Zhu Jianying was, of course, aware of the blood and tears history of the Americas.
The discovery of the American continent was an accident, and for a long time, it was a huge nuisance. This accidentally discovered land blocked Spain's westward route to India for plundering spices, causing Columbus's highly creative plan to storm the shores of the Malabar Coast in Western India to completely fail.
In other words, for a century after the sixth year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty, apart from a few raids on the remaining Mesoamerican civilizations like the Inca Empire, it was a land that European nobles disdained.
As the discoverer of the American continent, Columbus was accused of deceiving the king and ultimately died in humiliation. The boundless praise and embellishment of him came much, much later.
Incidentally, Columbus never actually set foot on the mainland of America; he always roamed the Caribbean islands.
Only when the business of plundering spices from Southeast Asia and transporting them to Europe became less lucrative did those speculative merchants and robbers, masquerading as explorers, slowly begin to set their sights on the American continent, intending to make use of the land that had once blocked their westward route to India.
By this time, Columbus had not yet been rehabilitated, as there was still no need to sing his praises.
It wasn't until the second month of the succession of the illustrious carpenter emperor Zhu Youxiao that the equally famous Mayflower, laden with Puritans, vagrants, bankrupts, slaves, and all sorts of ruffians, swindlers, robbers, and thieves, arrived in the Americas.
It should be noted that the European gentlemen on the Mayflower at this time did not heavily victimize the indigenous peoples. After all, nearly half of them had died soon after disembarking, leaving only a few dozen people who could not possibly contend with hundreds or thousands of indigenous tribes.
The history of European gentlemen harming indigenous peoples actually goes back further, to the very moment Columbus landed on the American continent. To prove that he had indeed discovered "India," Columbus forced or rather kidnapped several indigenous people to return with him to Spain to meet the Spanish King Ferdinand II and his wife, Queen Isabella I.
Unfortunately, although Columbus brought back a group of indigenous people, he could not find the large amounts of gold and spices he had promised, nor the wealthy kingdoms he had vowed to find before his voyage—Japan, the Central Plains workshops, and India. Consequently, many Spanish nobles, envious of Columbus's achievements, slandered the Spanish monarchs, King Ferdinand II and his wife Isabella I, belittling Columbus's accomplishments and, in passing, devaluing the land Columbus had discovered as utterly worthless.
Worse still, the early American colonies did not yield much wealth to the Spanish Kingdom. Without seeing any profits, the Spanish monarchs had to tighten their belts and provide substantial amounts of silver and gold to support Columbus in developing the colonies.
King Ferdinand II of Spain was greatly displeased. With his tacit approval, although his wife Isabella I continued to support Columbus in developing the colonies as always, all sorts of negative rumors about Columbus were rampant in the Spanish royal court.
... At this time, Columbus was under immense pressure. To secure funding for the development of the colonies and to prove their future prospects, thereby gaining continued support from the Spanish royal court, Columbus had to find various ways to make money and develop the colonies.
Columbus chose to target the indigenous people. From the more than fifteen hundred indigenous captives he had captured, he selected five hundred men and women in the best condition, loaded them onto ships, and transported them to the Spanish market for sale.
This also marked the notorious beginning of the American slave trade.
In addition to capturing indigenous people for the slave trade, Columbus also led Spanish colonists in enslaving indigenous peoples. To appease the Spaniards who had crossed the ocean to "explore and work" after being swayed by his descriptions of the glories of "India," only to have their dreams shattered upon arrival and their discontent soar, Columbus rounded up the remaining thousand-plus indigenous people and brought them to the colonial square, allowing all Spaniards to choose indigenous people as their slaves, as many as they wished.
However, in the early stages of colonial America, Spanish colonists considered keeping too many slaves to be a losing proposition. Their entire focus was on seizing gold and spices, and they were uninterested in other colonial activities.
To them, unless there were vast tracts of land or mines to develop and exploit, keeping too many slaves was truly useless.
Therefore, the Spanish colonists only selected some indigenous people as slaves to be exploited. However, because many Spaniards had already returned to Spain from Hispaniola, and many Spaniards had already captured and enslaved indigenous people in previous battles, there were still over four hundred indigenous captives left whom no Spaniard wanted.
These indigenous people were primarily women, children, and the elderly. They were worthless in the eyes of the Spaniards. Killing them all would be too much trouble, so the Spaniards drove these indigenous people out of the colony, leaving them to fend for themselves.
To escape the clutches of the ferocious Spaniards as quickly as possible, the indigenous people who were not chosen as slaves scrambled away as fast as they could. Some indigenous women, in order to run faster, even abandoned their own children, leaving them to starve in the colonial square, all so they could get as far away from the cruel Spaniards as possible. A Spanish colonist recorded that tragic scene as follows:
"They (the indigenous women) were afraid of being captured again, and to escape us better, they threw their babies on the ground and began to flee desperately like hopeless people. Some crossed mountains and rivers, escaping so far that they reached places seven or eight days' journey from Isabella Colony."
But surviving the Spaniards' clutches this time did not mean they would have such good luck in the future!
Establishing colonies was a very arduous task, and the number of Spaniards who came to "India" was too small to quickly establish fully functional colonies. To obtain sufficient labor, the colonists, led by Columbus, directly resorted to enslaving indigenous peoples as a solution. Their lives were of no consequence, and no wages were needed for their work. Therefore, whenever there was a labor shortage, they would enslave indigenous peoples.
...The Spaniards enslaved large numbers of indigenous peoples to labor for them, forcing them to complete various arduous tasks such as cultivating land, panning for gold, mining, construction, and carrying heavy loads, without providing them with adequate food, rest, or shelter. Coupled with the rampant spread of diseases from the Old World, large numbers of indigenous people died tragically in Spanish colonies and at the hands of colonists.
To compensate for the labor shortage in the colonies, Spanish colonists continuously captured or coerced indigenous peoples into slavery as replenishment or for sale. Many indigenous villages were razed, and large numbers of indigenous people were forcibly enslaved and then died tragically. In less than fifty years after Columbus discovered Hispaniola, the island, which originally had about three hundred thousand indigenous people, was left with fewer than five hundred!
Columbus's actions not only set a bad precedent for later colonists but also further destabilized an already chaotic American continent.
Because some indigenous tribes discovered that the colonists' weapons were very advanced—it would be a shame not to use such advanced weapons to kill enemy tribes—many indigenous tribes began to collude with the colonists, turning their attacks on enemy tribes.
As a side note: scalping was not a tradition started by the "Silly Eagle" (a derogatory term for Americans). It was a traditional custom among various indigenous tribes, but it was amplified by the "Silly Eagle."
Therefore, when the Mayflower landed on the American continent, the entire continent had already been largely ravaged. Moreover, since indigenous tribes had long learned to use colonists to attack their enemies, the Puritans, vagrants, swindlers, and thieves aboard the Mayflower were fortunate enough to encounter a tribe that was very friendly to them.
Then they created Thanksgiving, to give thanks for the help the indigenous people provided them back then.
Afterward, they gifted blankets contaminated with smallpox and various other viruses to the indigenous people, and then began the vigorous activity of scalping.
The first leader of the "Silly Eagle" nation, Washington, once said, "The Indian and the wolf are predatory beasts, differing only in form."
The newly established "Silly Eagle" government openly massacred indigenous peoples in the name of civilization.
The second leader of the "Silly Eagle" nation, President Thomas Jefferson, said, "The Silly Eagle must pursue the extermination of the indigenous peoples or drive them to places we do not inhabit." The policy of massacring indigenous peoples was further continued and strengthened.
Only after the indigenous people became a rare minority race did the "Silly Eagle" begin to confine them under the guise of civilization and protection.
So, the question arises: whether it was Columbus's arrival near Hispaniola in the Caribbean, or the later famous landing of the Mayflower on the American continent, the number of these European colonists was not large, while the indigenous peoples, as the native inhabitants, comprised hundreds or thousands of tribes and far outnumbered the European colonists. Why, then, were the indigenous peoples eventually arbitrarily expelled and hunted by the European colonists?
This was because the indigenous peoples at the time were generally still organized as hunter-gatherer and nomadic tribes. Their organizational capabilities, combat effectiveness, productivity, and even weaponry lagged far behind those of the European colonists!
...Even during the period when the Great Qing was severely battered by eight European gentlemen, it was also because the Great Qing lagged far behind the European gentlemen!
Emperor Zhu suddenly smiled and shook his head, saying, "Take the Ottomans, for instance. I didn't fight them before because I didn't intend to. But once I decide to fight, they can only stand and take a beating! Backwardness is the original sin!"
Zhu Jianying nodded in agreement, then tentatively asked, "So, are you planning to eliminate all of Europe and achieve true unification of the world?"
Emperor Zhu let out a hum and said, "There's an old saying in our Central Plains workshops: 'The meat should stay in the pot.' Whether it was the Mongol Yuan's southward advance or the Jianzhou Jurchens' entry into the pass, which our Central Plains workshops experienced, or the bloody road of the Americas, they all prove one thing: once the state falls into the hands of a foreign race, the common people can only live in misery, a state far more tragic than the turmoil of dynastic changes."
"I cannot guarantee that the Great Ming will always be more advanced than others, nor can I guarantee that the Great Ming will endure for ten thousand years."
"This is a foregone conclusion. There are no truly aristocratic families that can be passed down for a thousand years, nor are there dynasties that can last for a thousand years and remain prosperous. The Great Ming will inevitably decline sooner or later, and sooner or later, it will be replaced by a new dynasty."
"When that day comes, what can I do? What can you do?"
Zhu Jianying shook his head slightly and said without reservation, "Unless you, sir, stir up widespread public resentment and chaos, we can only watch from underground; we can do nothing else."
Emperor Zhu hummed again, his expression gradually becoming firm. "Therefore, while I still can do something, I will do all that I can. I will fight all the wars that can be fought, unifying the entire small planet. Even if the Great Ming falls later, the new dynasty will still be established by people from our Central Plains workshops, and the common people will not be reduced to sheep under the hooves of a foreign race."
As he spoke, Emperor Zhu sighed again, "As for what my descendants will do to each other, whether they will fight like dogs with each other's brains, I can't control that much. Anyway, no matter when, they cannot say that I didn't leave them a family fortune."
Zhu Jianying suddenly felt that his father seemed like a stranger.
In the Great Ming, Zhu Jianying was accustomed to seeing Emperor Zhu wandering outside the palace and chatting with old farmers in the fields. Zhu Jianying had not only seen Emperor Zhu holding court in the palace but had also seen him telling certain indescribable jokes with workers in the workshops.
However, Emperor Zhu, whether in the Wenhua Hall or elsewhere, mostly talked about how to exploit and bleed the barbarians, but he had never expressed any desire for world unification!
World unification, though seemingly just four simple words, carried with them...
Zhu Jianying frowned slightly and said in a low voice, "Regardless of whether you can accomplish this, the historical records..."
Emperor Zhu let out a laugh, interrupting Zhu Jianying. "What can the historical records say? If Columbus can be whitewashed and praised, why can't I? Even if no one is willing to speak justice for me, so what?朕本布衣!"
(End of this chapter)
.
Heavenly Emperor's Noble Lineage reminds you: Remember to bookmark after reading.