Empire Rising: Spain

Italy, of course, also participated in Spain’s tram exhibition, but due to financial constraints, even the capital, Rome, could not achieve widespread electrification.

The only places truly qualified to use electricity were the Royal Palace and government office buildings; besides these, only well-established factories would collaborate with Italy’s power companies to build power stations around their premises.

Indeed, if Italian factories wanted to connect to the circuit, they had to fund their own power station constructions.

As for the reason, it’s naturally because the Italian Government couldn’t afford to build large power stations. The current electricity transmission encounters various issues, with general transmission not extending beyond city limits, and even over longer distances facing significant losses.

The electricity from one power station could only supply cities within a few kilometers surrounding it, and in more distant areas, they either had to pay a greater price or pool resources to build a new power station.

Precisely because of this, the electricity usage in Italian cities is appallingly poor. Only a few cities in the north have some power stations, and all cities south of Rome don’t have even a single power station.

"It’s really remarkable. Madrid has undergone tremendous changes in more than a decade, and these changes are exactly what Italy currently needs." On the first day of experiencing the changes in Madrid, the Italian Foreign Secretary, while communicating with the Italian Ambassador to Spain, couldn’t help but sigh.

The Italian Ambassador to Spain nodded upon hearing. He had been serving as a diplomatic ambassador in Spain for several years, witnessing Madrid’s transformation firsthand.

Before Carlo became King of Spain, Madrid was also a major city in Europe, housing a population of over 400,000.

However, compared to the capitals of other European Powers at the time, Madrid appeared somewhat backward, with only some factories on its outskirts. Regardless of the numbers or scale, these factories lagged far behind other major cities.

Observing Madrid today, apart from city scale limited by population, it can now be pitted against the capitals of Austria and Italy.

Which city isn’t more renowned than the Spanish capital, Madrid, between Austria’s Vienna and Italy’s Rome?

Rome has been the capital since the time of the Roman Empire, the most important city in the Italian Region for over 2000 years.

Vienna’s history as a capital also traces back to the Austrian Duchy period, becoming the capital ever since the Habsburg family ascended to the Holy Roman Empire’s throne.

Contrarily, Madrid has only been the capital of Spain for a little over 300 years. Coupled with the surrounding mountain forests, it wasn’t close to plains, limiting its development quite severely.

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

As an Italian, the Italian Foreign Secretary harbors envy towards Spain.

It must be known that the current King of Spain, Carlos I, was a duke in Italy a dozen years ago, the youngest son of the King of Italy.

Unfortunately, such a talented Monarch ultimately became the King of Spain, and under Carlo’s leadership, Spain reemerged as a strong European Power, even having a comprehensive strength surpassing Italy’s.

Despite deep feelings about Spain’s development, the Italian diplomatic representative didn’t linger too long in reflection.

For Italy, the upcoming negotiations with France are of vital importance. As long as the territories Italy occupies are retained, Italy won’t be the losing party in this Tunisian colonial contest.

On the second day of both parties’ arrival in Madrid, France and Italy’s peace talks officially commenced.

At the peace talks, Prime Minister Canovas first appeared as the Spanish representative, emphasizing the significance of peace negotiations for peace, and expressed hope that both France and Italy could present their demands based on the goal of achieving peace.

Following that, French and Italian diplomatic representatives took turns making demands and debating with each other.

If the Italian side preferred to divide Tunisia according to the areas currently occupied, the French diplomatic representative’s demand was for Italy to withdraw from the Tunisian region, at least relinquishing half of its currently occupied lands.

But the French’s proposal certainly wouldn’t be accepted by Italy. The lands occupied by Italy constitute less than a third of Tunisia’s total, and if half of that is surrendered, wouldn’t it mean most benefits go to the French?

The Italians went through painstaking efforts to occupy these two territories. What is the goal if not to take a share from the French and ensure their undefeated position?

Because both sides clung to their demands without yielding, the first day of peace talks resulted in a deadlock, making no progress whatsoever.

The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gambetta, returned to his residence without any expression on his face, instructing the French Ambassador to report the current negotiation progress back home.

In fact, before attending the Madrid Peace Talks, France had also considered inviting other countries to participate as neutral parties or even setting up a separate table, disregarding Spain’s request.

From Spain’s diplomatic stance in this contest, it’s apparent that Spain staunchly stands on Italy’s side.

France certainly understands the reasoning behind this; it is also why France wished to invite other neutral countries to join the negotiations.

If only Spain served as the intermediary, Spain would undoubtedly favor Italy in critical moments.

Worse is that since only France and Italy are involved in negotiations, it represents that France would be under pressure from both Italy and Spain from the very start.

Unfortunately for France, despite inviting numerous European Powers, including Germany, all expressed no interest in attending this peace negotiation.

Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia’s refusal reasons are simple: they are too far from North Africa and naturally see no reason to offend Italy and Spain for France.

And the reason for the UK’s refusal is equally simple: it hopes to see tensions erupt between France, Italy, and Spain.

Even the UK’s swapping of three colonies in West Africa was intended to incite conflict between Spain and France.

The present is an excellent opportunity. How could the British undermine their shrewd plans?

As for whether France’s potential collapse by facing immense pressure from the Triple Alliance and the Italian-Spanish Alliance simultaneously might occur, the British have their solutions.

Firstly, the combined strength of the Italian-Spanish Alliance doesn’t surpass Germany or Russia within the Triple Alliance, posing pressure but not fatal to France.

Secondly, Britain has been diligently dismantling the Triple Alliance. In the British eye, Russia poses the most significant threat, followed by France, and then Germany.

The British have consistently aimed to remove Russia from the Triple Alliance while striving to undermine relations between Austria-Hungary and Russia, thereby leading Germany to oppose Russia as well.

In this way, the European Continent would reach a situation of confrontation among four major military groups: Germany and Austria opposing Russia, Italy, and Spain opposing France, the latter two fittingly being Britain’s chief adversaries.

With Russia and France constrained, the British could expand recklessly in Africa and the Middle East, representing the most favorable scenario for them.

Because of this, even though the British meddlesome nature had them intensely interested in the situation in Tunisia, ultimately, they refused France’s invitation, expressing an unwillingness to interfere with Tunisia’s situation.

This left France with no choice but to face the negotiation alone, realizing that even knowing Spain would side with Italy when it mattered most, France had to attend the peace talks.

Otherwise, by not participating in the peace talks, France would have to accept the reality of Italy’s occupation of parts of Tunisia’s land.

As for using force to expel the Italian troops, it was something the French Government hadn’t even considered. Though Italy isn’t strong, it’s still a Power, not easily defeated.

Moreover, with Spain’s assistance to Italy, France might face the pressure of a two-front war. If France were to get embroiled in a protracted conflict, the Germans surely wouldn’t remain idle.

Should a blunder lead to France single-handedly challenging all of Europe, the situation would indeed become ludicrous. Despite Rufaelli’s ambitions, he wouldn’t dare to ignore France’s current diplomatic predicament.

To avoid war unless absolutely necessary, at least before France breaks through Germany’s diplomatic isolation policy, France can’t afford to thoroughly offend Italy and Spain.