Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 527 Plotting for Britain

Spain's stance on the conditions proposed by the Americans was already quite clear. Spain allowed the United States to join the Allied Powers in the war against Britain and Germany, and also allowed the United States to occupy the British colony of Cuba and take over British shares in the Panama Canal.

But all of this depended on the United States sending its own troops to occupy these territories. The Allied Powers would not send a single soldier to help the United States, nor would they interfere in the war between the United States and Great Britain.

Carlo's purpose was quite clear: he wanted the United States and Britain to wear each other down, to fight like dogs, so that Spain could reap the benefits from behind the scenes.

The US government was certainly aware of Carlo's ideas, but it did not have a better option at the moment.

While the United States could join the Allies, the Allies are currently at a disadvantage. Unless the United States can mobilize millions of troops to help the Allies reverse their decline, joining the Allies would be futile and would not change the landscape of the European theater.

For U.S. President Thomas Woodrow Wilson, his premise for joining the World War was to ensure that the United States was on the winning side, rather than gambling with the fate of the United States in this world war.

This is a completely different attitude, which led the United States to clearly favor the Allied Powers when choosing between allies and allies.

Although unrest had broken out in Russia, the situation on the Eastern Front was unlikely to collapse anytime soon. Moreover, the Irish War of Independence had broken out in Britain, and if the Irish were to win, Britain's situation might not be much better than Russia's.

The US government was keenly aware that if it did not join the world war now, it might not be so easy to join it in the future.

After all, with the situation completely clear, the victorious nation is unwilling to have another country share the spoils for no reason.

After the U.S. ambassador relayed Carlo's stance to the government, President Wilson and several of his close confidants held lengthy discussions and ultimately decided to push for the United States to join the World War, hoping to catch the last train of the war.

However, unlike European countries, the power of the US president is not as great as one might imagine. Just as the League of Nations proposed by President Wilson ultimately did not include the United States, even the US president has no right to declare war on other countries if a proposal to do so is not approved by the Senate.

After discussion, President Wilson and his confidants agreed that in order to push the United States into a world war, it was necessary to cultivate public opinion within the United States and make more Americans lean towards the war faction rather than the peace faction.

While cultivating domestic pro-war public opinion, it was also necessary to suppress the anti-war faction. In reality, most people opposed the war, which is why President Wilson was able to win the 1916 US presidential election with his clear anti-war stance.

President Wilson faces numerous challenges in aligning himself with the pro-war camp. Of course, given the ongoing Irish War of Independence, a clearer stance in support of Irish independence would likely garner him a large number of votes from Irish voters.

As the second largest group in the United States, the Irish could gain greater security by securing the support of Irish immigrants to push the United States into a world war.

However, one thing that must be guarded against is the opposition from German Americans, who are the largest immigrant group in the United States.

Although the United States does not want to be on the opposite side of Germany, if it joins the Allied Powers, it will also need to declare war on Germany.

If the US and Germany were to go to war, these nearly ten million German immigrants in the US would become the vanguard in opposing President Wilson.

How to deal with these nearly ten million German immigrants became President Wilson's primary challenge. This was no joke; mishandling the situation could lead to opposition from these immigrants and force President Wilson to resign.

Although this is a relatively tricky problem, it is not a big problem for a capable politician.

The opposition of nearly ten million German immigrants could force President Wilson to step down, so why not just prevent these nearly ten million German immigrants from having an effective voice?

The political power of each immigrant group is not determined by its total number of members, but by the number of members of parliament and the power of capital that each immigrant group possesses.

The US government is not incapable of resolving the problems caused by these nearly ten million German immigrants. After all, the US was historically a member of the Allied Powers, which means that previous US governments have also faced this challenge.

How have US governments throughout history dealt with these difficult problems?
In fact, the simplest solution is to isolate the German immigrant community and completely abolish their political power.

Throughout World War I and World War II, the German immigrant community was the most isolated and persecuted among all white immigrant groups in the United States.

On the one hand, it is because the home countries of these German immigrants, Germany, are in an adversarial relationship with the United States; on the other hand, it is because the US high command is indeed afraid of the opposition from these German immigrants.

As the saying goes, preemptive strikes are the best policy. If these German immigrants are effectively isolated and all Americans spontaneously oppose all their claims, they will be unable to pose any threat to the U.S. government.

If they support Germany and oppose the US government, all Americans will regard them as traitors and believe that they have no feelings for the United States.

The US government, which pushed the US to oppose Germany, naturally bears no responsibility. As long as the US can gain some benefits after the war, then participating in the world war is the right thing to do.

The opposition from German immigrants was driven by self-interest; the more they opposed the US government's participation in the war, the stronger their self-interest became.

Historically, the US government has done this, and the current US government, led by Wilson, has adopted the same approach.

Unfortunately, for the sake of national interests, the interests of a small minority must be sacrificed. Although German immigrants are the largest immigrant group in the United States, they still only make up about one-tenth of the total U.S. population.

The US government cannot completely ignore its own interests for the sake of this one-tenth of the German-American population. Unless Germany is in a dominant position at that time, the only ones who will be sacrificed are the German-American immigrants.

After discussions, the US government quickly agreed to Carlo's demands, namely that the US itself should fight for the Cuban colony and the Panama Canal.

For the US government, such conditions are perfectly reasonable. The US government cannot rely solely on the strength of its allies to expand its territory.

Only land that one has personally occupied truly belongs to oneself. If Spain and France were to send troops to occupy Cuba, the US government would worry that the two countries would control Cuba and refuse to return it to them.

As for the potential large number of casualties that might result from participating in the war, that is indeed not a big problem for the United States, a country with a population approaching 100 million.

As long as the US government doesn't suffer millions of casualties, even if hundreds of thousands die on the front lines, it's just a drop in the ocean.

Given that the United States can absorb a large number of immigrants every year, even if it were to participate in a world war, the US population would still be in a net increase every year.

This is completely different from other European countries. Spain is an exception; apart from Spain, the population of most European countries experienced negative growth during the years they were involved in the World War.

Even Britain, which only entered the war in the later stages, experienced negative population growth every year after joining the war.

Not to mention countries like France, Germany, and Russia, which suffered extremely heavy casualties. On the one hand, the massive casualties caused by the war led to a sharp decline in the populations of France, Germany, and Russia. On the other hand, many people who did not support the war chose to emigrate, which is actually the reason for the surge in German immigrants in the United States.

After discussions with Carlo and the Spanish government, the US government contacted the French government, and the three governments discussed in detail the power structure of the Allied Powers after the US joined, as well as the impact on the turmoil in Russia on a small scale.

In contrast to Spain's caution regarding the United States' entry into the war, the French government was very excited and delighted about the idea of ​​the United States joining the Allied Powers.

For the French government, the threats from the United States are actually not that important. Firstly, the current French government has already suffered considerable losses, and a victorious France is unlikely to have the resources to contend for European dominance.

On the other hand, unlike the UK and the US, which share a common lineage but have a strained relationship, the US and France have historically maintained a relatively good relationship.

Leaving aside Louis XVI, who risked his life to help the United States win the War of Independence, the subsequent support France provided to the United States alone is enough to demonstrate the good relationship between the two governments.

Of course, the French weren't entirely without ulterior motives. France's consistent support for the United States was precisely to create some trouble for the British.

However, the United States has never been a problem for Britain. Although the United States won the War of Independence, it was firmly confined to the North American region, and its influence could not reach Europe, so it could not pose a threat to Britain.

Now that the United States has finally come up with the idea of ​​participating in a world war and joining the Allied Powers, the French government naturally supports it.

Besides the United States' own excellent industrial and economic strength, another reason is the large-scale protests currently taking place in Russia.

In reality, the demonstrations in Russia had ceased to be demonstrations at all. With Nicholas II announcing a strong crackdown on the protests, the demonstrations, initially driven by workers' unions, had evolved into armed uprisings erupting across the country.

The workers participating in the protests had no other choice. Even if they didn't take up arms against the government, the government's sword would fall on their heads.

Rather than waiting for the government to suppress the protests and then settle scores, it's better to take up arms and choose your own destiny.

Things were relatively good around St. Petersburg, as it was the stronghold of the Tsarist government and had many troops stationed nearby, so order in the capital could be maintained.

Further east, however, the situation had descended into chaos. Moscow, in particular, a major Russian city, was now on the verge of falling under the control of the revolutionary army.

Because this area is located in the rear of Tsarist Russia, a large number of troops were mobilized to the front lines, and the number of troops stationed around Moscow was quite small.

The revolutionaries seized this opportunity and, taking advantage of the public resentment caused by the Tsarist government's forceful suppression of the demonstrations, incited a large number of workers to storm Moscow's weapons depots, ultimately leading to a large-scale armed uprising.

Before the US government approached France, France was deeply concerned about the unrest within Russia. The US government's proactive intervention has brought some relief to the French government.

While the United States could not completely replace Russia, it could still play a significant role for the Entente Powers. This also meant that even if Russia withdrew from the war due to internal strife, the Entente Powers would not descend into chaos.

Germany might be able to use this opportunity to win the war on the Eastern Front, but the Western Front would still be dominated by the Allied Powers.

Moreover, the Allied Powers did achieve some results during this period; at least the joint offensive of the Balkan states against Austria-Hungary has yielded significant results.

With a little more effort, they might have been able to force Austria-Hungary to surrender even before Russia withdrew from the war.

In this way, even if Russia withdrew from the war, the Allied Powers could maintain their advantage on the battlefield and thus win the war.

President Wilson was finally relieved to learn that Spain and France had supported the United States in declaring war on Britain and occupying the Cuban colony.

Although the French government suffered heavy losses in the war, it, like Spain, would not send troops to help the United States fight against Britain.

However, the US government did not expect France and Spain to send troops. For territories like the Cuban colony, which were on its doorstep, the US had to send troops to fight for them.

After securing the support of Spain and France, Thomas Woodrow Wilson decided to make final preparations in the United States, pushing public opinion to support the US government's declaration of war, and incidentally using public opinion to push Britain and Germany to the opposite side of the United States.

This is also the biggest drawback of the separation of powers in the United States; the president doesn't actually have that much real power. Before President Wilson could declare war on Britain, he had to instill widespread public resentment towards Britain in order to gain the support of the people and the Senate.

If President Wilson had simply declared war blindly, the spittle of the opposition and anti-war factions alone would have been enough to drown him and his staff.

For the Allied Powers, the fact that they needed time to prepare was good news. Britain was currently preoccupied with the Irish War of Independence, and its focus on the Americas was bound to diminish.

If the news of the United States' preparation to join the Allied Powers is kept well secret, it will inevitably throw Britain into chaos when the United States declares war in the future.

Of course, all of this is contingent on Ireland holding out for a period of time and not being defeated by Britain before the United States declares war on Britain.

On this point, Carlo also instructed the Spanish government to have lengthy discussions with the French and American governments, and they eventually reached an agreement on when the United States should declare war.

The US government needed several months to prepare, during which time France and Spain would do everything in their power to support the Irish War of Independence and reduce British attention to the situation in the Americas.

Once the U.S. government completes its war preparations, it will immediately declare war on Britain, thereby seizing the opportunity to occupy the Cuban colony.

As long as the British government is unprepared for a sudden declaration of war by the United States, the occupation of the Cuban colony by the United States is inevitable.

After losing its Cuban colony, Britain certainly needed to respond and retaliate against the United States' declaration of war. Otherwise, the entire situation in North America would truly be dictated by the United States.

If Britain does not retaliate against the United States’ declaration of war, the US government will no longer be limited to annexing the Cuban colony, but will instead set its sights on the much larger Canadian colony.

For Britain, losing Cuba was one thing, but losing Canada would be a devastating blow.

This can be considered another great gift prepared for Britain. With the Indian independence movement, the Irish War of Independence, and the United States' declaration of war, coupled with the decline of the Allied forces on the Western Front, a series of troubles followed one after another, and Carlo didn't even know how the British government should solve these problems.

(End of this chapter)