Steam trains appeared in England at the beginning of the 19th century, more than 300 years before the commercialization of steam engines in Europe.

Europeans could not have imagined that the American continent had begun an industrial revolution that they could not have imagined, and with the introduction of steam trains, Panama would become the signature of the New World as the hub of interaction in the Americas.

Not only the local natives, but also many white immigrants from Europe to the Americas, wanted to settle in the cities of Panama and Cologne.

But Zhu Hao did not grant them national status, and even those merchants did not have the right to settle, and even their trade still had to be done through indigenous middlemen on the Caribbean islands.

In the blink of an eye, it has come to August of the sixth year of Jiajing.

At this time, the scale of overseas territories created by Zhu Hao from scratch is not small.

Lu Bing led his troops to achieve phased results on the North American continent, establishing a long offshore corridor along the west coast, developing some mineral deposits in the later California region of the United States, and building the first city there, all without Zhu Hao's personal participation.

The Indians of North America are obviously more fierce than the natives of Central America and South America, similar to the raw Jurchens in the deep mountains and old forests of the northeast of the Ming Dynasty, but after all, there are well-trained Ming officers and soldiers among the soldiers and horses led by Lu Bing, and they are equipped with muskets, artillery, especially rapid-fire rifles with front-loading rifles and cylindrical shell lead bullets, which are semi-modern.

After several battles, the Indians were defeated, and many tribes fled the west coast of North America, and Lu Bing's construction of cities in the Los Angeles area in later times mainly relied on the Aztecs and some "defectors" among the native Americans.

Compared with the Aztecs, who had suffered devastating blows from the Caucasians, these primitive tribes in North America had lived relatively stable for decades or even centuries, and in their eyes, the Ming army sent by Zhu Hao was the first real threat to them.

The North American continent is vast and sparsely populated, and many places are the kind of uninhabited wasteland, perhaps European colonists have not found anything valuable in the Midwest of North America before, and the North American aborigines are more fierce than the indigenous people of Central America, so that these Indian natives have only now truly appreciated what is called the crushing of advanced civilization.

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The North American continent began to develop slowly, and the next step was for Zhu Hao to let Lu Bing lead his troops to sweep the Coast Mountains and the Rocky Mountains region, then enter the central part of North America, and finally march to the Great Lakes and the East Coast, so as to stabilize the situation before the Mayflower arrived on the North American continent.

Zhu Hao did not plan to let Lu Song and his son participate in the military plan of waving the Ming Dynasty, they wanted to devote more energy to the great cause of conquering those unknown territories.

On both sides of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans in Central America, the west coast is supported by new cities and bridgeheads, mainly providing a variety of high-quality timber and stone, and bringing the resources of the west coast to the east coast through Chang'an City.

On the east coast, Su Xigui has commanded three cities, called Shangcheng, Zhongcheng and Xiacheng...... When Zhu Hao named it, he tried his best to let those people with a low level of education remember it quickly, so it was easy to understand and very vivid.

These cities in Mexico have become a refuge for the Aztecs and the remaining tribes of Central America, who were the first to receive the status of inhabitants of the empire granted by Zhu Hao, and enjoyed the preferential treatment that only the Ming people could have.

The Aztecs were already scattered in Central America, with many small tribes struggling to survive in the cracks of the colonizers, but with the establishment of a new empire, their lives were restored.

Initially, there were less than 100,000 Aztecs and Mesoamerican tribes living in New City and other places, but after a few years of development, the population of the region north of Panama in Central America has reached about 1.5 million, and almost all tribes have consciously joined the imperial family.

To the south of Mexico, it is supported by the two trading port cities of Panama and Cologne.

In fact, there are several cities in the middle, after all, the land from Mexico to Panama is relatively long and narrow, and there are many small towns as transit points, among which it is based on the "lower city" managed by Su Xigui, and extends downward, respectively, "River City", "Sea City" and "Jinling City", the geographical location of these three cities is roughly equivalent to Mexico City, Guatemala and San José in later generations.

At this time, the scale of the three cities was relatively small, and Zhu Hao handed them over to the leaders of the second-class tribes in Jingjing, who organized the Indian tribes to settle down and engage in production, and paid taxes to Zhu Hao's government.

When the first three cities were founded, the population was only a few thousand, but in less than a year, the population of the three cities had exceeded 20,000, especially the population of the "River City" grew the fastest, almost 30,000, after all, it is the core area of the whole Central America, and has a unique advantage in attracting population.

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Panama City and Colón were the port cities of Central American trade, which were responsible for the transit of goods between the Pacific and the Atlantic, and Panama City was mainly built by immigrants from the Inca Empire who migrated from the south, and the population was also mainly Incas.

The two cities already had a population of nearly 800,000, and the government granted land to the Incas to reclaim wasteland and build towns between the two large port cities.

Originally, SF City in South America was the most advanced industrialized city in the world, but as Zhu Hao put more energy into the Panama region, the development here was also very rapid, even in the case of almost all the resources transported from outside, through trade with Caribbean middlemen, it became a new type of city with a degree of industrialization second only to SF City.

Originally, Caribbean middlemen simply transported horses, cattle and sheep and other livestock from Europe and Africa in exchange for large quantities of gold and silver.

But then the Europeans found that the Ming officials did not seem to have any intention of doing business with the Europeans, and the almost unlimited gold and silver in the Americas did not pour into Europe in a large area, which made them see huge business opportunities.

The value of gold and silver in Europe was not depreciated by the excessive issuance of currency, and the price of gold and silver remained stable at a fairly high level, which meant that they would be very profitable in terms of trading with the New World Empire.

Later, a large number of pirate ships transported grain, minerals, livestock, and people from Africa and Europe to the islands of Haiti and Cuba, and then through Caribbean middlemen, these things were sent to the city of Cologne, which could be exchanged for gold and silver.

For Zhu Hao, this is a business without capital for the time being, after all, most of the gold and silver in his hand came from the Inca Empire and plundered from European colonists, and the amount was huge, and he didn't have to worry about spending it in a short period of time.

He did not take the initiative to send ships to Europe and Africa to trade, and tried his best to show his "unenterprising" side, making the Europeans think that the Ming only wanted to occupy the land of the Americas without a lord for themselves, and did not covet their territory and wealth.

As the situation in Central America stabilized, Zhu Hao had sent people to resume the mining of silver and gold mines, because agriculture and industry alone could not afford the rapid development of the entire empire's economy, and Zhu Hao was ready to use the gold and silver in his hands to have a devastating impact on the European economy at some point in the future......

Everything will happen before he officially invades the continent.

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To the south of Panama was the later Columbia region, where there were many indigenous tribes and city-states, and Zhu Hao began to prepare for oil extraction.

With the rapid development of science and technology, industrial construction continues to advance, the internal combustion engine represented by oil will one day be born, but Zhu Hao can drive the steam civilization by himself, if you want to push science and technology forward again, you must train a large number of high-quality craftsmen.

This required the establishment of schools to popularize the knowledge of physics and chemistry among the craftsmen from the Ming Dynasty, and to select people with high comprehension from among the natives, and gradually undertake the errand of skillfully using, popularizing, and popularizing the steam engine, and concentrating all efforts on scientific and technological research.

The principle of the internal combustion engine is not complicated, but the steam produced by burning coal is turned into petroleum as fuel, and the reciprocating motion of the piston is driven by the energy generated by the internal combustion of the machine, and then this movement is turned into kinetic energy through gears to drive the machine or turbine to operate.

Whether it is a steam engine or an internal combustion engine, the core is a "force", which generates force and conducts this force, so that it can replace human and animal power.

But no matter what kind of power is used, a complete industrial device is needed to match the steam engine and internal combustion engine, which is not possible for Zhu Hao at present, and he can only overcome the difficulties step by step.

In the northern part of South America, Zhu Hao comprehensively promoted the construction of plantations, and the Inca Empire did not immigrate here at first, but as Zhu Hao sent troops and horses to occupy almost the entire territory of Colombia and Venezuela, large tracts of fertile land were uncultivated and had to be completed through forced resettlement.

Mainly indigenous to the local population, supplemented by immigrants from the Inca Empire, and a small number of African immigrants, the three rapidly swelled to one million people south of Panama, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador, and the population is still expanding rapidly.

The main reason is that this area is vast, more extensive than the traditional farming areas of the Inca Empire, coupled with its tropical location, abundant rain, dense rivers, and the protection provided by the Ming army, as long as you are a little more diligent in life, there is no problem in living without starvation.

Of course, the bigger reason why people of all ethnic groups are willing to migrate over is the policy provided by Zhu Hao.

However, all those who moved in could get enough land to cultivate, and there were iron farming tools and troops stationed to ensure good law and order, and the government had a special yamen to buy the agricultural products they planted, not all of which were grain crops, and even cash crops such as cotton, hemp, rubber, and medicinal herbs would be purchased at high prices.

With the continuous influx of livestock from Europe and Africa, cattle and horses have gradually become popular, helping people of all ethnic groups to complete farming and transport goods.

This led to a radical improvement in the traditional farming conditions that the Indians had previously experienced.

The most important thing is that in addition to having enough to eat, people of all ethnic groups can also get convenience in terms of food, clothing, housing and transportation...... In fact, Zhu Hao forcibly brought a group of people in a primitive society to the era of the industrial revolution, and for the natives, the quality of life has almost undergone earth-shaking changes.

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From later Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname to the south is Brazil, which is mainly composed of the Amazon Plain, the Paraguay Basin, and the Brazilian Plateau, of which the Amazon Plain is the world's largest alluvial plain, and almost the entire territory is covered by primeval rainforests.

On the contrary, places such as Ecuador and Peru, as the territories of the Inca Empire, are increasingly influenced by SF City, and are rapidly developing from primitive agricultural civilization to industrial civilization.

The population of the Inca Empire did not decrease dramatically, but increased rapidly due to improved medical conditions and longer life expectancy.

The current Inca Empire is no longer an independent empire in the strict sense, and is completely under Zhu Hao's new empire.

Zhu Hao knew that the conditions for himself to be the emperor had been preliminarily achieved.