Chapter 2064 Hot Land in the West (Ⅱ)

After reading the article published in the newspaper, Joan's mood was a bit complicated.

The New World is like a "melting pot". Immigrants from all over the world brought their own cultures and customs into this "melting pot" and let them spread freely. However, the official ideology that should occupy the mainstream ideology of society—whether it is The colonial government representing the empire, or the Pelor Church representing the state religion—compared to the ancient empires and kingdoms of the old world, they are not strong enough.

In such an environment where multiple cultures collide with each other, due to the absence of authority, there will inevitably be a force that will rise up and try to seize the power to guide public opinion. On the east coast of the New World, the role of opinion leaders is the news. publishing industry.

Most of the colonial governments in the New World did not have the power to strictly control the news. In this relatively relaxed environment, the news and publishing industry has developed rapidly. In the Midgard area alone, hundreds of newspapers and periodicals of all sizes are published every week.

The only thing these various newspapers have in common is that they have a strong political inclination. Even if they report the same incident, they will interpret it from their own standpoints, and it is impossible to maintain rationality, objectivity and fairness in the true sense.

Propagating political opinions and guiding readers through reports has always been the consensus of the newspaper industry. As the saying goes, "it is important to expose the truth, but what is more important is the interpretation of the truth."

Whoever can hold the right to interpret public events is the real "uncrowned king" of this era.

As the newspaper with the largest circulation in the New World, the "Midgard Tribune" has five-figure long-term subscribers, and its skills in guiding public opinion and outputting political opinions can be described as proficient.

Take the article Joan just read as an example. His buttocks are firmly on the side of the colonists, and he enthusiastically praises the westward colonial movement with thick and colorful brushstrokes, and deeply praises the hard work and simplicity of the new immigrants, with yearning for a better life. Coming to the New World, using my own sweat and wisdom to create a homeland, I am realizing my dream of getting rich step by step.

This kind of propaganda has a strong provocative force. As a descendant of colonists, Joan can't help but feel a sense of pride in his heart after reading this article.

Regardless of the second or third generation of immigrants whose parents have already taken root in the New World, or new immigrants who have just arrived in the New World, although they come from different countries and have different cultural traditions, they all have the same skin color and belong to the civilized world. The virtues of bravery and pioneering are both devoted to the spread of civilization. In this "melting pot", they depend on each other and influence each other. Over time, they will merge into a new nation, and even establish a new country that is greater than the suzerain country.

The sense of pride that readers feel after reading it can easily be transformed into a simple concept of the enemy and the enemy: we colonists are one group, and we should unite to fight against the enemy.

So who is the enemy?

All forces that hinder the colonial movement are the common enemy of "us". No matter the wild beasts in the wilderness, the aborigines, or the bureaucrats trying to curb the westward expansion of immigrants through legislation, or even His Majesty the Emperor, they can all enter the hostile camp!

Whoever dares to prevent us from occupying more land, whoever wants to take away the "cake" in our hands, we must unite and smash his dog's head!

If the reader's thinking stops here, this report will be regarded as achieving the purpose of propaganda.

However, Joan didn't stop thinking about it.

He was soberly aware that news reports deliberately avoided a key issue, which was the "legality" of the westward colonial movement.

If going to the west to open up wilderness itself is illegal and harms the interests of the legal owners of the land, aren't the colonists who are enthusiastically praised in the news reports a group of robbers in essence?

If "legality" is not important, and everyone follows the law of the jungle where the jungle is prey to the strong, and whoever grabs the land belongs to him, then the colonial movement is nothing more than a barbaric act that regressed to primitive society. The colonists killed by the aborigines of the Sar tribe deserved nothing but sympathy. Where did the so-called "spreading civilization" come from in news reports, and what position do readers have to empathize with a group of bandits?

Unless people agree with the "gangster logic" subconsciously, but refuse to admit it, this is too hypocritical.

Of course, Joan knew that there was a big deviation between the reality of the western colonial movement and the positive descriptions in the newspapers.

Before the war, the Midgard authorities made a public promise: If the Volsong tribe assists the Midgard militia against the Fiji, then after the war, the colonial government will return a large area of ​​land in the Vymur Valley in the west of the Twilight Plain. to the Asa people.

However, after the war in 1622, when the Volsung family asked the Midgard government to fulfill its original promise and return the territory, the situation had changed dramatically.

The prosperity dividends brought about by peace have stimulated a surge in land prices, and the huge appreciation space has made everyone eager to plunder more land, thus setting off a new wave of westward colonization, and the fertile land in the Vymur Valley is the hot spot for colonization one.

Both Governor William Nichols and Lord Dandridge Custis advocated the fulfillment of the promise to return the lands under the agreement to the Assai, but were met with opposition from the majority of MPs and the army led by Lord Benedict Laval. General Fang resolutely opposed it.

Behind the colonial parliament and the military, there are vested interest groups headed by land developers and large manor owners. They are rich and powerful, and have great political power. The agreement has not been fulfilled for a long time.

The Asa people in Shizhu Town don't want to suffer from being dumb. Logan Volsunger originally advocated uniting with the Midgardians, but now the promise has been delayed and he has been reprimanded by the elders of the clan. Logan couldn't swallow this breath, and drove his family into the Vymur Valley area, and established a residence there. After two years of development, today's "Valley Town" was formed.

At the end of 1622, the imperial edict issued by the emperor temporarily curbed the westward expansion of the colonists.

But the good times didn’t last long. After a year, the imperial reforms suffered setbacks, causing a large number of peasant families to go bankrupt and go into exile. The wave of exile spread to the New World. Last year alone, more than 100,000 new immigrants came to the New World. They were eager for land to settle down. They naturally joined During the wave of westward expansion, the disputes arising from the scramble for land increased sharply, and the conflict between the colonists and the aborigines became increasingly fierce.

Joan vaguely felt that the death of Captain Bob Anderson was not an isolated incident, but a dangerous sign of the escalation of ethnic conflicts in the Vymur Valley!

...

Historical source: King George III's Declaration of 1763 (The American Story, Bilan)

In 1763, George III announced that, with the Appalachian Mountains in North America as the boundary, the east of the mountains belonged to the colonists, and the west of the mountains belonged to the Indians. The two guarded their own territory and did not invade each other. Those colonists who had crossed the Appalachian Mountains into the West had to retreat to the East. It should be said that this seems a very reasonable decision. The colonists were mainly farmers, and the flat and fertile land in the east was just suitable for farming; the Indians made a living by hunting, and the forests and grasslands in the west were rich in animals, enough for them to eat.

George III's "Proclamation of 1763" (Proclamation of 1763) expressed the will of the British royal family to protect the interests of the Indians and maintain peace in North America. If the colonists all act according to the king's wishes, the world will become very harmonious.

It's a pity that the young king is too ignorant of the real New World. If those colonists, if their ancestors were all "good people" who followed the rules, they would not have risked their lives across the ocean to come to this strange continent, nor would they have turned the wasteland into fertile fields and the sea into mulberry fields.

...

For North Americans who are accustomed to independent thinking, a governor who is close at hand can't control them, let alone a king who is far away.