Empire Rising: Spain

Spain is merely posturing; they absolutely do not dare to engage us in war. After this diplomatic incident is resolved, Spain will not continue opposing us.

This way, we will have enough time and energy to develop the African Colonies and join in the partition of African lands.

Our enemy Germany has already gained many benefits from the partition of Africa. If we continue to be deeply involved in the dispute with Spain, Germany will gain more land in Africa, and the land we can divide will naturally become less."

Charles de Freycinet’s perspective essentially aligns with the opinions of other French Cabinet Government officials. It’s not that they are timid; it’s mainly because France’s current diplomatic environment is relatively poor, with bad relations with the two major powers surrounding it, the United Kingdom and Germany, and without strong support to bolster France’s diplomatic environment.

Blindly starting a dispute with Spain is not beneficial for France; this is something all French officials can clearly see.

The problem is not everyone can so decisively yield to Spain. After all, Spain is only a second-tier power; France is the stronger first-tier power.

In terms of yielding, it should be Spain yielding to France, shouldn’t it? How has yielding reversed to making the more powerful France yield?

In fact, much like the other officials in the French Cabinet, Prime Minister of France Henry Brisson also has similar thoughts on yielding.

His predecessor, the relatively radical Prime Minister Rufelli, indeed had greater prestige domestically in France, as citizens generally prefer a more resolute ruler rather than one who only yields timidly.

But Rufelli’s end was already apparent. Although he served multiple terms as Prime Minister of France, he never completed any of his terms.

Over a month ago, the former Prime Minister Rufelli resigned due to his poor handling of the Asian conflict, which is also the reason Henry Brisson became the new French Prime Minister.

Speaking of which, the French Army’s ineffective combat has a lot to do with Spain.

Originally, the French Army’s attack was going smoothly, with both the Navy and Army achieving certain victories.

But as the war progressed, the Asian Front also solidified its resolve to fight. Even if they couldn’t completely defeat the French, the Asian side at least was unwilling to see their territory invaded.

Vietnam and those dependent states may be abandoned, but the northern territories are still guarded.

At this time, Spain reached an arms trade agreement with the Asian side. A large number of Spanish standardized rifles were transported to Asia, becoming a powerful weapon against the French offensive.

After all, the French Army is fighting thousands of miles away, and logistical support remains a significant challenge.

The United Kingdom, with its large colonies like India and Egypt, acts as a transit station and can provide essential supplies to the Asian Front. But France, apart from Vietnam, has no other significant colonies in Asia.

This is also the reason the French Army did not achieve complete success; ultimately, they were forced to abandon their offensive north of Vietnam due to the Asian forces’ tenacious resistance.

The final result was that although the French won this war, Asia actually didn’t suffer much loss.

The French gained only Vietnam and Cambodia, a situation similar to the earlier Tunisian War. France invested a great deal of manpower, resources, and finances in both wars but didn’t achieve satisfying results in the end.

Embarassingly, both wars were planned by Prime Minister Rufelli, which led to Rufelli being forced to resign his Prime Minister’s seat without realizing his colonial plans.

"Does anyone else have opinions or suggestions?" Although Charles de Freycinet’s ideas didn’t deviate much from his own, Henry Brisson still wanted to gather more opinions to handle this incident more appropriately.

Seeing everyone remain silent, Prime Minister Brisson nodded and issued his command: "Let’s proceed like this, try to avoid further conflict with Spain. Additionally, we need to ascertain who is responsible for initiating this incident—who issued the order, provoking our fleet to the port of the Spanish Colony?"

If I remember correctly, it seems I’ve never issued such an order; where did this command originate?"

Although they were silent during the earlier discussion, the ministers in the French Cabinet became quite interested in shifting blame at this stage.

Since the Navy was mobilized, identifying the culprit is relatively simple. As this fleet belongs to the colonies, besides the military, only the local colonial departments could have mobilized this army.

However, in truth, the French Colonies shouldn’t actively provoke the Spanish Colonies.

Although France and Spain have a considerable power disparity at home, the colonies of both nations can’t conclusively say which is stronger.

France’s Congo Colony is also vast, spanning over 400,000 square kilometers, making it one of France’s largest colonies in Africa.

Yet, the Spanish Colonies are not to be underestimated in size and scale. The unique existence of the Congo Territory needn’t be elaborated on; in terms of land area and population, they can overwhelm France’s Congo Colony.

Following several mergers, Spain’s Guinea Colony has become an extremely expansive super-colony, which also serves as Spain’s African Fleet’s base. Unless the French Colonies were crazy, it’s improbable they’d actively dispatch the Navy to provoke Spain.

Seeing it this way, the only party capable of dispatching the Navy to provoke Spain is the military.

Compared to the colonies and other governmental departments, the military is actually the most challenging to handle. Even if the military proactively provoked Spain, the French Government is reluctant to reprimand the military too harshly.

After all, the government uses legal texts to argue while the military uses rifles and cannons.

As everyone discussed and deflected blame, the culprit responsible for commanding the fleet to provoke Spain quickly narrowed down to the military.

Though the culprit is determined, Prime Minister Henry Brisson doesn’t intend to criticize the military too severely. His tenure as Prime Minister hasn’t been long; if he starts taking action against the military right from the beginning, it’s likely an extremely high chance of causing a military revolt.

"Ahem." Henry Brisson softly cleared his throat, covering his awkwardness, then spoke: "Alright, finding the culprit is an issue for later; for now, we must focus on avoiding further conflict with Spain.

Additionally, we should start preparing for further expansion in Africa. Compared to the small dispute with Spain, it is more important to gain more African territory and expand our colonial scope."

Although certain yielding to Spain is not a big deal, given the attention this incident has drawn from many countries and citizens, France’s yielding will definitely lose face.

How to recover from this? The best way is to swiftly expand territory in Africa, diverting the domestic citizens’ attention.

As for the opinions of European citizens outside of France, that’s not a concern for the French Government.

Moreover, the thoughts of these countries’ citizens hold no influence over France; as long as French citizens still trust the French Government, it can continue to operate stably.

Since yielding is necessary, the French Government will certainly not foolishly hold a press conference to announce it won’t pursue the matter.

Publicly, the French Government adopts an attitude of being eager to accompany, while secretly contacting the Spanish Ambassador to France, expressing its willingness to resolve this dispute.

The public posture is for the French people to see, as they cannot appear too cowardly and disappoint them. Secret negotiations with the Spanish Ambassador are what the French Government truly needs to do; only by contacting the Spanish Government and reaching a compromise can this incident be resolved most perfectly.