Prussia had in fact misunderstood the Austrian Empire's colonial strategy. Franz developed agriculture and urbanization in Antananarivo mainly because the local environment was suitable and the population was relatively large.
Madagascar Island's central plateau had traditionally been an agricultural production area. Abandoning it would have been a terrible waste; planting other crops there would be putting the cart before the horse.
Furthermore, the area had a large population and had once been the kingdom's capital, so it already possessed the foundations for urbanization. Franz's urbanization efforts were not meant to alleviate poverty, but to concentrate purchasing power, making plunder and market dumping easier.
If the locals still lived in rural villages and the mountains, then no matter how cheap Austrian Empire goods were, no one would know about them, and naturally they could not be sold for a price.
Even if the news reached them, the journey itself would become the final straw that broke the camel's back.
But with a large urban marketplace, all those problems became much simpler.
The Austrian Empire's strategy in Madagascar Island was to stabilize the situation first, then pursue development.
Without controlling agriculture, how could they control those natives? Conversely, once agriculture was under control, the locals could only obediently fall in line.
A large population had its benefits: tremendous potential and strong resistance. But it also had its drawbacks: their enormous survival needs made it easy to choke them by the throat.
Once the most crucial foundation was secured, everything that followed became much easier. In a slaveholding nation like this, a few small measures were enough to make them forget their former rulers and so-called traditions.
After that came mineral extraction and some simple processing industries. The entire colony would then become permanent territory.
Yet the Prussians saw only that the Austrians