Reincarnated as Napoleon II-Chapter 85: Imperialist Ambition

Napoleon II knew about colonization and its effects on the colonized people. In his previous life, he knew the French Empire would be remembered as one of the worst colonizers.

That knowledge did not stop him.

He did not dress it up as a mission or pretend it was benevolence. Colonization was extraction. It was control of land, labor, and resources, enforced by law first and force when law failed. Anyone who said otherwise was lying, either to others or to themselves.

The difference, as far as he was concerned, was discipline.

Most empires expanded blindly. They conquered first and figured out administration later. They flooded territories with soldiers, then wondered why rebellions followed. They stripped resources without building systems to replace what they destroyed.

France would not repeat that pattern.

If he was going to build an empire, it would be done deliberately and strategically.

So he looked at the map before him.

Starting in Africa first since it is the easiest with the people living there in a primitive state. He walked up to the north of Africa and looked at Algeria.

Historically, Algeria was not empty land. It was the Regency of Algiers, nominally Ottoman, practically autonomous. Power rested with the dey, backed by corsairs, tribute, and a loose web of tribal authorities inland. Coastal cities were organized. The interior answered to local leaders, not Constantinople.

France had history there. Bad blood, unpaid debts, insults traded through envoys and merchants. He knew how it would end in the history books: a landing, and the swift collapse of the dey’s rule, then decades of violence disguised as pacification.

He crouched and pressed his fingers against the canvas where Algiers sat.

This would be first target.

Why? Because he saw Algiers as the strategic beachhead.

It sat close enough to Marseille that supply lines could be measured in days, not months. Ports could be expanded without reinventing logistics.

Algiers was a hinge.

Control it, and France controlled the western Mediterranean’s southern shore. Shipping lanes. Trade routes. Naval staging grounds. It’s a haven territory. And what’s more, he could conquer other territories along the coast, that is Morocco, Tunis and Tripoli in sequence.

He stepped back and then analyzed the map again. North Africa is secured by securing the Algiers, now to the west of Africa.

Historically, French has a territory called French West Africa in his previous life, he might do the same here but with better administration and control. Ports first. Always ports. Dakar. Saint-Louis. Places where ships could dock, unload, refuel, and leave again without delay. Inland expansion meant nothing if the coast was not locked down. Rivers mattered more than borders. Whoever controlled the mouths controlled the trade upstream.

He would not hand territory to generals as rewards. That mistake had been made before. Every district would answer to a civil authority backed by military force, not ruled by it. Taxes collected would be tracked. Labor quotas set, enforced, and audited. Local elites would be kept in place where useful, replaced where not. Resistance would be isolated, not crushed indiscriminately.

Schools for clerks. Technical institutes for mechanics. Not for equality—never that—but for efficiency. A workforce that could read orders and maintain equipment wasted fewer resources. Missionaries could follow if they wished. They were irrelevant to the structure.

He traced a line inland with his finger, following the Niger.

Gold. Rubber. Agricultural output. It’s rich in minerals.

Now further inland is the historic French Equatorial Africa. Perhaps he can copy the borders but a different administration. It’ll consist of modern Central African Republic , Chad , Gabon, Republic of the Congo.

What’s the purpose of central Africa? Resources for one.

Copper in Katanga. Manganese and Tin as an alloying material. Traces of uranium that no one understood yet but would matter later. The last two regions would be Congo and Madagascar.

Congo historically was a colony of Belgium, but Belgium doesn’t exist here as France annexed it. As for Madagascar, he could use it for a naval base.

"That should settle it," Napoleon II said. He turned his eyes to the west, South America.

Napoleon II knew it’s too late since the colonies of Spain were already declaring independence from their rule. Colonizing them again would mean wars. He could only do diplomacy to them but there are still other colonies of Spain that he could acquire. For example, Cuba.

Since he has interest in South America, particularly Gran Colombia, he would need a base of operations. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Cuba fits the role. It has a large island. Deep harbors for naval and trading bases. Resources such as sugar, tobacco, with labor already organized into plantations. Spain still held it and he couldn’t take it by force. He’ll just buy Cuba from them and annex it.

But there’s one more thing to consider, the United States. The Monroe Doctrine.

It states that the Western Hemisphere was closed to further European colonization. Any attempt to expand influence would be treated as a hostile act.

Napoleon II knew the doctrine well. He also knew what it really was.

A warning backed by words, not force.

Currently, the United States was not a great power. It had no standing army worth mentioning. Its navy was coastal, its logistics shallow, its political class divided between north and south. It could issue statements. It could protest. It could threaten. But it couldn’t enforce it.

Which is why European powers didn’t even consider heed it. And so does France.

"I’m going to have a field day with Spain," Napoleon II said.

And that should settle it in the Carribean, he is fine with acquiring Cuba and other small islands there.

Now for the Pacific and Oceania.

Indochina.

He traced the coastline with his finger. Cochinchina. Annam. Tonkin. River deltas feeding inland populations. Rice, rubber, tin. Ports that could anchor fleets moving between India and China without relying on British-controlled chokepoints.

Unlike Africa, Indochina was not primitive. It had states, courts, mandarins, tax systems. That made it easier in some ways. You didn’t destroy the structure, you seized the top and let the rest keep working.

Farther east lay the islands.

New Caledonia. A perfect naval station. Oil and coal depots. Dry docks. A place where ships could refit and crews could rest before crossing deeper into the Pacific.

From there, influence could radiate outward.

Napoleon II stepped back again.

Africa fed industry. The Caribbean anchored the Atlantic. Indochina and the Pacific secured the eastern routes. It is a strategic colony.

In the coming year, he’ll work on it.