Greece’s Roman Road

Hearing Constantine's answer, Queen Olga insisted: "Constantine, I just want to remind you that up to now, your African exploration plan has cost 4 million francs, and The return, so far, is very few, a few rare African woodcarvings of limited value, log records of African expeditions, and maps hand-painted by the explorer's door."

Strange artwork of indigenous Africans brought back by adventurer Stanley, along with adventure maps and diaries to curry favor with his patrons, King George and Crown Prince Constantine, to show that he is not a liar and is indeed on adventures and exploration .

This is the only return on the investment of 4 million francs so far.

4 million francs is a real huge sum of money in this era. One franc contains 0.29032258 grams of gold, and 4 million francs add up to 1.16 tons of gold. It is not the franc that has been shrinking after the First World War.

Backed by the strong national strength of France, the value of the franc before the First World War was stable, and it was one of the important currencies in international circulation.

Queen Olga held the bill in her hand and swayed it to Constantine and George.

King George ate breakfast attentively and relished it. He picked up a grape and put it in his mouth. The sweet and sour grape juice overflowed the corner of his mouth. Then he picked up the napkin on the table and wiped the corner of his mouth. He didn't seem to care about the conversation between the two. .

"If you want to get huge profits, you must be willing to invest huge amounts of money, Mom, this is the basic principle of business," Constantine answered vaguely while eating jam bread.

"Of course I understand this truth, but I want to remind you that your plan is too risky, the risk is very high, and it is likely to lose everything." Queen Olga looked at Constantine and reminded solemnly.

"That is also an indispensable part of the payment to obtain huge profits," Constantine replied.

In Europe at the end of the 19th century, whether in London or Paris, the public was very interested in the news of overseas expeditions recorded in the newspapers, such as the sack of the British colonial leader Robert Clive in Bangladesh during the British invasion of India.

Kleiwu led the army to invade Bangladesh and looted the area. Kleiwu alone stole gold and silver treasures worth 230,000 pounds.

He brazenly boasted to the British Parliament: "Under my feet there are rich cities, and in our hands a mighty country, and before me a treasury full of gold bars, silver ingots, pearls and gems has been opened. I have taken them all. £200,000. Gentlemen, I still wonder why I am so polite?"

Whenever such news appears in the newspaper, it can be sold out and sold out.

People took newspapers to the streets, taverns or other places where there were many people, discussing a certain person's overseas heroic deeds loudly and enthusiastically, and said "what a lucky guy" in an envious tone.

In fact, this kind of news that people are keen on overseas adventures to obtain gold and silver treasures is a scene that people talk about with great relish. Ever since the era of great voyages opened the world, it has already appeared, but at that time, there was no large-scale release and sale. Just newspapers.

The initiators are the famous Columbus, Da Gama and other pioneers of seafaring careers and overseas adventures.

When the news of Columbus' discovery of India came, the entire continent of Europe was boiling.

(Actually, the American continent was discovered, but Columbus insisted that he discovered India. If you are confused when you look at the map and find that there is a large island called the West Indies in the waters of Central America, then blame Columbus for making a mistake. . Europeans will be wrong, they are too lazy to change)

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the rise of the powerful Ottoman Turkey blocked the trade routes between the East and the West. The Ottoman Turks blocked the road and charged high taxes and tolls, making eastern goods such as spices, peppers and chili peppers from India, silk and porcelain from East Asia more expensive (not cheap at all).

The helpless Europeans can only set out towards the western sea (Atlantic), looking for a new route to the east.

Newspaper operators are also fond of the people and are happy to publish adventure stories in the newspapers. They even go out in person and sponsor some adventurers to go on an adventure on the African continent. They have negotiated with the adventurers and want to exclusively report their adventures.

As for why it was Africa and not the rest of the world, it was because at the end of the 19th century, the rest of the world had no sense of mystery.

In the Age of Navigation that began around 1500, America, Portugal and Spain were the first to be discovered. These two founders of the first colonial empires on which the sun never sets, soon colonized South and Central America.

Why was there no colonization of North America, such as the United States and Canada?

The reason is that they disliked it. At that time, North America did not have as many gold and silver mines and other tropical crops as South America, such as sugar cane and cocoa. In their eyes, North America was a land of bitter cold!

So the situation in America is no longer mysterious.

As for Asia, it was clear by the end of the 19th century that Britain and France were in India and the Netherlands were colonizing the East Indies (Indonesia) archipelago.

So at the end of the 19th century, for Europeans, there was still a foggy continent, and only the African continent remained.

Africa is very close to Europe, separated only by a large bathtub like the Mediterranean Sea, but Gibraltar, Spain, and the African continent are across the sea. As early as in ancient Rome, Europeans fought wars in North Africa.

But this does not mean that the African continent is easy to explore, UU reading www.uukanshu. The largest desert in the world, the Sahara Desert completely separates southern Africa from North Africa. The vast expanse of desert, endless no-man's land, interrupts any idea of ​​exploring southern Africa from land.

The humid, hot and rainy tropical rainforest climate in southern Africa is very unfriendly to Europeans.

Compared with cold, Europeans are actually more afraid of heat, because they can effectively resist the cold, such as using bonfires, animal fur, cotton coats, etc. to keep out the cold.

But Europeans are helpless to the heat, especially in southern Africa, which is humid, hot and rainy. Mosquitoes can easily breed malaria, dysentery and other diseases.

At the same time, southern Africa does not have the incentives of huge gold and silver mines like the Americas.

Therefore, at the end of the 19th century, due to the frequent overseas voyages and the increase in global trade, the African coastal areas were clearly understood by Europeans, but the inland areas of the African continent were still large blanks on the European maps. question mark.

At that time, European geography was eager to figure out a question, where is the source of the Nile River? Are the Nile and Congo Rivers the same source?

Funded by European monarchs, geographic research organizations, newspapers and other institutions and individuals, adventurers have a desire to make huge profits and become rich, or driven by intense curiosity, or longing for a free wild life, or purely Called by the wild, southern Africa has become a paradise for explorers.

Obviously, Constantine was also one of them. He gave a lot of money to help explorers explore southern Africa, and the person he sponsored was the adventurer Mr. Stanley.

A legend who was born in England, grew up in the United States, and returned to England when he became an adult. Under the influence of the adventurous boom, he rushed to southern Africa.

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