Greece to roman road

After hearing Constantine's purpose, Chester remained silent, picked up the pipe in his right hand, and raised it in front of Constantine.

"It doesn't matter, you can do whatever you want," Constantine said.

Then Chester lit his pipe and took a deep drag.

"Shh..."

The room was filled with smoke and silence.

After smoking a pot of tobacco, Chester said; "So, what can you get in return for America's support?"

Constantine Constantine said: "I heard that the racial situation in your country is not optimistic. If black people in the United States want to return to the land where their ancestors have lived for generations since ancient times, then the Congo Committee will Actively cooperate.”

To put it bluntly, if Americans want to solve the problem of the large number of black people in the country by moving back to Africa, then the Congo River Basin controlled by the Congo Commission should open its doors to accept black Americans.

Speaking of which, the solution for black people has been the most troublesome chronic problem for the American elite since the independence of the United States.

The economic system of the American South was a slave plantation economy, while the North was a capitalist industrial and commercial economy.

By the 1860s, this contradiction became increasingly acute and unavoidable.

On the surface, it seems that the conflict between the North and the South is just about the abolition of slavery, but in fact, the essence of this conflict is a conflict over the choice of the economic system.

Plantations in the southern United States used a large number of cheap black slaves. This characteristic made them more inclined to develop an agricultural plantation economy.

The agricultural plantation economy needs to export raw materials, such as cotton, to European industrial countries. Cotton in the southern United States is exported to the United Kingdom in large quantities to earn foreign exchange. This makes cotton exports play an important role in the economy of the southern United States.

If we want to maintain such an economy, we need to reduce U.S. customs tariffs and import British industrial products to complement the British economy.

As for the northern capitalist industrial and commercial economy, the British Empire, which had completed the Industrial Revolution at that time, had unprecedented improvements in production capacity and high-quality and low-price goods.

In order to find a market for its goods, Britain advocates free trade and encourages countries to reduce tariffs.

If a low-tariff policy is adopted, the fragile factories in the north will be overwhelmed by British goods due to their weak foundation and short development time, and the development of industry and commerce will come to nothing.

This is the root of the conflict between the North and the South.

Slavery became the focus of debate between the two sides. Both the North and the South saw clearly that as long as there were no cheap slaves in the South, the plantation economy would not be able to continue to develop.

Even after the Civil War, although Lincoln issued the Abolition Proclamation and promised to give black slaves the rights of American citizens, Lincoln was highly praised.

However, the status of black people is still low, racial discrimination is serious, and the idea of ​​​​moving black people back to Africa still appears from time to time.

This idea is not just empty talk, Americans actually do it.

At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, the number of free blacks in the North increased dramatically, which caused panic among abolitionists and slaveholders alike.

They were worried that blacks would cause white workers to lose their jobs, that urban crime rates would increase, that free blacks would incite slave riots in the South, and that "uneducated blacks" would "devalue" American society.

In short, the entire society has formed an atmosphere that is conducive to the "black homeland faction": hurry up and send black people to where they belong, no matter what the cost.

The first person to put this idea into action was Paul Cuffey.

Kufi is an ocean-going shipowner with African and Native American ancestry. He has a wide range of contacts and has many contacts with members of the U.S. Congress, black leaders and even the British government.

He formulated a plan that seemed feasible: transport black slaves from the American South to settle in Lion Rock, the British colony in West Africa, and then use original ships to ship local products to the United States for sale. The profits were used to subsidize the cost of transporting the black people, and the balance was used by everyone. be divided in portion.

His plan quickly attracted attention from all parties.

The anti-black relocation plan was originally going smoothly, and a large number of black people were sent to West Africa.

However, as the number of black people increased, the conflicts between them and the local aborigines became more and more serious.

On the one hand, black Americans are incompatible with local indigenous cultural customs. After many years of living in the United States, most of them have embraced Christianity.

On the other hand, the ever-increasing number of African Americans has an increasing demand for resources. Various settlements have begun to have frictions and conflicts with each other in order to compete for territory and water sources.

In order to maintain local order, we have to increase investment to maintain local order. Long-distance shipping, large settlement and resettlement costs, and huge military expenditures have overwhelmed the finances and made society increasingly dissatisfied.

Under such a situation, both the U.S. government and the American Colonization Society were eager for a once-and-for-all solution: to merge those settlements into an "independent" country, so that exporting black people there would not be "criminal colonization." But there is normal population flow between countries.

In 1847, this African country officially became independent. It was Liberia, which means the country of freedom.

This country has completely copied the political system of the United States, with separation of powers, a presidential system, the House of Representatives and the Senate, etc. Part-time is a replica of the United States.

The reward proposed by Constantine was just lip service and free of charge. In fact, it was already unlikely that the United States would immigrate a large number of black people to Africa.

After the Civil War, slavery was completely abolished in the United States, and the basis for large numbers of black immigrants no longer existed.

Although there is racial discrimination, black people do not want to return to primitive African society.

Of course, Chester also understands Constantine's tricks, but the United States does not have a strong voice in Africa, so Greece cannot pay a high price to win over the United States.

The reason why Constantine chose the United States as a breakthrough point was because of this.

It is Europe that can really decide where Africa belongs. In the worst case, even if Americans do not support it, as long as they do not oppose it, it will be fine.

I don't expect them to put in much effort.

"With this condition, it would be impossible for the United States to support the Congolese Commission in managing the Congo River Basin," Chester said unceremoniously.

"After the Congo Committee obtains management rights, it will adopt a free trade policy and American goods can enter freely." Constantine sighed inwardly.

Although we know that sooner or later we will have to give up our trade exclusivity, it is still depressing to give it up at the first stop of diplomatic negotiations.

Although the United States is rich in various industrial resources, there is no shortage of raw materials.

But the commodity market cannot be rejected by any capitalist country. No capitalist would object to making too much money.

Thinking about the situation in Greece, I feel relieved. Anyway, there are no industrial products in Greece now. If the market is not given to the Americans, it will belong to others.

"Wow", Chester was still very satisfied after hearing this condition.

The Congo River Basin covers an area of ​​more than 2 million square kilometers and contains nearly 20 million black people. Although they are all primitive tribesmen and their market value is not high, it is still a considerable market.

The United States, which is in the Gilded Age, has protected domestic industry and commerce through high tariff policies. Its production capacity has grown rapidly, and factories have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

A large number of commodities also require more markets to digest.