At that time, the empire granted the Overseas Affairs Office and the cabinet direct jurisdiction over some foreign affairs and declaration of war in state capitals. This was because of the difficulties in early communication. Even after the advent of steamships, ultra-long-distance cross-ocean communication was still very troublesome.
Therefore, there is no way to grant the overseas affairs yamen relatively greater authority. Otherwise, after many urgent matters are delayed for several months, unpredictable negative changes will often occur.
But when the telegraph was invented and used on a large scale, especially after the transoceanic telegraph line was built, Li Xuan did not hesitate to revoke some of the overseas affairs yamen's diplomatic, declaration of war and other rights, retaining only their civil power.
After wireless telegraphy began to be widely used, Li Xuan further weakened the power of the overseas affairs yamen, making the current authority of the overseas affairs yamen basically equivalent to that of provincial roads in local areas.
Even the European Affairs Office, which had a relatively special status in the past, was inevitably reformed and turned into a purely civil affairs agency.
As for the empire's diplomatic and other affairs in Europe, they are handled by the Empire's European Office, while military affairs continue to be handled by the army and navy respectively.
Relying on the advancement of communication technology, the Tang Empire achieved global affairs reforms and once again clarified the principle of separation of military and political affairs.
Nowadays, the overseas affairs yamen in the empire are equivalent to the mainland and American provinces in terms of administrative level, and they are all from the second level.
However, although the area under the jurisdiction of these affairs yamen is very large, the registered population is not large.
Even the Indian Affairs Office, which started colonization in the early days and has developed for many years, does not include the island of Ceylon, which has been localized and is directly under the jurisdiction of the cabinet. There are only more than 4 million imperial subjects on the entire Indian peninsula. This number is compared to India.
Compared with the vast territory of the Indian peninsula controlled by the Affairs Office, it is not that much!
Over at the Red Sea Affairs Office, there are relatively many immigrants, but there are only over one million people, and most of them live concentrated in the Egyptian State and the Suez Canal Zone.
As for the newly established Eastern European Affairs Office and Nordic Affairs Office, the Eastern European Affairs Office has great potential, but its time to accept a large number of immigrants is still short.
Therefore, apart from the army, there are actually only about 400,000 people there now, and most of them have left in the past year.
There are more people in the Nordic region, with only 20,000 to 30,000 people at the moment. Most of them are policy immigrants. The Immigration and Reclamation Department paid a lot of money and attracted some immigrants through various subsidies.
The European Affairs Office and the West Asian Affairs Office are a bit special. In fact, these two affairs offices do not have much territory. The main administrative area in Europe is Ceuta, and the rest are messy embassy districts, business districts or other colonies.
In small areas, the people are mainly concentrated in Ceuta. Together with the people from other colonies, the number is estimated to be around 100,000.
The West Asian Affairs Office is similar. It mainly governs the land along the Persian Gulf. Its main territories are Basra and Hormuz, plus some embassy area colonies and small areas. The overall population is not large. The total population is only 100,000.
Less than.
Overall, the number of imperial citizens in these nine overseas affairs offices is not large.
Of course, this is only temporary. Currently, the empire is vigorously encouraging people to immigrate to Eastern Europe and West Asia. Every day, a large number of people take trains and head to Eastern Europe or the Caucasus via the Asia-Europe Railway.
According to the estimates of the Immigration and Reclamation Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Eastern Europe, especially the Vogar River, Don River Basin and parts of Ukraine, will see a rapid growth of immigrants in the next few years, and this rapid growth does not mean tens of thousands of people a year.
The growth rate is not more than hundreds of thousands, but hundreds of thousands.
With the superior conditions in Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine, it is very likely that people will emigrate to North America again.
When the local population increases and there is no major foreign threat, then we will follow the example of the Americas and abolish the administrative offices and establish provincial roads instead.
This was what America was like back then. It started with the American Affairs Office, and later it was divided into the North American Affairs Office and the South American Affairs Office. Later, these two affairs offices were abolished and provincial administrative agencies were directly established in North and South America.
However, this measure has also caused certain troubles, that is, the number of provincial highways in the empire, state capitals, districts, and affairs offices under the direct jurisdiction of the cabinet is increasing, and the number is so large that it is difficult for the cabinet to manage it.
There are too many territories and it is too troublesome to manage them.
As the empire expanded across the globe, there was little in the early days. However, as overseas immigrants increased, overseas areas gradually became localized, and provincial roads were established, the scope of the cabinet's jurisdiction became larger and larger.
Even with wireless communication now, which can quickly contact overseas locations for direct control, it is still very complicated and troublesome.
After all, there are dozens of administrative regions directly under the central government of the empire, and it is very troublesome to deal with them.
However, the cabinet does not want to merge these local administrative agencies such as provincial highways, directly-controlled state capitals and districts, and administrative offices. These places are already large enough, and merging them again would be too exaggerated.
Some provincial roads in the local area seem to be small in area and seem to be able to be merged. However, although they are small in area, they have a large population and a strong economy.
For example, if the Zhili Fourth Road really wants to be merged, it would be an exaggeration. The Zhili Fourth Road accounts for about 35% of the empire's industry and commerce. If it really wants to be merged, the impact will be too great, and this impact will be negative.
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At the same time, if there is a rash merger, it will require large-scale adjustments to administrative regions and institutions, which is also very troublesome.
However, the cabinet is unwilling to establish a higher-level administrative agency above the provincial highways, such as merging with Hubei and Huguang to establish Huguang, or establishing higher-level administrative agencies such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang.
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The cabinet believes that this will give local authorities too much power and even directly threaten the authority of the cabinet.
At the same time, the military is also strongly opposed. The military believes that it is okay to do this in the local area, but it cannot be done overseas, especially in North America. Otherwise, it will easily breed, enhance the sense of identification of a certain region in some overseas areas, and breed divisions.
doctrine.
It was because of this that the North American Affairs Office was abolished and provinces were established in North America. Now we cannot go back to the old way just because we have more jurisdictions!
The current American region, after years of administrative regional adjustments, has determined the structure of seven provinces in North America, two provinces and one region in Central America, and five provinces in South America.
Moreover, in official documents, we have always avoided using North America, South America or similar terms, and directly referred to a certain province, such as Wuhu Province.
Neither the cabinet nor the military will allow administrative agencies like the Viceroyalty of North America and the Viceroyalty of South America to appear in the Americas, which are higher than provincial highways, in order to avoid regional centripetal forces in some areas.