I Became The Crown Prince Of The Mexican Empire - Chapter 95



Only Noblemtl

Mexican-French War (10)

‘How ironic.’

Many people gathered in London. The Orléans royal family, defeated by our Mexicans, who were driven out after the revolution. I, the crown prince of the Mexican Empire, the victorious nation. And the foreign minister of the French provisional government, who had succeeded in the revolution but lost the war and had come to beg for an end to the war.

Even the one who came as the Foreign Minister of the French Provisional Government was a member of parliament, Etienne Moreau.

‘He is a very cooperative person to our military intelligence unit’

I really wonder what his reaction would be if he found out that the man he thought was Lucien Dupont was actually Juan Ramirez, a spy for the Mexican Empire, but that can’t happen.

That’s why I knew the face of Juan Ramirez, who had done a great job this time, but I pretended not to know him.

Instead, he started talking in a tone that seemed genuinely surprised.

“A revolution before the war is even over? The French really love revolutions.”

This was really surprising. It was true that I had spent a lot of money through agents of the military intelligence unit to instigate the revolution, but the exact timing was set after the war. I didn’t know that it could happen so quickly.

‘Wouldn’t you think a revolution would break out right after losing the second game?’

It was a very quick and decisive victory, as it ended while I was crossing the Atlantic with the Mexican fleet. It was a revolutionary pace that was not strange for it to be called the country of revolution.

“Ahem. That’s our French situation, so I’d like to talk about ending the war here.”

Minister Etienne Moreau said with an uncomfortable tone.

“Okay, good. Prime Minister, please proceed.”

I handed the initiative over to the British Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, who had arranged this negotiation.

“Thank you, Your Majesty. Now, shall we begin the story?”

Unlike the anxious-looking French greetings, the Mexican and British greetings were relaxed.

“Wait a minute! Before that, I would like you to stop fighting while these negotiations are ongoing.”

Minister Etienne Moreau could not hide his impatience. It was wrong for him, a skilled politician, to show his emotions in these diplomatic negotiations, but he had every reason to be impatient, for at this very moment our Mexican fleet was destroying the French fleet that was repairing in the port of Brest.

Lord Melbourne, hearing Minister Moreau’s urgent proposal, asked me:

“Is everything alright, Your Majesty?”

He asked me for my opinion, although it would be better for us Mexicans to continue to destroy the French fleet without stopping.

Because we already have an agreement.

“If you give us a fair price for stopping the fighting in a situation where Mexico has an advantage, we will stop.”

“What amount do you mean by price?”

“Our Mexican Empire may not be able to conquer mainland France, but we can destroy the entire French Imperial fleet. That means we can blockade the ports. In return for stopping that, wouldn’t you have to give us half of the fleet that would have been destroyed?”

“Are you asking for half of the fleet currently remaining in France, only on the condition that we cease fighting for the duration of the negotiations?”

Congressman Moro asked as if it was absurd, but it was France that was disappointed.

“If you don’t like it, you can refuse. I don’t know how long this negotiation will take, though.”

Would you rather lose your entire remaining fleet, or hand half of it over to your enemy, Mexico, and save half of it?

In response to that question, Minister Moro made a decision surprisingly quickly.

“···Okay! I will accept it, so give me the order right now!”

It has only been a day since I arrived in England and the Mexican fleet began to attack the port of Brest. As expected of a military port, there will be coastal defenses, and they will be taking them out first, so if we stop now, most of the fleet will be saved.

“Oh, you are quick to act. We have a steamship on standby that can transmit messages at a very high speed, so the attack will be stopped within three hours.”

It was the same line that Juan, sitting right next to Senator Moro, used to send secret messages back to our home country in Mexico. As soon as I finished speaking, Diego gave instructions to the messenger to send the order to stop the attack.

“Good. It’s a very cooperative atmosphere from the start.”

As Lord Melbourne spoke, Minister Moreau spoke first.

“If you end the war here, I will completely nullify the debt that was the cause of the war, and I will cede the islands in the Caribbean to Mexico. And as we agreed earlier, I will also hand over half of the remaining fleet. What do you think?”

It was an absurd condition.

“You have no intention of ending the war. If that is the case, I will leave now.”

Even without attacking, the mere presence of the Mexican Empire’s fleet in the French seas was a tremendous burden to the provisional government.

“Okay, wait a minute···”

I left the room, leaving the embarrassed Minister Moro behind, and said that we would talk again the next day.

Time is on my side anyway.

***

Day 4 of negotiations.

“···It would have been better if you had told me all the conditions you wanted from the beginning.”

After reaching some sort of agreement, Rep. Moro spoke with a weary face.

“If that were the case, would you have listened to me obediently?”

“···that.”

“No, of course not. Then we would have had to argue until our mouths hurt. And in the end, it would have ended like this.”

I didn’t intend to engage in something like a marathon negotiation that would hurt my mouth.

I left the negotiation table after hearing their proposals, feeling that they were inadequate, and Lord Melbourne urged me to offer better terms if I was to make the deal work.

Four days passed like that. During that time, Representative Moreau communicated with the French provisional government and revised the conditions, and the results were as follows.

1. France must admit and apologize for invading Mexico under the pretext of a non-existent debt.

2. France will cede all its colonies in the Caribbean and America to Mexico.

3. France will cede all rights over Haiti to Mexico.

4. France will pay 35 million pesos in war reparations to Mexico.

5. France will cede half of its remaining fleet to Mexico.

There were five provisions in total.

“Anyway, is this okay?”

“There is one thing missing. We in Mexico would not have ended the war if Britain had not mediated. Since the negotiations were possible thanks to Britain, there must be a reward for the mediation.”

In contrast to the four days when Lord Melbourne had been urging Mexico to offer better terms, this time I was urging Britain to pay the price.

“···What about compensation?”

I added one clause without saying a word.

6. France would cede its African colonies to Britain as compensation for the arbitration.

The interpreter relayed what I had written in Spanish to Minister Moro.

“Ha, so it was all decided.”

He signed the treaty document, muttering in vain.

***

“It’s a victory!”

News of the victory struck the Mexican Empire.

Everyone in the Mexican Empire was thrilled by the news.

The Mexican Empire defeated France, which once made all of Europe tremble.

“Long live His Majesty the Emperor! Long live the Imperial House of Iturbide!”

National pride soared to the sky, and celebrations took place throughout the Mexican Empire, including in Mexico City.

“The people’s enthusiasm is amazing.”

The cheers and admiration of the citizens of Mexico City could be heard all the way to the Imperial Palace.

“Isn’t that so?”

My father said with a pleasant smile.

We are always so busy with work that it is hard to even find time to have a drink, but today we decided to have a cozy drink with my father.

“It’s true that the government had been preparing for this war for a long time, but the people didn’t know about it.”

When the news of France’s declaration of war was heard, there was a tense atmosphere throughout the Mexican Empire. When that worry and anxiety turned into joy at the victory, it was no wonder that the people were ecstatic.

“Yes. In that sense, it’s a bit of a shame that the election was held before the war ended.”

“It’s a bit disappointing, but I think it’s fortunate that the timing wasn’t the worst. The election was held right after we won the first round.”

The election took place in February 1840. The war was not over, but the first battle had been won, and it was known that France was again gathering its fleet.

The election results showed that the imperialists won 90 seats, the landlords won 53 seats, and the republicans won 58 seats.

Considering that in the last election the imperialists won 77 seats, the landowners won 61 seats, and the republicans won 63 seats, it was certainly a good result, but my father seemed disappointed.

“The result is not bad, but it is a bit disappointing because if the election were held now, the imperial faction would likely win a majority.”

It certainly seems possible that if elections were held right now, the imperialists could secure more than 101 seats.

“Well, I guess we can wait for the next election. There are variables, though.”

“Amending the Constitution will not be disadvantageous to us. Rather, it will be advantageous to us.”

“I’m looking forward to that too.”

It has been more than 15 years since the Constitution was enacted, and in that time the Mexican Empire has changed dramatically.

Immediately after independence, the weak government that had been an empire in name only but in reality barely controlled Mexico City and its surrounding areas now had a strong central government worthy of the name of an empire.

My father took a sip of his drink and said.

“201 seats is too small now. 12 years is too short.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Didn’t the Republic of Korea in its previous life have 300 members of the National Assembly? Although the population is still smaller than that, the fact that our Mexican Empire, which has a territory more than 50 times larger, has only 201 members of the National Assembly seems too small.

‘Considering the size of the country, it would be right to move to a bicameral system in the future, but let’s think about that later.’

Given that each state is 200,000 to 300,000 square kilometers, and that California, New Mexico, and Texas are even larger, there may eventually be a need for representatives who represent the states beyond simple population proportions, but the need is not so great now.

‘The population is still too small.’

There is not much significance in dividing the upper and lower houses. So for now, we plan to maintain the unicameral system, but only adjust the number of seats.

“You said there would be 251, 301, or 351 seats?”

“yes.”

“Then I think it would be better to have 301 seats. 251 seats are too few, and 351 seats are still too many.”

“Yes, I thought that was about right.”

I also plan to ease term limits for lawmakers, but the reason I initially suggested to my father that lawmakers serve a maximum of three terms, a total of 12 years, was because I was worried that if many people start to serve six, seven, eight, or even nine terms, like in South Korea, politics would become stagnant.

The problem is that my judgment that 12 years would be long enough turned out to be shorter than I thought. All the members who were elected in the first election have stepped down, and even the young member Robert is in his third term, so this is his last.

After gathering opinions from several lawmakers, it was decided to change the term to 5 terms, or a maximum of 20 years.

“Yes, the constitutional amendment issue has already been discussed a lot, so there is no need to talk about it further. This time, you are thinking of sending agents from the military intelligence unit to Haiti?”

“Yes. Since I have experience in instigating revolution in France, I think it will go as planned.”

The debt that France owes Haiti is 150 million francs. Haiti borrowed and borrowed to reduce it to 90 million francs, but there is no way Haiti can repay that ridiculous amount.

In its previous life, Haiti had to pay 80% of its national budget to France for 120 years, but was unable to repay it. It was only in 1947 that the debt was forgiven thanks to American intervention.

Naturally, Haiti remains one of the poorest countries in the world and continues to suffer, but as I recall, not long after, the Dominican Republic to the east, which had been a Spanish colony, revolted and broke away.

The breakaway Dominican Republic is better off than Haiti, but it remains politically chaotic, with 50 presidents in 90 years, and its people suffering greatly during that time.

‘In that case, wouldn’t it be better for us to become part of Mexico?’

It’s not a colony.

Just like Cuba, which is currently building a large-scale railway network that circles the entire island, we will develop it as a part of Mexico and make its people prosperous. It is located right next to Cuba.

Hispaniola is a truly fascinating island. In terms of area, it is the second largest in the Caribbean after Cuba, and it has a long history of French and Spanish plantations, with a population of hundreds of thousands of people.

Wouldn’t it be great if our Mexican Empire had it, as it would also give us greater control over the Caribbean Sea?

France and some local power holders might not like it, but other than that it’s a good thing for both of us.

My father approved my plan, and agents who had gained experience with Juan Ramirez in France were dispatched to Haiti.