July 12, 1878

The Tang Empire and the Kingdom of Spain formally signed the Berlin Treaty to end the Tang-Western War, and the most important article in the treaty was except for the return of Spanish prisoners and the guarantee of the personal and property safety of Spanish nationals living there.

The Government of the Kingdom of Spain transferred Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Luzon Islands and their affiliated islands to the Tang Empire for 18 million Tang Yuan, and the two sides signed a formal transfer agreement for this.

It can't be transferred anymore, and now the three former Spanish colonies are all under the control of the Tang Empire's army.

Today's Kingdom of Spain is a tiger in its twilight years that has had its teeth pulled out, and it has long lost its majesty across the seas.

"You mean...... The Cuban insurgents want the imperial side to help them, to create a free, just and prosperous democratic republic in Cuba? There is also such a demand on the indigenous side of the Luzon Islands? ”

Emperor Richard asked in a playful tone, his expression became very strange, and he looked at Director Zheng Yuan with a "why haven't you woken up yet" eyes.

This made Director Zheng Yuan look embarrassed, he knew that this time he was ugly in front of His Majesty the Emperor, and he always habitually asked for the holy will, didn't he "snap" in the face this time?

Some things can be asked, and some things can't.

His forehead was slightly sweating, and he hurriedly bowed his head to salute, and replied; "Weichen is stupid, he already knows what to do, His Majesty Shang begs forgiveness."

This is really embarrassing for myself, knowing that His Majesty the Emperor in front of him is a complete Hanist, the most hardcore, the most rigid and the largest expansion colonial background in the empire, and the government of the Tang Empire has been imprinted with His Majesty's strong personal style from top to bottom, so why bother asking?

Isn't it enough to be fed?

His Majesty the Emperor's words and deeds are based on daily attention, and he can't directly issue an order to slaughter the Cuban rebels or the chiefs of the indigenous Luzon ethnic groups.

How can you act like this with the dignity of an emperor?

These things used to be operated by the joint military of the Imperial Colonial Department, and they were familiar with this.

The Royal Interior Office led by Director Zheng Yuan really has no experience, and there are not many original people in the former royal territories of Texas, Alaska, Beihai Province, and Paradise Province, so this big oolong is made.

The situation of the newly conquered Crown Territories of Luzon, Cuba and Puerto Rico, is very different, and the population is quite large.

In 1795, during the Spanish colonial period, the Luzon Islands had a population of about 1.5 million, and today there are about 3.6 million to 3.7 million, of which less than 3% are Hispanic whites and about 7.5% are Chinese.

The situation in Cuba is simpler, with a total population of between 620,000 and 650,000 after a 10-year civil war.

Puerto Rico also has about 16~170,000 people, and the proportion of native whites is slightly higher, accounting for about 4 percent.

Director Zheng Yuan went down with a panicked expression, and what would follow would inevitably be to strengthen the implementation of the Empire's policy of forced assimilation of the colonies, and to seconded experienced officials from the Colonial Department to participate in the management and development planning of the new colonies.

Anyway, it takes labor to build bridges and pave roads, and these local indigenous people are just right.

Emperor Richard didn't take this matter to heart, and he already had a plan to send governors to manage the newly acquired royal territories, and carry out the imperial province when they matured.

The Cuban archipelago, known as the "Key to the Gulf of Mexico", is also the location of the best of Central American geography, which is conducive to the empire's transformation of the Caribbean Sea into its own inland sea, which is very important for the entire American empire.

Now that you have it, you can do it step by step by colonial assimilation.

One is to build roads and railways, the second is to build docks, towns and bridges, and develop sugar factories and coffee, cigar and tobacco processing industries based on local resources.

The island of Cuba itself is not large, only more than 100,000 square kilometers, and together with the Puerto Rico archipelago and its affiliated islands, it can be established as a province of Cuba in the future and included in the territory as one of the overseas provinces of the empire.

The Luzon archipelago is relatively large, with more than 7,100 large and small islands, with a total area of nearly 300,000 square kilometers.

Emperor Richard planned to divide it into three parts: Luzon in the north, Cebu in the middle, and Mindanao in the south, each with an area of about 120,000 to 83,000 square kilometers, under the unified jurisdiction of the Governor's Office of Luzon, so as not to form a trend of tail domination.

In 1878, the Tang Empire once again acquired more than 400,000 square kilometers of land, and the total area of its territory increased from 18.92 million square kilometers to 19.33 million square kilometers.

This vast territory is second only to the British and Tsarist Empires, ranking third in the world, and higher than the French Empire and the Qing Empire.

In terms of territorial quality

Except for the northern provinces of Alaska and Yukon, which have more than 4 million square kilometers in the high-latitude extreme cold zone, most of the others are in the temperate, tropical and coastal grassland climate zones, and the area suitable for human habitation exceeds 15 million square kilometers, undoubtedly ranking first in the world.

There are four large pieces of British colonies, one of which is about 750 square kilometers of high-latitude Canada, and more than 9 percent are in the high-latitude cold zone, which is not suitable for human habitation.

One is the total area of African colonies of about 8.6 million square kilometers, most of which are barren and barren, arid and full of deserts, only South Africa, Egypt and other places have superior natural conditions.

The third place is Australia, with a total area of 7.69 million square kilometers, the disadvantage is that the land is vast and sparsely populated, but the natural conditions are unique, which can be described as a rare treasure.

The fourth is the British Indian subcontinent colony, with a total area of 4.3 million square kilometers and a population of about 160 million, including India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the newly conquered Burma, which is the essence of the British colony.

The others were scattered colonies, scattered all over the world, and qualitatively far from the territory of the Tang Empire, only quantity but not quality.

Tsarist Russia does not need to be mentioned, the entire Siberian region at high latitudes is uninhabited for thousands of miles, let alone 150 years, even 1500 years will not be able to develop.

After the Tang Empire, the French Empire, with a territory of about 12.8 million square kilometers, ranks fourth in the world, and its quality is also very worrying. The vast majority of its colonies are located in Africa, which has a total area larger than that of the United Kingdom, about 9.5 million square kilometers.

France's vigorous development of African colonies began at the beginning of the 19th century, and after the French Emperor Napoleon was defeated and killed in successive battles in Europe, the French understood that there was no future in Europe.

As a result, he turned his attention to Africa, and the colonial development in Africa was uncontrollable.

The Qing Empire, the fifth largest in the world, with a total area of about 1,190,000 yuan, was blessed with a unique environment, rich resources and the most extensive core territory in the whole of East Asia.

Taking stock of the achievements of colonial expansion in the past 32 years, Emperor Richard's heart is filled with a strong sense of achievement, which is as mellow and intoxicating as fine wine.

Think back to the beginning

Even if he had the courage to do so, he didn't dare to imagine that he could break through the huge imperial foundation, which could be called unprecedented and unprecedented, which was enough to write a strong stroke in the history of China.

This miracle was not created by him alone, but was the result of the joint efforts of billions of subjects.

Industrious Chinese immigrants are like tenacious seeds, which can quickly thrive and become a dense forest if they are sown in the right soil.

Thanks to the inexhaustible resources of the Chinese population, the process of colonial expansion and assimilation of the Tang Empire was greatly accelerated with the assistance of tough colonial methods.

Assimilation of nationalities, which would have taken tens or hundreds of years or more, was achieved in just twenty or thirty years.

This must be accompanied by countless blood and tears of the vanquished, but all the costs paid are worth it, and the extremely high proportion of the Chinese population in the Tang Empire has reached 84.7%, which is the foundation of social stability.

No matter how hard the British, French, Russian, Spanish, Dutch, Belgian and other European colonizers tried, the sparse population was a fatal flaw, and it was doomed that it would not be possible to completely assimilate and completely absorb the vast colonies.

The Tang Empire, on the other hand, was backed by the endless population resources of the land of China, backed by thousands of years of accumulated oriental culture and the inextricable relationship between Yan and Huang blood, which could easily transform Chinese immigrants into imperial strength and achieve transcendent colonial expansion.

The transformation of the population of the new colony is a process, but fortunately this is the most colonist-friendly era, and there is no such thing as equality for all. The world recognized the natural existence of unequal classes, and the great powers were highly tolerant of the brutal repression of the colonies.

Why, because they do it themselves?

In the primitive period of the accumulation of feudal capitalism, every pound and every Tang Yuan was soaked in the bitter blood and tears of the vanquished and oppressed, but so what?

Who cares about the world powers whose money is transformed into real strength and has the right to speak?

Emperor Richard also didn't care, the Tang Empire he founded could bring shelter and a better life to more Chinese people, so that the people could stand proudly among the nations of the world with dignity and become a member of the colonial oppressors.

It is enough to ensure that the Chinese people are fed and warmly clothed, that their children and descendants receive a formal education in the Chinese language, that they will not die of hunger and cold in the wilderness, that they can cultivate strong industrial capacity and agricultural and animal husbandry production capacity, that they can have enough food and clothing, and that they can enjoy a happy life brought about by economic development.

Wolves travel thousands of miles to eat meat, the law of competition in today's world is that the weak eat the strong, if you can't adapt, you will be beaten and bullied, and you will be insulted by cold eyes, and no one will sympathize with a weak person.

Having completed the entire map of the colonial expansion of the Americas, Emperor Richard can finally calm down and deal with the upcoming grand event of the Americas.

The Panamanian Summit of the Americas, to be held on September 18, 1878, would be a diplomatic event for the establishment of the Organization of American Cooperation and the culmination of imperial glory.

Emperor Richard will personally attend the meeting and personally shovel the first shovel of soil for the groundbreaking ceremony of the headquarters of the Organization of American Cooperation, and sit on the throne of the hegemon of the Americas in the fear and admiration of the heads of state.

This historic event will forever be recorded in the annals of history, representing the most glorious moment of the Tang Empire, the beginning of a new era, and a new journey.