At the end of 1882, the Thirteenth Economic Crisis gradually revealed its destructive power, and Western industrial countries such as Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and the United States were all affected by it.
In December 1882, the Han government formulated a European technology introduction plan and authorized embassies in various European countries to take charge of technology introduction matters in their countries.
In February 1883, the last transport fleet composed of Nanyang Legion soldiers and Annan Chinese set out from northern Annan. At this point, the two-year Annan evacuation operation came to an end.
The Nanyang Army Corps and the Chinese in the Beiban area of Annan were all evacuated, and the northern provinces such as Lang Son, Quang Ninh, and Bac Ninh quickly fell behind the control of the Cochin China colonial army.
Affected by the economic crisis in Europe, the French government is eager to expand its overseas colonies to pass on the domestic economic crisis.
Therefore, when the news of the Vietnamese King's death from illness reached Europe in June 1883, the Republican government immediately authorized the Cochinchina colonial army to launch a combat plan to fully occupy the entire Annan territory.
Without the restraint of the Nanyang Army, the decadent and weak Annan government army was like an old fence that fell down in the face of the French colonial army's offensive.
On July 16, 1883, the French attacked the Hue Haikou Fort, and on the 17th, invaded the capital city of Hue. On the 23rd, the Annan garrison surrendered without a fight, and in humiliation had to sign the "New Franco-Vietnamese Peace Treaty" with the French, that is, the "Shun Hue".
The Treaty of Civilization, with a total of twenty-seven articles. According to this treaty, France turned Annan into its protectorate and controlled Vietnam's domestic and foreign affairs. The French Minister Ho Luo (Mu Mang) immediately posted a notice stating that the entire territory of Vietnam is legal.
Warned the Qing army not to interfere in Annan affairs.
In September 1883, the Guangxi Qing Army stationed in northern Annan in accordance with the instructions of the Qing court and confronted the French colonial army in the Baosheng area of Shanxi.
On November 13, 1883, in order to dispel the Qing government's intention to interfere in the situation in Annan, the Governor-General of Cochin China ordered Guba to lead 6,000 troops to launch an attack on the Qing army positions stationed in Shanxi (now northwest of Hanoi), and the Sino-French War officially broke out.
At the beginning of the war, the Qing army lost a series of battles, and France took advantage of the situation to threaten. On April 17, 1884, it forced the Qing government to sign the "Concise Treaty of the Sino-French Conference", recognizing France's "protective rights" over Vietnam and agreeing to open ports for trade on the Sino-Vietnamese border.
And declared that the Qing troops in Beiqi would be withdrawn to the border.
In early May, the French army forcibly took over the Qing army's garrison near Lang Son, Vietnam. They encountered counterattacks and the French army retreated.
On June 15, the French navy invaded Keelung, Taiwan, but was repelled by the defenders.
On the third day of July, French warships docked at Mawei Naval Port suddenly attacked the Fujian Navy. Due to the Qing government's policy of avoiding war and seeking peace and incompetent command, the fleet rushed to the battle, was passively beaten, and was eventually annihilated. On the sixth day of the month,
The Qing government was forced to declare war on France.
In August, the French ship invaded Taiwan again and was blocked by the Qing army in Huwei (now Tamsui).
In the first month of 1885, a French warship invaded Zhenhai, Zhejiang Province, and was shelled by the Qing army. The French army was defeated and its commander, Guba, was seriously injured and later died in Penghu.
At the same time, at the Sino-Vietnamese border, the Qing army failed to resist and retreated steadily, allowing the French army to capture the important border town of Zhennanguan (today's Friendship Pass). Zhang Zhidong, the new governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, appointed veteran Feng Zicai as Guangxi Military Affairs Assistant to resume operations.
Deploying war preparations, on the 8th of February, the victory at Zhennang Pass was achieved. On the 13th, the victory at Lang Son was achieved, seriously injuring the French commander Nigri.
The successive victories of the Qing army made the French army in Hanoi extremely frightened and prepared to flee. The French Jouferry cabinet also fell due to defeat. However, the Qing government took advantage of the victory to seek peace. On February 19, it signed the "Paris Armistice" with France.
Agreement". On the 22nd, the frontline troops were ordered to cease fighting on the first day of March and withdraw on the 11th. On April 27th, Li Hongzhang was authorized to sign the "Sino-French Agreement on Vietnam" with the French Minister to China, Bardnot, in Tianjin.
Article 10 of the Treaty. Due to the cowardly concessions of the Qing government, China was defeated without defeat, while France was victorious.
The withdrawal of the Nanyang Army means that the Han government has given up its interventionist policy in the Far East. As long as the Western countries do not make aggressive moves against the Natuna Islands, Songkhla, and Lanfang, the Han government's attention will be
It will not shift from South America to the Far East again.
While the Qing court and the French army were fighting in Annam, the situation in other parts of the world was also changing rapidly.
In October 1884, ships heading to the United States, Canada, and Australia to accept Chinese workers returned one after another, and the great Chinese migration caused by the Chinese Exclusion Act entered its final stage.
On November 15, 1884, European countries excluded the Han government that had colonial interests in Africa.
Only invitees include the German Empire, the British Empire, the French Third Republic, the Russian Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the United States of America, the Kingdom of Italy, the Spanish Empire, the Portuguese Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Dutch Colonial Empire, the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of Sweden, the Kingdom of Denmark and Norway.
15 European countries including the Kingdom,
A conference to carve up Africa was held in Berlin, the capital of Germany. The conference lasted for 104 days. During the conference, Britain, France and Germany each divided the scope of African colonies according to their own wishes. There were constant conflicts and disputes between the parties. Until the beginning of 1885, the countries
Only then did they reluctantly reach the principle of carving up Africa.
In this way, for the first time, European and American powers delineated their respective geographical boundaries in tropical Africa on the map in Berlin, far away from Africa.
In order to prevent countries from fighting each other in the fight for Africa, the Berlin Conference also focused on the issue of "effective occupation".
After fierce debates between various countries and the United Kingdom, which occupies the largest territory in Africa, a very vague resolution was finally passed: all participating countries must notify other countries separately if they occupy the African coastal areas in the future; and annex the African coastal areas they also occupy.
It is the responsibility to ensure the establishment of governing power sufficient to protect existing rights and interests. When discussing the issue of free trade in the Congo River Basin, the Berlin Conference forcibly included the Han Congo Colony, French Congo and northern Angola into free trade without the consent of the Han State.
Within the scope of the trade zone.
Regarding the issue of freedom of navigation on inland rivers, it was finally adopted to implement free navigation under international supervision in the Congo River Basin. The final protocol signed by the Berlin Conference included 38 articles and 60,000 words, but most of them were official documents and were not implemented. The reasons that the conference attempted to solve
The conflicts caused by the partition of Central Africa were not formally discussed at the conference table, but were resolved through political transactions under the conference.
These contents were not included in the protocol. The limited outcome of this meeting was to show the balance of power that the European powers had formed in Africa, marking a new starting point for their frenzied scramble for Africa.
After the Berlin Conference, the pace of the European powers' carving up of Africa greatly accelerated. In 1876, the European powers only occupied 10.8% of Africa's land, which increased to 25% in 1885, and increased to 90.4% in 1900 after the Berlin Conference.
By 1912, the entire African continent had been carved up, with only Ethiopia and Liberia remaining ostensibly independent.
In the unprecedented fierce battle for Africa, Britain formulated the so-called "Plan II-C" from Cape Town to Cairo in an attempt to establish a colonial empire spanning the northern and southern continents of Africa.
France formulated the "Second Plan" from Senegal to Somalia in an attempt to traverse the east and west continents of Africa.
Germany formulated a plan to cross the African continent diagonally from East Africa to Southwest Africa.
Portugal and Italy also each had their own expansion plans. The European powers all wanted to realize their expansion plans on the African continent, which caused serious disputes and conflicts. These disputes and conflicts would become an important factor leading to the First World War.
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Faced with the arrogant attitude of Western powers in dividing African colonies, the Han government had no more effective methods besides routine diplomatic protests.
Time moves forward slowly amid turbulence and change.
In June 1883, imperial concubine Zhang Baoyi became pregnant. In August, Empress Wu Lingxuan and two newly admitted concubines also received good news of pregnancy. When the news came out, people all over the country spontaneously held celebrations for the emperor to have an heir.
.In 1884, four daughters gave birth to two sons and two daughters to Li Mingyuan one after another. To celebrate the birth of his children, Li Mingyuan specially named four small islands located in the Yizhou Islands in the South Pacific after the four children.
In January 1885, smokeless gunpowder and new rifles using smokeless gunpowder as ammunition completed the final verification work and began to enter mass production.
In August 1885, when Western countries were still surprised by Maxim's development of the first Maxim machine gun, the first heavy machine gun independently developed by Han had entered the National Defense Forces and began to replace the Gatling hand-cranked machine gun.
Machine guns have become the heavy fire support weapons of the National Defense Corps and battalion-level military units.
In May 1887, Crown Prince Frederick was diagnosed with throat cancer. This time because of the case of Prince Valmad being cured, Crown Princess Victoria immediately found He Lianchen, who stayed in the German palace to take care of the health of the Crown Prince and his family.
, and then with the correct diagnosis by He Lianchen and doctors from various countries, Crown Prince Frederick, like his son, was lucky enough to escape from the clutches of death.
On March 9, 1888, German Emperor Wilhelm I died. Crown Prince Frederick, who had a successful operation, took over the position of German Emperor and became the second emperor of the German Empire.......