Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 562 Exchange of Interests
The question of what price the United States was willing to pay to end the war with Britain was of little interest to Spanish Prime Minister André and French President Poincaré.

What interests both men more is the ongoing Paris Peace Conference. After several rounds of discussions, only one most contentious issue remains to be resolved at the Paris Peace Conference: the treatment of German territory.

To date, the French government still hopes to separate the German territory on the left bank of the Rhine and establish a republic on the left bank of the Rhine, which would be temporarily administered by France, with a referendum held 15 years later to decide the fate of the republic.

Although France and Belgium have taken away a large portion of the land on the left bank of the Rhine, tens of thousands of square kilometers of land remain under German control due to the vast size of German territory.

If this Rhine Left Bank Republic were allowed to be established, France's sphere of influence would be greatly expanded, and it might even further threaten the Low Countries, becoming the true hegemon of Central and Western Europe.

Based on this alone, Spain absolutely cannot agree to France's proposal regarding the land on the left bank of the Rhine.

However, Spain could not simply oppose France, as France still held considerable influence and made significant contributions to the World War, being the Allied Powers' greatest contributor to the war against Germany.

Since he couldn't simply oppose it, Prime Minister Andrews took a different approach and decided to appease the French in Eastern Europe in exchange for the preservation of German territory.

The reason for preserving German territory was not to repeat the mistakes of history, but rather Carlo's next step in his plan to consolidate Spanish hegemony.

Spain aspires to become the dominant power in Europe and the world, but it currently faces several formidable rivals: the United Kingdom, which has preserved its strength; the Soviet Union, which has great potential; the United States, which is developing rapidly; and France, which is outwardly strong but inwardly weak.

If Germany is severely weakened, and Russia is embroiled in civil war, and Britain has little say due to its defeat in World War II, France will have a significant advantage and may even be able to recover its losses by exploiting the German territories.

Although France is not as much of a threat as other countries, if France were to grow stronger by exploiting Germany, it would still be a significant problem for Spain.

If Germany could be preserved, or at least most of its territory retained, the growth and expansion of France could be effectively prevented.

Of course, Carlo would not allow Germany to rise again as it had in history and launch a second world war that could destroy Europe.

Germany could seek revenge, but only against France and Russia.

To guard against the resurgence of Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire has retained most of its territory, and Britain's strength has not been greatly weakened, nor will it pursue any appeasement policy to strengthen Germany.

If Germany wanted to grow stronger and seek revenge, there was only one direction: to continue fighting France or to invade Soviet Russia to the east.

Under such circumstances, allowing France to establish a Greater Poland in Eastern Europe would have little impact.

Although France could extend its reach into more distant Eastern Europe through the establishment of Poland, a Germany that retained most of its territory was enough to give the French government a headache, not to mention an even stronger threat to Poland's east.

Furthermore, France, which spearheaded the formation of Greater Poland, will also have a greater voice in Europe.

This is the best time for Spain to recuperate, rebuild, and develop its strength.

The stronger France's overt power, the less other countries would fear Spain. Only by drawing the hatred of Britain and other countries to France could Spain have enough time to develop, rather than being besieged by other European nations.

As long as Spain can avoid a joint British-French attack and gain several to ten years of development time, Carlo is confident that ten years later Spain will have the strength to challenge powerful nations such as Britain, the United States, and Germany in all aspects.

Then there will be no need to worry about the threat of Germany's resurgence. Moreover, given Carlo's various targeting tactics, Germany may not even have a chance to rise again.

The so-called Greater Poland, as defined by France, included not only the Polish territories occupied by Germany, but also Polish territories controlled by Russia and even the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

A fully formed Greater Poland possesses a territory comparable in size to Germany and France, with a population of nearly 2000 million, making it a powerful nation in Central and Eastern Europe and significantly increasing the overt threat to France.

Whether it is Britain today, or the potentially rising Soviet Russia and Germany in the future, they will all regard France, which controls Greater Poland, as their primary enemy.

This was also the goal of Carlos and Prime Minister Andreu, and the reason why Spain was willing to let France control such a large part of Poland.

Of course, there's always a reward for every effort. Spain wouldn't just let France control such a large part of Poland for nothing; France would certainly have to agree to give Spain some compensation.

Compared to the entirety of Poland controlled by France, Spain's reward was not so generous; it was roughly equivalent to the three Baltic states.

In fact, the probing actions of Spain and France reveal that the two countries have reached an agreement to use the Russian Civil War to weaken Russia's strength.

In this way, regardless of which Russia unifies the country in the future, Russia's strength and threat will be greatly weakened, and it will not become a bulldozer threatening the whole of Europe like the original Tsarist Russia.

If Poland can still be considered a powerful nation in Central and Eastern Europe, then the Baltic states are merely there to make up the numbers.

The three Baltic states are located along the Baltic Sea coast and are Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

The combined area of ​​these three countries is smaller than that of Poland, their populations are a fraction of Poland's, and they have little in the way of valuable mineral resources.

This is also why France agreed to let Spain control the Baltic states; even if Spain controlled these three countries, it would not pose a threat to France.

Carlos's reason for wanting these three countries was simple: to increase the number of countries in Europe supporting Spain, thus preparing for diplomatic efforts after a complete peace in the future world. Although the Baltic states are not powerful, they are still three European countries, which would mean three votes in a future international alliance or EU—a significant number.

This also means that even without the power of a permanent member of the League of Nations, Spain can still make some proposals through a majority vote at regular League of Nations meetings.

In the future, if Spain wants to intervene in a country's war or pass proposals in the international alliance, it will no longer need to put forward its own proposals. It can let the smaller countries within its sphere of influence put forward their proposals. Spain only needs to express its attitude at key moments.

Although a compromise had been reached with France, namely, in exchange for relinquishing Russian-occupied Poland in exchange for France not advocating for the establishment of the Left Bank Republic of the Rhine.

However, if it were made public directly, it would clearly not maximize the benefits.

If we're talking about who's most worried about the independence of the left bank of the Rhine, it's definitely not Spain, but Germany.

Spain is working tirelessly to secure benefits for Germany, and the German government certainly cannot remain indifferent.

Therefore, while having news released that France was strongly demanding the independence of the left bank of the Rhine, Prime Minister Andrew also refuted the French proposal at the Paris Peace Conference, showing a strong unwillingness to let France promote the independence of the left bank of the Rhine.

Sure enough, the German side quickly fell for it.

The German representative attending the Paris Peace Conference was not the Chancellor, but rather Hindenburg's newly promoted Foreign Minister.

The current situation in Germany is also worth mentioning. Although the monarchy has not been abolished, Hindenburg has completely sidelined Kaiser Wilhelm II and the government he formed through his military power, and has appointed several cabinet ministers he trusts.

The German Foreign Minister who is now attending the Paris Peace Conference was appointed by the German Chief of the General Staff, Hindenburg.

Wilhelm II also completely relinquished his power, and did not object in the slightest when Hindenburg appointed cabinet ministers on a large scale.

Hindenburg did not come to the Paris Peace Conference in person for two reasons: firstly, to consolidate his control over power within Germany, and secondly, to guard against a potential counterattack from Wilhelm II.

Although Wilhelm II appears to have completely relinquished power, the Hohenzollern family has a long and prestigious history, both in Germany and in the former Kingdom of Prussia.

The disastrous defeat in this world war cannot be blamed on the Hohenzollern family. Many Germans still remembered the glory of the Hohenzollern family during their great victory in the Franco-Prussian War and had no intention of abolishing the emperor and the royal family.

Under such circumstances, if Hindenburg were to travel to Paris and Wilhelm II were to raise his arms and shout, there would certainly be many nobles and high-ranking military officers who were loyal to the royal family who would risk their lives to support Wilhelm II in regaining power in Germany.

Hindenburg would absolutely not allow such a thing to happen, because his current absolute power is entirely based on military authority and has no legal or legal basis whatsoever.

Hindenburg was well aware of the consequences of his failure to seize power: not only would he face retribution from Wilhelm II, but his family would also suffer a terrible fate.

Therefore, Hindenburg would never leave Germany until he had become the leader of the German government through various means.

After pushing for peace negotiations with the Allied Powers, Hindenburg went to Berlin to plan to become the new Chancellor of Germany through an "election".

His confidant, Ludendorff, went to the Western Front to take control of the German army. At that time, besides Hindenburg, Ludendorff was the most prestigious figure in the German military leadership.

With him in control of the German army, even if news broke that Hindenburg was pushing for peace negotiations, there was absolutely no chance of a mutiny.

Hindenburg's appointed German Foreign Minister quickly approached Prime Minister Andrew, first complaining about Germany's current predicament, and then stating his purpose: to gain Spain's support in order to prevent Germany's territory from being fragmented.

Prime Minister Andrew would naturally not reject the German Foreign Minister's proposal, but he also could not so easily agree to Germany's demands.

The German Foreign Minister was also aware of Prime Minister Andrew's thoughts, and after several attempts to probe, he finally expressed his willingness to pay a price in exchange for territorial integrity.

Seeing that Germany had already backed down, Prime Minister Andrew took the opportunity to make his own demands.

Upon learning that Spain only wanted the German government's assistance in bringing in German scientists and technical experts, the German Foreign Minister breathed a sigh of relief and subsequently agreed to Spain's request without hesitation.

While scientists and technical personnel are very important in Germany, the German government is clear that it is currently unable to retain these talents.

Rather than letting these talented individuals slip away in vain, it would be better to let them maximize their value in preserving German territory.

In any case, Germany's education system has not collapsed, and as long as Germany is willing, it can still cultivate more talent in the future.

If Germany could retain most of its territory, Hindenburg's initiative to push for peace negotiations would not be a sin, but rather a merit.

This is crucial for Hindenburg's future control of the German government, and it is also the reason why the German Foreign Minister agreed to Prime Minister Andrew's proposal without hesitation.

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(End of this chapter)