Chapter 273: France's Action

Facts have proven that the passing of Tsar Alexander II had a tremendous impact on Russia.

In the same month that Alexander II passed away, several decrees related to reform were abolished. Especially regarding the publication of literary works and newspapers, the Russian government launched extremely strict censorship and shut down several large newspaper offices within a short period.

Newspaper offices dared not report the news, and the Russian public kept their mouths shut for fear that trouble would come from their words. This led to an extremely oppressive atmosphere within Russia ever since the funeral of Alexander II was held.

It is worth mentioning that starting from March 1881, the number of Russian immigrants willing to come to Spain increased sharply.

Usually, it would take a year to gather fifty thousand immigrants, and after picking and choosing, only twenty or thirty thousand would remain. Yet this year, in just four months, the cumulative number of registered immigrants had already exceeded forty thousand, and it was still increasing continuously.

The rapidly increasing number of Russian immigrants was not a good thing for Spain, and the immigration department soon reported this to the cabinet government, inquiring about how to handle these extra immigrants.

Gao Da naturally learned of this news and inquired about the government's method of handling it. Overall, Gao Da was quite satisfied with the method chosen by Prime Minister Cánovas.

Although Spain itself did not need many immigrants, Spain's colonies still required a large number of them. Especially the three West African colonies just acquired from the British; these colonies already possessed a large immigrant population, and having more Russian immigrants would have absolutely no impact.

It could even reduce the influence of the British in these regions by decreasing the number of local British immigrants, allowing the Spanish government to strengthen its control over these areas.

Especially the Gambia colony; as an overseas granary that Spain was focusing on developing, the Gambia colony needed a large number of farmers to grow food.

Russian farmers were clearly experts in agriculture, and coupled with their ability to withstand pressure and their hard-working nature, it was simply perfect for them to head to the Gambia colony.

The only thing to worry about was whether these Russians, accustomed to living in frigid regions, could adapt to life in the African colonies. Spain's African colonies were generally close to the equator, and the temperatures were quite scorching.

Suddenly moving from a frigid region to a hot one would very likely cause these Russian immigrants to suffer from acclimatization issues. The related difficulties could only be overcome by the Russians themselves; on this point, Spain did not have any particularly good solutions.

In order to accelerate the agricultural development of the Gambia colony, these Russian immigrants would just have to be wronged and adapt on their own. Even if some people contracted diseases due to acclimatization issues, it was completely acceptable to Spain.

Just as Spain was racking its brains over the West African development plan, its northern neighbor, France, was also experiencing intense arguments domestically.

The initiator of the argument, Jules François Camille Ferry, also known as the famous Jules Ferry, proposed a controversial topic at the French cabinet meeting: that France should send troops to bring Tunisia under French colonial protection.

Tunisia is located in North Africa, just east of Algeria, which is controlled by France, and faces Italy's Sicily across the sea.

Jules Ferry certainly knew that colonizing Tunisia would cause conflict with Italy, but for France at this time, it had to find some compensation for its defeat ten years ago through colonization, so that the French government could once again be trusted by the public.

The Franco-Prussian War ten years ago was equivalent to the Germans giving all French people a hard slap in the face, which all French people kept in mind.

To what extent did the French hold a grudge? Regardless of the level of government official or legislator, as long as anyone dared to propose not taking revenge on Germany, they would definitely be attacked by the angry public.

Taking revenge on Germany had already become a political correctness in France; no matter what the politicians thought, they had to support the public's view on the surface.

Jules Ferry could be said to be one of the representative figures of French politicians of this era. As a politician serving as Prime Minister, Jules Ferry certainly understood Germany's strength.

Although France's comprehensive strength was not weak, dreaming of taking revenge on Germany without the support of any allies would absolutely be courting death.

But the public's hatred for Germany was genuine, which was something the French government could never ignore. Therefore, the French government had to find other ways to divert the public's hatred, or at least attract the public's attention to avoid dissatisfaction caused by its own inaction.

In this era of great colonization, what could best attract the attention of the French public was naturally expanding the country's territory and establishing new colonies.

The region of Tunisia was relatively important. Not only was it connected to Algeria, which France already controlled, but it was also the northernmost region of Africa, which was very helpful for France to exert influence along the Mediterranean coast.

Of course, controlling Tunisia could also help France continue to expand eastward in North Africa. To the southeast of Tunisia was Libya, and to the east of Libya was Egypt, which was where the Suez Canal was located.

There is no need to mention how important the Suez Canal was; even though the British used various means to acquire most of the shares of the Suez Canal, France had never given up its focus on it.

If the British completely controlled the Suez Canal, the French fleet in the Mediterranean would be blocked inside. The French naturally understood this logic; they had always opposed the British completely controlling the Suez Canal and would jump out from time to time to question the status quo of the British controlling most of the shares.

Back to Tunisia. Currently, Tunisia nominally belonged to the Ottoman Empire, but in reality, the Ottoman Empire could no longer manage it.

The reason for this was naturally that the failure of the last Russo-Turkish War had exposed the full strength of the Ottoman Empire.

As a super-empire that once spanned the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, the Ottoman Empire was still a strong power to most countries, as the saying goes, "a lean camel is bigger than a horse."

But for France, which had dominated Europe ten years ago, the Ottoman Empire's "lean camel" was like fat meat on a chopping block, left to be slaughtered by France.

However, because Tunisia was closer to Italy, Italy was also quite concerned about this land. Considering that invading Tunisia would inevitably attract the attention of the Italians and possibly even cause their interference, before provoking a war over Tunisia, the current French Prime Minister Jules Ferry consulted several important officials and high-level generals of the French cabinet.

The first to be consulted was naturally an important member of the French cabinet, the current Foreign Minister Gambetta.

As Foreign Minister, Gambetta was quite knowledgeable about the situation in Europe. Upon learning that the Prime Minister intended to launch an invasion of Tunisia, Gambetta immediately asked his first question, which was how to handle Italy.

Times had changed; Italy was no longer the Kingdom of Sardinia that could be manipulated by France. Although the unified Italy was not as perverted as Germany, it was still a country at the level of a great power.

If it were France in its prime, it naturally would not consider the views of the Italians too much. But at this time, France was in a situation of being diplomatically isolated by Germany; if it offended Italy to death, it would only make Germany's policy of isolating France even more aggressive.

Facing the question from Foreign Minister Gambetta, Jules Ferry thought for a long time before giving his attitude, which was to respond to Italy's possible interference with tough measures.

Although the Franco-Prussian War caused France to lose Alsace and Lorraine, France was still the hegemon of Western Europe and one of the top three powers in the world.

For France to expand a colony, a small Italy could not stop it. Furthermore, Italy might not have enough courage to stop France from invading Tunisia.

Italy was lagging behind France in all aspects of industry, economy, and population, and its army's combat effectiveness was far behind France's.

Even if a real fight broke out, France was not afraid of Italy at all. Even if Italy was disobedient, France could completely attack Rome and let the Papal States regain control of the situation in Rome.

After learning the Prime Minister's attitude, Foreign Minister Gambetta nodded, and he had no more questions.

He and the Prime Minister came from the same party, so he would definitely stand on the Prime Minister's side on such a major matter. What's more, invading Tunisia was not a big deal for France, so there was naturally no need to sing a different tune from the Prime Minister.

In addition to consulting the opinion of Foreign Minister Gambetta, French Prime Minister Jules Ferry also asked for the opinion of the French Minister of War.

However, there was nothing to ask; it was just attacking an indigenous country, and the Minister of War would definitely not refuse.

This would not only allow the military to gain many merits for nothing, but it was also a war that would absolutely not be lost, equivalent to giving away merits.

As for the attitudes of other great powers, that was not something the military should consider. The military was only responsible for winning the war; which countries would be annoyed was something the government and diplomatic departments should consider.

After obtaining the support of the Foreign Minister and the Minister of War, Jules Ferry was full of confidence and proposed the motion regarding the invasion of Tunisia at the French cabinet meeting.

It is worth mentioning that Jules Ferry also played some small tricks before proposing the motion.

Politicians care most about their reputation. Before proposing the relevant motion, Jules Ferry had already let several newspaper offices report the news that he would push the country to launch a war to help France acquire a new colony.

Although it was not recovering Alsace and Lorraine, expanding territory was also a great merit.

More importantly, compared to Jules Ferry, who was full of confidence shortly after taking office, his 11 predecessors had almost no achievements in the position of Prime Minister.

Yes, since the establishment of the republic after the Franco-Prussian War, France had changed eleven Prime Ministers in these ten-odd years; such a speed could be said to be quite exaggerated.

Although France had both President and Prime Minister positions, in the French Third Republic, the actual power of the Prime Minister was greater than that of the President.

The head of state was naturally the French President, but the French President was only responsible for diplomacy and military affairs, while executive power was in the hands of the French Prime Minister.

Changing one Prime Minister per year on average, one can imagine how chaotic the situation in French politics was during this period.

At this time, the French President was elected by the public, while the French Prime Minister was appointed by the party that won the parliamentary election. The frequent changes of Prime Ministers also represented one thing: the contradictions and disputes between French political parties were also extremely deep.

The reason why the French Third Republic weakened the power of the President could be considered a lesson from Napoleon III.

Before becoming Emperor of France, Napoleon III served as French President through an election. At that time, the French President had great power, which laid the foundation for him to later realize a military dictatorship and re-establish the French Empire.

The French Third Republic weakened the power of the President precisely to prevent events like the restoration of Napoleon III from happening.

Diplomatic power and military power were in the hands of the President, which was actually the reason why Jules Ferry consulted the Foreign Minister and the Minister of War.

As long as the two cabinet ministers supported Jules Ferry, even if the President opposed it, Jules Ferry had ways to deal with it.

After all, the public opinion in France at this time supported the war; after the humiliating Franco-Prussian War, the French also needed many victories in war to wash away their shame.

If the French President at this time dared to directly refuse Jules Ferry's proposal, I am afraid the first to be dissatisfied would be the French public who elected him.

Sure enough, because the news had already been reported by the press, after Jules Ferry mentioned the proposal to invade Tunisia at the cabinet meeting, no cabinet minister dared to refute such a proposal.

French public opinion was not a joke; even if the public in other countries were angry and dissatisfied, most of the time they would only break out into relevant protests.

The French public would not joke; if the war was refused on the first day, protests would break out on that very day. As for the second day, that would naturally be the relevant revolution and uprising.

The French public, especially the citizens of Paris, were already very experienced in this; they knew the locations of the Paris municipal government and the French government offices very well, and they were also quite familiar with the locations of the armories in downtown Paris.

Even the King of France could be sent to the gallows, let alone a President elected by public opinion. As long as one was not stupid, one would absolutely not refuse the relevant war proposal.

Unless such a war was not supported by the French public, but for the French public at this time, that was almost impossible.

The humiliation brought to the French public by the Franco-Prussian War was too intense, and they urgently needed a hearty war to vent it.

The officials of the French government naturally understood this logic; whether it was the cabinet government or the French parliament, they were all in favor of it with both hands and feet.

Amidst the unanimous approval, the French government also immediately began preparations for the war.

Jules Ferry was not stupid; although France was not afraid of Italy, if it could colonize Tunisia while keeping it from Italy, that would certainly be the best.

By the time France fully occupied Tunisia, even if the Italians discovered it, they would have no way to change the situation in Tunisia.

Although Italy's unification was relatively late, it is worth mentioning that the time the Italians set their sights on Tunisia was even earlier than the time of its unification.

As early as the Kingdom of Sardinia period, a large amount of Italian capital and individuals went to Tunisia, which faced them across the sea, to carry out relevant colonial and business activities.

With the industrial and economic development of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the government also personally entered the field and participated in the infiltration of Tunisia.

Although located in Africa, Tunisia was a relatively fertile land. The area of Tunisia reached 160, 00 square kilometers, which was already more than half of Italy.

This was also the reason why Italy set its sights on Tunisia; the land was fertile, there was a lot of arable land, and it was very close to the mainland. Wasn't this a natural colony?

(End of this chapter)