Chapter 240 Shipbuilding Cooperation

With Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov completely giving up resistance, Britain and Austria-Hungary also officially started the process of revising the Treaty of San Stefano.

During the week of the contract revision, Russian Foreign Minister Alexander remained silent in most of the remaining links except for insisting on some bottom lines.

This also made the progress of the contract revision quite smooth. In just one week, a brand new "New Treaty of San Stefano" was released.

According to the terms of the new contract, Montenegro, Serbia and Romania will be completely independent from the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will obtain the Bosnia and Herzegovina region, and Bulgaria will obtain autonomy.

Constantinople and the Strait still belong to the Ottoman Empire, and the Black Sea countries have no passage privileges in the Strait of Constantinople.

This new contract completely stopped Russia's expansion into the Balkan Peninsula. Russia only obtained a few small pieces of land in the Caucasus region, and the benefits were negligible.

Instead, the Austro-Hungarian Empire became the biggest beneficiary of this peace talk. The Austro-Hungarian Empire obtained Bosnia and Herzegovina. The value of the Bosnia and Herzegovina region itself is enough to make people pay attention, not to mention that it can continue to serve as a bridgehead for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to reach deeper into the Balkan Peninsula.

When the news of the signing of the new "Treaty of San Stefano" spread throughout Europe, there was a rumor that after learning the specific content of the revised treaty, Russian Tsar Alexander II angrily smashed all the decorations in his office.

Foreign Minister Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov, who signed the contract, was also scolded by Tsar Alexander II and almost lost his official position.

But anger is anger, Alexander II naturally understands that this is an inevitable outcome. When Britain and the Austro-Hungarian Empire announced their intervention, Russia had already fallen behind in the negotiations.

It is worth mentioning that as the news of the revision of the "Treaty of San Stefano" spread throughout Europe, the reputation of the British Empire once again sounded.

In the eyes of most European people, Russia is already a very powerful country in Europe, and can even be said to be the hegemon of Eastern Europe.

But even such a powerful country had to succumb under the coercion of the British. This further highlights the power of the British Empire, and makes every British person proud of the power of the British Empire.

Compared with the benefits that Britain and Austria-Hungary gained after this peace negotiation, Carlo is actually more concerned about the direction of the Three Emperors' Alliance.

Germany maintained a neutral role in this peace negotiation, which did prevent the deterioration of relations between Germany and its two allies.

But it is undeniable that Germany did not support Russia when Russia needed support the most, and Russia was definitely disappointed.

Although it was not as serious as the Austrian Empire's backstabbing of Russia in the Crimean War, for Russia, which has already suffered once, how the future German-Russian relationship will develop is definitely a focus of attention.

Changes in German-Russian relations will also affect the relationship between Austria-Hungary and Russia. Previously, Russia had the support of Germany, and Austria-Hungary generally took a concessionary attitude in its decision-making in the Balkans.

Without the support of Germany, Austria-Hungary naturally no longer feared Russia. In the future, the hegemony between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia on the Balkan Peninsula will be a good show, and it may even involve the situation in the whole of Europe.

Originally, there was no fierce conflict between the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula, but under the competition between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia, these affected Balkan countries will also take different paths.

Of course, this development direction is a good thing for Spain. At least so far, the European situation has not transcended history, and Carlo can still rely on the experience brought by history to help Spain choose a more suitable path.

As the contradictions between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia in the Balkan Peninsula become more and more intense, Germany can only choose one of the two allies, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia.

Once Russia is abandoned, France will take over Russia in full, and the European situation will also reach a situation of confrontation between Germany and Austria-France and Russia.

Germany's overall strength is slightly stronger than France, and Russia's overall strength is slightly stronger than the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If it is said that such a political bureau is not secretly planned by the British, Carlo does not believe it at all.

Isn't this situation the regional balance policy advocated by the British? It's just that the British played too much, and Germany broke out with unimaginable strength, and finally almost shook the whole of Europe with its extremely powerful military force.

Now that the future historical trend is clear, the most important thing is to figure out how much benefit Spain can get from standing in the future and after standing in the future.

Of course, before that, it is necessary to improve Spain's comprehensive strength to ensure that Spain will not become a fish on the chopping board of others in the future confrontation between the two major military groups.

Since Carlo has strengthened his ties with France through diplomatic visits, he does not intend to miss this opportunity.

Although France's comprehensive strength has ranked behind Germany, it is still the third largest power in the world after Britain and Germany.

As the saying goes, a lean camel is bigger than a horse. The combat effectiveness of the French army and navy can be regarded as excellent, and it is still very strong compared to Spain.

Although the Spanish shipyards also designed the Renaissance-class ironclads, a fairly advanced and powerful ironclad class, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard still had no idea how to design the latest ironclads in the years since then.

The ironclads designed either did not make much progress in firepower, armor and speed, or had major defects in some aspects. In short, there was no more perfect new design.

The navy is developing rapidly, and the Spanish navy must not stop moving forward.

The Renaissance-class ironclads were indeed a very powerful design a few years ago, and even had the hope of becoming the top five ironclad designs in Europe.

But after a few years, the British Empire's ironclad series had already been updated, and the French had also designed the latest ironclads. The Renaissance-class ironclads had been reduced from the top five in Europe to the top ten in Europe.

Although the top ten designs in Europe are also advanced, their rankings will continue to decline in the future.

For Spain, it is necessary to continue to design a more powerful ironclad. This not only demonstrates Spain's strong foundation and ability in naval design, but also enhances Spain's national pride.

Only when a person is proud of his motherland can he have a strong patriotic mentality. The current Spaniards still love their motherland very much, and Carlo will never destroy the feelings between the Spaniards and the country.

Now that the connection with France has been strengthened, it is naturally time to hold the French thigh.

France still has relatively excellent capabilities in naval design. Although Germany's comprehensive strength has surpassed France, in terms of navy, France is still the second largest naval power in Europe and even the world.

It is no exaggeration to say that the only navy that can pose a threat to Britain is the current French navy.

However, the French navy can only pose a threat, and it is far from being able to defeat the British navy.

For Spain at present, France is indeed the only reliable partner who can develop a more powerful ironclad ship together.

The British naval design capabilities are naturally better, but the British are definitely not that reliable. What's more, the relationship between Britain and Spain is not very good, and cooperation between Spain and Britain is almost impossible.

After making the decision, the Spanish government immediately began to contact the French ambassador to Spain to discuss the possibility of cooperation between the two countries in the development of ironclad ships.

Although Spain's overall strength is not strong, its naval strength is still among the top five in Europe. Although most of the reasons are the heritage of Spain in the old days, the top five in Europe are the top five in Europe, which is irrefutable.

Cooperation with Spain is not too bad for France, and it can even ensure the security of its southern border by getting closer to Spain.

As expected, when the French ambassador reported the Spanish government's request to Paris, the French government immediately agreed to the Spanish government's request.

The two sides contacted each other through diplomatic ambassadors and agreed to cooperate with each other to develop a most advanced ironclad ship design.

Because of the cooperation between the two sides, when the design of the ironclad ship is freshly released, France and Spain will get complete ironclad ship design information.

The subsequent improvements made by both parties to the ironclad ship will also be fully shared, except for one situation, that is, France or Spain has completed the improvement of the warship on its own.

In addition, the two sides also agreed not to sell the initial version of the warship to the outside world after the warship is designed.

If the shipyards of the two countries want to sell the jointly designed warships, they should refit the warships for the second time to ensure that the relevant information of the initial version of the warships will not be leaked.

Because both sides are willing to cooperate, the two governments quickly reached an agreement and immediately began cooperation in warship research and development.

The French hope to get closer to the Spanish government again through this cooperation, while Spain hopes to use the French warship design capabilities to design a more powerful ironclad ship for Spain.

Driven by mutual interests, the Spanish shipyard also sent a large number of experts to the French shipyard. For a long time in the future, they will study the latest warship designs in the French shipyard and jointly discuss the rationality and irrationality of warship design.

Before these experts went to France, Carlo also met with them and encouraged them.

Many of these experts have participated in the design of the Renaissance-class ironclad ships. Their warship design capabilities are absolutely excellent and can be regarded as the top in Spain.

This trip to France to cooperate with French warship design experts can also allow them to be exposed to the mainstream design ideas of France to enrich their own resource library.

The design of warships is not based on imagination, but on the specific needs of the two countries and the shortcomings and advantages of the battleships in service. A comprehensive consideration should be made to design an ironclad ship that combines all the advantages of warships and can meet the needs of the two countries.

This also means that after these experts go to France, they will have the opportunity to see the design drawings of the French ironclad ships in service, which will be an extremely valuable asset.

Although the French cannot make public the drawings of the most advanced ironclad ships in service, as long as there is information that they have not been exposed to, these experts will definitely be able to learn something new.

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What Carlo hopes is that they can absorb France's valuable experience in shipbuilding and some unique design ideas, so that Spain can go further in warship design, at least to the level of the five major powers.

There is no way. Because of its small population, the number of talents in Spain is definitely not comparable to that of the five major powers.

Not to mention that Spain's education situation was quite poor ten years ago. Under the premise that most of the population is illiterate, there must be very few outstanding talents.

The education situation of other powerful countries is much better, coupled with a much larger population than Spain, which also creates a talent pool that these powerful countries have far more than Spain.

In particular, Germany's education situation is definitely among the best among European countries.

In history, a large number of outstanding physicists and chemists came from the German region, including the famous Einstein.

After successfully reaching cooperation with the French government, Carlo was not satisfied, and then reached relevant cooperation with Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was not outstanding in the navy, but it cannot be said that the Austro-Hungarian Empire had no ability in the navy. The warship research and development of Spain and Austria-Hungary mainly focused on small and medium-sized warships, especially small warships under 3,500 tons.

With the industrial scale and naval strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Spain, it is completely no problem to develop several small and medium-sized warship designs of about 3,500 tons.

A country's navy cannot be completely ironclad. An ironclad ship also needs many small and medium-sized warships to form a complete fleet.

Therefore, the role of these small and medium-sized warships is still relatively important. Whether it is a cruiser that can fight in the ocean and even compete with the main battleship, or a gunboat that can only defend and patrol near the coast, it is relatively scarce for Spain.

After all, Spain's colonies are all over the world, which also means that Spain needs a large navy to protect its homeland and colonies.

According to Carlo's plan, Spain will form two fleets in the future, namely the homeland-Africa Fleet and the Philippine Fleet.

The Spanish Navy's miscellaneous wooden warships and some relatively backward warships will be transferred to the Philippine Fleet, which is also enough to ensure the safety of the Philippine colony.

The local-African fleet will be equipped with more powerful ironclad ships and new warships to significantly improve the combat effectiveness of the fleet.

With the development of naval designs in various countries, the old sailing warships of Spain are basically useless.

Although it can improve the paper data of the Spanish fleet, when facing the enemy's ironclad ships head-on, the sailing warships and some wooden warships can only wait for death.

Whether it is the firepower, protection ability, or speed of the warships, there is a huge difference, which cannot be changed by quantity.

The situation in the Philippine colonies is different. The Philippine colonies mainly face the Dutch fleet and some pirates, and the sailing warships are more than enough.

Although the Netherlands was once a well-known European overlord, after all, the Netherlands was too small at this time to support any large-scale fleet.

The Dutch navy, like Spain, is large in size, but in fact it is an old fleet, and there are only a handful of new ironclad ships. It is even more impossible for the Dutch to send ironclad ships to the colonies for garrison.

This also means that these old Spanish fleets can still play an important role after arriving in the Philippines, at least ensuring that the Philippines will be relatively stable for a long time in the future.

Carlo has not yet made a decision on how to deal with the Philippine colonies.

The Cuban colony must be sold, and it must be sold at a high price in the short term.

The Philippine colony is also a colony far away from the Spanish mainland, but the Philippine colony has already formed a scale, and the army sent by Spain is enough to ensure the stability of the Philippines.

In this case, it becomes extremely difficult to sell the Philippine colony. The people will not accept the loss of the Philippine colony without any accidents unless they can exchange it for a larger and richer colony.

But this is impossible. The great powers are not fools, and it is impossible to exchange better colonies for worse colonies.

Although the Philippines also has a large number of indigenous populations, these local indigenous peoples are generally lazy, and the benefits that the colonies can create are really limited.

From this point of view, the Philippine colony is like a piece of chicken ribs, which is tasteless to eat and a pity to abandon.

Fortunately, Carlo still has enough time to make a choice. Both Cuba and the Philippines are currently firmly controlled by Spain.

If the cooperation with Austria-Hungary is optimistic about the foundation of Austria-Hungary, then the cooperation with Italy is simply optimistic about the future of Italy.

Although Italy is a new power, it is at least a country at the level of a power. In addition, due to the poor combat effectiveness of the army, Italy has placed its main development direction on the navy since the reign of Carlo's father, Vittorio Emanuele II.

The current King of Italy is Carlo's brother Umberto, who is a naked nationalist and imperialist.

In history, Italy joined the arms race under the leadership of King Umberto and expanded the size of the army and navy.

It must be admitted that Italy does have certain capabilities in naval design. In the era of pre-dreadnoughts, Italy also designed the most advanced battleships in Europe, which is by no means something that an ordinary great power can do.

At least in terms of the navy, the benefits of cooperating with Italy now may be greater than those of cooperating with Austria-Hungary.

Fortunately, Carlo is an adult and can have both. Spain can reach cooperation with Austria-Hungary as well as Italy.

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