Chapter 1120 Tears of the Weak (Third update, please subscribe)
threaten!
Every country will respond accordingly to the threat.
In the past decade or so, the threat that the United States felt came from the Ming Dynasty. There was even a view formed throughout the United States that the threat from the Ming Empire far exceeded that of Britain!
In fact, it was not the Ming Empire that threatened the United States, but it was because the United States inherently wanted to greedily monopolize everything, but no one in America could challenge it in the past.
Now, the Ming Dynasty is standing on this stage, trying to stop the United States' ambition to dominate the market, which of course the Anglo-Saxons cannot accept.
As a result, words such as "Ming Dynasty Threat Theory", "Yellow Peril", and "Desire for Imperial Expansion" emerged in the United States. Fortunately, the empire was strong enough, otherwise life would have been difficult for tens of thousands of Chinese Americans.
However, in the past few years, Chinese people have been constantly moving away from American cities, including San Francisco. They have gone to the northern territories or to Mexico, but more people have come to Cuba.
Cuba, who could have imagined that from 1870 onwards, this Caribbean island would become the place with the largest number of Chinese outside the empire.
It is not just because more than 100,000 Chinese came here as "contract laborers" or "contract slaves" from 1846 to 1870. It is because in October 1870, the Emperor Shengde of the Ming Dynasty, with his victory over Prussia in the European expedition, visited "Havana" and then forced the Cuban authorities to abolish the "Chinese Labor Contract" through negotiations. Then, through "economic compensation", 130,000 Chinese workers received tens of millions of pesos in economic compensation. Many small and medium-sized plantation owners could not afford the compensation and could only use their plantations as compensation.
The Chinese workers who became shareholders of the plantations settled here. Faced with the shortage of labor in the plantations, they recruited relatives from China and extended olive branches to compatriots in California and other places. In the following ten years, more than 30,000 Chinese arrived in Cuba. They worked in the plantations, worked in the department store industry, or opened restaurants. A considerable number of them came from California. Why did they come here?
Because I can find my wife here!
"Mr. Johnson, look..."
Governor Martinez stood on the balcony of the Governor's Palace, pointed at Chinatown in the distance, and spoke in a rather helpless tone.
"In the past ten years, we have been fighting a ten-year war to quell the rebellion against Spain. That war has claimed the lives of two hundred thousand Cubans, including native whites, Spanish-Indians, blacks, and mixed-race people. When they died in large numbers, no one thought that those people..."
Taking a puff of his cigar, Martinez looked back at Johnson, the special envoy of the US President, who was standing beside him.
"Those Chinese, the so-called Ming people, have taken root here. When Cuban men died in suppressing rebellions or in rebellions, those Ming people married Cuban women. Cuba now has a total population of only 1.6 million, but Mr. Envoy, do you know how many Chinese there are? 500,000! Maybe even 600,000! 600,000! And more than 50,000 Chinese are born every year. In ten years, more than half of the people here will be Chinese! Mr. Envoy."
With a cigar between his fingers, Martinez asked back in a sarcastic tone.
"If Cuba breaks away from Spain and establishes a republic, as you said, who will own this republic in ten or fifteen years? Will it belong to the white Hispanics? Or the Chinese? Sorry, sir, I don't see any possibility that we can control this land."
Why did Martinez say that?
It is because of the suggestion brought by Mr. Johnson - Cuban independence!
Why did the Americans make this suggestion... The United States is also drooling over Cuba!
In fact, the United States has always been eager to expand. Especially when it saw the Ming Empire eating meat there, the domestic capital circles in the United States advocated that the expansion of the United States should be used to stop the expansion of the Ming Dynasty.
Now the "Cuban Crisis" is not only a crisis for the United States, but also an opportunity for them to realize the maritime encirclement of the Confederate States. Even until now, the United States has not given up the dream of unification.
It is definitely unrealistic to occupy Cuba. The idea of the United States is very simple, which is to support Cuba's independence first, and then control this country and colony through political and economic influence... It does not necessarily have to be occupied directly.
Martinez was of course very clear about what Americans were thinking, but in his opinion, Washington had clearly overlooked one point - Cuba was different from other regions, as there were too many Chinese and their descendants living here.
"Sir, we are very clear about this. This is not a problem at all. You just need to issue a decree to ban dual citizenship. How can those ethnic Chinese give up their Ming Empire citizenship? I guarantee that most of them will retain their citizenship. In this way, at least in the next 20 to 30 years, the power of this country will belong to you!"
Johnson looked at the general in front of him with a smile on his face. In fact, Martinez was not his first choice. After all, this butcher had killed too many Cubans in the past ten years. If necessary, they would change to someone else.
But at the moment, Martinez, as the governor, is the best choice. As for the potential population advantage of the Ming Empire's expatriates here, it is not a problem for the United States, although the United States has reached an agreement with the Ming Empire on the Cuban issue, and the agreement involves clauses involving the Ming Empire's expatriates.
But so what?
American lawyers will help Cuba research some new legal provisions and set up legal obstacles to ensure that the expatriates of the Ming Empire cannot obtain the right to vote, or at least not all of them can obtain the right to vote.
Without the right to vote, their potential demographic advantage means nothing.
"that power……"
Martinez smiled and did not agree immediately, but asked back.
"Mr. Special Envoy, we all know that the most important thing right now is not the independence of Cuba, but the crisis at hand. If we cannot end this crisis, the Ming Empire will soon reach out to Cuba and take control of this colony in the name of investigation. By that time, no one can change this fact. When everything is a fait accompli, I believe Madrid will not mind selling it for a good price."
Martinez did not agree outright because he understood the Americans' ambitions. The US proposal might make him a little tempted, but the premise of being tempted was that he must continue to control everything here.
As for the present, it doesn’t matter whether it is a republic or a colony.
If he can't save Cuba, he will be nothing as governor.
"General, with the United States of America here, what do we have to worry about? We have also reached some consensus with the Ming Dynasty. Under this consensus, I believe that Cuba's security will not be a problem. Of course, the premise is that Cuba must be independent..."
In response to the US envoy's persuasion, Martinez asked in return.
"And Spain?"
"General, we all know that Spain is a thing of the past. It was the king of the past. Now if the United States does not intervene, Spain will not only lose Cuba, but also the Philippines."
In response to Martinez's question, Johnson was straightforward.
"Whether Spain is willing or not, they must face the fact that Cuba will definitely gain independence. Of course, this is also a fact for you, whether you like it or not!"
Johnson reminded again.
"Now you have a chance to become the father of Cuba's independence. Of course, after independence, you and your family will receive extremely rich rewards, General. Now you are just a governor, but in the future this republic will belong to you."
The United States does not care at all whether Cuba is a real republic after independence. For the United States, all it needs is a Cuba under American control.
As for how the governor in front of him will rule the country in the future, it has little to do with the United States. He only needs to obey the instructions of the United States.
"this……"
Martinez hesitated for a moment, then asked.
"Then the Ming Empire...will they agree? After all, everything is not over yet."
"We have reached some kind of consensus with the Ming Empire, Your Excellency."
Johnson laughed.
"Sir, all this will soon be over if Cuba declares independence."
Is this the end of everything?
Martinez even looked at the American envoy in front of him with some suspicion, but seeing the other party's confident look, he seemed to understand.
"I see. This is the agreement you have reached. You have put Spain on the table..."
It's not that Spain was put on the table, but that in this era, all weak countries must be prepared to be put on the table and eaten by the great powers. The law of the jungle is the rule of this world.
It is precisely because of this awareness that the weak can become strong. But before that, they can only be sacrificed.
As the whole world was paying attention to the Cuban Crisis and the series of consequences it triggered, no one expected that the Cuban general sent by Spain would declare Cuba's independence - and the reason was the choice of the Cuban people.
The United States then chose to recognize it at the first opportunity. As for the Ming Empire, it also stated that it would conduct separate negotiations with Cuba on the next issues.
After this news came out, everyone in the world knew that some kind of agreement had been reached between the Ming Empire and the United States.
And what about Spain?
Although they continue to claim that Cuba belongs to Spain, they are powerless to change the fact of inheritance.
No one will pay attention to the protests and tears of the weak!
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
