Chapter 271: France’s Actions
Facts have proven that the death of Tsar Alexander II had a huge impact on Russia.
In the month of Alexander II’s death, several reform-related decrees were abolished. Particularly in the publication of literary works and newspapers, the Russian Government carried out extremely strict censorship, and within a short time, several large newspaper offices were shut down.
Newspaper offices did not dare to report news, and Russian public also kept silent for fear of trouble coming from their mouths. This led to an extremely oppressive atmosphere within Russia since Alexander II’s funeral.
It is worth mentioning that starting from March 1881, the number of Russian immigrants willing to come to Spain suddenly increased sharply.
Usually, it took a year to gather 50,000 immigrants, and after selection, only 20,000 to 30,000 remained. But this year, in just four months, the cumulative number of registered immigrants had already exceeded 40,000, and it was still continuously increasing.
The rapidly increasing number of Russian immigrants was not a good thing for Spain, and the immigration department soon reported it to the cabinet government, inquiring about the handling method for these excess immigrants.
Carlo naturally also learned of this news and inquired about the government’s handling method. Overall, Carlo was quite satisfied with Prime Minister Cánovas’s chosen handling method.
Although the Spanish Mainland did not need too many immigrants, Spain’s colonies still needed a large number of immigrants. Particularly the three West African Colonies just taken from the United Kingdom, these colonies already had many immigrants, and adding more Russian immigrants would not cause any impact at all.
It could even reduce the influence of the United Kingdom in these regions by reducing the number of local British immigrants, allowing the Spanish Government to strengthen control over these regions.
Particularly the Gambia Colony, as Spain’s key developed overseas granary, the Gambia Colony needed a large number of farmers to plant grain.
Russian farmers were clearly experts in agriculture, and with their strong resilience and hardworking characteristics, sending them to the Gambia Colony was simply perfect.
The only concern was whether these Russians accustomed to severe cold regions could adapt to life in the African Colony. Spain’s African Colonies were generally close to the equator, with extremely hot temperatures.
Suddenly moving from severe cold regions to hot regions would very likely cause these Russian immigrants to suffer from local conditions. The related difficulties could only be overcome by these Russians themselves, and Spain had no particularly good methods for this.
To accelerate the agricultural development of the Gambia Colony, these Russian immigrants could only be asked to adapt themselves. Even if some people contracted diseases due to local conditions, it was completely acceptable to Spain.
Just as Spain was racking its brains for the West Africa Development Plan, Spain’s northern neighboring country France was also engaged in fierce arguments domestically.
The initiator of the argument, Jules François Camille Ferry, that is, the renowned Jules Ferry, proposed a contentious topic at the French cabinet meeting: that France should send troops to bring Tunisia under France’s colonial protection.
Tunisia is located in North Africa, just east of Algeria controlled by France, facing Italy’s Sicily across the sea.
Jules Ferry naturally knew that colonizing Tunisia would cause conflict with Italy, but for France at this time, France had to find some compensation for the defeat ten years ago through colonization, thereby allowing the French Government to regain the trust of the public.
The Franco-Prussian War ten years ago was equivalent to the Germans giving all French a hard slap, making all French remember it deeply.
To what extent did the French hold grudges? No matter what level of government officials or members of Parliament, anyone who dared to propose not seeking revenge on Germany would definitely be attacked by the angry public.
Seeking revenge on Germany had become political correctness in France; no matter what the politicians thought, they had to publicly support the public’s views.
Jules Ferry could be said to be one of the representative figures among French politicians of this era. As a politician serving as Prime Minister, Jules Ferry naturally understood Germany’s power.
Although France’s overall strength was not weak, seeking revenge on Germany without any support from allies would absolutely be seeking one’s own death.
But the public’s hatred for Germany was real, which the French Government absolutely could not ignore. Therefore, the French Government had to find other ways to divert the public’s hatred, at least to attract the public’s attention and avoid dissatisfaction due to its own inaction.
In this great era of colonialism, what could most attract the attention of the French public was naturally opening up new territories for the country and establishing new colonies.
The Tunisia region was still quite important. Not only was it connected to Algeria already controlled by France, but it was also the northernmost region of Africa, very helpful for France to exert influence along the Mediterranean coast.
Of course, controlling Tunisia could also help France continue to expand east of North Africa. Southeast of Tunisia was Libya, and east of Libya was Egypt, where the Suez Canal was located.
The importance of the Suez Canal naturally went without saying; even though the United Kingdom had acquired most of the shares of the Suez Canal through various means, France had never abandoned its attention to the Suez Canal.
If the United Kingdom completely controlled the Suez Canal, France’s fleet in the Mediterranean would be blocked within the Mediterranean. The French naturally understood this reason, and they had always opposed the United Kingdom’s complete control of the Suez Canal, occasionally jumping out to question the current situation of the United Kingdom controlling most shares of the Suez Canal.
Back to Tunisia. Currently, Tunisia nominally belonged to the Ottoman Empire, but in reality, the Ottoman Empire could no longer manage it.
The reason was naturally that the last Russo-Turkish War defeat had exposed the full strength of the Ottoman Empire.
As a former super empire spanning the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, the Ottoman Empire was still a great power to most countries, a camel that was skinny but bigger than a horse.
But for France, which had dominated Europe ten years ago, this skinny camel of the Ottoman Empire was like fat meat on the cutting board, only to be slaughtered by France.
However, because Tunisia was closer to Italy, Italy was also quite concerned about this land. Considering that occupying Tunisia would inevitably attract the attention of Italians and even possibly Italian intervention, before starting the war against Tunisia, the current French Prime Minister Jules Ferry still consulted several important officials and several senior generals in the French cabinet.
The first to be consulted was naturally the important member of the French cabinet, the current Foreign Minister Gambetta.
As Foreign Secretary, Gambetta was quite knowledgeable about the situation in Europe. After learning that the Prime Minister intended to invade Tunisia, Gambetta immediately asked his first question, which was the handling method for Italy.
Times had changed; Italy was no longer the Kingdom of Sardinia that France could manipulate at will. The unified Italy, although not as perverted as Germany, was also a great power level country.
If it was France at its peak, it would naturally not consider Italian views too much. But at this time, France was under diplomatic isolation by Germany; if it offended Italy to death again, it would only make Germany’s isolate France policy even more aggressive.
Facing the question from Foreign Secretary Gambetta, after thinking for a long time, Jules Ferry gave his attitude: to respond to Italy’s possible intervention with tough measures.
Although the Franco-Prussian War caused France to lose Alsace and Lorraine, France was still the hegemon of Western Europe, a great power ranked in the top three in the world.
France wanting to expand a colony was not something a small Italy could stop. Moreover, Italy might not have the courage to stop France from invading Tunisia.
Italy was comprehensively behind France in industry, economy, and population, and its army combat effectiveness was far behind France.
Even if it really came to fighting, France was completely unafraid of Italy. Even if Italy was disobedient, France could completely attack Rome and let the Papal States regain control of the situation in Rome.
After learning the Prime Minister’s attitude, Foreign Minister Gambetta nodded and had no more questions.
He and the Prime Minister were from the same political party, and on such major matters, he would definitely stand on the Prime Minister’s side. Moreover, invading Tunisia was not a big deal for France, so there was no need to oppose the Prime Minister.
In addition to consulting Foreign Minister Gambetta’s opinion, French Prime Minister Jules Ferry also inquired about the opinion of the French Minister of War.
But there was nothing to ask; it was just attacking an indigenous nation, and the Minister of War would absolutely not refuse.
This would not only allow the military to gain merit for free, but it was also a war with absolutely no risk of defeat, equivalent to merit delivered to the door.
As for the attitudes of other great powers, that was not for the military to consider. The military was only responsible for winning the war; which countries would be offended was for the government and diplomatic department to consider.
After obtaining the support of the Foreign Secretary and the Minister of War, Jules Ferry was full of confidence and proposed the suggestion regarding the invasion of Tunisia at the French cabinet meeting.
It is worth mentioning that Jules Ferry also played some little tricks before making the proposal.
Politicians cared most about their own reputation; before making the relevant proposal, Jules Ferry had already had several newspaper offices report the news that he would promote the country to launch a war and help France gain a new colony.
Although it was not recapturing Alsace and Lorraine, opening up new territories was also great merit.
More importantly, compared to Jules Ferry, who had just taken office not long ago and confidently launched a war, his 11 predecessors had almost no achievements in the position of Prime Minister.
Yes, since the establishment of the republic after the Franco-Prussian War, France had changed 11 Prime Ministers in these ten years or so, such a speed could be said to be quite exaggerated.
Although France had the positions of President and Prime Minister, in the Third French Republic, the actual power of the Prime Minister was greater than that of the President.
The head of state was naturally the French President, but the French President was only responsible for diplomacy and military, while executive power was in the hands of the French Prime Minister.
Changing a Prime Minister on average every year, one could imagine how chaotic the political arena in France was during this period.
At this time, the French President was elected by the public, while the French Prime Minister was appointed by the political party that won the parliamentary election. The frequent changes of Prime Ministers also represented one thing: the conflicts and disputes between French political parties were also extremely deep.
The reason the Third French Republic weakened the President’s power was also a lesson from Napoleon III.
Before becoming French Emperor, Napoleon III served as French President through election; at that time, the French President’s power was extremely great, which also laid the foundation for his later military dictatorship and re-establishment of the French Empire.
The Third French Republic weakening the President’s power was precisely to prevent events like the restoration by Napoleon III.
Diplomatic power and military power were in the hands of the President, which was actually also the reason why Jules Ferry consulted the Foreign Secretary and the Minister of War.
As long as the two cabinet ministers supported Jules Ferry, even if the President opposed, Jules Ferry had ways to cope.
After all, at this time, French public opinion supported war; after the humiliating Franco-Prussian War, the French also needed many war victories to wash away their shame.
If the current French President dared to directly reject Jules Ferry’s proposal, the first to be dissatisfied would probably be the French public that elected him.
As expected, because the news reports had already covered such news, after Jules Ferry mentioned the proposal to invade Tunisia at the cabinet meeting, no cabinet minister dared to refute such a proposal.
French public opinion was no joke; the public of other countries, no matter how angry and dissatisfied, mostly only erupted in related parades.
But the French public did not joke; if war was rejected on the first day, parades would erupt on the same day. As for the second day, it would naturally be related revolutions and uprisings.
The French public, especially Parisian Citizens, were already very experienced in this; they were very familiar with the locations of the Paris Municipal government and the French Government, and also quite knowledgeable about the location of the armory in the Paris area.
Even the King of France could be sent to the gallows, let alone a President who came up through public election. As long as one was not stupid, one would absolutely not reject related war proposals.
Unless such a war was not supported by the French public, but for the French public at this time, it was almost impossible.
The humiliation brought to the French public by the Franco-Prussian War was too intense; they urgently needed a hearty war to vent.
The officials of the French Government naturally understood this reason; whether the cabinet government or the French Parliament, they all fully supported it.
Under unanimous approval, the French Government also immediately began preparations for the war.
Jules Ferry was not stupid; although France was not afraid of Italy, if it could colonize while hiding it from Italy, that would naturally be the best.
By the time France fully occupied Tunisia, even if the Italians discovered it, they would have no way to change the situation in Tunisia.
Although Italy’s unification was relatively late, it is worth mentioning that the time Italians eyed Tunisia was even earlier than its unification.
As early as the Kingdom of Sardinia period, a large amount of Italian capital and individuals had gone to Tunisia across the sea to carry out related colonial and business activities.
With the industry and economic development of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the government also personally participated in the infiltration of Tunisia.
Although located in Africa, Tunisia was a relatively fertile land. Tunisia’s area reached 160,000 square kilometers, which was already more than half of Italy.
This was also the reason Italy eyed Tunisia: fertile land, much arable land that could be reclaimed, and close to the mainland; wasn’t this a natural colony?
