Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 409: British Policy Changes II

"The British are cunning. Since 1878, the diplomatic relations between China and Britain have always been lukewarm. Today, the British envoy personally came forward and took the initiative to contact the imperial government. This is the first time in more than ten years."

After leaving the palace, Hu Yaji and Tang Jingsong sat in a three-wheeled carriage, chatting as they walked.

"The development of the local economy is different from the past. As early as the early days of the Argentine War, the local government returned many British businessmen's assets in Argentina for the purpose of easing relations between the two sides. In the three fields of railways, animal husbandry and agriculture, the government also adopted a more open-minded policy, allowing British businessmen to regain part of their shares in accordance with the amount of capital as foreign businessmen.

However, British merchants were more aggressive and attempted to get involved in the operation and control of local railways. After the plot failed, more than 70% of British merchants were kicked out, and their remaining shares and capital were taken over by the local government, Germany, Austria-Hungary and other countries. The remaining British merchants, under the competition of capital from Germany, Austria-Hungary, Switzerland and other countries, have a lower and lower market share in the local market, and no longer have the exclusive influence they had in Argentina. "

Hu Yaqi recalled the decline of British capital in the home region with a smile on his face:

"The empire's homeland guards the Paraná River and the Uruguay River, two major international rivers, and has more than 1700 million citizens who have received primary literacy education. Although the average literacy of the local national names is far from the standards of European powers, it has a primary industrial system and can independently produce industrial products such as steel, machinery, lathes, rifles, artillery, machine guns, ammunition, etc. The comprehensive industrial system covers core industrial fields such as steel smelting, textiles, chemicals, internal combustion engines, and electrical appliances.

The geographical and shipping advantages plus the industrial market advantages are enough to make British capital that withdrew early jealous and regretful. "

"It has been a long time since the British wanted to enter the local economic sector and take advantage of the local economic boom to get a piece of the pie."

Tang Jingsong nodded in agreement with Hu Yaji's idea and echoed: "It is only because of the influence of the Argentine War that the British government has reservations and prejudices against the Empire. It wants to take advantage of the Empire for nothing, but is unwilling to give the Empire due conditions in terms of purchasing ships, sending overseas students, and reciprocity of industrial products.

If you only think about gaining and are unwilling to make equal concessions, there is no such good thing in the world."

"The British have been bullying South America for a long time and are used to bullying the small countries there. They were unable to change their ways and were unwilling to lower their status and conduct economic transactions with the mainland on an equal footing."

Hu Yaqi guessed the British's thoughts and continued, "The British government's change in the South American issue is much slower than its attitude towards the balance of the European continent. In fact, as early as when the British reduced their overseas forces and successively withdrew from the colonial outposts in Tanzania, Somalia and Annan, the British should have seen that the imperial government had no intention of damaging Britain's colonial and economic interests.

But more than ten years passed, and when faced with the full-scale entry of American capital into South America and the encirclement and expulsion of British capital, British talents changed their foreign policy and took the initiative to contact the empire.

The British made rational and realistic decisions on most international issues, but they made mistakes when dealing with the rise of the United States and the layout of South America.

"Even though the UK has a large number of overseas colonies, it is still essentially a small country with an area of ​​only more than 200,000 square kilometers. It is not surprising that there are differences and discrepancies between the UK and mainland governments in analyzing and judging the international situation."…………

The British took the initiative to seek support from the Han Kingdom. Hu Yaji and Tang Jingsong felt more confident and were not in a hurry to leave.

Along the way, we calmly discussed the pros and cons of Britain's domestic foreign policy.

Nearing noon, British Minister Alman was no longer in the same mood as when he first arrived at the Han Ministry of Foreign Affairs building. He still had the leisure to observe the customs and people of the Han country and recall the past.

Alman had an important mission in taking the initiative to contact the Han Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Han domestic market, or even a unified and complete Paraná River basin controlled by the Han, would be beneficial to Britain from an economic perspective.
However, this factor only plays a secondary role in Alman's trip. The most important thing is to unite with the Han Kingdom in South America to dispel the arrogant expansionist arrogance of the United States.

The American habit of aggression and expansion has a long history. The failure of the American-Canadian War in 1812 did not dispel the American expansionist ambitions, but instead inspired the so-called destiny, the idea that the United States should unify North America and dominate the world order.

The United States seized 190 million square kilometers of land from Mexico. Before the Mexican-American War, as early as the Jefferson era, the United States had wanted to bring Cuba under its rule.

"The day will come when Cuba will fall like a ripe apple into American hands," John Quincy Adams declared in 1823.

In 1825-1826, he prevented Gran Colombia from liberating the Antilles.

From 1845 to 1861, the United States offered to purchase Cuba from Spain several times.

After 1880, the rise of American financial imperialism strengthened the idea of ​​swallowing up Cuba.

Annexation always requires a pretext, and the United States found the pretext of condemning the Spanish colony and ostensibly sympathizing with the brave Cuban people in their struggle to free themselves from Spanish rule.

But secretly, they provided weapons and ammunition support to the Cuban rebel forces.

The Spanish government had already declined and accepted support and aid from the United States. The endless stream of rebel forces emerged and more and more were suppressed. If the British government had not stood by to support Spain, the American government, which believed that its national strength far exceeded that of Spain, would not have waited until 1898. As early as 1823, it would have taken action against Cuba and turned Cuba into a newly joined state under the name of the United States.

Compared with the United States, Han was equivalent to a young lion. Although the country had achieved primary industrialization, it was still far from threatening Britain's maritime hegemony. The United States was different. It had a variety of mineral resources for industrial production and was only 3000 kilometers away from the European continent by sea. At the same time, Canada, which was close to the United States, rich in mineral resources, and in the core position of the British Empire's global strategic layout together with India, had always faced the risk of invasion by the United States.

Canada's role in Britain's global strategic layout is completely different from that of India. India has a large population, and Britain occupied the local area purely for economic benefits, while Canada is managed like a native land. The local immigrant population is all European whites, and the small number of Chinese workers who immigrated to the local area were also repatriated during the anti-Chinese wave a few years ago.

If the situation in South America gets out of control, the worst scenario is that the Han Kingdom occupies Paraguay and Chile and even cedes part of the territory of the Republic of Brazil, which will cause certain damage to Britain's economic interests in Chile and the Republic of Brazil, but will not hurt the foundation. After all, Chile and Paraguay are not British colonies, and Britain is still the current world hegemon. After the South American Han Kingdom occupies Chile and Paraguay, it will still retain Britain's economic interests in the two countries. British capital will at most suffer a small loss due to the turbulent situation, but it will not lose everything.

If the Americans reveal their expansionist ambitions and invade Canada, Cuba and South America by force, not only will Canada, the most important autonomous territory, be in danger, but Britain's economic and political interests in the entire Americas, including North America, Central America and South America, will all be lost.

From the British perspective, it is easy to understand why the United States had always been Britain's first imaginary enemy before the Anglo-German conflict intensified in 1900.

After the First World War in history, Britain's strength was damaged and it had to accept the fact that the United States was on par with Britain. However, at the beginning of 1889, the German Crown Prince Frederick III received timely treatment for his illness due to Li Mingyuan's intervention, and recovered well after the operation. He was crowned as the second German emperor in 1888.

Frederick III ascended the throne and continued the friendly foreign policy towards Britain during the reign of William I. Britain's authority on the European continent was not challenged. On the European continent, another country that might threaten Britain's hegemony, the Russian Empire, was busy with internal reforms and had no intention of causing trouble or disrupting the British Empire for the time being.

So after eliminating the two European competitors, Britain, which was at the peak of its power, looked around and found that there was only the United States, which was clamoring for freedom, equality, and liberation of the colonial people.

The colonial system is the foundation for maintaining Britain's hegemony. Not only did the Americans rebel against the British a hundred years ago and create a weird republican system, but after their total industrial output surpassed that of Britain, they clamored for the liberation of the people of the American colonies. Doesn't this fundamentally threaten the British Empire's global hegemony?
Britain is not afraid of ambitious colonial countries, but is afraid of destroyers who want to liberate the colonial people and dismember the colonial system!
The US government is playing the role of a destroyer, and is happy to publicize it around the world. Faced with the United States' clearly purposeful hostile behavior, the British government, even though it had a military conflict with the Han Kingdom in South America, had to change its diplomatic strategy and instead choose to support the Han Kingdom to a certain extent, using it as the most important chess piece to curb the United States' ambitions in the Americas.

(End of this chapter)