Chapter 552: Unfair Treaties

Arnulf sat within the confines of a horse-drawn carriage. The crafter who had designed this vehicle embellished it in the style commonly seen in use by Austrian Nobles. By his side was the native translator, Kahwihta.

A company of soldiers accompanied the two of them as they headed towards a nearby Algonquin village, which sat atop a massive coal deposit. The purpose of this visit was simple: negotiate with the natives over the mining rights to such a valuable resource.

The young native woman rested her head on Arnulf's shoulder as she slept through the journey. A hint of drool escaped from her lips as it fell upon the sleeves of the Grand Duke's regal attire. Despite this, he did not mind, and merely shifted the girl's bangs out of the way of her closed eyes. From his perspective, the young woman had been quite busy lately and needed the rest.

After a brief journey, the convoy arrived at the gates of the Algonquin village, where its warriors guarded the entrance. The moment the Austrians approached these native tribesmen, they were suspicious. Though they had received word of the Grand Duke's visit before his arrival, they did not wholly believe that these pale-skinned invaders came with peaceful intentions. Thus, they clutched their iron weapons tightly, as they slowly parted open the gates to allow Arnulf's entrance.

With the trade of resources between Austria and the local tribes, the natives had advanced their technology rapidly. Iron tools had become quite common, and inventions such as the wheel had spread across the tribes of New Vienna. Allowing for easier transport, even if it was in the form of hand-drawn carts.

Despite these new advancements, the natives were still severely lacking compared to their European counterparts, especially in the fields of agriculture and architecture. Thus, the general layout of the village was practically the same as it was before the Austrians landed in the new world.

Arnulf cared not for the small advancements the natives had made and instead focused his sights on the bark covered wigwam sitting atop the hill that the natives founded the village upon. As he and his convoy closed the distance, the Grand Duke noticed the hostile gazes the villagers gave him. The peace that had been founded between Austria and the Algonquin was fragile at best, and suspicion existed on both sides.

Despite marching into the proverbial lion's den, Arnulf seemed at ease with the whole scenario. Rather than quaking in fear of potential conflict, he exuded an aura of confidence as the convoy stopped in front of the wigwam belonging to the village chieftain. In the next moment, he wiped the drool from his translator's mouth before shaking her awake.

"Kahwihta, we have arrived at the Algonquin village..."

The young native woman instantly opened her chestnut colored eyes and stared at the man she served in disbelief. She thought for sure she had only closed her eyes moments ago, and yet they had already arrived at their destination.

Despite this, she quickly came to her senses and stepped out of the vehicle alongside Arnulf, who quickly introduced himself to the village's chieftain, who was glaring at the Austrian Grand Duke and his Mohawk translator.

"I am Arnulf von Thiersee, the Grand Duke of New Vienna. Please accept this gift as an offering to your people."

After saying this, Arnulf whistled and one of his soldiers dragged a jug of wine out from the carriage and handed it to the elderly Chieftain in a peaceful gesture. The chief stared at the red liquid for some time before taking a whiff of its fragrant scent. After doing so, he took a quick swig before handing the jug off to his son.

With this gesture, Arnulf and his translator were allowed within the Chieftain's home, however his guards remained outside. This did not cause Arnulf to worry. Instead, he sat down by the fire and accepted the peace pipe, where he took a hefty draft of its tobacco before giving it back to the chief of the village. After the Algonquin chief took a hit of his own, he placed the pipe by side before asking the question that was on his mind.

"Why have you come to our village? I warn you, if you come for war, we will be ready!"

Arnulf had to prevent himself from scoffing as Kahwihta translated the man's words. Rather than lash out at the man for needlessly expecting violence, he instead calmly responded with his true intentions.

"I have come to negotiate for the rights to mine the coal that your village sits upon. I realize that your people have no need of such a substance, but my people would be very much interested in obtaining it for ourselves."

After Kahwihta had conveyed Arnulf's thoughts to the chieftain, he stared at the two of them for some time in silence. He knew nothing about mining, or the value that coal had. In fact, he was not even aware that his village rested on such a vast deposit of the resource.

However, what he knew was that this was not the only village that Arnulf had approached since his arrival with intentions of negotiating for natural resources. It was a common tactic for the Grand Duke to visit the nearby tribes and coerce them into signing peace treaties regarding the natural resources of the land they inhabited. These treaties heavily favored Austria, and the natives seldom knew the value of what they were signing away.

In return, the Austrians gave the Natives some meaningless technology, or resources, that could aid them at the moment. This including things such as iron tools, primitive metallurgy, basic agricultural technology such as early crop rotation, etc. Austria basically provided them with the knowledge and skills they needed to advance beyond a stone-age society, while taking control over the natural resources on the land they inhabited.

Now the Algonquin's turn had finally come, and their leader was far more suspicious of the true intentions that Arnulf had when compared to his neighbors, the reason being the mistrust that existed between the two factions because of the previous conflicts they had engaged in. Thus, the elderly chieftain scratched his chin for several moments as he dwelled on Arnulf's demands.

"What is it you will give us in return for this so called "coal" that you desire?"

A smile formed on Arnulf's face as he reached into a satchel and pulled out something that surprised the Algonquin chieftain. In his hands was a shirt of riveted mail armor that Austrian soldiers had scavenged from some battlefield in Europe. Normally, Berengar's strategy was to recycle the weapons and armor they recovered from the enemies' corpses.

However, with his colonization plans under place, Berengar had called for some examples to be spared, repaired, and used as bargaining chips with the natives. If the value of mail armor was properly demonstrated against the primitive stone weapons the natives wielded, it would surely entice them into giving up their resources.

After all, though, peace had been established between the Austrian settlement and the Algonquin; the Iroquois and the Algonquin were still very much in a heated rivalry. Thus, a confident smirk appeared on Arnulf's face as he spoke his terms.

"We will provide your warriors each with a mail shirt. We formed this armor from interlocking iron rings, and it will protect you against any weapons you may encounter from your enemies."

Obviously, he failed to mention how worthless such armor was in the face of firearms. Such a thing would surely have a negative result during negotiations. Thus, when Kahwihta translated Arnulf's words to the Algonquin chieftain, his eyes grew wide with shock. His suspicion of the Grand Duke instantly vanished when faced with such exceptional protective equipment. As a result, the chieftain quickly ordered for the mail shirt to be tested against the weapons that his warriors wielded.

A nearby soldier grabbed hold of the mail shirt and brought it out for testing. While that was going on, Arnulf, Kahwihta and the Chieftain smoked more tobacco, remaining in total silence until they had made a conclusion. Not long after, the Algonquin warrior returned with the mail shirt that did not have a single scratch on it. He spoke exaggeratedly as he struggled to express the results of his test.

After several moments of conversing with his warrior, the Chieftain took one last hit from the pipe before nodding his head in agreement. With these iron shirts, his warriors would have a significant advantage over their enemies in terms of defense. Thus, he was eager to agree to these terms, especially when he didn't even know the value of coal.

With the agreement made, Arnulf quickly fetched one of his soldiers to draft a treaty, where the two parties signed their signatures and imparted their seals. Considering the Algonquin didn't have a written language, and couldn't comprehend the German language, they had to rely on the word of Kahwihta that the terms presented were fair.

Despite the lengthy process, Arnulf had successfully established a treaty between this Algonquin village and the Austrian Colony. Thus, the former General had avoided a war between the two factions. Luckily, for everyone involved, Arnulf had showed his skills as a diplomat, and once more proven his value as the Colonial Governor.

Had the King of Austria been the one to lead the campaign for resources, he would have just sent in the army to clear the land and take what he wanted. Yet, Arnulf was not Berengar, and he valued peaceful solutions to diplomatic issues when he could achieve it. For the time being, New Vienna was the among the most peaceful places in the world.