Chapter 590: Liberia Wants to Defy the Will of Heaven

West Africa, Monrovia Port.

A British merchant ship sailed into this quiet harbor as usual.

At this time, Liberia was a colony of the United States in West Africa. Since 1821, the "American Colonization Society" has established a black immigrant area here, with the center in Monrovia.

However, these blacks from the United States did not show much difference, and the local infrastructure was still a mess.

The economy mainly relies on selling timber and palm oil to the United States and other European countries to make profits. The black population in the United States is only about 15,000, and there are about 200,000 indigenous people.

Although it has been developed for more than 20 years, the main achievement of the locals is to drive the indigenous tribes out of their land, and the economy and infrastructure are a mess.

The most terrible thing is that Liberia still needs to import food and weapons from abroad, but the weapons and food sold by Americans to these "free" blacks are not only of low quality but also expensive.

So the British discovered this business opportunity. Although it can only be regarded as a grasshopper leg, it is also meat, so the two countries are generally at peace.

Until the first black governor of Liberia came to power, Joseph Roberts, as an American-African hybrid, did not feel that he was inferior to white people or Europeans, so he decided to impose taxes on the merchant ships of the powers.

This naturally caused dissatisfaction among the powers. King Louis Philippe of France even publicly stated that he would not pay taxes to slaves unless they asked a white tax collector.

As a result, he found that he had underestimated the bottom line of the Americans. For money, there were really white people who served as tax collectors for black people.

But the French could not lose their face, and France had no shortage of supply points in West Africa, so French merchant ships would choose to bypass this unfortunate place.

The Russian Tsar was even more intense, claiming that he would tear black people to pieces as long as they dared to step on Russian ships.

But in fact, Russian merchant ships usually did not leave the Black Sea in the past, and even now they would hardly leave the Mediterranean when they opened trade with the Austrian Empire.

But the British obviously did not believe this.

So John Bull was warmly welcomed by the black brothers as soon as he got off the ship, and Captain John Davis and his twenty crew members were forced to get off the ship by a group of black soldiers.

The news soon spread to Europe, and public opinion was in an uproar. Not many people on the European continent paid attention to the fact that British merchant ships did not pay taxes. People were more concerned about why those blacks dared to detain British ships.

This was of course deliberately guided by someone. Franz began to promote this matter intensively as soon as he learned the news, with the purpose of expanding the incident.

Other powers also understood the situation and vowed to turn this incident into the fuse of the third Anglo-American War.

(The first Anglo-American War refers to the American War of Independence, and the second refers to the War of 1812, which was the burning of the White House.)

Because Louis Philippe had lost face before, the French media was particularly crazy at this time, and even described it as a confrontation between black and white, a collision between barbarism and civilization.

It was as if the British would commit suicide in minutes if they gave in.

The crazy publicity of the powers seemed to be in support of Britain, but in fact it was fanning the flames, because Britain was too strong, so everyone hoped to weaken it through war.

In fact, whether it was the second burning of the White House or the second bombardment of London, the great powers could accept it. In short, it was fun to watch the dogs fight each other.

On the British Isles, people had different opinions. Some people thought that not paying taxes was a mistake, and the Whigs took this opportunity to madly slander the Tories for their barbarity.

However, Robert Peel was not a mediocre person. He quickly gathered a group of legal experts and started a debate with the Whigs.

The British Navy responded immediately and intercepted the largest cargo ship in Liberia. The reason was naturally that they were suspected of slave trade.

In fact, the blacks in Liberia had a bad relationship with the local blacks, and they did not have much economic income, so they played some edge balls.

Usually the British would turn a blind eye, but it was very gentlemanly not to directly drive the fleet into the port of Monrovia at this time.

Joseph Jenkins Roberts personally protested to the British government, but was ruthlessly humiliated.

After all, at this time, the European continent described this seizure as a humiliation of the British by the blacks. The British Navy had never been humiliated like this in all its years of fighting.

Henry Berg Stein, the commander-in-chief of the West African Fleet, was so angry that he would have thrown the black man into the sea to feed the sharks if several deputies had not stopped him.

"Let your master talk to me!"

So, Joseph Jenkins Roberts was driven back to Liberia after receiving only this reply.

In desperation, he could only ask the US government to intervene. James Knox Polk was quite tough.

As soon as he got the news, he wrote a letter asking the British government to pay attention to the special interests of the United States in the colonial movement and asking Britain to recognize the sovereignty of Liberia.

Robert Peel also responded immediately.

"In response to your request, the British government cannot treat a commercial entity established by a charitable association as a sovereign state.

Just like what your country did to the Austrian-Mexican Joint Development Company in California. Therefore, Britain does not need to abide by Liberia's laws at this time."

The words of the British guy can be described as murderous, because if the Americans forcefully demand that the United Kingdom abide by the laws of Liberia, it will be equivalent to admitting that it was not Mexico but Austria that they invaded in the U.S.-Mexico War.

Invading Mexico and invading Austria are completely different concepts. Although the United States and Austria are thousands of miles apart, Austria can use this excuse to declare war on the United States at any time, and can even call on other powers to join it.

On the contrary, when the United States conflicts with other powers, Austria can also use this excuse to intervene. The result of offending one power in person is really terrible, but what about offending two at the same time?

Even a tough President like Polk had to consider the consequences of this matter, but he is worthy of being the toughest president in the United States.

Faced with the British attack, he did not panic at all and chose the strategy of damaging one thousand to himself and eight to the enemy.

Polk immediately launched a bill to promote Liberia's independence. Finally, at the president's insistence, the American Colonization Society's board of directors announced:

"At this time, it is 'appropriate' to transfer all powers of self-government, including the power to handle foreign relations, into the hands of the people of Liberia."

As a result, Liberia became independent, and the British theoretically had to pay tariffs, and they could no longer use this reason to continue to humiliate Polk and threaten the United States.

But at the same time that the United States recognized Liberia's independence, Britain established diplomatic relations with the latter, which made Polk feel like he had been "cowed."

In fact, Liberia borders the British colony of Lion Rock, which the British have long coveted, and Liberians are also very "currently aware" and willing to accept the leadership of the British Empire.