Technology is the primary productive force. This is already a slogan that has been shouted out in the streets in the 21st century. However, at the end of the 19th century, this idea only stayed in the minds of some scientists and politicians, and could not form a consensus among the whole people.
It’s not that people at the end of the 19th century thought advanced technology was bad, but that these people believed that high technology was not very important in helping national strength.
Of course it is good to have high technology, but for a country, it is still a matter of who has the most soldiers, who has the biggest battleships, who has sharper artillery, and who has seized the wider colonies.
This kind of thinking is not unique to France. In fact, the United Kingdom is similar, and other countries are even worse than Britain and France!
There is only one exception, and that is Prussia!
The outcome of the Franco-Prussian War was actually decided in 1809. Prussia's series of educational reforms sixty years ago had already destined this country to become a world-class power.
As we all know, Martin Luther was the Protestant leader protected by Prussia, and Martin Luther was the first person to propose compulsory education.
His main consideration in making this suggestion was to compete for believers from the people controlled by the Catholic Church, because at that time, Catholicism in the Middle World largely relied on priests to have knowledge and be able to interpret the Bible, and used this power of interpretation to exploit believers.
The illiterate people have become sheep deceived by the Holy See!
When Martin Luther wanted to reform religion, he first had to win over believers, and the most important thing to win over believers was to teach people to read, so that people could read the Bible and understand the meaning of the Bible on their own.
This is actually the most fundamental difference between Protestantism and Catholicism. In the Middle Ages, Catholicism did not allow people to interpret the Bible on their own.
Due to Martin Luther's strong lobbying, the Kingdom of Prussia had the earliest concept of compulsory education. Although it was not implemented at the time, the seeds had been sown.
It was under the influence of Martin Luther that a Duke named Ernest began to promote compulsory education in his territory. Any parents who did not send their children to school would be fined heavily.
Under the duke's persistence, the dukedom has undergone earth-shaking changes in the past thirty years. People at the time even believed that the farmers in Gotha were more polite and literate than the nobles in Berlin.
Duke Ernest's successful experience began to be promoted throughout Prussia. During the reign of Frederick William I, Prussia built more than 1,800 schools.
But even so, Prussia does not have compulsory education for all in the true sense!
"Do you know when the change occurred?" Xiao Letian looked at his men and asked softly.
"The real change actually happened more than seventy years ago, and the root is still in the God of War Napoleon..."
In the Battle of Jena in 1806, the army led by King Frederick William III of Prussia was defeated by the French army led by Napoleon and ended in a disastrous defeat.
In the subsequent Treaty of Tilsit signed in 1807, Prussia lost nearly half of its territory. Of the 10 million people it originally ruled, only 5 million people were left living within Prussia's new borders.
Because the ceded provinces were fertile lands, Prussian tax revenue dropped sharply. The huge indemnity of 100 million and the reduction of the size of the army to 40,000 caused Prussia, which became a vassal of the Napoleonic Empire, to completely collapse its political organization.
Learn from this painful experience, how did Prussia rise and how did it take revenge? In the end, the path they chose was...education!
The father of German nationalism, the philosopher Fichte, used his influence and countless speeches to save Prussia!
The country must use its spiritual strength to make up for its material losses. It is precisely because of poverty that education is needed. I have never heard of a country becoming poor or ruined because of its education.
Not only does education not make a country poor, on the contrary, education is the best way to get rid of poverty!
If Prussia wanted to achieve world leadership in military and political organization, it had to first achieve leadership in the world of education and science.
In 1809, Prussia officially began to carry out national education reforms. In just thirty years, Prussia's children's enrollment rate reached as high as 82%.
"It has been sixty years since 1809. Do you know what these sixty years are? It is the alternation of three or four generations..."
"How many scientists, engineers, and technical workers has Prussia accumulated in the past sixty years? Have you, France, studied these things?"
"I can tell you very pessimistically that Prussia's technological level has completely surpassed that of Britain. Germany's industrial production has been boosted by high technology, and France cannot resist it..."
"You lowered the price three times? Let me tell you the truth, even if your steel plant's quotation is reduced by half, the Prussians will still dare to follow up. They can drag you to death with a price war..."
"Have you ever calculated how much labor is needed to produce one ton of steel in France now? We have estimated that the French require about 350 laborers to produce one ton of steel..."
"The United Kingdom needs about 300, but what about Prussia? Let me tell you that for every ton of steel produced by the Krupp Steel Plant... they only need 120 laborers!"
"How do you compare? How do you compare prices with others?"
Xiao Letian sighed and said, "Do you know how powerful the power of technology is? Not only does it save manpower, but what's even more frightening is that the raw materials are also cheaper than yours..."
"The quality of iron ore in continental Europe is actually not very high, because more than 70% of iron ore contains sulfur, and sulfur is a harmful substance for steel smelting..."
"If you want to produce high-quality steel in France, you need to select expensive ores with low sulfur content... Such high-grade ores must be expensive!"
"But Prussia has now developed a very good desulfurization process... It is precisely because of the desulfurization process that their steel plants are not picky and can use any iron ore!"
"And the steel after desulfurization can be used to produce weapons for war, that is, breech-loading steel cannons..."
"Look at this battle. France is still using heavy bronze Napoleon cannons, but Prussia has adopted pure steel breech-loading cannons. How can you win?"
"Not only can you not win on the battlefield, you can't win on the business field either!"
"After this war, Prussia's arms have become a golden brand. Their cannons can be exported all over the world. How much money do you think they have to make?"
"To be honest, more than 70% of France's military factories will go bankrupt after the war!"
"Prussia will defeat you in every aspect precisely because its technology comprehensively crushes France!"
"Many of the coincidences you think have certain reasons behind them... Now that you have seen the Krupp breech-mounted steel cannon, do you think it is very simple?"
"It's really not difficult. It's just an improvement to a wedge-shaped breech block and a gas-locking ring... It's easy for you French people to imitate it!"
"But why don't you think carefully about how such a simple craft design appeared in Prussia first?"
"Why didn't you, France, show up first? If you, France, showed up first, then France would probably be the one bullying Germany on the battlefield!"
"Accident is inevitable! Because the number of engineers in France is not as large as that in Germany...the base is not large enough, what kind of technological breakthrough do you still want?"
"You were not defeated unjustly!"
