Chapter 133. Colonies and Trade (5)

If you studied hard without dozing off in middle and high school history classes, you would have heard until your ears fell off how important 'state formation' and 'centralization' are.

Of course, what textbooks teach doesn't go beyond the level of saying everything went well because of centralization and strengthened royal authority.

Looking more closely, centralization and state formation are all related to 'external enemies'.

As the scale of wars gradually grew larger, a mere tribal chief or local lord level couldn't handle it...

'Uniting around a king became efficient for protecting my property.'

The situation these tribes are in is just right for state formation...

Although in normal times they would throw stones saying what nonsense is this, everyone was accepting my proposal with quite serious expressions.

"Do we really have to create a country now to fight against them?"

"Certainly there seems to be a limit to fighting with just some tribes united."

Since the conversation is flowing in the direction I want.

I just need to wait leisurely until the rice is fully cooked.

Adding a few more words here is like opening a rice cooker lid that hasn't finished cooking because you're hungry.

After quite some time passed subjectively, one of the chiefs asked me:

"I agree we need to create a country to unite. But there are two things I'm concerned about."

Until now, all the chiefs spoke informally to me.

This wasn't unpleasant or anything, but it feels better to be more respected hearing semi-formal speech rather than informal commands.

'Being respected means I'm gaining some authority among them.'

"If we create a country, do we have to have a king?"

Having a king and uniting around that person is convenient from my perspective.

If I make Malik, the chief of the Botswana tribe, king, I can keep sucking honey by just sticking a straw in him.

But even the most delicious food gives you indigestion if you eat too much at once.

Slowly, little by little, step by step is how you can achieve your goal.

Even a thousand-mile journey begins with a single step.

"Uniting around a king would be good, but more important is moving as one body centered around a 'person who becomes the centripetal force'. Like how tribe members move according to the chief's orders when you hunt."

Even wolves, buffaloes, and elephants form herds.

Herds naturally have a leader.

This is something even beasts without intelligence and self-awareness know instinctively.

The fact that uniting is good, but you can't survive without someone to give orders.

"So how about now you elect the most capable person as grand chief like you elect chiefs, and run the country following his instructions?"

Even the concept of king, if you trace its origins, was the highest among 'tribal chiefs'.

So until the early medieval period, the king was like a commander holding command authority when war broke out, and in peacetime just ruled his own territory and occasionally gathered lords to hold banquets showing off his 'authority'.

Just this much is enough for now.

"It doesn't seem very different from electing a chief. Not a bad idea."

The others here nodded and agreed with those words.

"Then the second important thing is there are too few people. The Governor of Nador can mobilize over hundreds of thousands of troops if he decides to, but we only have a few thousand even if we gather all the men of the tribes."

Until the Industrial Revolution, or more precisely, until the development of the Gatling gun created by some doctor who disliked people dying to 'reduce humanity's meaningless killing'.

Population virtually matched mobilizable military power.

Even though a world came where one shot from a matchlock gun could send even a fierce general like Xiang Yu with one shot, victory was decided by how many more shots could be fired in the same time.

'It's not for nothing that commanders until World War I lined up soldiers in neat rows and columns and charged them in front of cannons.'

From an extremely modern perspective, they must increase their population by any means necessary.

And that method is extremely simple.

'Survival of the fittest.'

Weak tribes disappear, and only the strong survive.

"To survive, shouldn't we gather other surrounding tribes too? Those not belonging to this tribal alliance have lost or are in danger of losing their homes because of those Nador bastards... We must become one to survive."

"We'll need at least 10,000 warriors we can mobilize to protect ourselves from their blades. It seems good to increase the scale more."

The words exchanged are about expanding forces peacefully.

But thinking logically, will tribes with matchlock guns and tribes without really unite only by 'peaceful' methods?

If they accept the proposal to join immediately, they become second-class tribes, if they don't accept the proposal to join, they become colonial subjects.

The chiefs here will become first-class tribes, the top privileged class.

'This is essentially nobility.'

But anyway, peaceful force expansion (one-sided wars won by the tribal alliance) will occur to survive the invasion of those Nador bastards.

This is how it will be remembered in history, and in their minds:

It was a noble decision to protect Ifriqiya and Mother Earth.

The British Empire exercised the 'wisdom of the British Empire' by expressing similar thoughts as the 'white man's burden', packaging it as a noble duty.

Though it's the object of ridicule now, at the time all intellectuals regardless of political ideology thought it was sacred.

"As the scale of each tribe belonging to the tribal alliance naturally grows larger, you'll need to farm to avoid starving the tribespeople."

Kublai Khan, who succeeded Genghis Khan, originally intended to turn the Central Plains into a sea of fire.

But one Han Chinese minister persuaded him like this:

'Dude, isn't it better to receive taxes than burn all that and turn it into pasture? Getting food regularly is a huge gain, you know?'

This isn't something that actually happened, it's just an anecdote that remains...

From another perspective, it shows that even Mongols afflicted with a disease where they have seizures if they don't burn everything and turn it into grasslands become agricultural people when they learn the 'true taste of farming'.

And there are various reasons for that...

'You can obtain incomparably more food than when nomadic.'

The other chiefs tried to object, but I preempted them before they could speak.

"I brought about 500 people who can teach farming techniques, and all the tools needed for farming. Is this enough?"

On the Albania continent, human life, precisely the life of lowly people, is lighter than pebbles strewn on the street.

Getting hanged for the crime of stealing one loaf of bread, or a whole family being dragged off as slaves for the crime of not paying taxes because they had no money.

So I diverted criminals who committed minor offenses in Florence and elsewhere at cheap prices, and 'employed (mobilized by force)' people who knew how to farm from slums.

For minor offenders or slum dwellers, being agricultural technology experts in this colony is much better than rotting there.

'If they adapt well here, they'll live being treated at least like low-level officials.'

Hearing my words, Malik clapped his hands.

"Thank you for doing this much, friend. No, brother."

If I had to say, Malik is the chief with the greatest influence among the chiefs here.

If it weren't for him, the tribal alliance would have been annihilated without obtaining matchlock guns.

Though not a noble who received higher education, he started using the power of experience to draw the surrounding atmosphere to his side.

"It's good to keep traditions. But what use is it if we all die keeping those traditions? How will we face our ancestral spirits? So accept this to survive."

Malik held a matchlock gun in his hand and said:

"To protect myself, family, friends like brothers, and tribe. Surely those with the courage to risk their lives fighting enemies don't lack the courage to abandon traditions."

The chiefs protested those words.

"Cut the bullshit!"

"It's better to abandon traditions than have the tribe perish keeping traditions!"

Since I heard the answer I wanted.

"Then I'll do my best to teach various excellent skills including farming. To overthrow Nador."

The Governor of Nador might faint, grabbing the back of his neck if he learns he's being backstabbed.

But the important thing is that the gentleman has no way of knowing I'm doing such villainous things.

And besides matchlock guns and gunpowder which are like their lifelines...

"I brought strong liquor from our Kingdom of Granada. It's alcohol fitting for this joyous occasion, so please try some. I'll give enough for other tribespeople to drink plenty too, so drink heartily."

...... Though it can be made relatively cheaply compared to other distilled liquors.

It's alcohol with addictiveness comparable to drugs.

'It's not selling opium, so it's fine.'