Chapter 276 Madrid Peace Talks

The dispute between France and Italy over Tunisia finally returned to the negotiation table. French Prime Minister Jouffry never expected that the Italians would withstand the pressure from France and secretly send troops to seize part of Tunisia’s land.

Although France occupied most of Tunisia, the Italians were not necessarily at a disadvantage given the terrain of the occupied land.

Kairouan, Sousse and Sfax occupied by Italy are all plain areas close to the coast with great development value.

While the southern lands occupied by Italy have a terrain of mountains and deserts, there is also a vast plain of Ghifra near the coast.

In contrast, the French-occupied Tunisia covers nearly 70% of the entire Tunisia, but the Tunis Mountains occupy a considerable portion of the area.

There are also the Jered Salt Marsh and some desert areas in the south. The land that can actually be reclaimed for farming or grazing is actually not much different from the area that can be reclaimed and grazed in the land occupied by Italy.

You know, France was the one who started the war. Compared with Italy, France invested more in this war, but did not gain much benefit. This alone was enough to make the French people doubt the ability of Prime Minister Jouffry.

“Your Excellency Prime Minister, the Spanish ambassador has once again expressed Spain’s willingness to mediate as a neutral country in our colonial conflict with Italy in Tunisia. They hope that we can send representatives to participate in the peace talks in Madrid to ensure that there will be no further conflict between us and Italy.” Foreign Minister Gambetta pushed the door open and reported respectfully to Ruferi.

Gambetta and Jouffery belonged to the same party, which meant that they both had the same goals on the Tunisian issue.

Ruferi first stared blankly at the Tunisia battle plan hanging in the Prime Minister’s office, then turned around and looked at Foreign Minister Gambetta, and responded: “Mr. Minister, who do you think we should send to attend this peace conference?”

“Mr. Prime Minister, this peace negotiation is very important, and the diplomatic ambassador cannot make a proper decision. If you do not intend to come in person, I am willing to negotiate with Italy on behalf of France.” Foreign Minister Gambetta said word by word.

Ruferi nodded. The Foreign Minister was indeed a more appropriate choice. Compared with ordinary ambassadors, the Foreign Minister had greater power and could also reflect the importance attached to the peace talks.

Compared to the Prime Minister, the status of the Foreign Minister is not that high, so as to avoid France lowering its status.

After all, the role of the prime minister is comparable to that of the prime ministers of Spain and Italy. Under the premise that Italy did not send out its prime minister for negotiations, France naturally did not need to send out its prime minister.

If Prime Minister Roufaire rashly attends such a meeting, not only will he not gain any say in the meeting, but he will also lower his status and be looked down upon.

“Then you will represent France at this conference. Minister Gambetta, this conference should at least ensure that the lands occupied by France still belong to France. It would be best if we could take back more than half of the lands occupied by Italians.

Tunisia is an important part of our colonial expansion plan, and our colonial plan must not have any problems in Tunisia.” Ruferi made a decision and looked at Gambetta.

“Yes, Prime Minister.” Gambetta nodded and took on this rather difficult task.

At the same time, the Italian government is also determining candidates for peace talks.

It is worth mentioning that the Italian government also chose the Minister of Foreign Affairs as its representative to attend the peace talks. This may be a tacit understanding among European countries.

As for Spain, because of its status as a neutral mediating country, the meeting will be chaired by Prime Minister Canovas himself.

After all, we are the host country. It would be a bit too shabby if we sent a foreign minister to receive the representatives of the two countries.

The meeting will be held in Madrid. In addition to discussing the situation in Tunisia, it will also discuss the colonization of North Africa by Spain, France and Italy to avoid such colonial conflicts among the three countries in the future.

A few days after Spain invited the two countries to participate in peace talks, representatives of the two countries arrived in the Spanish capital Madrid.

French Foreign Minister Gambetta did not have any special emotions when he arrived in Madrid. Although Madrid has become quite prosperous after more than a decade of development, it is still inferior to the French capital Paris.

Although Madrid has built trams and a large number of street lights, it is the world’s first city that never sleeps.

But France subsequently followed up with projects for trams and streetlights, which were already commonplace for Gambetta.

But for the Italian Foreign Minister, everything he saw in Madrid was so new.

Italy is certainly involved in electricity, but Italy’s finances are not as exaggerated as those of Britain, France and Germany.

This also led to the fact that Italy has never built a city that never sleeps like Madrid. Rome, the capital of Italy, Vienna, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and St. Petersburg, the capital of Tsarist Russia, are collectively known as the three dark cities in Europe.

Of course, this name is a funny comment made by the European media, and the reason is precisely the slow development of electricity in these three countries.

Italy certainly participated in the Spanish Electric Car Expo, but due to funding constraints, even the capital Rome was unable to achieve large-scale power supply.

Only the royal palace and government office buildings are truly qualified to use electricity. Apart from that, only those factories with strong qualifications will cooperate with Italian power companies to build power stations around their factories.

Yes, if Italian factories want to connect to the circuit, they can only choose to build power plants at their own expense.

As for the reason, of course, the Italian government does not have the money to build large power stations. The current electricity transportation has various problems. Generally, the transportation of electricity does not cross cities at all, and even a large amount of electricity will be lost over long distances.

The electricity from a power station can only be supplied to cities within a few kilometers. If areas farther away want to use electricity, they either have to pay a higher price or raise funds to build a new power station.

Because of this, the electricity usage in Italian cities is terrible. Only a few cities in the north have a few power stations, and all cities south of Rome do not even have a power station.

“It’s amazing. Madrid has undergone tremendous changes in its development over the past decade. These changes are exactly what Italy needs right now.” The Italian Foreign Minister, who felt the changes in Madrid on the first day, couldn’t help but sigh when communicating with the Italian Ambassador to Spain.

The Italian ambassador to Spain nodded upon hearing this. He has been in Spain as a diplomatic ambassador for several years and can be said to have personally experienced the changes in Madrid.

Before Carlo became King of Spain, Madrid was also a large European city with a population of over 40.

But Madrid at that time was slightly backward compared to the capitals of other powers. There were only a few factories in the suburbs, but both the number and scale of the factories were far behind those of other powerful cities.

Now let’s look at Madrid. Except that its population makes it smaller than the capitals of Britain, France and Germany, it can be compared with the capitals of Austria and Italy. Which city is not more famous than Madrid, the capital of Spain, Vienna, the capital of Austria, and Rome, the capital of Italy?
Rome, the capital of Italy, has been the capital since the Roman Empire and has been the most important city in Italy for more than 2000 years.

The history of Vienna as the capital can be traced back to the period of the Duchy of Austria. Since the Habsburg family took control of the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, Vienna has also been the capital of the Holy Roman Empire.

In contrast, Madrid has only been the capital of Spain for a little over 300 years. In addition, the surrounding mountainous forests and the lack of proximity to plains have severely restricted Madrid’s development.

Although there is still a certain gap in population, Madrid is no worse than Rome and Vienna in terms of urban infrastructure and industry.

As an Italian, the Italian Foreign Minister is envious of Spain.

You know, the current King Carlo I of Spain was the Duke of Italy and the youngest son of the King of Italy more than ten years ago.

Unfortunately, such a wise and ambitious monarch eventually became the King of Spain. Under Carlo’s leadership, Spain once again became a powerful European power, and its overall strength was even stronger than that of Italy today.

Although the Italian diplomatic representatives were very impressed by Spain’s development, their admiration did not last long.

Because for Italy, the next negotiations with France will become very important. As long as Italy can hold on to the land it has occupied, Italy will not be the loser in this Tunisian colonial competition.

The day after representatives from both sides arrived in Madrid, peace negotiations between France and Italy officially began.

At the peace talks, Prime Minister Canovas attended first as the Spanish representative, and emphasized the importance of peace talks to peace, and expressed the hope that both France and Italy could put forward their own demands based on the purpose of achieving peace.

What followed was a phase where the French and Italian diplomatic representatives made demands and argued with each other.

If Italy wants to divide Tunisia according to the areas currently occupied, then the French diplomatic representative’s request is that Italy withdraw from the Tunisian region, or at least give up half of the land currently occupied.

But the French proposal will definitely not be accepted by Italy. The land occupied by Italy accounts for less than one-third of the total land of Tunisia. If Italy gives up half of it, wouldn’t it mean that most of the benefits will be taken by the French?
What was the goal of the Italians in occupying these two pieces of land with so much difficulty? Wasn’t it to snatch a piece of meat from the French and make themselves invincible?

Because both sides insisted on their demands and refused to give in, the first day of peace talks came to a stalemate and there was no progress at all.

French Foreign Minister Gambetta returned to his residence with an expressionless face and instructed the French ambassador to report back to the country on the progress of the current peace talks.

In fact, before participating in the Madrid Peace Conference, France also considered inviting other countries to participate in the peace negotiations as neutral countries, or simply setting up a new table and ignoring Spain’s request.

It can also be seen from Spain’s diplomatic attitude in this competition that Spain firmly stands on the side of Italy.

France certainly understands this, which is why it wants to invite other neutral countries to join the negotiations.

If Spain is the only mediator, it will definitely lean towards Italy at the critical moment.

What’s worse is that because only France and Italy are involved in the negotiations, this means that France will face pressure from both Italy and Spain from the very beginning.

But unfortunately, although France invited many European powers, including Germany, all countries expressed no interest in the peace talks.

The reason why Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia refused was simple. They were too far away from North Africa, so there was naturally no need to offend Italy and Spain for France.

The reason why Britain refused is very simple, that is, Britain would rather see conflicts break out between France, Italy and Spain.

Even the purpose of Britain’s exchange of three colonies in West Africa was to cause conflict between Spain and France.

This is obviously a good opportunity. How could the British ruin their careful plans?

As for whether France would collapse facing the huge pressure of the Triple League and the Italian-Spanish Alliance at the same time, the British also have their own solutions.

First of all, the combined strength of the Italian-Spanish Alliance was not as strong as that of Germany or Russia in the Triple Alliance. Although it was a pressure on France, it was not fatal.

Secondly, the British were already trying to dismantle the Three Emperors’ Alliance. In the eyes of the British, Russia was the biggest threat, followed by France and then Germany.

The British have always wanted to remove Russia from the Triple Alliance, and at the same time try to destroy the relationship between Austria-Hungary and Russia as much as possible, so that Germany will also go to the opposite side of Russia.

In this way, the European continent will reach a situation of confrontation between four major military groups. Germany and Austria will confront Russia, and Italy and Spain will confront France. These two countries fighting alone are exactly the two biggest concerns of Britain.

With Russia and France tied down, the British can expand unscrupulously in Africa and the Middle East, which is the best situation for the British.

It is also because of this that even though the British people’s trouble-making nature made them very concerned about the situation in Tunisia, they ultimately rejected France’s invitation and stated that they would not interfere in the situation in Tunisia.

This also meant that France had to attend the meeting alone. Even though it knew that Spain would stand on Italy’s side at the critical moment, France had to participate in the peace talks.

Because if it does not participate in the peace talks, France will have to accept the reality that Italy will occupy part of Tunisian territory.

As for using force to expel the Italian army, the French government had never thought of this. Although Italy was not strong, it was still a great power and it was not so easy to defeat it.

With the help of Italy and Spain, France is likely to face the pressure of fighting on two fronts. Once France is caught in a long-term war, the Germans will definitely not remain indifferent.

If the result is that France is taking on the whole of Europe, that would be a lot of fun. No matter how ambitious Rouféry is, he would not be so bold as to ignore France’s current diplomatic dilemma.

If it is possible to avoid starting a war, then don’t do it. At least before France breaks Germany’s policy of diplomatic isolation, it cannot offend Italy and Spain.

(End of this chapter)