Empire Rising: Spain

The differences within the French Government were quickly resolved, and the next day, the French Army sent a telegram back to the mainland, indicating that they had found traces of Italians in the central Tunisian city of Kairouan.

This telegram instantly sent chills down the spine of the French Government, and they immediately understood the intentions of the Italian Government.

The Italian Government was clearly making a false show of strength to cover their real intentions. Ostensibly, they were using some diplomatic protests and verbal threats to attract France’s attention, but in reality, they had long sent troops to compete with France for Tunisia.

Since the two countries hadn’t completely torn apart their relations, the French Army dared not take the initiative to attack the Italian troops.

Upon discovering traces of Italians in Kairouan, the French Army could only set their sights on the area west of Kairouan.

During a meeting of the French Cabinet, after careful consideration, Prime Minister Rufelli issued an order to the French Army stationed in Tunisia, directing them to head south with all their might to seize Tunisian land from the Italian troops.

Of course, while seizing the land, they should avoid conflict with the Italian troops as much as possible.

The tussle between the two nations over Tunisia could still be described as a diplomatic conflict, but should a conflict break out between the two militaries, it might very well evolve into a protracted war.

France certainly did not want to break out a war with Italy, and avoiding war was currently the most pressing concern for Prime Minister Rufelli.

The good news was that evidently, Italy did not want to start a war either.

Upon realizing the French troops were pulling back, the Italian Army tactfully refrained from advancing towards the French troops.

Both sides, with a mutual understanding, launched a competition over the Tunisian territory, naturally targeting the cities and other lands of Tunisia.

There was good news for France, which was that during the initiation of war, France had deployed two separate routes of armies; the southern troops advanced from the Algerian border city of Tebessa along the highway to the western Tunisian city of Gafsa and then arrived at the central Tunisian port of Ghabs.

The initial goal of the southern troops was to encircle Tunisia and cut off the Tunisians’ retreat towards Libya.

Unexpectedly, this maneuver backfired, instead blocking the Italians’ path of expansion to the south.

Regardless, the southern troops who were nearing Ghabs became extremely important. As long as the southern troops could take Ghabs, the Italian forces’ path for southern expansion would be completely blocked.

In this way, although Italy occupied many important cities including Kairouan, the majority of Tunisia’s land was in French hands, so France was not too disadvantaged.

Moreover, the land occupied by Italy would be surrounded by France on three sides, and whether this was a good or bad thing remained to be seen.

The competition for Tunisian territory between France and Italy was quite fierce, but Tunisia’s land was ultimately limited.

Military operations from both sides lasted about two and a half weeks and eventually ended with Tunisia’s territory being fully occupied.

Judging from the results both sides achieved, it was undoubtedly France that garnered the most gain. France not only occupied Tunis City, the capital of Tunisia, but also secured the central port of Ghabs, the western stronghold of Rudeyif, and Gafsa.

The land acquired by Italy was forcibly divided by France into two parts: the north, centered around Kairouan and Sfax, including the port city of Sousse and the coastal city of Mukning.

The southern part primarily included Jerba Island and some coastal areas near Libya, and they occupied Bourj el-Barajneh along the highway.

Beyond this point to the south was desert, and the Italian Army had not yet delved deeper, nor was there a need to do so for the time being.

All other Tunisian regions outside these areas were occupied by France, which had seized the most essential parts of Tunisia.

As mentioned before, Tunisia has 160,000 square kilometers of land, of which 90,000 square kilometers could potentially be cultivated as farmland or used for livestock.

Most of this land usable for farming or grazing is concentrated in northern Tunisia and coastal areas, with France occupying the lion’s share.

However, the area occupied by Italy was not small either, covering at least 50,000 square kilometers, and at least half of it could be cultivated into farmland or used for grazing, providing a significant supplement for Italy as well.

After both sides completed their occupation of Tunisia, the next step was the negotiations between France and Italy.

Whether to maintain the status quo based on each side’s actual occupation, or if one side will force the other to make concessions to solely occupy Tunisia, would depend on the outcome of the negotiations.

In distant Paris, Prime Minister Rufelli sighed. He hadn’t anticipated that his meticulous plans would ultimately lead to sitting at the negotiating table.

While France occupied a majority of the land, the failure to completely occupy Tunisia meant that France hadn’t achieved its strategic goal.

Italy occupied at least a third of Tunisia, which also meant that future colonial competition between France and Italy in the Tunisian region would be intense.

Although Rufelli’s scheme didn’t fail, the lack of complete success was not considered an accomplishment for Rufelli personally, and his political performance would bear a blemish.

Compared to Rufelli’s sigh, the expression of Italian Prime Minister Benedetto Caroli clearly looked much better.

At the very least, Italy had gained a portion of the land, which was sufficient to answer to the Italian populace.

More importantly, negotiations with France were upcoming. With the support of Spain, Italy might not necessarily fear France in the negotiations.

As long as they could hold their already occupied territories, and possibly take some from France, achieving a division of Tunisia was an outcome acceptable to the Italian Government.

After all, compared to having nothing, acquiring half of Tunisia was already a fairly favorable outcome.

Italy’s population was not too large, and developing half of Tunisia was just right. Of course, that depends on France’s willingness.

If France were to act unilaterally, Italy would find it challenging to acquire parts of the land held by France.

After the heated competition over Tunisian land, Carlo understood the Italian Government’s scheme.

However, Carlo did not stop the actions of the Italian Government. If colonial competition in Tunisia could divert France’s attention, that would be ideal.

Without Italy drawing France’s animosity, the French would quickly find that Spain was their fiercest colonial rival in Africa.

By then, the Franco-Spanish relationship would likely deteriorate rapidly, possibly becoming adversarial.

For Carlo, the reason for strongly supporting any actions of Italy in this incident was precisely to gain Italian returns in the future.

If Spain and France engaged in fierce colonial competition in West Africa, Spain would need Italy for diplomatic support, or even military support.

After all, Spain alone evidently couldn’t intimidate France. But if Spain and Italy joined forces, even one of Europe’s mighty powers would have to consider the consequences of being dragged into a quagmire of war.