The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 427: Problems in America

New Orleans was originally built by the French, then changed hands between Spain and Britain, and finally fell into the hands of the Ming Dynasty.

After coming under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty, the city still allowed Spanish, French and British people to trade and live there.

Today, residents of European appearance make up about one-third of the city's total population.

Under normal circumstances, with such a large proportion of the population, a relatively independent cultural area should be formed, such as the French-speaking area of ​​Canada.

But now the city of New Orleans has become a complete Ming Dynasty city.

The only traces left by the Europeans are a few of the original city buildings, including fortresses and churches.

After the Ming people came, all new buildings were in Ming style, and even the churches that were subsequently renovated were changed to Ming style.

These European churches were called Western Temples or Jesus Temples by Ming Dynasty immigrants and were believed to be temples dedicated to a European god named Jesus.

Europeans generally believe in this god, which, in the eyes of most immigrants in the Ming Dynasty, is similar to the Fujianese's belief in Mazu.

New Orleans is also governed in a Ming style.

Whether immigrants from the Ming Dynasty or European immigrants, they could all participate in the local imperial examinations.

After obtaining the title of student, one can take up a position in the local government.

The Ming Dynasty's military and political strength exerted a strong attraction on European immigrants.

The original European residents of New Orleans, as well as the new immigrants who arrived later, were all willing to accept the governance of the Ming Dynasty.

The vast majority of European immigrants were willing to integrate into Ming-style life.

There were occasional conflicts between Ming Dynasty immigrants and European immigrants, and some Ming Dynasty immigrants always disliked the barbarians from Europe.

Some people with bad tempers may even publicly abuse others for no reason, and may even start beatings over the slightest conflict.

But most European immigrants did not have many complaints about this. They felt that it was because they were not civilized enough that they were disliked by the traditional Ming people.

As long as they work harder to learn the lifestyle of the Ming Dynasty immigrants and use the Ming Dynasty language more proficiently, they will eventually be accepted.

There are indeed many people in the Ming Dynasty who are willing to accept them, so they formed this way of thinking.

However, most of the people who despise them and those who are willing to accept them are not the same group of people, and it is difficult to directly convert them.

But because of this, once European immigrants figured out what was going on, they just had to avoid certain groups of people.

Europeans who are unwilling to accept this situation must deliberately highlight their European traditions and are unwilling to integrate into the Ming lifestyle.

It is difficult to live in New Orleans and other inland cities in the Ming Dynasty.

Most Europeans with a similar mentality basically stayed in several free states in America.

The princes' investigation and visit in New Orleans went very smoothly.

Officials in New Orleans claimed that most European immigrants were also inclined to the king and could be used.

The princes stayed in New Orleans for a few days, then boarded a ship and sailed south into Mexico to visit the islands of Cuba and Haiti.

In the past few years, the Ming Dynasty has sent nearly two million people to Cuba and more than half a million people to Haiti.

At present, the Ming people on the two large islands have become the absolute majority of the local population.

Before the Ming Dynasty took over Cuba, the European population in Cuba was more than 300,000, and this number has not increased significantly until now.

The African population has dropped from nearly 300,000 to less than 200,000, and is still declining.

The original number of European immigrants on the island of Haiti was less than 100,000, and the number is basically not increasing now.

The number of African immigrants in Haiti originally exceeded 500,000, but now there are only more than 200,000 left, and the number is also continuing to decrease.

Now all African immigrants in Cuba and Haiti are slaves. The blacks and mixed-race blacks who had previously gained freedom in the two places have been forcibly repatriated to Africa by the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, the further supply of slaves to these islands was strictly prohibited.

At present, all slaves in Cuba and Haiti have been sterilized, all male slaves have been castrated, and all female slaves have been confined.

This ensures that they will not produce any offspring in the future.

The craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty were initially only experienced in male castration, but had no experience in dealing with female castration.

However, experience can be accumulated and skills can be trained.

Craftsmen have done this kind of thing many times in Africa and America, so the related technology has naturally become more mature.

Confinement is no longer a problem.

Today, skilled craftsmen in America can process both an adult and a newborn in a matter of seconds.

For Europeans in Cuba and Haiti, the Ming Dynasty’s system allowed them to leave but not to enter.

Europeans from other regions were not allowed to approach the island, and the original Europeans on the island could not return after leaving.

Therefore, the European population on the two islands did not grow significantly for more than a decade.

The number of newly born people was able to barely make up for the outflow of European population, so that the population did not decline directly, but was barely maintained at a basic stability.

All African slaves were sterilized and could no longer reproduce. Naturally, as the old slaves died of old age, their total number continued to decrease.

The situation of other islands in the Caribbean is similar to that of Cuba and Haiti.

The princes generally had a good opinion of places like Cuba and Haiti.

As time passes and the remaining slaves of this generation die out, the islands will be truly purified.

The fleet carrying the princes circled the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, and finally circled the Florida Peninsula again and began their visit to the American Free States.

The eleven free states and two dominions in America are basically the thirteen states when the United States gained independence in Zhu Jianxuan's previous life.

Historically, the United States was still basically a purely agricultural country at this time, and it has just begun the most basic industrialization construction.

After the basic industrialization of the United States was completed, the division of the United States and the Civil War between the North and the South soon occurred.

The key reason for the outbreak of the American Civil War was the conflict between the initially industrialized North and the farmers in the South.

Factory owners in the northern United States wanted access to cheap raw materials from the South, as well as the South's skilled potential labor force.

Farmers in the South wanted to expand trade and sell their products to the British at high prices rather than having them bought at low prices by factory owners in the North.

The American Free State in this world today has already completed basic industrialization ahead of schedule.

But the scope of this industrialization has greatly increased compared to that of the historical United States, and the form of completion is also completely different.

The free states in America can be regarded as places with the most relaxed business rules in the world, which is very attractive to businessmen.

Now many local businessmen from the Ming Dynasty have opened mines and set up factories to do business here.

The American South plantations produced a large amount of cotton, which was originally sold to the North, Europe, or even the Ming Dynasty. However, in recent years, some Ming Dynasty merchants have begun to open textile factories in the South.

Textile factories of all sizes sprang up everywhere.

Cotton is turned into cloth directly here and then sold elsewhere, including Europe and the northern United States.

During the investment and construction of these factories, a large number of Ming people entered the Free State of the United States.

The eleven free states in America are the places in the world where the Ming people and Europeans live most closely together.

Even in places where the proportion of Ming people is the lowest, it has at least exceeded 10% of the local total population.

The place with the highest population proportion in the Ming Dynasty is close to 50%.

When the black slave uprising broke out in Haiti, Zhu Jianxuan arranged for the American court to carry out comprehensive propaganda.

Troops were also dispatched from eleven free states and two dominions to Haiti to quell the rebellion, allowing the people of the free states to observe firsthand the brutality of the rebellious slaves.

In fact, revolution is not a dinner party. Especially the riots and uprisings at the lowest level are almost always accompanied by a large number of violent "crimes".

The premise of crime is the existence of rules, and the direct purpose of revolution is to break the rules. It is impossible for revolution to not commit crime.

But after the revolution is truly successful, the original crimes are no longer crimes.

However, if the revolution does not have a mature program, it will not be able to establish new rules after breaking the old rules, and the revolution will naturally fail.

Since we have failed, all previous actions that broke the rules are crimes.

The Haitian slave uprising was unprecedentedly brutal because they had no mature, modern revolutionary program at all.

It is organized according to the primitive voodoo system.

In the eyes of the Ming Dynasty court headed by Zhu Jianxuan, in the eyes of the American Free States and Haitian slave owners, these black slaves were truly brutal and terrifying to the extreme.

It has reached a point where it is considered completely inhumane in traditional civilized society.

The American Free State soldiers who participated in the suppression at that time were deeply impressed by this.

Based on these people's personal experiences and the court's continued propaganda and planning, the eleven free states in America successively passed slavery elimination bills.

The bill was the result of continuous struggle and compromise, so the operational process is quite cumbersome and lengthy.

The royal court organized the repatriation of all free blacks in the free states and dominions of America to Africa for release.

Slave owners are still allowed to continue using existing black slaves, but they must gradually implement sterilization, as in Haiti and other regions.

Sterilized slaves cannot reproduce, so there will be no second generation of slaves.

When the present generation of slaves dies, there will be no more black slaves in America.

It is equivalent to a gradual ban on the use of black slaves, giving all slave owners a generation of buffer time to make arrangements when passing their properties to their children.

At the same time, the slave trade was strictly restricted. When a farm could not operate, slaves could not be transferred to other farmers but could only be handed over to agencies organized by the state government for special handling.

Avoid some hoarding effect around the small number of existing slaves as they become increasingly scarce.

When the princes began their visit to the Free State, accompanied by the Grand Secretary of the American Residency, they asked local nobles and local officials about the local situation.

These inquiries and exchanges were ostensibly aimed at understanding the situation. The princes would occasionally express their opinions, but would not issue any direct orders.

The political institutions of the Free State were very different from those of other parts of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming court did not directly govern the affairs of the Free State.

Only matters stipulated in the agreement signed between the Free State and the King of the United States will be subject to the jurisdiction of the court.

Such matters are collectively referred to as "protocol matters" in American politics.

For example, all military affairs, trade planning issues outside the Americas, infrastructure construction issues across free states, and conflicts between immigrants of different ethnic groups.

The issues that are directly related to ordinary people are mainly ethnic conflicts.

The Ming court's chief judge in America now concurrently serves as the Chief Justice of the Free State Supreme Court, and works with judges from various free states to deal with immigration conflicts.

While the princes were communicating with the nobles and officials of the Free State, the accompanying personnel had already gone out to buy newspapers circulating in the market.

After the education specially arranged by Zhu Jianxuan, the princes of the Ming Dynasty all developed the habit of reading newspapers.

The princes have also gotten into the habit of flipping through the local newspapers when they arrive at a place, so that they can get a general understanding of the basic situation of the local area.

At the very least, you will know what the hottest things are in the local area, and then you can make some investigations and analyses based on these things.

Especially in places like the Free States where "there is no respect for elders", the imperial court's ability to manage the capabilities of the grassroots is very weak.

Various situations among the people, including various problems and contradictions, can be more directly reflected in newspapers instead of being completely covered up by administrative power.

During the intervals of the visit, the prince flipped through the newspapers brought back by his subordinates, and slowly discovered some problems that surprised them.

In newspapers in several Free State cities, the two diametrically opposed issues were repeatedly raised, and people continued to write articles to discuss them.

A section of the people seemed to be crying out that the Free State had too little freedom and that the Free State government had signed too many agreements with the king and the emperor.

In the long run, the Free State will no longer be free and will become a province of the kingdom or empire, and all citizens of the Free State should prevent this.

While providing various convenient infrastructures, the kingdoms and empires were also constantly deepening their control and restrictions on the Free States.

Many articles have called on Free State officials to abandon some unnecessary agreements.

But another group of people responded that the Free State was no longer appropriate.

Many beneficial policies of the Empire and the Kingdom could not be quickly implemented in areas under the jurisdiction of the Free State because of those damn Free State regulations.

The process of turning a matter into an agreement is too cumbersome. Many things do not need to go through such a process at all and should be handled by the kingdom and the empire government by default.

The Free State should become a province of the Kingdom directly, or at least a dominion like New York and New Jersey.

The more critical and direct reason is that American residents with registered permanent residence in the dominions and provinces of the kingdom can directly serve in the royal court or even the imperial court.

People with registered residence in the Free State can only serve in the Dominion.

If the Free State does not transform into a dominion, the Free State elites will invariably move to the dominions and provinces.

In the end, the free states will become empty shells without a backbone.

Articles with similar views also continued to appear in newspapers in several free states.

When the princes read these articles, they were filled with astonishment.

It would not be surprising if either of these tendencies emerged, but the simultaneous appearance of two completely opposite directions means that a certain contradiction has become particularly acute.

This extremely contradictory and highly heated topic must be taken seriously to avoid being caught off guard.

(End of this chapter)