Chapter 393

The negotiations between the Liberal Party and the Workers' Party lasted for more than a month and finally ended the negotiation phase at the beginning of 1898.

Starting from 1898, the history of Spain's Liberal Party and Workers' Party completely ended, and these two political parties will also have a new name, the Workers' Socialist Party.

On the first day of the establishment of the Workers' Socialist Party, it made public its political demands and party constitution and party platform, detailing the future political planning and philosophy of the Workers' Socialist Party.

The purpose of doing this is also very simple, which is to introduce this brand-new political party to the Spanish public and attract those like-minded people to join.

Sure enough, as the news published by the Workers' Socialist Party spread throughout Spain, the public's discussion about this new party was also going on hotly.

Although the Liberal Party had lost public support, the Workers' Party firmly held the votes of the worker group. The Workers' Socialist Party, on the basis of the Workers' Party, added two political philosophies of social welfare and social justice, successfully attracting the attention of more Spaniards.

For the public, they may not be able to distinguish what the political thoughts of each party are, but they can definitely distinguish which party's political thoughts are more beneficial to themselves.

If one must support a political party, then why not choose the political party that is more beneficial to oneself?

For the changes in Spain's political situation after the establishment of the Workers' Socialist Party, Gao Da did not pay attention for too long.

After all, whether it is the Workers' Party or the Workers' Socialist Party, they are both under Gao Da's control. These parties will not only not affect Gao Da's rule over Spain but can also become a favorable tool for Gao Da to rule Spain.

Under these circumstances, Gao Da naturally has nothing to worry about. What's more, the merged Workers' Socialist Party is only Spain's third-largest party; before the elections for the House of Representatives begin, the ones occupying the most seats in the House of Representatives are still the Conservative Party and the Progressive Party.

Gao Da also hopes to stimulate the Conservative Party and the Progressive Party through the merger of the Liberal Party and the Workers' Party, making them have to try every possible way to realize their party constitution and platform in order to obtain more public support.

And don't say, the establishment of the Workers' Socialist Party indeed caused a certain impact on the Conservative Party and the Progressive Party.

This newly established party quickly attracted the attention of a large number of Spaniards through the way of newspaper propaganda, which also made the Conservative Party and the Progressive Party perceive a crisis.

The Conservative Party is still fine, because it has the basic base of nobles and large landlords, plus the reason that most of Spain's population are farmers, the Workers' Socialist Party still cannot affect the status of the Conservative Party for a while.

But the Progressive Party is completely different. The audience of the Progressive Party and the audience of the Workers' Socialist Party have a certain overlap; those people attracted by the information published by the Workers' Socialist Party in the newspaper might be supporters of the Progressive Party.

Facing the possible poaching behavior of the Workers' Socialist Party, even if the Progressive Party is currently Spain's second-largest party, it has to express concern about this.

The Progressive Party's response method is also very simple, which is to imitate the Workers' Socialist Party, promote its own party constitution and party platform and political thoughts in the newspaper, and attract more people to join the Progressive Party.

Unlike the Workers' Socialist Party focusing its attention on workers and social welfare, the Progressive Party, in order to attract people's attention, added many colors including nationalism and Pan-Iberianism in its propaganda.

Speaking of which, as Spain gradually becomes strong, nationalism is also very prevalent in Spain.

For those who support nationalism, the Progressive Party added some nationalist colors in its propaganda, which indeed made them feel some differences.

Pan-Iberianism naturally does not need to be said; this is an ideological doctrine that is popular throughout the Iberian Peninsula and has also aroused the recognition of many people in Spain and Portugal.

It is just that Gao Da thinks that it is not the best time yet, otherwise, just by relying on the Iberianists in Portugal, it would be very easy to annex this country of Portugal.

Of course, conquering the world is easy, but defending the world is difficult. Annexing Portugal is a very simple thing, but how to permanently occupy and digest Portugal is a very, very difficult thing.

Although there is a high degree of similarity between the Portuguese and the Spaniards in terms of language, culture, and other customs, this does not mean that the Portuguese will be easily assimilated by Spain.

Once any problem occurs in the assimilation work, it might be like the last time Spain annexed Portugal, forced to let Portugal become independent again.

The establishment of the Workers' Socialist Party opened the prelude to the arrival of 1898, and Gao Da is also paying attention to the development of the international situation in 1898.

1898 in history is a quite special year. The Spanish-American War broke out exactly in this year, and it was precisely because of the war with the Americans that the Spanish government, which was still indulging in fantasy, was beaten into reality.

In the ranking of European countries before the Spanish-American War in history, Spain could occasionally enter the ranking of great powers.

But after the end of the Spanish-American War, Spain had completely said goodbye to the ranks of great powers. At this time, Spain, whether in terms of comprehensive strength or international status and prestige, was already far from the great powers.

Unlike the Spain in history, the Spain at this time has experienced reforms and nearly 30 years of development, and its comprehensive national strength is much stronger.

Gao Da is completely not afraid of the war with the Americans, because Cuba has been swapped to the British, and the United States seems to have no reason to launch a war with Spain.

Facts are indeed so. As two months passed in 1898, Gao Da was surprised to find that the Americans did not have any extra actions.

Looking at it now, the Spanish-American War in history should not happen again; even if the Americans want to declare their strength to the world, they should choose another target.

After all, Spain at this time can already steadily rank in the top four in the ranking of great powers, and European countries generally believe that Spain's comprehensive strength is stronger than the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the U. S. government has no need to find such a powerful opponent for itself all of a sudden.

After all, to put it bluntly, only the economic and industrial aspects of the United States meet the status of a great power. Although the military strength of the United States is not weak, it is still at the bottom among the great power countries.

Wanting to defeat Spain by relying on an army and navy of this level is obviously a pipe dream.

Although it has been determined that the Spanish-American War will not happen again, Gao Da did not reduce his attention to the situation in the Americas.

On the contrary, starting from March 1898, Gao Da even strengthened his attention to the situation in the Americas.

The reason is also very simple, which is that the construction of the Banamayunhe has lasted for 15 years, and two-thirds of the original construction period has passed.

If one thinks that the Banamayunhe is about to be completed, that would be a big mistake; because of the various reasons mentioned before, the current construction progress of the Banamayunhe is only one-third of the total project volume.

The remaining two-thirds are mostly the most difficult sections, which not only means that the project's budget will be more than the original, but the time required is also much longer than the original.

Although France, in order to hold the operating and management rights after the canal is completed, organized another company to take over the project after the previous canal company went bankrupt.

But because the construction progress of the canal was seriously affected, no matter what, the construction of the canal could not catch up with the originally planned construction period.

What Gao Da is paying attention to is exactly this point. French enterprises cannot complete the construction of the Banamayunhe according to the original plan, which also means that French enterprises must face two choices.

Either request the Colombian government to grant a grace period for the construction period, extending it for several years or even ten years to build the Banamayunhe. Or find a strong partner to speed up the construction progress of the canal by sharing the operating and management rights, avoiding the construction period of the entire canal being delayed for too long.

Currently, wanting to complete the construction of the canal within the originally scheduled construction period is basically impossible. But the length of the delay also has differences, and the damage to the reputation and interests of the French side naturally also has differences.

Gao Da's purpose is also to take advantage of France's inability to complete the originally scheduled attack and try his best to let Spanish capital participate in the construction of the Banamayunhe.

In this way, he can obtain the operating and management rights of the Banamayunhe through peaceful means. Although such operating and management rights are to be carried out jointly with France, as long as there is no participation of Americans, this is a good thing for Spain.

Of course, whether the French government is willing to share the operating and management rights of the Banamayunhe with Spain is not certain at this time.

But if they are unwilling to share the operating and management rights with Spain, they must request the Colombian government to grant a grace period for the construction period for several years and make certain compensation.

The reason why Gao Da pays so much attention to the operating and management rights of the Banamayunhe is mainly because of the United States' coveting of the control of the Banamayunhe.

As early as before the construction of the Banamayunhe started, the United States established the Banamayunhe Project Provisional Association, with the famous general during the Civil War and former U. S. President Ulysses Grant as the chairman of the provisional association.

In 1880, the U. S. government dispatched two cruisers to arrive at the port of Colombia, using the name of diplomatic visits to show off its military force.

In 1881, the United States signed an agreement with the Colombian government, agreeing that both sides should establish maritime military defense strongholds at strategic points on the Isthmus of Panama.

These defense strongholds are usually guarded by the Colombian army, and if a war breaks out, the U. S. Marine Corps will be responsible.

Originally, this agreement had been signed, but because of the strong opposition of the Colombian Congress, it was finally rejected by the Colombian side.

It is precisely because of the strong pressure from the United States that Colombia had to call on European countries to jointly guarantee the neutral status of the Banamayunhe.

European countries are willing to see the Banamayunhe maintain a neutral status, but the United States is not willing to see the Banamayunhe maintain complete neutrality.

After all, to put it bluntly, the Banamayunhe is the lifeline of the United States, not the lifeline of European countries.

Compared with the number of ships from European countries passing through the Banamayunhe, the number of ships from the United States passing through the Banamayunhe is definitely several times or even dozens of times.

Under these circumstances, the neutral status of the Banamayunhe actually only hurts the United States.