Chapter 640: Humanity
Chapter 626 Human Nature
In 1877, Britain, France, and Austria launched expansionist wars on the African continent, and Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Somali Peninsula were plunged into war at the same time.
Compared to the French and Austrian sweep, the British encountered problems. The famous “Warrior Emperor” became a nightmare for the British army.
Soon after the war broke out, the British were ambushed and suffered heavy losses.
Looking at the battle report in his hand, the British commander Ismail was shivering with anger. Less than a month after the war started, more than 5,000 troops were casualties. Colonial cannon fodder is not even a problem, the key is that there is also a British infantry regiment was disabled.
“Imbeciles, all of them!”
“Can’t even beat a bunch of natives, Britain’s face has been disgraced by you, what’s the use of the country raising you?”
……
A young officer explained stiffly, “General, the Ethiopian natives are extraordinary, they also have modern weapons and have received formal military training.”
“Pah!”
Ismail Meng slammed the table and angrily cursed, “It must be the Austrian natives and Frenchmen who did this, no one is this shameless except them!”
The crowd didn’t pick up the topic, knowing that the first to help Ethiopia train its army was the British, and it was only after the last Ethiopian war that France and Austria infiltrated their forces.
Ethiopia has a well-trained army, the British themselves also have a share of the credit, this layer of windowpaper if the windowpaper is broken, the government will have to face the pressure of public opinion.
The best thing to do is to put the blame on the French and Austrians, not for lack of effort, but because the enemy is too “strong”.
After venting, Ismail calmed down.
This time, they had prepared for the war exactly according to the experience of the last war. Obviously, it was out of fashion.
Times were different now, and Menelik II had been able to unify most of Ethiopia and had fought his way out. How can an army that has fought hundreds of battles be good enough to be messed with?
The Paris conference did not talk about the results, in the absence of treaty constraints, France and Austria secretly stabbed the knife, that is more than normal.
Ismail is very skeptical that it is the French and Austrian commanders who are now in command of the Ethiopian army, otherwise how could the British army have lost to the natives?
Taking stock of the troops in hand, Ismail helplessly concluded that it is difficult to win with the current strength of the troops, even if they can win it will be a disastrous victory.
If the war with the European powers, “miserable victory” is acceptable, but now the enemy is the African natives, if the results of such a war, that is to be court-martialed.
In order to win the war, Ismail decided to ask for help from his country.
……
Paris, after several years of political struggle, by playing the balance, Napoleon IV gradually took control of the state power.
In this respect, Napoleon III’s original plan succeeded. Taking advantage of the power struggle between the parties, it allowed for a smooth transition of royal power.
Advantages naturally have disadvantages, after several years of political struggle, the rest are used to the political struggle of the old fox.
After taking control of the power, Napoleon IV could not replace all these people, and serious infighting became the biggest problem of the French government.
Forced to do so, Napoleon IV could only continue to play the balance. He could no longer do anything about the infighting of the bureaucratic group.
Perhaps bureaucratic infighting is a good thing for the imperial power, but it has a prerequisite, that is, it must be limited to a range.
Once the bottom line was broken, it ended up being a disaster. How could the country develop normally when everyone stabbed each other?
This aspect can be seen from the economic development of France in recent years. Ever since the passing of Napoleon III, the rate of economic development in France has dropped drastically, and the government in Paris has done almost nothing.
Not doing anything is better than doing something haphazardly. Overall, France is still stable, only the economic development is on the slow side.
This makes the high-minded Napoleon IV difficult to accept, after taking control of the power, began to focus on economic construction.
France’s economic growth slowdown is due to a variety of reasons, not the government wants to grasp, can go up.
The biggest problem was the energy crisis, the domestic coal production was seriously insufficient to meet the growing economic demand.
Not only is there a shortage of coal in the mainland, but also in the French African colonies. If you don’t have it, you have to import it, which undoubtedly raises the cost of industrial production.
As costs went up, competitiveness in the market naturally went down. In international trade, France’s share of the market is plummeting.
At its peak, France once accounted for one-fifth of the world’s total import and export trade, and now it has fallen to 15.7 percent.
This is not the end, the French market share continues to decline, perhaps not long, their position as the third largest trading nation can not be maintained.
Napoleon IV asked, “Are you sure that the opening of the Panama Canal will be able to drive domestic exports of industrial and commercial products?”
I have to say, the French capitalists are great, do the work to the emperor.
Finance Minister Allen: “Your Majesty, the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal are very close to each other in terms of situation, and the opening of the Suez Canal is what led to the last round of economic prosperity.
After the opening of the Suez Canal, the domestic import and export trade grew at a rate of more than 7% for five consecutive years, greatly boosting the domestic economy.
Now the Panama Canal is the same, once the canal opens, the journey from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean will be shortened by tens of thousands of nautical miles, which will greatly stimulate the growth of domestic export trade.”
Lying without batting an eyelid, I have to say that politicians’ modesty is just low. The opening of the Suez Canal did greatly stimulate the French economy, but the Panama Canal was not so effective.
From the map, it is clear that the biggest beneficiary of the Panama Canal is the United States of America, followed by Colombia, other countries can only pick up some of the edges.
It is not completely useless, if the Panama Canal was opened to navigation more than ten years ago, it is estimated that the French government will not have to give up Mexico.
You can’t turn back the clock; developing the Panama Canal now would at best shorten the distance into the West Coast.
Given the economic development of the west coast of the Americas in this day and age, even if it stimulated exports, this growth would be very limited.
Besides, there was competition from other European countries. French industrial and commercial products are losing their international competitiveness and will not be able to reap much benefit at all.
Against this background, investing heavily in the development of the Panama Canal was actually more than it was worth for the French.
Napoleon IV shook his head, “No, my Minister of Finance. You only see the benefits to us, but not the consequences, in fact, the biggest beneficiary is not us.
As you can see from the map, the biggest beneficiary is the United States of America. Suppressing the development of the Americas is a common national policy of Britain, France and Austria, and the United States of America is the focus of the suppression.
It is clearly stipulated in the Triple Alliance that the three countries must maintain the balance of the American continent and prohibit the unilateral enhancement of the strength of any one country.
Whether we support the United States or not, this kind of strengthening of the United States is a betrayal in the eyes of Britain and Austria. We can’t ignore long-term development just for the sake of short-term benefits.”
Obviously, Napoleon IV was not good at fooling, and this kind of broken argument could not fool him yet.
Finance Minister Allen: “Your Majesty, this is only the obvious benefit, the potential benefit is actually greater.
In the short term the opening of the Panama Canal is in the best interest of the United States. But the Panama Canal is under our control, and as trade increases, the economic lifeline of the United States falls into our hands.
The benefits behind this are our greatest gain. In the future we can use the Panama Canal to open the gates of the American countries and seize more benefits for the Empire.
Developing the Panama Canal doesn’t directly strengthen a certain country, it can only be considered as playing ball, and Britain and Austria won’t be able to do anything about it.”
The potential benefits are indeed tantalizing, and now that the world is pretty much divided up, the remaining independent countries are not in a good position to make any moves.
Grabbing benefits through economic means has become a necessity in the world of the future. Controlling the economic lifelines of the American countries would undoubtedly allow France to occupy a favorable position in the new round of competition.
Napoleon IV: “How can we guarantee the dominance of the Panama Canal? In the District of Columbia, whether it’s the British or the Austrians, we can’t compete!”
This was the crux of the matter; France was not strong enough in Colombia to secure control of the canal.
It is not true that Britain, France and Austria are allies, but this is only a combination of interests, when the interests are large to a certain extent, allies can also become enemies.
If the British and Austrians are allowed to join the canal program, the dominant power will be changed in an instant. Napoleon IV preferred not to do this kind of thing for others.
Finance Minister Allen: “Your Majesty, in fact, this does not need the government to step in, it would be better if the private capitalists do it.
Alone with any of the countries in the middle of Britain and Austria, we can’t get the dominant power, but with more countries involved, the situation has changed.
As the initiating country, we may not be able to take the lead, but it is not difficult for us to maximize our voice.
The government only needs to ……”
……
With much effort, Allen, the Minister of Finance, managed to convince Napoleon IV. Deep down, he had already made up his mind, this kind of thing whoever loves to do it can do it, anyway, he is not prepared to do it again.
Although the benefits promised by capitalists were large, the risks involved were not small. If Alan didn’t know that Napoleon IV intended to change and wanted to go back to his old age, he wouldn’t have cooperated with the capitalists.
You have to know that on the surface, he is the representative of the grassroots class. With the restoration with Napoleon III, only to realize the life reversal.
The politician’s persona can’t collapse, as a representative of the commoners in the government, running to cooperate with the capitalists, once the news is leaked, Allen will immediately fall into a situation of rebellion.
It is also because of this identity, Allen can propose to Napoleon IV, if a minister representing the interests of capitalists to go, I guess it is not so easy to succeed.
(End of chapter)