On the map of North America, the border between America and Canada was a straight line. State boundaries were almost all straight lines, and some were even drawn directly along lines of latitude and longitude.
This was completely different from Eurasia, where mountains, rivers, and the like served as national borders.
This was how Americans handled "problems": simple and brutal. Even the ceasefire line on the Korean Peninsula had been established in this manner.
In the latter half of the eighteenth century, the French had been deeply enamored with straight lines. The officials responsible for planning naturally believed that a straight road was the shortest route.
Britain and France had always been competing in secret. Whether in the New World or Europe, they raced to see whose trade could grow faster.
Saving transportation time was undoubtedly a way to cut costs and strengthen one's competitiveness.
This beautiful idea ran into many problems in practice. Officials drew a straight line on a map without caring whether it crossed ravines or private homes. Anything that obstructed road construction was simply demolished.
Naturally, compensation had to be paid for demolishing people's homes, yet not everyone received it. After the French Revolution ended, the new government discovered that many land compensation payments had still not been made.
Through this, people learned a lesson: when public interests required the destruction of private interests, private interests were insignificant.
People remembered this well and applied it to others for their own benefit.
In the past, every parish had established charitable foundations that provided relief to residents in designated circumstances according to their founders' wishes. There was such a small town in the Seine Department of France described by Balzac, with a grand poorhouse that housed the elderly and mental patients.
The Saltpeter Warehouse in Paris was another