Chapter 192: Missionaries, Merchants, Age of Exploration (3)
“What exactly does it mean to be at the vanguard of exploration?”
In any organization, incompetent bosses tend to give vague orders and then tell their subordinates to figure out the rest on their own.
Because the orders are unclear, they leave their subordinates in a contradictory situation where they can’t do this or that.
If things go well, the boss takes credit; if things go wrong, the blame falls on the incompetence of the subordinates.
I don’t want to be like that, so I need to give very detailed instructions.
At the very least, I want to ensure that if something goes wrong, no one can blame the instructions I gave.
“Your job will be to gather all the information related to the mission, learn and organize the local language and culture,” I explained.
The British Empire, which is famous for its ability to colonize, still faced difficulties because of a lack of understanding and information about the local cultures.
Minor problems early in the conquest can be forgiven, but the use of pig or beef fat to make the paper that covered cartridges, which triggered the Sepoy Rebellion, was truly an ignorant mistake.
As a result, the British East India Company, which essentially acted as the Indian government, nearly collapsed because of such an error.
History exists to help us avoid repeating these foolish mistakes.
As someone with a Master’s degree in Western history, I can’t afford to make such a mistake.