Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 408: British Policy Shift
In the north of Chang'an, inside the office building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, British Minister Alman sat on a chair by the window on the third floor, waiting for a reply from the Han government while watching the scenery outside.

There is an endless stream of people and vehicles, and all kinds of agricultural and industrial products are displayed in an orderly manner in the shops and stalls. People walking and stopping, from time to time, buy a few festival celebration items and industrial products needed for the family from the shops next to the market.

After more than ten years, Alman returned to South America again. He was promoted to British Minister to Hanguo. Looking at the scene outside the window, he felt both familiar and strange.

Fourteen years ago, when the Argentine federal government still existed and the city was still called Cordoba, Alman came to Argentina as a diplomatic upstart and served as deputy counselor of the British Consulate in Cordoba. Fourteen years later, the South American Han Kingdom swept across La Plata, and Argentina and Uruguay became history in the war of 1878. The Chinese in the South American Han Kingdom replaced the Hispanic whites and became the masters of the La Plata region.

The Spanish Gothic buildings are still there, but the people walking on this land have replaced them with Chinese from the Far East.

Having witnessed the regime change in the La Plata region, Alman felt sorry for the white people in Argentina and Uruguay, but also couldn't help but develop a strong curiosity about the Han country in South America.

The current world is dominated by white people. In the eyes of Western powers, yellow people, brown people, and black people are all inferior. However, the Chinese, a race called a sleeping lion by Napoleon the Great, did not awaken in the Far East, but in southern South America, a group of Chinese workers from the lowest social classes completed the transformation from an agricultural country to a primary industrial country in just over 20 years. Looking at all countries in the world, except for Germany and the United States, which seized the new industrial revolution and achieved a leap-forward improvement in their comprehensive national strength, only the South American Han country has achieved similar achievements.

Although Tsarist Russia and Japan in the corner of the Far East are also following the example of Western powers in carrying out the new industrial revolution, compared with the industrial and national bases of the two countries, their current achievements are still far behind those of the South American Han Kingdom.

More than ten years ago, the South American Han Kingdom, which started with Chinese workers in Peru, defeated the Brazilian Empire and the Argentine Republic successively, occupied two southern states of Brazil and five northern states of Argentina, and was called South American Prussia by Western countries. Fourteen years later, the total number of local Chinese, whites, and Indians reached 1742 million, and the total steel output exceeded that of the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, ranking eighth in the world. The South American Han Kingdom took off the title of South American Prussia and was given a new title by Britain and Germany, the Germany of South America.

The South American Han Kingdom's economy and politics were fully moving closer to Germany. Between 1880 and 1889, the German government increased its investment in the South American Han Kingdom. A total of more than professionals in shipbuilding, steel smelting, machinery manufacturing, and industrial equipment worth million taels of silver were continuously shipped from Germany to the South American Han Kingdom.

Among the various mechanical equipment sold or donated by Germany, more than 70% are technologies that have already been popularized in Europe and have no patent barriers. A small part is cutting-edge advanced technology that the Han country has spent a lot of money and used technology exchange methods to exchange. However, whether it is general industrial technology that has been popularized or cutting-edge advanced technology with superiority, the South American Han government accepts all of them.

The large industrial system is an overall project covering thousands of sub-sectors. Even some industrial technologies that are popular in many European countries can make up for the shortcomings of local industries in corresponding fields after being introduced to the local area, thus achieving the goal of comprehensive development and improvement in the industrial field.

In the economic field, China accepted paid aid from Germany, and in the political field, it drew on German experience and, based on local conditions, prepared for a constitutional monarchy and carried out reforms and innovations in the political field.

In the field of education, students were sent to Germany to absorb and learn German industrial, scientific, and military knowledge.

In the military field, the German government regularly sends between 300 and 700 military instructors and military technical personnel to the Han Kingdom in South America every year. On the one hand, it uses the German model to guide and improve the training methods of the Han Kingdom's army and navy. On the other hand, it establishes joint research institutions in certain emerging military fields. In the fields of airships, submarines, heavy machine guns, etc., the two sides share technology and jointly send professional talents to conduct key technical research and tackle key problems.

After defeating the Second French Empire, the German Army was revered as a model of European armies and became an object of emulation by the armies of many countries. However, compared with the army, the overall strength of the German Navy fell behind that of Britain and France, and was barely on the same level as the United States, Tsarist Russia, and the Kingdom of Italy.

The German navy is not as strong as that of Britain and France, which is a fact that the local government has long been aware of. However, unlike Britain and France, which like to hide things, often ask for exorbitant amounts, and link ship purchase transactions with politics, the German government is relatively more honest in this regard. In addition, China and Germany have all-round cooperation in other fields, so choosing the German navy as an example to emulate is the first choice based on the overall national situation.

The all-round cooperation between China and Germany is based on mutual benefit. While China in South America obtains much-needed technology, industrial capital and other benefits from Germany, Germany also obtains considerable profits by exporting industrial equipment, technology and capital.

In terms of economy, the technology and industrial equipment sold by Germany and the economic transactions between the two sides in the fields of agriculture, animal husbandry, chemical industry, internal combustion engines, etc., provided Germany with a market share totaling more than 100 million silver dollars. With the help of industrial orders from the South American Han country and cutting-edge technologies exchanged in emerging economic fields such as chemical industry, electricity, internal combustion engines, etc., Germany's local industry has taken a step forward based on its original talent and technology reserves.

From the perspective of industrial growth alone, the average annual growth rate of German industry from 1870 to 1875 was only 2.7%;
From 1875 to 1880, the growth rate reached 4.1%;
1880% from 1886 to 5.2;
Even after the economic crisis of 1882, between 1885 and 1889, the average annual growth rate of German industry still jumped to 6.1%, far exceeding that of Britain, France and other countries.
Second only to the Han Dynasty and the United States.

In addition, between 1870 and 1889, the industrial production efficiency of the German Empire also greatly improved. In years, the average production index of German enterprises increased from
The average labor productivity index of workers increased from 100 to 360, and the average labor productivity index of workers increased from 100 to 225.

Rapid industrial growth enabled the emerging Germany to quickly catch up with and surpass the old capitalist countries. In terms of industrial production alone, Germany surpassed France in 1874. In 1889, excluding the added factor of colonies, it surpassed Britain in terms of European domestic industrial capacity alone.

Science and technology are the primary productive forces. In Germany, "scientific and technological research is widely supported by the government. In addition, the German government introduced the model of establishing joint research institutions proposed by China to Europe, advocating that large German industrial companies establish independent research departments. By 1889, there were 127 large technology companies in Germany with independent research institutions, among which the largest research department employed as many as 200 people.

The rapid growth of the German Empire in industry mainly relied on its inherent foundation, but the comprehensive cooperation between China and Germany, especially the technical support provided by China to related German companies in the two major emerging fields of chemical industry and electrical industry, played a great role in promoting the economic and industrial take-off of Germany.

In the field of electrical industry, in 1876, Germany did not have an electrical industry column in the industrial survey, and thousands of electrical workers were included in other projects. By 1882, there were 86 workers in the electrical industry column, and in 00 it increased to 1888.

The famous Siemens is a microcosm of the development of the German electrical industry during this period. In 1872, the company's employees
工不到600人，1880年增至1500人，1885 年增至3200多人，到1888年时更猛增到近10 800人。

By the beginning of 1889, there were 135 electrical companies in Germany with a total capital of 10.2 billion marks. The total output value of the German electrical industry increased 1872 times between 1889 and 28. In the development of the electrical industry, perhaps the output of cable products can explain some problems. In the 1870s, Germany also
There was no cable industry, and from 1875 to 1880 the average annual export of cable products was only 3 pounds. However, by 1888, the export volume had reached 624 million pounds.

Ironically, the country that imported the most German cables was Britain, the home of the cable industry. By 1889, Germany produced 34% of the world's electrical products, while the United States, which became the world's first industrial country that year, had a market share of only 21%. (The technical reserves of the electrical industry in China were not as good as those of the chemical industry. It only had a partial share in the international market in a few sub-sectors such as hydropower generation, and its overall market share was very low.)
In the field of chemical industry, Germany is an emerging chemical power second only to South America, but affected by the trade protection of Western powers, except for some monopolistic fields such as rubber, which occupy a certain share of the European market, Germany occupies the largest share of the European market in terms of the entire chemical industry.

Hundreds of technologies first discovered by the Han Kingdom in South America and applied to industrial production were rapidly exchanged with Germany, which rapidly enhanced the market competitiveness of German chemical companies. Many small companies, with the help of chemical technology introduced by the German government, were able to rapidly develop into world-renowned large-scale chemical industrial companies.

For example, when the Baden Aniline Company was founded in 1865, it had only 30 workers, but by the beginning of 1889, it had more than 4000 employees.

而在1880年一1885年的短短5年中，德国就成立了112家化学公司，资本达9 200万马克。到1889年，德国已拥有108 家大型化工股份公司，总资本达33290万马克。化学工业生产也呈现出汉国开花、德国结果的一派繁荣最象。

Through a mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation model, Germany has achieved further industrial development than in history, and the South American Han Kingdom has taken this opportunity to become the only emerging power in South America to initially achieve industrialization in the overall field.

The international situation is unpredictable. Former allies may become enemies that need to be guarded against because of a war, and former enemies may become allies that can be made friends with in just a few years.

Twenty-one years is enough to complete the change of a generation. After twenty-one years of changes, the comprehensive strength of the Han Kingdom in terms of economy, population, and military has jumped to the first place in South America. Considering the strength of the Han Kingdom at the beginning of 1889, it is no longer helpful to use force again to directly contain the Han Kingdom in South America.

The British Army did not have an advantage in terms of numbers and comprehensive combat effectiveness on the battlefield in South America. It gave up the interests of other major overseas colonies and focused its energy on South America, intent on curbing the development and expansion of the Han Kingdom in South America. However, this also made it meaningless as British capital was shrinking step by step in the face of pressure from the United States.

Whether admitted or denied, the Han Kingdom has become a decisive force that cannot be ignored in South America. If the British side does not want to completely withdraw from the South American market, it must change its original policies and guidelines, meet some of the expansion needs of the Han Kingdom, and pull the Han Kingdom together to resist the infiltration of the United States into South America.

British Minister Alman took the initiative to contact the Han government with two main purposes. One was to gain Han's support and oppose the United States' full involvement in South American affairs.

The second is to abandon the containment policy towards the South American Han Kingdom to a certain extent, improve political relations with the South American Han Kingdom, and acquiesce in the South American Han Kingdom's substantial occupation of Paraguay when the situation in Paraguay deteriorates to the point of being out of control.

From the British perspective, the establishment and rise of the Han Kingdom in South America and the loss of control of the situation in South American countries were all caused by Lopez Jr.'s initiative to launch the Paraguayan War.

After the end of the Paraguayan War, Lopez Jr. used the expansion of the South American Han Kingdom in Argentina and Uruguay as a cover to send troops to occupy Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil and other areas, expanding Paraguay's territory to more than 120 million square kilometers.

As the source of the dramatic changes in the situation in South America, Britain initially accepted the reality that Lopez Jr. controlled Paraguay. However, Lopez Jr.'s arrogance, conceit, superstition of force, and neglect of domestic affairs caused Paraguay's domestic economy to continue to decline. Industry and agriculture were almost completely destroyed due to the war. In order to obtain funds to maintain the army, Lopez Jr. imposed excessive taxes in the controlled areas. Not only were Paraguayan local farmers overwhelmed and frequently revolted, but even Britain's commercial activities in the Paraná River basin were seriously affected.

It is true that Paraguay signed a navigation agreement for the Paraná River Basin, but due to the turbulent local situation in Paraguay and the independent rule of warlords in many regions, when British merchant ships passed through the Paraguayan-controlled river basin, they were often robbed and looted by various armed elements and Paraguayan government forces disguised as armed forces.

Every time the British Minister to Paraguay protested, it was difficult to get a positive response from the Paraguayan government.

Because the Paraguayan government army, on which Lopez Jr. relies for fiscal revenue, is the foundation for maintaining his powerful rule. If the local warlord forces are forcibly stopped from obtaining military pay supplements when military subsidies are severely scarce, then Lopez Jr. will be left with only one way out: being driven out of power by the army he once served loyal to.

The British government has long given up its policy of winning over Lopez Jr., and now that Lopez Jr. and Paraguay have lost their value, their only value is as bargaining chips to win over the South American Han Kingdom and the Republic of Brazil. As for which side of the two sides, the South American Han Kingdom and the Republic of Brazil, can swallow Paraguay into its mouth, it depends on the strength and performance of both sides.

(End of this chapter)