Chapter 498 Cooperation
By 1919, the population of the Philippines had exceeded 10 million, or more than 10.53 million to be exact.
If there were no data from later generations, Arthur would not have believed that this country had increased its population 11 times in just 100 years, and even reached 114 million in 2023, ranking 13th in the world and one of the most populous countries in Southeast Asia, second only to the future Indonesia, which is now the Dutch East Indies.
A region that can accommodate hundreds of millions of people is still a nail that the United States has inserted into Australasia, which must be removed.
If the Philippines is managed well, it will be a dumping ground for Australasia's goods and a source of cheap labor in the future.
At the same time, the Philippines can also serve as the first line of defense against island countries, alleviating the dual pressure that Australasia may face from island countries and the United States.
After controlling the Philippines, the US base on the west coast of the Pacific can also be completely removed, and the Pan-Pacific policy that the United States has been thinking about is doomed to fail.
In the long run, regions like the current Dutch East Indies and the Philippines can serve as vassal states of Australasia in the future, taking on some low-end and heavily polluting industries for Australasia.
The current Dutch East Indies and the Philippines have a population of more than 300 million in the future. At all costs, they can form a cannon fodder army of more than 30 million, or provide tens of millions of cheap labor, which is much better than using the lives of Australasia.
Manuel is a smart man. When he learned that he had no choice, he agreed to all the conditions set by Sam.
After all, Sam's requirements are based on the Philippine government to be established in the future. Sam will not bear any losses, and there is even hope that he will become the first president or the first prime minister of the new Philippine government with the support of Australasia.
There is good news. Because the Philippines has experienced hundreds of years of colonial period, the local forces are not actually strong. The strongest is the uprising team that broke out before against the tyranny of Spain.
As one of the heroes of the uprising at that time, Manuel had a high prestige among the people and had the right to speak for a considerable number of the uprising teams.
This also means that if Manuel can persuade some of the uprising teams, coupled with his own prestige in the Senate and the people, it will be easy to pass any law.
However, it is impossible to expect the Philippines to directly launch an independence war and successfully defeat the Americans to gain independence.
Even with the help of Australasia, the Philippines, with a population of only tens of millions, will never be the opponent of the Americans.
However, the experience from later generations gave Arthur a better way. Compared with directly launching an independence war, it is better to cultivate a large number of anti-American teams in the Philippines, let them go deep into the people of the Philippines, destroy various facilities of the United States in the Philippines, and increase the cost of the United States' control in the Philippines.
In this way, the Americans have only two choices. In addition to increasing investment and sending troops to the Philippines, they can only choose to be forced to abandon the Philippines.
After all, when the cost of ruling an area is far higher than the income brought by this area, continuing to occupy this area may not be a wise choice.
The reason why the intelligence personnel approached Manuel was because they saw his reputation and support among the Filipino people.
It is no exaggeration to say that if Manuel raised his arms among the Filipino people, he could easily form an armed force and even set off a wave of resistance against the United States in the Philippines.
You know, the rule of the United States in the Philippines is definitely not calm. As early as the Spanish colonial period, various rebellions broke out in the Philippines, and it was naturally impossible for them to obey the rule of the Americans.
Since the United States passed the Philippine Act in 1902 to end its military control over the Philippines, the Philippines has been under the control of a civilian government dominated by Americans.
Being dominated by Americans is no joke. Although it looks like the Philippine government, the Philippine government is almost ruled by Americans. If the Filipinos want to pass any bill, they must obtain the consent of the Americans.
This also led to the deepening of the contradictions between the Filipinos and the Americans, especially the policies implemented by the Americans hardly considered the opinions of the Filipinos, which greatly aggravated the anti-American sentiment of the Filipinos.
Manuel expanded the opportunities for Filipinos to participate in politics through the Jones Act. Although it did not give them an advantage, the Philippine political arena did have more local voices, which is why Manuel also has a great reputation in the Philippine political arena.
It can be said that without Manuel, the Philippine political arena would still be dominated by Americans, and Philippine officials would have no say in the face of Americans.
Although the Jones Act eased the conflict between Filipinos and Americans, as long as Americans dominate the Philippine government, this conflict will never be eliminated.
Therefore, Sam gave Manuel the first task, which was to secretly form an armed team and split them into very small teams to undermine the US rule in the Philippines.
A complete Philippine armed force is absolutely unable to fight against the Americans. If it is split into small teams of varying numbers, it will play a more important role.
It is not cost-effective to dispatch a large-scale army for a small-scale rebel army, which can cause great trouble to the rule of the Americans in the Philippines.
Whether it is interfering with the lives of Americans in the Philippines or destroying various facilities built by the United States in the Philippines, it can make the Americans exhausted and unable to defend.
More importantly, after breaking up the armed forces, Manuel's danger can also be reduced.
After all, in today's Philippines, it is not easy to resist the United States with a clear banner.
The Americans have troops stationed in the Philippines. Dogs can jump over the wall when they are forced, let alone Americans who are almost like dogs?
In addition to secretly forming anti-American armed forces, Sam also reached various agreements with Manuel, including some weapons resources and diplomatic support for Manuel.
Sam promised to provide Manuel with weapons and equipment, including a batch of rifles captured from the European battlefield and weapons eliminated from the Australasian Aboriginal army.
The various weapons added up to more than 100,000 rifles, 50 machine guns, 100 various artillery pieces, an airship for emergency escape, and various bullets, shells, etc.
These weapons and equipment are not enough for any battlefield. If they are only used to harass the Americans and are limited to the Philippines, they are actually quite sufficient.
At least it allows Manuel to privately form an armed force of more than 100,000 people, which is far more than the number of US troops stationed in the Philippines.
In fact, after the Americans ended the military government in the Philippines, they withdrew most of the troops stationed in the Philippines.
The total number of US troops stationed in the Philippines will not exceed 2,000. Except for some naval officers and soldiers, the actual number of army troops will definitely not exceed 1,200.
This batch of weapons and equipment is enough for Manuel to entangle with the US army for a long time, but before the Americans use the main force, Manuel can even gain an advantage in the Philippines.
In addition to this batch of weapons and equipment, according to the agreement between Sam and Manuel, Manuel will form a team of more than 500 students to study in Australasia.
This team of 500 students includes 200 political science students, who will be the main officials of the new Philippine government in the future and are destined to be greatly influenced by Australasia.
Secondly, there are more than 200 students who are going to study in military schools. They will receive three years of military education in the military schools of Australasia, and eventually return to the Philippines to train regular troops for the new Philippine country.
Of course, the training of the Philippine army at that time is also destined to be inseparable from Australasia.
And these people will also be influenced by Australasia, and they will always involuntarily lean towards Australasia when thinking about problems.
This is actually a common study abroad strategy in later generations. By attracting students from less developed countries and subtly influencing them, they can be trained to be talents close to their own country.
These high-quality talents with overseas study experience will be valued because of their own experience after returning to backward regions and countries, and gradually move to the middle and high levels of the country.
After a long period of accumulation and influence, it is even possible to control a country by attracting a large number of students to study abroad, and turn the entire national government into a government that favors itself.
Such a study abroad policy is terrible, but it is also inevitable in the rise of backward countries.
If a country wants to move from backwardness to prosperity, it has to learn advanced knowledge from the outside world, and the best way is to study abroad.
It is impossible for people to be unaffected by foreign influences when they are abroad. Especially for people like Filipinos, after feeling the huge gap between themselves and others, it is natural to have blind worship of more advanced countries.
Together with international students in other industries, this total of 500 international students will just study in Australasia for 3 to 4 years, and then return to the Philippines to build a new government.
At that time, the independence of the Philippines was basically in sight, and it was time to need more talents to build a new government and eliminate the influence of the United States on national control.
Through these international students, Australasia can also better control the Philippine government. In fact, there is no need to strictly control the Philippine government like the United States.
Just through these international students, plus the winning of some Philippine officials, even if the Philippines successfully becomes independent, it is destined to not escape the control of Australasia.
Moreover, even if the Philippines succeeded in independence, all industries were in a state of disrepair.
Without the support of Australasia, it would be difficult for the Philippines to survive in such an international environment.
Even without Australasia, there would be a comeback of Britain, France, and even the United States.
It is almost impossible for a weak country with a large area of land to survive in this era.
Even Belgium, a seemingly more developed European country, claimed to be a neutral country, but it still suffered from the invasion of Germany?
In this era, to ensure that a country is completely independent of the world, either it has a relatively strong military strength, or it can only pray that it is a very poor country and will not attract the covetousness of those powerful countries.
But unfortunately, although the area of the Philippines is not as large as those large colonies, it is also a vast land with a total area of nearly 300,000 square kilometers, and has a population of tens of millions, and the geographical location is not bad.
With a little management, this is a good dumping ground for goods. Coupled with the various mineral resources contained in the Philippines, the income generated is absolutely huge.
Although the mineral resources are far less than Australasia, this does not mean that the Philippines is relatively poor in mineral resources.
On the contrary, the Philippines has a large reserve of nickel, cobalt, gold and copper, which ranks among the top ten in the world in later generations.
Secondly, the Philippines also has a certain amount of oil reserves, and the value of the minerals can definitely bring considerable benefits to the country that controls the Philippines.
In this situation, the Philippines cannot avoid the covetousness of the great powers and other countries unless it is strong.
Whether it is Spain before, the United States now, or Australasia in the future, they have all confirmed this conclusion, that is, the weak can only become fish on the chopping board of the strong.
If the Philippines relies solely on civilian officials like Manuel to develop anti-US armed forces, regardless of the progress, such hastily formed armed forces are doomed to be unreliable.
In order to make the Philippines cause more trouble to the United States, Australasia will also help Manuel to form armed forces, including sending more professional instructors for military training and teaching them some relatively simple tactics.
The Philippines is not blessed with the large-scale fire suppression that Australasia often uses. After all, it is extremely challenging for the country's logistics level and the production speed of the military industry.
Australasia stockpiled a large number of artillery shells before World War I, and only used fire suppression a few times. The number of artillery shells consumed each time was as high as millions, and the average number of artillery shells consumed per day was more than 200,000, which is enough to show how great the test of large-scale fire suppression is to logistics.
Judging from the current actual situation in the Philippines, let alone being able to afford large-scale fire suppression, the anti-US armed forces that are divided into small pieces can use fire artillery, which is already quite good.
Even under normal circumstances, most heavy weapons will be sealed and will not be used until the Philippines forms a real army in the future.
After all, the role of the armed forces now is only to harass the US troops and bases in the Philippines, but there is no plan to rely on them to completely defeat the Americans.
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