis and the Great Depression were, but they did not hinder the development of European society. On the contrary, after the excess water was drained away, the industrial structure became healthier. Austria's economy is far more vigorous now than it was before we went to East Africa."

In truth, Trieste's great development could not be separated from the boost provided by trade between East Africa and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Prosperous port commerce