Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 433 Making Trouble for Britain
With the establishment of the Portuguese Democratic Republic and the deployment of more British troops to Portugal, the war between Britain and Spain entered its second phase: a land war surrounding the Portuguese civil war.

The British government initially announced a troop increase of only 1.5, but later changed its plans and decided to send another 3.5 troops to fight in Portugal.

As a result, the number of British troops planned to be sent to Portugal had exceeded 5.5.

Although these troops may seem small in number, these soldiers were all transferred from the British mainland and were truly elite British troops, not cannon fodder from the colonies.

In Spain, to help the newly formed Portuguese Democratic Republic resist pressure from Britain, Carlo also decided to send three infantry divisions, two cavalry divisions and one artillery division to fight in Portugal.

The total number of these troops exceeded 5, which was exactly the same as the number of troops sent by Britain.

The British troop reinforcements to Portugal actually facilitated Carlo's original plan to rotate troops to fight in Portugal. With Spain also sending reinforcements, Spain had more troops available to fight in Portugal, meaning more soldiers would receive battlefield experience simultaneously.

Just as Britain and Spain were mobilizing their domestic armies, preparing for a direct confrontation on Portuguese soil, various European countries were also having their own discussions about the war.

The countries most concerned about the situation in this war were the major powers of the two military blocs, led by Germany and France, and the European powers.

France is undoubtedly the most concerned about this war, because it will inevitably affect France's situation to some extent.

This is not an exaggeration, given that one of the two countries involved in the war had a long-standing feud with France, and the other was located just south of France. The essence of the war was a struggle between Britain and Spain for control of the Strait of Gibraltar, and France, being a Mediterranean country, desired the Strait of Gibraltar, which was controlled by Britain and Spain.

When the Spanish navy defeated the British fleet twice in succession, the French government immediately convened a lengthy meeting. This meeting discussed not only why Spain was able to achieve naval victory, but also the impact of Spain's naval triumph on the European situation.

The French government concluded that they hoped the war would last as long as possible. Britain was France's sworn enemy, and while Spain had cooperative relations with France, it was not an ally.

Given Spain's strategically important location, France hoped that Spain and Britain would fight to a standstill. This would prevent any interference from France in the war, allowing France and its ally Russia to focus on the powerful Germany.

Of course, in addition to hoping that the war between Britain and Spain would become increasingly intense, the French naval authorities were also trying to develop a brand-new type of warship, hoping to give the French navy a stronger fighting force.

It's important to know that before this war broke out, Spain was only recognized as the world's third-strongest naval power.

The European powers never expected that the Spanish navy would have such a powerful fighting force, and that it would defeat two British fleets in succession.

The defeat of these two fleets dealt a heavy blow to the British Navy, and for the first time, Britain chose to retreat in naval warfare, turning instead to fighting a land war against Portugal and Spain.

This was something that no European country, including France, had anticipated. They had expected the war to result in the British navy blockading Spain, trapping Spain on its own soil, forcing it to fight a defensive war, watch as the British invaded its colonies, and ultimately surrendering to Britain in desperation.

But what did Spain do? By winning two naval battles, they deterred Britain from launching a final decisive battle, forcing Britain to abandon its advantages and instead confront Spain on its weaker land forces.

As long as Britain cannot blockade Spain, the probability of Spain losing this war will be greatly reduced. Unless Britain can subsequently develop new warships comparable to Spain's powerful fleet, Spain is already in an invincible position in this war, and the British government will eventually have to back down.

European countries had a relatively clear understanding of the situation regarding the war between Britain and Spain.

Britain and Spain each had their own advantages. Britain's strength lay in its navy and the ability to sustain its colonies, while Spain's strength lay in its army's combat power and national cohesion.

If Britain could not fully utilize its naval superiority, the war would degenerate into a protracted war of attrition. Spain could not achieve a decisive victory by launching a long-range invasion of Britain, but Britain also could not occupy the Spanish mainland or inflict significant damage on Spanish colonies.

If this continues, one side will eventually have to back down. Considering Spain's strong national cohesion, it is highly likely that Britain will ultimately yield.

If Britain were to lose this war, it would not significantly impact its international standing, but it would signify that Britain's status as the world's leading naval power was not invincible.

This would also spur major European powers to develop their navies at an alarming pace, striving to catch up with and surpass Britain's naval dominance. At that point, it wouldn't be so easy for Britain to maintain its position, since the British Empire's dominance of the world was based on its powerful navy.

Once Britain could no longer maintain its naval superiority over other nations, it would essentially be nothing more than a slightly more powerful European country, with nothing particularly special about it.

Because the British mainland is located outside the European continent and is composed of several islands, its development potential is ultimately somewhat lower compared to countries like France, Germany, and Russia.

Even Spain, which originally had a relatively poor local environment, has a higher potential for development than the UK after it localized Morocco.

If Portugal could be merged, then needless to say, the development potential of Spain would far exceed that of the UK, which is also a weakness of the UK itself.

France's allies shared a similar stance, and Tsar Nicholas II also hoped that Britain would suffer heavy losses in the war.

When the Russians learned that the British fleet had been defeated twice by the Spanish navy, Tsar Nicholas II even celebrated privately.

Russia's current situation is not good. Since its defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, Russia has experienced several revolutions and uprisings, and many people are disappointed with the government and the Tsar.

As the supreme ruler of Russia, Tsar Nicholas II was certainly aware of the current situation in Russia and felt extremely dissatisfied and angry with Britain, the island nation's behind-the-scenes supporter and the culprit that led to Russia's defeat.

To put it bluntly, this war was entirely instigated by the British. Without British support, the island nation could not have developed so smoothly, much less have acquired a relatively strong navy in such a short time.

Germany's industry and economy are already so powerful that it has taken a long time to develop its navy, and so far it is only the fourth strongest navy in the world.

How could a small island nation become the strongest naval power among the great powers? It was all thanks to its ally, Britain, which built up its navy on a massive scale.

Although the island nation was the real culprit in defeating Russia, Tsar Nicholas II's anger was largely transferred to the British.

Russia and Britain already had huge conflicts and hatred, and now Nicholas II's hatred for the British has only increased.

He desperately wanted Britain to suffer heavy losses in this war, ideally with both the navy and army defeated by the Spanish, and the British to fall into an abyss – that would be the best news.

If Russia's own finances and industry weren't so weak, Tsar Nicholas II would have even considered contacting the Spanish government to provide them with a batch of interest-free or low-interest loans to help them better counter the British.

The two major military blocs, unusually, remained united in their stance on the war between Britain and Spain.

It wasn't just France and Russia that wanted Britain and Spain to fight more fiercely; even Germany on the other side hoped that both sides would suffer as many losses as possible in this war.

At this time, Germany was in a state of internal conflict. On the one hand, the Fleet Law enacted in 1900 accelerated the expansion of its navy, and after the Russo-Japanese War, it successfully became the world's fourth-largest naval power, not far from Spain, which was originally the world's third-largest naval power.

At the time, the Spanish Navy's total tonnage was only 10 tons more than Germany's, its total number of battleships was only 6 more than Germany's, and the number of cruisers was roughly the same.

Given a few more years, Germany has a chance to overtake Spain and become the world's third-largest naval power. Germany's target isn't Spain; their ultimate goal in developing their navy is to surpass France, and even Britain, in naval power.

Germany's desire to surpass Britain in naval power actually reflected the confusion within Germany regarding Britain.

On the one hand, Germany hopes to form an alliance with Britain, and the Anglo-German alliance will be far stronger than the Franco-Russian alliance, which could very well lead to the final outcome of the European situation.

On the other hand, Germany's aggressive naval development also damaged relations between Germany and Britain. Although Germany and Britain were relatively close, there were factions within both countries that supported an alliance as well as those that opposed it.

The constant entanglement between the two factions has made the relationship between Britain and Germany quite complex. The two countries could very well form an alliance by chance, or they could just as easily become enemies by the same chance.

Because of this ambiguous relationship, there was a desire within Germany for Britain to suffer as many losses as possible in the war. This way, regardless of whether Britain was a friend or foe, their threat to Germany would be less significant, allowing Germany to focus on dealing with the far more powerful Franco-Russian alliance.

Compared to Germany, the leader of the military bloc, Austria-Hungary and Italy, who were also part of the military bloc, had different attitudes toward the war.

On the one hand, both the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Italian royal family had relatively close ties with the Spanish royal family. On the other hand, the outcome of this war would not affect either of these countries in any way.

This is precisely why the two countries' attitudes toward the war differed from Germany's.

Germany hoped that both countries would suffer as much loss as possible in this war, while Austria-Hungary and Italy hoped that Spain would win the war.

After all, Spain has a relatively good relationship with them, and if Spain can win this war, it will be a significant boost for them.

If Spain wins the war and recaptures Gibraltar, Carlos's position in Spain will become very secure, and their kinship with the Spanish royal family will also be an advantage.

If the Austro-Hungarian or Italian royal families face any crisis, the Spanish royal family will be ready to lend a helping hand.

This is one of the reasons why they hoped Spain would win the war, since a British victory would bring them no good news.

If Britain wins this war, it will have complete control of the Mediterranean. Since Austria-Hungary and Italy are purely Mediterranean coastal states, this means their access to the ocean will be completely blocked by Britain.

Whether for the future development of the country or for the interests of the royal family, both Austria-Hungary and Italy hoped to see Spain win, and they also provided Spain with their support to a certain extent.

Germany, as the leader of the military bloc, did not have a very close cooperative relationship with Spain, while Austria-Hungary and Italy, which were also members of the military bloc, had a relatively close cooperative relationship with Spain.

This situation is quite common in Europe and even the world, since for each country, its own development and interests are the most important.

Alliances can be broken when necessary. There are no permanent friends between nations; there are only permanent interests.

Just like the seemingly close alliance between Germany and Austria today, their relationship was quite tense decades ago. In fact, one of the conditions for Prussia to establish the German Empire was that the Kingdom of Prussia completely excluded the Austrian Empire and unified all German territories except Austria.

Austria was not only part of Germany; the Austrian emperor was also once the Holy Roman Emperor of the German region. Unfortunately, a more powerful Germany rose in the north of the empire, and the German imperial power, which had been controlled by the Habsburgs for hundreds of years, was eventually forcibly seized by the Hohenzollern family.

The Habsburg dynasty's imperial throne changed from Holy Roman Emperor to Austrian Emperor, and eventually, with the establishment of a dual monarchy with Hungary, the Habsburgs became emperors of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The fact that most European powers were only interested in watching the spectacle thwarted Carlo's original plan. Carlo had hoped to leverage the diplomatic support of the European powers to force the British government to back down at a specific moment, thereby ending the war.

However, given the current sentiments of the major European powers, it is virtually impossible to gain their support for Spain and force Britain to back down.

However, Carlo was not in a hurry, since the current war had not yet affected Spain's homeland and colonies, and Spain still had enough resources to continue to wear down Britain.

Compared to Spain, whose homeland and colonies were relatively stable, the situation in Britain's various colonies was far from stable.

Needless to say, the Boers in South Africa still require the British to maintain at least 20 troops to suppress them.

Indians in Asia also fiercely resisted British colonialism. India was far more important to Britain than Gibraltar, after all, it was Britain's richest and largest colony.

In this situation, if things continue to drag on, the British will definitely be more anxious than the Spanish. After all, most of Spain's colonies are not that valuable; even if a colony catches fire, they can simply abandon it.

Britain was unwilling to give up these colonies, whether it was South Africa or India, both of which were extremely important to Britain.

After realizing that European countries would not support him diplomatically, Carlo looked at the world map for a moment and came up with a new plan.

Although the European powers generally did not support Spain, there was another powerful power on the other side of the Atlantic in the Americas: the United States, which had gained independence from the British colony.

Although the United States is located on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, this does not mean that the United States cannot pose a threat to Britain.

Although the United States has pursued an isolation policy for decades, this does not mean that the US government has no ambition for global hegemony.

The Spanish-American War in history was actually a test of the United States’ ambitions for regional and global hegemony.

As it turned out, they succeeded. Post-Spanish War America officially joined the ranks of powerful superpowers, gaining the right to participate in world affairs and play a game of chess on the world stage, rather than being a powerless pawn.

In the present world, because Spain prematurely transferred its colonies to Britain, the United States did not launch the Spanish-American War as it had hoped to demonstrate its strength.

Cuba is still part of Britain, and the United States did not have the courage to declare war on Britain to seize the Cuban colony before the outbreak of this war.

But things are different now. Britain's powerful navy has been defeated by Spain, and their threat at sea has been greatly reduced.

Furthermore, with the war between Britain and Spain still ongoing, much of Britain's energy was destined to be tied up by Spain.

Under these circumstances, the United States had the opportunity to launch a war to seize the Cuban colony. Carlo also decided to test the waters with the US government; if the US government was willing to wage war to seize the Cuban colony, Carlo wouldn't mind supporting the US and causing some trouble for the British.

As for what to use to entice the United States to wage war against Britain, Carlo had already figured it out. Control of the Panama Canal, which the Americans coveted, was currently in the hands of Britain, France, and Spain.

If the United States were willing to wage war against Britain, they could naturally also acquire a stake in the British Panama Canal.

While it's not enough for the United States to completely control the Panama Canal, acquiring a stake is still a significant step forward for the US, at least giving them hope of controlling the canal.

(End of this chapter)