Unfortunately, Franz was about to disappoint his generals. This was no carefully contrived scheme, but a move born of helplessness—a compromise.
Strictly speaking, the Austrian Empire was already somewhat overstretched. Coupled with the current colonial frenzy, if it sought to seize the entirety of Madagascar Island as well, it would most likely incur the wrath of other nations.
That anger would ordinarily amount to little, since the Austrian Empire was itself a great power. But if a major war broke out, it would be hard to say that no one would stab it in the back—or even rise up and attack it together.
As mentioned earlier, Madagascar Island's resources were not bad, but they were by no means exceptional either. Franz had no need to fight for every inch of land. Letting go and sharing part of the benefits with other countries was the wiser choice.
After all, Madagascar Island was no small place, and nothing was as easy as it looked.
The French were the most enthusiastic about colonizing Madagascar. From the very beginning, they had dispatched more than 1,300 men, a tremendous advantage over Britain's 600, Russia's 163, and Prussia's 420.
The Kingdom of Imerina, their greatest enemy, had already collapsed and disintegrated. The French simply stopped pretending; they did not even bother flying the banner of spreading the faith anymore, seeing as the Austrian Empire had come under the banner of revenge as well.
Napoleon himself actually preferred excuses such as "trade protection" and "civilizing enlightenment." He thought they sounded more fashionable.
Yet the French colonial custom was to reduce the native population as much as possible, then assimilate the remainder into their homeland.
The French Army charged straight into the preassigned areas and began a mad slaughter. Villages were reduced to ruins everywhere they passed. The