As the new year approaches, the young officers of the army and navy are making all-out preparations in order to seize the opportunity of military expansion and joint military exercises, and outside of the United States, the US Government, which for the first time surpassed Britain and won the world's largest crown in total steel volume, is complacently acting as the arbiter of North and South America, openly sending telegrams to all countries in North, Central, and South America, and inviting all governments to send representatives to the United States to attend the first International Conference of the Americas.

Leaving aside Britain and France, which have important economic and political advantages in the Americas, the United States has the sole purpose of inviting the countries of the Americas to hold an international conference.

There has always been a major contradiction between Britain and the United States over the dominance of the Americas, and the contradiction between the two has become more and more intense and acute as the US Government tries to practice the Monroe Doctrine and take steps to expel British economic and political forces.

At the beginning of the 19th century, after the independence of the six Central American countries, Britain and the United States engaged in fierce competition for the right to excavate the Mesoamerican Canal Zone.

In 1841, the British occupied the Moskito coast and the Baya Islands, and in 1848 occupied San Juan Norte, at the eastern end of the canal route, and used the local indigenous Indian chieftains as puppets to establish a kingdom of Moskito under British protection.

In March 1849, the U.S. government made it clear that it strongly opposed the British government's aggressive expansion of colonies in Central America.

In June 1850, the British government was forced to choose a compromise and sign the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with the United States because of the local superiority of the United States in North and Central America.

According to the treaty, the parties shall not seek occupation of any part of Central America; Both countries have the right to use the canals to be built in the future.

After the treaty was signed, the British government, unwilling to be forced by the US government, delayed the implementation of the treaty. It was not until November 1859 that Britain signed a treaty with Honduras to return part of the Moskito coast to Honduras and recognized Honduras' suzerainty over the Baya Islands.

In January 1860, under pressure from the United States, the British government signed the Treaty of Managua with Nicaragua, confirming the autonomous status of the Moschito Kingdom and agreeing to formally annex the Moschito Kingdom to Nicaragua by 1894 at the latest.

The signing and implementation of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty meant that British power completely withdrew from Central America, and also announced the success of American foreign expansion.

However, the behavior of the U.S. government also made Britain and France jealous, and in the subsequent Civil War, Britain and France joined forces to support the southern republican government, intending to curb the unity and expansion of the United States through proxy wars, but unfortunately Britain and France chose the wrong object of support, the southern government was not the opponent of the U.S. federal government at all, and the stalemate lasted only a few years, and the southern government finally failed, while the U.S. federal government expanded its territory through the Civil War and the Mexican War before it, laying the foundation of a world-class power.

With the dividends of the Civil War and the subsequent period of more than ten years of domestic expansion, the capitalists in the United States survived the period of barbaric development and completed the transformation from free capital to monopoly capital.

After 1880, in order to reduce costs and obtain greater economic benefits, the monopoly enterprises in the United States crossed the Isthmus of Central America and frantically penetrated into the economic and political fields of South American countries.

In order to counter the invasion of American capital, the British government used its military and political strength in the Americas to force the governments of South American countries to issue specific decrees to prevent the provocation of American capital against the dominance of British and French foreign capital.

After decades of confrontation and competition, the US Government, which regards itself as having fully developed its comprehensive national strength, wants to change its previous passive and weak position and instead participate in Latin American political and economic affairs in a more active way, and then expel Britain, France, and other European powers from the Americas and act alone as the arbiter of the international order in the Americas.

The idea of establishing a multilateral organization of American States has been widely welcomed by political and monopolistic business leaders in the United States, who regard it as the most effective tool for establishing economic and political hegemony in the Western Hemisphere.

The Americans did not intend to convene a Latin American conference, as Bolivar had envisioned, to which the United States would be invited as a secondary participant, but in June 1880 they proposed the idea of a pan-American system led by the Washington government, which would bring the Latin American countries under the protection of the powerful Uncle Sam.

The two basic objectives they are trying to achieve by building a Pan American Union are economic and political. Economically, the United States wanted to create an American Customs Union, through which Britain and other European countries would be deprived of their commercial and financial status in the Western Hemisphere, with the United States acting as a supplier and financier of Latin America.

Politically, they wanted to establish a mandatory arbitration system, with the United States occupying the position previously occupied by the United Kingdom, acting as the chief judge and arbiter of the Americas. The Customs Union and compulsory arbitration meant the establishment of "peace under American rule" in the New World.

The ambitions of the Americans were transmitted to all corners of the world through telegrams, and in the diplomatic buildings in London, telegrams to and from the embassies of South American countries abroad were rapidly transmitted, and in the southernmost part of South America, the long-dormant political circles of the Han State also set off a lot of waves.

"Your Majesty, the British Minister, Sir Yarman, hopes that the Imperial Foreign Office will stand on the same ground as the British Government, and that it will reject the invitation of the United States Government and oppose its intervention in South American affairs."

In a simple and quaint study room outside the palace, Foreign Minister Hu Yaji and Vice Minister Tang Jingsong entered the palace together and relayed the British minister's request to Li Mingyuan.

"The total steel output is the first in the world, and the Americans' self-confidence has exploded, and they can't wait to replace the British and become the hegemon of the entire American region.

Li Mingyuan smiled and joked with the British.

"The British government is very eager this time, and I am afraid that it will not compromise as easily as in Central America and cede great interests to the Americans in vain."

"Spit out the fat that you swallowed in your stomach and give it to someone else, and no one will be willing to do it."

Li Mingyuan pointed out the current situation of the British government and explained: "The United States is blessed with unique natural conditions, including grain, minerals, population, and industry, and according to the propaganda of many American politicians and consortia, it is not an exaggeration to say that the United States is the chosen place.

As the former suzerainty of the United States, after two undefeated interventions in the Mexican War and the Civil War, the British government set the United States as the first imaginary enemy that threatened its global maritime hegemony, occupied the straits of the Canal Zone, prevented the United States from gaining the power to dig the Panama Canal, supported the colonial rule of the Kingdom of Spain over Cuba, and even recognized the Empire's domination of the La Plata region after the failure of the expeditionary force intervention plan at the end of the Argentine War. The layout made.

However, the British government still underestimated the power of industry, since the 1850s, with electricity, internal combustion engines, chemical industry as the leading industrial revolution swept the world, with the old steam engine accumulated industrial advantages, quickly replaced by new industrial technology, the United States in the Civil War, it took more than 20 years, it surpassed Britain in the total amount of new industry, with the industrial strength to replace the British maritime hegemony,

Under the influence of the superimposed influence of insufficient understanding of the speed of the new industrial reform and the wrong prediction of the speed of the improvement of the comprehensive national strength of the United States, the British government will find itself in today's predicament. ”

"The speed of the new industrial reform is really unpredictable, and the industry of the empire itself has also achieved a leap forward in twenty years with the help of the new industrial revolution, but in the face of such fanfare of the American government interfering in the affairs of South America, should the imperial government go along with the British government's proposal and refuse to participate in the so-called international conference of the Americas?"

"Agreeing with the British minister's proposition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the British Legation in the country jointly issued a statement that South America is the South America of all South American people, not the South America of the Americans, and the US government has no right to dictate South American affairs!"

Thinking of the huge hidden industrial strength of the United States, Li Mingyuan clearly instructed: "Not only should we cooperate with the British diplomatic statement, but also speed up the construction of the South Pacific islands, the construction of forts, and the resettlement and transportation of migrants from the Hawaiian Islands!"

The South Pacific is the focus of the future expansion of the Empire, a hub connecting the Far East, and must be firmly in the hands of the Imperial Army.

The Hawaiian Islands are located in the heart of the North Pacific Ocean, and are the first island chain and extension of the United States out of the Pacific Ocean, and the East Ying, the Empire, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France all want to hold the Hawaiian Islands in their hands, and the United States is the closest to the Hawaiian Islands, and the US Navy's Pacific Fleet is the most convenient to land on the Hawaiian Islands. ”

"However, the mainland is too far away from the Hawaiian Islands, and the Second Fleet (Pacific Fleet) is far inferior to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and if the Americans make up their minds to annex the Hawaiian Islands, the Imperial Navy will be difficult to stop."

Tang Jingsong couldn't help but put forward his own opinions.

"It's very difficult to stop the U.S. from annexing Hawaii. However, before the United States is ready to annex the Hawaiian Islands, it is still of great significance to increase the number of Chinese immigrants on the islands as much as possible, create trouble for the Americans to land, and delay the fall of Hawaii, which will still be of great significance to limiting the progress of the Americans' expansion in the Pacific waters. ”

"Even if it can't prevent the United States from eventually annexing Hawaii, with the power controlled by the empire in the Hawaiian Islands, it can force the Americans to sit at the negotiating table and exchange other interests for concessions on the sovereignty issue of the Hawaiian Islands."

After understanding what Li Mingyuan meant, Tang Jingsong said suddenly.

"It is best to maintain the independent status of the Hawaiian Islands, if we cannot prevent the Hawaiian Islands from falling into the hands of the Americans, the young Chinese armed forces who have migrated to the islands will be a bargaining chip for the interests of the mainland." ………………

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