Chapter 274: Peace Negotiations
It was clear that the Italian Government’s emphasis on Tunisia was unparalleled. After learning that the French Government had already invaded Tunisia, the Italian Government not only did not choose to abandon it but also urgently deployed various means to force the French Government to retreat.
The Italian Government fully mobilized civilian public opinion.
Speaking of Italy’s unification history, it was inseparable from the three countries Germany, France, and Austria on the European Continent.
Germany’s unification indirectly promoted Italy’s unification, because Germany’s two greatest enemies, the Austrian Empire and France, were also the two main culprits hindering Italy’s unification.
At that time, the Austrian Empire occupied Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and Trentino-Alto Adige, while the French Government helped the Papal States control a large area of land near Rome.
Before the Kingdom of Sardinia faced Germany’s successive wars against Austria and France, it had never found an opportunity for Italian unification, the fundamental reason being that these two great powers were far too powerful compared to the Kingdom of Sardinia.
This also led to Italy’s relationship with France remaining not particularly good after unification, and this Tunisia incident directly ignited Italian civilian public opinion, with many Italians spontaneously taking to the streets, raising banners and holding parades demanding that the government militarily intervene in the Tunis War.
The Italian Government also gained Garibaldi’s support. Even though Garibaldi was bedridden, he still mustered the strength to write an article on the importance of defending Tunisia, and published it in the Sun Newspaper.
The newspaper office established during Carlo’s time as Duke, after more than ten years of operation by the Italian Royal Family, had become the most important newspaper in Northern Italy, without question.
Garibaldi would occasionally publish articles in the newspaper office about Italy’s construction, and after review by the royal family, they were generally published in the newspaper.
It was precisely Garibaldi’s enormous popularity that made the Sun Newspaper quickly become Italy’s largest newspaper. The Italian Royal Family also relied on the Sun Newspaper’s expansion to gain a lot of income every year, while directly influencing Italian civilian public opinion.
If previously it was only spontaneous parades by Italian public, then when Garibaldi’s manuscript photograph was published in the Sun Newspaper, the French invasion of Tunisia immediately drew the attention of the vast majority of Italians.
By this point, the Tunisia incident was no longer a minor matter. If the Italian Government did not handle it well, the public anger they had stirred might end up backfiring on them.
While the government was responsible for inciting civilian emotions, Umberto I had already sent a telegram to his brother Carlo, who was serving as King far away in Spain.
When Carlo received the telegram, Garibaldi’s manuscript had already been published in the Italian Sun Newspaper.
Since Italy was now aware of France’s invasion of Tunisia, this was no longer a dispute between European great powers and an indigenous nation, but a dispute between great powers.
On the surface, Italy and France both had good cooperative relationships with Spain, and the funds and related industrial support that France provided to Spain were more than Italy’s.
But for Spain, it was also necessary to consider the North African situation after France occupied Tunisia.
Italy occupying Tunisia would have little impact on Spain, but if France occupied Tunisia, the impact on Spain would definitely be significant.
There were not many African countries along the Mediterranean coast, all told just Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt.
France already occupied Algeria, and if they were allowed to occupy Tunisia as well, the balance in North Africa would be broken.
At that point, France would have only two directions for expansion: either west to occupy Morocco and offend Spain, or east to occupy Libya and offend the United Kingdom.
Although Spain and France’s relationship was still fairly good at this time, if Carlo put himself in that position, he would feel that offending Spain was better than offending the United Kingdom.
According to the current European situation, whether France offended Spain or the United Kingdom, it would ultimately be two poisons.
But from the perspective of weighing the lesser of two evils, offending the United Kingdom would definitely be more fatal than offending Spain.
Therefore, from Spain’s own considerations, Carlo would definitely lean more toward Italy. Moreover, Carlo himself came from the Italian Royal Family and was blood brothers with Italy’s current King Umberto I.
In the case of Umberto I personally sending a telegram for help, Carlo still had to provide the assistance he should give.
A little later that day, Carlo sent a telegram to his brother Umberto I in a private capacity.
Carlo first reiterated the bloodline connection between the two kingdoms’ royal families, and also mentioned the alliance treaty signed between the two countries during his father Vittorio Emanuele II’s reign, stating that Spain would stand with Italy in the conflict.
Umberto I, receiving Carlo’s clear support, was immediately overjoyed and informed the government of this good news.
Carlo’s strong support relieved the Italian side, and they also had more confidence to carry out the next actions.
As for why Carlo was willing to strongly support Italy, even at the risk of war with France, besides the threat to Spain from France occupying Tunisia as mentioned earlier, there was also consideration of the French Government’s current situation.
To put it bluntly, France did have the strength to take on both Spain and Italy in a fight. The problem was, what benefit did France gain from sparking a great war with two great powers over a Tunisia?
Deeply offending Spain and Italy would only make France’s diplomatic situation even worse; as long as the French Government was wise, it was impossible for them to go to war with Italy and Spain.
Of course, accidents could still happen.
However, this war was destined not to be a full-scale war; if necessary, letting Spain’s soldiers see some blood would be good too.
Even if war broke out, the great powers would definitely mediate at the appropriate time. After all, for the British, whether France or Italy won, it would affect their regional balance policy in Europe.
The Italian Government, having gained Spain’s support, was high-spirited and decided to indulge domestic public opinion, allowing the domestic parades to develop freely.
At this time, on the streets of Rome, angry Italians gathered together, shouting the slogan “French get out of Tunisia!” while raising banners saying “The government must stop this evil war!”, marching grandly through the streets of Rome.
It started as just a parade, but when the parade passed the embassy district and saw the French flag waving on the roof of a certain embassy, someone incited them, and the angry crowd immediately rushed toward the French Embassy.
If not for the guards inside the embassy providing protection, this once splendid embassy would probably have been completely destroyed by the angry Italians right away.
Inside the embassy, the French Ambassador’s face was turning from pale to purple. The French never imagined that the Italians would react so strongly; Tunisia did not belong to Italy, so where did all this anger from the Italians come from?
Surprised as he was, as a proper Frenchman, the French Ambassador certainly understood how exaggerated the destructive power of this group of gathered angry Italians could be.
If this incident was not handled well, regardless of the state of France-Italy relations, he as the French Ambassador definitely would not be able to leave the embassy intact.
“Quickly send a telegram to the Italian Government! How can they allow these public to storm the embassy district? Damn it, do the Italians want to provoke war?” The French Ambassador first trembled as he looked out the window at the situation, and after seeing that the guards could hold out for a while, he hurriedly issued orders to his subordinates.
With a series of clacking sounds, a string of telegram contents was sent to the Italian Government.
“Haha, the French are finally getting anxious.” Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli read all the telegram contents, first handed the original telegram to Umberto I, and then smiled as he said to the cabinet members.
“Prime Minister, it seems our guess is correct. The French do not have the confidence for a fight to the death with us; they are also worried about the threat from the Germans.
In that case, I think we can ask Spain to act as an intermediary and request that the French Government negotiate with us.
Unless France is willing to pay the price of war, I believe the Tunisia incident can be resolved well.” The Italian Foreign Secretary smiled as he said to Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli.
Inducing the public to storm the French Embassy was precisely a plan by the Italian Government to test France’s attitude.
France certainly understood the extent to which Italy valued Tunisia; since they dared to launch the invasion of Tunisia, they must have estimated Italy’s reaction and made full preparations.
If France was willing to pay the price of war, the French Ambassador to Italy would definitely receive relevant messages, or even deliver a declaration of war at a critical moment.
This would also mean the French Ambassador would be quite tough and not worried about falling out with Italy.
Of course, to prevent things from backfiring, the Italian Government had also prepared some guards in advance. If the embassy guards could not hold out, these guards would rush in to ensure the safety of the French Embassy.
After all, to put it bluntly, the embassy represented the nation’s dignity and face to the outside world and could not be violated. If the Italian Government allowed Italian public to destroy the French Embassy, and even the French Ambassador did not escape disaster, then even if France did not want to start a war, they would have to answer to the French public.
From the telegram the French Ambassador sent to the Italian Government, it was clear that the French Government’s attitude was not that tough.
This also meant that the French invasion of Tunisia was negotiable; as long as Italy pushed a bit harder, France would have to consider the cost of completely falling out.
“Send more personnel to protect the embassy’s safety, and use police to disperse the parade crowd as much as possible. Be careful not to use force; if the crowd cannot be peacefully dispersed, just let them stay there for now.
This can also tell the French that it’s not just the Italian Government that is angry; the Italian public is even more furious about their unprovoked invasion of Tunisia.” After smiling for a while, Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli issued the orders.
The French Embassy definitely needed protection; if it was damaged, it would be no different from slapping the French Government in the face.
As long as the French Government cared about face, international status, and prestige, they could not remain indifferent to such behavior.
But that said, while the French Embassy was important, not provoking the Italian public was equally important.
If the Italian Government chose to use force to suppress the public, it would only incite greater anger from the public, which was completely unnecessary.
After all, at this time, the Italians were angry about France’s invasion of Tunisia and did not have much dissatisfaction with their own government.
If the Italian Government took the initiative to use force to suppress them, it would instead draw all the public’s hatred onto itself. The Italian Government would not take the hatred for the French Government, at least not until the incident subsided.
After letting the French Ambassador feel the Italians’ anger, the Italian Government also contacted the Italian Ambassador to France, asking him to question the French about the purpose of their war actions and declare the attitudes of the Italian Government and Italian public.
When questioned by the Italian Ambassador to France, French Foreign Minister Gambetta also felt a great headache.
The development of events had clearly exceeded France’s expectations; the French Army had not fully occupied Tunisia before the Italian Government discovered it.
This also meant that a fierce diplomatic dispute was about to unfold between France and Italy. Unless one side took the initiative to back down, this diplomatic dispute was likely to escalate into a war.
As the French Foreign Secretary, Gambetta naturally understood France’s diplomatic situation in Europe. If this matter was not handled well, it would not be as simple as just one war for France; it could even push France’s diplomatic situation to the extreme.
On the European Continent, there were only seven great powers in total; besides the neutral United Kingdom and Russia which remained neutral after being pulled by France, only Spain and Italy had not clearly joined Germany’s diplomatic alliance to isolate France.
If Spain and Italy were completely offended through the Tunisia incident, it would mean that France could no longer achieve close cooperation with any other European great powers besides the United Kingdom and Russia.
As for the United States far across the Atlantic Ocean, it was completely outside France’s consideration. After all, the United States was too far from the European Continent; not to mention America’s comprehensive national strength, just this distance alone ensured that America could not influence the European situation.
Sighing inwardly, French Foreign Minister Gambetta put on a friendly smile and solemnly assured the Italian Ambassador to France: France had no ambition for war against Tunisia; France’s war actions were merely retaliation against the Tunisian Government, while ensuring that French citizens living in Algeria were protected from attacks by bandits and indigenous people on the Tunisian border.
When the Ambassador to France conveyed French Foreign Minister Gambetta’s exact words back to Italy, the Italian Government completely breathed a sigh of relief.
French Foreign Minister Gambetta’s attitude also proved once again that France did not want to go to war with Italy, which was certainly good news for Italy.
As long as they could sit at the negotiating table, Italy was not afraid of France at all. After all, with Spain’s support, Italy had numerical superiority over France.
Although France had somehow obtained the acquiescence of the United Kingdom and Germany for invading Tunisia at some cost, in such negotiations, the United Kingdom and Germany could hardly openly support France.
For Italy, as long as they could get France to the negotiating table, it meant France could not swallow Tunisia alone.
The best outcome would naturally be France abandoning the invasion of Tunisia, Italy increasing its colonial investment in Tunisia, and fully occupying this land in the next few years.
The medium outcome would be Italy and France jointly partitioning Tunisia, which was also Italy’s bottom line that it could accept.
As for France monopolizing Tunisia, this was absolutely unacceptable to the Italian Government. Italian Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli had even reported to King Umberto I that if France was determined to swallow Tunisia alone, the Italian Government could only choose to launch a war; otherwise, the angry public would launch a war against the government.
This was the double-edged nature of igniting public opinion. The Italian Government would indeed gain tremendous support in a war against France, but the downside was that the Italian Government had to go all the way to the end, with no room to back down in the middle.
Seeing that the situation had developed about right, the Spanish Government also felt it was about time for it to step in.
After the Italian Government sought help from the Spanish Government, Spanish Prime Minister Cánovas summoned the Italian and French Ambassadors to Spain and expressed Spain’s willingness to act as an intermediary to help Italy and France conduct peace negotiations.
The French Ambassador definitely had to take Spain’s attitude seriously.
Times were different now; France was growing weaker, while Spain was becoming stronger through reforms.
Although Spain’s comprehensive national strength had not yet surpassed France’s, France similarly did not dare to ignore Spain’s international status and influence.
The combined strength of Spain and Italy, even if not matching France, could drag France into the abyss of war.
The French Ambassador to Spain’s attitude was quite respectful; he stated that he had no authority to decide on negotiation matters on behalf of the government and needed to consult the French Government’s opinion before deciding.
Prime Minister Cánovas nodded; his goal was merely to put some pressure on the French Government and make them understand that Spain did not support France occupying Tunisia.
As for the Italian Ambassador, the moment Prime Minister Cánovas proposed peace negotiations, he smiled and agreed to Prime Minister Cánovas’s proposal.
After all, peace negotiations were good news for Italy, which it could completely accept.
The French Ambassador did not keep Prime Minister Cánovas waiting long; just the next day, he conveyed the French Government’s attitude to Prime Minister Cánovas, which was willingness to conduct peace negotiations.
The French Government certainly understood that Italy, with Spain’s support, was no longer easy to deal with. If the French Government insisted on its own way, the Italians might really have the guts to launch a war.
What role the French Ambassador to Italy played in this was unknown, but in any case, the French Government had felt the Italians’ anger through his description, which reminded them of the scene of angry Parisians—that was truly terrifying.
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