Chapter 319: Retaliation

When news of what happened in the West African colonies reached Spain, the fact that the French fleet had been throwing its weight around in Spanish colonies also became known to other European citizens.

Of course, this was not because anyone in the West African colonies had leaked the information.

It was mainly because the West African colonies were composed of former British and Portuguese colonies, and a large number of people from Europe lived there; it was impossible for Spain to seal off the news unless they forcibly controlled the spread of information within the colonies.

The good news was that other European countries and their citizens learned of the news later than Spain. Gao Da had enough time to handle this sudden incident, or at least enough time to make preparations.

Regarding this blatant provocation by the French, Gao Da did not intend to show any forbearance.

This did not mean that Gao Da lacked reason at such a critical juncture; on the contrary, Spain needed a tough attitude to express its position.

This era was one where the strong preyed on the weak; the side that chose to retreat would only receive further intimidation and extortion from the other.

If one wanted to make the French stop such deterrent behavior, the best way was to make them understand that Spain was not a country they could bully at will.

On the day he received the news, Gao Da issued orders to the many newspapers and media outlets under his control, requiring them to publicize the French fleet's bullying of Spanish colonies, but forbidding any exaggerated embellishments.

Although he decided to fight back with tough measures, this did not mean Gao Da wanted a war to break out with France at this time. Since the conflict and competition had to be limited to a local scope, he had to control public opinion within Spain.

He needed to make the Spanish people support the retaliation against the French, but he could not let them become too hateful toward the French.

If he accidentally stirred up strong resentment among the Spanish people toward the French, the Spanish government would have no choice but to swallow its pride and be forced to follow public opinion into a larger-scale conflict or even war with France.

Gao Da's purpose in doing this was very simple: to shape Spain into an image similar to the honey badger.

The honey badger is known as the most fearless animal in the world. Although this title sometimes implies recklessness, then again, sometimes being reckless has its benefits.

As previously introduced, the countries that would stand in opposition to Spain were basically only Britain and France.

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

With only Britain and France, things were easier to handle.

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

Britain was the same as always; because of its colonies spread all over the world, it had conflicts of interest with many countries. Among them, the Anglo-French and Anglo-Russian conflicts were primary, mixed with the conflict between Britain, the world hegemon, and Germany, the newly emerged hegemon on the European continent. This was also why Gao Da was not worried about Britain at all.

Unless Spain forcibly annexed key countries and regions like Portugal or 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 observed by tacit agreement.

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

The comprehensive strength of the French was indeed stronger than that of Spain, a point Gao Da did not deny.

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

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

In addition to Germany, the biggest threat, Spain had alliances with the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy. If France dared to take the initiative to invade Spain, these two countries would very likely choose 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, one could see from this that Spain was more like a weakened version of France. France was a country with a relatively balanced land and naval force on the European continent, with both its army and navy ranking in the world's top three.

Although Spain could not reach such an exaggerated level, its army and navy were also relatively balanced, both ranking among the world's best.

Compared with Spain, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy appeared less balanced. Because the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not have a long coastline, its army's strength was far greater than its navy's.

Italy was somewhat the opposite; because of its long coastline, the Italian navy had a decent level of proficiency.

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, second only to the United States.

The performance of the Italian army in colonial wars and the two world wars was quite famous; if France had not surrendered so quickly in World War II, the Italian army's combat effectiveness might have been even more famous.

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

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

Since it was certain that the French would not tear off the mask of civility, Gao Da naturally could not choose to retreat in such an unexpected incident.

Gao Da was clear about 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 affairs and could make Spain a military power again.

As early as when Spain was formulating its plan for the development of African colonies, Gao Da had been clear that Spain would definitely have some conflicts with France, and there might even be local wars.

Although France's strength on the surface was far greater than Spain's, Gao Da had no worries about France at all.

To describe it a bit more specifically, Spain's state at this time was that of someone barefoot not being afraid of someone wearing shoes. Even if Spain failed in the competition, it could still hold the Iberian Peninsula and be a bottom-tier great power without any problems.

But the French were different. Let alone failure, as long as they suffered significant losses, it would seriously affect France's survival environment in the European region.

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

The day after receiving the news from the colonies, June 23, 1885, Spanish newspapers and media reported extensively on the incident where the French fleet forcibly broke into a Spanish colonial port and almost exchanged fire with the colonial coastal defense batteries.

Because so many newspapers reported similar news, this incident quickly attracted the attention of a large number of Spaniards.

Gao Da was not disappointed; upon learning of this news, the attitude of the Spanish people was rarely unanimous: the government should retaliate with the same means.

Spain was not some small fry. As citizens of a great power, the Spanish people had extremely high national pride and patriotic enthusiasm.

The French provocation against Spain was seen by the Spaniards as if the French had slapped them in the face. The Spaniards were not a cowardly nation to begin with, and coupled with the brave and fearless spirit that Gao Da had brought to Spain through bullfighting, it instantly ignited the emotions of the Spanish people.

Never mind France; even if the British Empire were standing right in front of them, the Spaniards would support the government in fighting back without hesitation.

Gao Da naturally would not let the Spanish people down. At noon on June 23, Gao Da ordered the diplomatic department to hold an external press conference, where they righteously expressed their protest against the French provocation and stated that the Spanish government would consider retaliating with the same means.

This tough stance by the Spanish government immediately aroused the fanatical cheers of the Spanish public and the curiosity of foreign media.

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

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

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

France and Spain were both great powers, and 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 isolation, what exactly was the purpose of the French government's active provocation of the Spanish government?

If only some news outlets were paying attention to the conflict between Spain and France before, then after the Spanish diplomatic department expressed its tough attitude, governments across Europe expressed their concern about this incident in unison.

The Spanish government had no intention of keeping anyone in suspense, and the government immediately began to plan its retaliation against France.

While it was called a retaliatory act, in reality, it was just doing the same thing the French had done.

On the afternoon of June 23, a fleet set out from the West African colonies, heading majestically toward the French colony of Senegal.

After approaching the waters off French Senegal, the Spanish fleet did not hesitate at all and headed toward Saint-Louis, the capital and largest port of Senegal.

After arriving in the vicinity of 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 had arrived at the Spanish port, and the French government had also considered the possibility of retaliatory actions by the Spanish government.

But what the French government did not expect was that the Spanish government's retaliation seemed to have come a bit too quickly.

It had not even been a few hours since the Spanish diplomatic department expressed its tough attitude, so how was it that the Spanish fleet was already at the doorstep of a French colony?

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

Spain's homeland was more than two thousand kilometers away from France's Senegal colony in a straight line, and the distance traveled by warships was much longer than that.

According to the current cruising speed of Spain's main warships, if a fleet were dispatched from the homeland, it would take at least a week to reach the French colony.

Besides the homeland, the place where Spain had the most naval forces stationed 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 colonies and the Congo territory, it became the base for the Spanish African fleet.

But it had the same problem as the Spanish homeland: it was nearly 3, 00 kilometers away from France's Senegal colony in a straight line.

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

Although the warships in the West African colonies were all small warships, it was the only naval base that could reach the French colony in a short time.

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

Upon seeing the Spanish warships appear at the port, the same chaos that had occurred at the Spanish port more than a day earlier appeared at the French colonial port.

Governments of various countries might know that a war would not break out between these two countries, but these citizens living in the colonies did not know that.

Besides, such things could not be guaranteed one hundred percent. If a small-scale war really broke out between Spain and France, wouldn't they, being relatively close to the port of Saint-Louis, become the first targets to be affected?

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

When the French saw the Spanish fleet, their first reaction was to contact the fleets stationed in other ports to seek protection from their own country's fleet.

At the same time, the coastal defense guns at the French port, just as the Spanish had done yesterday, turned their muzzles to aim at the Spanish fleet.

This Spanish fleet had no large warships, which also increased the difficulty for the coastal defense guns to aim.

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

Although it was currently just a standoff between the French colony and the Spanish fleet, if one side were to open fire rashly, this standoff would very likely evolve into a small-scale war.

The Spanish side did not want to see a war happen, and the French government held the same attitude.

This led to both sides being relatively restrained; the Spanish fleet only stayed at the French port for a few minutes before choosing to withdraw.

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

Especially those French people who had completely moved to the colonies, they absolutely did not want to see a war happen.

The good news was that the Spanish fleet had retreated, and the crisis was over. The bad news was that such a retaliatory act by Spain was like a slap in the face to all the French people present.

The French were now as angry as the Spaniards had been a day ago.

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

(End of chapter)