Chapter 450

As time reached March 1905, Spain finally made some progress in the peace negotiations.

British Prime Minister Arthur James Balfour, who had orchestrated the Anglo-Spanish War and personally buried the glory of the British Empire, was personally dismissed by British King Edward VII; the act of Edward VII dismissing the Prime Minister was not only not opposed by the public, but instead received unanimous praise from the British public.

Succeeding Balfour as the new British Prime Minister was Henry Campbell-Bannerman. Although he was a Scotsman like Prime Minister Balfour, the two Scottish-descended Prime Ministers had completely different attitudes toward handling the current major disputes in Britain.

The new British Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman had always opposed Britain's barbaric methods in South Africa, but he also did not agree with the pro-Boer faction within the Liberal Party, instead choosing a middle path between imperialism and the pro-Boer faction.

It was precisely this middle-of-the-road thinking that earned him the approval of British King Edward VII. The reason Edward VII dismissed Prime Minister Balfour was, on one hand, that the British cabinet led by Prime Minister Balfour already had a stinking reputation in Britain, and they had also caused Britain's international prestige to vanish.

On the other hand, the public's dissatisfaction with the government had risen to the royal family; if Edward VII did not handle the domestic situation where public grievances were boiling over in time, then I am afraid that what would perish along with the Balfour cabinet would be the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha dynasty that had just gained a firm foothold in Britain.

After the death of British Queen Victoria, although the British throne was inherited by her son Edward VII, the dynasty ruling Britain had undergone a substantial change.

Edward VII's surname was not Queen Victoria's Hanover, but Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, from his father Prince Albert.

This also led to the formal demise of the Hanover dynasty that had ruled Britain for nearly 200 years, and Britain officially entered the era of rule by the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha dynasty.

Although only the surname of the British royal family changed, and the royal family was still the descendant of Queen Victoria, Queen Victoria and Edward VII were completely different; the latter did not have the incomparable prestige of the former, and naturally could not obtain power comparable to Queen Victoria.

The current crisis within Britain was capable of threatening the British royal family; if it were Queen Victoria, who was far from the center of political power, she could have guaranteed that the royal family would not be affected.

But for Edward VII, only by dismissing the Prime Minister first could he avoid the royal family being affected by this crisis.

Under the instruction of British King Edward VII, the new British Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman formed a new cabinet with the fastest speed, and subsequently took over the peace negotiation work with the Spanish government.

British Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman understood that the main work of the current cabinet was to maintain stability; to put it bluntly, it meant that for the sake of stability within Britain, some interests could be abandoned.

Since dragging on the peace negotiations would only hurt the British government, there was no need to drag it on anymore. Britain had been defeated in the war, and naturally had to bear the consequences of defeat.

Of course, bearing the consequences of defeat was one thing, but accepting Spain's harsh reparation demands was another.

For the British cabinet government, the former was certainly acceptable, but the latter was absolutely unacceptable.

Currently, the British government still had a pile of messy affairs within the country that needed to be handled, and handling these affairs required extremely huge financial expenditures.

Under these circumstances, it was impossible for the British government to accept huge reparations. After all, huge reparations would not only affect Britain's finances but would also cause Britain's international prestige to drop significantly again.

In this era, those who needed to pay reparations after defeat were basically the weak. If Britain agreed to Spain's huge reparations, wouldn't that mean Britain's self-proclaimed world hegemony had become a joke?

By now, the British still believed they were the well-deserved world hegemon, and had just been caught off guard in the war by Spain's unknown powerful battleships.

Facing the war reparations of up to 200 million pounds proposed by the Spanish government, the British government stated that it could only pay one-tenth, which was 20 million pounds.

And this money could not be in the name of war reparations, but in the name of helping Portugal with post-war construction and redeeming prisoners.

20 million pounds, according to the exchange rate, was equivalent to 500 million pesetas, which actually already exceeded Spain's expenditures in this war. But for Spain, this little money was certainly not worth looking at.

The only territory Spain directly obtained in the war was Gibraltar; Gibraltar was originally land invaded by the British from Spain, and Spain recovering Gibraltar was a matter of course.

Portugal was still an nominally independent country to this day, and Spain would still need to go through multiple efforts to annex Portugal later.

This actually also meant that Spain's territorial gains in this war were minimal. Since there were no major gains in terms of territory, Spain naturally needed to demand more reparations.

Of course, in order to reflect the sincerity of being willing to conduct peace negotiations, the Spanish government was also willing to reduce the proportion of war reparations it proposed.

In the new round of negotiations between the British and Spanish governments, the Spanish diplomatic representative reduced the requested 200 million pounds in war reparations to 100 million pounds, and stated that they were willing to package all British prisoners in the country for the price of 5 million pounds.

This reparation needed to be partitioned with the Portuguese government, which also meant that the reparations Spain could obtain were only tens of millions of pounds.

In the view of the Spanish government, such reparation demands were already quite tolerant; after all, Spain had lost tens of thousands of soldiers because of this war, and the lives of these soldiers were something money could not bring back.

The British government clearly did not recognize the Spanish diplomatic representative's point of view; the two sides were deadlocked for nearly another month on the issue of the amount of reparations the British government needed to bear, and only then reached a consensus, agreeing that the British government would pay a total of 55 million pounds in reparations and ransoms, of which the Portuguese government would receive 5.5 million pounds in war reparations and 4.5 million pounds in post-war reconstruction costs, totaling 10 million pounds.

The Spanish government would receive 40 million in war reparations and 5 million in prisoner ransoms, totaling 45 million pounds.

The payment period for this war reparation and ransom was 5 years. In the first year of the treaty signing, which was the entire year of 1905, the British government needed to pay at least a share of 25 million pounds.

The remaining part only needed to be paid to the Spanish and Portuguese governments before the end of December 31, 1909, to complete the payment of the entire reparation and ransom.

If the British government paid overdue, for every year of delay, it needed to pay 10% of the total 55 million pounds in reparations as interest, which was 5.5 million pounds.

Under the witness of the German and French representatives, the British and Spanish representatives officially signed the "Treaty of Lisbon" on April 15, 1905, ending this war that lasted for several months.

In addition to the 55 million pounds in reparations and ransoms mentioned above, the British government also needed to publicly renounce its sovereignty over Gibraltar and publicly apologize for its previous behavior of interfering in Portugal's internal affairs.

The Spanish side needed to return all British prisoners within one month and ensure that British merchant ships could pass through the Strait of Gibraltar freely after the treaty was signed.

Regarding the Strait of Gibraltar, the western exit of the Mediterranean which was already under Spain's actual control, it was also mentioned multiple times in this peace negotiation.

For many European countries, the importance of the Strait of Gibraltar was higher than that of the Suyishiyunhe. These countries worried about their right of passage when the British controlled the Strait of Gibraltar, and they would similarly worry about their right of passage when Spain controlled the Strait of Gibraltar.

In order to put the various European countries at ease, Spain took advantage of the peace negotiations to sign the "Strait of Gibraltar Convention" with the three great powers of Britain, France, and Germany, determining that all countries should enjoy the right of passage through the Strait of Gibraltar in non-war times, and that the Spanish government could not collect transit fees for the strait.

But at the same time, the Spanish government could also refuse countries currently in a state of war from passing through the Strait of Gibraltar to ensure its own neutrality. If Spain were in a state of war, it would have the power to close the Strait of Gibraltar.

Although Spain could not collect transit fees in the Strait of Gibraltar, if ships passing through the strait needed to dock at ports near the strait and replenish supplies at the ports, the Spanish government could collect service fees and port maintenance fees at the ports, which could also be considered another source of income.

Although the Spanish government needed to promise to open the Strait of Gibraltar to all countries in peacetime, this kind of thing had almost no impact on Spain.

After all, this was a major traffic artery concerning multiple European countries; even the British Empire could not stop European countries from passing through the Suyishiyunhe, let alone a strait that was more inclined toward publicization.

The nature of this "Strait of Gibraltar Convention" was actually the same as the nature of the conventions reached by various European countries regarding the Suyishiyunhe; both were to ensure the free passage of various European countries in peacetime and to close to warring countries in non-peaceful times.

Doing so both respected the power of the country possessing sovereignty over the canal and the strait, and ensured that the passage of merchant ships of various European countries would not be restricted in peacetime.