The British Parliament has passed a bill to send additional land forces to Asia and the New World, and at the same time, the British Navy has drawn dozens of warships from its home fleet to the New World and Asia to reinforce the local sea forces.
The actions of the British attracted the attention of France and Spain, and in order to counter the arrogant British, Carlos IV of Spain gave the first order to expand the army, and the Spanish fleet was also gathered in the Strait of Gibraltar.
Gibraltar was originally a barren country, but because it is a strategic point at the throat of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, the only sea route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea is the Strait of Gibraltar.
In 1501, Gibraltar was annexed to Spain.
However, during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1703, Britain took a fancy to Gibraltar and sent troops to capture it, and in 1713, Spain formally ceded Gibraltar to Britain in the Anglo-Spanish Treaty.
Although the Anglo-Spanish Treaty gave the British legal possession of Gibraltar, successive Spanish kings since Philip V never gave up hope of regaining Gibraltar, and Carlos IV was naturally as unhappy as his father was for Gibraltar to be ruled by the British.
Gibraltar's geographical location is destined to its important position in international politics, the British have Gibraltar in their hands, and the Spanish navy cannot pose much threat to the British, after all, as long as 100 artillery pieces are deployed in Gibraltar, it is impossible for a ship to pass through the Strait of Gibraltar.
In this way, without the help of the Spanish Mediterranean Fleet, the Spanish Atlantic Fleet alone could not pose a threat to the British Atlantic Fleet.
Operations against the Spaniards.
The British government sent a diplomatic note to Spain, demanding that Spain immediately cease its hostile actions and overturn the proposal to buy French colonies, but Carlos IV ignored the British note.
Instead, he instructed the Spanish government to rebuke the British.
The colonial trade between France and Spain was an internal affair of both countries, in which the British had no right to interfere, and the British had no right to interfere in the expansion of Spain's military in order to protect the security of their territory.
The British were annoyed by the Spanish diplomatic note, and the British garrison in Gibraltar had been conducting retaliatory inspections of Spanish merchant ships between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean since the end of September, and part of the main force of the British Atlantic Fleet had been heading for Gibraltar.
The actions of the British caused unease among the Spaniards.
Carlos IV was arrogant, but he was also arrogant, and the present English could not be dealt with by his own strength.
Therefore, he sent a request for assistance to Louis XVI.
At this moment, although France was in turmoil due to the uprising of the revolutionaries, the royal family did not lose its right to rule the country, and although France had ushered in a period of weakness, its world's second-largest navy was not affected much.
Therefore, the French government has communicated with Spain many times.
It was decided to provide assistance to Spain.
But this assistance does not refer to the army, but to the navy.
The French navy will send 37 warships, including two first-class ships, to Spain, of course, these warships are not used for free, and Spain must pay France a lease fee, but it is still relatively cost-effective for Carlos IV to be able to exchange 200,000 pounds for a strong naval force.
After receiving the news of the transfer of the French navy, the British government began to negotiate intensively, although there had been a consensus in Britain that it was for the French colonies.
Britain did not hesitate to fight.
But now, when the atmosphere really reached the peak of tension, a part of the British government began to hesitate.
And it was at this time.
Ernst lost a duel with Karl in Brandenburg, but then returned to London with a retaliatory shooting against Karl, and although there is no definite evidence, Ernst is the first suspect in terms of motive and ability.
This news caused an uproar in Britain, and in the face of the Austrian ambassador who came to protest, the dignitaries of the British government had a headache in addition to constantly affirming Ernst's character and denying that Ernst had done it.
Although Austria also reached an agreement with the French to buy colonies, Austria did not have a strong naval force, so for the British, as long as France and Austria took those colonies before the formal colonial change operation, the Austrians would surely re-weigh them.
At present, there is already a lot of gunsmoke between the British and France and Spain, and in this situation the Ernst and Karl incident has undoubtedly put Britain in an extremely passive situation.
British Prime Minister Pitt Jr., who had just returned to London, immediately sent an envoy to Prussia after urgent discussions with George III, and the most important task of the envoy was to extract Ernst from the Karl shooting.
The British had a headache, and the Austrians were annoyed.
The assassination of Karl made Leopold II furious, and among these heirs of Leopold II, he was the most optimistic about Karl, Karl was intelligent, active and friendly, and more importantly, he had a good relationship with his siblings, which made Leopold II fully confident that Karl would be able to serve as the bond between the members of the Habsburgs and the pillar of the empire in the future.
But this son was now assassinated in Brandenburg, although Karl was not seriously injured, but according to the news from the Austrian ambassador, Karl had a long wound on his face, in other words, the heroic Karl was disfigured.
This made Leopold II how not to be angry.
In the Austrian court, it was not only Leopold II who was angry, as Karl's mother, Ludovica was even more angry than Leopold II.
Originally, Carl was very fond of Ludovica when he was a child, and then when Carl was a teenager, he was passed on to Duke Cheshin because of political needs, if it wasn't for the fact that Duke Cheshin was dying and Carl didn't need to go to Cheshin, Ludovica would never agree.
But even so, Ludovica felt a little more indebted to Karl.
Now that her sensible son had been assassinated and wounded, Ludovica was so angry that she rushed to Leopold II in defiance of the etiquette of being an empress, and demanded that the emperor arrange for Karl to be taken back to Vienna immediately, and at the same time sent a note to the Prussian government to catch the murderer.
In the face of Ludovica, Leopold II seemed quite helpless, the relationship between Leopold II and Ludovica can be said to be a model of an aristocratic couple, the two have been respectful of each other for decades after marriage, and the relationship has not wavered, but because of this, Ludovica does not express his opinion, and once it is published, he will definitely do his best to get Leopold II to agree.
But Leopold II had already learned the identity of the suspect in Karl's assassination, which forced him to be cautious in his decision.
Because of the Karl incident, the original-for-tat between Prussia and Austria was stopped, and even the two Prussian divisions deployed in the Warsaw area retreated more than a dozen miles.
After careful consideration, Leopold II finally made up his mind.
The biggest threat to Austria at the moment was Prussia, and this fact would not change by anything, and if the Prussians were to be on the other side, there was an important factor that had to be taken into account, and that was the British.
Although the alliance between England and Prussia seemed very strong, how could Leopold II, as the ruler of a country, not know that no alliance was indestructible.
And now, Karl is being assassinated on the streets of Brandenburg, and the biggest suspect is Prince Ernst of England.
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In the eyes of Leopold II, this was a miracle, an opportunity that could not break the Anglo-Pwit alliance, but it could cause cracks in the alliance.
Therefore, in this matter, Austria must put on a face of being a bitter debt collector, only in this way can the international community sympathize with Austria, and at the same time create the greatest pressure on Prussia.
Of course, Austria had to have evidence that Ernst was the mastermind of the shooting, and only with this evidence could the Prussians be forced to take a stand, and at the same time the British would have to compromise with Austria on certain issues.
Subsequently, Leopold sent a delegation headed by Austrian Foreign Minister Christophe, whose mission was to find hard evidence of the shooting and then exert maximum pressure on the Prussians.
Austrian Chancellor Kautz was supportive of Leopold II's idea, and he also saw it as an opportunity.
If the Prussians did not give an explanation to the Austrians, it would be a big joke in the world, and the Austrians could create public opinion all over the world to portray themselves as victims, which would be beneficial to the Austrian government in the future.
And if Prussia had insisted on punishing Ernst in principle, the British would certainly not have agreed, and if the Prussians insisted, there would inevitably be a rift in the Anglo-Prussian alliance, which would also be beneficial to Austria.
At the time of the departure of the Austrian mission, Elstner for the first time asked Makellen to allow Ernst to be questioned by the Prussian political and legal authorities on behalf of the Prussian government.
Of course, Elstner's request was rejected by Macklen, but to Macklen's surprise, the Prussians did not press, but Elsner's words were full of meaningful sentences.