Chapter 86
Mexico-France War (1)
When news came that England had decided to go to war in the Opium War, I immediately went to my father's office.
"I thought it would happen someday, but it's faster than I expected."
"Yes, Your Highness. When England declared war on Afghanistan, they just let it go, but now they're going to war with Qing China, so France won't stand idly by."
"We've been preparing hard, but I thought we still had time…"
My father, who didn't know that the Opium War would happen, must have thought they still had time.
"France won't declare war immediately. It will take months for England's fleet to gather and reach Qing China, so they won't be able to move their fleet until then."
My father nodded at my words.
"That's right. So, can we say we have about half a year until the real fighting starts?"
"Yes, Your Highness. We'll have about that much time. And by then, we'll be ready to some extent."
My father nodded again.
"We've been preparing for a long time. We've been preparing slowly ever since France started openly extorting us."
We have a lot of preparations, besides the warships pouring out of our four shipyards.
'At least, we don't have to worry about internal and external threats happening at the same time.'
Usually, when a country collapses, internal and external threats happen at the same time, but I wasn't worried about the risk of internal threats.
The royalists' power has been growing stronger over time, and we've been able to coordinate both the landowners and the republicans stably. Besides that, many domestic risks have been eliminated.
"The domestic situation is stable, so we can focus on fighting France. It's different from France, where the people are extremely dissatisfied."
"Yeah. That's what I was going to say. Ordering the population census and also investigating security was a stroke of genius."
"Yes, Your Highness, but there were some unfortunate casualties because of it."
If it wasn't for the population census, there would be no pretext for the government to send people nationwide to investigate on a large scale. So I ordered them to investigate the security situation in detail, and incidents, big and small, broke out all over the country.
"Yeah. I didn't know that there were still so many reckless bastards out there, so it's unfortunate, but it's unavoidable."
Even though the central army and local armies had been cooperating to eliminate bandits and other criminal organizations since right after independence, there were still many left, according to the detailed investigation.
I didn't ask the investigators to request investigations, since they weren't professional investigators, but just to ask local residents about the security situation and criminal organizations.
'I never thought that there would be crazy people who would retaliate just for asking those questions.'
Some of the investigators, who were full of justice, dug into dangerous places and were retaliated against, but both were unacceptable.
"We've wiped out all the guys we identified in the last population census. There might still be some we haven't identified, but they're just petty criminals."
"Yeah, good job. Oh, by the way, how about the illegal immigrant issue from Colombia? It's been handled well, hasn't it?"
"Yes, Your Highness, as we decided last time, we only allowed immigration to those who were criminals and those who vowed to officially become citizens of the Mexican Empire. We've also set up an immigration office in border cities to prevent this from happening."
"I see."
My father nodded.
Both the crime and the recent border incident in the south, the population census was a great help. We've gained visibility over all regions of this vast Mexican Empire to some extent.
'With this, we can confidently say that the domestic situation is extremely stable.'
How many obstacles have there been until now? From the republicans who tried to overthrow the imperial family right after independence, to countless native tribes, to various bandits and criminal organizations that appeared like mushrooms after a rain during the war of independence, to the Americans in Texas and even the southern border. We've successfully overcome all of them.
"It's not like we've only been focusing on the internal situation. We're spending astronomical amounts of money on naval training and fleet expansion, aren't we?"
"Wouldn't we have to wait another year or two according to our plan?"
"That's true, but that was when we were considering the entire French fleet as our enemy. But the French won't bring all their ships at once. They can't even if they want to."
"It must be because of the colonies."
"Yes, their colonies are not in a stable situation, and they're trying to expand further, so they need to keep some of their fleet. If the opponent was England, they would do whatever it takes to gather all the fleets in the world, but they wouldn't rate us that highly."
It's still the early days of imperialism, but France has already expanded its colonies in Algeria, Senegal in Africa, and Indochina in Asia.
You can clearly feel that they're ignoring us, just by looking at the attitude of their diplomats. Those arrogant bastards wouldn't treat us the same as England.
"Yeah. So, it's up to us now."
We started preparing in earnest, even though the declaration of war hadn't arrived yet.
***
"Finally! Finally, the opportunity has come! Isn't that right, Gizo?"
"Yes, it's a definite opportunity."
Louis Philippe clapped his hands, forgetting about appearances, when he heard that the British Parliament had decided to go to war with Qing China.
"Those pirates are even going to war to sell drugs! As expected, they can't hide their filthy nature!"
"Hahaha, it will be recorded as the most disgraceful war in history."
One of his ministers chimed in.
"Okay, then, we'll finally be able to get our rightful debt of 35 million pesos, right?"
Louis Philippe asked in a greedy voice.
"Yes, Your Majesty. England won't be able to intervene this time."
"Good! And we'll be able to divert the attention of those riff-raff."
It was an opportunity that Louis Philippe and the French royalists couldn't miss. This was because the people who had praised him as the 'citizen king' when he first became king were gradually starting to rise up against him.
Those riff-raff didn't know their place and wanted more freedom, and they were claiming that the bourgeoisie was exploiting them.
It wasn't a serious problem yet, but he could feel that their dissatisfaction was growing. Louis Philippe had become king through a revolution, hadn't he? Even a king couldn't ignore that in a country of revolution. Many people had lost their heads, after all.
"Your Majesty, we'll proceed as planned."
"Okay. Proceed."
A plan was in place to divert the dissatisfaction of the working class outwards.
It was to claim that it was all Mexico's fault, using the media.
A huge debt of millions of francs. They had money to spare, and they had repaid their debts to England and the United States, but they were only refusing to pay France. This fact was indiscriminately spread through the media.
"What? The Mexican Empire? I've never heard of them."
"They've only been independent for 17 years? That's much later than the United States! It took that long to become independent from Spain, not England?"
"Exactly. They're just big, they're not even as good as Haiti. Those guys are refusing to pay our 7 million francs? And it's money we lent them for the war of independence?"
'Arrogant bastards.'
Newspaper articles that led people to think that way spread from Paris to major cities in France.
It didn't work on those who were knowledgeable about foreign affairs or those who understood the king's intentions, but it worked on many people.
Negative press articles about the Mexican Empire became increasingly harsh, and the French public's opinion of them was getting worse.
It took only three months for people to start saying that it was all because Mexico wasn't paying their debts, as the king intended. They had diverted dissatisfaction with the king and the government outwards, while also securing legitimacy for the war.
"Hahaha! It's working perfectly!"
Louis Philippe praised the minister who suggested this plan. He had wanted to implement it as soon as he heard the proposal, but if he did that and didn't start the war, it would only increase the people's dissatisfaction. France, wary of possible British intervention, had actually been wary of this debt spreading.
"I think we can declare war now without any problems."
Gizo advised that, and his advice was perfect for the king.
"Minister Schneider, prepare the fleet."
Louis Philippe ordered Antoine Virgile Schneider, the Minister of War.
He didn't even ask if they could win against Mexico, or even what their strength was.
A newly independent country, much weaker than the United States.
That's all Mexico was to France. They had won against Spain, but France knew best how messed up Spain's situation was at the time. It was just a lucky win.
Especially in terms of the navy, they had only recently started building ships in shipyards. There was no way that Mexico, a country like that, could be France's opponent.
"Yes, Your Majesty. I'll take the fleet and crush Mexico."
Minister Schneider didn't know the exact size of the Mexican Empire navy, but he answered the king's order immediately, as if it were obvious.
In July 1839, the Kingdom of France declared war on the Mexican Empire.
France didn't even urge the Mexican Empire to pay its debts again. They claimed that they had officially asked them to pay their debts before, but in reality, it was to make them pay a bigger price by going to war.
***
The Mexican Empire's imperial family, as expected, received a declaration of war from France.
"They would declare war without even issuing an ultimatum."
"They're reckless."
While the emperor and crown prince commented on that, most citizens of the Mexican Empire were shocked by the news of the declaration of war, and many people said that they should ask England for help.
"England won't help, will they?"
"But we should try."
The emperor thought it was pointless, but he asked, at the request of his ministers.
England flatly refused, saying they couldn't help, and the United States, without even being asked for help, sent a message saying they couldn't help and would remain neutral.
Even if they weren't at war, they wouldn't have fought France for the Mexican Empire. Now, with the pretext that they were already at war with two countries, there was no way they would help. But the news that England had refused to help was a shock to the Mexican Empire public.
"Is there any way to stop the French fleet when they come?"
Those with some status knew that the Mexican Empire's naval power was expanding rapidly, but most citizens only remembered that they had bought navy bonds and didn't know how strong it was.
When the people were anxious, the emperor went out to the square himself. It was his first direct speech in over a decade.
The Constitution Square was packed with tens of thousands of citizens, and the emperor opened his mouth.