Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 342: The possibility of surpassing France (no leave)
The British were not just talking about the idea of ​​preventing the French alliance. In order to prevent the birth of the Franco-Russian alliance, a superpower far superior to the German-Austrian alliance, on February 1889, 2, British Prime Minister Robert Gascoigne-Cecil expressed his views on the Balkan War in an interview with a Reuters reporter.

Prime Minister Robert Gascoigne-Cecil first called on Austria-Hungary, Serbia and Russia, which were involved in the war, to calm down and resolve the conflict in the Balkans peacefully.

Later, the Prime Minister said that Britain would not intervene in the war and would play the role of a neutral party to prevent the war from further expanding as much as possible.

In order to protect the people of the Balkan Peninsula and the warring countries from the troubles of war, Britain announced that it would do its utmost to prevent other countries from participating in the war, and called on other European countries to prevent the war from escalating and to mediate the war as much as possible.

Although Prime Minister Robert Gascoigne-Cecil simply called on European countries not to escalate the war in the interview, no country would take the prime minister's remarks lightly.

This is the most powerful person in the most powerful country in the world. If he really does not listen to the British advice and escalates the war, who can guarantee that the British will continue to maintain a neutral role as they say?

The British threat was very effective. At least on the surface, the progress of the Franco-Russian alliance's contacts was indeed slowed down a lot.

Regardless of whether the French are afraid of Britain, the Russians are really afraid of Britain at this moment.

After all, the competitive relationship between Russia and Britain is well known. If the Russians offend Britain by winning over the French and let Britain directly interfere in the war and join the German and Austrian sides, then the Russians will really have no way out.

And for the Russians, limiting the scale of the war is not a bad thing.

If the only countries involved in the war were Germany and Austria vs. Russia and Serbia, although Russia would be at a certain disadvantage, it would not be hopeless.

The Russians were able to win over France, but the Austro-Hungarian Empire seemed to be able to bring in many allies. Italy, which had an unknown treaty with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Spain, which had expressed support for the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the war broke out, were both at the level of great powers.

As the saying goes, a random punch can kill a master. Although the overall strength of Spain and Italy is not as good as that of superpowers such as France and Russia, the outcome would be uncertain if they were to face off against one.

Coupled with the vague threats from the British, the Russians successfully decided to limit the scale of the war to a certain extent and did not intend to launch a super war covering the whole of Europe.

Germany and Austria-Hungary made the same decision as Russia.

To be honest, the news that Russia and France were slowly getting closer frightened the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Even the German Empire, which had once defeated France, broke out in a cold sweat when it heard the news that France and Russia might unite.

Although Europeans often talk about the five great powers, in fact, the more recognized one is the four great powers. The four great powers are Britain, France, Germany and Russia. These four countries are ahead of other powers in terms of industry, population, economy and military strength.

If two of the four great powers form an alliance, it will be difficult for a superpower alone to resist them unless the remaining two also form an alliance.

The German-Austrian alliance was clearly no match for the Franco-Russian alliance. Unless the Germans could win over Italy and Spain, they might be able to win by relying on a four-on-two situation.

It was precisely because neither side wanted the war to become uncontrollable, and because of the British's overt and covert threats, that the war was ultimately confined to the scope of four countries.

Although only four countries participated in this war, three of them were great powers. Although the scale of the war was limited to a certain extent, in theory it could be considered a large-scale war.

Since the outbreak of the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire has also contacted Spain. Not only the Austro-Hungarian government contacted the Spanish government, but the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I also contacted Carlo, asking if Spain could join the war to help the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Carlo had originally intended to delay the matter, waiting for the British to make a statement before making a corresponding decision. Now that the British government had already made its position, Carlo naturally would not delay any longer.

On February 2, 1889, the day after the British government made its statement, Carlo summoned the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to Madrid and expressed Spain's attitude towards the war.

First of all, the Spanish royal family and government supported the Austro-Hungarian Empire in its war against Serbia. But for various reasons, Spain could not join the war, including the attitude expressed by the British Prime Minister the day before.

However, due to the alliance between Spain and Austria-Hungary, Spain was still willing to provide any material resources to Austria-Hungary, and at the market price before the war.

This is quite important. Although the war has only lasted a few days, it is certain that the price of strategic materials will become higher and higher in the future.

The most important of these are food, medical supplies, weapons and equipment, ammunition, etc. The prices of these materials will definitely continue to rise in the future. Spain can sell these materials to Austria-Hungary at the pre-war market price, which is actually fulfilling its duty as an ally.

After all, during the war, the price of various materials increases very rapidly. This is not the usual growth of several percent. During the war, the price of materials may double or even multiply, and the price difference is also quite huge.

Of course, Carlo's willingness to sell supplies to Austria-Hungary at pre-war cost prices was not entirely due to his alliance with Austria-Hungary.

The main reason was that there were not many European powers participating in the war. The two major powers, Britain and France, did not participate in the war, and they would certainly not miss the opportunity to make a fortune in the war.

In this way, although prices will rise during the war, the increase should be limited. Spain will sell materials at the market price before the war. Although it will make less money, it will gain the favor of Austria-Hungary and Germany, which is also quite important.

In addition to Carlo's promise to sell supplies to Austria-Hungary at pre-war market prices, Carlo also negotiated a military agreement between the Spanish government and Austria-Hungary.

The main content of this military agreement is that the Spanish Ministry of Defense will send a military observation group to the main battlefield in the Balkan Peninsula to observe the war from a bystander's perspective and learn from the strengths and weaknesses of the war operations of various countries.

The term "military observation group" was no longer a strange term, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not reject it.

Carlo's purpose of sending a military observation group was very simple, which was to allow the Spanish army to carefully observe the war between the European powers and learn the more outstanding military ideas and strategic deployments of various countries.

Although Spain demonstrated excellent combat effectiveness in its wars with the African natives, the enemy was, after all, African natives who were not up to standard and were completely different from the European powers.

The Spanish army cannot be complacent about this. In this relatively good learning environment, it still needs to send an observation group.

In addition to sending a military observation group, Spain also donated a batch of rifles and artillery as well as matching bullets and shells to the Austro-Hungarian Empire free of charge.

The reason for giving this batch of weapons and equipment was very simple, that is, to use the Austro-Hungarian Empire to test the practicality of this batch of equipment. Again, the environment of the African battlefield is completely different from that of the European battlefield. You can be careless when fighting against the natives, but you must be careful when fighting against European countries.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire naturally understood Spain's intention to give away this batch of weapons and equipment for free. But for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, such a batch of free weapons and equipment would be a waste.

After reaching a cooperation agreement with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Spanish government also revealed its attitude to the outside world. Similar to the attitude of the British Prime Minister, the Spanish government also advocated that both sides of the war calm down.

Don't cause unnecessary casualties.

Countries that have not participated in the war should maintain a neutral role and avoid being involved in the war, thereby making the war situation even bigger. The successive statements from Britain and Spain are actually setting the tone for this war.

It will be difficult for France and Italy, which did not make any subsequent statements, to join the war. After all, they do not have many excuses to join the war.

France and Russia currently do not have any alliance. If France wants to join this war, it can only temporarily form an alliance with Russia.

But the purpose of doing so is too obvious. Not only will it cause France to lose public support in this war, it will also make France's diplomatic situation even more embarrassing.

A Franco-Russian alliance would make all the European powers wary, and by then it might be the Franco-Russian alliance that would be isolated.

As for Italy, as long as they do not want to make public the Triple Alliance Treaty between Germany, Austria and Italy, they will have no excuse to join this war.

Moreover, Britain and Spain have successively expressed their attitudes, so even if Italy wants to join the war again, it has no way to do so.

In the Royal Palace of Madrid, after confirming that only three major powers, Germany, Austria and Russia, participated in this war, Carlo reduced his attention to this war.

For Carlo, winning or losing the war was no longer important. What Carlo really cared about was how long the war would last and what Spain could gain from it.

Judging from the current situation in Europe, once Germany and Russia are involved in a war, Spain will have more opportunities to catch up with the four major powers.

Among the remaining European countries, perhaps the only one that can surpass Spain in terms of development speed and economic prosperity is Britain. The development speed of the French has slowed down too much after the Franco-Prussian War.

At present, there is a slogan within the Spanish government to catch up with the four major powers, and even the most exaggerated slogan is to catch up with England.

However, the slogan that is most recognized by government officials is "overtake France in five years and catch up with Germany in ten years."

As for catching up with the British, that is indeed just a fantasy for Spain at present.

Putting aside whether it is possible to catch up with Germany, catching up with France is indeed more than just a slogan for Spain at present.

Let’s first look at steel production, which is an important indicator of industrial scale.

Throughout 1888, Spain's annual steel production reached about 50 tons, which was already among the best in Europe.

In the whole world, there are only four countries that can surpass Spain in steel production: Britain, the United States, Germany and France. Among them, only Britain, the United States and Germany have a large gap with Spain.

Although France's steel production exceeds that of Spain, it is only more than 60 tons, just over 10 tons more than Spain.

Judging from the growth rate of French industry in recent years, even if Spanish industry cannot catch up with France in five years, it will basically be able to maintain the same level as France, that is, the gap will be within 50,000 tons.

Of course, France is still slightly ahead of Spain in terms of pig iron production, but France's lead is based on a larger population and colonies, and this lead is constantly being narrowed by Spain.

In the chemical industry and other industries, France also maintained a slight lead, but in the second industrial revolution, the French had fallen behind Spain.

Spain did not have much industrial base during the First Industrial Revolution, but this was not entirely a bad thing. After all, the First Industrial Revolution was more basic, and as long as it could catch up with the Second Industrial Revolution, it would be able to make up for the shortcomings of the First Industrial Revolution.

As of now, Spain can no longer be said to have caught up with the Second Industrial Revolution, but it is one of the leading countries in the Second Industrial Revolution.

Especially in terms of electricity, the city that never sleeps was pioneered by Spain, and large-scale power generation equipment was also spread from Spain to various European countries.

Although European countries are now making great progress in power generation and electricity application, Spain, as a former founding country, is also one of the best in Europe in terms of electricity.

Even though Spain's population is smaller than other European countries, it is still at the forefront of Europe in terms of power generation and per capita electricity consumption.

Currently, more than 60% of factories in Madrid and more than 50% of factories in Barcelona use electrical equipment.

These two cities with the most developed industries in Spain can actually represent the current use of electricity in Spain's industrial sector.

Compared with industrial electricity consumption, residential electricity consumption is worse.

Even in Spain's two most developed cities, the number of households with access to electricity is currently only about one-third of the total number of households in the two cities.

This achievement was achieved only after the power generation equipment was continuously updated and the power generation capacity continued to increase, resulting in a reduction in electricity costs.

Compared with Spain, the electricity situation in other countries is even worse. Even in the capitals of European powers, few countries have achieved a level of electricity penetration of more than one-third.

Currently, there are two cities in European capitals with the lowest level of electricity penetration. The first is St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, and the second is Paris, the capital of France.

It is normal that the level of electricity penetration in St. Petersburg is low. After all, the Russian government does not have much money to build electricity, and the current electricity cannot support such a vast territory of Russia.

There is a reason why Paris has a lower level of electricity access. Compared with Berlin, Vienna and Rome, Paris has a larger population, which makes it more difficult to access electricity.

Even though many wealthy businessmen and capitalists in Paris enjoyed the benefits of electricity, there were still a large number of civilians and the middle class who would not be able to have access to this new energy source in a short period of time.

In addition, the French government's investment in the industrial revolution was decreasing, and French factories were reluctant to connect to electricity to increase their costs.

This resulted in France, as one of the four major European powers, lagging behind many European powers in the use and popularization of electricity.

I can still hold on after spraying some medicine. I won’t take a leave today. Thank you all for your support.


(End of this chapter)