Rise of Australia

Chapter 963: Siege of Madrid

Regardless of whether Patricia came or not, Arthur already had the answer in his heart as to whether to help the Swedish royal family consolidate the throne.

But if one could gain the favor of Gustav VI and the entire Swedish royal family, the deal would undoubtedly become more cost-effective.

If you think about it carefully, if you include Sweden, Arthur has already won over two of the three Nordic countries, which is very important for the strategic layout of the entire Mediterranean region.

After all, Australasia is competing for world hegemony after the war, so the support of these countries is relatively important.

As long as Australasia builds military bases and deploys missiles in Sweden and Finland, Australasia's nuclear deterrence can be expanded to most of Europe, and it can also influence the entire Nordic and Central and Eastern European regions through Finland and Sweden.

What's more, Sweden has rich iron ore resources, and its overall strategic value is the highest among the three Nordic countries.

Although Arthur was ready to support the Swedish royal family, the interests and demands he would demand would not be reduced at all.

During the talks with Crown Prince Gustav, the Australasian government put forward requirements such as signing a trade treaty between Sweden and Australasia and deepening military cooperation.

What else could Crown Prince Gustav do?

In order to save the Swedish royal family, Crown Prince Gustav had no other choice at this time.

Of course, the British might be able to keep them, but the British appetite is bigger than that of Australasia, and because they are not related to the British, the British may not help them.

After all, the current Swedish King Gustav V clearly supports Germany. In addition, the princess comes from the German aristocracy, which is completely opposite to the British royal family.

On June 1938, 6, the Australasian Military Intelligence Agency intercepted a top-secret telegram, the content of which alarmed the entire Military Intelligence Agency.

Because the content of the telegram was very simple, so simple that it only contained one sentence, which was that the Irish incitement had been successful.

This telegram came from Germany, which means that the Germans are infiltrating the British and Irish regions.

Speaking of Ireland, the relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom is still quite complicated.

Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom and had no autonomous military powers.

But Ireland also has a government, parliament and national departments, making it a country within a country.

The current situation is closely related to the previous Irish Civil War.

Although Ireland was prevented from gaining independence with the help of Australasia, the British obviously did not have the power to completely suppress Ireland.

In other words, Ireland's resistance to Britain had already taken shape, and unless a huge price was paid, it would be impossible for Britain to turn Ireland back into an ordinary administrative region.

It can be said that Ireland now has independent control over all functions of a country except diplomacy and the military.

Coupled with the history of Britain and Ireland, the Irish people's pursuit of independence has never stopped, but it has moved from the open to underground.

When this intelligence was intercepted, the Australasian Military Intelligence Agency had already basically understood the German's action objectives, which were to incite Ireland to regain independence and create some trouble for the British within the country.

It has to be admitted that such a plan could indeed cause considerable trouble to the UK.

As an important part of the British Isles, Ireland is undoubtedly important to the United Kingdom.

If Ireland was lost, the British Empire would lose an important grain-producing region as well as millions of Irish people.

But if the British Empire forcibly suppressed it, Ireland, which was right at its doorstep, would become a stumbling block for the British Empire and would cause trouble for the British government from time to time.

When Arthur learned of this intelligence, he still had some thoughts in his mind. Although Britain was an ally of Australasia, Arthur did not intend to help Britain in Ireland.

The Irish's pursuit of independence will cause considerable trouble to the British, and will further weaken the British's overall national strength.

Let me ask you, if the British cannot even control Ireland, which is right next to their own country, how can they manage their colonies thousands of kilometers away overseas?
Once the stable colonial system collapsed, the glory of the British Empire would be gone forever.

This is also the biggest problem of the colonial empire, that is, the strength of the entire country is very dependent on the transfusion of colonies, and colonies are crucial to the strength of the country.

Although colonial empires are also very powerful, countries that rely on colonies to become superpowers have more disadvantages compared to those countries that can create superpowers on their own soil.

After receiving the intelligence, Arthur immediately ordered the Military Intelligence Agency to pay attention to the actions of the Germans, but not to contact the British for the time being.

Anyway, the intelligence cooperation between Britain, France and Australia is only to prevent Russian infiltration, but there is no mention of close cooperation in intelligence about the Germans.

The Irish problem has actually exposed the biggest flaw of colonial empires such as Britain and France. Especially at a time when freedom and democratic ideas have gradually risen, such flaws will become more and more fatal.

This is exactly why Arthur was not worried about the post-war struggle with Britain for world hegemony. As long as Arthur wanted, it would be very easy to dismantle the colonial system.

Because in those colonies of the British Empire that had already become established, the public opinion within them had gradually been moving towards independence.

This is human nature. If they continue to be colonies, all resources and materials will be given priority to the mainland, which is very unfair to the population of the colonies.

It is often not the colonial government that leads to the independence of the colonies, but the large number of immigrants who go to the colonies.

Arthur understood this, so he decided to localize all the colonies instead of strengthening control.

But at this time, Britain and France no longer had the option of localizing their colonies. Their colonies were too far away from their homeland, and the time and effort required for localization were several times that of Australasia.

It takes decades to completely localize a colony. For a country like Britain, where colonies are thousands or even tens of thousands of kilometers apart, localization takes at least several decades.

But based on historical experience, the colonial system may not be able to last for decades.

India, which was constantly seeking independence, was enough to give the British a headache. Add to that important colonies such as South Africa and Canada, and the British's mission was no longer to localize the colonies, but to maintain the British Empire's colonial system for a longer period of time.

As long as the colonial system existed, the British Empire remained one of the most powerful countries in Europe.

But once the colonial system collapsed, especially after losing the most important region like India, Britain's strength would plummet, and even the powerful Royal Fleet could not be maintained. This is how it is in later generations. People only heard about the invincible aircraft carrier battle group of the United States, but who has ever heard of the Royal Fleet of the British Empire?
After losing the transfusion from the colonies, considering the small size of the British mainland, it is already quite good to be able to maintain the status of an upper-middle power.

Where is the British people's attention at this time?
Of course, it was on the Spanish battlefield where the advancement was very fast.

At this time, Spain finally experienced what the Germans felt. Being attacked from both the north and the south, Spain seemed to have seen the end of the world coming.

Large numbers of French troops advanced from both sides of the Pyrenees to the east and west coasts of Spain.

Barcelona and the Basque region were successively occupied by the French, and the war also spread to the Aragon and Navarre regions further south.

The British and Australasia offensive was launched from Gibraltar. The British, who experienced the backdoor for the first time, were like a fish in water. They successively captured Malaga, Granada and Almeria and took control of the Granada region in southern Spain.

The Australasian army mainly attacked Cadiz and Seville in the west and pushed the front line to the border between Spain and Portugal.

Portugal was able to endure it. Even though its neighbors had been torn apart by Britain, France and Australia, Portugal still had no intention of joining the war.

This is somewhat similar to Portugal in history, which, together with its neighbor Spain, watched the development of the European situation and successfully avoided the outbreak of war in Portugal.

However, it was no longer important whether Portugal joined the war. For Britain, France and Australia, there was no need for Portugal to join in to share a piece of the pie.

Faced with the attack of the Triple Alliance, the Spanish army retreated extremely quickly, much more decisively than the Spanish Civil War a few years ago.

Spain is also a multi-ethnic country. Although Spain's unity is more stable, it also has many domestic problems.

A big part of the reason why Spain can maintain a stable rule as a country is because the Spanish, the main ethnic group in Spain, are located in the center of the entire country and can radiate to the surrounding areas of Spain at any time.

If you try to think of Spain as a square, you will be surprised to find that Madrid, the capital of Spain, is located in the center of the country.

Most of the people in the area around Madrid are Spanish, and thanks to this ethnic distribution, Spain's unity has been maintained for such a long time.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was also a multi-ethnic country, was different. As the name suggests, the main ethnic groups in the Austro-Hungarian Empire were Austrians and Hungarians.

But in fact, the only ethnic group that can truly serve as the core is the Austrians, who can also be called South Germans.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the South German people were located in Austria, which was located in the northwest of the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This made it difficult for the Austrian region to radiate its influence to Hungary. Hungary had too much say in the entire empire, which eventually led to the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Now, after Britain, France and Australia launched an attack on Spain, Spain's internal rule has become less stable.

The French-occupied Barcelona region is already discussing independence, and there are also many organizations in the Basque and Navarre regions in the north seeking independence so that they can have greater voice and power.

This is actually related to the history of Spain. The establishment of Spain was very short-lived. Before that, there were many Catholic countries on Spanish soil, such as Navarra, Aragon, Barcelona, ​​Galicia, Asturias and Leon.

Spain's predecessor, Castile, annexed these countries in the course of history and eventually unified them into the present-day Spain.

However, because Spain has a relatively short history, many ethnic groups do not recognize themselves as Spanish and do not have a high sense of identification with the Spanish government in Madrid.

This is also the reason why Spain did not revive as a powerful country in continental Europe. If there is no strong ruler who can gain the trust of all Spaniards, the fragmentation of Spain will never be integrated.

Perhaps in the next few decades or even hundreds of years, the Spanish people will recognize themselves as glorious Spaniards. But that is already a long time in the future, and for the current Spanish government, it is something that is within reach but out of reach.

Spain's population is not large, so naturally the number of troops they can arm is not large.

In order to cooperate with the previous German and Italian attacks on France's North African colonies, Spain deployed as many as 30 troops in North Africa, which was nearly half of Spain's previous army.

Although part of the army has been mobilized, the total number of all Spanish troops on the Iberian Peninsula is only a little over 50.

Obviously, this size of army is insignificant to Britain, France and Australia, and is far inferior to real powers like Italy which has already surrendered.

These 50 troops had to be dispersed to defend the vast Spain, and the number of Spanish troops defending in various places was pitifully small.

This is also the reason why the British, French and Australian troops were able to quickly capture Spanish cities with great momentum.

As the most core region of Spain, the Spanish government has deployed more than 25 troops around Madrid, which is half of Spain’s current troops in the Iberian region.

Unfortunately, 25 troops were not even enough to form a French army group, while France sent as many as two army groups to attack Spain.

Adding the number of troops from Britain and Australasia, the number of troops between the Central Powers and the Allied Powers on the Iberian Peninsula was already four times greater.

The Spanish army was not a particularly strong army. Facing an enemy that was four times its size, the most the Spanish army did was retreat and surrender.

In July 1938, the Australasian Army moved north and captured Badajoz, Cordoba and Ciudad Real, before pushing the front to Toledo, south of Madrid.

The British were not to be outdone. After controlling the entire Granada region, part of the British army continued to advance northeast, attacking the Murcia and Valencia regions.

Another part of the British army chose to go north to join the Australasian army and attack the Spanish capital of Madrid.

The French army was the largest in number and their attack plan was much larger.

After occupying the Aragon region, the French troops there chose to move south to Guadalajara, and further west is the Madrid region.

French troops in the Basque and Navarre regions chose to go to Burgos and Asturias.

Judging from the map, the British, French and Australian troops have gradually begun to surround Madrid and are shrinking the encirclement step by step.

This was the most fatal thing for Spain, but although they knew it, they had no way to deal with it.

(End of this chapter)