Chapter 764: France's Pain

In fact, the countries affected by potato late blight are not limited to Ireland. The worst are the Netherlands and Belgium. The Flemish region of the Netherlands has no potato harvest, and the potato production in other regions has also dropped by an average of 85%.

As for the potatoes in Belgium, it is only slightly better than no harvest, with a drop of about 90%.

However, in terms of the number of losses, France and Spain, which were not damaged, began to suffer a large-scale outbreak of potato late blight across the country after a heavy rain in autumn.

In addition, the impact of floods and cholera has led to local instability, and the number of emigrants has greatly increased. However, these people did not bring great development to the colonies of the two countries, but instead made it cheaper for Americans.

In fact, most of Spain's colonies are in a half-dead state. Cuba and Puerto Rico are famous for their abundant production of sugar and coffee.

However, countries with a single export structure are greatly affected by the international market, especially at this time when trade protection policies are prevalent. The Spaniards cannot provide too large a market, so overproduction seems meaningless.

The Governor-General's District of the Philippines inherited the glorious tradition of Spain. Whether it is taxes or agricultural products, if they can return to Spain, they will lose.

Not only will they not give back to their motherland, they will even continue to ask for money from their motherland. For example, the Governor of Manila was planning a famous war at this time, with the target being a small island with only 30,000 people (Hele Island).

The Governor of Manila claimed that he would go to war with the Qing Dynasty, so he prepared for a full ten years.

As for the French colonies, it was not much better.

El Salvador and Guatemala were in constant war. After the pig herders died, there were sheepherders, horse herders, and cattle herders. In short, it seemed that anyone could raise a team for any reason.

The pig herder refers to Carrera, a fierce man who conquered the world with a pig-killing knife, but he was also a tyrant. The only result for Guatemalans who opposed him or had opinions about him was death. At the same time, an overly fanatical believer was a close friend of Pius IX.

In this life, due to the French intervention in the Central American Civil War, he was eventually killed in prison by the former President of Central America, Morazan.

However, he still left some legacy, which was to break the myth of the invincibility of white people and the ubiquitous insurgents.

The situation in El Salvador was worse than that in Guatemala, because the terrain was more complex, the rainforest mountains were full of dangers, and Morazan's army was obviously much more elite than those peasants and tribal armed forces.

The most terrifying thing was that Morazan seemed to have a constant supply of reinforcements and inexhaustible resources.

Marshal Magnon de Rochefort, commander-in-chief of the French expeditionary force, defeated the former countless times, but the opponent was always able to quickly recover his troops, and his equipment was getting better and better, and even many of the latest weapons and equipment appeared.

Although the inscriptions on those equipment were all scraped off, it is not difficult to see that they were British and Austrian products in terms of manufacturing process and style.

In fact, there was no way, El Salvador bordered Honduras (British colony) and Nicaragua (Austrian colony). Morazan said that if he couldn't take back Guatemala, he would go to rob Honduras and Nicaragua.

As for why the powers didn't unite to eliminate this jumping clown? Because the powers had their own ulterior motives, and Britain and Austria were so happy to see Morazan bleeding the French.

As for military rations and weapons, they were worthless, and El Salvador had real money. The British might still be attached to those natives because they could serve as cheap labor.

And Franz wished someone could make those natives leave on their own initiative, and those that Morazan didn't want would be sent to California.

However, at this time, because the Japanese labor market was opened up, these natives seemed too useless, so they were simply given to Morazan as protection money.

So Marshal Magnon de Rochefort was not only facing peasant uprisings, tribal armed forces and Morazan's guerrillas, but also two powers behind them, and perhaps more than two, after all, there were many guys who hoped that the French would be unlucky.

The French colonies in North Africa were also in a state of decay. There were constant uprisings in Algeria and Morocco. The regular armies of the two countries were not worth mentioning in the eyes of the French, but the herders, farmers and slaves were extremely difficult to deal with.

The attitude of several consecutive governors towards the indigenous people of North Africa can be summarized in the words of a French minister.

"Further oppression and massacre of the indigenous population should be allowed, and the ravage, arson and destruction of fields and pastures may be the only way to establish our rule."

It was precisely because of this practice that the two feudal kingdoms burst out with unprecedented fighting spirit. However, due to the gap in national strength, their failure was only a matter of time.

The French version of the Homestead Act and the conscious policy of reducing the population were also constantly wearing away the courage and strength of the locals.

However, it was not a wise move to set foot on a land full of hostility at this time, and most of the land that should have been used to attract immigrants had already fallen into the pockets of officials.

Changing to another place to be a hired farmer also requires taking risks, and even paying for the travel expenses, which naturally made it difficult to attract the French.

Texas, once a model colony affectionately called "New France" by politicians, was also in dire straits.

Guizot's tax policy and the high efficiency of his officials directly led to a nearly threefold increase in taxes.

Many large farmers would even deliberately split their land into several parts to avoid the accumulated taxes.

The cumulative tax system made large farmers miserable. Logically, this tax system should take care of the poor and small farmers.

But in fact, the latter were also in great pain, because the number of taxes increased significantly, and some taxes were charged at fixed amounts, or even per capita.

At the same time, due to the interception of the US-Mexico War in the middle, a large amount of undeveloped land was obtained, which was originally a huge bargain.

However, reality gave the French a heavy blow. These new territories greatly increased the length of the colonial border.

And because the French were too strong, Austria, the United States, and Mexico deployed heavy troops on the border and sent their own troops to infiltrate.

In order to cope with this situation, the former had to increase military spending, which once again increased the burden on the colonies, and the contribution to domestic tax revenue did not increase, but was declining.

The most terrible thing is that no one cares about the newly acquired land, because the cost of development is too high and it is not safe. After all, the French are sandwiched in the middle of the four countries.

In theory, France can join forces with any one to attack another, but the reality is that the three countries do not trust France.

The United States and Mexico were even directly separated by the Texas colony. Since they no longer shared a border, there was no way for a direct war to break out on land.

At the same time, Mexico and Austria were allies. The Americans suffered a great loss in California, and were intercepted by the French, which led to the emergence of the first anti-French alliance in North America.