Chapter 319

When what happened in the West African colony was reported back to the Spanish mainland, the fact that the French fleet was showing off its power in the Spanish colony was also known to other European people.

Of course, this was not because someone in the West African colony leaked the news.

It was mainly because the West African colony was composed of former British colonies and Portuguese colonies, where a large number of people from Europe lived; Spain could not block the news unless it forcibly controlled the spread of news within the colony.

The good news is that other European countries and people learned the news later than Spain. Carlos had enough time to deal with this sudden incident, at least time to be prepared.

For this blatant provocation by the French, Carlos did not intend to have any forbearance.

This does not mean that Carlos had no reason at such a critical juncture; on the contrary, Spain needed some tough attitudes to express its opinions.

This era was originally an era of the law of the jungle; the side that chose to retreat would only get the other side's inch-by-inch intimidation and extortion.

The best way to make the French stop such deterrence behavior is to let them understand that Spain is not a country they can bully at will.

On the day he received the news, Carlos issued an order to the many newspaper media he controlled, requiring them to extensively publicize the French fleet's bullying of the Spanish colony, but not allowing any exaggerated embellishments.

Although he decided to fight back with tough means, this did not mean that Carlos wanted to break out a war with France at this time. Since the conflict and competition were to be limited to a local scope, the public opinion in Spain had to be controlled.

It was necessary to make the Spanish people agree to fight back against the French, but not to make the Spanish people too hateful towards the French.

If one accidentally provoked the Spanish people's strong resentment towards the French, then the Spanish government could only swallow its teeth and swallow them into its stomach, forced to follow public opinion and break out a larger-scale conflict or even war with France.

Carlos's purpose in doing this was also very simple, which was to shape Spain into an image similar to a honey badger.

The honey badger is also known as the honey badger, hailed as the most fearless animal in the world. Although such a title sometimes also represents recklessness, but then again, sometimes recklessness is also good.

As introduced before, the countries that would stand on the opposite side of Spain basically only included Britain and France.

Other countries were either too far away or had no conflict of interest with Spain, so naturally, they could not offend Spain.

Only Britain and France, then it was easy to handle.

Although the comprehensive strength of these two countries was among the strongest in Europe, this did not mean that they were existences that Spain could not provoke.

Britain was still the same, because of its colonies spread all over the world, it had conflicts of interest with many countries. Among them, the Anglo-French conflict and the Anglo-Russian conflict were the main ones, and it was also mixed with the conflict between Britain, the world hegemon, and Germany, the new hegemon produced on the European continent, which was also the reason why Carlos was not worried about Britain at all.

Unless Spain forcibly annexed key countries and regions like Portugal and Morocco, the British would not declare war on Spain.

These two regions were more like the bottom line drawn by the British, and they were also principles that Spain and Britain currently tacitly observed.

France, like the British, also had other enemies on the European continent. Currently, the more prominent one was the German-French conflict, which also made it difficult for France to concentrate its energy on dealing with Spain.

The comprehensive strength of the French was indeed stronger than that of Spain, and Carlos did not deny this point.

But the problem was that the French were far from being able to conquer Spain in a short period of time, which was also Carlos's confidence.

Once France and Spain went to war, after the French army fell into the quagmire of the Iberian Peninsula, Germany, which had a great conflict with France, would definitely take advantage of the situation and cause trouble in France's rear.

In addition to Germany, the biggest threat, Spain had alliances with the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy respectively. If France dared to actively invade Spain, these two countries had a high probability of choosing to help Spain.

The combined navies of Spain and Italy were already enough to shake the French navy, and the combined armies of Spain and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were also enough to shake the French army.

In fact, from this point, it could be seen that Spain was more like a weakened version of France. France was a country with a relatively balanced army and navy on the European continent, and both the army and navy could rank in the top three in the world.

Although Spain could not reach such an exaggerated level, its army and navy were also relatively balanced and could rank among the forefront of the world.

Compared with Spain, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy appeared not so balanced. Because the coastline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not long, the strength of the army was far stronger than that of the navy.

Italy was a bit opposite; because the coastline was long, the Italian navy still had a good level.

As for the Italian army, although it was not bad in terms of numbers, in terms of combat effectiveness, it could be said to be the weakest among the great powers except for the United States.

The performance of the Italian army in colonial wars and the two world wars was quite famous; if it weren't for France surrendering too quickly in World War II, I am afraid that the combat effectiveness of the Italian army would be even more famous.

Of course, this could not be entirely blamed on the Italians. The combat effectiveness of Garibaldi's Red Shirts was still relatively good, which was also one of the few armies in Italy that had faith and combat effectiveness.

Unfortunately, with the unification of Italy, Garibaldi's Red Shirts were also forced to disband or be taken over by the Italian government, and the combat effectiveness naturally fell apart.

Since it had been determined that the French would not tear their faces, Carlos naturally could not choose to retreat in such an accidental incident.

Carlos knew what kind of king the Spanish people needed; they needed not only a king who could lead Spain to rapid development and revival in industry and economy, but also a king who had achievements in military aspects and let Spain become a military power again.

As early as when Spain formulated the development plan for African colonies, Carlos already knew that Spain would definitely have certain conflicts with France, and there might even be local wars.

Although France's strength on the surface was far stronger than Spain's, Carlos had no worries about France.

To describe it a bit more specifically, Spain's state at this time was that the barefoot were not afraid of those wearing shoes. If Spain failed in the competition, it could also hold the Iberian Peninsula and honestly be a tail-end great power, which was no problem.

But the French were different. Let's not talk about failure; as long as the loss was relatively significant, it would seriously affect France's living environment in the European region.

Before France had a powerful ally that could deter Germany, the French government could not have intense conflicts with the Spanish government.

The day after receiving the news from the colony, which was June 23, 1885, Spain's newspaper media extensively reported on the incident where the French fleet forcibly broke into the Spanish colonial port and almost exchanged fire with the colonial coastal defense batteries.

Because there were too many newspapers reporting similar news, this incident soon attracted the attention of a large number of Spaniards.

Carlos was not disappointed; after learning such news, the attitude of the Spanish people was unanimously consistent, which was that the government should retaliate with the same means.

Spain was not some stinky fish or rotten shrimp. As people of a great power country, Spaniards had extremely high national pride and patriotic enthusiasm.

The French provocation of Spain, in the eyes of the Spaniards, was like the French giving themselves a slap in the face. The Spaniards were not a cowardly nation, coupled with the brave and fearless spirit brought to the Spaniards by Carlos through bullfighting activities, it immediately ignited the emotions of the Spanish people.

Let alone what France was, even if the British Empire was in front, the Spaniards would support the government to fight back without hesitation.

Carlos naturally would not let the Spanish people down. At noon on June 23, Carlos ordered the diplomatic department to hold an external press conference, righteously expressing protest against France's provocation, and stated that the Spanish government would consider retaliating with the same means.

The Spanish government's tough stance immediately aroused the fanatical cheers of the Spanish people and the curiosity of foreign media.

The public highly recognized Spain's tough attitude; they believed that such a Spanish government could protect the interests of all Spanish people.

As for the attention of those foreign media, what they were more curious about was whether the Spanish government's statement that it would consider retaliating with the same means was true.

If this was true, it not only meant that the diplomatic relations between Spain and France would plummet in a short period of time, but also meant that the European situation would also usher in major changes.

France and Spain were both great powers; it was inevitable that the diplomatic relations between these two countries would affect the European situation. Coupled with the fact that France itself was in a state of being isolated, what was the purpose of the French government actively provoking the Spanish government?

If it was said that only some news newspapers were paying attention to the conflict between Spain and France before, then after the Spanish diplomatic department expressed a tough attitude, European governments all expressed attention to this incident without exception.

The Spanish government side also had no idea of selling out; the government immediately began to plan retaliatory actions against France.

It was said to be a retaliatory action, but in fact, it was just doing what the French did again.

On the afternoon of June 23, a fleet set off from the West African colony and headed to the French Senegal colony in a grand manner.

After approaching the sea of French Senegal, the Spanish fleet did not hesitate at all and headed towards Saint-Louis, the capital of Senegal and also the largest port.

After arriving around the port of Saint-Louis, the Spanish fleet signaled with clear flag signals, requesting to dock at the port of Saint-Louis and replenish supplies.

At this time, more than a day had passed since the French fleet arrived at the Spanish port, and the French government had also considered the possible retaliatory actions of the Spanish government.

But what the French government did not expect was that the Spanish government's retaliatory actions seemed to come a bit fast.

It had not been a few hours since the Spanish government's diplomatic department expressed a tough attitude; how could the Spanish fleet already be at the door of the French colony?

The reason why the Spanish fleet arrived at the French colony so quickly was mainly because Spain did not use the main fleet stationed on the mainland.

Spain's mainland had a straight-line distance of more than 2,000 kilometers from France's Senegal colony, and the distance traveled by warships was much farther than this distance.

According to the current sailing speed of Spain's main warships, if a fleet were dispatched from the mainland, it would take at least more than a week to arrive at the French colony.

In addition to the mainland, the place where Spain stationed the most navy was the Guinea colony. Because the Guinea colony was located at the corner of the Gulf of Guinea and was not far from the West African colony and the Congo territory, it became the station of the Spanish African fleet.

But here it had the same problem as the Spanish mainland, which was that it had a straight-line distance of nearly 3,000 kilometers from France's Senegal colony.

Looking at it this way, the only one that could dispatch a fleet to arrive at the French colony in a short period of time was Spain's West African colony.

Although the warships in the West African colony were small warships, this was the only naval base that could reach the French colony in a short period of time.

After all, Spain's retaliatory action was only to deter France, and the purpose was not to provoke France and cause a war to break out.

After seeing the Spanish army appear at the port, the French colonial port also appeared in the chaos that appeared at the Spanish port more than a day ago.

Governments of various countries might know that there would be no war between these two countries, but these people living in the colony did not know.

Besides, this kind of thing was not 100% guaranteed. If a small-scale war really broke out between Spain and France, wouldn't those of them who were relatively close to the port of Saint-Louis become the first targets to be affected?

It is worth mentioning that because only more than a day had passed, the French fleet that deterred the Spanish port at that time was still staying in the Senegal colony.

When the French saw the Spanish fleet, their first reaction was to contact the fleet stationed at other ports and seek the protection of their own country's fleet.

At the same time, the coastal defense guns of the French port, just like what Spain did yesterday, turned their muzzles and aimed at the Spanish fleet.

This fleet of Spain had no large warships, which also increased the difficulty of aiming for the coastal defense guns.

Coupled with the fact that the Spaniards had no further actions, the French did not dare to be the first to open fire.

Although it was currently only a confrontation between the French colony and the Spanish fleet, if one side rashly opened fire, this confrontation would very likely evolve into a small-scale war.

Spain did not want to see a war happen, and the French government had the same attitude.

This also led to the fact that both sides were relatively restrained, and the Spanish fleet only stayed at the French port for a few minutes, and then chose to withdraw.

Watching the Spanish fleet gradually sail away from the port, the French finally breathed a sigh of relief. At least the war did not break out, which was also good news for the French.

Especially those French who had completely immigrated to the colony, they absolutely did not want to see the war happen.

The good news is that the Spanish fleet has retreated, and this crisis has ended. The bad news is that Spain's retaliatory action was like a slap in the face, slapped on the faces of all the French present.

How angry the Spaniards were a day ago, the French at this time were just as angry.

The Governor of France's Senegal colony immediately reported the actions of the Spanish fleet to the French mainland and asked for the opinion of the French government.

(End of chapter)