Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 455: Reactions of Various Countries

Because of Portugal's remote geographical location, by the time news of what was happening in Portugal reached the heart of Europe, the Spanish and Portuguese governments had already officially begun negotiations regarding a joint venture.

For Spain, both the government and the people are certainly happy to see a union with Portugal.

Because a union would not be a disadvantage for Spain; Spain would always be able to control the discourse within the personal federation and would not have to worry about its influence within it.

The people were also happy to see their country become stronger, and the formation of a personal federation was, to some extent, an expansion of territory. Given Portugal's size, once they joined Spain's rule, it wouldn't be so easy for them to leave.

Unless Portugal received strong support from a superpower and was able to defeat Spain in the war, it would have been absolutely impossible for Portugal to escape Spain's clutches.

As for whether Portuguese people will compete with Spanish people for jobs after Portugal joins the personal federation, the Spanish have nothing to worry about.

According to Spanish labor law, all factories and businesses in Spain must ensure that more than 70% of their employees are Spanish.

In addition, Spanish companies have a strict requirement that employees must be able to speak Spanish when recruiting.

Furthermore, the average level of education among Spaniards is far ahead of that of Portuguese people. Even in fair competition, Portuguese people are unlikely to be able to compete with Spaniards, not to mention that Spanish companies already give preferential treatment to Spaniards.

Compared to the support from the Spanish public for this issue, the attitudes of people in other European countries are completely different.

Both the British and the French were concerned about the news that the Portuguese government was holding joint negotiations with Spain.

Spain is already a headache, but if Portugal were to join Spain's sphere of influence, allowing Spain to completely control the entire Iberian Peninsula, then who would be Spain's match?

The intact Iberian Peninsula will be impregnable. At that time, if anyone wants to attack Spain, they will either have to cross the Pyrenees Mountains from France in the north or force their way onto the Spanish coast.

Neither option is easy to achieve. While it's possible to bypass the Pyrenees by going around their sides, the Pyrenees are very narrow, making the terrain highly advantageous for defense.

Spain only needed to amass tens of thousands of troops on both sides of the Pyrenees Mountains to withstand an attack from hundreds of thousands of troops.

Landing on the Spanish coast was even more difficult than the former. A prerequisite for a successful landing was having naval superiority.

Based on the current combat capabilities demonstrated by the Spanish Navy, no country, including the British Empire, dares to claim that it can defeat the Spanish Navy with 100% certainty.

Without naval superiority, it was impossible to land on the coast. If the Spanish navy discovered them, they might not even need to land; they would be sunk in the ocean by the Spanish navy.

From this perspective, if Spain were to completely control the Iberian Peninsula, then any attempt to attack Spain would have to come at a much higher cost.

They could either launch a strong land attack, which would require permission from the French government, or they would need to gain a significant naval advantage, perhaps even at the cost of heavy casualties, to force a landing on the Spanish coast.

Regardless of the method chosen, the army would face enormous casualties. If Spain were to gain complete control of the Iberian Peninsula, it would become a nation that no European power would want to provoke.

The German government is actually happy to see this. The unification of the Iberian Peninsula is not good news for Germany, but it won't affect Germany at all.

The German government even prefers a unified Iberian Peninsula, because such a Spain would pose a greater threat to France and would naturally damage relations between the Spanish and French governments.

Previously, when France and Spain had a relatively good relationship, the German government had a long-standing headache over this. If France and Spain were to form an alliance, France's difficulty in dealing with them would increase dramatically.

Spain could easily transport a wide variety of strategic materials to France by rail, and France could also obtain more powerful support from Spain, including from its army and navy.

After Spain defeated England, almost all European countries increased their attention to Spain, and the German government was no exception.

The German government had expected the Spanish army to defeat the British army, but it had not anticipated that the Spanish navy would defeat the British navy.

If relations between Spain and France had remained so good, Germany would have had no choice but to place all its hopes on Britain and do everything in its power to forge an alliance with them.

After all, the threat posed by Spain was far too great, in some ways even greater than that posed by France. Without the help of a power of equal stature, Germany wouldn't have been entirely confident in its ability to confront France.

Compared to Germany's anticipation of a breakdown in Franco-Spanish relations, Italy can only feel envy and jealousy at the prospect of Spain and Portugal forming a personal federation.

Italy originally thought that Spain and Italy were in the same boat, both finding it difficult to expand on the European continent.

But no one expected that Spain would make such a big move. First, they defeated Britain and reclaimed Gibraltar, and then they directly brought Portugal under their rule.

Although Portugal may be considered a remote and impoverished region in Europe, it is still a landmass of 9.22 square kilometers with a population of over 500 million.

Italy had to defer to Austria-Hungary for even a piece of land in the Balkans, while Spain was about to annex the entire country of Portugal, leaving the Italian government only able to shed tears of envy.

At the same time, the Italian government solidified its ambitions for expansion across the European continent. Northward expansion was unrealistic, but eastward expansion towards the Balkans seemed more feasible.

Since the Austro-Hungarian Empire had already set its sights on Serbia and Montenegro, surely it wouldn't be a problem for Italy to move further south and set its sights on Albania, which is mostly mountainous.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire couldn't possibly be so ambitious as to set its sights on Albania while only having Serbia and Montenegro as stepping stones. Given Spain's current power, could Italy, with its relationship with the Spanish monarchy, also gain Spanish support and thus pursue expansion in the Balkans?
Compared to the Italian government, the Austro-Hungarian government didn't have as many concerns. Their attitude towards the matter was relatively neutral; simply put, they believed it had little to do with them.

Even if Spain became powerful, it would not threaten the Austro-Hungarian Empire, since the Austro-Hungarian Empire had no need for naval power and was more than 700 kilometers away from Spain by land.

Spain couldn't possibly march directly through the territories of France and Italy and then border Austria-Hungary. If Spain truly had that capability, Austria-Hungary naturally wouldn't have bothered competing with Spain; at worst, they could have relinquished some interests and maintained good relations with Spain.

Of all the major powers, Russia and the United States were the only ones that did not react to this matter.

Russia is currently preoccupied with domestic turmoil, and Tsar Nicholas II has no interest in paying attention to developments abroad.

Apart from occasional news from its ally France and its greatest enemy Germany, most of the documents on the desk concern unrest in certain regions and troop movements.

The reason the United States has not reacted is that the US government has not received any relevant information so far.

The United States and Europe are separated by the entire Atlantic Ocean, making it impossible for the US to obtain firsthand information from Europe. Furthermore, given the US's long-standing isolationist policies, they are unlikely to pay much attention to events on the European continent unless war breaks out between the two major military blocs.

Such minor issues as those between Spain and Portugal are of little concern to the US government. A Spanish-Portuguese alliance would not affect the US, so there's no need for the US to pay too much attention.

The British government was the most vocal in its opposition. They explicitly stated their opposition, publicly declaring that Spain's actions were a violation of Portugal's sovereignty as an independent nation.

British newspapers and media outlets were also frantically smearing Spain, portraying the negotiations between Portugal and Spain as a Spanish conspiracy, and even including the war between Britain and Spain in the narrative, claiming that both the Anglo-Spanish War and the alliance between Portugal and Spain were conspiracies by Spain to seize world hegemony.

In an effort to downplay Spain's responsibility for the defeat in the war, the British government went to great lengths. This propaganda did have some effect; at least some members of the British public genuinely believed that Spain's actions did not fully respect Portugal's sovereignty as an independent nation.

Of course, what the British public thought was not so important to Spain. The British government's opinion was also irrelevant, because at this point Britain was powerless to prevent the union of Portugal and Spain. Carlo wouldn't react to the British government's protests either, because only the weak resort to diplomatic protests; the strong engage in military action.

The British government's act of issuing only diplomatic protests effectively signifies their tacit acceptance that Portugal would eventually be annexed by Spain.

Their verbal attacks and propaganda campaigns are merely attempts to annoy Spain, create trouble for Spain's annexation of Portugal, and prevent Spain's plans from proceeding smoothly.

Unfortunately, the British misjudged the Portuguese perspective on the matter. As long as the Portuguese supported the union with Spain, no amount of British propaganda could affect the progress of the Portuguese-Spanish unification.

Compared to the British government's clear opposition, the French government's stance appeared somewhat ambiguous.

On the one hand, the French government is indeed concerned about Spain's current strength. Whether in terms of total steel production or industrial scale, Spain is now truly on par with France.

If a personal federation were to be formed with Portugal, this new country would surpass France by a significant margin in both industry and population.

Spain's military is also quite powerful; both its army and navy are among the strongest in the world.

To a certain extent, Spain and Germany are not so different. Even if France defeats Germany in this confrontation, it will still face the threat of an equally powerful Spain in the future.

This was not good news for France, and the French were unwilling to see Spain become stronger, as it would threaten France's post-war hegemony.

On the other hand, France urgently needed Spain's help at this time.

Russia suffered heavy losses as a result of this turmoil, and even Tsar Nicholas II's throne was somewhat precarious. Under such circumstances, Russia, as an ally, did not seem so reliable.

If war were to break out at this time, Germany would only need a small number of troops to hold off France, and then gather the elite troops of Austria-Hungary to defeat Russia in a short period of time, and the outcome of the war would be basically decided.

Without Russia sharing the military burden with Germany and Austria-Hungary, France alone could not compete with Germany.

This is where Spain's importance becomes apparent. If Spain could become an ally of France, even if Russia were defeated by Germany prematurely, France could, with Spain's help, buy more time.

Spanish troops could also enter French territory to help France fight against the German invasion.

At the same time, with the help of Spain's powerful navy, France could also blockade the Baltic Sea and harass the German coast.

Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy did not have many overseas colonies to begin with, so they could not, like France and Spain, channel large amounts of resources into their homeland through their colonies.

Once a naval blockade is achieved, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy will be left with nothing but wasted domestic resources. When their domestic reserves are exhausted, it will be France's turn to reap the rewards.

Even if France and Spain cannot gain absolute naval superiority, France can still connect to Morocco through Spain, thereby gaining access to the African continent.

A large amount of supplies from the African colonies could be transported to mainland France via this route, which was France's biggest advantage over Germany.

This is why, even though France was already wary of Spain's growing strength, they were still unwilling to give up their ally.

At least for the current French government, they still consider Germany the biggest threat. Defeating Germany is the most important thing right now, and France is willing to make concessions on certain issues in order to achieve this.

News of the negotiations between Portugal and Spain to form a personal federation quickly spread throughout the European continent, and apart from Britain's relatively explicit opposition, no other country took similar action.

Everyone was quite wise; knowing that Spain was already very powerful, no country was willing to offend Spain for no reason.

If Spain were merely a powerful land power, that would be one thing; separated by a powerful France, Spain posed no threat to other European countries.

However, Spain not only possesses a powerful army but also a powerful navy. With its navy alone, Spain's influence can extend to the whole of Europe and even the world.

Many small European countries also have kinship ties with Spain. Since Spain doesn't border them and poses no threat to their homelands, they naturally want to maintain good relations with Spain and gain the support of a powerful nation.

With the confirmation that there were no other countries besides the UK that explicitly opposed the proposal, Carlo breathed a sigh of relief and then turned his attention to negotiations between the Spanish and Portuguese governments.

Regarding the formation of a personal federation, the two governments have essentially reached a consensus. The current disagreements lie in the specific political structure of this federation and the respective powers that the Spanish and Portuguese governments should possess.

For the Spanish and Portuguese governments, there is currently a comparable example on the European continent: the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

As can be seen from the name Austro-Hungarian Empire, this country was actually jointly governed by the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary.

Although the Austrian Empire wielded greater influence, the Kingdom of Hungary also possessed its own government and a degree of autonomy.

The Portuguese government modeled its political structure on that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, creating a personal federation that it found acceptable.

However, some of the Portuguese government's demands were clearly unacceptable to the Spanish government. Since the goal was to form a personal federation, agreement on certain aspects was essential.

For example, in foreign policy, Portugal should stand firmly with Spain to ensure the unity and coordination of the two countries' policies.

Imagine if Spain, under a personal federal system, had poor relations with Britain, while Portugal had good relations with Britain—wouldn't that have led to chaos?

Whether it's forming an alliance or declaring war, Portugal should align itself with Spain to avoid creating divisions within the personal federation.

In terms of finance, Spain is still willing to grant Portugal a certain degree of sovereignty.

The main reason is that Portugal was not wealthy either. Despite having two large African colonies, the income from these two colonies was not high.

Portugal has little to no decent industry, and the government's annual fiscal revenue is very low, so Spain naturally doesn't care about it.

In military matters, Spain prefers to integrate Portugal's military forces and take over the defense of the Portuguese region.

To put it bluntly, Portugal's army and navy were utterly incompetent. The army's combat effectiveness was barely passable, and the navy was practically nonexistent.

The Portuguese Navy has not added any new warships for several years, including battleships costing millions of pounds as well as relatively inexpensive light cruisers.

Portugal's navy ranks relatively low among small and medium-sized European countries, and its African colonies use warships that were decades old and should have been decommissioned.

It's clear that relying on an army and navy like that to defend the Portuguese coast is impossible. No wonder Spain was able to execute the Lisbon landings so easily; any other country with a strong army and navy could have captured the Portuguese capital just as quickly.

　Second update, 5200 words! Requesting monthly votes and support!

　　Today's daily quota was successfully completed. Your support is appreciated!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)