Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 451 The Treaty of Lisbon

By March 1905, Spain had finally made some progress in peace negotiations.

Arthur James Balfour, the British Prime Minister who orchestrated the Anglo-Spanish War and personally led to the downfall of the British Empire, was dismissed by King Edward VII. Edward VII's dismissal of the Prime Minister was not opposed by the people, but was instead praised by the British public.

Henry Campbell Bannerman succeeded Balfour as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Although both were Scottish, the two Scottish prime ministers had drastically different attitudes toward handling the UK's major current disputes.

Britain's new Prime Minister, Henry Campbell-Banaman, has always opposed Britain's brutal methods in South Africa, but he also disagrees with the pro-Boer faction within the Liberal Party, choosing instead a middle path between imperialism and the pro-Boer faction.

It was precisely this middle-of-the-road thinking that earned him the approval of King Edward VII of England. Edward VII dismissed Prime Minister Balfour for two reasons: firstly, Balfour's cabinet had a terrible reputation in Britain, and they had also caused Britain's international prestige to vanish.

On the other hand, public discontent with the government has spread to the royal family. If Edward VII does not address the escalating domestic situation in time, the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynasty, which has just established itself in England, may perish along with the Balfour cabinet.

After the death of Queen Victoria, although the British throne was inherited by her son Edward VII, the ruling dynasty of Britain had effectively changed.

Edward VII's surname was not Hanover, the same as Queen Victoria's, but rather Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the same as his father, Prince Albert.

This also led to the formal demise of the Hanoverian dynasty, which had ruled Britain for nearly 200 years, and the formal entry of Britain into the era of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha dynasty.

Although only the British royal family's surname was changed, the royal family remains descendants of Queen Victoria. However, Queen Victoria and Edward VII were completely different; the latter did not possess the unparalleled prestige of the former, and naturally could not obtain power comparable to Queen Victoria.

The current crisis in the UK could threaten the British royal family, but if it were Queen Victoria, who was far removed from the center of political power, the royal family could be guaranteed to remain unaffected.

But for Edward VII, only by preemptively dismissing the prime minister could he prevent the royal family from being affected by this crisis.

Under the direction of King Edward VII, the newly appointed British Prime Minister Henry Campbell Bannerman quickly formed a new cabinet and subsequently took over the peace negotiations with the Spanish government.

British Prime Minister Henry Campbell Bannerman understands that the cabinet's primary task is to maintain stability, which, to put it bluntly, means being willing to sacrifice some interests for the sake of domestic stability in the UK.

Since continuing peace negotiations would only harm the British government, there was no need to delay any longer. Britain had been defeated in the war and should naturally bear the consequences of that defeat.

Of course, bearing the consequences of defeat is one thing, but accepting Spain's harsh demands for reparations is quite another.

For the British cabinet government, the former is certainly acceptable, but the latter is absolutely unacceptable.

The British government currently has a host of messy domestic issues to deal with, which require enormous financial expenditures.

Under these circumstances, the British government could not possibly accept a huge indemnity. After all, such a sum would not only impact Britain's finances but also significantly diminish its international prestige.

In this day and age, those who are defeated and forced to pay reparations are generally the weaker party. If Britain were to agree to Spain's enormous reparations, wouldn't that make Britain's self-proclaimed status as a world superpower a laughing stock?
Even now, the British still consider themselves the undisputed world hegemon, only caught off guard by Spain's little-known but powerful battleships during the war.

Faced with the Spanish government's demand for war reparations of up to £2 million, the British government stated that it could only pay one-tenth, or £2000 million.

Furthermore, this money could not be used as war reparations, but rather as aid to Portugal in postwar reconstruction and the ransom of prisoners.

£2000 million, equivalent to 5 million pesetas at the exchange rate, actually exceeded Spain's expenditure in the war. But for Spain, this amount of money was certainly insignificant.

The only territory Spain directly gained during the war was Gibraltar, which was originally British territory seized from Spain. It was only natural for Spain to reclaim Gibraltar.

Portugal is still a nominally independent country, and Spain will need to make many efforts to annex it.

This also means that Spain gained very little territory in this war. Since it didn't gain much territory, Spain naturally needed to demand more reparations.

Of course, in order to demonstrate its sincerity in engaging in peace negotiations, the Spanish government is also willing to reduce the proportion of war reparations it has demanded.

In a new round of negotiations between the British and Spanish governments, the Spanish diplomatic representative reduced the demand for £2 million in war reparations to £1 million and offered to take all British prisoners of war in the country for £500 million.

This reparations were to be shared with the Portuguese government, meaning that Spain would only receive tens of millions of pounds.

From the Spanish government's perspective, such a reparations demand is already quite lenient, considering that Spain lost tens of thousands of soldiers in this war, and the lives of these soldiers cannot be brought back with money.

The British government clearly did not agree with the views of the Spanish diplomatic representative, and the two sides remained deadlocked for nearly a month on the amount of reparations that the British government should bear before reaching an agreement. The agreement stipulated that the British government would pay a total of £5500 million in reparations and ransom, of which the Portuguese government would receive £550 million in war reparations and £450 million in post-war reconstruction costs, totaling £1000 million.

The Spanish government received £4000 million in war reparations and £500 million in ransom for prisoners of war, totaling £4500 million.

The payment period for this war reparations and ransom was five years. In the first year of the treaty, that is, throughout 1905, the British government was required to pay at least £25 million.

The remaining amount only needed to be paid to the Spanish and Portuguese governments before the end of December 31, 1909, to complete the payment of the entire indemnity and ransom.

If the British government fails to make the payment on time, it will have to pay 10% of the total compensation of £5500 million as interest for each year of delay, which is £550 million.

In the presence of representatives from Germany and France, representatives from Britain and Spain formally signed the Treaty of Lisbon on April 15, 1905, ending the war that had lasted for several months.

In addition to the aforementioned £5500 million in reparations and ransom, the British government also needs to publicly relinquish sovereignty over Gibraltar and issue a public apology for its previous interference in Portugal's internal affairs.

Spain was required to return all British prisoners within a month and ensure the free passage of British merchant ships through the Strait of Gibraltar after the treaty was signed.

The Strait of Gibraltar, the western outlet to the Mediterranean Sea that is now effectively controlled by Spain, was mentioned multiple times during these peace negotiations.

For many European countries, the Strait of Gibraltar is more important than the Suez Canal. These countries worried about their right of passage when Britain controlled the Strait, and they worried about the same when Spain controlled it.

To reassure European countries, Spain took advantage of the peace negotiations to sign the Strait of Gibraltar Convention with the three major powers of Britain, France, and Germany. The Convention stipulated that all countries should have the right of passage through the Strait of Gibraltar in peacetime, and that the Spanish government should not levy passage fees.

However, the Spanish government can also refuse passage through the Strait of Gibraltar to countries at war to ensure its neutrality. If Spain is at war, it has the right to close the Strait of Gibraltar.

Although Spain cannot charge tolls in the Strait of Gibraltar, the Spanish government can charge service fees and port maintenance fees if ships passing through the strait need to stop at ports near the strait to replenish supplies. This can be considered another source of revenue.

Although the Spanish government is required to commit to opening the Strait of Gibraltar to all countries during peacetime, this has virtually no impact on Spain.

After all, this is a vital transportation route connecting many European countries. Even the British Empire could not prevent European countries from passing through the Suez Canal, let alone the more public strait.

The nature of this Strait of Gibraltar Convention is actually the same as that of the conventions reached by European countries regarding the Suez Canal. Both ensure free passage for European countries during peacetime and close off the canal to warring countries during peacetime.

This approach respects the rights of the states that possess sovereignty over the canals and straits, while ensuring that merchant ships from all European countries can pass freely during peacetime. It's a win-win situation for all European countries, both major and minor powers, as they can all benefit from this convention.

As for the possibility of closing canals and straits during wartime, that depends on the strength of the major powers. If they are powerful enough, even if they are not the sovereign states of the canals and straits, they can still close them.

If one's own strength is not great, even if one controls canals and straits, it is impossible to completely close them off to those powerful nations during a war.

With the formal signing of the Treaty of Lisbon, this farcical war between Britain and Spain officially came to an end.

The European situation has once again returned to a state dominated by competition between Germany and France, with Britain and Spain essentially playing supporting roles in this new European landscape.

The war between Britain and Spain involved four parties because it also involved the Portuguese Civil War. The total number of troops from these four parties involved in the war was only slightly over 50.

It could be argued that Britain and Spain did not exert their full strength in this war, but in any case, this war involving four parties ultimately only involved 50 soldiers, which was only a fraction of the total for the two major military blocs in Europe.

As time progressed to 1905, European countries embarked on another major military expansion.

Especially when European countries witnessed the prowess of the Spanish army at the military parade in Cádiz, the countries of the two major European military blocs unanimously had a new idea: to enhance their military strength by expanding their armies.

Against the backdrop of the confrontation between the two major military blocs in Europe, any expansion of the military by a member of either bloc would trigger a full-scale arms race that would affect the whole of Europe.

Judging from the current land forces of the two major military blocs, the number of standing army personnel in the Franco-Russian military bloc is far greater than that of the Tripartite Pact of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.

Russia alone had a standing army of over one million men, and France had a standing army of 70 men before 1905, bringing the total standing army size to over 170 million men.

On the Triple Alliance side, only Germany maintained a standing army of over 60 men, while Austria-Hungary had only 40 men and Italy had less than 30 men.

The combined standing army of the Triple Alliance numbered just over 130 million, 40 fewer than that of the Franco-Russian Alliance.

Of these, the Italian army's 30 troops could not guarantee combat effectiveness, and the total number of troops in the Triple Alliance that were truly capable of fighting was only slightly over 100 million.

The combined standing army of the three powers in the Triple Alliance was less than that of France and Russia. Although the Russian army was not particularly strong, the sheer number of soldiers—over a million—was enough to cripple Austria-Hungary and Italy.

Even considering the combined army numbers of France and Germany, Germany's standing army is still 10 fewer than France's.

Under these circumstances, the German government held internal meetings to discuss the matter. Kaiser Wilhelm II believed that Germany must expand its military and maintain the size of its army at the same level as or even higher than that of France in order to cope with the increasingly intense situation in Europe.

In addition to Germany needing to expand its military, its two allies, Austria-Hungary and Italy, also need to expand their military.

The Austro-Hungarian army still possessed considerable combat capability, at least enough to help Germany tie down a portion of the Russian army.

After several military conferences within the Tripartite Alliance, Austria-Hungary and Italy, at Germany's insistence, ultimately decided to adopt the German government's proposal to expand their armies by 15 and 10 men respectively.

With the addition of the 15 troops that the German army is about to expand, after this round of expansion, the number of German standing army personnel will reach 75, 5 more than that of the French standing army.

The total military strength of the Triple Alliance would then reach over 170 million. This would eliminate the gap in army numbers between the Triple Alliance and the Franco-Russian Alliance, a situation the German government desired.

Although the expansion of their respective armies was not made public, it was clearly impossible to keep such large-scale expansions completely secret.

Following the military expansions of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, the French government quickly received the news.

It is impossible to expect Russia to expand its military. Russia is currently in a state of chaos, and blindly expanding its military would only accelerate the turmoil within Russia.

Since its ally Russia could not be relied upon, the French government had no choice but to take matters into its own hands and expand its standing army.

Although the exact scale of military expansion in Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy is unclear, the movements of these three countries suggest that their expansions are substantial, at least exceeding 10 personnel.

If Austria-Hungary and Italy each expanded their armies by 10 men, it wouldn't pose a significant threat to the French government. However, if the German army expanded by 10 men, the threat to France would be substantial.

Adhering to the principle of maintaining a numerical advantage in the army at all costs, the French government, after several internal meetings, decided to increase the number of standing army personnel from 70 to 85 over the next two years.

For France, with a current population of only 4350 million, maintaining a standing army of 85 is already the limit. France's finances can only support this many troops, and the next round of military expansion may have to wait until war actually breaks out.

Following this round of military expansion, the number of standing army personnel in European countries has increased further.

The standing armies of France and Germany were approaching one million men, while the standing armies of Austria-Hungary and Italy had reached 55 and 40 men respectively, which were roughly the limits of their respective countries.

The implications of the limits on army expansion are self-evident. When countries can no longer afford the military expenditures associated with large-scale army expansion, it's roughly time for war to break out.

Given the current situation, only a decisive war can end the arms race and restore the European situation to its previous state before the confrontation between the two major military blocs.

Carlo, adhering to the principle of observing the development of the situation in Europe, did not allow Spain to join this land arms race.

On the contrary, the British government, which had always focused on developing its navy, could no longer sit still. While continuously receiving prisoners from Spain, it announced that it would expand its standing army to 40 men.

The British government's desire to join in the fun is understandable. Although the farce of the war with Spain had ended, the war had thoroughly exposed Britain's problems with its navy.

Before Britain could acquire a super-powerful battleship of the same class as Spain, the British Navy's dominance was precarious and could fall into crisis at any moment.

Even more critically, the Spanish government has already pledged to help Italy and France build battleships.

Although the construction of battleships took several years, this was not good news for the British Empire. If the British government failed to acquire dreadnoughts within those years, then in a few years, in addition to Spain, Italy and France might also be capable of defeating the Royal Navy.

In addition, the German navy was expanding at a very rapid pace. If Britain did not catch up in the field of dreadnoughts, the former naval hegemon might only be able to retreat to its own waters and reminisce about its past glory.

Without naval power, the British Empire was no longer the leading power in Europe, but rather one of the leading powers in Europe. Leaving aside its global hegemony, its existing colonial system alone could not be maintained without naval power.

In other words, maintaining a strong navy is a fundamental principle for Britain's survival. Its involvement in the European land arms race was essentially an attempt to instigate conflict, encouraging European powers, led by France and Germany, to focus more on land development, thereby slowing down the pace of naval development in European countries.

　I'll start updating properly tomorrow, September 1st. Let's try a daily 10,000-word update for a week as a test. I'm begging for your monthly votes this new month!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)