On one hand, with our tech, you could have a pretty fuel efficient and fast Model T.
On the other hand, the Model T is kinda crappy in almost every other sense. Sure it could have good mileage, but it would also have no airbags and be less-comfortable than my 2009 Honda Civic.
Though in all likelihood, there will be some compromise in between with any new designs, with the engine, safety features, and better mileage of our time while maximizing affordability and practicality.
Not to mention that Downtimers might not even want something with all the bells and whistles like what we have.
On one hand, with our tech, you could have a pretty fuel efficient and fast Model T.
On the other hand, the Model T is kinda crappy in almost every other sense. Sure it could have good mileage, but it would also have no airbags and be less-comfortable than my 2009 Honda Civic.
Though in all likelihood, there will be some compromise in between with any new designs, with the engine, safety features, and better mileage of our time while maximizing affordability and practicality.
Not to mention that Downtimers might not even want something with all the bells and whistles like what we have.
On a tangent, what's fast food up to? Taiwan may have teleported to the past, but what about all the KFC joints that came with it? I understand they're very popular in east asia, especially in China and Japan, but they must also have a foothold in Taiwan...also, someone mentioned Pizza and such.
Actually, given that, are hot dogs a thing yet? Or french fries? Also, Philip Kotler won't be born for another 20-odd years, so China has literally got a one-up on modern marketing techniques on everyone too.
Judaism is a small religion in China and even Buddhism has more adherents in China than Judaism does which would make the conspiracy theories fall flat.
Judaism is a small religion in China and even Buddhism has more adherents in China than Judaism does which would make the conspiracy theories fall flat.
You would think that…
You might certainly think that…
But conspiracy theories are rarely even remotely based in reality. He'd probably just claim that they're all 'hiding their jewishness' or something.
You would think that…
You might certainly think that…
But conspiracy theories are rarely even remotely based in reality. He'd probably just claim that they're all 'hiding their jewishness' or something.
"Well, I can tell you one thing. This is unlike any car I've ever seen."
That was probably not what Horace Dodge had in mind when he first unveiled it, but the man had a point.
This car truly was nothing like any of them had ever seen.
Sure enough, it looked like some sort of chimera made of three Chinese cars: a military truck, a jeep, and a sedan.
"This is our basic model," he said, just like the wholesaler had told him. "It gets thirty miles per gallon, and it can easily go to sixty miles per hour."
"The Model T can get similar mileage," said the potential customer, "And parts are easier to come by."
"The Ford Model T is held together with safety pins and wire," his brother John pointed out, "And it's twenty dollars more expensive."
That, of all things, was what Horace found the funniest.
With how cheap good Chinese steel was, they could literally build all the parts in China, ship it to America to be manufactured, and it would still be cheaper than anything that asshole Ford could sell.
That, and the new tariffs didn't apply to vehicles assembled in the States.
"So you're trying to sell me more automobile, for less money?"
"That's the name of the game. So, can I write you down as a 'Maybe?'"
"Mark me down as a probably," the man told them, "I'll need to run it by my boss. He still thinks it's too good to be true."
"Seeing is believing, my friend," John told the sales representative. "We do have a model out back that he can test drive, if he is interested."
Ford Headquarters, Dearborn, Michigan
"Goddammit!" Henry Ford shouted, throwing the report at the wall. "That is the second straight quarter of losses this year!"
When he first heard about the modernizing Chinese, he saw a golden opportunity. Even if it was a backwater, there had to be at least some people who wanted to buy a Model T.
Five years later, and he could count the number of Model Ts sold there on his hand.
When it was balled into a fist.
If anything, the Chinese were now his biggest competition. Ever since they introduced their new series of cars and trucks built with the "Modular Vehicle Frame," his sales had gone down.
How could he compete with a car that was safer, more fuel-efficient, and cheaper than what he was selling.
Of course, he had hoped that the San Francisco Agreement would have given him some breathing room. After all, this allowed the Federal Government to raise tariffs on Chinese-made products.
And it did give him a little more breathing room, now that the price went up forty dollars.
But did that truly help him? No!
Instead, those Chinese businessmen decided to partner with the Dodge Brothers and release the vehicles under their own brand!
Even worse was the fact that those Chinese Dodges were still twenty dollars cheaper than his most affordable model!
That, of all things, was what had exasperated him the most. Ford was an innovator, a master of the production line and vertical integration.
Yet for all of that, the Chinese had beaten him at his own game!
In 1914, his company produced more cars than the entirety of the competition. Combined.
But now? Now, Ford was playing second-fiddle to those upstarts at Dodge, and he was barely breaking even.
Between the lost sales to Dodge and now needing to actually pay for advertising, Ford's revenue (and by extension the stock price) had plummeted.
Was he still wealthy? Yes.
Influential? Also yes.
But right now, he needed to do something, if he wanted to make back lost ground.
But with Dodge now building their own supply chain in America, using the same methods he had once pioneered, Henry Ford didn't know what to do.
"A bicycle?" the elder brother asked as sarcastically as he could. "No, never thought I could when they're all over the damn place, ever since the KMT started handing them out like candy."
Actually, the Catholic Church is going to go through a lot of upheaval, once all the crap they do gets out.
Which, on one hand, they could try to deflect, but the whole "Using white women as slave labor" and "Covering up child abuse" is going to be a bigger PR disaster than anything.
Actually, the Catholic Church is going to go through a lot of upheaval, once all the crap they do gets out.
Which, on one hand, they could try to deflect, but the whole "Using white women as slave labor" and "Covering up child abuse" is going to be a bigger PR disaster than anything.
Yeahhhh…when people think they have imperative from god they can achieve amazing things. Unfortunately the more ingrained the institution, the higher the relative probability those things will be amazingly BAD.
On a fresh tangent: will there be a push against certain kinds of big game hunting? I'm curious what Teddy's reaction would be to learning about the uses of Bison in regreening the Plains and improving America's breadbasket. For that matter, work could be done to keep a lot of species from being hunted half to oblivion.
As far as Catholic priests in Taiwan went, Father Christopher de las Casas was one of the more prominent ones.
That said, he earned that position by default. The Catholic population of Taiwan consisted of something like one church and whoever was stuck on the island during the Great Journey.
But outside of Taiwan? There were entire chunks of continents, from Latin America to Europe to Africa, that shared his religion, which would provide some sort of solace on a rainy day like this.
This, however, was not one of those days.
While the rain poured down on the city, he was in his office with one of his former students, now a history professor at NTU.
Cassandra "Cara" McDonald was a smart enough young woman, an engaged student who had listened intently to his lectures at Santa Clara. So it was no surprise she followed him for a semester abroad doing missionary work.
And when the Great Journey happened, it had hit her hard.
Though to be fair, it hit the Fr. Christopher hard, along with the rest of the students. But Cara was practically catatonic for a month after it all.
"Why did this have to happen?" she had asked him. "If God has a plan for us, then what is it? Why did he take me away from my family?!"
"I don't know," he had told his protege. "I wish I could tell you something, Cara, but I don't want to lie to you. But right now, the most we can do is what good we can, for as long as we can."
And so she did. The Jesuit watched as his student was immersed in her work, be it volunteering, Project Capsule, or teaching. That last one, of course, was how she ended up with her job as a researcher.
But that wasn't why she was here. Not exactly.
See, as part of her obligations to Project Capsule, she had compiled submitted countless documents regarding the Catholic Church in the future. Religious history had been an interest of hers, to say the least.
Though "interest" might be a bit mild when one realized she'd written at least two theses on the subject.
But in that time, she had noticed something. For all of the research she did on the church, she kept noticing a disturbing pattern.
There were abuses, of course. An institution like the Catholic Church was hardly without sin, despite their insistence otherwise.
Kinda hard to do that when you have literally billions of members over the years. As least somebody's going to be an asshole.
But what struck out to her the most was the fact that those abuses were happening. Right now.
So she did what she did best and immersed herself in her research again. Not for Project Capsule or her own work as a professor, but a personal mission.
"The world needs to know about this," she had told him a year ago, "I just... I just need somebody to talk to about this. If it's a good idea, you know?"
You knew what I'm going to say, Cara. You're talking to a Catholic priest with anarchist sympathies who promotes Liberation Theology. What did you think I was going to say?
So he said yes. Of course he was going to say yes. To do otherwise would be outright lying to people.
Sure, some people could argue that it technically wasn't lying, since it was omission, but he had had enough of Catholics using technicalities to get out of doing the right thing when one of his students turned out to be a devout Christian... and a massive racist.
And so she spent the next year writing it all and getting it published.
It wasn't too hard, of course. There were plenty of publishers who had nothing better to publish besides pamphlets, so a quick run on history books was something they couldn't afford to pass up.
Come last month, Do Not Look Away was released to the public. First in America, then the rest of the English-speaking world.
After that came the translations, and it kept going and going around the world, much to their mutual surprise.
It showed everything, from the child abuse, to the corruption, the the Magdalene Laundries, and so, so much more.
No atrocity was spared, nor were there any details avoided. The abuses were written with vivid details, and they were always paired with firsthand testimony from the survivors in their time.
All the better to know the horrors of it all.
The reception, though? It was mixed.
Academically speaking, it was well received by many a professor and writer. Upton Sinclair himself had nothing but praises for her.
But there were others who were not happy with her. Be it Catholic conservatives in the clergy or the laity, they decried her as a liar and an atheist. One who had a vendetta against the church.
Truth be told, her Jesuit mentor didn't know if it was out of ignorance, fanaticism, or simply cynical lust to maintain power.
What he did know, however, was that she had parried the attacks well enough. For every claim of ill-intent, she had one response:
"Go there. See for yourself if I am lying."
A few months later, and there were more than enough investigations and articles that had vindicated her claims about the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church, of course, was in full "Damage Control" mode. Bishops and priests were addressing the issues in the sermons, with many of them attempting to downplay the severity of it all.
But that was not why she had come to his office today.
No, it was the letter with the seal from Pope Benedict XV himself, asking her to come to Rome.
"Do I go?" she asked him, finally breaking the silence.
"Do you want to, Cara?"
"I don't know. What if he tries to excommunicate me?"
"I don't think that he would," said her mentor. He looked at her with all the sincerity he could muster. "If he was going to do that, he would have already."
"So why's he inviting me there?"
"I don't know. Discussions? Consultations? It could be anything."
"Great."
"It's your choice, Cara. If you don't want to go, I'm not going to hold it against you."
"Isn't that against your vows?" she asked with a tired laugh. "What was it? Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience?"
"Maybe. But I'm not the one being summoned." From the annoyed look she gave him, this wasn't the right time for humor. "But no matter what happens, you'll always have my support."
"Good to know... Wait, what happens if I do get excommunicated?"
"Then I would probably follow you out the door."
"You'd do that?" She couldn't believe it, or at least she sounded like she couldn't. "What about the Vow of Obedience?"
"I'm pretty sure Jesus would cool with me disagreeing with the Pope if he protects child abusers and slavery," the old Jesuit chuckled. "Besides, the saying is 'Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam,' not, 'Ad Maiorem Pontifex Gloriam.'"
Yeahhhh…when people think they have imperative from god they can achieve amazing things. Unfortunately the more ingrained the institution, the higher the relative probability those things will be amazingly BAD.
On a fresh tangent: will there be a push against certain kinds of big game hunting? I'm curious what Teddy's reaction would be to learning about the uses of Bison in regreening the Plains and improving America's breadbasket. For that matter, work could be done to keep a lot of species from being hunted half to oblivion.
Also, I could see Teddy being open to protecting endangered species, especially if one can tie it to conservation efforts. Sure, he probably sees hunting as a fine and honest thing to do, but I doubt the man wants anything to go extinct.
Actually, there is an interesting phenomenon where hunters can be (emphasis on "can") very much in favor of protecting endangered species.
If for nothing else than wanting to have more things to shoot.
Yup. I think Barry Goldwater once said that people with power who think they have a mandate from God scared the crap out of him.
Also, I could see Teddy being open to protecting endangered species, especially if one can tie it to conservation efforts. Sure, he probably sees hunting as a fine and honest thing to do, but I doubt the man wants anything to go extinct.
Actually, there is an interesting phenomenon where hunters can be (emphasis on "can") very much in favor of protecting endangered species.
If for nothing else than wanting to have more things to shoot.
I mean, my relatives helped promote conservation for crab fishing out here on the west coast back during this very era we're discussing because it was good for business. Too much fishing means too little crab for next year and all that. Of course, that was before regulatory capture turned it into a race to the bottom…
I mean, my relatives helped promote conservation for crab fishing out here on the west coast back during this very era we're discussing because it was good for business.
Practicality is a pretty good motivator in general, and that will likely influence a lot of policymakers.
Same with the climate issue. I could see agricultural interests supporting environmentalism if it means stable growing seasons and reliable water supplies.
At this point in time, AH has a massive population of Jews in the Cisleithan half of the empire, with Jews afforded full rights of citizenship and no restrictions of any kind. So they will probably be the main target.
For poles and Ukrainians and such, the kingdom of Galicia & Lodomeria - the Austrian cut of the Partition of the PLC - already has significant populations of both, making them more attractive than Germany with its Kulturkampf and colonizing of Polish land with German people.
Submachine guns are also likely to be developed within the decade. Of course, a lack of military necessity might mean that development gets delayed, but the MP-18 was invented around this time.
You can't mechanize sugar cane harvest without killing the plant, and the entire point of the cane is that it grows back. But you can mechanize sugar beets, hence why it's the much more common sugar.
MIB Section 5 Headquarters, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, Republic of China, 8 July 1917
In the last half decade, Director Martin Li had earned his fair share of odds and ends. And like most people with an office, he'd used them to decorate his office.
Be it katanas, medals, captured flags, letters from American presidents, or that tank shell Mike had given him as an ash tray (despite the fact that neither of them smoked), they all adorned his office. Every single one of them told a story,
But today was not a day for stories. Not when he had to read countless reports about what was going on around the world.
First was Chile, where the Haber-Bosch process meant the nitrate market practically cratered overnight, and with it, the Chilean economy and government. Riots broke out in the streets as the countless unemployed marched with those demanding universal suffrage. With their presence in Santiago, the Chilean government had no choice but to enact voting reforms and hold snap elections to prevent an all-out civil war.
Still, there was some glimmer of hope. While nitrates had cratered, the demand for copper had skyrocketed, leading to a few Islanders approaching the new Radical-led government with generous investment offers that the Chileans literally could not refuse.
All things considered, things were actually calming down. It would take time for copper to truly replace the nitrates-sized hole in their budget, but at least Chile wasn't on the verge on financial collapse. In fact, the first Chilean shipment had arrived earlier this year.
In contrast, Colombia and Venezuela were just getting started with their riots.
Colombia's Conservative government under Concha had followed in Restrepo's footsteps with his conflict with the Catholic church. In doing so, he had found unlikely allies with the more-secular Liberals, just as his predecessor had done.
That all changed when Do Not Look Away released. While the Catholic Church was always a force to be reckoned with, there were many Colombians who were outright furious with what they had seen.
Honestly, I'd be more upset if they weren't pissed off about all the modern slavery, abuse, and corruption going on in the Church. Christ.
No wonder I never show up when it isn't Easter or Christmas.
So right now, Bogota was on fire. Angry citizens marches around the town demanding answers from the local clergy and the bishops about just what the hell was going on in the Church.
The clergy did come up with a response, as priests often do, but it was unsatisfactory, to say the least. Martin knew the Church could handle a trickle of scandal by smothering it and transferring the priest. After all, that was what they did in his time.
But this, all at once? It hit the local church like a freight train, along with their Conservative allies.
At least Bogota is "only" rioting. Caracas is about to tear itself apart!
Now, information was spotty, to say the least. Sure, the RoC had an embassy over there, and that embassy could communicate with Nanjing via satellite.
But from what little he could gather, the embassy was locked down, save for the refugees running through the front door.
As for the rest of Venezuela, he knew even less.
Apparently General Juan Vicente Gomez is dead? Okay, he isn't the President anymore, but the current guy is his puppet, and we have no idea where he is, right now.
Revolutionaries are more promising, though. More liberal and democratic than the last guy, anyways.
Who am I kidding? The last guy's a fucking dictator who the revolutionaries claimed would "Sell the country out to Royal Dutch Shell!"
Note to Self: Emphasize not screwing over the locals when writing analyses reports that go up the chain.
But for all the craziness going on over there, it paled in comparison to what rumors he had heard of in Brazil. Because if his ears were to be believed, there was now a Brazilian Tongmenghui that formed in secret.
Now, a secret society meant that it was, well, secret. But at the same time, Brazil having their own version of the organization he'd fought with was not what he had on his 1917 Bingo Card.
Moreover, they were a complete enigma. Sure, if they were going to follow the Tongmenghui's example, then there was a pretty good chance that they would be progressive and liberal enough for China's liking.
That said, he truly didn't know. Even his analysts hadn't been able to dig up anything on them, what with the latter being a secret society bent on overthrowing the Coffee Milk Politics.
Li sighed and shook his head.
Somehow, Argentina having a vibrant labor rights movement was the thing he was happiest about, since at least that country wasn't on fire. Just slowly turning into the France of South America.
The phone ringing told him that this was enough about South America for now. He could follow up on the Russian and Qing arms showing up in Mexico later.
Right now, he had yet another report he needed to review.
"Line's secure," he said through the speaker phone. "You can start talking."
"Understood, sir-"
"Aki," Li shook his head again, "When it's just the two of us talking, you don't have to be all formal with me."
Plus, being called "Sir" all the time still feels weird. How the hell does Mike do this?
"Alright, Marty," she breathed. The analyst-turned-de-facto-field agent had been stuck in Indochina for the last few weeks while the Foreign Legion, Paris, and Phan's people were all trying to figure out just who was trying to burn down the Free Schools. "I looked into that issue with Le, just as you asked."
"Anything good, Aki?"
"There does not seem to be much. The attackers were local thugs hired by a middle-man. Problem is, finding him and his bosses is easier said than done."
"Aki, we're a little spread thin right now, so you're what we have until we can get more Indochinese agents in the field to capture this HVI."
"Oh, him? We got him."
"You what-"
"Yes. It turns out that Le is very good at tracking people down. Coupled with Agent Fong's assistance, and we have been able to track down and arrest one of these middlemen."
"Huh." Honestly, Li wasn't sure what to make of that, but he wasn't about to complain. "So, any trouble on your end? I can't imagine the French are too cooperative with you."
"Oddly enough, no. The Governor General had to step in, of course, but the local authorities allowed us to assist in the interrogation. There is one problem, though."
"How bad are we talking, Aki?"
"The UCIC."
"The what?" Li frantically looked through his computer's database to figure out just what was going on. "Aki, that's a company."
"It is, but the middleman we captured has ties to them. Apparently, he's a 'Fixer' of some kind."
"And you have testimony of this? Will he stand trial?"
"That's the weirder part, Marty. The man is dead."
"What? I thought he was in protective custody."
"He was. It seems that was not a problem for his murderer, though."
Okay, it's colonial police. These guys aren't exactly the most diligent.
Then again, it's not like these guys like Paris any more than the UCIC does. Wait... There's no way-
"Aki, who knows about this?"
"Besides us and Phan's organization?"
"Yeah."
"There are a few constables, but nothing much. They might be compromised, though."
"It's possible," Li figured, "But we don't know for sure. So, where does that leave us?"
"One dead prisoner, a colonial police full of potentially-corrupt cops, and a corporation that might be actively trying to sabotage Paris' plans for Indochina."
"Great..." He could practically taste the sardonic words come off his tongue. "And a dead witness who can't testify."
"We have the footage, Li. It should be in the archives."
Yeah, I don't think the UCIC or whoever the hell is trying to burn schools down thought of this one.
"Alright. So, anything else I should know?"
"Nothing much. Perhaps the need for more Indochinese agents? But other than that, I have nothing else to report."
"I see... Oh, before I forget, Mike told me to tell you he said hi."
"Marty, he called me last night."
Christ, Mike won't stop asking me about her. I mean, I get that she's his wife and this position puts her in some danger, but Aki's a smart woman.
"Yeah, I know. He worries about you."
"...He's bored, isn't he?"
"Yup."
There's only so much baseball you can watch before you get bored.
Ulsan Harbor, Ulsan, Republic of Korea, 11 September 1917
Park Jae-Hyun knew full well that he was not qualified for the job when he started, but in his defense, he was probably the most-qualified man in Korea for the job.
In his defense, he was a quick learner... Even if his lesson was that as Minister of Defense, he was just as much a politician as he was a soldier.
That said, his job was also easy on some days.
Today was one of those days, now that he was sitting at the opening of a new drydock. Apparently it was the first of its kind outside of China.
It wasn't too surprising, now that he thought about it. There was only so much space for drydocks on the Chinese coast, and they were building their fair share as fast as they could with modern equipment.
So when the Korean government offered Ulsan Harbor as a potential shipbuilding site, Nanjing had been more than open about it.
After all, Korea needed to do something about the trade imbalance with the Chinese, and if that meant manufacturing Chinese products on the cheap and building even more of the modern ships that the world kept demanding, then so be it.
Washington Naval Yard, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America, 7 October 1917
Colonel Smedley Butler had a lot of time to think these last few years. While there was always training to be done and correspondences with his Chinese counterparts to be written, he had more than enough time to himself.
Today, however, was not one of those days. As he and his men were demonstrating the M1916 Browning Automatic Rifle to the assembled brass and politicians.
The M1916, of course, was based on the Chinese rifles that had been gifted to the United States a few years ago. Once the handshakes were finished and the goodbyes were said, the rifles were whisked across the country via train and brought to Washington. There, Butler and his men would be testing the rifles while one John Browning reverse-engineered it into something they could produce en masse.
What they ended up with, however, was basically a cheaper, lower-technology version of the rifle. From the looks of it, the only thing that had changed was, in fact, the wooden furniture that replaced the plastic on the handguard, grip, and stock. Everything else, from the inner workings to even the ammunition, was more or less the same from what they had seen before.
That isn't to say that Browning couldn't make a rifle that could file .30-06 Springfield. The man had made a prototype, and Butler even test-fired it.
He hated it. His men hated it even more, now that he thought about it.
"Damn thing kicks like a mule," one of his soldiers told him.
"The .223's better at getting more accurate shots," said another. "Even if it's a smaller bullet, you ain't gettin' up if you get shot by that."
It was contentious, of course. .30-06 was the cartridge of the American soldier, and they wanted to abandon it entirely?
Even Roosevelt, a man who seemed to wholeheartedly embraced the future, was a bit hesitant.
It was only when somebody pointed out that soldiers could also fire it in full-auto that the White House relented. After all, who could say no to a lightweight and reliable automatic rifle?
Now, all that remained was Congress, and Butler knew enough about politics from his father to know just what to do for the crowd.
"I hold in my hands," he began for the crowd of politicians and generals, "The future of the American infantryman. After years of testing and providing feedback to Mr. Browning, I can say for sure that this is better than any rifle made in Berlin, Britain, or Bordeaux..."
And at this time you can also help nip the bud of some problematic practices that will happen in near future like certain 'criminal family' and corporation here, like the case with the one who produce diamond. Funny that it one of the most common and easy to create gems that end up being the most expensive due to artificial scarcity + crap tons of advertise that turn into culture that we know nowaday.
Second idea is that since mental health is still not developed much in this era, Taiwan could help solve lot of problem/common sickness or even some outright wrong practice related to this field here.
Btw have you check this two channel ?, could help give more idea for what bad early problem that could be nip in the bud early on:
+ "If Recycling Were Honest | Honest Ads" (he also make some video topic like meat/milk industry)
+ "Honest Government Ad | Visit Hawai'i!" (this also help know the early problem to research on history better, like the case with Hawai'i here)
