Rebirth of the Spanish Empire

() "Is the world going to have a war? Britain, France, and Russia, facing the rapid rise of the German Empire, launched a containment policy on the grounds that they challenged their vested interest groups.

The power structure of Europe has changed rapidly in the past few decades.

If we really want to talk about it, we have to start with the war between Prussia, the predecessor of the German Empire, and France from 1870 to 1871.

The relationship between Prussia and France has been tense for a long time due to the competition for hegemony on the European continent and the unification of Germany. On July 14, 1870, Bismarck issued the challenging "Emes Telegram", which angered the French government. On July 19, France declared war on Prussia. After the war began, the French army suffered successive defeats. On September 2, Napoleon III personally led nearly 100,000 French troops to surrender in Seton. On April 4, the Revolution broke out in Paris and the Second Republic was established. However, the Prussian army still marched straight in and surrounded Paris. On January 28, 1871, Paris fell and the two countries signed an armistice agreement. On February 26, the two sides signed a preliminary peace treaty in Versailles. A formal peace treaty was signed in Frankfurt on May 10. This war enabled Prussia to complete the unification of Germany and ended France's hegemony in Europe. This turned the European continent into a separatist structure where two powers competed for hegemony. ..

After the Franco-Prussian War, Prussian Prime Minister Bismarck was worried about the retaliation of France, which was still extremely powerful at the time, so he adopted an alliance policy to besiege France. He originally made Germany form the "Three Emperors Alliance" with Austria-Hungary and Russia, but later Russia was at the Berlin Conference in 1878 because of the Balkan Peninsula issue. Conflict of interest with Austria-Hungary. Germany finally chose Austria-Hungary as its ally in 1879 and formed a secret German-Austrian alliance with Austria-Hungary. In addition, Bismarck instead formed an alliance with Italy, which was facing isolation, because of conflicts with France over colonial affairs and failure in the fight for Tunisia in North Africa in 1881. Therefore, the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy concluded the "Triple Alliance". ..

After Russia learned that Germany and Austria had signed the "German-Austrian Alliance", Russia was very angry. But Bismarck was a skilled statesman. In order to maintain good relations with Russia, the "Reinsurance Treaty" was signed with Russia in 1887. But when Bismarck stepped down in 1890, Kaiser Wilhelm II allowed the treaty to end. On the French side, after France financially supported Russia's industrialization, it formed an alliance with Russia in 1892, which was called the "French-Russian Alliance."

Britain signed the "Good Faith Agreement" with France in 1904. This agreement was not originally a military alliance. It was an agreement to resolve colonial disputes between the two countries. But in the end it was through the mediation of France. Especially when the German Empire repeatedly regarded the British as provocative, Britain and Russia finally ended their colonial disputes in 1907 and signed the "British-Russian Understanding." That same year, France, Britain and Russia were threatened by German power in the Ottoman Empire. Formed the "Three Kingdoms Entente".

This is the predecessor of the current world structure. But it's still different from before. In the past ten years. We have discovered a big difference, that is, new powers have emerged in the world, and people no longer only focus on the great powers of Britain, France, Russia, and the German Empire and Austria-Hungary.

Spain and Japan, an East Asian country, have grown rapidly in military terms. In the United States, which is experiencing rapid economic development, the country is already recognized as the world's largest economic power.

There are also the Kingdom of Italy and the aging Ottoman Empire, which have recovered somewhat, plus other middle powers such as Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, and the Eastern semi-colonial Qing Dynasty, which has greatly changed the world structure, and controls the largest population in the world. China, etc., are the most influential forces in the world. Old forces and new forces are now competing for world influence and interests. Therefore, it is understandable that conflicts will begin.

Especially Spain, with its comprehensive and rapid rise in the world, has become a country second only to the United Kingdom in terms of influence, and at most it lags behind Britain and Germany in terms of strength. The complete recovery of such a country in ten years can be said to be the biggest change in the world structure in more than ten years. This has also surprised those in the world who specialize in studying the changes in the power of various countries. You must know that the German Empire went smoothly, with the help of Britain, and only happened when France was suppressed and declined. Spain, on the other hand, developed itself on the basis of self-sufficiency.

The rise of every powerful country means the decline of the influence of other countries, which is inevitable. This is true even for regional powers. For example, the rise of Japan has weakened China, and the power of European powers has been compressed by the rise of Japan, and has been shared by Japan.

This is already the case for regional powers, let alone world powers. The re-emergence of Spain in the Americas caused the United States, a regional power, to run into obstacles everywhere. In the end, it had to seek dialogue to solve this problem. This can be regarded as a sensible compromise, because Spain's development momentum is so strong that although it is far ahead of Spain in terms of economy, However, in terms of military and alliances, there is not much comparison between the two countries. So their choice is right.

In Asia, Japan obviously felt the pressure brought by Spain, so it chose a different approach from the United States. They chose to cooperate with this big country from the Western world, and the traces of cooperation in Dutch Indonesia were too heavy. Yes, a discerning person can tell at a glance that although there are not many cooperation projects yet, it is obvious that Japan's attitude is cooperation. This has been determined. This is the attitude of regional powers towards Spain in the situation in the Far East.

As for European issues, we have always seen that Britain, the world's largest country, has had contradictory attitudes towards Spain over the years. Their attitude was somewhat different from that of the German Empire. The attitude of the German Empire is that it would rather not offend Spain and choose to befriend them. This is why the German Empire chose to protest silently when it comes to the BMW incident. Obviously, the German Empire also realized that having good relations with Spain would benefit the German Empire too much. The first is to resist the pressure from Britain, France and Russia, and the second is, of course, to prevent them from falling to the other side. The third is to obtain technical support from Spain. The technology of the German Empire is one of the most advanced in Europe. In terms of machinery, there are only two countries in Europe that can compete with the German Empire in this aspect. One is i UK. The other one is Spain, especially Spain. If the British steam engine era reforms are regarded as the first industrial revolution in which Britain led the world, then the second world industrial revolution is the electrical age, which was led by the German Empire, the United States and Spain. Leading the world.

The reason why Britain was able to dominate the world was because the first industrial revolution brought them great strength in manufacturing industries such as handicrafts and light industry. And if Britain had not realized that the Industrial Revolution would be the culprit that guaranteed their strength, then. The strength of Spain and other three countries has grown as explosively as they did back then, and now they already feel threatened. It is precisely because of this that when the German Empire was besieged, what was originally only a threat from France's mortal enemy became the shadow of Britain.

Spain was a beneficiary of the first revolution, but it was also a victim, because after the Englishman Thomas Newcomen obtained the patent for the steam engine in 1712, Britain was destined to rise as the most powerful country in Europe. It also represents the decline of Spain and France. The benefit is the same acquisition of such technologies to improve national life.

The second industrial revolution was the other way around. It was led by the German Empire and then developed under the leadership of Europe and the United States. Britain is under this trend. It was only at the end of the 19th century that I was shocked to discover that my originally outstanding economy and industry were quickly being matched or even surpassed by other countries.

Needless to say, France, a colonial power, has the same semi-industrial and semi-agricultural status as the United Kingdom. Russia is simpler. It is said to be the start of industry. In fact, in such a cold place, there is no geographical advantage for the development of light industry. Heavy industry also requires talents and the environment. These are the foundations that hinder the development of the industrial revolution in Russia. Their Nikolai The Second Emperor was obviously not going to be an industrial king. Therefore, the largest developing countries in the second industrial revolution were naturally the German Empire, Spain and the United States. 40 years of development have created these world-class behemoths in the world today.

The original behemoths Britain, France and Russia were the biggest beneficiaries during the colonial period. Therefore, as latecomers, the German Empire's original unwillingness to do nothing on the land has attracted the attention of the United Kingdom, and France has directly understood it. Pressure on the German Empire. Russia began to be wary when Spain acquired the Svalbard Islands, but in the end, as a result of the resistance, it was necessary to pay the Franz Josef Land Islands to appease Spain.

The United States' transactions with several US dollar attacks decades ago have already made the world realize the monetary power of their US dollar, and the number of times the United States has gained territory without fighting is even more enviable. Coupled with Japan, a powerful country in East Asia that is now ambitious in East Asia, if these powerful countries in the world form an alliance of emerging powers, then the world situation will definitely be reversed. Britain's 'Two Powers Policy' of 1908 will be implemented in the navy. I want to change the British naval tonnage to the equivalent of the second and third naval powers in the future.

The German Empire, Spain and the United States occupy the second, third, and fourth positions, and Japan is not bad. In addition, if the German Empire lands on the British mainland with the help of these navies, then the British mainland can still be defended. ? Afterwards, they jointly aimed their guns at France on the European continent, and then jointly attacked Russia from both ends of the Pacific and Atlantic. Can Russia still be able to stop it at this time? If this is really possible, then "Time" magazine at that time may really want to rewrite the world's strength rankings. But will this scene really happen? "

On May 18, 1910, the world-class newspaper "Time" magazine published an article introducing the current world situation with the title. But many people are secretly saying that this magazine, headquartered in Madrid, Spain, was published under the instruction of the Spanish royal family and the government, with the intention of putting pressure on other countries such as France and the United Kingdom, because the general meaning here is that if If France does not agree to Spain's conditions, then Spain is likely to unite with other emerging powers to jointly deal with established powers such as Britain, France, and Russia. Although this threat makes many people not believe that Spain will actually do this, but more People still smell the huge crisis in the world situation.

Third update. Today there are over 10,000 words, a few hundred words missing. Thank you all friends for your clicks and recommendations and other support. (To be continued.)