Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 526 America's Ambition

As it turns out, quite a few countries are eager to see the British cause a stir. After the outbreak of the Irish War of Independence, the fervor surrounding this domestic civil war in Britain was even greater than that of the wars on both the Eastern and Western fronts of World War II.

The Irish lived up to expectations and quickly occupied large swathes of land in southern Ireland, showing a clear intention to completely drive the British out of Ireland.

Compared to European countries, the United States received news of the outbreak of the Irish War of Independence much later.

The US government only received the news after the Irish had repelled the British attack for the first time, and then began discussions.

The complex and intertwined history between the United States and Britain is a story that could fill an entire book. Although the United States was once a British colony, many Americans today are descendants of British immigrants.

However, the process of the United States gaining independence from British colonial rule was far from easy. The American Revolutionary War filled the new nation with hatred towards Britain, and the United States also coveted Canada, which was under British control.

One hundred years ago, the United States took advantage of Napoleon's rise to power to attempt to annex the British-controlled Canadian territory.

The end result was that Britain not only launched a counterattack against the United States, but also burned down the famous White House.

After the Americans renovated the White House, they painted the entire exterior wall white to cover up the traces of the fire, which is also the origin of the name White House.

These two historical periods alone show that the relationship between the United States and Britain was actually not very good.

After the news of the outbreak of the Irish War of Independence spread, many Americans actually hoped that Britain would be defeated in the war.

Among the various immigrant groups in the United States, in addition to Irish immigrants who unequivocally supported the Irish War of Independence, a large number of immigrants from France, Spain, and Russia also hoped that the government would support the Irish War of Independence.

In fact, when we get to this point, we have to mention the rather complex demographic composition of the United States.

In terms of population alone, the United States is definitely the second most populous country among the major powers, second only to Russia and far ahead of other European countries.

The problem is that almost all of the United States' 9700 million people are immigrants or their descendants. This is also related to the history of the United States, after all, it was once a British colony, and the Native Americans, as the native inhabitants, were almost completely wiped out by the colonists.

Immigration itself is not the problem, but the origins of immigrants to the United States are far too complex. While whites are the majority in the US, there are also significant numbers of Black and Asian people within the country.

Even the white population, which makes up the majority of the US population, can be divided into immigrant groups from different ethnic groups in various European countries.

It is worth mentioning that although the United States was once a British colony, British immigrants are not the largest immigrant group in the United States, and they are not even the second largest.

The two largest immigrant groups in the United States are German and Irish immigrants.

The large number of German immigrants is easy to understand. Firstly, the German region has a large population, which means there will be a larger number of immigrants.

Secondly, the German region has been unstable for nearly a century, with frequent wars leading to a large outflow of immigrants, the main destination of whom is the United States.

As for Ireland, a country with a local population of just over 400 million, the reason why it has become the second largest group of immigrants to the United States is due to the Irish famine.

The British government did not provide the Irish with a way to survive during the Irish famine, which is why a large number of Irish people chose to emigrate abroad.

Today, there are millions of Irish immigrants in the United States, more than the native population of Ireland.

It is no exaggeration to say that, apart from German immigrants, Irish immigrants have the most influence among American immigrant groups.

With millions of Irish immigrants unequivocally supporting the Irish War of Independence, even the U.S. government had to consider the opinions of so many people.

Because US presidential elections involve campaigning for votes, this essentially means that whichever presidential candidate publicly supports the Irish War of Independence will generally gain the support and votes of a large Irish immigrant community.

Even if the US government and the president are not interested in supporting these Irish people, the opposition parties and other presidential candidates will inevitably have to consider the opinions of these Irish immigrants.

More importantly, supporting the Irish War of Independence might not be bad news for the United States.

Like the Napoleonic Wars a century earlier, this war presented a golden opportunity for the United States to expand its territory. As for the target of this expansion, it was, of course, Cuba, a land the United States had been eyeing for decades.

The United States had designs on Cuba as early as when it was a Spanish colony. However, before the United States could wait for Spain to weaken to its core, Spain had already transferred the Cuban colony to Britain.

The United States didn't even dare to attack Spain, let alone the clearly more powerful Britain. This meant that the US government could only watch with envy as its Cuban colony, so close to home, coveted it, but dared not even consider offending the British government.

Now is clearly a good time, as Britain is busy suppressing rebellions in its Indian colonies and Ireland and may not be able to spare the resources to deal with the Cuban colony.

Besides, with the world war having progressed to this point, it's about time for the US government to take sides.

If the United States doesn't take sides, it will truly become a spectator in a world war and won't reap any benefits after the war ends.

The US government is still very ambitious. With the largest industrial scale and nearly 100 million people, the United States is not willing to be a bystander in a world war.

The President of the United States at that time was Thomas Woodrow Wilson, a figure who is quite famous in American history.

What is most talked about is that Wilson used the slogan "He kept us away from the battlefield" during the 1916 presidential election, and then suppressed the anti-war faction after being elected president, and single-handedly pushed the United States into the world war.

Even the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations, was proposed by Wilson. Unfortunately, although the United States was the proposer of the League of Nations, the US Senate did not vote to allow the United States to join, which meant that the United States was not a member of the League of Nations after World War I, seriously affecting the United States' influence in the postwar era.

Although the US presidential election is next year, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, the US president at this time, clearly has other ideas.

This is not the same period in history. In 1916, the World War had only been going on for two years.

But now, although it is only 1915, the world war has lasted for nearly three years, and the situation of the war is relatively clear.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson, as President of the United States, certainly had his own ambitions. Although his rise to the presidency was partly due to good fortune, given that the competition between two strong contenders, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, split the Republican vote, allowing Wilson, the Democratic candidate, to become President of the United States.

But now that he had become President of the United States, Wilson naturally wanted to achieve something.

No achievement is greater than territorial expansion, and for the United States, Cuba, so close to home, is naturally a land it dreams of owning.

Besides Cuba, the United States also wanted control of the Panama Canal, which was previously under British control. The Panama Canal today is different from its historical counterpart; sovereignty and operational rights are now divided among the three major powers: Britain, France, and Spain.

Although the Panama Canal is very important to the United States, the US does not control any shares in the canal and is forced to pay substantial annual tolls and usage fees to Britain, France, and Spain. This has been a sore point for successive US presidents.

France and Spain are not easy to deal with; at least the US government is not confident it can defeat them.

This is not only because France and Spain have a significant advantage on the western front, but also because the size of the French and Spanish land and sea forces far exceeds that of the United States.

But the United States could not afford to lose control of the Panama Canal, so it had no choice but to turn its attention to Britain.

This is not to say that Britain was easy to deal with, but rather that Britain alone was clearly not as much of a threat as France and Spain.

After all, Britain was still dealing with the Indian independence movement and the Irish War of Independence, and it was in a precarious situation, barely able to save itself.

Annexing Cuba would require opposing Britain, and seizing control of the Panama Canal would also require opposing Britain. In this light, the US government seems to be at odds with Britain, and is forced to stand on the opposite side.

As President of the United States, Thomas Woodrow Wilson was keenly aware of this, which led to his ideas being completely different from those of his contemporaries.

At least at this point in time, Wilson, as President of the United States, does not want to continue to use the peace banner.

While supporting peace may garner support from a large number of anti-war advocates, it also means that the United States will be completely excluded from the post-World War II division of spoils.

More importantly, if the United States had not annexed Cuba and seized the Panama Canal during this world war, it would have had even less of a chance to do so after the war ended.

Regardless of who ultimately wins the world war, one thing is certain: superpowers like Britain, Germany, France, and Spain cannot possibly disintegrate because of a single world war.

In President Wilson's view, the final outcome of a world war might be like the Franco-Prussian War, where the defeated nation would lose some territory and be burdened with huge debts.

However, these losses were not crippling for the superpowers. Even if Britain were the defeated party, it would still be fully capable of holding onto its Cuban colony and the Panama Canal.

President Wilson was indeed tempted by the only opportunity the United States had to annex the Cuban colony and gain control of a stake in the Panama Canal.

While he was tempted, President Wilson had to probe the attitudes of the Allied Powers before making a final diplomatic decision.

The US government would not be so reckless as to join the war; at the very least, it would need to negotiate the benefits of joining the war with the Allied powers beforehand.

In particular, regarding the Cuban colony and the British-controlled stake in the Panama Canal, President Wilson hoped to gain the support of France and Spain to ensure that the United States would not end up with nothing.

Under the president's orders, the U.S. ambassador to Spain began to take action.

The reason for contacting the Spanish government first was actually due to Spain's importance to the entire Allied Powers.

It is no exaggeration to say that Spain's current status among the Allied Powers is higher than that of either France or Russia.

This was not only because Spain possessed an extremely powerful army and navy, but also because Spain provided the Allied Powers with a large amount of weaponry and other supplies.

Without Spain's material support, both the eastern and western fronts would have been silent for a period of time.

The US government was well aware of who was in control of Spain, so the US ambassador's first stop was Carlo.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the US ambassador finally hinted at the purpose of his visit and expressed his desire to hear Spain's opinion.

Carlo had anticipated the arrival of the US government, after all, the United States was destined to join the world war, both historically and in the world at large.

This is not only because of the United States' ambition to become the world's hegemon, but also because the current world war can bring huge benefits to the victorious countries.

As mentioned before, the current strength of the United States is somewhat exaggerated. Although the United States boasts the world's largest industrial scale and a remarkably powerful economy.

However, European capital played a significant role in the rise of the United States, and the American economy can be said to be controlled by European capital.

European capital holds a large amount of US debt. Although the US economy appears prosperous, many industries are actually heavily indebted.

To reverse this situation, it is necessary to participate in the war, win the war, and then abolish some of the debts of the defeated country in order to effectively reverse the situation.

Participating in the war had another advantage: it allowed the United States to directly enter the vast market of the world war. Having a large industrial base alone was useless; a sufficiently large market was needed to absorb American industrial production.

The economic crisis broke out precisely because industrial capacity far exceeded market consumption. Whether it was to reduce the possibility of an economic crisis or simply to make money from other European countries, the US government hoped to join the huge market of the world war and export large quantities of arms and other strategic materials.

To be honest, Carlo didn't want the United States to get involved in a world war. After all, the United States at that time only had a huge industrial base and economy; its military strength was, to put it mildly, a complete mess.

If the United States were to participate in a world war, its industry and economy would translate into military strength. With a population of hundreds of millions, the US could easily mobilize millions of troops, and its vast industrial base could rapidly build a large number of warships.

Although the technology used in these warships cannot match the most advanced warships in Europe, their sheer number is enough to create a formidable navy.

For the United States today, participating in a world war would certainly have far more advantages than disadvantages. After all, it's difficult to guarantee the combat effectiveness of a military in a country that hasn't experienced a large-scale war for a long time.

However, considering that the United States' entry into the war would bring even greater trouble to the British, given that the Cuban colony was also quite important to Britain, Britain certainly could not tolerate such American expansion.

Spain could agree to the US entering the war, but the US would have to take the land it wanted.

Given Britain's emphasis on Cuba and the situation in the Americas, the United States' desire to annex the Cuban colony might necessitate another war between the two nations.

It would be good to let Britain and the United States wear each other down; it would cause some trouble for the British and prevent the United States from sending a large number of troops to Europe.

Considering the US Senate's bizarre move to block the US from joining the League of Nations, if the plan is well-planned, even if the US joins a world war, it will have no say in the subsequent world situation.

(End of this chapter)