African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 496: Chapter 174: The New Nation

The Heixinggen Consortium’s involvement in the Bosnian region attracted very little attention; military occupation did not mean that the Austro-Hungarian Empire incorporated the area under its rule. Historically, the Austro-Hungarian Empire wanted to incorporate Bosnia into its territory, but that was already at the beginning of the 20th century.

The main reason for this is still that the interests were not in place. Bosnia was resource-poor, and although coal resources were relatively abundant, the local transportation was very isolated, making development difficult.

At any point in time, Bosnia was almost the most impoverished region on the Balkan Peninsula, so there really was no economic value. For example, the impact of the agricultural crisis meant that there were practically no businessmen willing to engage in agricultural development in Bosnia.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire valued Bosnia, but it had nothing to do with the economy there. The main reason was that this place used to be the Ottoman Empire’s northern outpost threatening Austria and Europe.

Saralvo was established by the Ottoman Empire as a northern military stronghold, gradually developing into the most important city in Bosnia.

If the Austro-Hungarian Empire wanted to economically support Bosnia, it would be impossible. After all, who would provide the money is a big problem, with Hungary definitely not contributing a cent. Even if the Heixinggen Consortium entered Bosnia, it was not for the purpose of poverty alleviation but with political motivations.

As for obtaining economic benefits from the local area, Ernst never even considered such a thing. The conditions in Bosnia and Herzegovina were simply too poor; being able to operate without a loss would count as achieving the goal.

Ferdinand: ”So your main purpose for investing in the Bosnian region is to change the local population, but this is not an easy task. After all, even the Austro-Hungarian government can’t accomplish this, let alone an agricultural company.”

Ernst: ”Our investment in Bosnia is not truly for local development. The focus is on changing the local people’s sense of identity. Faith and ethnic identity are indeed things that trouble every country, but they are negligible in front of economic interests. Why could the Ottoman Empire transform the local Slavic people? It ultimately boils down to economic reasons. If you don’t follow the Ottoman Empire, you’re destined to be poor, which is much more frightening than any belief.”

Ferdinand: ”Then how do you plan to operate this matter?”

Ernst: ”Currently, thirty percent of the arable land in Bosnia is in our hands. Bosnia is completely an agricultural region, with agriculture accounting for nearly one hundred percent of the economy. So we hold the economic lifeline of Bosnia, which means we can now easily determine the fate of the Slavic people within Bosnia.”

”First, the Heixinggen Consortium is to forcibly reduce the local Arab religious population. The foundation for this is to make the local Arab religious people unprofitable.”

Ferdinand: ”Do you mean to force the Arab religious people to convert through the allocation of land usage rights?”

Ernst shook his head and said, ”It’s not like that. It’s a reduction in the physical sense!”

”You’re crazy!” Archduke Ferdinand said in disbelief: ”Aren’t you afraid the locals will revolt?”

”Even if Bosnia rebels, it won’t affect us in East Africa. This is just an experiment, and when I say physical reduction, I don’t mean massacre, but forcing the locals to leave. After all, Bosnia’s geographic location is excellent; it’s convenient to go anywhere for work. If agriculture can’t support a family, most locals can only try their luck elsewhere.”

Ferdinand: ”What if the local people insist on resisting? If you put Franz in an awkward position, I believe he will directly hold you accountable.”

Ernst: ”So we must draw one side to fight against the other two. Turn the local Croatians into our own people. Serbians and the Arab religious people are our targets for expulsion. Serbians can go to Serbia or come to East Africa. The Arab religious people can go to any Arab religious region, just not stay locally.”

”However, relying solely on Croatians, this would not benefit Austro-Hungarian rule locally. It might even increase the weight of Croatians within the empire in the future. A single Hungary is enough for Austria to worry about; do they really want a Greater Croatia? ”

”You misunderstand, father-in-law,” Ernst said, ”When I said to win them over, I was referring to people who have abandoned their Croatian identity. They themselves are Catholic, so economically binding them to the Heixinggen Consortium comes with one prerequisite, that they must join the Germanic nation.”

Ferdinand was still a bit uneasy: ”How can such a thing be easy? The imprint of nationality is hard to erase.”

”Therefore, we must take the initiative to promote cultural transformation among the locals. The faith and lifestyle of local Croatians actually have minimal differences compared to Germans, especially Catholic Germans.”

”Additionally, local Croatians have always been the most subordinate, and apart from religious figures, they generally have little cultural literacy. This gives us the condition to alter the local Croatian history.”

This piqued Ferdinand’s interest: ”How do you plan to alter local people’s history?”

”We can fully claim that the locals are Germans who entered Bosnia from southern Germany during the Middle Ages. Under the coercion of the Ottoman Empire, they had no choice but to give up their ancestral identity, and this history was cut off due to the Ottoman Empire’s cover-up. Now that Bosnia returns to the Germanic group, naturally, they should acknowledge their origins.”

Archduke Ferdinand: ”You’re fooling the ghosts?”

”As long as we can make the locals willingly be deceived, we’re successful,” Ernst shamelessly stated.

”Then how can they possibly believe it? Rely solely on your propaganda? The locals aren’t fools; they surely know where their own families come from!”

Ernst: ”As long as we have enough tricks up our sleeve, there’s no fear of the locals not complying.”

”What kind of crooked ideas do you have?”

Ernst: ”Everything depends on evidence, and we can completely forge evidence. For instance, there might not have been much population influx from the Southern German region to Bosnia, but we can just fabricate it ourselves.”

This kind of thing is easy enough to handle. After all, the Principality of Heixinggen can provide evidence. Many people from Heixinggen moved to the Bosnia region due to war or famine. Forging some ancient books is not a difficult task, and the local populace’s cultural level is such that they believe whatever they’re told. Even if they don’t believe, to avoid repercussions, they’ll choose to believe. Lies, when repeated enough, eventually become history. After all, the Bible is regarded as historical evidence, so Ernst’s actions aren’t excessive.

Ernst continued, ”Next is to smear the Ottoman and even the entire Arab region. Once we control the local public opinion, we can belittle the Ottoman Empire to encourage the locals to actively sever ties with the Ottoman Empire.”

This tactic is essentially regional discrimination, and the power of regional bias is enormous if executed correctly—it can become a potent cultural weapon.

Moreover, the mutual slander between the Western world and the Arab regions has been ongoing. Ernst is simply carrying out what seems intuitive.

”Then, use education to reshape the national identity of the new local generation.”

Grand Duke Ferdinand: ”I don’t quite understand this. Are you planning to implement compulsory education in Bosnia?”

Ernst: ”Not at all, but rather corporate education. If someone wants to be an employee of the Bosnian Agricultural Development Company and have a stable life, then their children must attend corporate schools for complete German education.”

The Bosnian Agricultural Development Company currently controls 30% of Bosnia’s arable land, meaning 30% of the Bosnian population must rely on the Bosnian Agricultural Company for survival. Thus, conversion to and acceptance of German education becomes a necessary condition.

Moreover, the proportion of arable land controlled by the Bosnian Agricultural Development Company will continue to increase. In Ernst’s plan, a long-term grain dumping strategy will be used to force local farmers into bankruptcy, eventually consolidating more land under the Bosnian Agricultural Development Company’s control.

”Your plan is indeed sound, but the issue is that the Catholic Croats make up only two to three-tenths of the local population,” Ferdinand said.

Ernst: ”My plan naturally includes the Serbians and Arab followers. As long as they are willing to voluntarily abandon their Eastern Orthodox and Arab faiths and non-German identities, they can stay in Bosnia. This applies to the Catholics in Croatia as well. Croats are the easiest to reform, but they must also renounce their Croatian identity to integrate into our Germanic family. Otherwise, their lives would be no different from those of non-believers under Ottoman rule.”

”What about the intense resistance from local forces and their non-cooperation?”

”Isn’t that what the Austro-Hungarian army is for? We’ve already established good relations with the local garrison; as long as they side with us in actions against local resistance forces, that’s enough.”

”Relying solely on the military might not be sufficient.”

”Therefore, I have one last tactic, which is similar to what was done in East Africa: to flood the Bosnia region, changing the local demographic composition through external immigration.”

”Do you intend to migrate Germans to Bosnia?”

”Not limited to Germans; it includes Far Eastern people. After all, even in East Africa, we don’t have enough Germans.”

”Migrating Far Eastern people to Bosnia? Are you not concerned about provoking public outrage?”

”We also need enforcers; these things require sufficient population. The Austro-Hungarian army can’t take such actions, but we can. It’s to ensure that those unwilling to abandon their non-German and non-believer identities will, like the indigenous people of East Africa, be left with no options against us!”

Indeed, Ernst has another idea, which is to turn Bosnia into a region within the Austro-Hungarian Empire that naturally leans toward East Africa, so sending them some Orientals for intermarriage would aid future East African influence locally. After all, East Africa’s future demographic is mainly mixed-blood, and a purely German region may not view East Africa as part of itself, adding a splash of color to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and aiding future East African German influence.

Ernst’s ideas aren’t just limited to this. In the Republic of Lan Fang, Ernst plans to implement policies opposite to those in Bosnia, introducing white people to make it a mixed-blood nation primarily under German cultural influence.

Conveniently, the population from the Bosnia region can fill East Africa and the Republic of Lan Fang, forming mixed-blood Germans with footholds in Europe, Africa, and Asia. In the future, this might even lead to the development of a new ethnos with a tri-continental span and global influence.