Chapter 873 South America (5)

boom!

The heavily armed German Marines kicked open a door, and a pungent smell of alcohol hit their faces. They saw empty wine bottles everywhere in the not-so-clean room, and a man with white hair sitting dejectedly. In the corner, there was still half a bottle of wine in his hand, staring at the ground with empty eyes. Even if someone came in, he was not interested in looking up. He looked like an unwanted sculpture by an artist, thrown in the corner. He withered alone.

A German captain stepped forward, took out a photo from his pocket, compared it with the people on the ground a few times, and nodded. "That's him, get him out!"

Two soldiers stepped forward and dragged de Gaulle out like a dead dog.

The German army wiped out the remnants of Charles de Gaulle's forces in French Guyana with a thunderous force. By the way, it frightened the British Guyana and Dutch Guyana who were just around the corner. It also made other countries in South America uneasy, fearing that they would be targeted by Germany one day. superior.

However, some countries see another opportunity, such as Peru in South America.

The Peruvian ambassador to Germany eagerly approached Ribbentrop and talked about the long-standing and profound friendship between the two countries. This friendship also originated with Alexander von Humboldt. He was in Peru at the time. In addition to some scientific research, he also made Europeans aware of the Peruvian specialty at that time, "guano". This was not a code name or another name, it was the real excrement of birds.

Near Peru, due to the combined effect of monsoons and Coriolis force, the surface seawater flows westward. This displacement of seawater causes the rich nutrients in the lower seawater to rise to the surface. This area becomes a feeding ground for anchovies and tuna. As a result, the sea area has become one of the world's famous fishing grounds, attracting a large number of seabirds. The number of seabirds is rare in the world's oceans. The inaccessible coastal islands have become a paradise for birds and a public toilet for them.

Among them, the Chincha Islands have a density of 2.2 million birds per square kilometer. They eat a lot of fish and shrimps and excrete a lot of feces. Due to the cold current, the coastal islands are dry and rainless all year round, and the bird feces pile up higher and higher. Piles piled up. No one knows how many years it has been piled up. After all, birds appeared on the earth earlier than humans. At the bottom of the guano mountain on "Guano Island", there may be excrement of prehistoric pterosaurs.

At that time, Europeans did not understand the use of manure and could only maintain soil fertility through crop rotation. As a result, during his inspection in Peru, Humboldt discovered that the local aborigines used guano to fertilize and the yields were very high. He wrote this discovery in a book and brought it back to Europe.

As a result, Peruvian guano, which had accumulated over thousands of years, suddenly became a hot seller. Tons and tons of guano were packaged and shipped from various coastal islands in Peru, and were continuously shipped to Europe, bringing back the same steady stream of wealth. . From 1840 to 1880, a 40-year period was Peru's glorious "Guano Era".

The book "History of Peru" written by Cristina Hoonfeldt writes: "In 40 years, Peru exported approximately 10.8 million metric tons of guano at an average price of 10 pounds per ton. During these 40 years, Peru exported from guano Earning approximately 100 million pounds from the guano trade, Peru became one of the richest countries in Latin America." "With the income from the guano trade, Peru became one of the most militarily powerful countries in South America and the One of the first countries on the continent to possess armored steamships, for example, in 1866, the Peruvian navy was powerful enough to defeat a Spanish fleet that invaded the port of Callao."

Later, the guano resources that had been squandered for forty years finally became exhausted. At this time, the Peruvians discovered rich deposits of guano and saltpeter in the central and northern Atacama Desert. Unfortunately, the Atacama Desert does not belong to the country of Peru. It is located at the junction of Bolivia, Chile and Peru, and its ownership was never clearly defined during Spanish colonial rule. After the independence of the three countries, Bolivia occupied the Antofagasta region in the central part of the Atacama Desert, Peru occupied the Tarapacá region in the northern part of the desert, and Chile obtained the southern part of the desert. All three countries claim sovereignty over the desert area.

In order to compete for guano, Peru and Bolivia teamed up to attack Chile, and Chile quickly gained control of the sea and took the initiative. The outcome of the war was a disastrous defeat in Peru, the resignation of the president, and civil strife in the country. Bolivia was even worse. In addition to the above phenomena, it also lost its outlet to the sea. Of course, Chile was not so lucky. Just a few years after its victory, Europe invented chemical fertilizers and no longer needed bird droppings. The three countries were dumbfounded.

The war was over and the relationship was forged; Livia lost its outlet to the sea and became a landlocked country, making Peru and Chile directly bordering each other. Over the years, minor conflicts between the two countries have continued due to territorial issues. The Peruvian ambassador came here because he wanted to buy some weapons and equipment from Germany.

"Of course, no problem." Ribbentrop nodded happily. Because the German army's weapons are being updated rapidly, there are a lot of retired weapons, and they are trying to find ways to get rid of these weapons. "You can have as much money as you want. But we don't accept currencies from other countries. After all, in such a turbulent era now, when that country disappears, their currency will become a pile of waste paper, right? It's best to use "Barter."

The Secretary Ambassador looked a little embarrassed. "Then what does your country want?"

“Don’t your country have oil resources?”

A few years ago, Peru and Ecuador discovered oil in the upper Amazon, an area that both countries claim sovereignty over. Resources are not easy to deal with, and the only solution is to fight. This time, the Peruvians learned their lesson and were determined to find a reliable backer, and found the Americans. After all, the war had not yet broken out in Europe, and they could not hug the Germans' thighs.

With the help of the United States, it took less than 20 days for Peru to occupy all disputed territories and even entered Ecuador.

At this time, the American big brother, the mastermind behind the scenes, came out to mediate. Peru and Ecuador signed the so-called "Bilateral Agreement of Peace and Friendship" in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Ecuador lost part of the western El Oro Province and most of the territory of the eastern Amazon River Basin, and was deprived of the right to co-manage the Amazon River.

The mediation fee charged by the United States is also very high: although the land ceded by Ecuador to Peru belongs to Peru, the exploitation rights of the oil fields were given to the American oil monopoly organization OXY.

"Those Americans are still mining your country's oil? You can get rid of them. Other minerals besides oil are also fine." In addition to oil, Peru is rich in mining resources, with the world's second largest copper production, second largest zinc production, third largest tin production, and sixth largest gold production.

"The price we offer is definitely much better than those greedy Americans, and we can also provide the most advanced mining and processing equipment."