Empire Rising: Spain

It has been proven that Tsar Alexander II’s death had a tremendous impact on Russia.

In the month of Alexander II’s death, several reform-related edicts were repealed. Specifically, the Russian Government imposed extremely strict censorship on the distribution of literary works and newspapers, leading to the shutdown of several major newspapers in a short period of time.

Newspaper companies feared reporting the news, and the Russian populace was tight-lipped, afraid to speak out and bring disaster upon themselves. This resulted in an extremely oppressive atmosphere within Russia after Alexander II’s funeral was held.

It is worth mentioning that from March 1881 onward, the number of Russians willing to immigrate to Spain suddenly increased.

In the past, it took a year to gather fifty thousand immigrants, and after selection, only twenty to thirty thousand remained. However, within just four months this year, the number of immigrants registered had already exceeded forty thousand, and it continued to increase steadily.

The rapid increase of Russian immigrants was not necessarily a good thing for Spain, and the immigration department quickly reported to the Cabinet Government, inquiring about how to handle these additional immigrants.

Carlo naturally learned of this news and inquired about the government’s handling methods. Overall, Carlo was rather satisfied with the approach chosen by Prime Minister Canovas.

While the Spanish mainland did not require many immigrants, Spain’s colonies still required a large number of immigrants. Especially the three West Africa Colonies recently acquired from the United Kingdom, which already had many immigrants, adding more Russians would not impact the situation negatively.

It might even help reduce the number of British immigrants in those areas, thereby diminishing the United Kingdom’s influence and allowing the Spanish Government to strengthen its control over these regions.

Especially the Gambia Colony, as a key overseas granary for Spain, the Gambia Colony needed a large number of farmers to cultivate crops.

Russian farmers were obviously quite skilled in agriculture, and with their resilience and hardworking nature, sending them to the Gambia Colony was perfectly suitable.

The only concern was whether these Russians, accustomed to living in cold regions, could adapt to life in the African Colonies. Spain’s African Colonies were generally near the equator, with extremely hot temperatures.

Suddenly relocating from a cold region to a hot one could potentially cause these Russian immigrants to suffer from acclimation issues. These challenges could only be something the Russians themselves would have to overcome, as Spain did not have a great solution for this.

To expedite the agricultural development in the Gambia Colony, these Russian immigrants would have to endure and adapt. Even if some fell ill due to acclimation problems, it was completely acceptable for Spain.

While Spain was racking its brains over the West Africa development plan, to the north, in their neighboring France, there were heated debates taking place domestically.

The initiator of these debates, Jules François Camille Ferry, also known as the renowned Rufelli, proposed a contentious topic at the French Cabinet meeting: that France should send troops to bring Tunisia under French colonial protection.

Tunisia is located in North Africa, just east of Algeria, which is controlled by France, and across the sea from Italy’s Sicily.

Rufelli was well aware that colonizing Tunisia would provoke conflicts with Italy, but for France, it was essential to find some compensation for the defeat a decade ago to regain the trust of the French Government by its people.

The Franco-Prussian War ten years ago was equivalent to a heavy blow by the Germans to all French people, something every Frenchman remembered.

To what extent did the French hold their grudge? Any government official or member of parliament who dared to propose not seeking revenge against Germany would be attacked by enraged citizens.

Seeking revenge against Germany had become politically correct in France; no matter what politicians thought, they had to openly support the public’s views.

Rufelli could be considered one of the representative figures of this era’s French politicians. As a politician in the office of the Prime Minister, Rufelli fully understood the might of Germany.

Although France’s comprehensive strength was also considerable, thinking about seeking revenge against Germany without any allies was surely a path to ruin.

But the public’s hatred towards Germany was genuine, which the French Government could not ignore. Therefore, the French Government had to find other ways to divert public hatred or at least capture public attention to avoid dissatisfaction due to inaction.

In this era of colonial expansion, nothing could capture the attention of the French public more than expanding the nation’s territories and establishing new colonies.

Tunisia is a rather important region. Not only is it connected to Algeria, already under French control, but it is also the northernmost area of Africa, aiding France in extending its influence along the Mediterranean coast.

Of course, controlling Tunisia could also help France continue expanding eastward in North Africa. Southeast of Tunisia is Libya, and to the east of Libya is Egypt, which is the location of the Suez Canal.

No further elaboration is needed on the critical importance of the Suez Canal. Even though the United Kingdom employed various methods to gain most of the Suez Canal’s shares, France never gave up its focus on the Suez Canal.

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