The late Qing dynasty has been tottering in the wind and rain! Why did Kang Youwei propose to colonize Brazil?

Since the Opium War, the riddled Qing "aircraft carrier" has been moving slowly in the ocean of history. Western powers opened the door of the Qing Dynasty with their ships and guns. With the inflow of western artifacts, new ideas and concepts from Europe and the United States have gradually entered China's field of vision.

In the late Qing Dynasty, the imperial court was unable to put out the peasant uprising in China and resist the unreasonable demands of foreign powers. A group of advanced scholar-officials have emerged, and they are reformists. The core figure is Kang Youwei. Looking back at history, we find that Kang Youwei was not only a famous politician in the late Qing Dynasty, but also invested a lot abroad. Many China banks in Mexico and Brazil hold shares in Kang Youwei. Before and after the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, Kang Youwei was also worried about the situation that overcrowding caused many hungry people at that time. What if there are too many hungry people and there is not enough land? Kang Youwei had a bold idea. What is this idea? So far, many historians have been thinking deeply.

According to historical records, China's population reached 400 million during Guangxu period, which was completely regarded as a superpower in the world. However, although the population in the late Qing Dynasty was large, the population quality could not keep up. Too many people are not strength, but sometimes they are a burden. At that time, the level of economic development in the late Qing Dynasty was still very low, and the productivity could not meet the requirements of feeding 400 million people, which inevitably led to many people without food. What should these people do without food? Many people naturally rose up against the rule of the Qing Dynasty. Kang Youwei is also a person who has read books. He could naturally see that the biggest problem facing the Qing Dynasty at that time was the problem of hungry people.

At that time, there was no concept of family planning, so how should these people who are constantly born be placed? Kang Youwei put forward a bold idea, that is, to find a colony and learn from the western powers who immigrated from the mainland to the colony. Over time, it will inevitably form a powerful force in the local area and eventually become a colony.

We refer to the literature left by Kang Youwei in his early days, and we can see that Kang Youwei did have the idea of colonial immigration at this time. For example, 1888, Kang Youwei mentioned the plan of "resettlement and reclamation". Original content: As for where to move, Kang Youwei has no clear answer at this time: "Today, our people are poor, the most wandering, and slaves of beauty, but they are still not allowed to be expelled." Hundreds of people are unemployed, how to resettle them? "Visible, already had the idea of colonization, now have the courage to report to the emperor.

So, is Kang Youwei just talking? No, Kang Youwei really went to inspect and look around the world to see where it was suitable to be a colony of the Qing Dynasty. After textual research, Kang Youwei thinks Brazil is the most suitable country. On the one hand, we know that the longitude and latitude of Brazil are the same as those of China. On the other hand, Brazil is a vast country with the Amazon River, which is comparable to the Yangtze River in China. The land there is very fertile and suitable for immigrants.

Kang Youwei's plan to colonize Brazil was also related to Brazil's recruitment of workers in China at that time. If large-scale immigration to Brazil can be carried out, then Chinese will inevitably form powerful forces in the local area, and these forces will become Depth Charge who colonized Brazil in the Qing Dynasty.

However, history often does not give everyone a chance. So why did Kang Youwei's great plan to colonize Brazil fail? Let's take a look at the world situation at that time: the late Qing Dynasty was devastated by the peasant uprising, and there was nothing we could do to knock down four legs with one punch in the face of the partition frenzy of the great powers. At this time, Kang Youwei's plan to colonize Brazil was tantamount to wishful thinking, and it was difficult to put it into practice. In addition, the Qing dynasty was not good at sea fighting, and Brazil was too far from Asia. How to send a large number of Qing troops to Brazil is also a difficult problem, so the plan inevitably failed.