Chapter 354 Britain will never back down

Chapter 354 Britain will never back down

Guizot had long been accustomed to facing the poverty and turmoil of the people. In his heart, only the bottom line of friendship between Britain and France was unchangeable.

Just like the speech he gave when he took office early.

"We don't want to talk about conquests, wars and revenge. Let France prosper, let it be free, rich, intelligent and carefree - and we will not regret that it has no influence on world events."

The current path of colonial expansion was not actually designed by Guizot. What he hoped was to develop France's own market potential in exchange for a stable external environment.

However, the world is a whole. The Austrian Empire joined the German Customs Union, which greatly enhanced its competitiveness. This made France feel the crisis.

After the Spanish Civil War, Queen Regent Christiana made another offer that the French could not refuse.

During the Battle of Texas, Guizot saw the opportunity and won Texas, which the United States and Mexico had repeatedly fought for, at a very good price.

It even squandered the remaining funds during the Mexican Civil War, saving France a large sum of money.

The Texas colony brought a lot of resources to France, as well as quite good tax revenue. Moreover, the potential of this colony was huge and it was fully expected to become the second France.

Later, although it lost its exclusive interests in Egypt in the Turkish-Egyptian War for hegemony in the Near East, with the end of the Spanish Civil War, it could free up more power to start establishing colonies around the world.

Invade Algeria, invade Morocco, compete with the Austrian Empire for West Africa, compete with the British for East Africa, carve up the Central American Federation, and jointly develop Asian colonies with Spain

Unknowingly, France has gone further and further down the road of colonialism, but this has indeed injected strong vitality into France at this time, allowing it to quickly recover from the economic crisis.

But what François Guizot was most concerned about was the Franco-Belgian Customs Union. Although Belgium had just become independent from the Netherlands for more than ten years at this time, it was the country with the second fastest economic growth in Europe. Every year The growth rate exceeds 20%.

(The first is Luxembourg, but it is too small and has little reference value.)

Guizot hoped that through concessions, Britain could accept the Franco-Belgian Customs Union to counter the increasingly powerful German Customs Union.

If it is possible for Britain to make concessions on the Argentine issue, then there is no way to talk about the Low Countries.

(The Low Countries refer to the Netherlands, that is, the Netherlands and Belgium.)

Britain will resolutely fight back against any behavior that may threaten the British mainland or undermine its glorious independent status, and this time is no exception.

As soon as the British cabinet received the news, they reached an internal consensus that the Franco-Belgian customs union must not be allowed to be established. Because if he is allowed to run wild, it will not only resurrect Napoleon's ghost, but also directly threaten Britain's core interests.

Palmerston still directly clamored for war as usual. Although the British have been memorizing words recently, they are undoubtedly the most powerful country in the world at this time.

The Battle of Kabul, the Battle of Pangong Lake, the Indian Ocean Tsunami, and the successive disastrous defeats forced the United Kingdom to mobilize troops from the mainland to fill the vacancy in Southeast Asia's military strength.

At this time, the North Sea Fleet and the British mainland's defense forces were relatively weak, and what was even more terrible was the domestic workers' movement, also known as the Chartist Movement.

Britain was the earliest to industrialize, had the largest number of workers, and was the strongest. Although Queen Victoria, who had just ascended the throne, used her charisma to resolve the crisis, due to objective factors, the promise made by the Queen could not be fulfilled at all.

As a result, workers were once again organized to seek their own rights. This time Victoria simply gave up her job. As she grew older, she became tired of those stupid and duplicitous politicians.

At the same time, the Queen also met the love of her life, Prince Albert, and the two preferred to enjoy the good time together instead of dealing with cumbersome national affairs.

In fact, both of them have certain political skills, but unfortunately the British system and the politicians in power at the time were indeed strong, so they could only choose to settle for the second best.

The complex situation and huge pressure at home and abroad almost overwhelmed the cabinet members. Prime Minister Viscount Melbourne had to convene Congress to bring Guizot's proposal to Congress for a vote.

Fortunately, all parties in the UK were surprisingly unanimous on the Franco-Belgian customs union and unanimously opposed France's establishment of a legal currency customs union.

It's just that serious differences arose on the issue of the Viceroyalty of La Plata. Most congressmen opposed the threat of force on this matter because Britain had too many enemies, including Russia, France, Austria, the ancient empires in the East, and The savage native tribes of Oceania and Africa.

The reason why most people opposed it was that Russia was the biggest threat to Britain's world hegemony, but Palmerston didn't think so.

"Gentlemen, please be quiet! Russia is a potential huge threat to Britain. They will threaten the Near East, threaten Central Asia, and may even occupy Afghanistan, cross the Hindu Kush Mountains, and invade our India!

but! Gentlemen! Please believe me, no one in the world understands Russia better than me! They have no outlet yet, which means they cannot pose a real threat to us! "

Palmerston's words hit the mark every time, and he is worthy of being the man who knows Russia best. But lawmakers will not agree to use force against France just because Russia poses a small threat, he said immediately.

"But the French have already gone to sea! They want to compete with us for North America! For Africa! For India! For Central America! Now they have to compete with us for South America! Faced with such an opponent who wants to compete with us for the world, what choice should the British Empire make? Back down?!”

"My answer is never!"

(Never! Never! Never!, the English context actually makes sense.)

Palmerston's words ignited the passion of the MPs, and there was only one voice in Parliament at this time.

"The British Empire will never back down!"

Of course, given the communication conditions at the time, a series of events would occur within a few months. Britain dispatched the main force of the West African Fleet to support South America, and brought 6,000 British soldiers with it.

However, it was not to attack the French army, but to protect the legal property of the expatriates and the British. After all, most of the leaders of both sides had experienced the Napoleonic War and understood the brutality of the war and its terrible destructive power.

And they are all old yinbi, waiting for the other party to come to negotiate terms with them.

At this time, the Spanish sky was once again shrouded in the clouds of civil war. Although Queen Regent Christiana had been deprived of most of her rights by the French, she was still not a peaceful person.

Queen Regent Christiana was a very extravagant and lustful woman. Although she gave up her rights, she would not give up the opportunity for material enjoyment.

On the one hand, Christiana sought out a large number of young and beautiful men and bought gold, silver and jewelry for her own enjoyment. On the other hand, she borrowed heavily in the name of her daughter and the royal family, but she was unable to repay and did not want to repay.