Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 521 Laying Out India
More than two years have passed since the outbreak of World War II, a super war mainly focused on Europe that has attracted the attention of countries all over the world.

Now, of the world's eight major powers, only one power not located in Europe has not yet joined the war: the United States, located in North America.

In fact, the United States' initial goal was to take advantage of the chaos in the European war and, incidentally, sell off various military supplies and materials to make a lot of money.

But the Americans' plan quickly backfired. Because Britain and Spain had not yet joined the war, trade between the Central Powers and the Allied Powers was almost monopolized by Britain and Spain.

Although the United States possessed a powerful industry, neither the Allied nor Central Powers seemed to be interested in it during the war. Everyone had readily available, more geographically accessible alternatives, so naturally, no one considered crossing oceans to find producers.

The US government wasn't too disappointed after its initial profit-making plans fell through. After all, Britain and Spain would join the war sooner or later, and once those two countries were involved, no single nation could monopolize European trade.

After waiting for more than a year, the Americans finally saw Britain and Spain join the war.

But for the United States, things didn't seem to have changed much. Apart from occasionally selling some low-value rifles and ammunition to the Allied and Central Powers, neither the Allies nor the Central Powers seemed interested in cooperating with the United States in other areas.

The United States is currently the only major power that has not participated in the war, but ironically, no military bloc has any intention of courting the United States.

The underlying principle remains the same. Although the United States possesses a massive industrial base and a developed economy, it is simply too far removed from Europe.

Military strength is paramount in warfare, and the United States' current military strength can only be described as utterly disastrous. Decades have passed since the American Civil War, and the U.S. Army has returned to a size of tens of thousands.

Even if the United States were to join the war now, what role could it play?

The United States mobilized millions of troops to Europe, but these troops served a similar purpose to the colonial armies of countries like Britain, France, and Spain, and were likely to be cannon fodder.

The US government, feeling undervalued by Europe, is quite frustrated, but there's nothing they can do about it. They can only continue to wait until Europe truly needs the US, at which point the US will have a choice.

Carlo was actually quite aware of the United States' high level of concern about the war in Europe. He even secretly facilitated the alliance between Spain and Britain to monopolize European trade.

The biggest difference between today's world war and those in history is that the United States has played absolutely no role in this world war.

This is the best news for Spain, at least the rise of the United States will not be so fast, and Spain will not have to worry about the threat posed by the United States after the war.

Britain was aware of Spain's wariness of the United States. However, the British government's tacit choice to monopolize European trade with Spain actually demonstrated that Britain was also secretly wary of the United States.

The reason is simple: the United States and Germany are currently the only two countries that can surpass Britain in terms of industry and economy.

Fortunately, Britain still had its Indian colony; otherwise, relying solely on its homeland, Germany and the United States would have long since left Britain far behind.

Under such circumstances, it was only natural for Britain to be wary of the United States. Although the United States had once been a British colony, the British government certainly did not want to see the United States, which had once been merely its colony, one day rise above it.

Although Spain and Britain share a considerable understanding in their wariness of the United States, this does not mean that Carlos will show any mercy when dealing with Britain.

On the contrary, Carlo's covert tactics against Britain will only increase over time.

With France replacing its Chief of the General Staff, the time came to November 1914.

By this time, nearly two and a half years had passed since the outbreak of the World War. Even Spain and Britain, which had joined the war midway, had sent millions of troops to the battlefield.

According to the Spanish Royal Security Intelligence Service, hundreds of thousands of British troops, mobilized and trained on the British mainland, are about to be deployed to the western front, which means that the defense capabilities of the British mainland are currently relatively weak.

The brutality of the Western Front was shocking. While the British government was constantly mobilizing troops at home, it was also constantly mobilizing and forming colonial armies composed of natives in various colonies.

Of all the British colonies, India had the largest population. It is well known that the British colonists never treated Indians as human beings.

With such a large population, India was seen by the British as a natural pool of millions of cannon fodder. Transporting all of these cannon fodder to the battlefield, even with a casualty ratio of 10:1, would still inflict hundreds of thousands of casualties on the Allied Powers.

From the British perspective, this was a win-win situation, since these Indians were of no use to Britain, and too many of them would only pose unnecessary threats and troubles to British colonies.

Consequently, Britain has conducted round after round of mobilization in its Indian colonies, and has already dispatched hundreds of thousands of colonial troops to the Middle East and Europe, and is still mobilizing.

Compared to the British government's mobilization efforts on its home soil, the colonial government's mobilization in India was far more brutal. The colonial government didn't even establish conscription offices; it relied entirely on arrests to supply large numbers of cannon fodder to the front lines.

The colonial government wouldn't consider the wishes of the Indians. Its mission was simply to send enough men to the front lines; whether those men returned from the battlefield was not its concern.

The colonial government's brutal mobilization efforts provoked widespread outcry and strong opposition within India.

One particularly famous party that deserves mention is the Indian National Congress, led by Mahatma Gandhi, India's renowned national leader.

Speaking of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a figure often regarded as a national hero, his story is actually quite fascinating.

Of course, how absurd his story was was irrelevant to Spain. What mattered was Gandhi's immense prestige in India, which would greatly benefit Carlo and Spain's plans.

When discussing India's resistance against Britain before and after World War I, one cannot ignore the famous nonviolent non-cooperation movement.

The nonviolent noncooperation movement was simple in its content: first and foremost, it advocated nonviolence, meaning not to use violent means to resist British colonial rule.

Secondly, there was non-cooperation, calling on the Indian people to completely sever cooperation with the British government, stop importing British goods, relinquish all titles and peerages granted by the British government, resign from all British-established government agencies, and refuse to pay taxes to the British government, etc.

Although both nonviolent non-cooperation movements ultimately failed, they had a relatively positive effect on the history of Indian resistance against British colonial rule.

Although the historical nonviolent non-cooperation movement occurred in 1920, this does not preclude the possibility of earlier Indian resistance against Britain. Like Ireland, India had long harbored resentment towards British colonial rule, but it had not yet escalated into a large-scale rebellion.

This is not important to Spain. The current situation in India, with just a little guidance, could easily trigger a nonviolent non-cooperation movement, giving the British a headache.

More importantly, if India's nonviolent non-cooperation movement and Ireland's war of independence were to break out at the same time, it would be a hellish situation for the British government.

It was impossible for the British government to simultaneously resolve the Irish War of Independence and the Indian nonviolent non-cooperation movement while also sending large numbers of troops to the Western Front. This meant that the British government had to selectively abandon one of the internal turmoil and external war.

This is the gift Carlo prepared for the British government. He either doesn't give anything, or he gives something big.

In November 1914, after much effort, agents of the Spanish Royal Security Intelligence Service finally met with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a famous figure in India.

Gandhi was born in 1869 and is only 45 years old now, which is quite young.

Although very young, Gandhi had a remarkably impressive resume. He was born into a Hindu family; his father was the prime minister of a local princely state in India.

When Gandhi was 19, he chose to go to England to study British law, secretly seeking opportunities for Indian independence.

In 1893, Gandhi completed his studies and chose to go to South Africa to help the Indians there fight against racial discrimination.

Although South Africa is far from India, there is a large Indian population in the South African region.

After all, both South Africa and India were British colonies. In order to control the large number of black people in South Africa, the British encouraged people of Asian descent to become police officers.

This also led to a large number of Indians migrating to South Africa and becoming part of the British armed forces in the country.

Although many Indians have become police officers, the treatment of Indian police officers is vastly different from that of British police officers.

Needless to say, the salary of a British policeman is generally more than the combined salaries of several Indian policemen.

The biggest difference lies in the status of British and Indian police. Indian police officers generally perform the lowest and most arduous jobs, and even if they make any contributions, the credit is often divided among the British police officers above them.

British police could not only beat and verbally abuse Indian police at will, but also, when in a bad mood, could arbitrarily execute Indian police officers.

Especially when tensions between whites and blacks are high in South Africa, some Indian police officers who manage black communities on behalf of whites are often abandoned by whites to appease the anger of local blacks.

This is actually one of the reasons why Gandhi went to South Africa and fought against racial discrimination on behalf of the local Indians.

He put forward the slogan of nonviolent resistance while in South Africa, in order to avoid strong intervention from the British government.

At the time, the British government had few competitors and was the undisputed world superpower. Even though Gandhi openly advocated nonviolent resistance, his anti-racism struggle in South Africa did not achieve much success.

Indians and Indian police remain at the bottom of the social hierarchy in South Africa, receiving only slightly better treatment than Black people.

Although the struggle did not achieve great results, Gandhi's personal trip to South Africa to fight for the rights of Indians still won him a lot of goodwill from Indians and also boosted his reputation.

After the outbreak of World War II, Gandhi saw an opportunity for India to gain independence and immediately returned to India.

Upon returning to India, Gandhi quickly became a leading figure in the Indian National Congress due to his immense popularity among the people.

After the Spanish Royal Security Intelligence Service (RSIS) contacted Gandhi, he quickly understood the Spanish's intentions.

As a renowned national leader of India, and revered as the Mahatma of India by later generations, Gandhi was certainly quite clear-headed.

He understood that the Spanish did not intend to support Indian independence, but rather to use the opportunity of Indian independence to create more trouble for the British government.

As for whether India can actually gain independence in this opportunity, the Spanish would absolutely not care, nor would they ever truly help India achieve independence.

In any case, with Britain mired in the quagmire of the World War, the fact that the Congress Party could still gain the support of Spain was, in Gandhi's view, an excellent opportunity.

Even if it cannot win independence for India, it can at least awaken the fighting spirit and enthusiasm of some Indians to resist British colonial rule, paving the way for a larger-scale independence movement in the future.

With little hesitation, Gandhi and the Indian National Congress quickly agreed to Spain's demands.

Spain is willing to provide a batch of weapons and equipment to the Indian National Congress led by Gandhi, on the condition that the Indian National Congress launch an independence movement in India within six months.

To expand the independence movement, Spain is also willing to provide funding to the Indian National Congress to help them recruit more Indians to join the movement.

According to Gandhi's nonviolent plan, the Indian independence movement he planned did not require weapons or equipment; it relied entirely on nonviolent means and marches to achieve its goals.

However, the funding provided by Spain was still very helpful to Gandhi.

These funds will help the Indian National Congress develop more quickly. With money in hand, more Indians can be recruited to join the revolutionary movement. For this reason alone, it is a win-win situation for the Indian National Congress.

After internal discussions, the Indian National Congress quickly agreed to Spain's demands, stating that it would launch a large-scale independence movement in India within six months to cause some trouble for the British.

(End of this chapter)