Chapter 292: The Key to the World Empire

Chapter 292: The Key to the World Empire

After reaching a basic agreement, both sides began to discuss the future education of the people of Saint-Domingue.

Dessalines said to Lucien, "I've noticed that France's prosperity is closely tied to its advanced industry and agriculture. Advanced science and technology play a vital role in this equation. We hope that France can assist Saint-Domingue in the field of education."

Lucien responded, "Helping people worldwide achieve prosperity is a responsibility France cannot shirk. France is willing to offer any assistance within our capacity to any nation pursuing freedom, democracy, and prosperity."

So, an agreement was reached regarding the education and training of black officials from Saint-Domingue in France. From now on, Saint-Domingue could send a group of officials to France each year for various technical training. This would help them acquire new ideas and skills to better serve the people of Saint-Domingue.

In reality, this was a way of nurturing France's advocates of interests in Haiti, or, to put it more plainly, creating a pro-French party.

When the Saint-Domingue issue first arose and the three brothers discussed how to handle the situation, Joseph brought up the concept of "soft colonization" versus "hard colonization."

"Our productivity is increasing rapidly, and European demand can hardly support our rapid development. We need more colonies. However, there are two modes of colonization: hard colonization and soft colonization. Hard colonization means seeing a piece of land and then sending troops to seize it, making the indigenous people there slaves or killing them. Then, they put their people there to cultivate the land. This is what the Spanish and British did.

As for 'soft colonization,' there is a precedent for it as well. In the past, Europeans organized 'slave-hunting teams' to capture black slaves in Africa. However, the black people resisted fiercely, and the Europeans suffered losses. Moreover, there were losses during the transport of black slaves, which made the cost of acquiring black slaves too high, and they couldn't be sold, or even if they were sold, they wouldn't make much profit. If this situation continued, the black slave trade would have collapsed long ago.

But some ingenious Europeans invented a high-end method of 'using black to control black.' They no longer captured black slaves themselves but used various industrial goods to buy off certain black tribes, making them attack other tribes and then selling the captured black people to them.

As a result, white people supported one tribe, and other white people supported another tribe. Black people fought against each other, turning other black people into slaves. White people reduced their costs, avoided risks, and made a lot of money. Well, this is the precedent for what I call 'soft colonization.'

"No, something's not right," Napoleon said. "You must be hiding something from me. You've undoubtedly been taking my money and using it for something else, haven't you, Joseph?"

"Not at all; it's all been spent on research into preliminary technology," Joseph explained. "Moreover, the research itself can be profitable."

"You're using the country's money for personal affairs."

"What country's money? What personal affairs? The country is ours, isn't it? To borrow a line from the Sun King, 'We are the state!' What country's money?" Joseph scoffed.

"All right, I like that saying," Napoleon admitted. "So, tell me, what is this preliminary research of yours and what have you gained that can make money?"

"Well, this involves some highly advanced science. Currently, these things haven't been made public, and very few people know about them. Of course, you can take a look, but whether you'll understand it, I can't guarantee... In any case, based on certain experimental phenomena, along with mathematical calculations, we've drawn a conclusion that there is a form of wave that can travel through space at the speed of light. We call it an electromagnetic wave. We believe this can be used for information transmission, just like sound waves..."

"You told me about this last time; I understand that part. I figured that out," Napoleon said, slightly irritated by Joseph's condescension. "Have you forgotten? It seems your brain is deteriorating."

"Okay, I must have remembered incorrectly," Joseph admitted, unfazed. "Everyone makes mistakes."

"Fine, cut to the chase. What exactly is this preliminary research and what can be gained from it?" Napoleon demanded.

"We've developed a lamp that uses electricity for illumination," Joseph explained. "We discovered before that an electric current causes heating. When a conductor becomes very hot due to the current, it emits bright light. This led us to one of our research goals: developing an electric lamp. While researching electric lamps, we stumbled upon a new phenomenon: when one electrified conductor is at a high temperature, it can induce an electric current in another conductor that is not in direct contact with it. Based on this phenomenon, we created a device called the oscillatory circuit, which is a key technology for wireless communication. However, the lifespan of this device is quite short, and it quickly becomes damaged. We combined it with our research on electric lamps and, lately, have finally seen the dawn of success. As for the byproduct, it's the electric lamp for illumination. It won't be long before you can build another grand spectacle in Paris, Napoleon."