The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 60 British people's convergence choice
Byron had originally planned to rest at home for a month or two before leaving, but just five days later he was called back to the palace by the king's servants.

This time the king did not speak much. It was mainly the Prime Minister, Lord North, who talked to Byron and explained the main mission of his trip:

“The primary purpose of this trip is to bring together the Qing Dynasty and Great Britain to form an alliance against the Ming, French, Spanish and American alliance.

"We demand that the Qing Dynasty take the initiative to attack the Ming mainland on land, threaten the Ming capital Yingtianfu, and force the Ming Dynasty to stop fighting overseas.

"Then, whether or not the Qing is willing to form an alliance with Great Britain, you will have to go to the Ming capital again.

“Find out the purpose of Ming’s participation in the American War, the conditions for a separate peace with Ming, and the conditions for ending the war completely.

"Investigate the popular thoughts and economic conditions in Ming, and assess Ming's ability and willingness to continue fighting.

"Finally, try to find out what's going on in the Indian Ocean colonies."

Although King George III of the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Lord North both understood that the Ming Dynasty would probably lose its colonies in the Indian Ocean after joining the alliance of France and Spain to fight against Britain, someone still had to confirm the situation.

Byron was a little confused after hearing this:
"Your Excellency, Prime Minister... I... feel that I am a little overwhelmed by so many responsibilities..."

The Prime Minister immediately explained and comforted:

“As a noble, you are the representative of our delegation, but you are not expected to do all the work by yourself.

"There will be specialists from all walks of life accompanying you to assist you in completing all of these tasks."

Byron reluctantly accepted this statement:

"Well, Prime Minister, I will do my best."

The Prime Minister nodded slightly and handed the various prepared documents to Byron.

The letter from the King, Prime Minister and Cabinet to the Qing Dynasty contained the basic plan to win over the Qing Dynasty and Britain to cooperate.

Then the letter and list of gifts were presented to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and the imperial court.

Finally, Byron took the documents, gifts, and other entourage, boarded the prepared Portuguese merchant ship, and immediately headed for the East.

Portugal is Britain's traditional ally and is now a neutral country, making it a perfect place to help the British send envoys.

Baron Byron set off directly with mixed feelings and a heavy mission.

Faced with an unprecedented crisis, the British people of this world made a convergent choice.

In Zhu Jianxuan's previous life, the British had also tried to establish some kind of cooperative relationship with the Qing Dynasty under similar circumstances.

This is the historical event of Lord Macartney's visit to China.

The American War of Independence had just ended and Britain was in an unprecedented state of isolation.

Needless to say, France, Spain, the United States, and the Netherlands all fought directly against Britain and won.

When the American Revolutionary War began, Britain had just won the Seven Years' War and could be considered to be quite arrogant in its decision-making.

The British not only attacked French and Spanish merchant ships that were directly involved in the war.

Merchant ships from other European countries, if suspected by the British of possibly delivering resources and equipment to the Americans, could be hijacked by the British Navy.

The Russians then called for the organization of an armed neutral alliance, jointly sending warships to protect merchant ships of neutral countries to avoid being attacked by the British.

The Russians first signed treaties with Denmark and Sweden, and then the Netherlands, Prussia, Austria and Portugal joined the armed neutrality alliance.

In this situation, when Britain was already at war with France, Spain and the United States, he just thought that the Netherlands was still doing business with the United States, so he took the initiative to declare war on the Netherlands, directly pushing the Netherlands into the anti-British alliance of France, Spain and the United States.

This put Britain at odds with almost all of Europe.

The American War of Independence ended with Britain's defeat and the loss of its most important North American colonies at the time.

At that time, Britain had just started to encroach on India and had lost money in the Bengal famine, so India was not making much profit.

At that time, Cape Town and Ceylon both belonged to the Netherlands, and Captain Cook had just discovered the routes to Australia and New Zealand, which were still wild lands.

At that time, Britain's colonies only included the thirteen states in North America and Canada, and a few small islands in Central America.

The most important part was lost directly after this war.

The more important issue is that Britain's status and influence in Europe have plummeted.

Britain is already isolated off the coast of Europe. If it is further isolated politically, it will become even more marginalized.

So the British tried to find new allies. Since they were marginalized by the whole of Europe, they even tried to look outside Europe.

At that time, the strongest country outside of Europe was the Qing Dynasty.

In 1767, the British East India Company launched the Kinloch Expedition, which ended in a disastrous defeat in Nepal.

Nepal attacked the Snowy Plateau twice in 1788 and 1792. Qianlong ordered Fu Kang'an to lead troops into Tibet to counterattack and eventually invade Nepal.

Nepal then pledged tribute to the Qing Dynasty and gave up the idea of ​​expanding northwards and began to expand southwards.

To the south was Bengal, the domain of the British East India Company.

In the eyes of Britain at that time, the Qing Dynasty was a very powerful traditional empire.

Its own directly governed territory is as large as that of Russia, and it is surrounded by a large circle of vassal states, and its population is larger than that of the whole of Europe.

So the British arranged a large delegation to go to the Qing Dynasty to investigate the situation.

Macartney was required to meet the Qing emperor.

So after the Qing Dynasty, even though Macartney was dragged by various arguments due to etiquette issues, he still did not dare to leave.

He had to find out the attitude of the Qing emperor.

The Qing Dynasty did not have a good impression of Britain and was very wary of it.

Qianlong knew that Britain was encroaching on India, had already occupied the Bengal region, and had also set its sights on Myanmar, Nepal, and the snowy plateau.

When Macartney left the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong ordered the southeastern coastal areas and other areas to strengthen vigilance.

Of course, Qianlong and the Qing Dynasty officials had no idea of ​​the great potential Britain had at the time, or that Britain was brewing an industrial revolution.

But other European countries and even the British themselves had no idea what industrial revolution was brewing.

These concepts themselves were summarized and given by historians of later generations, and people at that time had no relevant concepts or cognitions at all.

Otherwise, the British don't need to worry too much about being isolated from the whole of Europe.

The situation at that time was that Britain was seeking to establish good relations with the Qing Dynasty and to find out the truth, rather than the Qing Dynasty asking Britain for help.

But Britain's sincerity is not high.

Most of the things that Britain gave to Qianlong were not rare. The three generations of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong had all received a lot from other Europeans.

It was so bad that it failed to arouse Qianlong's interest and made Qianlong feel that the British were stingy.

If the British had brought two sets of Watt steam engines, it might have really aroused Qianlong's interest, as Qianlong had never seen one before.

But the steam engine was a product that was banned from export in Britain at the time. Later, a law was even enacted that made the smuggling of steam engines punishable by death.

Other European countries couldn't buy it and could only ask craftsmen to secretly imitate it, not to mention the people of the Qing Dynasty.

The British demanded to trade in Zhoushan and Tianjin, to reside in Zhoushan or an island, and to open a trading house in the capital.

The Qing Dynasty could not gain direct benefits from this cooperation, so in the end the two sides reached no agreement.

It can only be said that the British were really lucky. Although Macartney's main mission to the Qing Dynasty failed, the French Revolution broke out at the same time.

Since the French had become the big devil, Britain could easily form an alliance with other feudal remnants in Europe.

Before and after the French Revolution, the British seized Ceylon, captured Cape Town, and began to immigrate to Australia and New Zealand.

The key was to smuggle opium into the Qing Dynasty to obtain a large amount of silver reserves, and basically integrate most of India, and fiscal revenue also increased rapidly.

At the same time, the results of the Industrial Revolution began to emerge.

The British Empire gradually took shape in the Victorian era, and the true glory days of the British people finally began.

The British Empire kicked open the corrupt door of the Qing Dynasty during the Opium War, which was considered to be a way for the British Empire to wash away the grievances it suffered in front of Emperor Qianlong more than 40 years ago.

In this world, because the Ming Dynasty was directly involved in the North American War, the tremendous pressure made the British make a similar decision in advance.

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(End of this chapter)