Chapter 3390 3392【European trip】
Then everyone took a boat down the river from Cairo and passed through the Mediterranean Sea to Antalya.
This was once a coastal city of the Ottoman Empire. It has a history of nearly four thousand years and is very prosperous.
After landing in Antalya, everyone stayed here for a day, visited the local scenic spots, and listened to reports from senior officials of the three major Ottoman provinces on the management situation under their rule.
The Ottoman Empire was once a super overlord across Asia, Africa and Europe, monopolizing the trade routes to the East. Therefore, European countries had to find other ways, thus promoting the advent of the Age of Discovery.
The opening of the Age of Discovery led to the rise of European powers. The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, England, France, etc. all established extensive colonies overseas, seized a large amount of money, and completed the accumulation of capital.
The increase in wealth promoted the development of science, and various inventions and creations came into being, making the great powers more and more powerful.
Without the tax revenue from the Eastern Trade Route, the Ottoman Empire suffered heavy losses. As one goes and the other goes, its advantage gradually turns into a disadvantage for the European powers.
By the seventeenth century, it had suffered successive defeats and suffered heavy losses. Later, he was pushed aside by Xiang Nan, who had stronger military power and more advanced weapons. Now the Ottoman Empire has been reduced to the dust of history.
After conquering the Ottoman Empire, Xiang Nan divided the empire into three provinces, namely Asia Minor, the Middle East and the Caucasus.
In order to facilitate governance, Xiang Nan adopted the method of mixing sand and moved a large number of people from Europe, Africa, Tianzhu, Central Plains, Mongolia and other places into the Ottoman Empire.
In the mid-eighteenth century, the population of the Ottoman Empire was about 14 million. Some immigrants went to Europe, some to Tianzhu, some to Central Asia, and some to Mongolia. The existing population is less than 500. Ten thousand.
Coupled with new immigrants from various places, the original Ottoman population has accounted for less than half, and over time, it will inevitably continue to be diluted.
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After staying in Antalya for three days, Xiang Nan and others continued to take a boat from the Mediterranean to the Aegean Sea, and finally landed in Athens, Greece.
The city of Athens was built in 1,000 BC. It was once very prosperous and was ruled by the Persian Empire, the Alexander Empire, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and the Ottoman Empire.
More than ten years ago, it was conquered again by Xiang Nan's army and is now the capital of the province of Asia Minor.
There are many ancient ruins left in the city of Athens. Xiang Nan and the princes, concubines, ministers, etc. all visited it and had a lot of feelings about this foreign civilization thousands of years ago.
Especially when the princes heard that this civilization was thousands of years old, but the country was still destroyed, they couldn't help but feel horrified.
After staying in Athens for two days, Xiang Nan and others set off by boat and passed through Sicily to Rome.
Rome is also an ancient city with a long history. It was built more than 700 BC. Subsequently, it went through the rule of the Ancient Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Frankish Kingdom, and the Holy Roman Empire.
It has experienced many sacks by foreigners in history. Therefore, by the 18th century, the population of the city of Rome was only more than 100,000, which can be said to be quite shabby.
However, after Xiang Nan led his troops to conquer Rome and unified the Apennine Peninsula, and built a railway here, Rome prospered rapidly.
Since Rome is close to the Mediterranean Sea and faces Spain, Portugal, France, Tunisia, Tripoli, Algiers, Egypt, etc. across the sea, trade is very developed. Rome produces olive oil, wine, ham, cheese, etc., which are very popular in other regions. There are frequent merchant ships in the port, and good profits can be obtained from each trade.
And the consuls sent by Xiang Nan can naturally collect a lot of tax money.
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After staying in Rome for two days, Xiang Nan and others took a boat across the Strait of Gibraltar and arrived in Lisbon, the former capital of Portugal.
Portugal was once a maritime power during the Age of Discovery. Famous navigators such as Dias, Vasco da Gama, and Magellan were all Portuguese.
Because of this, it was quite powerful in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, establishing colonies in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and even rented a piece of land in China.
It’s just that with the rise of great powers such as the Netherlands, France, and England, Portugal began to gradually decline. For a while, it was annexed by Spain.
Until a few years ago, Portugal and Spain were annexed by Xiangnan, and their overseas colonies were also included in the territory of the Qing Dynasty. Among them are many places in Africa, South America, and the Caribbean.
Today, the Qing Dynasty’s maritime caravans also travel to these places, constantly transporting South American ores, wool, cotton, wheat, soybeans, cane sugar, etc. to China. At the same time, cotton, tea, cashmere, liquor, fertilizer, glass, alkali noodles, silk, etc. produced in China are sold here.
You can make a lot of money every time you come or go.
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Getting on the train from Lisbon, Xiang Nan and others went to Paris via Madrid and Bordeaux, and then from Paris to Berlin via Brussels and Luxembourg...
Along the way, Xiang Nan saw that Europe is now prospering again after more than ten years of recovery. However, local administrators still have strict restrictions on the people.
For example, curfew hours are strictly stipulated in Europe. Once it exceeds 7 o'clock at night, you are not allowed to stay outside. Otherwise, if they are caught, they will be forced to do hard work and be responsible for cleaning up feces and water on the streets.
You must know that Europe did not start to pay attention to public health until the 19th century. Before that, the ground was basically full of feces. It is definitely not an exaggeration to say that a pot of feces and urine fell down the head if you were not careful while walking. Europeans first invented high heels to avoid stepping on feces and urine.
It is precisely because public health is so dirty that plagues continue to plague Europe. There were frequent outbreaks of cholera, plague, influenza, smallpox, and dysentery.
For another example, civilians are not allowed to go out at will. If they want to go out, they must have a road guide, just like the people before China.
In this way, the people were restrained and seemed to have personal freedom, but in fact they lived in a cage with a radius of fifty miles. And this is tantamount to fooling the people.
After all, I have never even traveled far, so what kind of knowledge can I have? Without knowledge, ordinary people are just stupid, and naturally they are easy to manage.
Through a series of constraints, although the European economy is showing signs of prosperity, the people seem to be much more numb and dull than they were more than ten years ago.
More than ten years ago, countries such as France, the Netherlands, and Spain were already colonial powers with developed industries and abundant supplies. Their people had confident and sunny smiles on their faces.
But along the way, most of the people were like zombies. Material poverty and spiritual constraints make them naturally lack of energy.
(End of this chapter)