Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 393: A decade of leapfrogging development

By the end of 1882, the thirteenth economic crisis gradually revealed its destructive power, and Western industrial countries such as Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the United States were all affected.

In December 1882, the Han government formulated a plan to introduce technology from Europe and authorized its embassies in various European countries to take the lead in technology introduction matters in their respective countries.

In February 1883, the last transport fleet consisting of soldiers from the Nanyang Army and Chinese from Annam set out from northern Annam, thus marking the end of the two-year Annam evacuation operation.

The Nanyang Army and all the Chinese in the Nanban area of ​​Annam were evacuated, and the northern provinces such as Lang Son, Quang Ninh, and Bac Ninh quickly fell under the control of the Cochinchina colonial army.

Affected by the economic crisis in Europe, the French government was eager to expand its colonies overseas to transfer the economic crisis at home.

Therefore, when the news of the death of the King of Vietnam reached Europe in June 1883, the Republican government immediately authorized the Cochinchina Colonial Army to launch a combat plan to fully occupy the entire territory of Annam.

Without the restraint of the Nanyang Army, the corrupt and weak Annan government army was like an old fence that collapsed at the slightest push of the French colonial army.

On July 1883, 7, France attacked the Hue Haikou Fort, and on the 16th, invaded the capital Hue. On the 17rd, the Annan defenders surrendered without a fight and humiliated themselves by signing the "New Franco-Vietnamese Peace Treaty", or the "Treaty of Hue", with 23 clauses. According to this treaty, France made Annan its protectorate and controlled Vietnam's internal and foreign affairs. French Minister Ho Lo (Mu Mang) immediately posted a notice, claiming that the entire territory of Vietnam belonged to France, and warned the Qing army not to interfere in Annan affairs.

In September 1883, part of the Qing army in Guangxi entered northern Annan in accordance with the instructions of the Qing court and confronted the French colonial army in Shanxi and Baosheng.

On November 1883, 11, in order to eliminate the Qing court's intention to interfere in the situation in Annam, the Governor-General of Cochinchina ordered Courbet to lead 13 troops to launch an attack on the Qing army positions stationed in Shanxi (now northwest of Hanoi), and the Sino-French War officially broke out.

At the beginning of the war, the Qing army suffered a series of defeats. France took advantage of the situation and forced the Qing government to sign the Sino-French Treaty on April 1884, 4, recognizing France's "protection rights" over Vietnam, agreeing to open ports for trade on the Sino-Vietnamese border, and declaring that the Qing army in Tonkin would be withdrawn to the border.

In early May, the French army forcibly took over the Qing army’s base near Lang Son, Vietnam, but was counterattacked and defeated.

On June 6, the French Navy invaded Keelung, Taiwan, but was repelled by the defenders.

On the third day of July, French warships anchored at Mawei Naval Port suddenly attacked the Fujian Navy. Due to the Qing government's policy of avoiding war and seeking peace and its incompetent command, the fleet was hastily attacked and passively beaten, and eventually suffered the fate of being completely destroyed. On the sixth day, the Qing government was forced to declare war on France.

In August, French warships invaded Taiwan again and were blocked by Qing troops in Huwei (now Tamsui).

In the first month of 1885, French warships invaded Zhenhai, Zhejiang Province, but were bombarded by Qing troops. The French army was defeated and Commander Courbet was seriously injured and later died in Penghu.

At the same time, on the Sino-Vietnamese border, the Qing army failed to resist and was defeated, allowing the French army to capture the important border town of Zhennan Pass (now Youyi Pass). The newly appointed Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, Zhang Zhidong, appointed the veteran general Feng Zicai as the assistant military officer of Guangxi and re-deployed the war preparations. On the eighth day of February, a great victory was achieved at Zhennan Pass. On the thirteenth day, a great victory was achieved at Lang Son, seriously injuring the French commander Negri.

The successive victories of the Qing army frightened the French army in Hanoi and made them ready to flee. The French cabinet of Jouvière also fell due to the defeat. However, the Qing government took advantage of the victory to seek peace. On February 19, it signed the "Paris Armistice Agreement" with France. On the 22nd, it ordered the front-line troops to cease fire on March 1st and withdraw on the 11th. On April 27th, it authorized Li Hongzhang to sign the "Ten Articles of the Sino-French Treaty on Vietnam" with the French ambassador to China, Badenot, in Tianjin. Due to the cowardly concessions of the Qing government, China was defeated without being defeated, while France won without winning.

The withdrawal of the Nanyang Army meant that the Han government had abandoned its interventionist policy toward the Far East. As long as the Western countries did not take aggressive actions against the Natuna Islands, Songkhla, and the Lan Fang Empire, the Han government's attention would not shift from South America to the Far East again.

While the Qing government and French troops were fighting on and off in Annam, the situation in other parts of the world was also changing rapidly.

In October 1884, the ships that had been sent to the United States, Canada, and Australia to accept Chinese workers returned one after another, and the great migration of Chinese people caused by the Chinese Exclusion Act entered its final stage. On November 10, 1884, European countries excluded the Han government, which had colonial interests in Africa.
Only 15 European countries were invited, including the German Empire, the British Empire, the French Third Republic, the Russian Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the United States of America, the Kingdom of Italy, the Spanish Empire, the Portuguese Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Dutch Colonial Empire, the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of Sweden, the Kingdom of Denmark, and the Kingdom of Norway.
A conference on the partition of Africa was held in Berlin, the capital of Germany. The conference lasted 104 days. During the conference, Britain, France, and Germany divided the scope of African colonies according to their own wishes. There were constant conflicts and disputes among the parties. It was not until the beginning of 1885 that the countries reluctantly reached the principle of partitioning Africa.

In this way, for the first time, European and American powers drew their respective geographical boundaries in tropical Africa on the map in Berlin, far away from Africa.

In order to avoid countries from going to war in the competition for Africa, the Berlin Conference also focused on the issue of "effective occupation".

After fierce debates between the countries and Britain, which occupies the most territory in Africa, a resolution with extremely ambiguous wording was finally passed: the participating countries must notify other countries separately when they occupy coastal areas of Africa in the future; when annexing coastal areas of Africa, they have the responsibility to ensure the establishment of a ruling power sufficient to protect existing rights and interests. When discussing the issue of free trade in the Congo River Basin, the Berlin Conference forcibly included the Chinese Congo colony, French Congo and northern Angola into the free trade zone without the consent of the Chinese country.

Regarding the issue of freedom of inland navigation, free navigation under international supervision was finally implemented in the Congo River Basin. The final protocol signed at the Berlin Conference consisted of 38 articles and 6 words, but most of them were official documents and were not implemented. The conflict caused by the division of Central Africa that the conference attempted to resolve was not formally discussed at the conference table, but was resolved through political transactions outside the conference.

These contents were not included in the protocol. The limited achievements of this conference showed the balance of power that had already formed among the European powers in Africa, marking a new starting point for their frantic scramble for Africa.

After the Berlin Conference, the pace of the European powers' division of Africa accelerated greatly. In 1876, European powers only owned 10.8% of Africa's land, which increased to 1885% in 25 and soared to 1900% in 90.4 after the Berlin Conference.

By 1912, the entire African continent had been divided up, with only Ethiopia and Liberia retaining some semblance of independence.

In the unprecedentedly fierce battle for Africa, Britain formulated the so-called "Two C Plan" from Cape Town to Cairo, attempting to establish a colonial empire spanning the north and south of Africa.

France formulated the "Two S Plan" from Senegal to Somalia, attempting to cross the east and west continents of Africa.

Germany developed a plan to cross the African continent diagonally from East Africa to Southwest Africa.

Portugal and Italy also had their own expansion plans. The European powers all wanted to realize their own expansion plans on the African continent, which caused serious disputes and conflicts. These disputes and conflicts would become an important factor leading to the First World War.

Faced with the Western powers' arrogant attitude in the division of African colonies, the Han government had no more effective options except routine diplomatic protests.

Time slowly moves forward amid turmoil and change.

In June 1883, Imperial Concubine Zhang Baoyi became pregnant. In August, Empress Wu Lingxuan and two new concubines also announced their pregnancy. When the news came out, people from all over the country spontaneously held celebrations for the emperor's successor. In 6, the four daughters gave birth to two sons and two daughters for Li Mingyuan. To celebrate the birth of his children, Li Mingyuan specially named four small islands in the Ishu Islands in the South Pacific after his four children.

In January 1885, smokeless powder and the new rifle using smokeless powder as ammunition completed the final verification work and began large-scale production.

In August 1885, when Western countries were still amazed by the development of the first Maxim machine gun, the first heavy machine gun independently developed by China had already entered service in the National Defense Army and began to replace the Gatling hand-cranked machine gun, becoming a heavy firepower support weapon for the National Defense Army's corps and battalion-level military units.

In May 1887, Crown Prince Frederick was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer. Because of the case of Prince Valmadre who was cured, Crown Princess Victoria immediately found He Lianchen, who stayed in the German palace to take care of the health of the Crown Prince's family. Then, with the correct diagnosis of He Lianchen and doctors from various countries, Crown Prince Frederick, like his son, luckily escaped from the clutches of death.

On March 1888, 3, German Emperor William I died, and Crown Prince Frederick, who had a successful operation, took over the position of German Emperor and became the second Emperor of the German Empire. …………

(End of this chapter)