Chapter 247: The Remaining Forces of Wakanda (1)

Josh's example of how Native Americans were treated opened a new door for the Dutch.

As a long-established European power, the Dutch leadership quickly came up with a plan called One Island, One Nation.

The idea was simple; support the tribal leaders of each island in Java and make them kings.

The Javanese, like the early tribes of Africa and the Native Americans, originally existed as separate tribal communities.

The push for a unified, independent nation came mainly from the educated elites influenced by Dutch rule and Western culture.

Most of these elites lived in the large cities under Dutch control.

Meanwhile, across Java's countless islands, there were still many tribes—over 300 different ethnic groups, each with vastly different religions and cultures.

If the Dutch had wanted to divide Java earlier, it would have been easy.

But in the past, they were focused on ruling all of Java and actually encouraged unity rather than division.

Still, it wasn't too late to change course.

Once the policy was set, the Dutch government, following the advice of Governor-General Louis Beel, officially recognized the independence of over 200 "nations" at once.

Some of these "nations" had only a few thousand people.

It was clear to everyone that this was a blatant attempt to break up Java.

It was crude, but very effective.

After all, people are ambitious.

The leaders of these newly recognized "independent nations" were mostly tribal chiefs who had long worked closely with the Dutch.

They had suffered under Dutch rule, but had also used Dutch power to maintain their positions.

Many of them had always opposed the so-called Javanese Republic.

Before, they were weak and ignored by the Dutch.

But now, with official recognition, they were considered legitimate governments.

The Dutch also promised to do "fair trade" with them.

What did fair trade mean?

It meant they could trade their natural resources for Dutch weapons—mostly small arms.

Heavy weapons were too expensive for the poor Javanese tribes anyway.

To maintain "peace and stability" in Java, the Dutch also formed many small, fast-response naval fleets.

Their main job was to crack down on "smugglers" and "illegal armed groups"—which, of course, referred to the Javanese Republic's military.

If any "nation" was attacked by the Republic's forces, they could immediately call for support from the Dutch fleet or the Sulawesi fleet—for a price, of course.

In an archipelago, controlling the sea made it much easier to isolate and divide territories than on land.

More importantly, the Dutch "One Island, One Nation" policy had direct support from the Americans.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet even stationed itself in Java, showing a complete reversal in attitude.

This sudden shift in American policy wasn't just because of Josh.

It was pushed by powerful groups like the Chicago Consortium, and many other old American financial giants.

And why did they suddenly care about Java?

Because Josh showed them a map of the distribution of Java's resources.

In the future, Java would become the economic leader of Southeast Asia for one simple reason—it was rich in resources.

Oil, natural gas, coal, tin, copper—the list went on.

Especially oil—at the beginning of the 20th century, Middle Eastern oil fields had not yet been fully developed, and Java once accounted for a quarter of the world's oil production.

Back then, Java's oil was controlled by Shell, a joint venture between the British and the Dutch, leaving no room for American involvement.

This was one reason why the U.S. was not too keen on maintaining Dutch rule over Java.

However, the pre-World War II oil reserves that had been discovered were just a small fraction of Java's actual resources.

The resource map Josh presented was based on a 2035 survey provided by Lawrence, which had been cross-checked by NS robots to confirm that large deposits of resources still existed in this Universe.

Every single mining site was worth a fortune, more than enough to satisfy all the major American financial groups.

Josh knew he couldn't monopolize these resources himself, and most of these areas were still under Dutch control.

So he simply sold the information to multiple American financial groups—partly as a way to compensate them for taking the blame for him this time.

It wasn't his to begin with, so he didn't feel any loss.

This also helped him secure his rule over Sulawesi, while turning Java into a chaotic "international playground."

Reunification would become nearly impossible.

While Java was becoming more chaotic, Josh was leisurely discussing a Jurassic Park deal with Yuri.

To build a proper Jurassic Park, Yuri was his key partner—after all, he was the only one who had dinosaurs.

Well, except for Azeroth, where little Abbendis lived. But considering Azeroth's power system, dinosaurs there were likely too dangerous to contain.

It was safer to use more primitive dinosaurs.

Although Josh and Yuri had been trading dinosaurs for years, most of their previous deals had involved modified Velociraptors for scouting or selling dinosaur meat.

This was the first large-scale trade of alive dinosaurs.

"I don't really understand why you want to build a Jurassic Park," Yuri commented.

"Not everything in life needs deep meaning, Yuri. Our lifespans have been greatly extended—there's no need to push ourselves so hard," Josh replied lazily. "Sometimes just finding something interesting is reason enough."

Like Lawrence, Josh had traded the elixir from the Pool of Eternal Life to some of his partners in various universes.

Of course, little Abbendis was an exception—if he drank it, he might never grow up.

For now, none of Josh's trade partners had to worry about aging.

Especially Yuri—he was actually quite old, a true senior citizen.

That's why, after meeting Josh, aside from being deeply invested in his research, he had always been in a rush to accumulate enough power to return to his original time and seek revenge.

Unlike Daenerys or Cai Lin, Yuri rarely chatted with Josh about trivial matters.

But the Pool of Eternal Life had eased his sense of urgency a little, allowing him to relax and talk more.

Even so, he still couldn't understand why Josh was putting so much effort into creating Jurassic Park.

Dinosaurs had value, but to Yuri, aside from biological and genetic research or their leather and meat, they weren't much different from regular animals.

They weren't even worth breeding.

As for making money from the park?

Even if Josh's wealth was already beyond what he could ever spend by Earth's standards, the cost of building the park was so high that ticket sales alone would take decades to break even.

But for Josh, creating his own Jurassic Park wasn't about profit—it was about fun.

That's the difference in thinking between different people.

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