Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 548 Peace Negotiation
Seeing that the British government was unwilling to make many concessions in its initial contact with the Allied Powers, Carlo decided to use his methods to make Britain understand their current situation.

The method was actually quite simple: to reveal to the outside world the contacts between the German government and the Allied Powers.

Whether or not the German people believed that their government had made contact with the enemy, the British government had no choice but to believe it.

This could be considered a threat to the British government. It clearly told the British government that if Britain was unwilling to pay a significant price in peace negotiations, the Allied Powers were fully capable of engaging in peace negotiations with Germany.

As for Britain's situation after Germany withdrew from the war, that was not something the Allied Powers should consider.

If Britain had remained obstinate and allowed Germany to negotiate peace with the Allied Powers and sign a peace agreement before Britain, Britain would likely have faced an attack from many of the Allied nations.

It is believed that the British government and the new British Prime Minister David Lloyd George can understand these principles. Whether to continue the stalemate for the sake of some interests that can be given up, or to get out of the situation as soon as possible, depends on the choice of the British government.

Sure enough, when Spain revealed that Germany had already made contact with the Allied Powers, the British government finally began to panic.

Although Germany did a good job of keeping this secret, the British government was well aware that Germany was very likely to engage in peace negotiations with the Allied Powers.

After all, the power struggles within the German army were already well-known. With the Junker aristocracy in control of the military, some matters of the German government were no longer up to Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Given the good relations between Germany and Austria-Hungary, as well as the kinship ties between the Austro-Hungarian royal family and the royal families of Spain and Italy, the British government still had considerable concerns.

Spain's role in the Allied Powers is now irreplaceable, yet there are significant conflicts between Britain and Spain.

On the contrary, Germany, which started this world war, had little conflict with Spain, making peace negotiations easier.

At this point, it was no longer time to consider the outcome of a world war. With its own interests severely threatened, Germany, as an ally, was no longer important to Britain.

On July 22, 1915, the British government once again sent diplomatic representatives to Spain, France and other countries, hoping to immediately begin peace negotiations with the Allied Powers to end the war.

In conversations with the governments of Spain, France, and other countries, the British government first mentioned the reasons for the outbreak of the war, stating that Germany was the main culprit in instigating the war.

The British government is willing to immediately withdraw all British troops from the European continent and pay war reparations of no less than £1 million to end the war.

In addition to voluntarily withdrawing from the war, the British government was also willing to cede all Irish territory south of the Tyrell-Ammar line to the Republic of Ireland, recognize the Republic of Ireland's legitimacy, and endorse Ireland's independence.

The British government appeared quite distressed when it presented these conditions. After all, Ireland is a large country, and the land Britain was willing to cede was nearly 7 square kilometers, almost a third of Great Britain.

Although Ireland's industrial scale is not large, it is indeed a very important grain-producing region in the UK.

If Britain loses most of Ireland, its future food production will decrease significantly, and food prices will also increase to some extent.

Such a price is already quite heavy in the eyes of the British government. After all, Ireland is also part of the United Kingdom. If there were no other choice, the British government would never have ceded Ireland.

However, the Allied powers, led by Spain and France, believed that the British government was willing to pay far too little.

The cession of nearly 7 square kilometers of land in Ireland may seem like a heavy price to pay, but the problem is that the Republic of Ireland had already occupied these lands, including the five northern counties that Britain was unwilling to cede.

Under such circumstances, the British government's desire to preserve several counties in northern Ireland was seen by Spain and France as a clear lack of sincerity.

How should we respond to the UK's clearly insincere peace negotiations?

The simplest way would be to directly reject Britain's peace negotiations, and then send a fleet to patrol the British coast twice, so that the British government would understand the Allied Powers' attitude.

As expected, the British government finally behaved itself after the Allied fleet arrived off the coast of Britain.

Before relations between Britain and Germany broke down, the British Royal Fleet could still cooperate with the German fleet to fight against the invasion of the Allied fleet.

But now Britain and Germany each have their own agendas, and Germany's high seas fleet is unlikely to go all out to help Britain fight against the Allied invasion, just as Britain's Royal Fleet is unlikely to go to the German coast to help Germany.

Unable to obtain assistance from the German High Seas Fleet, even though the British Royal Fleet was comparable in size to the Allied fleet, Britain would absolutely not dare to send the Royal Fleet to drive out the Allied fleet.

The Allied fleet was a joint naval force composed of countries such as Spain, France, and Italy. Even if a few dreadnoughts were lost, the impact on any single country would not be significant.

But Britain was different. The British Royal Fleet was built by Britain itself, and the cost of losing a few dreadnoughts was too heavy for the British government to bear.

Especially given Britain's desire for peace negotiations with the Allied Powers, heavy naval losses at this time would only leave Britain feeling insecure at the negotiating table.

However, in the eyes of the British public, such behavior was nothing short of utter weakness and incompetence. The British public had initially held some hope for the newly appointed David Lloyd George cabinet, but after the Allied fleet patrolled the British coast with great fanfare while the Royal Navy made no move to respond, public trust and support for the government dwindled.

British Prime Minister David Lloyd George was well aware that this situation was not sustainable and would only weaken public support and reduce the government's prestige and influence.

Left with no other option, David Lloyd George contacted the British ambassadors to Spain and France to revise the British government's peace terms.

Firstly, regarding Ireland, Britain is willing to completely cede Ireland, recognize the independence of the Republic of Ireland, and guarantee that it will not use this as a pretext to invade Ireland in the future.

In addition, Britain increased its share of war reparations to £5 million. Even before the outbreak of the World War, the British government's total annual revenue was only around £2 million, and considering the huge expenditures on colonies and the navy, the actual fiscal surplus was only tens of millions of pounds.

If converted to francs and pesetas, the £5 million in reparations would be equivalent to 75 billion francs and pesetas before the war, which is a huge sum of money.

Although the conditions proposed by the British government did not meet the expectations of the Allied Powers, the British government at least demonstrated a certain degree of sincerity, which Spain and France were relatively satisfied with.

If the British government still believes it can withdraw from the war at a minimal cost, Carlo would only tell it that it is wishful thinking.

However, if the British government is willing to pay a high price to end the war, it would actually be a worthwhile deal for Spain and France.

After all, Britain's core support base hasn't been significantly shaken, and continuing to drag things out with Britain might not be a good thing.

If Britain were to recklessly help Germany win the World War, even if the Allied Powers ultimately prevail, they would certainly pay an even heavier price.

To reiterate, war is merely a diplomatic tool. Whether it's purely diplomatic or military, it ultimately comes down to the negotiating table.

After confirming that Britain was sincere in its willingness to negotiate peace with Spain, Spain put forward new demands: to annex all British colonies along the Persian Gulf coast and to take over the operation and management of the Suez Canal.

The Persian Gulf coast possesses extremely rich oil and natural gas reserves. With the automotive industry already quite developed and aircraft and tank technologies making initial progress, the energy industry, primarily based on oil, will play a significant role in the future.

Apart from its colonies along the Persian Gulf, Spain's existing territories, both domestic and colonies, are quite poor in oil production.

This clearly does not align with Spain's future strategic development needs, and Carlos would certainly not let go of the lands along the Persian Gulf with their enormous economic value.

Like Ireland, Britain had long since lost control of the lands along the Persian Gulf coast.

After Britain entered World War II, Spain immediately dispatched troops north from its Omani colonies, advancing through several British-controlled indigenous tribes and eventually reaching the Mesopotamian plain of the Ottoman Empire. This region later became Iraq and Kuwait, a land the British government had long cultivated and coveted as a highly valuable territory within the Ottoman Empire.

Unlike the vast deserts along the Persian Gulf coast, the Mesopotamian plain receives relatively abundant rainfall.

Although there are some desert areas, most of the land is worth developing, suitable for agriculture and animal husbandry.

Because of its superior geographical environment, the population of the Mesopotamian plain far exceeds that of the desert areas to the south.

This also led to Britain investing heavily in the colonization and development of these regions, which is now clearly more profitable for Spain.

After Spain proposed taking over all British colonial territories along the Persian Gulf, Britain quickly agreed to Spain's request.

These lands were already under Spanish control, and the British government was powerless to reclaim them during the World War. Rather than stubbornly holding onto these desert areas, it was better to nominally cede them to Spain, thus securing Spanish support for Britain's withdrawal from the war at virtually no cost.

Carlo had little interest in Britain's other colonies.

Although Britain had vast colonies in Africa, only Egypt and South Africa were truly valuable.

It was obvious that Britain would never pay the price of Egypt or South Africa, and the remaining lands were not of great value. Spain itself had not fully developed its African colonies, so there was no need for it to demand lands that it was unable to develop.

Beyond Africa, Britain also had colonies in India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries.

But these colonies, like Egypt and South Africa, are the same; although they have value, Britain will not easily give them up.

The British government might agree to a separate request for New Zealand. However, New Zealand is too far from Spain, and Carlo has no interest in New Zealand, which is thousands of miles away.

When Spain presented its conditions for peace negotiations, the British government also offered to return the Cuban colony to Spain.

Carlo was well aware of the British intentions: to provoke a conflict between the United States and Spain so that he could distance himself from it.

Carlo, of course, wouldn't fall for it. While the Cuban colonies did indeed possess considerable economic value, with the rise of the United States, whoever owned Cuban colonies would be targeted by the US.

It's not that Spain is afraid of the United States; after all, Spain's base is in Europe, and there's no need for it to fight the United States to the death in the distant Americas.

With Britain in control of the Cuban colony, significant conflict between Britain and the United States was inevitable.

Neither Spain nor France mentioned Cuba and the Bahamas, which were occupied by the United States, during these peace negotiations.

This can be seen as a tacit understanding between Spain and France, who clearly did not intend to claim these two territories on behalf of the United States, but rather allowed the competition between Britain and the United States to take place.

If peace negotiations between Britain and the Allied Powers proceed smoothly, Britain will likely be able to withdraw from the war within a few months. At that point, Britain will still need to deal with the problem of the United States, which, if it wants to seize Cuba, the Bahamas, and even more territory from Britain, will have to confront Britain directly and defeat its expeditionary force.

Despite the fact that the United States was also a member of the Allied Powers, neither Spain, France, nor Italy would actively help the United States.

After all, the United States joined the world war far too late, only when the war was almost over, and everyone knew the United States' intentions.

This is why, when seeking their own interests in peace negotiations, the Allied Powers naturally did not take the United States into consideration.

Even after the peace negotiations ended, the Allied Powers, led by Spain and France, would still be wary of the United States, a country unaffected by the world war.

While European powers were more or less affected by the World War, the industrial and economic development of the United States was not significantly constrained.

The sheer size of the United States’ industrial and economic resources is enough to make any country in the world wary.

Compared to the negotiations between Spain and Britain, the negotiations between France and Britain did not go as smoothly.

France suffered heavy losses in the World War and naturally wanted to extract more compensation from Britain and Germany to make up for the losses caused by the war.

Although Britain repeatedly conceded to Spain, this did not mean that the British government would concede to all the Allied powers. Many of France's demands were rejected by Britain; whether it was for African or Asian colonies, the British government refused.

After several rounds of negotiations, the British government finally agreed to cede British East Africa in southern Somalia to France in exchange for French support in peace negotiations.

After dealing with the two most powerful Allied powers, the remaining countries were no longer a major problem for Britain.

France didn't gain much advantage from Britain, let alone Italy, a country at the bottom of the pack of powers.

Although Italy made a demand to acquire Britain's Egyptian colony, the British government completely ignored Italy's proposal.

The Italian government seemed to understand that even if it acquired the Egyptian colony, it would most likely be unable to hold onto it.

Ultimately, the condition was changed to acquiring the British Somali colony, which would then be merged with the Italian Somali colony.

Although Italy was destined not to gain much from Britain, the good news was that Italy still had the opportunity to annex Abyssinia, a landlocked territory in Somalia, and occupy a large colony in East Africa.

Compared to Egypt, this is the land that the Italian government can truly hold onto.

The Italian government was also aware of its influence, and after Britain agreed to cede its Somali colony, it eventually reached a compromise with the British government.

After negotiating terms with the three Allied powers, the British government formally dispatched diplomatic representatives to conduct peace negotiations with the Allied powers. It also announced that it would order British troops to cease their offensive during the peace negotiations and to withdraw them immediately after the negotiations concluded, and that it would not interfere in the situation on the European battlefield.

The German government was furious at the British government's blatant betrayal.

However, the German government had no good solutions, because after reaching a compromise with Spain, France and Italy, the British government made rapid progress in peace negotiations with the Allied Powers. In just a few days, a draft peace agreement was signed with the Allied Powers. It would only take some time to refine the details of the various treaties, and a peace agreement could be signed.

The speed of peace negotiations between Britain and the Allied Powers was far beyond what the German government had anticipated.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff finally panicked. They knew that if Britain really withdrew from the war, there would only be one outcome for Germany: defeat.

Even more critically, before Britain withdrew from the war, Germany and the Allied Powers could still negotiate.

However, after Britain withdrew from the war, there was no longer any room for negotiation between Germany and the Allied Powers. Regardless, the Allied Powers were able to defeat Germany, meaning they had no need for peace talks. They could simply divide up Germany's land and industry after the defeat to maximize their exploitation of Germany's value.

This was a situation the German government did not want to see. After learning that the peace negotiations between the British government and the Allied Powers were progressing rapidly, the German government attempted to hold peace negotiations with the Allied Powers again, but was rejected by the Allied Powers.

The Allied Powers' decisive refusal made the German government realize that it was no longer possible for Germany to resolve this world war amicably.

(End of this chapter)