While the Japanese Government was still wavering, the Anglo-French negotiations had also reached a critical moment. Strategically cornered, the French no longer had the confidence to bargain and had no choice but to make major concessions to the British.
The negotiations were moving in Britain's favor—something that should have been gratifying—but Prime Minister Gladstone found himself unable to rejoice.
"Is the African theater truly beyond saving?"
Walk the night road too often, and sooner or later you will meet a ghost. Britain's long-standing policy of maintaining the European balance was now exposing its fatal flaw, and it was on the verge of collapse.
There was no helping it. Those swaggering Frenchmen had performed nowhere near as fiercely on the battlefield as they boasted in peacetime, causing the London Government to make a strategic misjudgment.
Whether he wished to accept it or not, Gladstone had to admit it: the once-invincible French army was gone. France without Napoleon had lost the strength to thrash the European Continent.
At this point in the war, the French army still could not break through on the European Continent, while on the African Continent it was being thrashed by Austria. The situation was growing ever more unfavorable for France.
"From a military standpoint, the fall of French Africa is merely a matter of time. The Austrians have already seized the strategic initiative.
"If the situation had not become irretrievable, those proud Frenchmen would never have bowed their heads to us so easily."
War Minister Rosario said mockingly.
Anglo-French relations had never been harmonious. For the British Army in particular, France was an eternal pain.
Had they not been driven out of Europe by the French, Britain would not have become a purely maritime power, nor would they have been reduced to serving as the navy's little