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In fact, the Qing Dynasty also had a period of time when Western culture was still acceptable, and during the prosperous period of the Kangqian Dynasty, many Westerners entered the court to serve, and naturally many people went abroad to seek development.
Looking at overseas markets, there are not many people who want to seek a way to get rich abroad, but it is not easy to stay in the local area and achieve good development, after all, the language and culture are not the same.
But there is one person, he does not have a strong background, but after going abroad, he not only gained a firm foothold, but also closely linked the local Chinese, and even created a republic with an area of more than 20 Taiwan.
What kind of man founded a republic abroad, and where is this place?
The Hakka people established their own country overseas
During the Qianlong period, the attitude of the Qing government at that time towards foreign culture was still acceptable and absorbed, and news from abroad often spread to China.
At that time, some people claimed that they had discovered gold mines abroad, which attracted a large number of people to pan for gold and break through, including a Hakka family named Luo Fangbo.
Luo Fangbo is the eldest in the family, full of poetry and books, at that time, the ten-year cold window was to be able to gain fame and glory to the ancestors.
But it backfired, and until the age of 34, Luo Fangbo still failed on the list, just a down-and-out candidate who had never met talent.
Luo Fangbo didn't want to be mediocre for the rest of his life, when he learned that gold mines had been discovered abroad, and many people had already gone to mine with their families, he knew that his opportunity had come.
However, Luo Fangbo is a scholar, he did not go abroad to dig gold mines, he knew that those people, whether they dug gold mines or not, were outsiders in the local area, and it was not a simple matter to integrate into them, and it was almost impossible for their children to go to school with local children.
So Luo Fangbo decided to try his luck abroad, and overseas, far from home, Luo Fangbo became a teacher, and the children here trusted him very much and talked to him about everything.
Being a teacher here is very different from in China in that they do not study to gain fame, so the process of learning Xi is purer and happier.
The classroom is always full of children's laughter, the teachers are not sour, the students are naturally not nerds, and the walls are hung with the children's imagination of their hometown and their vision for the future.
Luo Fangbo taught the children the great principles he had Xi from primary school, and also taught them how to live, how to be kind to others, and how to make their future living environment better.
Over time, Luo Fangbo became a very influential gentleman in the local Chinese circle, not only as a teacher for the children, but also as a trusted person for the villagers, with the same meaning as the leader's existence.
Looking at the Chinese in the village, he hopes that he can do more, just change their concepts, let them understand that it is not enough to be a human being, if you want to really establish yourself here, you must have economic status.
Luo Fangbo changed his career, he took out all the savings he had saved as a teacher and started a gold mining company called Lan Fang.
But at the beginning of the establishment of the company, there was nothing, so he went to the Chinese village to recruit, because the Chinese people trusted him before, and the recruitment work went very smoothly.
He recruited many skilled and hard-working employees, these people are the biggest motivation for the company to start, Luo Fangbo assured all Chinese at that time that Lanfang will become the pride of the Chinese.
With Luo Fangbo's leadership, the life of the local Chinese is getting better and better, from needing to see other people's faces to being able to raise their eyebrows, all thanks to Lanfang Company.
The company is getting bigger and bigger, and Lanfang Company has almost all the Chinese people together, and Luo Fangbo is not interested in the economic benefits brought by the company, but the social responsibility that the company can assume.
In order to solve this problem, Luo Fangbo organized the "Fellow Villagers Association" and united with the local tribes and natives to eliminate the bandits and pirates.
Because of his outstanding ability and unmatched influence in the Chinese community, Luo Fangbo became a true leader of the local area.
Lanfang Company became the Lanfang Great Unified Republic, and the first head of state was Luo Fangbo, who was unanimously elected by everyone, and he created a country overseas.
On the day Luo Fangbo took office, everyone was very excited and looked forward to them starting a new chapter under the leadership of Luo Fangbo.
Luo Fangbo did let the Chinese people here live a better life, but the Lanfang Republic was not so lucky, only a hundred years later, the Lanfang Republic was annihilated in the tide of history.
In just 100 years, the country will be destroyed
Even though Lanfang has become a country, Luo Fangbo knows very well in his heart that the strength of these Chinese alone is not enough for Lanfang to go on for a long time.
The original intention of the Lanfang regime was to resist the invasion and oppression of the local Chinese by bandits, pirates and other regimes, and they needed a bigger backer if they wanted to live a stable life.
At that time, the Qing Dynasty was still ruled by Qianlong, and the long-term prosperity made the Qing Dynasty government regard itself as the real Heavenly Empire and maintain the Fanbang system.
Luo Fangbo knew that the best option was to obtain the blessing of the Qing government, but there was no precedent for Chinese to establish a country overseas before that.
Such an act is easy to arouse the suspicion of the government, and if the name of the Lanfang Republic is used to contact the Qing government, the effect is likely to be counterproductive.
So Luo Fangbo still asked the Qing government to canonize them in the name of Lanfang Company, but the suspicious Qianlong still refused to recognize their vassal status, and the two sides each took a step back and began to trade.
However, it is a good thing to have exchanges, after all, those forces that covet resources and economy do not know the details, so Luo Fangbo took advantage of the situation to make them think that the Lanfang Republic has been recognized and blessed by the Qing Dynasty.
In this way, the Republic of Lanfang ushered in a stable life, even though Luo Fangbo died at the age of 58, but the great system continued.
The first turmoil in the Lanfang regime was during the Opium War in 1840, when the truth about the Qing government's foreign power and internal cadres was revealed.
Although the Qing Dynasty was not completely destroyed, it also allowed other countries to see the opportunity, and the strength of the Beiyang Naval Division at that time was not bad, but it was only used to defend Gyeonggi, and would not send troops to distant places, let alone Fanbang countries.
It was when the colonists saw this that they would take action against the Lanfang regime, and although the Lanfang Republic at this time had not really collapsed, it had already existed in name only.
At that time, the colonists did not actually want to abolish the Lanfang regime, after all, they only coveted local resources.
The isolated Republic of Lanfang was left to be slaughtered, and the colonial forces supported a puppet government, and finally the Republic of Lanfang was destroyed in 1886.
There are not many records of the Lanfang Republic in the history books, and it is not even regarded as a real country.
The name "Lanfang Great Unified Republic" was proposed by later scholars, and the nature of their regime at that time was very vague, and even the title and flag were only "Lanfang".
Is it a country or not?
There is still some controversy about whether the Republic of Lanfang is a republic or not, but it is undeniable that "Lanfang" did gather the Chinese who were adrift at that time into a whole.
At that time, the Chaoshan people, Hakka people and Hokkien people basically went to the South Sea, and the Malay Archipelago was the key settlement place at that time.
The Republic of Lanfang is located on Kalimantan Island, the largest island in the Malay Archipelago with an area of more than 743,000 square kilometers, while Taiwan has only 36,000 square kilometers, and Kalimantan Island is larger than 20 Taiwanes.
There are primeval rainforests in the south and huge mountain ranges in the central and eastern parts of the country, so the only places that can actually be developed are the north and west.
In addition to mineral deposits and natural resources, there is no proper country here, which is also an important reason why Luo Fangbo was able to unite the Chinese to form a political regime.
As a Confucian student, Luo Fangbo's concept was actually very traditional, he valued agriculture and industry and commerce, and was able to gain trust through his status as a teacher, but he did not attach much importance to the army.
After the formation of the Lan Fong regime, the Chinese people on Kalimantan formed a community that worked together for a better future and created a prosperous scene.
Since it is a political regime, of course, there will be no deliberative organization, and Lanfang's deliberative organization is composed of representatives of the villagers' association and miners.
In the beginning, the Republic of Lanfang did not have an army, because the deliberative organization believed that the army would only bring war and turmoil.
However, Kalimantan is not the only force of the Lan Fang regime, and the necessary guardian force cannot be without, so although the standing army has not been established, there is an army composed of peasants and miners.
This setting is actually very similar to the traditional form of rural autonomy in China, but the Lanfang regime is larger and more perfect, which can be regarded as an upgraded version of rural autonomy.
The Lanfang regime has what a country should have, legislation, government, armed forces, and even its own chronology.
Although Lan Fang claimed to be a company when she came into contact with the Qing Dynasty, in Chinese history, the new era was only adopted when it broke away from the imperial court and formed a new regime or even a state, so Lan Fang is considered the first republic established by the Chinese overseas.
The Lanfang regime can be said to be the representative of all the Chinese who emigrated to Southeast Asia, and there are not a few Chinese immigrants who have created political power or participated in regional development and construction.
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Although the Republic of Lan Pong is a thing of the past, there are still nearly 30 million people living on the island, including a large number of Chinese descendants, and Chinese is one of the main languages of communication here.
Luo Fangbo, who founded the Republic of Lan Fang, is also remembered by the locals, and even has a memorial and sculpture, although this small country has only existed for more than a hundred years, its historical significance is immeasurable.
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Resources
China Daily, Asia's First Republic, was built only one year later than the United States
NetEase Military - Lanfang Great Unified Republic: The first republic of the Chinese
Overseas Chinese Network - The People Elected the Head of State Two hundred years ago, the Chinese established a republic in Southeast Asia