Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 794 Diplomacy and Crisis ([-])

"The seeds of aggression that were conceived in the first La Plata War broke out in the second war that broke out in 1646 and began to take root. The war monster on the east coast began to devour people." St. In the city of Vicente, Blanco Sousa de Almeida carefully examined a secret letter from the east coast.The author of this letter is Mr. Jimenez, a former Spanish teacher. He has graduated from the East Bank Capital Normal Secondary School. He is currently teaching in a primary school in Qingdao Port. The cadets take a Spanish class.

However, Mr. Jimenez has obviously not been idle during the past few years of settling on the east coast, and he has not forgotten the responsibility of a Catholic, so he wrote this to his good friend, Blanco from the Almeida family in Brazil. a letter.This letter is very long, and its content is mainly the first-hand information about the East Coast Republic obtained by Jimenez through his own observation and thinking in the East Coast, which is of high value.

"Since the victory of the last war, this country has embarked on the road of rapid expansion. It has been able to send a large number of troops to win a continental war that lasted for more than two years; at the same time, it can also send a large number of professional naval warships , won the victory in the coastal waters of Spain, which made the whole old continent look at them with admiration. Today, when the major powers re-divide the spheres of influence in Europe and the New World, as a new force appearing on the east coast of the world stage, it is showing Its increasingly undisguised expansion attempts. All aspects of this country, all systems, seem to be designed for war and expansion, and the mobilization efficiency far exceeds that of ordinary countries. This time it is La Plata, where will it be next time? ? Brazil or Chile?"

There is still a lot of content behind Ximenez's letter, mostly analyzing the details of various aspects of the country on the east coast, but Blanco has no intention of reading any more for the time being.Some sugar tycoons in the north were quite critical of the East Bank's heavy aid to the Dutch West India Company (through trade) because it clearly hindered their efforts to defeat the Dutch and unify Brazil, which was often related to their ability to unify The entire sucrose market in order to obtain the excess profits brought about by the monopoly.

As the saying goes, cutting someone’s money is like killing one’s parents. Although the Portuguese don’t have this proverb, they still understand the general meaning.They are now angry at the increasingly close commercial ties between the East Coast and the Dutch West India Company, but they dare not express their dissatisfaction in too drastic means.Cross the Gerard Mountains and kill some East Coast residents to vent their anger?No kidding, their Army forces would be ecstatic to see this happen, because then they would have a reason to break free from the chains that were put on them and go berserk.Although it is embarrassing, it has to be said that if the two sides fight head-on, the Brazilian army will be defeated by the East Coasters in a short time.

But doing nothing is not in line with the style of the Brazilian sugar giants. They quickly contacted the Spaniards who were in the same situation. They opened the dining table for the two of them, devouring the delicious meal they were enjoying, and at the same time fixed their coveted eyes on the untouched delicacies on the table.

The Spaniards planned to train four regiments of infantry at La Plata—a Gentlemen's regiment (predominantly white), a mestizo regiment (predominantly white mulattos), two regiments of the Clanti—and a Gaucho Cavalry Battalion, if such an army building plan is really put into practice, then the balance of war power between the two sides in the La Plata area will be greatly improved.

The Spaniards have launched such a drastic immigration and military expansion plan, so the Portuguese can't take it lightly. In 1649, Portuguese aristocrats, sugar magnates in northeastern Brazil, and emerging plantation owners in the south jointly invested and began to immigrate from the old continent to Brazil. At the same time, they formed an army to resist the increasingly aggressive threats from the east coast. .

The Portuguese's move took the West India Company by surprise. After some investigation, they were also forced to move a large number of "Boers" from the Netherlands and the neighboring German regions to consolidate the territories they had already occupied.At the same time, it is actively preparing for military expansion and preparations for war, in response to the sudden and irrational increase in troops by the Brazilians.It's just that their financial strength is extremely limited, and after a while, they can't do it anymore. In the end, they can only send people to Dongfang Port to seek more extensive and in-depth cooperation with the people on the east coast, so as to offset the pressure exerted by the Brazilians on them.After all, they can't compare to those wealthy Portuguese guys in terms of money.

The people on the east coast are naturally very happy about the olive branch extended by the Dutch West India Company, because they have recently approved the large-scale smuggling trade along the Pacific Ocean, so they feel guilty about the Dutch West India Company, which has certain interests here, and are currently in the process of He hesitated and didn't know how to appease the Dutchman's emotions, but they didn't expect that they would come to ask for it at this time.

Things will be easier now, and the two parties can completely coordinate their interests.In this way, the Southern Railway Company, which organized the smuggling trade on behalf of the East Coast Republic of China, quickly launched several rounds of negotiations with the Dutch West India Company in Dongfang Port, and the two sides adjusted their scope of interests.The Dutch approved the East Coast people’s proposal to do a good job as an East Coast commodity agent, and at the same time acquiesced in the dumping trade launched by the Southern Railway Company to the Viceroyalty of Peru, provided that the East Coast people increased all-round assistance to them (including diplomacy and munitions), so that they try to keep some of the remaining territory in northeastern Brazil.

The division of interests between the two parties was completely completed in the past two months, which can be described as extremely fast and extremely efficient.But the Portuguese are not bad, they reached a cooperation agreement with the Spaniard earlier.So far, there have been two opposing groups on the South American continent, namely: the Alliance of Colonial Nations formed by Portugal and the Kingdom of Spain, which is also the Catholic Alliance; Proportion) China East Coast Republic, and the Dutch West India Company passively involved in the struggle.Of course, if you include the unofficial protectorate of the eastern coast, the Kingdom of Araucania.

Currently, these five forces control the politics, economy and military of the entire Viceroyalty of Peru.More than 1000 million creatures living on this land are servile under the rule of these two groups, driven by their will, and fighting for their interests.Of course, the confrontation between these two groups is only vague now, and has not yet been upgraded to a full-scale military and political confrontation. At least the current business exchanges between these two groups are still very frequent.

In Blanco's view, the future policy trends of Portugal and Spain can be guessed, and they are mainly conservative.The Dutch West India Company is also dying, and the only thing to worry about is the East Coast Republic.Once this country has any strong and radical measures, it means that the existing fragile balance will be completely broken, and the confrontation between the two major groups will officially come to the fore from under the table. If it continues like this, an all-out war will break out in a short time will be a high probability event.

The Almeida family, where Blanco belongs, is an emerging plantation owner in southern Brazil (mainly growing cotton, tobacco, and grains, and also involved in mining), and is also a major agent of goods on the east coast in Brazil. They can be said to be The last thing I want to see is a hot war between the two major military, political and economic groups-although the war between the Dutch West India Company and Brazil has been going on intermittently.However, as a native white elite family in Brazil, they are also extremely wary of every step of territorial expansion by the pagans on the east coast, especially after they once claimed sovereignty over the Gerard Mountains.He is afraid that his plantation will be taken away by the East Coast Republic, and he is even more afraid that his family's decades of struggle in Brazil will be destroyed.Because of this, business is business, and the Almeida family is still very wary of the people on the east coast politically, which can be seen from the fact that their family has been trying to send spies to infiltrate the east coast.

"People on the east coast are very talented in what they call 'science and technology'. They have widely applied various science and technology, so they have created a commodity production capacity that is far from commensurate with their land and population. If you seriously If you read this letter of mine, please turn to the last page, where I have drawn a sketch of a device known on the East Coast as a 'steam engine.' I must say that this is a great invention of an epoch, and I have a deep foreboding , this can greatly change our production and lifestyle, and I have gradually felt this on the east coast. The sketch of the steam engine was designed based on a few words collected in my daily life, in fact, I did not see it with my own eyes steam engine, but I believe that's how it works. It's a huge and extremely ingenious machine, and I don't know if anyone in Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, London, or Amsterdam has ever reproduced it perfectly, but I I feel that trying is always better than doing nothing. If you still have a little awe of God, please bring this picture to the world of God and support them so that the people of God He also built a perfect steam engine comparable to the pagans on the east coast..." Blanco carefully read every page, and then sat down firmly at the desk.

After a long time, he grabbed a quill pen at hand, dipped it in ink, and started writing the letter.After finishing writing, he held the letter paper for a while, and then stuffed the letter paper and the steam engine drawing into an envelope.After finishing all this, he called his butler and asked him to take the letter to Lisbon properly.

(End of this chapter)