Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 509: US Involvement and Comparison of World Naval Powers

As the Han army was advancing rapidly in Paraguay and the Republic of Brazil, as the situation gradually deteriorated, the voices within the US government quickly became unified.

On November 1889, 11, John Watson Foster, who supported a tough policy toward Britain and China, replaced James Gillespie Bryan and officially became the US Secretary of State.

John Watson Foster was born into a farmer's family. During the Civil War, he commanded a cavalry brigade to capture Knoxville. Because of the victory in this battle, he was promoted to honorary brigadier general. In the U.S. Army, he had close relations with famous generals such as Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and George Henry Thomas. His connections were spread across both the military and political circles, and he was a well-known hard-line politician in the United States.

On December 12, 5 days after he officially took office and 6 days after the Han army occupied Asuncion, John Watson Foster issued a diplomatic note to Britain and the Han Dynasty.

In the note, John Watson Foster first expressed his sympathy and sorrow for the invasion suffered by Paraguay and the Republic of Brazil.

Secondly, we strongly condemn and oppose the Han army's invasion of Paraguay and the Republic of Brazil.

Third, they expressed disappointment and dissatisfaction with Britain's favoritism and connivance of the Han Dynasty's aggression against other countries.

At the end of the note, John Watson Foss quoted the Monroe Doctrine in detail:

It declared that the United States had the natural right to intervene in wars in South America and stressed that no European country or its alliance could use force to deprive American countries of their autonomy and the right to independently determine their political destiny.

John Watson Foster's note was a signal of a shift in U.S. policy.

On December 12, U.S. Attorney General Olney publicly stated that the United States is the only country in the Western Hemisphere capable of enforcing the Monroe Doctrine.

The United States is the de facto sovereign and arbiter of the American nations, and its commands are laws for all its subjects within the sphere of its intervention.

On December 12, US President Benjamin Harrison delivered a speech to Congress, clearly pointing out that the Han Dynasty's war against Paraguay and the Republic of Brazil was a brutal aggression and conquest.

The war launched by the Han State against Paraguay and the Republic of Brazil will also be regarded as an infringement on the interests of the American people.

Therefore, the United States must intervene in the war in South America and uphold justice and fairness for the people of Paraguay and Brazil who have suffered from the war.

US President Benjamin Harrison issued a warning to the Han Dynasty.
The Han State must withdraw all troops from Paraguay and the Republic of Brazil within one month. If the Han State refuses to comply, the United States will dispatch warships and troops to maintain justice and peace in South America.

Because of the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the discriminatory policies implemented by the United States against Chinese people in its country, the Kingdom of Han took the initiative to sever diplomatic relations with the United States in 1882, and its overseas institutions were withdrawn one after another. Therefore, this explosive and aggressive diplomatic note from the President of the United States was delivered by the Minister of the Republic of Brazil to the Kingdom of Han.

On December 12, the third day after receiving the diplomatic note, the Han government officially issued an external announcement, the content of which mainly included several aspects.

First, the Han Dynasty respected the territorial and sovereignty integrity of the Kingdom of Paraguay. The Kingdom of Paraguay suffered from invasion by the Republic of Brazil, and the original inhabitants of Paraguay, the Yin people, suffered persecution by the Brazilian army. The Han government dispatched troops to rescue the people of Paraguay and to uphold fairness and justice for the weak Kingdom of Paraguay. It was not an invasion as the Americans claimed.

Second, the Brazilian army arbitrarily expanded the scope of the war to the coastal areas of the Han country, and the Han country launched a counterattack, which was completely in line with international law.

Third, according to evidence from Han Dynasty archaeologists, the original inhabitants of South America and North America, the Indians, were actually descendants of the Yin people. Thousands of years ago, they set out from the Far East continent, crossed the Bering Strait, entered North America, and then spread along the Isthmus of Panama to the entire South America.

Bronzes inscribed with characters from the Shang Dynasty, excavated from Haizhou, Wuzhou, Songzhou and other areas within the Han territory, can serve as evidence that the Chinese and Indians have a common origin.

The Mapuche, Araucanía and other tribes of the Yin people have preserved bronze artifacts from the Shang Dynasty, which has been publicly confirmed by their chiefs and tribal people.

As distant relatives with the same origin, the Han government had the responsibility and obligation to protect the Yin people in Paraguay from harm by foreign troops.

Fourth, the Monroe Doctrine is not international law and is not widely recognized by countries around the world. The United States has no legal basis to interfere in other countries based on the Monroe Doctrine.

Fifth, the US government itself carried out organized massacres and exterminations against the Yin people in its territory, and launched aggressive wars against neighboring countries Mexico and Canada. The US government itself is a brutal, aggressive, and barbaric country and has no right to interfere in the affairs of South America.

At the end of the announcement, the Han Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on countries around the world to form an international committee to intervene and impose sanctions on the massacres and exterminations of the indigenous Yin people that are taking place in the United States.

In the eyes of Western powers, Han was a remote, emerging industrial country with a strong desire for expansion. Even though Britain, France, Germany, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire recognized Han's status as a second-rate power, in the inherent impression of ordinary Western civilians, Han, including the entire South America, was still synonymous with primitive, barbaric, and backward.

The Western world had a bad impression of the Han Dynasty, and its impression of the United States was not much better. After the victory of the War of Independence in 1783, the United States began to implement an expansion strategy.

In 1803, the United States purchased Louisiana from France for $1500 million, doubling the size of the United States.

During the Napoleonic Wars, European countries were in constant war. Taking advantage of the fact that Britain's main force was trapped in Europe and unable to escape, the United States officially declared war on Britain on June 1812, 6.

After the failure of the US-Canada War, the Americans still did not give up and continued to launch an aggressive war against neighboring Mexico, eventually seizing 230 million square kilometers of land from Mexico. Similar to the Han Dynasty, in 1812, when the United States was still weak, it dared to pull teeth out of the tiger's mouth and took the initiative to declare war on Britain. In terms of strong desire for expansion, the United States is not inferior to the Han Dynasty in this regard. As for the policy of dealing with indigenous residents in the country, the Han Dynasty at least paid attention to its face and only set conditions to force the descendants of white people to leave voluntarily. For those black people and the descendants of white people who participated in the resistance, Indians, and Indian-white-black mixed-race descendants, they were forced to perform labor for several years and then migrated to the Congo colony in Africa, which was also a way to give them a way to survive, and they were not directly exterminated.

The American policy of massacre and extermination of the Indians in their country, especially the widely known scalp hunting after being promoted by the Han Dynasty, was regarded as a symbol of barbarism and brutality and was criticized by public opinion.

Han and the United States, two emerging countries located in South and North America respectively, are both mainly immigrants, have a strong desire for expansion, and have completed preliminary industrialization. In the eyes of Western powers, they are both ambitious backward countries that are far away from the center of world civilization and huddled in a corner of America. They just watch the public opinion attacks between the two countries with a vulgar insult and accusations with an outsider mentality. Except for the British Empire, no country really cares about the development of the situation in America, and no country really cares about the actual situation of the descendants of Indians and white mixed-race people in America.

The reason for this is that for thousands of years, Asia and Europe have been the center of the world, and the Western powers' vision has been mainly focused on Europe and Asia, with not much attention paid to the Americas.

Along with the diplomatic and public opinion war between China and the United States, the military deployments between the two sides are also undergoing tit-for-tat changes.

On December 12, the warships of the United States in the first line of the Atlantic waters completed their assembly. With a total tonnage of 26 tons, accounting for two-thirds of the tonnage of all US Navy warships, the naval forces gathered in the Caribbean Sea.

On December 12, an 28-ton ironclad (Chaoyang, damaged in the Wuzhong naval battle) and a 8500-ton ironclad captured from the Republic of Brazil joined the Han Atlantic Fleet's combat fleet after simple repairs. Together with a 5000-ton ironclad and a 5000-ton cruiser captured in the port of Rio de Janeiro, the Han State mobilized a total of 3000 main ironclads with a displacement of more than 8 tons, including 2000 Yongxing-class light cruisers with a displacement of 6 tons, Sea Lion-class artillery and torpedo boats and other ships. In the Atlantic side, the total tonnage of the naval fleet reached 1350 tons, and the tonnage difference with the US Caribbean fleet was only 6.2 tons.

In early 1890, the Navy of the Republic of Brazil suffered heavy losses after two major wars. However, after the Han Navy added more than 20 large and small ships, including three main ironclad ships captured from the Republic of Brazil, the total tonnage of the Navy's warships reached 7.8 tons.

Its naval strength exceeds that of Chile and Italy, ranking seventh in the world.

The navies of the countries ranked at the top of the Han Dynasty are:

1. Britain: 254 armored and non-armored ships with a total tonnage of 89.23 tons;

2法国：军舰总吨位53.5万吨，其中装甲舰61艘35.53万吨，非装甲舰102艘16.9万吨；

3 Russia: total tonnage 28 tons.

4 Germany: 72 ships of various types with a total tonnage of 19 tons.

5、美国：总排水量为12.2万吨，其中含3艘轻巡洋舰，8艘装甲巡洋舰、3艘非装甲巡洋舰、6艘钢制炮艇、3艘重装甲巡洋舰和几艘低舷铁甲舰，一艘通报舰；
The total tonnage of the Sixth Austro-Hungarian Empire was 9.7 tons, most of which were old ironclad ships with a displacement of to tons.

The total tonnage of the Seventh Han Kingdom is 7.8 tons, with 2000 main ironclad ships with a displacement of more than 11 tons.
They are two Chaoyang-class ships with a displacement of 2 tons,
2 3500-ton Vanguard-class armored cruisers,

2 Victory-class cruisers with a displacement of 3200 tons,

2 Yangwu-class dome-shaped armored cruisers with a displacement of 2400 tons,

2 captured armored cruisers of 5000 tons displacement from the Brazilian Republican Navy.

1 captured 3000-ton cruiser from the Navy of the Republic of Brazil.

In terms of the number and performance of main ironclad ships, the gap between Han and the United States further narrowed, and this was also the time when the Han navy was the strongest in the past 20 years.

The addition of captured ships from the Republic of Brazil strengthened the strength of the Han Navy and increased its chances of winning against the US fleet. It also fueled the ambitions of naval generals to expand the size of the navy.

Batches of young naval officers who had studied in Britain and Germany were dispatched to the captured ships of the Republic of Brazil to work with some of the captured former Brazilian naval crew members and undergo intensive running-in and adaptation.

Two months after the Wuzhong naval battle, the Han navy had grown by 4000 personnel.
The number of surface ship personnel increased to 8000, the number of marines increased to 7000, the number of island and base garrisons and attached forces increased to 8500, and the total naval strength reached 2.4.

At the same time, considering that two 1890-ton ironclad ships would join the fleet in December 12, the navy planned to continue recruiting 2 soldiers for the personnel deployment of new warships and the subsequent addition of naval ship personnel.

The Navy's confidence and reason for increasing its staffing are...

First, the ocean-going immigration transportation, which squeezed the navy's funds and personnel, turned losses into profits many years ago. The chemical, machinery, electricity and other blood transfusion industries have also become revenue-generating industries, which continue to bring tax revenue to the local government.

The second wave of immigration provided abundant labor for industrial development and promoted industrial development. The income created by immigrants was far higher than the cost of transportation and resettlement of immigrants.

Third, in order to maintain external commercial interests and balance the situation with the US Navy, the Han Dynasty's industry and commerce spread to Europe, the Far East, Africa, northern South America, southern North America and other regions. In order to maintain the Han Dynasty's overseas interests, a certain naval strength is indispensable. At the same time, in order to deal with military conflicts between Han and the United States and maintain the navy's competition for sea control in the coastal areas of the mainland, the speed of naval construction needs to be accelerated simultaneously.

Due to changes in the international situation and national security needs, the navy started its military expansion first. After the war, the army will also usher in a new round of military expansion.

In order to meet the arrival of a new round of challenges, the army and navy of Han are making intensive responses and deployments. As the Paraguayan war expands and spreads, the determination and actions of the United States to intervene in the war are becoming more and more obvious.
(End of this chapter)