Wild North America 1846

Chapter 684 Guano Controversy and Population

It turns out
The major events that have happened in history can be affected and changed, but what should come will still come.

In May 1886, the Tang Empire successfully organized a grand celebration for the 5th anniversary of His Majesty's ascension to the throne and the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Tang Empire. Many brilliant celebration scenes are still in people's memory, so vivid.

In just over two months, the three countries of South America, Chile, Peru and Bolivia, broke out. The reason is naturally the guano mines that are vital to the three countries.

The United States and the United States immediately launched a mediation mechanism to intervene in mediation, trying to turn hostility into friendship and prevent a possible war among the three countries.

Due to the extraordinary strength of the Tang Empire and the status of the leader of the Americas, under strong pressure, the three countries of Chile, Peru and Bolivia had to hold their noses and sit down to negotiate.

Under the framework of the United States and the United States, the Panama peace talks have been held for four rounds, which took more than five months. However, due to the hard-line positions of all parties, there are great differences, and the peace talks still broke down as expected.

Privately

These three South American countries have already begun intensive preparations for war, especially Chile has received material and weapon support from the UK, and its attitude has been particularly tough.

Early January 1887
In the Qinzheng Hall of the Daming Palace

This is the day when the cabinet meets with His Majesty the Emperor every Tuesday. Foreign Minister Liu Daqing mentioned this matter again in the report, saying bluntly, "These are three violent tempers with rising anger, and their positions are completely different from each other, and the possibility of final peace can be brought about." The sex is negligible."

The courtiers expressed their opinions one after another, and most of them advocated that the authority of the American alliance must be maintained, and this war should not really break out.This will seriously weaken the prestige of the international organization established by the Datang Empire.

Emperor Li Cha, who was sitting on the Dragon Throne, was silent all the time. He was considering the impact of this matter.

Now the history of the whole of America has changed
As early as 1818 to 1825, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia successively declared their independence.

At the beginning of independence, the three countries were neighbors and had deep historical ties. The relationship between them was quite good, at least on the surface.

but change happened soon

Their relationship became awkward in the 19s after the discovery of rich guano and saltpeter deposits in the central and northern Atacama Desert.

In the era without chemical fertilizers, the exploitation of guano resources was relatively simple and low-tech, and it could be directly mined without much cost, and huge profits could be obtained. This is just right for the situations of Chile, Peru, and Bolivia.

Nitre deposits can be used to make gunpowder, which has extremely high strategic value. Both guano resources and saltpeter deposits can be exported to obtain large sums of money.

Therefore, the originally arid and barren desert suddenly became a cornucopia, and the three countries all eyeed this desert and declared their sovereignty over it.

This was also the normal state among countries in the 19th century. Since they had just escaped colonial rule, their boundaries were not clearly demarcated. The Atacama Desert dispute is the most typical example.

Later, with the strong participation of the Tang Empire and the United Kingdom, Chile and the above two countries jointly established the Pacific Yingtang Saltpeter Company, each occupying a certain percentage of shares, and mining saltpeter deposits in the Atacama Desert.

In order to obtain more resources, Chile reached an agreement with Chile and Bolivia, and Bolivia allowed the saltpeter company to enter its own Antofagasta area for mining.

Chile renounced all rights to the area north of the 24° south latitude line to compensate the other party.The Bolivian side agreed not to raise taxes on saltpeter companies for 25 years.

This was a happy agreement. Chile, Datang, and the United Kingdom obtained valuable mineral resources, and Bolivia obtained stable tax revenue.

However, in 1885, Bolivia unilaterally tore up the agreement and raised the tax rate of the saltpeter company in order to raise the huge pressure of war compensation (note, compensation to the Tang Empire).

Of course, the Pacific Yingtang Saltpeter Company quit, relying on its strong background to refuse to pay taxes, and this made the conflict between the two parties more and more acute.

Therefore, at the beginning of 1886, Bolivia simply confiscated all the assets of the Saltpeter Company and auctioned them off, and the proceeds from the auction were used as taxes.

Bolivia's confidence comes from Peru. The two countries have signed a secret military alliance agreement aimed at jointly dealing with Chile.

In the face of Bolivia, who does not know what is good or bad, how can the Chilean military government bear this tone?
So with the secret support of the United Kingdom, Chile plans to launch a military counterattack...

At this time, the United States and the United States intervened strongly, pressing down the three South American countries that were on the verge of saber-rattling, and activated the dispute mediation mechanism of the United States and the United States, thus starting the tripartite peace negotiations in Panama...

The tough attitudes of Chile, Peru, and Bolivia caused all four rounds of peace negotiations to break down, casting a serious shadow on the prospects for peace.

From here, we can see the shortcomings of the American League.

The "OAC alliance" is a standard economic alliance, whose scope of cooperation extends to the political, cultural and diplomatic fields, but does not touch the core military field.

The "American League" has a dispute mediation mechanism between countries, and has a 5000-strong "American League Peacekeeping Force", which has actually been under-staffed and only has more than 3300 people so far.

Some smaller conflicts between countries can be mediated, but such issues as the "Atacama Desert Dispute" that concern major interests and territories are beyond our reach.

"There is a proverb in Europe: where the British walk, the fish in the fish pond will fight." Emperor Li Cha shook his head and said, the hall was immediately silent, and everyone's eyes were on the monarch on the dragon throne .

Emperor Li Cha didn't consult the ministers any more, but said directly;
"The Panama peace talks advocated by the empire have repeatedly broken down, which is inseparable from the fact that the British have always been behind the scenes.

If this continues, it will fall into a vicious circle of continuous rupture.

The Chileans want to fight this battle, and Bolivia and Peru also have confidence in themselves and want to solve their opponents by force.

The British are constantly fanning the flames, and all European countries want to see our jokes. Only the empire is working hard to bridge the differences between the parties, trying to maintain the false situation of peace in the Americas.

What's the point?
Everyone knows that our close ally, the British, has always wanted to mess up America, whether it is North America or South America, they can always be seen.

The Tang Empire was not yet strong enough to cover the sky with one hand. Countries such as Britain, France, and Germany all had colonies and garrisons in South America. This is the reality of historical evolution.

The imperial government must face up to;
The "American League", a new thing, has to endure wind and rain, twists and turns, difficulties and obstacles in its development, so that it can learn lessons continuously and grow stronger.

Blind care is not a good thing. Perhaps these South American countries have been beaten to death before they understand the preciousness of peace.

At that time, it will be the right opportunity to completely resolve the "Atacama Desert Dispute" and promote peace with half the effort. "

His Majesty's words were like turning clouds to see the sun, making the courtiers' thoughts clear instantly, and they couldn't help playing in unison;

"Your Majesty is wise, and the ministers are honored to obey the oracle."

When the thinking is clear, the government's decision-making will become rule-based, and it is nothing more than doing everything and obeying the destiny.

As the leader of the Americas, the imperial government still has to try its best to facilitate the tripartite peace talks, even if it is superficial, so that other American countries can't find fault.

If you really want to fight, then fight!
Entering 1887

The Tang Empire still devotes its main energy to developing the domestic economy, focusing on deepening the second wave of industrial revolution and promoting technological progress. Various new inventions have sprung up like mushrooms after rain.

The famous inventor Edison established the Edison Phonograph Company in Detroit. In 1886, Tesla resigned due to differences in scientific ideas with Edison and founded the Tesla Light and Electric Manufacturing Company, and began to study alternating current in depth.

In 1886 year

In the Tang Empire, more than 7870 technology companies engaged in new chemical research and electrical appliances emerged, and there were tens of thousands of new inventions, showing a trend of explosive growth.

The achievement of these scientific and technological achievements stems from the fact that the Tang Empire has insisted on the concept of emphasizing education for decades, and the good scientific and technological atmosphere has attracted a large number of scientists from all over the world to settle in the empire and start businesses.

The progress of a country's overall scientific and technological strength cannot rely solely on a certain person's golden finger. That is too unrealistic and more like a castle in the air.

Ten years of continuous investment in science and technology education finally yielded fruitful results in the late 10s.

Over the years
The literacy rate of the subjects of the Tang Empire rose sharply, and the 5-year universal education of the nationals went deep into remote villages and pastures.It has become a general consensus among the people that only by giving children a better education can they have a better future.

The number of higher education universities and colleges has grown to more than 110, emphasizing the concept of scientific inventions, and gradually deepening in major enterprises in the empire, and scientific and technological talents have also become more important.

The overall economy continued to develop steadily on the basis of a relatively high total volume. In 1886, the total economic volume increased by 7.12%, ranking second only to Germany's 11.6% among the world's major powers.

Due to the strategic environment of the Tang Empire, which has the advantages of both oceans, it has no rivals in the entire Americas. Therefore, the military development has lagged behind in the past 20 years, and the financial budget is not much.

就比如大唐帝国重点发展的皇家海军，在20年前的海军预算仅仅是英国的1/10，一年约110万英镑左右，即440~450万唐元。

Ten years ago, the financial budget of the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty doubled to an annual level of tens of millions of Tang Yuan, which was only a quarter of the annual appropriation of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom.

Today
The financial budget of the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty is about 1300% of that of the United Kingdom, that is, 1400 to [-] million Tang Yuan per year, with little fluctuation.

The financial appropriation of the Royal Army of the Tang Dynasty is only half of that of the Navy, which is about 620 million Tang yuan per year (note; about 130 million pounds, excluding the appropriation of the Royal Guards).

This is mainly because after the 15 major disarmament, the size of the Royal Army of the Tang Empire was further reduced.

It implements a policy of combining compulsory military service and professional military service. After ordinary soldiers enlist in the army, they can only receive some symbolic subsidies every month, and they are mostly doing their duty for the empire.

The land and sea armies of the Tang Empire maintained a leaner and smaller army size, which was enough to maintain the security of the vast empire.

Different from the Tang Empire, the British Royal Navy has always maintained a large scale because it wants to maintain a global military presence. There are more than 650 ships of various types in active service, including more than half of the old sailing warships.

The naval strength of France and Germany should not be underestimated. Since the two countries are sworn enemies, they have been catching up with each other in the development of armaments, and no one is willing to lag behind.

Just take the German Navy as an example;

On the basis of maintaining more than 110 old sailing warships, in the past 15 years, it has been vigorously developing new iron-clad warships, and has successively built six "Saxon"-class iron-clad warships known as the German Zhenyang class.

Except for the "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" sold to the Qing Dynasty, the rest entered the service of the German Royal Navy.

on the basis of

The German Royal Navy has developed many types of [-]-ton ironclad ships, and the construction of new ironclad ships will only be more than that of the Tang Empire, not less.

In addition, after the unification, the German Empire has a large number of old-style sailing warships (note, including the old-style sailing fleet of the former North German princes), and its navy is larger than the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty, and its combat effectiveness is not weak. This is an indisputable fact.

Due to the hostile strategic environment and fierce competition among European powers, military expenditures are generally high, which constitute the main part of fiscal budget expenditures.

This is not the case in the Tang Empire. Military expenditures have long been lower than cultural and educational expenditures, and colonial development and construction expenditures can only rank third in the imperial government's budget.

This is not because the imperial government has no money, but because there is no need to build an overly large royal fleet and has chosen a path of steady development.

1886年未，大唐帝国统计的居民人口从1884年的1.21亿增长到1.276亿，净增长560万人口。

There are several factors that affect the rapid population growth. The first is that 40 years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, a large number of first-generation immigrants died, aged, sick and died. The average annual scale is 1 million to 230 million, and it shows a trend of rapid growth year by year.

Looking forward to the next 10 years, the average annual natural death population may further increase to a scale of 380 million to 400 million. This is a process of social metabolism.

This is not like in the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, when a large number of young Chinese immigrants immigrated to North America and started waves of entrepreneurial booms. At that time, there was only population growth, and very few elderly people died, so the net increase in population was very fast.

In fact, the natural fertility rate of the Tang Empire was not low. In 1886, the number of newborns reached 587 million, which was only one step away from 600 million.

This is equivalent to the death of an old man and the birth of 2.5 newborns.

Excluding the newborns who died, the number has reached more than 575 million, which is quite large.

Moreover, the empire has an annual average of one million Chinese immigrants flowing in every year. It is said that the population growth scale in the past two years should not be only this small.

This has to talk about the second factor, that is, the factor of the imperial population outflow.

Thanks to the lofty status of the American leader of the Tang Empire, the Chinese population can freely move to various countries, and in some countries they can even achieve super-national status, which further encourages population flow.

In the two years of 1885 and 1886 alone, more than 166 million people immigrated to the United States, the Republic of Florida, the Republic of Mississippi, the Kingdom of Kentucky, the Kingdom of Oklahoma, Paraguay, Uruguay, the Brazilian Empire and Argentina, and a small number of people in the Tang Empire into European countries.

The United States alone has received more than 74.6 Chinese immigrants in two years, accounting for nearly half.The main flow of immigrants is to the northern states dominated by New York, Detroit and Philadelphia, further increasing the proportion of Chinese immigrants.

In addition, in the past two years, the number of immigrants to the Republic of Florida and the Republic of Mississippi has exceeded 16, and there are also varying numbers of floating immigrant populations in other countries, which further reduces the total number of residents in the empire.

The third factor is caused by the policy of "vacating cages and changing birds". For example, in Colombia, the total population has always remained between 3 million and 360 million.

However, the proportion of the Chinese population has been rising rapidly, and the proportion of the local indigenous population has been declining rapidly. The total population has remained in this range for more than ten years.

Similar situations also occurred in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Luzon Islands, Zhongzhou Province (formerly Ecuador) and Fuyuan Province (Ceded by Peru). Can this be said that the population has not increased?
looking ahead to the new year

In 1887, the total population of the empire was expected to exceed the 1.3 million mark, which was equivalent to the sum of the continental Europe of Britain, France and Germany, and higher than the total population of Tsarist Russia of 1.17 million.

In terms of total economic
At the end of 1886, the total economic volume of the Tang Empire was equivalent to the sum of the United Kingdom and France, which was 1.41 times the total economic volume of the United Kingdom, but its military strength was somewhat inferior.

This is an overall strategy based on the unique geographic location of North America, similar to the historically unified United States, where more financial resources are used to develop the economy and social utilities, and a large amount of investment is made in public infrastructure and urban construction.

It is precisely this kind of policy that created the reputation of the Datang Empire as a "country on wheels", and the national happiness is generally high.

As long as you are willing to work hard, you can basically live comfortably, which is not easy to achieve.

In Britain, France and Germany, where the European industrial economy is relatively developed, a considerable number of people die of hunger, poverty and disease every year, and pass away in desolation.

In this day and age, there is no social welfare at all?

The famous "Salvation Army" organization in the UK was initiated by a wealthy couple in London to provide the most basic assistance to the underprivileged people without enough to eat, and the scope of coverage is extremely limited.

The Tang Empire did not have a non-governmental organization like the "Salvation Army", but it had a stricter government agency, which could effectively prevent the occurrence of homeless people on the streets.

For all young people with arms and legs who wandered on the streets, there was a high probability that they would be taken in by the police and thrown directly into mines or labor camps, where they would exchange hard work for a share of food.

If the elderly with wives and children live on the streets, then well, relevant personnel from the Imperial Correctional Service will take the homeless and directly find the relevant families.

In the lightest case, a large fine was imposed, and in the most severe case, it was punished as a "crime of disobedience". After being punished with public flogging, all property was confiscated and directly thrown into a hard labor camp, where he could not get out until he died.

According to the traditional Chinese concept of respecting the elderly and caring for the young, parents have the obligation to raise their children, and children have the obligation to support the elderly.

If they fail to fulfill their obligations, their children will commit the "crime of disobedience", and they will be punished according to the seriousness of the circumstances. Basically, no one dares to take this matter as a trifle.

Although this system is simple and crude, it cannot be denied that the effect is very good.

In the streets and alleys of many cities in the Tang Empire, there are almost no homeless people, and no one can bear the heavy price caused by it.

(End of this chapter)