When Franz received the news that the Japanese army had launched a surprise attack on the Philippines, he nearly laughed out loud. Just as he was dozing off, someone had handed him a pillow.
Without a doubt, the Japanese had done Austria a huge favor this time. They had dragged the Spanish onto the battlefield for no reason at all. Now it was the French who would be feeling miserable.
No matter how far the Spanish Empire had declined, it was still one of the great powers. It was absolutely not the sort that would take a beating without striking back.
Even if the French claimed that Japan's surprise attack on the Philippines had nothing to do with them, the Spaniards would have to believe it first. After all, the Japanese army had been able to pass through the Philippine Sea only because Britain and France had vouched for them to the Spanish Government.
Without the prestige of Britain and France, the Japanese would not merely have been denied the right to dock and resupply—even passing through the Philippine Sea would have been impossible with Spanish approval.
There was no concept of the high seas in this era. The great powers were each more overbearing than the last, and their so-called territorial waters were all defined by themselves.
A native country like Japan had no say whatsoever.
If everything were laid out in the open, it would not have been easy for the Japanese to invade the Philippines. Landing troops alone could not be accomplished in a day or two, and there were no supply points along the way; every scrap of material would have to be transported from the homeland.
With Japan's current national strength, embarking on such a long and exhausting expedition would drag them to death within