Empire Rising: Spain

When the Senegal Colony reported the news back to France, the French Government felt quite troubled about how to handle this incident.

In a way, the French Government had shot itself in the foot. If they hadn’t actively provoked the Spaniards, Spain wouldn’t have dispatched troops in retaliatory provocation against France.

Faced with Spain’s retaliatory provocation, the French Government couldn’t possibly retaliate further, could they? If they really did that, Spain and the French Government would be trapped in an endless cycle of retaliation, and nothing else would get done, as they’d spend their days planning retaliatory actions against each other.

The self-proclaimed rational French Government certainly did not want to see things develop in such a direction. There was fundamentally no need for this continual tit-for-tat retaliation; the original intention of the French Government was merely to deter Spain and prevent them from being so wantonly underhanded.

At present, it seems the deterrence by the French Government had no effect whatsoever; on the contrary, Spain appeared to be taunting France to take action, boldly conducting retaliatory actions of a similar nature against France.

In the face of the Spanish Government’s stubbornness, the French Government found itself unable to argue its case. Even though France had greater overall strength, it didn’t mean France was willing to go to war with Spain.

It is often said that the reckless fear the reckless, but the truly fearless. In this incident, the Spanish Government’s tough stance indeed induced some apprehension in France.

June 24, 1885, French Cabinet meeting.

The newly-appointed Prime Minister of France, Henry Brisson, with a troubled expression, cast an inquiring glance at the numerous ministers of the French Cabinet, ”Let’s hear your thoughts, everyone. How should we respond to Spain’s retaliatory actions? Should we continue to retaliate, or should we look for an opportunity to make peace with Spain?”

Henry Brisson’s question left the Cabinet officials silent, enveloping the meeting in utter quietness.

The officials were not fools; they knew the issue was highly tricky and not easy to handle. If their suggestions led to national losses or even a war between France and Spain, they would become the biggest wrongdoers.

In such a moment of indecision, maintaining silence was the best approach. As the saying goes, ”The more you do, the more mistakes you make; the less you do, the fewer mistakes you make; do nothing, and make no mistakes.” As long as they didn’t voice their opinions in the meeting, they would not worry about being blamed later.

As the new Prime Minister of France, Henry Brisson didn’t have much experience dealing with similar diplomatic incidents. He had hoped to get some suggestions or ideas from other Cabinet Ministers, but instead, the meeting room remained so quiet, he could almost hear a pin drop.

Actually, the ministers weren’t to blame. Under a previous, more decisive Prime Minister, they might have given advice based on the Prime Minister’s stance.

But the newly-appointed Prime Minister hadn’t expressed a clear viewpoint so far, and they couldn’t just speak freely at this moment, could they? That would just be handing the Prime Minister a scapegoat.

Even if their ideas aligned with the Prime Minister’s, it wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing. If the ideas worked out, the credit would mainly go to the Prime Minister. But if things took a negative turn following their ideas, whoever first suggested it would have to bear the greatest responsibility.

Although the Prime Minister would also bear some responsibility, he could choose to resign gracefully. As long as it didn’t involve major charges like treason, the Prime Minister could still hope to run for the next term after stepping down.

In other words, these Cabinet Ministers were very likely to end their political careers because of their suggestions, but the Prime Minister probably would not.

No one wanted to become the scapegoat, which was why the room remained silent.

Seeing no one willing to speak up, Henry Brisson had no choice but to resort to calling on individuals to force the officials to answer his question.

”Foreign Secretary Freycinet, you tell us how we should handle this incident. Does the Foreign Ministry have any preparations for handling this? Are there any opinions on resolving this incident?” Henry Brisson directed his gaze first at the Foreign Secretary Charles de Freycinet within the Cabinet.

Upon hearing the Prime Minister’s query, Foreign Secretary Freycinet abruptly stood up and stammered, ”Well, the Foreign Ministry is planning to convene a meeting to discuss how to respond to Spain’s relentless pressure; currently, there isn’t a definite response plan.”

Henry Brisson was not annoyed at these words and continued with a smile, ”Then share your personal thoughts. After all, the opinion of the Foreign Minister can also represent the entire Foreign Ministry.”

Confronted with the Prime Minister’s insistent questioning, Charles de Freycinet could only muster his courage and voice his opinion, ”Your Excellency, Prime Minister, I believe that given the current European situation, it is not suitable to continue being at odds with Spain.

Continuing such a deadlock won’t benefit us, only harm us, and it might provide opportunities for countries opposed to us, such as Germany, to take advantage of us.

It might be better to make peace with Spain for now while delineating our respective areas of development in Africa, thereby avoiding further conflicts with Spain.

Once we find a strong ally, it won’t be too late to settle the scores with countries like Spain and Germany. Before that, to avoid more severe diplomatic isolation imposed by Germany, I consider it very necessary to make some concessions.