The most direct harm of a paper blockade was that it often turned the blockade itself into a contest of boasting, with belligerent nations frequently declaring baseless prohibitions for their own reasons.
For this very reason, disputes over blockades had never ceased. Third-party vessels would always "stray into" blockaded zones, knowingly or otherwise.
This turned the blockade itself into a joke and, in practice, created enormous confusion. After all, a rule no one followed was often more frightening than having no rule at all.
This was also one of the key reasons why the Austrian Empire had been able to seize so many British ships in 1848. After all, even if a shipowner wished to commit insurance fraud, neither the captain nor the crew would willingly risk their lives.
But if it became something everyone was accustomed to, matters became much simpler.
If Franz had not merely wanted to force peace through war, if he had not fundamentally wished to avoid slaughtering innocents, the Mediterranean Sea would long since have become an ocean of blood.
Yet so-called effective blockades remained a highly subjective matter. After all, no one would be foolish enough to completely expose their military deployments during wartime.
But at the very least, there would no longer be absurd declarations like those during the War of the Sixth Coalition, when some country would casually announce a blockade of the entire European continent.
In truth, Franz had also wanted to add another clause: "Belligerents are forbidden from attacking one another's non-belligerent colonies during wartime."
However, the British firmly rejected it, which only further convinced him that Britain would certainly make a move against the Austrian Empire's colonies.
After all, the British had always understood where their advantages lay, and they had studied diplomatic provisions far more deeply. Trying to