Putting down the African Strategy in his hand, Franz could only sigh at how lofty everyone's ambitions were—they had marked off more than half the African Continent in one breath.
Yes, marked off, not occupied. At present, Austria had not even completed a third of the plans above, and the areas under actual control might not amount to even a fifth.
Even though Franz had been making every effort to encourage immigration, Austrian Africa's population was still under five million.
With so few people controlling seven or eight million square kilometers of land, one could well imagine just how vast and sparsely populated it was.
Naturally, that did not include the local natives. Otherwise, the population would have exceeded ten million long ago.
To carry out the next phase of the strategy, they would need tens of millions of people. Yet the entire New Holy Roman Empire's population had only just crossed the threshold of sixty million.
The world had now been nearly completely carved up. For the last unclaimed land, a battle of dragons and tigers was inevitable.
At present, France and Austria had taken the lead in colonizing Africa, with the British close behind. The Portuguese and Dutch also possessed small colonial holdings.
This grand strategy from the Colonial Ministry would be better described as an "ideal strategy."
As long as the nations were not idiots, they would not allow this plan to become reality.
A rough glance at the map showed its scope: Guinea and Mali in the west, Libya in the north, the Boer Republic to the south, and Somalia in the east.
Although there was no satellite positioning in this era, Franz estimated that the total area of these regions was heading toward twenty million square kilometers.
After thinking it over, Franz picked up his