Chapter 371: The Treaty and the Italian Farce (A 10,000-word Chapter!)

The siege of Rabat, the capital of Morocco, was undoubtedly the most brutal battle of this war, and the one involving the largest number of soldiers from both the Moroccan and Spanish sides.

On the Moroccan side, the remaining fewer than 70,000 soldiers, plus 30,000 militiamen temporarily organized by the Moroccan government, formed a defensive force of nearly 100,000, who established one defensive line after another around Rabat.

The number of troops deployed by Spain as the attacking side was also significant. Approximately 8,000 members of the Imperial Guard and about 28,000 of the Royal Army were the main force, with two colonial divisions of nearly 40,000 men, bringing the total number of troops to around 76,000.

In order to break through Rabat, the Spanish army had made full preparations.

In addition to utilizing all types and calibers of artillery, Spain had also captured almost all Moroccan cities surrounding Rabat, leaving the large city in a state of isolation and helplessness.

The nearest city still under the control of the Moroccan government was tens of kilometers away, which meant that Rabat was basically unable to receive any aid from other cities.

To hold Rabat, the Moroccan government had made up its mind.

The government formed a supervision team of 3,000 people to force this army of 100,000 to firmly resist the Spanish army's offensive with a tough stance.

This also made these Moroccan soldiers have to pay their full effort to resist the Spanish army, and the price was that thousands of Moroccan soldiers had already died at the hands of the supervision team.

Of course, the battlefield is by no means a place that values mercy.

The supervision team was still very necessary; after all, people would instinctively fear death, and the existence of the supervision team could avoid the phenomenon of fleeing before battle as much as possible, twisting the whole army into a rope.

The Spanish army also had a supervision team. It was just that the Guard and the Royal Army rarely used the supervision team, and only the colonial army needed the supervision team to deter people's hearts.

Fortunately, Spain had always been the superior side, and with constant firepower suppression, the casualties suffered by the Spanish army were minimal.

With few casualties and sufficient logistical supplies, desertion in the Spanish army was naturally very rare.

In the week before the siege of Rabat, the Moroccan soldiers and the Spanish army fought back and forth. Although they could not suppress the Spanish army's offensive, relying on tenacious fighting spirit and the supervision of the supervision team, they also held the last line of defense of Rabat.

In this week, the casualties of the Moroccan army reached over 30,000, with an average of over 2,000 soldiers dying every day, which was already an incredibly exaggerated scale.

If it weren't for Spain wanting to minimize casualties as much as possible, the casualties on the Moroccan side would have been even greater.

The main force for the siege had always been the two colonial divisions; after all, the lives of these natives were certainly not as valuable as those of the Spaniards in the Imperial Guard and the Royal Army.

From the second week of the siege, the Spanish army gradually got serious. Because Rabat had been besieged for a week, both the Moroccan government and the people of Rabat had lost confidence in the war.

This war was no longer a question of whether it could be won, but rather how much loss the Moroccan side would have to bear, and whether the current Moroccan royal family and nobility could continue to exist.

From the eighth day of the siege, the daily casualties of both the attacking and defending sides rose to another level.

Spain deployed hundreds of cannons, and the number of shells consumed by these cannons every day reached tens of thousands.

Under continuous bombardment, the results achieved by the Spanish army were quite significant. The outer defenses of Rabat were all captured by Spain, and the Moroccan army had to retreat into the city of Rabat to defend.

Those elite Moroccan troops were becoming fewer and fewer, and the Moroccan government had to forcibly conscript the civilians of Rabat into the army to fill the vacancies.

Although this was effective in slowing down the Spanish offensive—after all, Spain could not ignore casualties and fight street battles with the Moroccan army—the problem was that this forced conscription also increased the dissatisfaction of Moroccan civilians with the government.

These forcibly conscripted Moroccan civilians not only received no training, but they even had to prepare their own weapons.

This led to a motley collection of weapons in the newly organized Moroccan army, with cold weapons being the primary choice.

On the eighth day of the siege of Rabat, the single-day casualties of the Spanish army rose to nearly 2,000.

This was the day with the highest number of casualties for the Spanish army since the start of the war.

Of course, conservatively estimated, Spain also inflicted nearly 10,000 casualties on the Moroccan army. Moreover, most of the casualties were native soldiers, so this casualty ratio was not a loss for the Spanish army at all.

Under the full-scale offensive of the Spanish army, Morocco finally could not bear such huge casualties.

On the 12th day of the siege of Rabat, the Moroccan government finally could not hold on and announced its surrender to Spain with the remaining fewer than 30,000 soldiers.

After the Spanish army entered Rabat, it immediately took control of the places where the Moroccan government and royal family were located.

The good news was that most of the Moroccan government officials remained in Rabat, and controlling them was equivalent to controlling most of Morocco.

The bad news was that the Spanish army did not find any members of the royal family in the Moroccan palace, and the British ambassador to Morocco had long since disappeared.

According to existing clues, the Moroccan royal family should have fled with the British ambassador to Morocco a day earlier, which was also the reason why the Moroccan government and army surrendered to Spain.

It was a pity that the Moroccan royal family escaped, but at least Spain had occupied Rabat and controlled most of Morocco's land.

The most important thing now was not to pursue the Moroccan royal family, but to quickly establish Spain's rule in Morocco and then start the Moroccan localization action that the Spanish government had been looking forward to for a long time.

On June 15, 1895, the day after capturing Rabat, the Spanish government sent diplomatic representatives to start peace negotiations with the Moroccan government.

Calling it peace negotiations was actually just for show.

Most of Morocco's territory had been captured by Spain, and even the government had fallen into the hands of the Spanish army. These officials could not even guarantee their own safety, so how could they defy Spain's ideas in the peace negotiations and make their situation worse?

The peace negotiations lasted for three days, and the Moroccan officials were almost submissive throughout the process, agreeing to all of Spain's demands without any hesitation.

On June 18, 1895, the last day of the peace negotiations, the diplomatic representatives of Spain and the Moroccan government signed their names on the peace treaty in the presence of numerous newspaper media.

The first item of this treaty concerned the disposal of Morocco's existing territory.

The existing Morocco would be merged with Spain's South Morocco colony and renamed the Morocco Colony, with the northern city of Ceuta as the capital.

Because of the merger with the South Morocco colony, the area of the Morocco Colony would be larger than Spain's mainland, with a vast area of at least 700,000 to 800,000 square kilometers.

This also meant that the Morocco Colony was destined to be temporary. After the localization of the Morocco Colony was mostly completed in the future, Gao Da would divide Morocco into appropriate pieces and establish state-level administrative divisions.

The newly established Morocco Colony could not do without garrison troops. After all, it was newly occupied land, and although most Moroccans could be assimilated, some Moroccans were full of hatred for Spain because of the war, and these people had to be guarded against.

The most important thing for the Morocco Colony in the future was to clear out these Moroccans who hated Spain, and then carry out assimilation work on those more moderate Moroccans.

While the assimilation work in the Morocco Colony was underway, Spain would also try its best to transport a large number of immigrants from European countries and the mainland.

On one hand, it was to fill the population gap in the Morocco region, and on the other hand, it was to dilute the proportion of local Moroccans.

Although Moroccans could be assimilated, they occupied the majority of the local population in Morocco, which was never a good thing for Spain.

Only by reducing the proportion of Moroccans to about half could the stability of the Morocco region be effectively ensured.

The good news was that Morocco's overall population was not large, and the work of diluting the population proportion was not as difficult as imagined.

Although the population of the merged Morocco Colony rose to over 5 million again, there were only about 4.5 million true Moroccans.

If the proportion of Moroccans was to be reduced to about half, Spain only needed to transport about 2 million Moroccans to other regions to achieve this.

2 million people seemed like a lot, but for Spain, it was no longer a difficult task.

Even according to the original assimilation progress of the South Morocco colony, it would only take less than ten years to complete the population transfer work of the Morocco Colony.

This also meant that Spain would possess extremely strong potential before World War I. If Spain could obtain huge benefits in World War I while ensuring that the mainland would not be affected by the war, Spain would have the hope of becoming an even more powerful super power after the end of World War I.

The news of the signing of the peace treaty reached Spain, and the Spanish people expressed strong affirmation of the government's act of expanding territory again.

Morocco was also quite important to Spain, and Spain had long been eyeing Morocco. Unfortunately, because of the constant interference of the British government and the fact that the French were also eyeing this region, Spain had always been drooling but unable to annex this land.

For Gao Da, he had achieved what the previous kings of Spain had not. The Spain that annexed Morocco had become an existence that could not be ignored on the European continent, and in terms of mainland potential alone, it was actually no less than Britain, France, and Germany.

Since the war was over, most of the troops in Morocco would be recalled.

The Imperial Guard returned on transport ships on the day the peace negotiations began, and of the three mainland divisions that participated in the battle, only one infantry division would remain stationed in the northern cities of Morocco, and the remaining troops would return to the Spanish mainland.

The two colonial divisions would stay in Morocco for a period of time to help the Moroccan colonial government restore a stable order, and then return to other colonies.

After the situation in Morocco became slightly stable, the Moroccan colonial government would also organize its own colonial army.

Because these troops were very close to the Spanish mainland, they could not only maintain stability in the Morocco region but also head north to the Spanish mainland when Spain needed them, helping Spain with mainland defense.

As of the beginning of 1895, Spain's population had just broken through 30 million.

If the Moroccan population that was about to be assimilated was included, Spain's population had the hope of reaching over 40 million in ten years.

It was 1895, and ten years later would only be 1905.

If a population of over 40 million could be reached around 1905, even if World War I broke out ten years earlier, it would have no impact on Spain.

A population of over 40 million could easily arm over 3 million troops, and coupled with the auxiliary colonial troops of Spain, it was no problem for Spain to deploy 5 to 6 million troops in a world war.

This also meant that no matter which side Spain joined in the world war, it had a high probability of achieving final victory.

These 5 to 6 million people could tip the scales of the war to whichever side Spain joined. This was also the reason why Gao Da was not in a hurry to choose a camp in Europe. To a certain extent, Spain really had the ability to decide which of the two major military groups would be the final winner.

Spain had ended the Moroccan war cleanly and neatly, while the British were still in a bitter struggle with the Boers.

You know, the Boer population was less than one-tenth of the Moroccan population.

Even if the fighting power of the Boer soldiers was comparable to the army of a European power, due to population limitations, they could at most arm 40,000 to 50,000 troops.

How could the dignified British Empire not even solve 40,000 to 50,000 Boer soldiers?

This was a question that most European countries could not help but ask when paying attention to the Boer War.

That's right, the Boers did receive support from other European countries, including the Netherlands and Germany.

But this support was limited, more concentrated on weapons, equipment, and material support.

No European country had officially sent volunteer troops, and the Netherlands had the most civilian volunteer troops, totaling only a little over 1,000 people.

This level of aid should not have had much help for the battlefield; after all, compared to the Boers, the British should have had both people and money.

The good news was that the British army was not the worst among the European powers. Italy successfully demonstrated its lower limit in the war with Ethiopia, letting European countries see what terrible fighting power was.

The reason for Italy's invasion of Ethiopia was very simple: there were no other territories in Europe and Africa for Italy to occupy.

The directions for Italy's expansion within Europe were very limited. To the east and west were the Austro-Hungarian Empire and France, and these two countries were clearly not ones Italy could provoke.

Although Switzerland to the north was a small country, it was an officially recognized permanent neutral country. Moreover, Switzerland had no economic value, and for Italy, the disadvantages of occupying Switzerland far outweighed the benefits.

The only European territory Italy could covet was the Balkan Peninsula across the Adriatic Sea.

However, it was clear that after the last war when Germany and Austria joined forces to defeat Russia, the Balkan Peninsula became the sphere of influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Although Italy was an ally of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in terms of national interests, even if they were allies, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would never back down.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire had Germany backing it, which made Italy temporarily give up its covetousness for the Balkan Peninsula and turn its eyes to the African region.

North Africa had almost been completely carved up by the powers, leaving only Libya, where the vast majority of the land was desert, without a clear owner.

In fact, logically speaking, Libya was closest to Italy, and the Italian government should have easily been able to add Libya to its colonial scope.

But because Libya's geographical location was relatively important—to the west was France's Tunisia colony, and to the east was Britain's Egypt colony—Italy had never been able to fully incorporate Libya into its colonial rule.

Another major reason was the opposition of the French. Italy, with Spain's help, forcibly snatched two pieces of land in Tunisia from the French, which caused France's perception of Italy to drop sharply.

Although no major conflict broke out, France had always opposed Italy's colonial expansion in North Africa, which was also the reason why Italy could not put Libya into its own pocket.

Since it could not expand in North Africa, Italy could only turn its eyes to more distant African regions.

Although Africa's area was large, Africa's coastline had almost been carved up by European powers. Italy searched carefully in Africa and finally could only turn its eyes to the harder-to-chew Ethiopia.

Of course, it wasn't called Ethiopia at this time. The name of the country in this region was the Abyssinian Empire, and the empire was ruled by the Solomon dynasty.

Since its establishment in 1270, the Abyssinian Empire had been maintained for over 600 years. Although it was still within the scope of African natives, the military strength of the Abyssinian Empire was definitely one of the best among all African native countries.

Because it had had contact with European colonists, the Abyssinian Empire was clear about the strength of European colonists.

In the early stages of Italy's invasion of the Abyssinian Empire, the Abyssinian Empire, under pressure from Italy as a power, made multiple concessions.

This also allowed Italy to successively obtain regions such as Tigray, Adigrat, and Adwa, once expanding its colonial scope to the hinterland of the Abyssinian Empire.

Originally, the Abyssinian Empire thought that such concessions would satisfy the Italians, but unexpectedly, this little land could not satisfy the Italians' appetite at all. Facing the step-by-step concessions of the Abyssinian Empire, Italy made even more excessive demands, forcing the Abyssinian Empire to become a protectorate of Italy.

For such a demand, the Abyssinian Empire was naturally unable to accept it.

For the disobedient Abyssinian Empire, Italy decided to strike first.

Italy's Eritrea colony was established using the coastal areas of the Abyssinian Empire that had been occupied. After receiving instructions from the Italian government, the colonial governor, General Baratieri, launched a surprise attack on the Abyssinian Empire.

The Italian army came aggressively, occupying Aksum, the coronation site of the Abyssinian Empire's emperor, with a trend of threatening the hinterland of the Abyssinian Empire.

Originally, the Italians thought the war would end quickly, and history would only record it as an ordinary colonial war of Italy against African natives.

But unexpectedly, when the Italian army was arrogant and complacent because of its overwhelming victory, the Abyssinian Empire's army soon dealt a fatal blow to the Italian army.

Abyssinia organized tens of thousands of soldiers to resist Italy's colonial invasion. Among them, a force of about 30,000 men ambushed at the Amba Alagi mountain near Lake Ashangi, and finally successfully ambushed an Italian army of about 1,300 men.

Without any psychological preparation, this army was completely wiped out, and the army commander, Major Toselli, also died in this war.

1,300 Italian soldiers were completely wiped out; this was already an incredibly exaggerated result.

Even a field-grade officer died on the battlefield. Such news immediately shocked Italy and even the whole of Europe, making the news heat of the war between Italy and the Abyssinian Empire suddenly exceed that of the Boer War.

If such news only made European countries start to pay attention to an ordinary war, then the next piece of news directly made the Italian army the laughingstock of European countries.

After winning this small-scale victory, the Abyssinian Empire was not satisfied with the results it had achieved. Another army led by the Governor of Harar, Ras Makonnen, surrounded Mek'ele, which was the capital of the Tigray Kingdom under the Abyssinian Empire, previously occupied by the Italian army.

Because it was an occupied area, in order to maintain the stability of the city, Italy stationed 1,200 soldiers there.

The goal of the Abyssinian Empire was these 1,200 soldiers, and facts proved that they also successfully achieved their goal.

These 1,200 Italian soldiers, relying on advanced weapons and equipment, could still persist for a long time when facing the attack of tens of thousands of Abyssinian Empire troops.

But because the whole city was surrounded by the Abyssinian Empire's army, the Italian army could not get any material supplies, and no matter how advanced their weapons and equipment were, they would sooner or later become scrap metal.

After persisting for a month and a half, the Italian army could be said to be exhausted of ammunition and food.

After confirming that the enemy's ammunition supplies were insufficient, the soldiers of the Abyssinian Empire fought desperately and launched one attack after another on the fortress.

These African natives erupted with amazing courage and determination. Although they did not directly break through the city, the Italian army had no determination to resist after running out of ammunition and food, and finally chose to surrender to the Abyssinian Empire.

The war between Britain and the Boers was ultimately dominated by the British, but the war between Italy and the Abyssinian Empire currently seemed to be more dominated by the Abyssinian Empire.

How long had it been, and Italy had already lost nearly 2,500 soldiers.

1,300 people were completely wiped out, and 1,200 people chose to surrender after paying huge casualties.

This was rare for European countries. In the past, colonial wars only required a small number of troops to defeat the enemy. How could it not be done on Italy's side?

In fact, not only European countries were curious, but even the King of Italy, Umberto I, himself was very surprised.

According to the current performance of the Italian army, the fighting power of the Italian army was one level lower than that of the British army. The British army was one level lower than the land powers like France, Germany, and Spain, which didn't mean that the Italian army was at least two levels lower than the European land powers?

Umberto I could not believe such a reality. He had always thought that Italy should be a land power, and he had paid a lot of military expenses for the expansion of the army.

Why could Spain build a powerful army, while the Italian army could only become the laughingstock of European countries?

The angry Umberto I rejected the peace letter from the Emperor of the Abyssinian Empire, Menelik II. He regarded the failure of the Italian army in the Abyssinian Empire as a shame and demanded that the government continue to allocate funds and send more reinforcements to the battlefield to wash away the shame for Italy and the Italian army.

Facts proved that the fighting power of the Italian army was just that bad.

With the increase in military spending, the number of troops Italy invested in the battlefield reached nearly 20,000.

Logically speaking, 20,000 regular troops invading an African native country should be able to win this war with their toes.

But the Italian army was just so special. Not only did they lose this war, but it was a disastrous defeat. The Italian army was beaten to the point of throwing away their helmets and armor, and of the 20,000 troops, fewer than 8,000 escaped back to Eritrea, and the rest were either killed in battle or captured.

The reason why the Abyssinian Empire's army could show such powerful fighting power, in addition to their unprecedented enthusiasm for defending the country, was also due to the excellent talents shown by the empire's commanders.

The Emperor of the Abyssinian Empire, Menelik II, and the princes and dukes who commanded the army, successfully used a whole set of strategies and tactics that had been skillfully used in Abyssinia for over 1,000 years, including creating illusions, spreading false information, making a feint to the east while attacking in the west, etc.

How could the Italian army have imagined that the Abyssinian Empire's army could be so cunning? Coupled with the fact that there were many new recruits in the Italian army, this led to the occurrence of this disastrous defeat.

The Abyssinian Empire captured over 11,000 rifles and over 50 cannons, which suddenly enriched the Abyssinian Empire's military power.

According to this trend, with the Abyssinian Empire fighting to support the war, its military power would become more and more exaggerated.

The Abyssinian Empire was definitely the only native country in Europe equipped with over 10,000 rifles.

With the supplement of over 10,000 rifles and dozens of cannons, the difficulty for the Italian army to conquer the entire Abyssinian Empire would be much higher.

Just when European countries were thinking about whether the Abyssinian Empire would take advantage of the victory to recapture the Eritrea region occupied by Italy, the Emperor of the Abyssinian Empire, Menelik II, made a decision that surprised European countries: to station troops on the Eritrea border and no longer launch attacks on the Italian occupied area.

The Abyssinian Empire's abandonment of the attack also let the Italian government breathe a sigh of relief. If the Eritrea region were recaptured, Italy would lose even more face.

The Italian government, knowing that it was already at a disadvantage, did not persist too much. After a period of negotiations, it finally signed the "Treaty of Addis Ababa" with the Abyssinian Empire.

This treaty stipulated that Italy respected the independent status of the Abyssinian Empire and assumed responsibility for launching the war, paying 10 million lire in compensation to the Abyssinian Empire, the winner of the war.

The Abyssinian Empire abandoned the Eritrea region that had been occupied by Italy, and the two sides reached a unity on the land issue.

The Abyssinian Empire would no longer go north to threaten Italy, and Italy would no longer go south to covet the hinterland of the Abyssinian Empire.

Facts proved that Menelik II was quite smart.

As the war progressed, the time had come to the end of October.

If the war continued, the sowing period in the Ethiopia region was about to arrive. For the sake of agricultural harvest, the empire's soldiers would sooner or later have to go home to sow and farm.

If the soldiers were forcibly kept in the army at that time, it would inevitably cause dissatisfaction among these soldiers. After all, even if the war was won, the impact on agriculture was irreversible.

There were still many states in the south of the Abyssinian Empire that were outside the empire's rule. Menelik II believed that incorporating these states and other lands into the empire's rule was the most important thing.

There was no need to recapture Eritrea, which had been lost in the north. After all, this was the coastline of the Abyssinian Empire and the most prosperous and wealthy piece of land in the entire empire.

If they insisted on recapturing Eritrea, it would inevitably cause a more intense counterattack from the Italians. If it were like the war between Britain and the Boers, lasting for several years, it would not be cost-effective.

After all, the war was fought in the hinterland of the Abyssinian Empire, and it had no major impact on Italy's domestic agriculture and industry.

As long as the mainland was not affected, Italy could fight a protracted war. But the hinterland of the Abyssinian Empire would be affected by the war. The longer this war dragged on, the less cost-effective it would be for Abyssinia.

The concession of the Abyssinian Empire did not surprise European countries. Although the Abyssinian Empire gained a short-term advantage, the huge gap in strength between the countries destined that as long as the war continued, the Italians would sooner or later be able to regain the advantage.

What really surprised and made European countries curious was the sudden concession of the Italian government.

Logically speaking, even if they lost the war, the Italian government should have been thinking about how to fight back.

But unexpectedly, after the Abyssinian Empire requested peace talks again, Italy actually agreed to the Abyssinian Empire's request for peace talks and finally signed such a treaty.

Although the Abyssinian Empire finally recognized Italy's right to rule the Eritrea region, Italy was also forced to recognize the independent status of the Abyssinian Empire and had to pay 10 million lire in compensation to the other side.

Although this compensation was not much, it confirmed Italy's status as a defeated country. A power facing a native country and becoming a defeated country—this story looked funny no matter how you looked at it.

If the Italian government could have been tougher, it would not have so easily become the laughingstock of European countries. After all, Britain, the most powerful country at present, was in a similar situation; they could not defeat the Boers in a short time and could only slowly grind away the Boers' potential through consumption, and then end the war.

For Britain, Italy's terrible performance made them breathe a sigh of relief. If the performance of the British army was just terrible, then the performance of the Italian army could be said to be bad or even very bad.

With the Italian army, whose performance was so bad, attracting firepower, at least the noble British government would not lose face because of this. After all, compared to the performance of the Italian government, the British were clearly much more decent.

In fact, when Italy started this war, Gao Da knew that Italy would most likely not win.

Gao Da was also Italian, after all, and was quite clear about the fighting power of the Italian army. During the period when Italy had just unified, the fighting power of the Italian army was definitely above the passing line.

At that time, the fighting power of the Kingdom of Sardinia's army was definitely above the passing line, and the Redshirts organized by Garibaldi were even more powerful, relying on expeditions to eliminate the then Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Unfortunately, with the death of Gao Da's father, Victor Emmanuel II, and Garibaldi, who organized the Redshirts, the fighting power of the Italian army had plummeted.

At most, the Italian army had not experienced a large-scale war for over twenty years.

Twenty years was enough for the soldiers of the army to be replaced batch after batch. Under such circumstances, it would be strange if the Italian army could maintain its fighting power.

Don't look at the fact that Italy was once able to snatch two colonies in Tunisia from France; the main reason was that the Italian army did not run into the French army, but only fought the Tunisian army.

But if they had run into the French army, the Italian army would definitely not have persisted for long. At that time, because Italy had Spain's support, France finally chose to back down, which also meant that the actual fighting power of the Italian army was not demonstrated.

It had been a long time since Italy occupied the Tunisia colony, and the Italian soldiers who had participated in the war at that time had almost all retired from the army.

Don't look at the fact that the total number of Italian troops was still quite good, but these soldiers were mostly new recruits and had no fighting power.

Italy was not willing to invest the truly capable army into the battlefield of the Abyssinian Empire, which led to the Italian army's very poor performance in this war in the Abyssinian Empire, once refreshing the lower limit of the worst performance of European powers.

The poor performance of the Italian army in the Abyssinian Empire made the people quite dissatisfied, and the people's dissatisfaction with the government meant that someone had to stand up and take the blame.

It was definitely impossible to let King Umberto I take the blame, which meant that there was only one candidate who could take the blame, and that was the current Prime Minister of Italy, Francesco Crispi.

Not long after the peace talks ended, Umberto I dismissed Prime Minister Francesco Crispi with lightning speed and appointed the right-wing Prime Minister Antonio Starabba as the new Prime Minister of the Italian government.

Although letting the Prime Minister take the blame quickly calmed the anger of the Italian people, the impact of this war on Italy had not been eliminated.

A dignified power losing to an African native country in battle was a huge blow to Italy's military and popular morale.

The original Italian army claimed to be a strong European army and even dared to compare itself with the armies of France and Germany.

But now, since losing this war with the Abyssinian Empire, let alone comparing itself to a strong European army, the Italian army had been hailed as the army with the worst fighting power among the powers, and some small and medium-sized European countries also felt that their armies could defeat the Italian army head-on.

The biggest impact of this change in thinking on the Italian army was that they completely lost confidence.

Confidence in the army was very important. If even the soldiers themselves did not believe they could defeat the enemy, then it was impossible to defeat the enemy on the front battlefield.

Italy's failure on the African battlefield made Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire feel the urgency.

Don't look at the current confrontation between the two major military groups in Europe as two powers fighting three powers; in fact, it was France and Russia, the two powers, that had the advantage.

There was no way; the individual strength of France and Russia was too powerful. Whether it was France or Russia, their military strength was comparable to Germany.

Originally, Austria-Hungary and Italy combined could barely compete with the remaining power. With the Italian army performing such a dramatic performance in Africa, Germany and Austria-Hungary no longer believed that Italy could help them fight against super powers like France and Russia.

Under such circumstances, it was necessary to win over another ally with relatively strong military strength.

There were not many choices in Europe at present, nothing more than Britain and Spain.

Germany actually wanted to form an alliance with Britain more, after all, Britain's naval strength was stronger, which Germany could not do.

If Germany and Britain formed an alliance, this alliance would simultaneously possess the world's strongest navy and strongest army, which was simply the most wonderful situation.

But unfortunately, Kaiser Wilhelm II's public stance of standing with the Boers to a certain extent damaged the relationship between Germany and Britain.

Coupled with the fact that Britain's attention was all on the Boer War, the British government had no interest in forming an alliance with Germany.

If they formed an alliance with Germany, France and Russia, the two countries that had hatred with Britain, would inevitably intervene strongly in the Boer War.

This was something the British did not want to see, and it was also the reason why they temporarily remained neutral in the confrontation between the two major military groups in Europe.

There was no way; after all, Britain had too many enemies. When choosing a military alliance, in addition to considering whether its allies were strong, it also had to consider whether it would be the first to be besieged by the other side.

Don't look at the many grudges between Germany and France; if Britain really joined the German-Austrian alliance, Britain would be the enemy that France and Russia hated the most.

Forming an alliance with Germany at this time was to be a target for the Germans. The British were not stupid, and they could not easily stand in line unless there were irresistible benefits.

My cold is a little better today, and the continuous four-day 10,000-word daily update has officially started!

The first day of 10,000-word daily update, 10,200 words in one chapter, thanks for the support!

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