Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 563 1899, a decade of changes

With the end of the Haitian crisis and the cessation of tensions in the United States, the Americas have entered a brief period of calm. However, no matter how the situation changes around the world, time still moves forward at its inherent frequency.

In November 1892, a large diamond mine was discovered in the Congo Overseas Province, with a proven reserve of about 11 million carats of diamonds. It was then reported to the central government of the Kingdom of Han, and in October of the following year, mining officially began.

In December 1892, an employee of an ocean shipping company improved the method of making biscuits. He baked the food at a high temperature of 12℃ to 180℃ to remove excess moisture. While ensuring the nutritional value of the food, he further reduced the weight of the food, thereby increasing the economic value of the food per unit weight and reducing transportation costs.

Compressed biscuits are made from wheat flour, sugar, oil, and dairy products, and are mixed through the cold powder process, roller baking, cooling, crushing, and external mixing. They are then sandwiched with other auxiliary ingredients such as dried fruits and meat floss, and then baked and compressed at high temperature. They are mainly used as food consumption for ocean-going immigrants on their way, and as processed food, sold to food-scarce areas such as the Far East and North Korea.

After the improved compressed biscuits were launched on the market, they were widely welcomed by Chinese immigrants, shipping companies, and the purchasing North Korean government. Because the weight of food was reduced, ocean-going fleets were able to transport more processed food. Thanks to the advancement of food processing technology, more poor people in the Far East who were struggling on the verge of death were able to survive by satisfying their hunger with compressed biscuits.

In January 1893, the Songkhla Kingdom, which had initially completed its internal reorganization, announced a referendum to join the Han Kingdom. Like Lan Fang, it became an autonomous kingdom under the name of the Han Kingdom, accepting the guidance of the Han Kingdom in diplomacy, politics, military and other aspects, while retaining a certain degree of autonomy in domestic affairs and economic fields.

In February 1893, the central government of the Han Dynasty issued a decree to regulate commercial activities and improve the economic and taxation system.

For Chinese people who live in the territory of other countries and have not obtained overseas resident identity certification from the Chinese country, they need to pay an additional 3% tax when entering South America, Songkhla, Lan Fang, Congo, and the South Pacific territory to conduct business activities.

Even if they entered Hawaii, Thailand, North Korea and other countries that had signed most-favored-nation economic agreements with the Han State, they would not be able to enjoy the most-favored-nation merchant treatment.

There are good and bad Chinese overseas. Many Chinese and Chinese businessmen have made their fortunes by selling out the interests of their own ethnic group and assisting the colonists in exploiting and oppressing their fellow citizens. In order to distinguish these people, the Han government has specially made supplementary laws to deny them overseas resident identity certification. At the same time, if they are involved in illegal and criminal activities, they will also rely on peripheral organizations such as the Taiping Society to carry out targeted punishments.

In March 1893, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company in the United States declared bankruptcy due to its inability to repay loans from British banks, marking the beginning of the crisis. The United States thus suffered the most serious economic crisis in its history.

Two months later, the National Rope Company suffered the same fate. The bankruptcy of the two companies triggered the stock market crash. Because all the major banks in New York had invested heavily in the stock market, a wave of bank failures hit. Bank failures led to a tightening of loans, and merchants who had just started business quickly went bankrupt because they could not get loans.

The collapse of the US economy was caused by many factors.

First, due to the competition from Han agricultural products and the strengthening of European countries' efforts to expand their colonies, the price and scale of American grain exports dropped rapidly.
Starting from 1885, the impact of the agricultural product export difficulties was transmitted to the United States. The sharp drop in income weakened the purchasing power of the largest group of the population - farmers. Prior to this, the economic depression in Europe caused the United States to lose its foreign markets, so foreign investors withdrew their gold investments in the United States.

Second, railroads and other major industries grew too fast, far beyond the needs of the market. The emergence of the crisis reflects the interconnected situation of the US economy. Failure in one area often leads to the impact of other areas. The emergence of the crisis also shows that the US economy is heavily dependent on the healthy development of the railroad industry. The railroad is still the most influential corporate entity and financial entity in the United States. Since the railroad crisis in 1893, all sectors of the country have suffered crises.

恐慌一旦开始便很快波及全国。两个月内，美国有超过8000家企业、156家铁路公司和400家银行倒闭。农产品价格更变得更低。100万工人、20%的劳动力群体失去工作—达到美国失业率的历史最高点。

The Great Depression was unprecedented not only in its severity but also in its duration. Although there was some recovery from 1895, it did not begin to recover until 1898.

Third, the silver issue became another trigger for the financial panic. The financial panic weakened the government's monetary system. US President Cleveland believed that monetary instability was the cause of the Great Depression. For this reason, the United States held meetings again and again on monetary issues and the financial system, but failed to reach a unanimous conclusion.

In June 1893, influenced by the United States, the economies of European countries experienced varying degrees of recession. At the end of that year, the Greek government declared bankruptcy, and Greece became the first country to fall in this economic crisis.

In June 1893, due to concerns that disputes over border disputes would bring unnecessary trouble to iron ore mining, the Han government did not begin formal mining of iron ore until June 6, after completing border surveys with Bolivia and signing a new border treaty. The main mining areas were included in the Han government's territory.

In September 1893, a researcher at the Royal Academy of Sciences of China successfully invented the first practical diesel engine while working on an internal combustion engine project. The engine power reached 9 horsepower and was put into trial production in June 10.

In October 1893, the aircraft project team successfully increased the power of gasoline aviation engines to 10 horsepower. Four months later, the first aircraft powered by this engine successfully took off. Han Dynasty thus became a leading country in the field of aviation.

On March 1894, 3, the Nanyang Squadron was upgraded to the Nanyang Fleet, with a fleet level of army group and a fleet commander level equivalent to that of the Atlantic Fleet and the Pacific Fleet. Its jurisdiction was west of Bougainville Island, including the Kingdom of Songkhla, the Kingdom of Lanfang, the Natuna Islands, and the seas along the line of Thailand, the Far East, and Korea. On March 6, 1894, a fleet of more than 3 ships, led by the Liming and Chaoyang, set out from the Pacific coast of Han Kingdom and headed for the Nanyang Sea to strengthen the strength of the Nanyang Fleet.

At the same time, two battleships with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons, one purchased from abroad and one built domestically, were added to the Atlantic Fleet and the Pacific Fleet respectively.

On March 1894, 3, the Han Dynasty completely mastered the technology of building 27-ton battleships. The second batch of two new battleships designed by the country and with a displacement of 1.2 tons officially started construction at the Xinjing Shipyard.

In May 1894, the Han Empire entered the preparatory constitutional period. The cabinet, the Legislative Yuan, the House of Representatives and other departments began to exercise the rights granted by the constitution. After being recommended by various departments and appointed by Li Mingyuan, Liu Pu became the first prime minister of the Han Empire.

In March 1895, thanks to the advantages of industrial transfer, various light industrial products produced in Songkhla and Lanfang and new industrial products transported from South America began to enter the Far East mainland market in large quantities. At the end of that year, the total trade volume of Han Kingdom, including Songkhla and Lanfang, exported to the Far East mainland exceeded 3 million Han Yuan, and still maintained a high-speed growth trend.

In June 1895, in order to get rid of the impact of the economic crisis and find markets for surplus domestic goods, the United States increased its support for the Republic of Brazil.

In August 1895, an American transport fleet consisting of more than 8 steamships arrived in Rio de Janeiro, the capital of the Republic of Brazil, bringing a large number of guns and artillery shells to the Republic of Brazil.

In April 1896, after six years of recovery and development, the Government of the Republic of Brazil reorganized an army with a total of 4 people, and the total tonnage of the naval fleet was restored to 6 tons with the full support of the United States.

In May 1896, the Republic of Brazil officially launched a war to unify the Brazilian region.

In April 1898, affected by the division of Haiti by France and Germany and the Brazilian Civil War, the United States postponed its infiltration into Spanish colonies, and the United States and Spain continued to maintain superficial peace.

In October 1898, due to insufficient population potential, the Brazilian Empire gradually fell into a disadvantage in the war.

In December, after a comprehensive assessment, the Han central government believed that it had achieved its goal of taking advantage of the Brazilian civil war to weaken Brazil's population potential and American funds, and decided to abandon its support for the Brazilian Empire.

At the end of December, after completing the delivery of the last batch of weapons and ammunition, the Han State closed the sea transportation channel and persuaded the top leaders of the Brazilian Empire to leave Brazil and seek refuge in the Han State.

In June 1899, the army of the Republic of Brazil occupied Salvador, the capital of the Brazilian Empire. Queen Elizabeth and a number of high-ranking officials fled to the Han Kingdom for refuge, and the Brazilian Empire was destroyed.

In May 1899, negotiations between Britain and the Boers failed and the British government decided to go to war.

In June 1899, the British government drew troops from various regions including the mainland, Africa, and India and assembled them in South Africa.

In July 1899, influenced by the impending Boer War, the British government sent diplomatic notes to Han and the United States respectively, proposing a formal decision to cede dominance in the Americas. On the premise that Han and the United States respect their own interests, it will no longer interfere militarily in American affairs.

In August 1899, five years after the preparation for constitutionalism was launched and the external situation was about to undergo drastic changes, the Han government publicly issued a decree, announcing the implementation of a system of public disclosure of officials' assets in order to strengthen public supervision over government officials.

The system of public disclosure of officials' assets originated in the United Kingdom. After the United Kingdom implemented the system of public disclosure of civil servants' assets in 1693, other countries followed suit.

Switzerland in 1776, the United States in 1789, Sweden in 1880, the Netherlands in 1815, and Belgium in 1830 all implemented a system of public officials' property disclosure.

With the rapid development of the Han Dynasty's economy and the smooth implementation of the five-year preparatory constitutionalism, the introduction of a system for the public disclosure of officials' assets was in line with the national conditions of the Han Dynasty and was also conducive to the country's subsequent development needs. Therefore, after Li Mingyuan put forward the proposal, it was formally implemented after voting and review by various departments.