Chapter 396: The United States with a Stinking Reputation

The Colombian Civil War did not stir up much of a ripple in Europe, but within the scope of South America, it still attracted the attention of many countries.

Quite a few Spanish-speaking countries expressed concern over the Colombian Civil War; because of the different ruling parties within these countries, they also respectively supported the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party of Colombia.

In order to prevent the Colombian Civil War from causing internal conflicts within the economic alliance of Spanish-speaking countries, Kaluo ordered the Director of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, Kadi'er, to find evidence of the connection between the United States and the Colombian Liberal Party as soon as possible, to substantiate the evidence that the United States was inciting the Colombian Civil War.

In this way, the focus of South American countries would shift from supporting the Conservative Party or the Liberal Party to uniting to resist the invasion of the United States.

Doing this could also prevent the Panama region from seceding from Colombia, ensuring that the United States would not control the political power of the Panama region.

Speaking of which, the actions of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency were quite swift. A few days after Kaluo issued the order, the intelligence agents of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency found evidence of the connection between the United States and the Colombian Liberal Party.

Or rather, the Colombian Liberal Party did not hide its cooperation with the United States in the slightest, which was also the reason why the intelligence agents of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency collected information so smoothly.

After investigation, the United States promised a series of assistance to the Colombian Liberal Party, including aid in weapons and strategic materials, providing interest-free loans, and other conditions, in exchange for the Colombian Liberal Party supporting the United States in obtaining control of the Banamayunhe after seizing power in Colombia.

Since it was confirmed that the United States indeed had cooperation with the Colombian Liberal Party, then the next things were simple.

On August 17, 1898, the Royal Security Intelligence Agency secretly contacted the newspapers of various South American countries, wantonly publishing and distributing news about the collusion between the United States and the Colombian Liberal Party, attempting to subvert the Colombian government and betray the interests of Colombia.

Once such news was published, it immediately attracted the attention of the Colombian public as well as the public of other South American countries.

The civil war between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party did not count for much to the Colombian public; in the past few decades, the conflicts related to the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party had been countless.

But if one side colluded with foreign forces, and even went so far as to betray the interests of Colombia to obtain their assistance, then the Colombian public had their own thoughts.

It was not yet known which of the Conservative Party or the Liberal Party could safeguard the interests of the people, but it was already quite obvious who had damaged the interests of the country.

Do not underestimate the patriotism of the Colombian public; they were quite passionate about their own country, and naturally, they hated the Liberal Party that betrayed the interests of Colombia.

After the newspapers of various South American countries reported the news of the collusion between the Colombian Liberal Party and the United States, it could be clearly perceived that the situation of the Colombian Civil War had become one-sided.

Originally, the Colombian public had their own preferences for the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party; although the Liberal Party was at a disadvantage, the Conservative Party could not eliminate the Liberal Party for a while.

But now it was different. Under the public opinion propaganda of the newspapers, the support rate of the Colombian Liberal Party within Colombia had dropped significantly.

Although this was not enough for the Conservative Party to completely secure victory, for the Colombian Liberal Party, they had almost no chance of winning in the current situation.

The public opinion offensive suddenly launched by Spain in South America naturally attracted the attention of the Americans.

What the Americans did not expect was that in a situation where the Colombian Civil War was being fought so intensely, someone actually focused on the cooperation between the Colombian Liberal Party and the United States.

More importantly, with the public opinion offensive affecting multiple countries in South America, the reputation of the United States suddenly stank among these few countries in South America.

How could a country that was always thinking about infiltrating South America, and even inciting domestic party opposition and civil war, possibly gain the favor of other countries?

The Americans had only one thought at this time, and that was to find out the country or force that was causing trouble for the United States, and let them understand that the United States was not so easy to offend.

After careful searching by the Americans, it was finally discovered that these newspapers that published the cooperation between the United States and the Colombian Liberal Party all had connections with capital with Spanish backgrounds.

This also meant that the country behind the scenes causing trouble for the United States was very likely Spain. Although the culprit was found, the United States had no way to deal with Spain.

In terms of public opinion offensive, it was impossible for the Americans to publish newspapers themselves to clarify for themselves, and then say that this was all a conspiracy of the Spanish, right?

Not to mention whether doing so was credible or not, anyway, there was a high probability that those Colombians and other South American countries would not believe it.

Unable to fight back in public opinion, it was even more impossible to do anything to Spain at the national level.

After all, Spain was a great power, and disputes between great powers were not so easy to resolve. If one wanted to make Spain stop causing trouble for the United States, one would either have to pay enough benefits to let Spain let them off.

If one was unwilling to pay benefits, one could only force the Spanish to abandon their actions through war or diplomatic deterrence.

But the international status and influence of the United States were not high to begin with, and it was impossible to influence Spain's choices through diplomatic deterrence.

As for launching a war, it went without saying; the United States was inferior to Spain in terms of the army and navy, and the only thing it could compare with was the population.

But there were a large number of black people in the population of the United States; although the number of white people was not small, these white people came from various European countries, and it was difficult to be united into a single rope.

This problem was also the biggest flaw of the United States compared to European countries. The population growth rate of an immigrant country was far from what European countries could compare with, but the population cohesion of European countries was also far from what an immigrant country could compare with.

The United States military was only suitable for fighting favorable battles; the more than 60 million Americans could scrape together at least millions of troops, and fighting favorable battles was still more than enough.

But if the war situation fell into a headwind, various kinds of chaos would breed within the United States military. First was the contradiction between white people and black people, and second was the contradiction between various white ethnic groups.

Added to the fact that the interests of various classes in the United States were different, this led to the United States finding it difficult to persist alone for too long when facing a relatively headwind war.

Given the current status quo of the United States, if a war broke out with Spain, the possibility of the United States losing was greater.

Although the industrial and economic scale of the United States had more advantages compared to Spain, industrial and economic scale could not be directly converted into military strength.

The vastness of industrial scale could make the weapon production speed of the United States faster, and the construction speed of warships could also exceed the construction speed of Spain's mainland.

But what was the use? The construction time of a warship was often as high as several years; by the time the United States finished building the first batch of warships like making dumplings, the war would be almost over.

Since it could not do anything to the culprit Spain, the United States could only focus its eyes on the civil war in Colombia, pinning its hopes on the Colombian Liberal Party being able to win the victory of this civil war.