Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 636 Impeachment Proposal
The U.S. government was clearly unprepared for this war, at least for the U.S. government except for President Wilson.

President Wilson was eager to unite the nation in the fight against the war, but he faced a Republican Party determined to impeach him and a Republican-controlled Congress.

Within the Democratic Party, there were two factions regarding whether to support President Wilson. Apart from Wilson's supporters, most of the rest believed that the farce had to end.

We can't just watch the United States disintegrate, can we? The Democratic Party is one of the two major parties in the United States, and naturally, it is also a group that benefits from the existing system.

If the United States were to perish, it would be absolutely bad news for the Democratic Party. Even if the Democratic Party were to continue existing in a post-demise America, its influence would be nowhere near what it is today.

If President Wilson were still in good health, he would have been able to garner support from some members of Congress, given his personal prestige.

But President Wilson is now in a semi-paralyzed state, and members of Congress are not stupid; they are unlikely to support a semi-paralyzed president with only a few months left in his term.

For the US government, how to mobilize all state-level administrative districts is also an extremely thorny issue. Unlike European countries, the United States is now a relatively loose federal system of government, rather than a centralized one.

The states in the United States possess immense power; they have their own military forces (military police, militia), as well as their own legislative and law enforcement powers.

No armed force, including federal troops, may enter other state districts without permission.

Yes, even the U.S. federal government's military must obtain permission from each state before entering its territory.

President Wilson had previously made efforts in this regard during the World Wars to abolish the policy of segregation between the armed forces of the states.

However, because the United States had only been involved in the war for a short time, President Wilson's efforts were ultimately in vain.

The military forces of each state still maintain a system of separation, and even the laws of each state differ significantly, making them essentially independent kingdoms under the US federal government.

Even now, and even in later generations of the United States, state police systems generally only enforce the law within their own jurisdictions.

The laws of different states in the United States also varied considerably in later years. It was only after the two World Wars that the federal government reclaimed other powers, including the military, which strengthened central authority.

The United States today has a completely loose federal system, and it is obviously quite difficult to defend against an international coalition under such a loose system.

Even before the international coalition forces reached the United States, the country was already on the verge of collapse. People fled train stations and ports in droves, turning many large stations and ports into ghost towns in an instant.

Land and sea transport were severely affected, and the only means of communication between the states was almost completely cut off.

Many people living on the East Coast of the United States chose to flee westward to escape the turmoil of war.

New York City lost a tenth of its population overnight, and it continues to decline at an alarming rate.

New York, once considered a symbol of American glory, is now on the verge of becoming synonymous with crime. This sudden special military operation has dealt a heavy blow to American security, and human nature has been greatly unleashed, revealing its dark side.

White people did not hesitate to raise their knives against Black people, and Black people tried every means to fight back. There were also mutual killings between whites and Blacks, plus the somewhat innocent Asians, which made up a cruel and realistic picture of New York.

The US government under Wilson attempted to control the situation in New York, after all, it was the largest city in the United States and one of the most outstanding achievements of the past century.

But it is clear that President Wilson's efforts have failed. Because the fundamental special military operations have not stopped at all, and without addressing the root cause, the chaos in the United States will continue.

On February 6, 1921, President Wilson participated in Congressional discussions on his impeachment proceedings, answering several questions posed by Republicans.

Republicans questioned President Wilson's motives for refusing the League of Nations' demands, arguing that it was precisely because of President Wilson's unilateral actions that offended the League of Nations that the United States was brought into this special military operation.

President Wilson refuted this claim, asking with tears in his eyes, "Should we condone their thuggish behavior just because the League of Nations is powerful?"
The investigation results were issued by the League of Nations investigation team, yet it was the League of Nations itself that felt the results were wrong. What did they take the United States for? A weak nation that could be bullied at will?

I deeply love America, the American people, and everything about America. As President of the United States, I cannot accept any country trampling on American dignity, including the League of Nations.

If you believe this approach is wrong, then I have nothing more to say. I am willing to bear all the consequences, only hoping that you can lead America out of this abyss and atone for my sins.

For an ambitious president to utter such words, it's clear that this event dealt a severe blow to President Wilson. What troubled him even more was that the situation in the United States had already collapsed before the arrival of the international coalition.

The United States, with its powerful industry and economy, has such a stark contrast in its military capabilities that it has even witnessed a scene rarely seen in human history: an army that was on the verge of surrendering before even seeing the enemy.

This is also why President Wilson's mentality collapsed. He knew that all his efforts were in vain, and he was willing to pay the price for his mistakes because his heart was dead.

President Wilson's rebuttal had some effect. Regardless of what the Republicans thought, the Democrats, who supported Wilson's candidacy for president, remained very supportive of him.

The American public may not know exactly what happened, but members of Congress are quite clear about it.

To put it bluntly, this was a frame-up and opportunistic act by the League of Nations against the United States. President Wilson was not wrong to refuse the League of Nations' decision, after all, his position was that of the President of the United States, not an ordinary American.

However, as it turned out, the United States was ultimately powerless to resist a powerful international alliance. This was not President Wilson's fault, nor was it the fault of the US government or the American people.

If there's anything wrong with that, it might be that the United States' military strength is too weak, and that it's simply unable to unite domestically to resist foreign enemies.

After answering these questions in a wheelchair, the partially paralyzed President Wilson was pushed away from the meeting by his wife.

This silenced the meeting, and even the previously aggressive Republicans were unable to continue the trial of President Wilson in such a setting.

Of course, the Republicans were well aware that President Wilson's position and actions were not wrong.

After all, no one can guarantee that their choices are 100% correct. President Wilson's intentions were always for the benefit of the United States, and he had no personal motives in making these choices.

A conference on impeachment proceedings against President Wilson ended in such a farcical manner.

The Republican Party failed to achieve its objectives, and the meeting did not implement the impeachment proposal against President Wilson, resulting in a stalemate in the impeachment process.

Of course, President Wilson was not immune to his own predicament. With only a few months left in his term, even the most fervent Democrats were unlikely to gamble with President Wilson.

For the United States, the best outcome now is to promptly yield to the League of Nations, agree to their investigation requests, and use money to smooth over this disaster as much as possible.

While this might seem weak, it is indeed the best course of action when facing a powerful enemy. After all, if the fighting continued, the disintegration of the United States would become inevitable, President Wilson would likely become the last president in American history, and the Republican and Democratic parties would be removed from American history unless they could obtain the support of an international coalition.

How to gain the support of the League of Nations?
The Republican Party seems to have discovered a new way to save itself, if not America.

Just days after the conference, the first battle between the international coalition and the US military officially began.

At this time, the armies of most countries were on their way, and some countries' armies were still assembling and had not yet set off.

At that time, the only forces capable of engaging the American army were actually the armies of the three major powers: Britain, France, and Spain.

After all, these three great powers all had colonies in the Americas. Even if their homeland troops couldn't be mobilized in time, they could first mobilize the troops from the colonies to temporarily hold off the American troops.

It's unclear whether Britain and France made any prior preparations, but Spain, in any case, had been preparing for this war for a long time.

Even during the flu outbreak, Carlo had considered going to war with the United States. However, considering the enormous destructive power of the flu and to prevent it from having too great an impact on Spain, Carlo ultimately abandoned his idea. This is why the request to reopen the investigation was made a year and a half after the flu ended.

Long before Spain proposed to the League of Nations to reopen the investigation into the leak at the American chemical plant, Carlo had the Spanish government secretly send an army of nearly 10,000 men to Puerto Rico, Spain's last colony in the Americas.

To ensure the army's logistical support, the Puerto Rican colonial government also established trade partnerships with several neighboring countries, importing large quantities of food and daily necessities.

Now this army has finally come into play, advancing toward Canada under Spanish arrangements after the international coalition declared a special military operation against the United States.

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(End of this chapter)