The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 593
West Africa, Port of Monrovia.

A British merchant ship sailed into this quiet harbor as usual.

At this time, Liberia was a colony of the United States in West Africa. From 1821, the "American Colonization Society" established a black immigration area here, and the center was in Monrovia.

However, these blacks from the United States did not show much difference, and the local infrastructure was still a mess.

The economy mainly relies on selling timber and palm oil to the United States and other European countries to make profits. The black population in the United States is only about 1.5, and there are about 10,000+ indigenous people.

Although it has been developed for more than 20 years, the main achievement of the local people is to drive the indigenous tribes out of their land, and the economy and infrastructure are in a mess.

The most terrible thing is that Liberia still needs to import food and weapons from abroad, but the weapons and food sold by the Americans to these "free" blacks are not only of low quality but also expensive.

So the British discovered this business opportunity. Although it can only be regarded as a grasshopper's leg, it still has meat. In this way, the two countries are generally in peace.

Until the first black governor of Liberia came to power, Joseph Roberts, as an American-African mixed-race, did not feel that he was inferior to whites or Europeans, so he decided to tax the merchant ships of the great powers.

This naturally aroused dissatisfaction among the great powers. King Louis Philippe of France even stated publicly that he would not pay taxes to slaves unless they hired a white tax official.

As a result, he found that he had underestimated the bottom line of Americans. For money, some white people really went to work as tax collectors for black people.

But the face of the French cannot be ignored, and France has no shortage of supply points in West Africa, so French merchant ships will choose to avoid this unlucky place.

The Russian tsar was even more violent, claiming to tear blacks to pieces if they dared to set foot on Russian ships.

But in fact, Russian merchant ships usually did not leave the Black Sea in the past, and even now that they open up trade with the Austrian Empire, they hardly leave the Mediterranean Sea.

But the British obviously don't believe in this evil.
So as soon as John Bull got off the ship, he was warmly welcomed by the black brothers. Captain John Davis and his twenty crew members were forcibly disembarked by a group of black soldiers.

The news quickly spread to public opinion in Europe. Not many people on the European continent paid attention to the fact that British merchant ships did not pay taxes. People paid more attention to why those blacks dared to detain British ships.

Of course, this was deliberately guided by someone. As soon as Franz heard the news, he began to publicize it intensively, with the purpose of expanding the incident.

The other powers also understood and vowed that this incident would become the fuse of the third US-British war.

(The first US-British War refers to the American War of Independence, and the second refers to the War of 1812, which is the time when the White House was burned.)
Because Louis-Philippe lost face before, the French media was particularly crazy at this time, and even described it as a confrontation between black and white, a collision between barbarism and civilization.

It's like as long as the British make concessions, it will kill itself in minutes.

The crazy campaign of the great powers seems to be in solidarity with Britain, but in fact they are fanning the flames. Because Britain is too strong, everyone hopes to weaken it through war.

In fact, whether it is the second burning of the White House or the second bombardment of London, the great powers can accept it. In short, it is very happy to watch the dog bite the dog.

On the island of Great Britain, people have different opinions. Some people think that not paying taxes is a mistake. The Whig Party even seized this opportunity to frantically slander the barbarism of the Tory Party.

However, Robert Peel was not mediocre, and soon gathered a group of legal experts to start a debate with the Whig Party.

The British Navy responded immediately and intercepted one of Liberia's largest cargo ships, on the grounds that they were involved in the slave trade, of course.

In fact, the relationship between the blacks in Liberia and the local blacks is very bad, and they don't have much financial income, so they played some side effects.

Usually the British would turn a blind eye, but at this time it is already a gentleman not to drive the fleet directly into the port of Monrovia.

Joseph Jenkins Roberts personally protested to the British government, but was mercilessly humiliated.

After all, at this time on the European continent, the seizure was described as a humiliation of the blacks to the British. The British navy has never been so humiliated for so many years.

As the commander-in-chief of the West African Fleet, Henry Berg Stein's nose would be crooked. If he hadn't been stopped by several lieutenants, he would have thrown the black man in front of him into the sea to feed the sharks.

"Let your master talk to me!"

Ever since, Joseph Jenkins Roberts was driven back to Liberia with only such a reply.

In desperation, he could only ask the US government to intervene. James Knox Polk is quite tough.

He wrote a letter as soon as he got the news, asking the British government to pay attention to the special interests of the United States in the colonial movement, and asking Britain to recognize Liberia's sovereignty.

Robert Peel also responded immediately.

"In response to your request, the UK government cannot treat a commercial entity established by a charitable association as a sovereign state.

Just like your country did with Omer United Development Corporation in California.Therefore, at this time the United Kingdom does not have to abide by the laws of Liberia. "

The words of the British can be described as murderous, because if the Americans insist that Britain obey the laws of Liberia, it is tantamount to admitting that they did not invade Mexico but Austria during the US-Mexico War.

Invading Mexico and invading Austria are not the same concept at all. Although the United States and Austria are thousands of miles apart, Austria can use this excuse to declare war on the United States at any time, and can even call other powers to join them.

Conversely, when there is a conflict between the United States and other powers, Austria can also use this excuse to intervene. The result of offending one power in person is really terrible, but what about offending two powers at the same time?

Even President Polk, who is as tough as he is, has to consider the consequences of this matter, but he deserves to be the most "hard" president in the United States.

Facing the British face-jumping attack, he didn't panic at all, and chose the strategy of harming himself by one thousand and injuring the enemy by eight points.

Polk immediately opened a bill to promote Liberia's independence, and finally at the president's insistence, the board of the American Colonial Society declared:
"At this time, it is 'appropriate' to transfer all powers of self-government, including the conduct of foreign relations, to the Liberian people"

As a result, Liberia became independent in this way, and the British had to pay tariffs in theory, and they could not use this reason to continue to humiliate Polk and threaten the United States.

But at the same time that the United States recognized Liberia's independence, Britain established diplomatic relations with the latter, which made Polk feel like he was "cowed".

In fact, Liberia borders with the British colony of Sierra Leone, which the British have long coveted, and the Liberians are also very "aware of the times" and willing to accept the leadership of the British Empire.

(End of this chapter)