Franz was not as relaxed as one might have imagined. In truth, the messes at home and abroad were weighing on him so heavily he could barely catch his breath.
Because of the previous predatory extraction from the colonies and the high-pressure policies, the Austrian Empire's colonies in Africa were now erupting in flames on all sides.
The Black natives lacked the ability to attack the fortresses and towns built by the Austrians; they could not even take a single village.
But that did not mean the trouble they caused was insignificant. The Austrian Empire's aggressive colonial expansion strategy had led to a severe manpower shortage.
Through their war with the Austrians, the Black natives had gradually grasped this pattern. So they attacked only isolated Austrians, then killed them in the cruelest ways possible to create an effect of terror.
This method proved extremely effective. The Austrian Empire's expansion slowed dramatically, and the colonies had no choice but to organize large numbers of militiamen for self-defense.
The Austrian Empire's colonies had already been desperately short of manpower. With huge amounts of labor now committed to security operations, it was not merely that colonial development had ground to a halt—many basic functions had been paralyzed as well.
The paralysis of the transport system in particular meant that supplies from the coast could not be brought inland, while goods from the interior could not be shipped out. The stalled development also exposed many latent problems within the colonies themselves.
Now, many inland colonies did not even need the British to attack them; they would choose to surrender on their own.
Besides attacking people, the Black natives had somehow learned arson. They even carried matches and flint.
This had never happened in the past. Previously, when natives set fires, they only burned places