Da Ming started to ascend the throne

Chapter 1023 Colonial Era
(recommended to skip)
After Zhu Youjian accepted Catherine, he readily agreed to the Portuguese's request, but Portugal wanted to transfer Lisbon to Daming.

At that time, Portugal was not in Lisbon but in The Hague. In order not to be destroyed by the Warsaw Pact, Portugal agreed to Ming's request.

Seeing that Portugal gave the princess to the Ming emperor, other European countries followed suit and sent their princesses to the Ming capital one after another.

They are the princesses of the Holy Roman Empire, the princesses of Norway, the princesses of Denmark, the princesses of Sweden, the princesses of Greece...

In addition to the princesses sent by several European countries, North Korean Lu Aiguo even sent the Korean princess to the Ming capital.

There were not many concubines in Zhu Youjian's harem, and this time he did not refuse anyone who came, and accepted all these princesses.

However, he did not let the princesses enter the original harem, but built another palace.

These foreign princesses Zhu Youjian can't let them be concubines and queens, they can only be ordinary concubines.

……

The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Spain have all been world hegemons, and even the small Portugal was once very powerful.

Now they have all been trampled under by Ming, and three of the powerful empires were destroyed by Ming.

Dutch colonial expansion began in the 16th century.At that time, Europe had just opened up a new sea route. The improvement of the shipbuilding industry and the introduction of the compass made Europe's maritime strength continue to increase.

Relying on its good geographical location, the Netherlands vigorously developed maritime trade, and finally became a world trading power in the 17th century.

With financial support, the Dutch colonial expansion also entered a stage of rapid development.

Unlike other colonial powers, Dutch colonial expansion was relatively civilized.

The rise of the Netherlands was due to trade, so the most important means for the Netherlands to participate in the colonial competition was to establish a monopoly trading company.

Using trade means to strengthen economic aggression against colonies, this method of the Netherlands was used by subsequent colonial countries, and eventually became the economic purpose of European colonial expansion.

In addition to establishing trading companies, the Netherlands captured the Cape of Good Hope in Africa from Portugal, and established colonial strongholds in the coastal areas of India, bringing Malacca and Ceylon into its colonial territory.

In the 17th century, the Dutch colonists also carried out colonial rule in the Taiwan area of ​​China for a short period of time, which brought a lot of trouble to the Taiwanese.

But in the end he was driven away by China's national hero Zheng Chenggong.

Dutch colonial expansion laid the foundation for the development of European capitalism.

Amsterdam in the 17th century was the busiest port and the most developed commercial center in the world at that time.

The prosperity of trade led to a large inflow of capital, and the Netherlands became a thriving in the capitalist world.Known as the "sea coachman".

But the good times didn't last long. At the end of the 17th century, under the blow of the three Anglo-Dutch wars, the Dutch maritime colonial hegemony was seized by the British.

British colonial expansion began in the 16th century and reached its peak in the early 20th century, lasting for four centuries.

During these four centuries, Britain continued to absorb the wealth of its colonies, its overall national strength gradually increased, and it finally became an empire on which the sun never sets.

British colonial expansion can be divided into three periods.

The first period is the overseas colonial period from the 16th century to the [-]th century.

During this period, the main purpose was the primitive accumulation of capital.

The expansion targets are the North American continent and the Australian continent.

In 1733, Britain first established 13 colonies on the North American continent.

From 1689 to 1763, Britain and France fought four wars for colonies, known in history as the Hundred Years War between Britain and France.

Each of these four campaigns ended in British victory.The number of British colonies also greatly increased.

After the Seven Years' War, Britain acquired Canada and all territories east of the Mississippi River.

It also included Tobago, Dominica, and Grenada into its own colonial system.

The second stage of British colonial expansion, from the 18th century to the middle and late 19th century.

This stage is the stage in which Britain competes for the Eurasian continent.

After the Industrial Revolution, Britain began to plunder industrial raw material sites and commodity sales markets in Eurasia.

The Indian peninsula became the main focus of British colonization.

At the same time, in Africa, Britain also stepped up its colonial control.This stage is the golden time for the development of British capitalism.

The third stage of British colonial expansion was to compete for African colonies. During this stage, Britain killed a lot in Africa and brought serious disasters to Africa.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the world's territories were basically divided up, with the UK taking the largest share.

With these three colonial expansions, Britain became the empire on which the sun never sets.

Portugal's colonial expansion activities opened the door to European aggression.

The development of modern history in the West also began with the colonial expansion of Portugal.

In 1415, the Portuguese began to occupy the Ceuta region of Morocco.

Since then, the Portuguese expedition has been exploring south, hoping to open up a new route to the east.

Because at this time the Silk Road that originally led to the East had been blocked by the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

Economic exchanges between China and the West are completely paralyzed.In order to obtain more porcelain and silk from the East, the West had to open up a new sea route.

In 1487, Dias of Portugal began to sail south along the west coast of Africa. He led the fleet to the southernmost tip of Africa and named the southernmost piece of African land the Cape of Good Hope.

This was a major breakthrough for the Portuguese to explore new routes.

In 1497, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama led a large fleet around the Cape of Good Hope and arrived in Calicut, India.

This is the first time in human history that the Cape of Good Hope was circumvented, and the Portuguese opened up a new route to the East.

With the opening of new sea routes, Portugal began its colonial expansion.

It is focusing its expansion on the Asia and Africa regions.

In 1500, the Portuguese colonizer incorporated Brazil into his colonial system. In 1557, Macau, China was occupied by Portugal.

However, Portugal's colonial expansion did not bring Portugal a strong national power.

Although a large amount of wealth was plundered, the Portuguese nobles bought all the plundered gold into British and French luxury goods, causing funds to flow into other countries.

Portugal, indulging in the dream of luxury, eventually lost its status as a colonial power.

Italy's colonial expansion was later than other European countries.

Because Italy was unified late and did not have the same strength as Britain and France, therefore, Italy's colonies did not have as many colonies as Britain and France.

Colonial expansion of Italy, beginning in 1889.In that year, Italy began to colonize Somalia in East Africa.It was the closest colony to Italy.Italy then acquired Eritrea.This colony was considered a proud colony by Italy.Because Eritrea has many cultural relics and historic sites.This has also brought great cultural and material wealth to Italy.

In 1911, Italy and the Ottoman Turkish Empire fought a war of contention. In the end, the Ottoman Turkish Empire was defeated. Italy acquired the Libyan colony and called it "the fourth coast of Italy".

While Italy is expanding outward, it is also eyeing China.

In 1900, Italy, together with seven other countries, launched a war of aggression against China, known in history as the "Eight-Power Allied Forces' War of Aggression against China".

Later, because of China's initiative to seek peace, Italy also acquired China's Tianjin Port as a trade distribution center.

In addition to the above areas, Italy also captured many colonies in Africa.Especially after World War I, Italy, as the victorious country, obtained the colonies of the defeated country in Africa.Greatly increased the sphere of influence of Italy.

Italy's colonial expansion brought serious disasters to the people in the colonies.

However, the incompetence of the Italian army also cost Italy a great price.

During World War II, as Britain repeatedly defeated the Italian army in the North African battlefield, it laid the foundation for the victory of Italy's surrender.

(End of this chapter)