Time flew like an arrow, days and months sped by like a shuttle. After so many years of effort, Austria had leapt to become the world's second-largest colonial empire, its footprints spread across six continents and seven seas.
One had to be grateful that this era had no satellite maps. Otherwise, if anyone saw Austria's strategic layout, it would likely trigger an immediate uproar.
In the Americas, Austria occupied Central America, splitting North and South America in two. The Panama Canal, so famous in the original timeline, had become a distant prospect.
Unless one day Austria became strong enough to meet every challenge, or the American Federation fractured again and ceased to pose any threat at all, there was no need to consider building that canal.
The situation on the African Continent was even more frightening. Anyone paying attention would discover that Austria had carved up the colonial holdings of the various countries, preventing them from connecting into one contiguous whole.
Of course, the French still held an enormous expanse in North Africa. But once one looked at how much of it was desert, that statement had to be reconsidered.
A large area was a good thing, but it was different when most of that area was desert. Apart from the coastal regions, which could support human habitation, only a handful of oases held any value amid that boundless sea of sand.
Mineral resources might exist, but on the African Continent they were worthless. If they lay beneath the sand, they were even less valuable.
The United Kingdom's holdings in South Africa were already in a precarious state. Franz had not seized them only because he did not want to confront the British so soon.
The French had another colony, Egypt, which looked fairly good on the surface but was