Chapter 207: The Other Side of the Ocean

Washington, USA.

Martin Van Buren should be regarded as one of the worst American presidents in history. When he took office, there was an economic crisis. After that, France and Mexico continued to increase their military strength, forcing the United States to join the regional military competition.

Historically, the US military has always maintained a very low number of people until the outbreak of World War I.

But now the United States has to support an army of 100,000 people while it is experiencing an economic crisis.

Maybe God really blesses this country. First, Friedrich List came to the United States to preside over economic reforms, the core of which is to use foreigners' money to save the lives of Americans.

This trick really worked and immediately stopped the outflow of precious metals from the United States. Although there was some loss of reputation, Americans in this era were originally called barbarians. As long as he could save the American economy, he didn't care whether others called him Alati or Genghis Khan.

After that, serious natural disasters and food crises broke out in Europe, and the United States joined forces with Russia to successfully harvest European leeks. At this time, Friedrich List proposed the "Moses Plan", the main purpose of which was to extradite those wealthy Egyptians to the United States.

At this time, Egypt was facing internal and external troubles, and coupled with the brutality of Muhammad Ali, many Egyptian dignitaries were eager to leave this hellhole.

The United States could send a fleet to pick up those dignitaries and their treasures. If this plan could be formed, it would add a valuable wealth to the United States.

In fact, when Friedrich List first proposed this plan, he did not expect to receive so much deposit. Martin Van Buren had already ordered the fleet to set sail to save those piggy banks.

But Friedrich List was actually opposed. He thought it would be fine to just take the deposit, and the fleet could wait until the situation was clearer before sending it out.

After all, it would be best to move those piggy banks onto the American ship, but if the fleet was lost, it would be a bit of a loss.

As a businessman, Friedrich List was unwilling to take risks, but as a president, Martin Van Buren was even more unwilling to lose his credit.

Due to the impact of the economic crisis, American workers continued to strike and protest. At first, Martin Van Buren took a tough attitude and asked the army to suppress them by force.

However, the American people were full of martial virtues, and the army at that time could not even pay its military pay, so naturally it collapsed.

So Martin Van Buren announced without any scruples that the US government would accept the opinions of the people and adopt a ten-hour work system.

Just after the workers' strike was quelled, the contradiction between the North and the South in the United States escalated again. The factory owners in the North wanted to raise tariffs, but the slave owners in the South were unwilling to accept it.

Because they knew very well that once the tariffs were raised, they could only buy the garbage produced by the Yankees. And the originally lucrative export trade would become a chicken rib due to the counter-tariff barriers.

At the time of the dilemma, his Secretary of State Friedrich List came up with an idea to allow the South to grow poppies instead, while prohibiting the North from growing poppies.

After raising tariffs in this way, it can not only protect the interests of northern industrialists, but also reduce the economic losses of southern slave owners.

Although people now like to start with slavery when studying the American Civil War, the fundamental reason is still the contradiction between northern factory owners and southern farmers, and the dispute over the road of agricultural countries or industrial countries.

The climate in the United States is very suitable for the growth of opium, and the vast land and sparse population make it easy for farms to form a scale. But it is precisely because of the vast land and sparse population that it is almost impossible to give the South the privilege of planting a certain crop.

Although the opium business is profitable, not everyone needs it, and as the scale expands and the output increases, the price is bound to fall.

It is so easy to think of something, and those Southerners must have thought of it.

In fact, because the price of opium has been very tight in recent years and the United States is in a deep economic crisis, under the advice of Friedrich List, many opium plantations have appeared in the southern United States.

The production of opium in the United States is enough to meet domestic demand, but because of the relationship with Britain, it has been slow to open up foreign markets, so the area of ​​opium cultivation has not expanded further.

Martin Van Buren hopes that the North and the South will stop arguing and unite to fight against the outside world, defeat France and Mexico first, dominate North America, and then talk about other things.

However, the North and the South have serious differences over the ownership of Texas and northern Mexico.

The South wanted to establish slave states in these places, and the North naturally opposed it. At this time, Martin Van Buren stood up and openly opposed Texas becoming a slave state.

From Martin Van Buren's perspective, he was maintaining a balance of power between the two sides to prevent civil unrest.

However, in the eyes of the southern slave owners, he was blatantly violating the constitution, because according to the "Missouri Compromise" passed by the United States in 1820, the new state located south of 36 degrees and 30 minutes north latitude should be a slave state.

For a time, the name of "unconstitutional president" spread throughout the United States. Martin Van Buren could only stand up and apologize publicly, and said that he would definitely abide by the constitution.

But the northern factory owners were unhappy again. They refused to fight for the southern slave owners, and they didn't want to waste their money to increase the strength of their opponents.

So the northern factory owners asked the federal government to cut military spending, limit the number of troops, stop hostility with France and Mexico, and turn to Oregon.

Since 1830, American immigrants have been entering Oregon. The local indigenous Indians are weak and cannot stop the powerful white colonists.

However, the main problem facing Oregon at this time is the British Canadian colonial government. Although there are not many British colonists in Oregon, it is still in a situation of co-governance between the two countries in name.

The actions of the northern factory owners are likely to arouse the anger of the British, which will make the situation of the United States even worse.

Martin Van Buren naturally would not agree with such a reckless approach. He could only try to maintain the situation in the United States amid the condemnation of both the North and the South.

If there is any order of his that can be welcomed by the American people, it is only the Seminole War aimed at expelling Indians.

In order to win the support of the people and Congress, Martin Van Buren fabricated a lot of atrocities of the Indians. It is said that they burned, killed, looted, and committed all kinds of evil. They often attacked white villages, killed men, robbed property, abducted women, and made children join shamanism.

Other stories include Indians who like to eat human flesh, drink human blood, worship evil gods, and even curse white colonists.

Under the vilification of the US government, Indians are robbers, demons, and disrespectful people.

Although this propaganda is outrageous, it is widely accepted by all classes in the United States because they all need a legal reason to continue slaughtering and expelling Indians.

Under the conspiracy of the US government and the American people, the Indians in the United States began their most miserable century.