Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 349 Population Growth and Integration

The country was stable and daily necessities were abundant. In the year and a half after the end of the Argentine War, the local population continued to grow rapidly, with the number of newborns exceeding 80. Together with the immigrants from overseas who migrated in, the local population of Han reached 1881 million by the beginning of 900.

Among the newborns, the number of mixed-race babies has more than quadrupled compared to before the occupation of Argentina. Among the 80 newborns, there are about 14 mixed-race babies. More than % of these babies are the children born to white women who chose to stay in Argentina, Uruguay and other places and married Chinese men. The remaining babies are born to Chinese and Indian mixed-race children.

European white colonists have a tradition of mixing with Indians and even blacks for hundreds of years. After the Chinese became the masters of Argentina, Uruguay and other regions, the white people left behind in the local areas either chose to abandon their homes and properties where they had lived for generations and choose countries where whites dominated, such as the United States, Canada, and Colombia, or they had no choice but to accept the intermarriage laws promulgated by the Han government and choose to form new families with the Chinese immigrants.

As for the third way, returning to one's hometown in Europe, it is only suitable for nobles, big businessmen, and big landowners who own some huge assets. They can use their financial resources and connections to return to Europe to start a new life. However, for the descendants of white immigrants who have lived in South America for hundreds of years, Europe is just a cultural symbol that affects their living habits. Even if they are willing to return there, the population in European countries is growing too fast. European countries that are rushing to resettle their surplus population in overseas colonies cannot possibly accept ordinary white immigrants with no special skills.

The road back to their hometowns in Europe was blocked, and abandoning their families and immigrating to the United States, Canada and other countries was not the best option. Therefore, after the war in the La Plata region ended, out of a total of more than 180 million white people in Argentina and Uruguay, only nearly 20 people chose to leave their homeland, accounting for about one-ninth of the total number of local white people.

Staying in the local area means learning to integrate into the society dominated by Chinese, and gradually getting closer to the Chinese in terms of culture and living habits. Fortunately, the Han government took into account the huge hidden dangers that may arise from blindly forcing white people to integrate into Chinese society. Therefore, while acknowledging and respecting the living habits of white people, it also promulgated a series of decrees to give white residents who have obtained formal national status the same rights as the Chinese. They can own their own land, and white children can go to public schools like Chinese children and receive five years of compulsory education.

Compulsory education and military service are the rights of every Han citizen and also the obligations they must fulfill. Therefore, while white children and men of school age receive equal treatment from the government, they must also enroll in local schools and military service agencies and register on time. If they resist, they will be punished and disciplined by the local government.

After the integration policy combining punishment and reward was fully implemented, more and more white people in Argentina and Uruguay went from initially secretly resisting to slowly adapting and getting used to it, and finally letting go of their prejudices and being willing for their family members to marry Chinese. The entire integration process was developing imperceptibly and little by little in the direction expected by the government.

White and Indian women who married Chinese people, as well as their children, were all labeled Chinese, even if they had white skin.

After all the operations, the number of people classified as Chinese in the government's census data exceeded 750 million, while the number of whites and Indians on paper was reduced to 160 million.

Chinese, mixed-race, white, and Indian children attend classes and receive education together in the same school. After school, when they return home, they will play games such as riding alpacas and catching alpacas with other children of different skin colors. The gentle alpacas and guanacos not only provide transportation and wool sources for local families, but also serve as pets for children. In the Pampas, one of the most fertile black soils in the world, covering more than 60 square kilometers, you can often hear the laughter of children coming from the settlements.

There is no scorching heat in the summer and no severe cold in the winter. The pastures are lush, the climate is humid and the rainfall is abundant. The suitable natural environment provides the necessary material basis for the integration of different races. On the endless green grassland, there are more than 80% of the local cattle and sheep. The cattle on the Pampas are mainly Angus cattle. Angus cattle are small in size and have firm meat. They have the advantages of high survival rate and easy large-scale artificial breeding. The thick and large pieces of Angus beef not only enrich the local people's table food, but also bring considerable profits to the people who settled on the grassland.

The vast Pampas grassland accommodates a large number of immigrants and livestock. In the vast territory of the Han Dynasty, various regions with different natural environments are also exploring the most suitable development routes based on their own conditions.

The three states of Jiangdong, including Wuzhou (Uruguay), Yangzhou (Rio Gran Sul), and Luozhou (Santa Catarina), relied on the large local coal producing areas and the political status of the birthplace of the Han Dynasty to vigorously develop heavy and light industrial systems, making it the most important industrial center of the Han Dynasty. The local animal husbandry development is second only to Songzhou (Buenos Aires State).

The former Salta Province, located in the high altitude area of ​​the eastern Andes Mountains, has poor soil, little rainfall, and great temperature differences.

According to the local climate characteristics and the national development plan of the central government, the local government has developed the wine-growing industry in accordance with local conditions. It has introduced Malbec grapes from France and transplanted and bred more than 20 kinds of South American white grapes. After a period of development, the local wine-growing industry has begun to show good economic benefits.

In the north of Han, the Gran Chaco Plain, which is also part of the La Plata Plain, has dense forests and fertile land. The relatively hot climate conditions provide conditions for the growth of cash crops such as rubber and cocoa. Therefore, the states in the northern region are applying to the central government to increase the immigration allocation quota, give play to the labor advantages of new immigrants, and vigorously develop the local plantation economy.

The development of the north, northwest, central and eastern regions is gradually getting on track, while the Patagonian wilderness in the south is also developing from scratch in accordance with the three major industrial goals of mineral mining, animal husbandry and marine fishery.

(End of this chapter)