After three years of careful management in Central America, Governor Hummel had more or less dealt with the local powerholders.
Those willing to accept incorporation naturally remained in high office, while those who stubbornly held their ground were naturally "harmonized." Austria had already accumulated extensive experience in this regard.
Take Nicaragua, for example. Its entire population was just over three hundred thousand, most of them Indians. White immigrants and mixed-race people numbered only a few tens of thousands. What did they have to resist Austria with?
The other Central American countries were much the same. Their territories were small, yet their populations sparse. If they tried to wage guerrilla warfare, Austria would not even need to act—the local Indian tribes would chop them to pieces.
The Habsburg Family had once been their common sovereign, and their ancestors had sworn allegiance to Charles V. Stretching things a little, there was still barely a trace of legal legitimacy. With the iron fist having already crushed all dissent, those left behind continued to support Emperor Franz's rule.
The interests of ordinary people had not been harmed, so naturally there was no real hatred to speak of.
The main reason they had sought independence back then was that Spain had been battered half to death by the French. Mine owners and capitalists did not want to pay taxes to Spain, while bureaucrats wanted greater power, so they followed the tide and declared independence.
Perhaps "owners" was not the right word. How could such small countries have so many capitalists and mine owners? In truth, it was one family, or several families, that wanted independence. Otherwise, Central America would not have fractured into so many countries.
None of that mattered now. As immigrants poured in, even if some remained unwilling, they would not be able