France's New Plan

Since ancient times, identifying a problem had always been easy; solving it had always been hard. Everyone could see the predicament facing France's development, but breaking free of it remained a difficult challenge.

Finance Minister Allen said, "Your Majesty, we should follow the Austrians' example and develop the colonies! France possesses more than ten million square kilometers of colonies. Once they are developed, most of the industrial raw materials needed at home can be supplied."

"Developing the colonies" was not a proposal being raised for the first time. As early as the era of Napoleon III, the French Government had drawn up an ambitious colonial development plan.

To this end, the French Government had also launched a massive immigration program, successively moving over a million people from the Balkan Peninsula, the Italian region, and the homeland into North Africa.

The influx of immigrants had, to a certain extent, promoted the development of French Africa, but it had ultimately still ended in failure.

It was not that the French Government had failed to make an effort; its efforts had simply been useless. Apart from developing some valuable mineral deposits, no other industries had taken root.

This was completely different from Austria. Austrian Africa had been able to develop because it had a group of nobles and commoners who loved working the land, establishing a plantation economy there.

As more people settled down, the colonial government's revenues rose as well. Infrastructure gradually improved, and once transportation became better, nearby mineral resources were slowly developed too, creating a virtuous cycle.

French Africa was different. The French had no love for farming. Everyone was interested only in precious metals such as gold and silver mines; no one was willing to invest in low-return industries like farms and plantations.

If even the French were unwilling