Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 272 Multinational Intervention
In early April, the impact of the Argentine war gradually spread to the whole of Europe, and governments of various countries successively expressed their views on the Argentine war.

On April 1, the British government issued an announcement, clearly stating that it would send troops to support the Argentine government. At the same time, the British government also encouraged other European countries, calling on European powers such as France, Germany, Italy, and Austria to draw troops to form a coalition with Britain to jointly launch a military strike against the Han State.

The British government's declaration of war was like a stone thrown into boiling water, intensifying public opinion in Europe.

Under the instigation of the British government, civilians from countries such as France and Germany announced that they would join the action of supporting the white people in Argentina out of racial sentiment. Then, Italy and Belgium, which had other intentions, took the lead in responding to the call of the British government and promised to provide money, manpower and effort to support the just actions of the British government.

Of course, the military and economic strength of Italy and Belgium is far inferior to that of the British Empire. Sending thousands or tens of thousands of regular troops on a long-distance expedition is a huge test for the Italian and Belgian governments.

The distance from Europe to Argentina is much longer than that from Europe to North America. In the La Plata region near Argentina, the Argentines are unable to take care of themselves and it is difficult for them to provide sufficient logistical support to the European reinforcements. The Brazilian Empire, which occupies part of the territory of the La Plata Plain, is busy suppressing the black rebellion at home and is also unable to provide too much supply of materials to the European reinforcements.

In addition to the objective economic conditions of the Argentine and Brazilian empires, the relatively backward military-industrial systems of the two governments were unable to provide the coalition forces with a complete supply of weapons.

You must know that although the Brazilian Empire has rich mineral resources, most of the large mines are controlled by Britain. A few newly explored mines were also mortgaged or sold at low prices to the United States, France and other European and American countries by the Brazilian government because of Pedro II's expansion of military power.

Although South American countries represented by Brazil appear to have military equipment that is not inferior to that of ordinary European countries, the military strength of South American countries is based on huge amounts of foreign purchases. Weapons such as ironclad ships, heavy artillery, and Gatling machine guns were all purchased from European powers, while the types of weapons truly produced locally are very limited.

There are two main reasons for the backwardness of the military industry in South American countries. One is the internal factors of South American countries. South America gained independence more than half a century later than the United States. At the same time, after independence, the complex racial, economic and political situations in South American countries made it impossible for the ruling parties to continuously implement an industrial plan that was beneficial to the country.

As for countries with relatively stable political situations, such as Brazil and Chile, they have abundant mineral resources. The governments of the two countries do not need to vigorously develop an industrial system that takes a long time to produce results. They can use the huge profits from mineral resources to exchange for the latest military equipment from European countries. Therefore, without the urgent external pressure to build an industrial system, the military industrial level of Brazil and Chile has long stagnated in the early stages of independent nation-building, and the demand for heavy weapons and supporting ammunition mainly depends on the sales of European powers such as Britain and France.

On the other hand, the independence of the South American colonies benefited from the strategic goal of Britain and France to dismember the Spanish colonial system. After achieving this goal, Britain, which had monopolized the interests of South America, was unwilling to see another group of South American countries with huge development potential establish a complete industrial system and become their economic competitors. Therefore, suppressing the industrial development of South American countries and turning South American countries into resource supply bases has become a strategic plan that Britain has been working on.

Against the backdrop of Britain, France and Germany dominating the affairs of the European continent, Italy and Belgium could only play a supporting role and try to gain some tiny benefits from following the three major powers. Therefore, when the impact of the Argentine war in Europe gradually fermented, Italy and Belgium, whose economic and military strength lagged behind the major European powers, set their sights on the Han State, hoping to take advantage of the favorable opportunity when Britain launched a military strike against the Han State to seize several of its colonial outposts in Europe.

The Han Empire originally had three scattered colonies in Africa. Later, after an agreement with Germany, the Han Empire exchanged its colonial outpost in Cameroon with the Germans. Excluding the Cameroon colonial outpost that had been handed over to the Germans, the Han Empire still had three colonies left in Africa: Congo, Kismayo and Mtwara.

Of the three colonies, Mtwara was located in Tanzania, which was surrounded by British and German colonial forces, and Italy and Belgium could not interfere.

Kismayo is located in southern Somalia. Italy was once defeated by the Han troops in the Kismayo stronghold when it tried to capture it. Therefore, seeing the opportunity to avenge its defeat, Italy rushed to get involved.

Compared with the two small colonial outposts of Kismayo and Mtwara, Congo was the colony that Han truly valued. In the area along the Congo River, the National Defense Force used the conquered black natives as pioneers to continuously enhance Han's military strength in Congo.

The Chinese Empire's quiet expansion of the Congo colony did not attract the attention of the two major colonial powers, Britain and France. However, Leopold II, the Belgian King who was most interested in making Congo a colony, saw hope in the recent situation in Europe to seize Congo from the Chinese Empire. In recent years, Leopold II's luck has been a bit bad. After the failure of the expedition team to explore the interior of Congo, Leopold II changed direction and tried to establish colonial outposts in the coastal areas of Nigeria and Namibia, but all ended in failure.

Finally, after pondering the lessons from the two previous failures, Leopold II decided to bypass the areas in Africa where Britain and France had strong colonial power and chose Liberia as the location for establishing a colony.

Liberia originally existed as a resettlement place for black Americans. In 1847, under pressure from the increasingly violent bandit movement at home and the economic pressure of maintaining the operation of the Liberian colony, the US government agreed to its independence as a sovereign state. Subsequently, the American Civil War broke out. After the war, blacks gained legal freedom and were freed from their past slavery. Therefore, the action of repatriating blacks was completely terminated and Liberia lost its role as a resettlement place for blacks.

Without the interference of the United States, the newly liberated American blacks quickly took on the role of masters, launched continuous attacks on the indigenous blacks of Liberia, and then divided the indigenous blacks in the occupied areas into a slave class, enjoying the pleasure of oppressing the native blacks from a high position.

The actual actions of American blacks in Liberia were completely different from their performance in the United States, and the nearly half-century information barrier with the United States also severed the initial relationship between the two countries.

In March 1878, Leopold II, who had made careful plans, used his own money to form a -man colonial development team with the intention of establishing a colonial outpost in Liberia. However, although the idea was good, the final result was not satisfactory.

No matter what, the Liberian blacks had seen the methods of their white masters. After Leopold II's colonial pioneers landed, the Liberian blacks first pretended to be defeated, then lured the pioneers to an ambush site and defeated the enemy in one fell swoop.

The performance of the Liberian blacks exceeded the expectations of Leopold II. He was originally considering whether there would be protests from the Americans after occupying Liberia. Now, not only has the goal of occupying Liberia not been achieved, but nearly half of the 600 people sent out have also been killed or wounded.

After repeated setbacks, Leopold II had a clearer understanding of his own strength. It was impossible to obtain a colony by relying on the strength of the Kingdom of Belgium itself. If he wanted to obtain a suitable colony in the vast Africa, he had to cling to the thigh of the world's first superpower, Britain, and follow behind the British. He could use Britain's military and political strength to realize his ambitions.

In contrast to Italy and Belgium, which were cheering for the British, France, Germany and the United States responded differently. France and Germany both blamed their busy domestic affairs and said their governments did not have the energy and financial resources to support a large-scale expedition. The government expressed deep sympathy for the plight of the white people in Argentina.

Although Britain did not invite the United States to participate in the Argentine War, the US President vowed to fully support the Argentines. However, the US President was just talking. Not only did Britain not want the United States to expand its influence in South America, the US Congress also rejected the president's application to join the war.

The turbulent European public opinion continued to be heated. On April 1879, , two days after the Wehrmacht captured Rosario, the main force advanced to the outskirts of Buenos Aires. At this time, countries interested in participating in the Argentine war also reached several agreements under the leadership of Britain.

First: Britain provided Brazil with a low-interest loan of 200 million pounds to support the Brazilian government's military expansion and preparation for war.

Second: According to the agreement, Britain sent 1 troops, Brazil sent 1000 troops, Italy sent 400 troops, Belgium sent troops, the Chilean Army was stationed in the country to deal with the threats from Peru and Bolivia, and the Navy dispatched two ironclad ships to cooperate with the British expeditionary fleet to blockade the coastal area of ​​La Plata.
Third: After the war, Britain supported Italy and Belgium in acquiring Kismayo and Congo as their colonies respectively, while Brazil and Chile obtained part of the territory from Argentina as compensation for sending troops.

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Thanks to classmate Zhong Xinyu for the 100-coin reward and support!
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(End of this chapter)