The Middle Kingdom: A Sinocentric China AAR

metalinvader665 said:

This is gonna be awesome. Will California be a state or a colony in-game?

How much emigration is affecting China? In my experience, when China civilises they often deluge the world in a sea of immigrants. I saw Uruguay was getting a lot in the screenshot you showed, is that country half Chinese now?

Now then, make the West Coast all Chinese! Fusang is Chinese land! Mexican and American barbarians go home!

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Thanks!

And California becomes a state. ^^

And yeah, emigration was so bad my total population was actually going down, at least until the Mandate of Heaven event drove down pop militancy.

The Chinese finally mastered mass-producing modern firearms of their own as the buildup to war continued, greatly reducing the Chinese dependence on Western firearms imports.

Meanwhile, an excellent stroke of good fortune turned up. The Chinese printing presses were booming with new books being published en masse, but countless books were rejected by the Qing censors for various reasons. The Emperor discovered that a few months ago, the Qing censors in charge of managing the new state-run Chinese printing presses had rejected a work on Fusang by a young Confucian scholar, which analyzed Chinese historical references to Fusang and argued that Fusang had been located in the Americas. The scholars who served as Qing censors had rejected the work as being poorly researched, lacking in evidence, and for being more a work of mythology than true history.

The Emperor, upon hearing this, quickly overrode the censors and ordered the immediate mass-publication of this new work, himself reading the entirety of it in a matter of weeks.

As the Americans and Mexicans both attempted to rally the international community against the invasion, the Qing Empire struck back, proclaiming that the native peoples of California were ancient tributaries of the Chinese Empire, as far back as the Qin dynasty, and that China thus had a duty to protect the Native peoples from the Mexicans. They also proclaimed that the Mexican government was cruelly persecuting Chinese immigrants, and the Empire had a duty to protect its citizens abroad.

These justifications were even more shocking to the Great Powers of Europe than had been China's plans for war. The idea that China had discovered the Americas over a thousand years before the Vikings challenged the entire historical canon of European scholarship. Scholars throughout Europe scrambled to find Chinese translators and import Chinese historical works, or sailed to China themselves to investigate these claims. Other European academics roundly condemned these claims as falsifications, or myths at best.

But to the Chinese people, now that the work had the Emperor's formal endorsement, the new work was a source of great international pride. The author of the work became famous throughout China, and soon was seen as the foremost expert on the Americas within China. Tales spread throughout China that California, mixing old myths and the gold rush to create an image of California as an idyllic paradise full of riches and inhabited by civilized folk, which had been spoiled by the barbaric Europeans who had cruelly massacred the natives and left the land to rot.

Ultimately in the midst of the uproar, American and Mexican efforts failed. America's opposition came off as hypocritical at best, since everyone could tell that Americans simply intended to conquer California themselves - what with their loud rhetoric about Manifest Destiny. It didn't help that the American Civil War was still raging, and the U.S. government was a tad too busy to invest much effort into building an international coalition.

Meanwhile, the Mexican government was hardly seen with respect in Europe - many Great Powers, such as Russia, didn't even have an embassy in Mexico. And the Mexican government was weak, and constantly on the verge of collapse. California itself, despite the huge attraction of its gold mines, remained a sparsely populated backwater state, with the Mexican government too busy dealing with internal problems to assert itself in California. Thus, Mexico's protests largely fell on deaf ears, the same as they had when the American had unilaterally declared Manifest Destiny.



Thus, the only Great Power to officially oppose China's claims to California was America, and with the Confederates still fighting a (losing) battle against the Union attempts to reunify the nation, they could do little to prevent the Chinese invasion.

Meanwhile, philosophical advancements in China continued:







Finally, the Chinese stood ready for war, and a mighty fleet was dispatched to California.





The journey across the length of the Pacific took a few months, and supply issues on the lengthy voyage caused many deaths.



But the Chinese invasion fell upon Mexico with the force of Heaven itself.





The small armies Mexico had managed to assemble fought fiercely, but it was a futile struggle.



America, meanwhile, finally finished subduing the South, and with the Chinese already having occupied half of California, knew there was no point intervening, especially when the country was going through the difficulties of Reconstruction in the former Confederacy. Thus, the USA instead declared war on Mexico as well, hoping to take advantage of Mexico's weakness and seize Arizona.



The Mexicans heroically marched into battle against the separate American and Chinese invasions, but it was an utterly doomed effort. The only real question was whether America or China would advance into Mexican territory faster; with the Mexican government steadfastly refusing to surrender control of either Arizona or California, both America and China competed to outdo each other in the pace of their advance into Mexico.



Meanwhile, to the Emperor's surprise, a naval landing had occurred in Taiwan, from a people calling themselves the "Columbians." Something about an alliance with Mexico? The Emperor swiftly dispatched some newly constructed Qing Man-of-Wars to crush them.



In more important news:



Confucian scholars had drastically improved upon traditional Chinese concepts of medical treatment, as the scholars swiftly gained a better understanding of the human body and how to treat its ailments. Reports of new medical discoveries were swiftly beginning to pour in, to the pleasure of the Emperor.



Soon, population growth increased as a result, and Confucian scholars began to gain an understanding of genetics.



And of thorax surgery, as well.



Alas, these advancements soon needed to be put to good use, as China suffered a horrific flu pandemic brought to China by Spanish traders and expatriates.



And Egypt, scared of further Ottoman attacks, announced its willingness to become a tributary of the Chinese Empire after suffering a catastrophic defeat to the Ottoman Empire. The Emperor was quite pleased, as barges full of Egyptian cotton began to flow in to feed China's new textiles industries, much to the consternation of Great Powers who had come to rely on Egyptian cotton while the American Civil War left America's cotton production in ruins.



Word finally arrived that Mexico had accepted reality and surrendered in the wake of a Chinese advance on Mexico City, after signing a prior peace treaty with the USA ceding Arizona. The Emperor was honestly surprised, he had assumed the war had already been won months ago; having aligned himself with the Reformers in his court once more and almost forgotten the war. But perhaps such a formal treaty was necessary after all, just to ensure none could object to the fact that California, renamed Fusang, was now a Chinese territory.

Celebrations were announced by the Emperor to take place throughout China, as the Chinese New Model Armies began the long march back to Fusang from Mexico City to begin reorganizing the former Mexican province of California as Chinese land.

(note: Credit goes to metalinvader665 for making me aware of Fusang, so I could incorporate that history/mythology into my AAR, as I'd never heard of it before. I had to research everything on Wikipedia as I wrote this. XD)

Nikolai said:

Glory! Victoglory! Will Fusang become a state in the end or a semi independent puppet like you plan Africa?

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If I choose to release California/Fusang as a puppet, that will have to happen after I've completely crushed the USA, if I succeed in doing so, as otherwise California will apply for statehood and be annexed by the USA.

No idea if I will release California though, the only reason to do so would be infamy reduction, and crushing the USA completely will take me so far over the infamy limit that it won't matter. I'll probably just keep California as a state.

Scrapknight said:

But won't the US try and invade California anyway? Or do they not have cores on it?

I congratulate you on your achievement, but have to note that you will likely be facing wars with the United States every five years as long as you hold California..

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They are welcome to try. =P

SotV said:

Nice work! How are your efforts in Hawaii going?

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I finally managed to sphere Hawaii tonight. XD

sprites said:

And now there is a chinese California ...
now won't your emigrants just move there or they will leave for USA and such countries?

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So far as international immigration goes, California now counts as being in Asia for game mechanics purposes, is my understanding. So yes, they will still leave for the USA in large numbers. International immigration picks its target by country first, before picking a province.

Anyway did you get any more accepted cultures ? If you only got Manchu, it's gonna be hard to train proper armies.

Next goal ?

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No new accepted cultures. I have Manchu as my primary culture, and Beifaren and Mongolian as accepted cultures (note that I modded Mongolian in, as I mentioned in my initial post; Mongolian was very much an accepted culture under Qing rule in real life history, thus why I modded it in). There aren't any ways I can add more. But it doesn't matter because again, China has such huge population density that I can recruit 10+ brigades from many individual provinces even without many accepted culture pops living there.

Next goal is currently to wait for infamy to go down until I can attack Sokoto.

Part 24: The End of A Genocide​

The Qing victory over Mexico had proven to the entire world that the Qing were more than capable of defeating a Western power, and thus been wholly successful in its primary objective, greatly improving the respect the Europeans had for the Chinese. But ultimately the upheaval China's historical claims about Fusang had caused would prove to have much more significant far-reaching consequences.

With the new province of Fusang secured, several Qing officials passionate about new Qing concepts of social justice clamored the Emperor for permission to take charge of the administration of Fusang. The civilized Fusangi natives (Native Americans, as the foreign devils called them) had been exploited and genocided horrifically by the European barbarians, and an isolationist China had failed in their duties to protect their ancient tributaries. Much work was needed, the scholars declared, to rebuild Fusangi civilization and to end the excesses of the barbarians.

The Emperor was frankly more interested in California's potential as a naval base, and in the vast gold mines - and even in those regards, California was a minor concern, as the Emperor was busy dealing with the fallout of the massive Spanish flu outbreak that was rapidly spreading throughout China. The Emperor also had little actual respect for the supposed Fusangi, himself having used the idea of Fusang merely as an excuse for war - one he was not sure he believed himself. And to him, the "Fusangi" tribes seemed little more civilized than the European barbarians. Still, the Emperor had no love for the European barbarians, and wished to project the image of a benevolent Confucian father-figure to all the civilized world, in order to maintain The Mandate of Heaven - and most Chinese now thought of the Fusangi as part of the civilized world. And with the Mexican government having been expelled, California was essentially under a state of martial law - sooner or later something would have to be done to build a local administration. With this in mind, the Emperor dispatched these ambitious bureaucrats and scholars to take care of the problem, authorizing them to work with the military forces there to begin a transition to civilian rule. A Han man named Ma Liang was placed in charge.

Ma Liang arrived in California just as the last of the Qing forces returned from Mexico, and immediately set to work rebuilding Californian society in line with the Confucian morals of him and his supporters. First, emissaries were dispatched to all the known surviving Native Fusangi tribes in California, over a hundred of them, offering to restore their past tributary relationships. Ma Liang hired translators from among the locals to ensure adequate communication.

The natives largely replied with confusion, having no memory of any prior relationship with China - Ma Liang sent further emissaries to clarify the matter. After several further exchanges, most of the tribes came to understand what they were being offered and many readily signed the treaties they were offered.

The treaties were drastically different from anything the various European nations had ever convinced them to sign - the Natives had learned the hard way that the Europeans were only interested in taking their lands away, one piece at a time. All their fancy talk of treaties was nothing more than pretty diplomatic words to hide that sole objective. The Chinese offer was vastly different, though still demanding in its own way.

All the native tribes would be expected to send yearly representatives to Beijing and present tribute to the Emperor (the Qing promised to provide ships for this purpose, when many native tribes complained they had no qualified seafaring ships). They would also have to acknowledge Qing overlordship, but would retain full autonomy in their own lands. In exchange, they would be allowed to trade freely with the Empire, and would be granted imperial protection against all foreign treats, and the Qing pledged to assist them in rebuilding their civilizations from the horrific sufferings of barbarian rule (and protect their lands from further encroachment by barbarians).

Those native tribes who refused to sign the treaties were quickly confronted by the Qing military, and a year-long micro rebellion ensued within the countryside of California, as the Qing hunted down every last refusing tribe and forced them all to join the Chinese tianxia by signing the treaties. With around 70,000 Qing soldiers in California, several times more than the entire population of California itself, the native resistance was doomed from the start. The Emperor never even heard of these military conflicts until years later.

With the natives of Fusang once again having joined the broader civilized world, Ma Liang moved to impose civilian administration on the other peoples of California, including Mexicans, Yankee immigrants, Chinese immigrants and those native Fusangi who'd come to live among the barbarians. Local legal codes were totally rewritten along Western lines, and Chinese was imposed as the official language of government. Laws, inspired by the Qing administration in Taiwan, were passed prohibiting any settlers from settling in the lands of the Fusangi tribes. Ma Liang's administration also introduced various laws to privilege ethnic Han and Manchu people in China, and several other measures to encourage the teaching of Confucian values, in an effort to bring the light of Chinese civilization to the European barbarians. The nationwide ban on Christianity as a dangerous foreign cult was ignored in Fusang due to the sheer impracticality of enforcing such a law in the area, but efforts were made to discourage the faith; and there were several instances of Qing soldiers committing atrocities against Christians, which largely went unpunished. There was great fury at the Chinese, but again, the locals were simply too small in number to oppose the Empire.

As for government itself, all prior local governments were slowly replaced with a new Confucian bureaucracy, recruited from among the few ethnic Chinese people in Fusang, a few further settlers from mainland China, and those other locals who could pass the newly introduced Chinese exams. (which, at least in Fusang, were only available in Chinese)

Ma Liang soon was appointed formal governor of Fusang, and the Emperor sent a brief letter congratulating him on bringing the light of civilization to a new province. The immense military presence remained, however, to discourage any American ideas of "Manifest Destiny."



Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, Qing agents were hard at work trying to free Hawaii from the grip of American hegemony. American missionaries in Hawaii had steadily been gaining more and more influence in Hawaii, as they assisted the Kingdom in modernizing; fearful of the threat that an American naval base in Hawaii could pose to China's interests, the Qing diplomatic corps dispatched advisers of their own to China, along with an offer to invest in a factory within Hawaii.



At home, dealing with a wave of dissent in the wake of the plague, calling largely for the legalization of public meetings, the Emperor decided to introduced state-controlled unions for factory workers. This was officially proclaimed as a way to help workers protect themselves in the often harsh conditions of the new factories, but privately the Emperor saw this as a way to keep control over the new, unknown element in Chinese politics that factory workers presented.



And Qing cavalry techniques improved, as the Chinese military continued to modernize even as the plague caused horrific suffering and death.



The Emperor, concerned at how many of the people calling for public meetings had been quietly joining separatist organizations, quietly announced educational reforms to promote assimilation among ethnic minorities.



The spread of the plague into the army also resulted in the Emperor announcing the formation of a military medical corps.

Finally, the plague began to subside, and China's population began to grow once more; hundreds of thousands had sadly died in the plague, but modern medicine had saved countless people.





Qing scholars also gained a better understanding of how to combat malaria from their efforts to combat the Spanish Flu, though this had been of little benefit to this particular plague.

With the plague finally over, and with a new administration established in Fusang/California, the Emperor's reign name, Xianfeng (Universal Prosperity), could finally again become a reality rather than just a name.

Nikolai said:

I bet massive immigration will happen in Fusang, and that will make the treaties troublesome to enforce.

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Well, the "Fusangi" tribes are considered sovereign nations, part of the tianxia and tributaries of China, but otherwise independent. Thus, any Chinese settlers who did settle in their lands would be subject to tribal authority under the treaties.

But all this is simply for roleplaying purposes, there are no such mechanics ingame - the only native American nation with cores is the Cherokee, I'm pretty sure. So realistically, most of the natives will probably be assimilated into Manchu culture by the end of the game.

Attalus said:

Do you have access to the decision to annex Hawaii ?

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Nope, I just intend to keep Hawaii as a sphere, so that the USA can't annex it.