There was a reason why Li Junwei chose Richard Cromwell as governor of the Empire's North American colony, and the purpose was to gain a foothold in North America as soon as possible.

The British colony of North America has a history of nearly a century, but for various reasons, the British North American colonies are actually divided into three parts: north, middle and south. New England belongs to the northern colonies, New York State, Pennsylvania and other colonies are central colonies, and Virginia represents southern colonies. The political ecology and economic model of the three colonies are also completely different.

The New England colony is an industry among all colonies. Handicrafts, as a developed and most populous place. This colony has two pillar industries, one is the fur trade and the other is the shipbuilding industry. However, in recent years, with the gradual deterioration of relations with the surrounding Native Americans, the fur trade in the New England colony has gradually become less and the shipbuilding industry has developed rapidly.

The development of shipbuilding is because there are a large amount of excellent wood in the undeveloped forests in North America, but the power comes from foreign trade and cod fishing operations. Because of religious tradition, Europeans do not allow meat to be eaten for more than 100 days a year, but cod is not restricted. Moreover, cod is marinated and suitable for long-term storage after drying, and has high calories. It has become one of the main meat-filled aids in Western Europe. In northeast New England, it is Newfoundland fishing ground, one of the four largest fishing grounds in the world. The core area is Cape Cod, which catches cod. It is even rumored that people can step on the back of the cod and walk from the boat to the shore.

Shipbuilding is an industry that requires multiple categories of cooperation, so logging, smelting and forging have developed accordingly. With Boston as the center, it formed the only industrial center of the North American colonies. This is why Li Junwei wanted to take over Massachusetts, where Boston is located. The Imperial Navy and land forces were stationed in North America, and these handicraftsmen need to provide repair and processing services. However, there is also a shortcoming in the New England region, which is that the climate is cold and the land is barren, and the grain from each colony can only meet its own needs. Therefore, Li Junwei asked for a second colony, Connecticut, the core area of ​​this state. The Connecticut Valley is the only place to produce commercial grain in New England.

The expeditionary forces could gain a foothold by combining industry and agriculture, but the key problem was that New England was the territory of the Puritans. These people were quite troublesome to rule.

Puritans were reformists in the Anglican Church in England that demanded the removal of Catholic remnants. They believed in Calvinism and believed that the Bible was the only and highest authority. Any church or individual could not become interpreters and defenders. Obviously, their ideology was not suitable for feudal monarchy with religion as a tool of domination. There were also church members. Therefore, Puritans were not recognized in the UK. In order to avoid religious persecution, Puritans immigrated to North America in large quantities. Unlike immigrants in other regions, Puritans often immigrated by families and villages. Those who came to North America were not only contract slaves, poor sailors and farmers, but also craftsmen, lawyers, poets and other classes. This was also the best internal driving force for the development of New England.

Although it was persecuted and moved, the Puritans also persecuted Native Americans. In their theory, God intended that the Puritans take over the land of the Indians as a reward for loyalty and diligence to the Puritans. Obviously this is a very shameless theory, and even the pioneers of Connecticut voted at a conference. Three principles were determined. First, the American land belonged to God. Second, the land should be allocated to the saints. Third, the Puritans were all saints. This formed the logic of robbing Native American land.

The Puritans had strict religious habits, and even had religious courts to persecute other religious believers. The locals also had violent traditions, and the colonies would resist taxes at any time. Obviously, the expeditionary army that was not familiar with the place could not rule these guys in a short period of time. Blindly using force would only make the original intention of "establishing a foothold". Therefore, Li Junwei chose Richard Cromwell as the governor.

Richard's father, Cromwell, the British Protector, was a Puritan. Richard himself grew up under the education of Puritans. Using the Puritans' policy of dealing with Puritans can make the rule smoother.

From New England to the south is the Mid-Atlantic colony, also known as the Central Colony. It is different from New England, with good weather and few natural disasters. It is the most provincial place in the American colonies, and it is also the most tolerant place for religions among all colonies. Catholicism, Protestantism and any sect among various religions can exist here, among which Pennsylvania is the most famous, and unlike New England, it is an autonomous colony. The central colony is mainly a royal colony and a owner's colony.

For example, in Pennsylvania, its owner was Earl Penn. In the British-Dutch War, the royal family owed the Pennsylvania family 16,000 pounds. Charles II did not want to pay it back, so he gave him a piece of land the same size as England. The so-called Pennsylvania direct translation is the forest of the Pennsylvania. William Penn was a member of the Quaker Society and advocated religious tolerance. Therefore, a large number of European immigrants came here, not only the British, the Netherlands, Sweden and other countries. At the same time, Pennsylvania was also the best place to have relations with Indians. Sometimes, adult immigrants would go to other places to do business and would directly entrust their children to the Indian neighbors to take care of them. During the empire's rule in North America, in order to attract Indians, it was announced once that the land ruled by the empire was Pennsylvania.

However, because the central colonies were a large-scale area in the early years of Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden, and they repeatedly clashed with the nearby French colonies, the population was the least of the three large colonies. But it was also the fastest-growing one because the land here was fertile and religiously tolerant, and it was the colony that the poor were most willing to come.

The southern colonies represented by Virginia are another situation. In terms of religion, it is the Anglican Church. The religious atmosphere is very conservative. It rejects Catholicism and Puritans, but it is not as serious as the Puritans. It will not control people's lives in all aspects like Puritans. Economically, the southern colonies are relatively single, with planting as the absolute industry. This is a subtropical area, where sugar cane and tobacco can be grown. Therefore, there are a large number of British people here, but a considerable number of these British people are contract slaves, which is completely different from the self-cultivated farmers in the central colonies and the Puritans in New England rejecting slavery.

But even so, the southern colonies still needed a large number of black slaves, and there were nearly 20,000 black slaves in their population of about 90,000.

The southern colonies need a lot of land to grow, and sugarcane and tobacco are crops that consume the fertility of the land, and they need to constantly change land. In order to seize the land, the southern colonies have a bad relationship with the Indians and have many conflicts. Because the crops grown are mainly sold to the UK, and they also need to provide agricultural tools and other supporting facilities for the planting industry, the southern colonies are the most loyal to the UK.

Although the southern colonies can create considerable tax revenue and are relatively easy to control, Li Junwei's plan will not choose there in the early stage. In the southern colonies, not to mention cities, even towns and ports, they are all large farms covered with wilderness. The only port city, Charleston, which can be called a port city, has only a population of 3,000 only for trade gatherings, and the climate is relatively humid and hot, which can easily cause huge non-combat reductions.

The Battle of Boston lasted only an hour and ended hastily. Sir Andros became the unlucky among the seventy-five dead. After seeing the gap in combat effectiveness between the two sides and Li Junwei's very tolerant policy, all the militias in New England gave up on resistance and refused to join Sir Philip's resistance. On the contrary, the Cold Creek Rifle Regiment, which came to the rescue of the British, did not choose to surrender to Fitz James after Andros' death. The reason was that Fitz James asked all these people to believe in Catholicism.

"Fitz James, a fool, was a complete idiot, who actually forced the Lengxi Rifle Group to rebel." Li Su cursed in the city hall. Although the congressmen present could not understand what he said, he guessed from his expression and angry language.

Li Junwei was not surprised. He was not even sure if he knew in advance, he would stop Fitz James. In the past six months, Li Junwei had several correspondences with James II and had a deep understanding of the religious stubbornness of the father and son. James II has been called a man who lost three kingdoms at one mass, but he still firmly believed in Catholicism. This is fine, but he was unwilling to be tolerant of other beliefs, which is just stupid.

Li Junwei reminded: "Okay, Li Su, what do you do in front of so many people? What Fitz James does has nothing to do with you. You go and place the Marines and our Allies immediately. Boston is ours. I don't want soldiers to harass civilians to happen, but I also hope that our soldiers can live in the house tonight. So, you, Governor Richard and several members of Congress to arrange it."

Li Su left angrily and took Richard Cromwell and several congressmen to the office next to him. A large number of congressmen stopped in the conference room and did not leave. These delegates were representatives of the New England colony except Massachusetts and Connecticut. In the past half day, they went to meet the new owner, Fitz James. They felt the religious conservative, serious, economic greed and military tyranny of the new owner. After leaving, they found that their colleagues from Massachusetts and Connecticut were "loved" with the Marines.

The reason is that Li Junwei accepted a series of bureaucratic and political systems, and did not increase taxes. He even asked the Massachusetts Parliament to select militias and Marines to form a law enforcement team to maintain order in Boston. The war had just ended, and there was no curfew in Boston, and only a small number of troops of the Expeditionary Force entered the city.

So representatives of other states had a demand to be incorporated into the imperial colonial system, rather than shifting from being loyal to William III to being loyal to James II.

"Sadly, according to the agreement I reached with King James, the empire will not occupy other places except Massachusetts and Connecticut." After understanding everyone's demands, Li Junwei gave a positive answer.

This made many people feel disappointed, and Li Junwei had heard of what Fitz James did. He realized that if this problem was not solved, the rest of the colonies would not be able to accept the change of dynasties and would definitely resist. Fitz James would send troops to conquer, which would definitely cause chaos in the New England region. At that time, the two colonies of the empire would not be able to survive.

"In this way, I can persuade Fitz James to hand over all the governance rights of the New England region to Mr. Cromwell, that is, Mr. Cromwell serves as the governor of the New England region, but in the colonies, the policy of implementing is decided by His Excellency Fitz James, and I will persuade him to be religious tolerant and trade freedom. But I cannot let him agree to your requests in taxation and garrison. After all, His Excellency Fitz James is our Allies rather than subordinates." Li Junwei thought about it again and again and told everyone.

He believed that Fitz James would agree, because he still had to go south to conquer and needed the support of the Expeditionary Force, not to mention that the Irish regiment's military expenditure and material supplies were still held in the hands of the Expeditionary Force. The members of the parliament knew that this was the best result. Most of them were merchants, and they were born with weakness in the face of force. Accepting Li Junwei's proposal was to spend money to buy security and freedom. Although it was not as good as the imperial colonies, it was still a rare policy.

The Expeditionary Force rested in Boston for ten days. During this period, Fitz James sent troops to take over other New England colonies. After the second batch of reinforcements from Cape Verde arrived, the coalition began to march south. Fitz James and Belinsky's Cossack went south by land, Zelenko's Irish regiment strengthened the naval fleet and went south by sea.

The Marines and some Irish regiments stayed in Boston, and Li Junwei did three things.

First, negotiate with the French and end the colonial war. Britain had a population of more than 200,000 in North America, while the French had less than 50,000 in terms of force. This was also the second thing that Li Junwei did, and he used the attitude of a boy who was scattered money to win over Indian tribes, demarcate borders, and sign treaties. The last thing was to send Major Church to occupy Newfoundland Island as a British army, and then the expeditionary fleet attacked it, successfully drove away the French on Newfoundland Island, and occupied this island that was barren, bitter and cold, but rich in fishery resources.

But unexpectedly, Li Junwei did not declare the definition of the North American colony of the Empire as an official identity. You should know that there are many overseas colonies of the Empire, mainly corporate colonies, with the vast area belonging to the African Development Company. In addition, there are national colonies, the largest area is Argentina, Chile and other places annexed during the American War. Only Yizhou, Nangang is an imperial city, and the rest are all colonies. At first, it was managed by the Army Expeditionary Force Command, and then gradually handed over to Cape Town for management.
Chapter completed!