Chapter 361: Americans' Westward Expansion

Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

Franz looked at the map and saw an island in the Pacific Ocean that was only marked in recent years - Hawaii.

When mentioning Hawaii, one might think of beaches, sunshine, beauties, hula dancing, opening durian with bare hands, and endless happy people.

But in fact, there was also a bloody history here. Before the Europeans arrived in Hawaii, there were nearly 300,000 indigenous people living here (another saying is 800,000), but in less than 20 years, the population dropped to less than 60,000.

In 1842, US President John Tyler first recognized the Kingdom of Hawaii. As Franz expected, he was a very ambitious and capable president.

According to the Americans themselves, they were afraid that Japan would send troops to occupy Hawaii. Because according to the report of the US whaling fleet at the time, the Japanese had ambitions for Hawaii. If Japan forcibly annexed Hawaii, the United States would intervene on the grounds of anti-aggression.

In fact, this is not very credible, because the Kingdom of Hawaii was supported by the British. Not to mention the distance between Japan and Hawaii, the word "British" alone can make the Tokugawa Shogunate retreat.

Hawaii is a natural transit point in the Pacific Ocean, which is what any great power dreams of in the era of sea power. This is why the United States truly recognized its government. At that time, the United States, like other Western powers, hoped to control Hawaii through colonization.

Unfortunately, the diplomat active on the British political stage at that time was Palmerston, who would not care about the face of the Americans. After learning about the ambitions of the Americans, he directly and publicly declared that Britain had sovereignty over Hawaii.

(It was 1843 in history, but it was advanced in the book.)

The British approach gave the U.S. federal government a big slap in the face, but the latter could do nothing about the former.

In fact, in addition to British and American colonists, there were Chinese, Japanese and French on the island. The Chinese and Japanese mainly came to trade in sandalwood and work here, and the French, of course, also came to colonize.

However, the French obviously came a little late, and they were also helpless about the British approach. Although France occupied Texas at this time, John Tyler was not a mediocre person.

He believed that although France and the United States were rivals on the North American continent, they could cooperate on the Hawaii issue and jointly fight against the British.

Although Britain was extremely powerful at that time, its front line in the world was too long and there were too many enemies, so when it encountered a strong enemy, it could only choose to avoid or wait and see.

However, after French King Louis Philippe and Minister Guizot learned that the US government proposed to join forces, they rejected it outright.

Not only was there a strategic conflict between France and the United States, but more was the unique sense of superiority of Europeans in this era. They regarded all civilizations outside Europe as barbaric civilizations, especially France.

Of course, Louis Philippe was still very shy about offending people, so Guizot had to continue to act as a villain. In his letter, he accused the US government of being a mean person. After reading it, John Tyler just laughed it off and threw it away as garbage.

At this time, the United States had a bigger problem, that is, some disobedient Indians and restless neighbors around them. In American history, listing Indians has always been a plus point, and almost every great American president has to do something about Indians.

John Tyler was no exception. The Indian Expulsion War had always been on his mind. John Tyler was a very self-denying person. Eliminating Indians was one of the few things that could excite him.

But at this time, after the actions of Andrew Jackson and others, the population of American Indians had been greatly reduced, and most of them had moved to the West.

John Tyler circled and drew circles on the map, and there were only a few hundred thousand Indians left for him to deal with, so he came up with the idea of ​​moving them all to the reservation in Oklahoma.

"I think this matter will be recorded in history forever." John Tyler wrote in his diary.

As Marlon Brando wrote in his resignation statement at the Oscars:

For two hundred years, we have been saying to those Indians who fought for their land, their lives, their families and their freedom, "Lay down your weapons, my friends, and then we will live together..."

They laid down their weapons, but we slaughtered them. We lied to them. We cheated them of their land. We made them so hungry that they were forced to sign agreements that deceived them. We called these agreements treaties, but never abided by them.

Of course, this time was no exception. At first, the Indians put up a heroic resistance, causing the US Army to suffer heavy losses. The casualty ratio between the two sides was about 1 to 15. After losing more than 200 soldiers, the Americans repeated the same trick.

First, they signed an agreement with some tribes to help them eliminate the "uncooperative" tribes, and promised to give them cattle, sheep, pastures, and they would not have to leave their homes.

This strategy quickly took effect, and those tribes that resisted stubbornly were defeated, and hundreds of thousands of Indians set out on the road to the reservation. After that, the US Army did not forget those "friends" who helped them. The looting was accompanied by massacres, and the last batch of Indians had to embark on this road of blood and tears.

In the end, less than 60,000 of the hundreds of thousands of Indians successfully entered the reservation, and the remains scattered on the Great Plains will eventually be buried by the wind and sand.

Unfortunately, Franz was powerless against the Polynesians in Hawaii and the Indians in North America, and the westward movement of the United States led to a large influx of Indian tribes into California.

These Indians were submissive when facing Americans, but seemed to stand up when facing the Hispanic whites in California.

It was a pity that Friedrich's second brother, Archduke Karl's second son, Archduke Karl Ferdinand, was stationed here. He was a loyal man, and he was merciless whether facing the natives of California, Mexicans, or invading Americans and Indian tribes.

There was a huge generation gap in weapons between the Indian tribes and the Austrian army stationed in California, and the quality of the soldiers was also different. On one side were the elite regular army, and on the other side were some primitive herdsmen who were starving to the bone.

There was never any suspense in the battle between the two sides. Most of the time it was a one-sided massacre, but even so, the Indian tribes did not give up the attack on California.

In fact, the reason why these Indians were so brave was because the Americans promised behind them: "They will become the masters of the land they conquer."

For a false promise, a group of hopeless people carried out an invasion that could not succeed. But as the war continued, the casualties on the Austrian side continued to increase.

So, the newly appointed California Acting Senior Official John von Seener decided to fight poison with poison.