"Your Highness, the Spanish government has now revealed to us its intention to seek peace talks with the United States. They have completely lost the confidence to keep fighting. This war is about to end." Hermann reported the intelligence obtained by the Foreign Ministry to Ernst.
In the Spanish-American War, Spain had been the side passively taking blows from the start. After its colonial navy was wiped out, it had completely lain flat.
And East Africa and France, which had stood on Spain's side before the war, naturally became Spain's preferred mediators.
"For this sort of thing, we just need to follow France's lead. I think France can secure the best possible terms for Spain."
And that was indeed the case. In his previous life, without French mediation, Spain would only have lost even more miserably.
Still, Ernst was generally in a good mood. Although Spain had been defeated, it had taught the United States a lesson: even the bottom line of a great power like Spain could cause the United States trouble, much less naval powers like Britain and France, which showed not the slightest sign of decline and still had plenty of room for naval improvement.
Although every country now appeared to be moving toward a "High Seas Fleet," in reality, none had squeezed out its final potential. To bring out that potential would require at least a world-class war.
November 2, 1898.
Paris, France.
With France serving as host, diplomats from Spain and the United States gathered in Paris to wrap up the Spanish-American War. Lawrence, East Africa's ambassador to France, also attended the mediation conference.
After the war broke out, relations between the United States and Spain had already plunged to freezing point. With Spain's defeat, public hostility toward the United States within Spain had now