"The Marquis de Louvoir, Baptiste, and the Marquis of Croissy. Do you think I can be the emperor of this Spanish-American Empire?"
Although he already had the answer in his heart, Louis XIV still felt that he should be humble. After all, "proclaiming himself emperor" is still a very serious matter in the Christian civilization circle, and there must be a legitimate inheritance or legal system. For example, Queen Victoria wanted to be emperor in history, but she couldn't find inheritance and legal authority in Europe. She, the monarch of the British Isles, couldn't claim to have inherited Western Rome or the Holy Roman Empire, right? So he simply snatched the throne of the Timurid dynasty of Hindustan to himself.
The Timurid dynasty is also known as the Second Mongol Empire, and its legal system comes from the Chagatai Khanate. Until Babur went south to India, the Timurid dynasty still maintained a special relationship with the descendants of the Chagatai Khanate. .
Therefore, theoretically speaking, if you trace the origin of Victoria's "throne", you can trace it back to the Great Khan of Mongolia, Genghis Khan. Of course, Victoria is not a descendant of the Great Khan, she took the throne from the Great Khan!
But where did Louis XIV's throne come from? There must be a valid reason!
Louis XIV's foreign minister, the Marquis de Croissy, was an expert in the inheritance of the imperial throne. It was his handiwork that packaged Louis XIV as a Roman emperor. As a Roman emperor, he could even influence Louis, a blond and blue-eyed barbarian, to Isn’t the throne of the entire New World a piece of cake?
I saw him salute to Louis XIV, and then talk eloquently: "Your Majesty, this New World has had two emperors since ancient times. One is the Eastern Emperor of Mexico, which is also the emperor of the Aztec Empire. The other is the Inca Empire. The Spanish Emperor. After the Spaniards used despicable means to defeat these two empires that had existed on the American continent since ancient times, they did not inherit the crown of the New World, but turned the land of the New World into a human world that they could ravage. Hell, so much so that for more than a hundred years after the New World was conquered by Spain and Portugal, no independent country existed anymore.
And if your Majesty wants to be the savior of the continent that is being ravaged by the Spanish, you should put the fallen crown of the New World on your head. I think this is also the common wish of countless people in the New World! "
Talent!
The Marquis of Croissy is truly a rare talent!
He actually found a very convincing reason for Louis XIV to proclaim himself emperor - there have been emperors in the New World since ancient times! Well, it doesn’t matter whether the emperors of the Aztecs and the Incas were good enough or not. In short, France, the sun of Europe, and the Ming Dynasty, the leader of China, said they were, so if they weren’t, then so were they.
Since there are two ownerless crowns, what's wrong with Louis XIV picking up one and wearing it? If the Spanish don't want it, why don't the French be allowed to pick it up? I also picked up an emperor, which can be regarded as having inheritance and legal authority, and it is justified!
"Okay, okay," Jia Guozhu and Jia Liuye also clapped their hands, "Your Majesty the King, your Foreign Minister is really a genius! Since there are two lost crowns in the New World, then you pick one up, and our Ming Emperor will also pick up one. One cap. In this way, the Eastern and Western Emperors of the American Empire have a reasonable and legal inheritance, and no one can be dissatisfied. If you want to make this matter more concrete, you can also find some chiefs of the indigenous New World people and say that they are The descendants of the Aztec Empire and the Inca Empire come to ask you and the Ming Emperor to be the Eastern Emperor and the Western Emperor of the American Empire!"
All the tricks to persuade him have been used!
Now Louis' legal authority and inheritance as the emperor of the Eastern United States are even more complete!
Louis was quite satisfied with this arrangement, but he still did not nod immediately, but raised a new question: "So, how should the Eastern Empire and the Western Empire of the American Empire be divided? What kind of political system should this country adopt? "
Jia Guozhu had long known that Louis XIV would have these two problems.
Jia Guozhu replied: "Your Majesty, our opinion is that the mountainous areas and coastal plains in the western part of the North American continent, including the Rocky Mountains, belong to the Western Empire, while the rest belong to the Eastern Empire. As for the political system of the American Empire, it must It’s feudal!”
The division plan he proposed was not his personal opinion, but was determined by Li Zhongshan and Zheng Jing after repeated studies.
Although the Rocky Mountains and the mountainous areas on the west coast of North America are not as rich as the Great Plains in central and eastern North America, they are relatively close to the Ming Dynasty and are easily occupied by the Ming Dynasty. They are also easy to defend and difficult to attack.
At the same time, because western North America looks relatively barren and far away from Europe, the European powers that have the ability to invade the New World will most likely not send troops to the Rocky Mountains and the west coast of North America. In this way, the colonists sent by the Ming Dynasty will have the opportunity to establish a foothold in the Rocky Mountains and the west coast of North America. Moreover, there is gold in the western part of North America!
It is currently impossible for grain and cotton produced in North America to be transported to East Asia - there is no Panama Canal, and transportation costs are too high. But transporting gold is much easier! At the same time, gold is demand and the market!
As long as gold is developed on the west coast of North America, handicrafts from the Ming Dynasty will continue to be exported there. Relying on gold, silver, and brass from North America, it was possible to "send" the Ming Dynasty to the industrial era.
As for the feudalism of the American empire, it was certainly well thought out. After all, establishing a feudal state is a good way to expand the civilization circle at a low cost - the main development costs are borne by the vassals below, so won't the burden on the country be lightened?
Moreover, for the Ming Dynasty, a republican empire in which upper-class families, middle-class scholars, and grassroots citizens worked together to form a republic, restraining the excessive expansion of the upper-class families was the key to maintaining the country's stable development.
And constantly enfeoffing the bastards of upper-class families to the New World to become local emperors is a good way to achieve multiple goals with one stone. It does not hurt the harmony, but also releases the expansion momentum of the family, and can slowly occupy the territory of the New World, and at the same time, it can also take away the local excess population in the future.
What? Don't want to go?
This is not a problem. As long as the gold mines on the west coast of the New World are discovered, it is time to rush there!
"Feudal." Louis XIV seemed hesitant - he was actually "anti-feudal"!
Yes, as king, Louis was actually the flag-bearer of France's anti-feudalism.
Because Louis advocated "I am the country", and "I am the country" actually means the implementation of absolute monarchy, that is, centralization of power! This is of course anti-feudal. Therefore, in France under the rule of Louis, the originally powerful local nobles moved to Paris and Versailles, becoming court nobles who could only invite and favor the king, and lost the energy to directly control the grassroots. Of course, it also lost the ability to fight against the royal power, suppress the people and divide France.
Therefore, the royal power of Louis XIV and Louis XV gradually lost its checks and balances, and when Louis XVI faced the revolutionary craze, the royalist nobles could not help much.
It can be said that the collapse of the Bourbon dynasty began with Louis XIV's I am the country!
But things always have two sides. After Louis XIV implemented the policy of "I am the country", the separatist forces in France were greatly weakened, so that although France later went through ups and downs, it could still maintain the unity of the country.
In contrast, the United Kingdom, which is known for being conservative and moderate, embarked on a path of slow disintegration after losing its world empire. This is because the United Kingdom has never had a monarch who "is the country" who can integrate England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. As one body. Fortunately, Britain still has a beautiful father who was promoted from a rebellious son to protect him, otherwise it would be too much to hope for a decent disintegration!
"Your Majesty," the French Minister of War, the Marquis de Louvoir, had already seen Louis's thoughts, so he said to the king, "I think it is completely feasible and the only way to implement feudalism in the Spanish Empire. In fact, we are In the past few decades, considerable resources have been invested in the New World, but with little results. Now it is time to change. The establishment of the American Empire to protect the trade routes between France and the Ming Dynasty was an opportunity, and there will be many in the future. Prosperous commercial towns appeared along the Mississippi River. Not only did those commercial towns have prosperous commerce, but they were also surrounded by fertile plains. They would also have a high degree of autonomy, which would definitely be very attractive to the Huguenots in the country. force!"
"Huguenot." Louis' eyes lit up.
The Huguenots were a French Protestant sect that was influenced by Calvinism and opposed Catholicism and the king. They fought the Huguenot War with the Catholics from 1562 to 1598, which caused great losses to France. Henry IV, who later founded the Bourbon dynasty in France, signed the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which guaranteed the Huguenots' freedom of belief, promised not to hold the Huguenots responsible for wars, and allowed the Huguenots to retain a More than a hundred castles, allowing them to have armies and weapons.
However, Louis XIV was quite dissatisfied with this Edict of Nantes - the freedom granted to the Huguenots by the Edict of Nantes is incompatible with my, the authority of the state! If the Huguenots are allowed to grow bigger, France may one day be divided.
Therefore, after Louis came to power, the situation of the Huguenots became worse and worse, and it seemed that it was only a matter of time before the Edict of Nantes was revoked.
However, it would be a good idea to confer a group of disobedient nobles of the Huguenot faith to become city lords in the New World, and let these nobles lead the most staunch believers to build cities for France and protect trade routes in the New World.
"Very good, let's do it!" Louis nodded and said to Jia Guozhu, "Mr. Ambassador, I have agreed in principle to establish a dual confederal American empire. For specific matters, you and my Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Military Affairs and Let’s discuss it with the Finance Minister!”
He then said to the Marquis of Croissy, the Marquis of Louvoir and Colbert: "You three are now members of the New World Development Committee. I hope that you and Ambassador Jia will come up with a feasible plan as soon as possible. It is best to Before the porcelain, sugar, silk and spices shipped to Europe this time are sold out, establish an operational trade route. As long as there is a trade route, everything will be fine!"
"Dear gentlemen, councilors of the Province of Holland and the City of Amsterdam, as long as we curb the ambitions of Louis XIV and force the Ming Empire in the East to abide by the current principles of international trade, everything will be fine!"
"We must defeat the ambitious Louis XIV and General Lee, otherwise our colonies in the East Indies will never have peace. Think about it, our people are blowing the sea breeze, eating seafood, supervising The natives there produced spices for the prosperity of the Netherlands, and then Louis XIV’s fleet came! Those bandits stole everything, killed our people, and plunged the Spice Islands into anarchy.”
The two partners of William III, Gaspar Figg and Anthony Hines, were delivering speeches to the two groups of members of the Dutch Province and the City of Amsterdam in the Parliament Building in Amsterdam.
When the two people talked about the looting of the Spice Islands, they really burst into tears!
Because the French (Chinese) were too lazy to do things, they not only looted the Spice Islands, but also killed most of the Dutch administrators or mercenaries on the islands, and also captured Ternalt and Titus. Ray the sultan of both sultanates.
These two sultans were the tools used by the Dutch to control Ternalte and Tidore Islands. Once they were captured, the two spice-rich islands and the corresponding sultanates immediately fell into chaos - many people wanted to rob the sultans. The throne!
There are also many separatist lords who know that they may not be able to grab the throne, so they want to get some nutmeg and clove saplings. It is money to grow them yourself or sell them!
For a time, the situation in the Spice Islands was grim and on the verge of losing control.
Maybe the Dutch have now lost their lucrative monopoly on nutmeg and cloves!
Preventing honest and upright Dutch businessmen from establishing a monopoly would simply take away their lifeblood!
And they have to be very patriotic now!
Because William III has marched into Amsterdam with a total of 10,000 Dutch patriots. If anyone is not patriotic, the Werther brothers are waiting for them below!
"Yes! We must defeat Louis XIV and the Ming Empire!"
"These two despicable countries must know the consequences of opposing the Netherlands!"
"We must let Louis XIV and Ming Dynasty compensate for our losses and hand over the culprit!"
"We will also deprive Louis XIV of all the territory he acquired after 1659!"
"We must let Ming Dynasty completely open its doors to our Netherlands!"
"We should send more warships to join the Spanish Armada to loot the rich coast of the Ming Dynasty."
"A privateering license should be issued against the Ming Dynasty!"
The patriotic Dutch parliamentarians immediately became excited, and each tune became louder than the last.
Not only did they want compensation from Louis XIV and the Ming Dynasty, but they also wanted to deprive France of all the territory it had acquired since 1659. This meant that Louis not only had to spit out the gains from the Franco-Dutch War, but also the gains from the Heritage War, and even spit out France acquired Artois and Roussillon in the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659.
Seeing that all the congressmen were filled with righteous indignation, Gaspar Figg and Anthony Hines felt that the time was almost up, so they proposed a plan to pave the way for the money trapping plan that they had discussed long ago.
As long as this preparatory plan is passed, there will be no need to worry about not being able to distribute the 200 million Dutch guilders of national debt.
"Gentlemen, I propose that the Dutch Provincial Council and the Amsterdam City Council pass a resolution each: We will establish a special criminal court in The Hague, the Netherlands, to try the looting of the islands of Ternalte and Tidore and the Banda Islands The chief culprits-King Louis XIV of France and General Li Zhongshan of the Ming Dynasty!"
"Gentlemen, I suggest that the Dutch Provincial Council and the Amsterdam City Council pass a resolution respectively: claim 100 million guilders from Louis XIV and Li Zhongshan to compensate the Dutch East India Company for their losses!"
ah?
This is going crazy!
The congressmen are all dumbfounded. It’s okay for you two to have a good time. Why do you still need to go to trial and claim compensation? This is obviously to anger the Sun King! The King of France was very terrifying when he was angry. Philip IV had burned many Knights Templar to death. If he wanted Louis to march into Amsterdam, why not roast all the MPs who voted to try him?
"Judge Louie!"
"Judge Louie!"
"We're going to make Louie pay!"
Outside the Amsterdam City Council, tens of thousands of Dutch patriots are roaring. They are all fully armed and well-organized real patriots who only express their opinions peacefully!
"I agree!"
"I agree!"
"Louis must not be forgiven!"
"The robber must pay."
A group of MPs who had finally succeeded William III had begun to make noises, and there was a lot of anger inside and outside the Parliament.
All the members of the Dutch Provincial Council and the members of the Amsterdam City Council have understood that it seems that today must pass a resolution to put Louis on trial.
(End of chapter)
