Franz was also very interested in opening up colonies. However, his view differed from that of the others—it was not simply about plundering wealth from overseas.
The House of Habsburg had existed for far too long. An ancient empire meant conservatism and stagnation. Even after this rebellion had reshuffled the deck, the paths for advancement remained narrow.
As one of the vested interests, Franz certainly could not choose to tear everything down and start over. That left only one option: make the cake bigger. Once the platter was bigger, there would naturally be more opportunities.
Expansion in Europe was far too difficult, and even success would bring no small number of lingering problems. Overseas colonization was different. With Austria's strength, taking a slice of the pie would not be a problem at all.
With hardly any great cost, they could obtain colonies several times the size of the homeland. Then they could gradually develop them through immigration from Germany. After all, the main force behind European emigration now came from Germany, so there was no need to worry about manpower.
If the colonial plan succeeded, Austria's internal problems would be resolved as well. A group of second-generation nobles would have somewhere to put their abilities to use, rather than staying behind to eat and wait for death.
Do not assume that all nobles were wealthy. In truth, that was complete nonsense. Just look at the Church—many of its missionaries and nuns came from noble families, for one cruel reason: poverty.
Impoverished nobles could no longer afford the expense of marrying off their younger sons, nor could they pay the dowries required to marry off their daughters. For the sake of their pitiful noble dignity, they had no choice but to do this.
These people were not the sort to sit