My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 430: The Crushing of Civilization

"This amazing Portuguese man, named Columbus, calculated that going west would be much closer than going around Africa and crossing the Indian Ocean to reach the east. But the amazing thing is that this guy's calculation method was wrong!

But this guy firmly believed that his calculations were correct, so he went to the Spanish royal family and asked the royal family to fund him to sail west and find a route to the East.

The Spanish royal family was actually persuaded by him, so after signing a spoils-sharing agreement with him, they gave him funds for the voyage.

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but smile. Columbus was indeed a talented person. He dared to go sailing despite such unreliable calculations. And the Spanish royal family was even more amazing. They dared to invest money in such an unreliable thing.

But then again, it was the Portuguese who were seeking death, and they were just paying the money. If they failed, they would lose some money, but if they succeeded, they would make a fortune!
However, if Columbus set out from the Iberian Peninsula, then he must have accidentally stumbled upon the American continent, Zhu Yuanzhang thought as he looked at the map.

"Of course, sailing west from the Iberian Peninsula, with their navigation technology, it was a complete pipe dream to reach the East. However, it was also with this determination driven by wealth that he accidentally landed on the American continent.

However, he firmly believed that he had arrived in India in the East, so he named the natives of that continent Indians. It was not until a few years later that a navigator named Amerigo from Florence, a port city on the Apennine Peninsula in Europe, sailed to America many times and confirmed that this was a new continent they had never discovered. Then the Europeans named this new continent after him, namely Amerigo, or America for short.

So this is how the name America came about. Zhu Yuanzhang thought, it would take decades for Europeans to land in America, so what if he got there first? Well, what name should he give it?
“After Europeans discovered the American continent, Portugal and Spain were the first to start colonizing the Americas, and these two countries made a lot of money by plundering the American continent.

Old Zhu, look at the map. To the east of the American continent is the Atlantic Ocean, and to the west is the Pacific Ocean. The two oceans separate the American continent from the center of the world, the Eurasian continent, and keep it away from the conflicts of the Eurasian continent. "

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded. What Lao Li said was right. The Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean were the natural barriers of the American continent.

"For the greedy Europeans, the American continent was a completely undeveloped virgin land. After the Portuguese and Spanish had contact with the local natives for a period of time, they found that although the local natives had established civilization, their level of civilization was quite backward.

Here I have to mention that there are several main aspects to judge whether a civilization is advanced or backward:
First, whether it has its own language and writing system;
Second, whether the people are civilized and what is their level of education;
Third, whether they have mastered mature steel smelting technology and how are industrial and agricultural production?

Fourthly, and most importantly, what is the form of social organization? Is there an efficient court or other organization that can effectively integrate various social resources?

Judging from these three points of view, the Ming Dynasty undoubtedly stood at the top of the world. As for Europe, although it was in a feudal system similar to that of the Zhou Dynasty, it could barely rely on royal power and divine power to organize social resources. Although it was much worse than the Ming Dynasty, it was still qualified, and Europe also had relatively mature steel smelting technology.

Of course, you may be curious about why divine power and royal power coexist. This is related to European history and current situations. I will tell you in detail later. "

Tsk tsk, I was just curious about what theocracy is. Old Li is really something, he just likes to keep us in suspense.

Zhu Yuanzhang was thinking, he could easily understand royal power, but what about divine power? Does it mean religious power?

This was an absolute taboo in the Ming Dynasty. Religion interfering in politics was courting death. After the founding of the country, the White Lotus Sect was killed in order to prevent these religions from influencing the political situation. Don’t you see that the four anti-Buddhist movements in Chinese history were not because they saw the harm that religion’s influence on society and politics brought?

The Europeans are amazing. They can put royal power and divine power on the same level. Even in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the high priest who was in charge of the ritual of offering sacrifices to heaven was controlled by the king and the emperor.

No wonder Lao Li said that Europe’s level of civilization is not as good as that of the Ming Dynasty. From this point of view, it is indeed not as good.

"Then let's take a look at the level of civilization of the indigenous peoples of the American continent. Let's follow Columbus and call them Indians. These Indians also established various city-states of varying sizes. The most representative of these were the Aztec Empire and the Inca Empire, which were destroyed by Spain."

Since it was called an empire, it shouldn't be that bad. Then why did it allow the two kingdoms of Portugal and Spain to colonize it?
Zhu Yuanzhang murmured in his heart and then looked down.

"Since it's called an empire, there must be an emperor. However, the organizational forms of the two countries are somewhat different from what you might think. In essence, the social organizational structures of the two countries are still based on clans. Although there are bureaucrats, a mature bureaucratic system has not been established.

And most importantly, the social civilization and industrial level of these two countries are far behind that of Europe.

Both countries are still in the slavery era, and they also carry out large-scale human sacrifices. In this case, at least there are not enough people to carry out production, and the productivity is not as good as that of Europe. "

Slavery, human sacrifice?

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at what was said in the letter in some disbelief. We Chinese had already begun to completely abolish this kind of thing after Emperor Qin Shi Huang unified the country. How could the Indians still use this trick?
This is so barbaric!
"As for industry, how should I put it? Europe can at least make firearms. As for these two empires, neither empire had the technology to smelt steel. Soldiers mostly used stone axes. Having bronze swords was considered the elite among the elite.

Therefore, with civilization, especially industry, lagging behind, the Spanish Empire successively destroyed the Aztec Empire and the Inca Empire. Please note that the destruction of the country here means the complete extinction of their civilization, leaving nothing behind! "

extinct?

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but gasp. This Spanish Kingdom was really cruel. This was much more severe than killing nine generations of a clan!
With backward organization, barbaric society and uncivilized people, it is no wonder that they were exterminated by the Spaniards.

At this moment, his thoughts drifted back to a year ago when he first started communicating with Lao Li. At that time, he learned that in the late Qing Dynasty, China was also ravaged by the powerful countries one after another. The reason was simple: backwardness!

Fortunately, I knew all this in advance and started to develop industry before the rest of the world. This is a great opportunity given to China by God, and I absolutely cannot miss such a good opportunity!

(End of this chapter)