Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 323: The French Government’s Double-faced

When the Senegalese colony reported the news to mainland France, the French government was also very troubled about how to deal with the incident.

In fact, the French government shot itself in the foot. If they had not taken the initiative to provoke the Spanish, Spain would not have sent troops to retaliate against France.

Facing Spain's retaliatory provocation, the French government can't possibly retaliate again, right? If it does, the Spanish and French governments will be trapped in a vicious cycle of retaliation, and they won't have to do anything else but plan their revenge against each other in one day.

The French government, which thinks it is very rational, certainly does not want to see things develop in this direction. There is no need to retaliate in this way. The French government's original purpose was just to deter Spain so that they would not be so unscrupulous when they secretly tripped them up.

At present, it seems that the French government's deterrence has no effect at all. Instead, Spain is acting as if it is going to hit me if you want to, and is unscrupulously carrying out retaliatory actions of the same nature against France.

The French government really has no way of explaining itself to the Spanish government. Even if France has stronger overall strength, it does not mean that France is willing to start a war with Spain.

As the saying goes, the stupid ones are afraid of the tyrants, and the tyrants are afraid of the desperate ones. In this incident, the tough attitude shown by the Spanish government did make France somewhat wary.

French cabinet meeting, June 1885, 6.

The new French Prime Minister Henri Brisson looked at the ministers of the French cabinet with an irritated expression and asked, "Tell me, everyone. How should we deal with Spain's retaliation? Should we continue to retaliate, or should we find an opportunity to shake hands with Spain and make peace?"

Henri Brisson's question silenced the cabinet officials, and the meeting became silent and still.

Everyone was not stupid and knew that this incident was quite tricky and difficult to handle. If their proposal caused the country to suffer losses or even triggered a war between France and Spain, wouldn't they be the biggest sinners?

At a time when everyone is undecided, keeping silent is the best way to deal with it. As the saying goes, the more you do, the more mistakes you make; the less you do, the fewer mistakes you make; and if you do nothing, you make no mistakes. As long as you don't put forward your own opinions in the meeting, you don't have to worry about being blamed afterwards.

As the new French Prime Minister, Henri Brisson did not have much experience in dealing with similar diplomatic incidents. He wanted to get some advice or ideas from other cabinet ministers, but he did not expect the meeting room to be so quiet that he could hear a pin drop.

In fact, this is not the fault of the cabinet ministers. If it was the last prime minister who had a clear attitude, they would have been able to give their own suggestions based on the prime minister's ideas.

But the newly appointed prime minister has not yet expressed a clear opinion. They can't just talk freely at this moment, right? Wouldn't that be a good opportunity for the prime minister to pass the buck?
Even if your idea is consistent with the Prime Minister's, it is definitely not a good thing. If the idea has any effect, the credit will basically go to the Prime Minister. But if you follow this idea and it ends up in an unfavorable direction, whoever first proposed this idea will definitely bear the greatest responsibility.

Although the Prime Minister will also bear certain responsibilities, he can choose to resign. As long as he is not involved in major responsibilities such as treason, the Prime Minister can continue to run for the next Prime Minister after leaving office.

In other words, these cabinet ministers are likely to end their political careers because of their proposals, but the prime minister is unlikely to do so.

No one wants to be the scapegoat, which is why there is silence in the meeting room.

Seeing that no one was willing to speak, Henri Brisson had no choice but to call out their names to force these officials to answer his questions.

"Minister Freycinet, please tell us how to deal with this incident. Does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have any response preparations for this incident? Does it have any suggestions on how to deal with this incident?" Henri Brisson turned his eyes to Charles de Freycinet, the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet.

Hearing the Prime Minister's question, Minister Fresnell stood up suddenly and said hesitantly, "Well, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to hold a meeting to discuss how to deal with Spain's step-by-step pressure. There is no definite response plan yet."

Henri Brisson was not angry when he heard this. He continued with a smile: "Then tell me your personal thoughts. After all, the views of the Minister of Foreign Affairs can represent the entire diplomatic department."

Faced with the Prime Minister's numerous inquiries, Charles de Freycinet could only bite the bullet and express his own views: "Mr. Prime Minister, I think that given the current situation in Europe, it is not suitable to continue the stalemate with Spain.

Continuing the stalemate will do us no good but only harm, and will instead give countries like Germany that are against us an opportunity to take advantage of our misfortune.

It would be better to make peace with Spain and at the same time define the scope of each party's development in Africa to avoid further conflict with Spain.

When we find a strong ally, it won't be too late to settle accounts with countries like Spain and Germany. Before that, in order to avoid being more diplomatically isolated by Germany, I think it is necessary to make some concessions.

Spain is just bluffing, they definitely don't dare to start a war with us. After this diplomatic incident, Spain will not continue to oppose us.

In this way, we will have enough time and energy to develop African colonies and join in the division of African land.

Our enemy, Germany, has already gained a lot from the division of Africa. If we continue to be embroiled in disputes with Spain, Germany will gain more land in Africa, and we will naturally have less land to share. "

Minister Charles de Frassine's views are actually the views of other officials in the French cabinet government. It's not that they are timid, but mainly because France's current diplomatic environment is relatively poor, and its relations with the two major powers in its vicinity, Britain and Germany, are not good, and there is no strong support to help France support its diplomatic environment.

Blindly starting a dispute with Spain is not a good thing for France, and this is something that almost all French officials can see clearly.

The problem is that not everyone can give in to Spain so easily. After all, Spain is only a second-tier power, and France is the more powerful first-tier power.

If there is any concession, it should be Spain that makes concessions to France. How come the country that makes concessions is France, a more powerful country?

In fact, like other officials in the French cabinet, French Prime Minister Henri Brisson also had similar ideas of compromise.

His predecessor, the previous more radical French Prime Minister Jean-Jacques Rousseau, does have a higher prestige in France. After all, the people will definitely prefer a tougher ruler rather than a cowardly ruler who only knows how to give in.

But Jouffry's fate is clear. Although he served as French Prime Minister many times, he never served a full term.

More than a month ago, the former French Prime Minister Jouffry resigned due to the unfavorable war in Asia, which is also the reason why Henri Brisson became the new French Prime Minister. Speaking of which, the reason why the French army was unfavorable in the war was also largely related to Spain.

Originally, the French army's attack was very smooth, and both the navy and the army achieved certain results.

But as the war progressed, the Asian side also strengthened its will to fight. Not to mention completely defeating the French, at least the Asian side did not want to see its territory invaded.

Vietnam can give up these subordinate countries, but the territories further north must be defended.

At this time, Spain reached an arms trade agreement with Asia. A large number of Spanish standard rifles were transported to Asia and became a powerful weapon to resist the French attack.

After all, the French army was fighting across thousands of miles, and logistical supply was always a relatively big problem.

Britain also had large colonies such as India and Egypt as transit points, which could also provide important supplies to Asia. But France, apart from Vietnam, did not have any large-scale colonies in Asia.

This is also the reason why the French army did not achieve complete success. They were eventually forced to abandon their attack north of Vietnam under the tenacious resistance of the Asian army.

The end result was that although the French won the war, Asia did not actually suffer much loss.

The French only gained Vietnam and Cambodia, which is similar to the previous Tunisian War. France invested a lot of manpower, material and financial resources in both wars, but the final results were not satisfactory.

What's even more embarrassing is that it was French Prime Minister Jouffry who planned both wars, which forced Jouffry to resign as prime minister before he could realize his colonial plan.

"Does anyone else have any opinions or suggestions?" Although the ideas expressed by Minister Charles de Frasine were not much different from his own thoughts, Henri Brisson still wanted to seek more opinions in order to handle this incident in a more appropriate way.

Seeing that no one spoke, Prime Minister Brison nodded and issued his order: "Let's do it this way, and try to avoid further conflict with Spain. In addition, we need to investigate the culprit who caused this incident. Who gave the order to send the fleet to the Spanish colonial port for provocation?
If I remember correctly, it seems that I have never issued such an order. Where did this order come from? "

Although they did not say a word when discussing the solution just now, the ministers of the French cabinet are still very interested in passing the buck.

Because it was the navy that was dispatched, it was actually quite simple to investigate the culprit. Because this fleet belonged to the colony, the only ones who could mobilize this army besides the military were the local colonial departments.

But in reality, French colonies would not actively provoke Spanish colonies.

Although there is a big gap in power between France and Spain in their homelands, it is hard to say which of the two countries' colonies is stronger.

France's Congo colony was also very large, with an area of ​​more than 40 square kilometers, making it one of France's largest colonies in Africa.

But the area and scale of the Spanish colonies were no less. Needless to say, the Congo Territory was a special place, which could crush the French Congo colony in terms of land area and population.

After several mergers, Spain's Guinea colony has also become a very large colony. It is also the base of the Spanish African Fleet. Unless the French colony has a brain injury, it is impossible to actively send the navy to provoke Spain.

From this point of view, the only one who can send the navy to provoke Spain is the military.

Compared to the colonies and other government departments, the military was the most difficult to deal with. Even if the military took the initiative to send people to provoke Spain, the French government did not dare to be too harsh on the military.

After all, the government’s tool for making sense is legal provisions, while the military’s tool for making sense is rifles and cannons.

As everyone discussed and blamed each other, the culprit for commanding the fleet to provoke Spain was quickly narrowed down to the military.

Although the culprit has been identified, Prime Minister Henri Brisson does not intend to be too harsh on the military. He has only been in office for a short time, and if he takes action against the military right after taking office, there is a high probability that the military will riot.

"Ahem." Henry Brisson coughed lightly to hide his embarrassment, and then said: "Well, finding out the culprit is something we will consider later. What we need to do now is to avoid further conflicts with Spain as much as possible.

In addition, it is time to prepare for further expansion in Africa. Compared with the minor dispute with Spain, it is more important to acquire more African territory and expand our colonial scope. "

Although a certain concession by Spain is not a big deal, France's concession will definitely lose face as this incident has attracted the attention of many countries and people.

How to make up for it? The best way is to quickly expand the territory in Africa and divert the attention of the domestic people.

As for what European people outside France think, that is not something the French government considers.

Moreover, the opinions of the people of these countries have no impact on France. As long as the French people still trust the French government, the French government can operate steadily.

Since it is going to give in, the French government certainly cannot be foolish enough to hold a press conference and announce that it will no longer pursue the matter.

On the surface, the French government acted as if it was willing to comply, but secretly contacted the Spanish ambassador to France to express its willingness to resolve the dispute.

The open posture is for the French to see. After all, they cannot be too cowardly and disappoint the French. The real thing for the French government to do is to contact the Spanish ambassador secretly. Only by contacting the Spanish government and reaching a compromise can this incident be resolved in the most perfect way.

(End of this chapter)