Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 510: America Joins the War
Inside the American Embassy in Brazil, American Minister Selter was sitting in front of the telegraph machine, anxiously waiting for a reply.

Celtic couldn't help but be anxious, as the situation in the Republic of Brazil had reached its most critical point.

To the south, the state of Paraná was occupied by the Han State, and 4 Brazilian defenders were surrounded in a small area of ​​tens of square kilometers on the southern border, facing the danger of being wiped out by the Han army at any time.

On the northern border, tens of thousands of defenders were caught in a bitter battle with the Brazilian Empire's army. The Brazilian Empire continued to increase the number of troops it deployed in the attack, and as time went on, the northern border defenders were likely to be unable to hold on and be defeated.

In the western region, Mato Grosso do Sul state fell, and Santos led his troops and some garrisons in the western inland areas to retreat to Goiás state.

In the central region, São Paulo State and the capital Rio de Janeiro were attacked by the Han State from both sea and land directions. The port of Rio de Janeiro was lost, and the remaining naval fleet blocking the port was surrounded by the Han army and all captured.

After occupying the port of Rio de Janeiro, eliminating the remaining fleet in the port, and occupying the surrounding shipyards, machinery factories and other industrial plants, a vanguard of about 10,000 people is heading towards the city of Rio de Janeiro.

About half of the main force was lost on the Paraguayan battlefield, and the remaining half was preserved because of Santos' "improvisational response". However, with only the remaining 6 troops in Santos' hands, they could not withstand the attack of the Han army. In its heyday, even with more than main forces, they could not defeat the Han army. Now the troops are retreating step by step to the mainland, with low morale and empty manpower in inland areas. It is even more impossible to rely on the Republic of Brazil's own strength to end the war.

Therefore, the top leaders of the Republic of Brazil had to pin their only hopes on the United States and urged the United States to make substantive intervention. The frequency of their urging became higher and higher, and their urging became more and more urgent day by day. As a result, the American minister also became anxious.

The United States and the Han Kingdom did not establish formal diplomatic relations. Intelligence collection on the Han Kingdom was mainly carried out through the U.S. Embassy in Brazil, and Celt, the U.S. Minister to Brazil, was the main person in charge. All intelligence about the Han Kingdom, including intelligence transmitted from Chile and Bolivia, would be summarized in the Embassy in Brazil, and then organized, reviewed and analyzed by Celt before being handed over to senior U.S. officials.

As the person primarily responsible for collecting all aspects of intelligence and information on the Han State, Celt's understanding of the Han State became deeper and deeper as he gained access to more information.

The United States is an emerging industrial country with a very rapid industrial development. As a similarly backward country, China is developing no slower than the United States.

From 1868 to the beginning of 1890, the territory expanded from two southern Brazilian states to the entire Argentina, two southern Brazilian states, and southern Chile. After the Paraguayan War, it was likely that Paraguay and Brazil's Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraná states would be added. The actual controlled area increased from less than 30 square kilometers to more than 400 million square kilometers. The population size increased from hundreds of thousands to 1800 million.

The industrial industry has developed from scratch, with steel production ranking eighth in the world and the total tonnage of merchant ships approaching 100 million tons.

Among them, there are more than 2000 ocean-going merchant ships with a displacement of more than 160 tons.

In the field of textile printing and dyeing, synthetic dyes such as indigo and indigo red produced by Han State accounted for about 12% of the world market share. Synthetic dyes were not only exported to Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Far East, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia and other places, but even some manufacturers in the United States purchased synthetic dyes produced in Han State.

The chemical industry is Han's advantageous and pillar industry. In the field of large-scale chemical industry, not only are Americans lagging behind Han, but even Germany, which has the most advanced chemical technology in Europe, still needs to introduce and learn technology from Han in some cutting-edge chemical sub-fields.

The actual development speed of the Han Kingdom exceeded the expectations of the United States. If it was only the development of technology and industry, Americans would not care much. After all, in the 19th century, except for a few countries that maintained a certain degree of independence, such as the Far East, Japan, and Korea, most of the rest of the world was occupied by Western powers as colonies. The commodity trade of the colonies was controlled by the sovereign country, leaving few opportunities for other countries to get involved. Even if the products were excellent, if they could not enter the markets of other countries, the economic benefits created would be limited. This is also the reason why the Han Kingdom was technologically advanced in the chemical industry, but its product market share was lower than that of countries such as Britain and Germany. Unlike the rapid development of industry and technology, the expansion of the Han Kingdom in terms of territory and population has increasingly threatened and unsettled the United States.

The sudden appearance of an emerging industrial and military power on the South American continent, which had a population of 1800 million, actually controlled an area of ​​400 million square kilometers of territory, had initially completed industrialization and possessed a dominant position in certain industrial fields, naturally shocked the top U.S. officials.

Due to strategic misjudgments and limitations of the international situation, the United States and Britain missed the best time to curb the development of the Han Kingdom. After all, in the 1890s, even if Britain's interference was excluded, it would have been impossible for the United States to sail nearly 1800 kilometers from the Atlantic coast of the United States to expedition and occupy an emerging industrial country with a population of 400 million and a territory of 10 million. Ten years ago, during the Argentine War, Britain dispatched an ocean-going fleet with more than soldiers to launch an expedition against the Han Kingdom, but it did not achieve its goal, not to mention that ten years later, the population, land, industrial strength and other aspects have increased several times.

In the eyes of senior U.S. government officials, the Han Kingdom had become a powerful force that was difficult to eliminate. It was no longer possible to destroy the Han Kingdom. What needed to be done now was to comprehensively curb the development of the Han Kingdom. Focusing on the Han Kingdom’s homeland, they should unite with the Republic of Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and other countries to deploy a tight defense line against the Han Kingdom and strangle the Han Kingdom’s attempt to expand to the north.

In order to achieve this goal, the first thing is to maintain the stability of the regime of the Republic of Brazil, intervene in and end the war between the Han Kingdom and the Republic of Brazil, and the second thing is to exclude Britain, which is standing in front of the Han Kingdom and disrupting the situation in South America. Because of the sudden rise of the Han Kingdom and the serious threat, the senior US government officials have no patience and slowly waste time with the British, playing the so-called trick of testing each other.

The United States at this time was not in the period of World War I, where it was fooled by Britain and France into joining the war, but after the war ended, it did not gain a penny and returned to America in anger, pursuing isolationism.

Moreover, even after the end of World War I, the United States pursued isolationism, which only referred to the European continent and the Western powers.

In 1823, after US President James Monroe publicly issued the Monroe Doctrine, the United States regarded the Greater America region, including the entire South and North America, as its sphere of influence. Even the most conservative American politicians would not implement the so-called isolationism in the Americas.

Originally in history, during the Venezuelan crisis in 1893, in order to implement the Monroe Doctrine and compete for dominance in the Americas, the United States even dared to threaten war with Britain. In the end, due to the challenge from Germany and the impact of the Boer War, Britain compromised and backed down, and officially transferred dominance in South America to the United States in 1898.

The President of the United States has publicly expressed his views on the situation in South America and his determination to intervene in the South American war. The American Minister Selter also believes that his government will substantially intervene in the war in the Republic of Brazil. But the extent and scale of the intervention, will it only involve the sea or both the sea and the land? Will it support the Republic of Brazil in conducting a proxy war? Or will it directly participate in the war? If it participates directly, will it only send a small number of army troops to help the Republic of Brazil stabilize the situation, or will it mainly use the US Army to prepare for a full-scale war with the Han Kingdom?
Several possibilities flashed through Celt's mind. After careful analysis, he concluded that the United States was not ready for a full-scale war with the Han Kingdom and would not send the main force of the army to intervene in the war in South America. There were many reasons for this.
First of all, due to the limitations of the current level of shipping technology, if a full-scale war is launched, at least 10 main army troops will need to be mobilized to cross nearly 10 kilometers of sea. The funds consumed to transport and maintain army troops for expeditionary operations are extremely huge, and the US government simply cannot afford such consumption.

Secondly, the United States has not yet started to expand its military and prepare for war. Its standing army has tens of thousands of people and its naval ships have a total tonnage of 12.2 tons. Neither the army nor the navy has an absolute advantage over the Han Dynasty. On the contrary, considering the combat effectiveness of the troops, the standing army is not only lower than that of the Han Dynasty in terms of numbers, but also inferior to the Han Dynasty's field army, which has been fighting for many years in terms of combat experience and combat skills.

The last and most important factor was that Britain still stayed in South America and refused to give up its dominance over South America. It was with the connivance and support of Britain that the Han Kingdom grew stronger step by step.

If the British were not expelled, the United States would not dare to launch a full-scale war against the Han Dynasty. After all, the strength and deterrence of the British Empire are still huge and unshakable in this era.

"Ding ding ding", after waiting for a long time, the telegraph machine finally responded. When the telegram was printed out, without waiting for the telegraph operator to take any action, Celt took the telegram that had just been printed out and was still hot, and quickly scanned it.

"After review by the United States Congress and the President's approval, the Atlantic Fleet and the 6000-plus Army troops on board will set sail on January 1890, 1, for South America to maintain stability in the Republic of Brazil and restore peace in southern South America."

After reading the contents of the telegram and receiving clear instructions and replies, Celt did not stop, but picked up the bowler hat on the table and put it on his head, then instructed the assistant beside him: "Arrange a carriage immediately, you come with me to visit President Fonseca and Marshal Peixoto, they should be waiting anxiously."
(End of this chapter)