"Portugal is too powerful, and it is too difficult for us in Uruguay to save ourselves and maintain independence." Jose Batlle Ordonez said sadly.
Portugal is now a great power, an authentic imperialist hegemony, while Uruguay is a standard small country with few people and little land. Without external assistance, resisting Portugal would be like a mantis trying to do nothing.
José Batlle Ordoñez picked up the phone on his desk and dialed the number connected to Foreign Minister Marcelo.
"Marcelo, what's going on with Argentina's parliament now? Has there been a decision to accept Uruguay and become a province of Argentina?"
Since the beginning of the war, Uruguay's main aid provider has been Argentina. With continuous aid from Argentina, Uruguay can persist on the front line of defense.
Uruguay and Argentina have a long history. They were both part of the Viceroyalty of La Plata. When the United Provinces of Argentina became independent, they planned to bring Uruguay with them, and Uruguay agreed.
However, at that time, Portugal and later Brazil had been eyeing Uruguay for a long time. They directly sent troops to Uruguay and posed a great threat to the newly independent United Provinces of Argentina. In order not to make enemies, Argentina sold Uruguay and became independent.
After independence, Argentina saw Uruguay's resistance to Brazilian rule, so it took up the idea of Uruguay. In the end, the two parties fought over Uruguay. Later, because of British intervention, Uruguay gained independent status.
Now that Uruguay has been invaded by force from the Portuguese again, and Uruguay did not receive substantial help from the United Kingdom this time, it is natural that the idea of merging into Argentina has arisen.
Rather than being ruled by Portugal, Uruguayans certainly want to be with Argentina, who share the same culture and race.
Shortly after the war began, Uruguayan President Jose Batlle Ordonez sized up the situation and submitted a bill to merge the two countries with Argentina.
In the merger law, the Uruguayan government is willing to become a province of Argentina, give up its independent country status, and is willing to submit to the Argentine government.
The provinces in Argentina actually have a lot of autonomy. After all, their predecessors were a number of United Provinces. Although Buenos Aires, as the center, has established its own central authority through various centralization methods, each province still maintains its own authority.
A great deal of independence.
Uruguay became a province of Argentina. In fact, it did not lose much, except that it had to pay taxes to Argentina regularly. Uruguay was still managed by local people, and the local councils elected their own people.
"Mr. President, the Argentine Parliament is still quarreling. Most members of the ruling party and some members of the opposition party agree with the merger plan, but there are still many members of the opposition party and some members of the ruling party who oppose the merger plan.
Now, the opposition has more power than the pro-Trump faction, and the Argentine president is trying to persuade more people to support the peace law, but there is not much progress, so the parliament is still bickering."
"Are the opponents still afraid that we will divert trouble to the east and drag Argentina into the war?" José Batlle Ordonez asked.
"Yes, Mr. President!" Joselo replied.
"Well, now the opposition has not only mentioned this point many times, but now there is also another point that they have raised as a main point.
They believe that they can increase their support and use Uruguay as Argentina's shield to drag Portugal into a protracted war and consume Portugal's national power. Therefore, they must not accept Uruguay's merger conditions. If they accept it, Portugal's anger will be tilted toward Argentina, and Argentina will
If it is involved in the war, Argentina will pay a heavy price and cannot be sacrificed because of Uruguay."
"What do these opposition parties think? Are they so afraid of Portugal? They have never thought that if Uruguay is gone, and they are only separated from Portugal by Uruguay and Portugal, the country's heart will fully expand towards Portugal.
Now if we accept Uruguay, Portugal will probably stop the war because it is concerned about the impact on the world, because the major powers in the world are not willing to let Portugal go to war with Argentina.
Argentina is the second most powerful country in South America, and it is also the country that the United Kingdom and the United States value most. In order to stop Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States will support Argentina at all costs.
Launching a war against Argentina, which has a vast territory and abundant resources, will be a great political test for Portugal. The Portuguese emperor has always emphasized economic development, and he will not take that risk."
José Batlle Ordoñez proposed the merger plan, of course with the intention of diverting disaster eastward, but more importantly, it wanted Portugal to stop the war and allow countries around the world to prevent Portugal from further expansion in South America.
Argentina's role in South America is undoubtedly very important. It also has close relations with European countries and provides Europe with a large amount of food and minerals.
If Portugal attacks and annexes Argentina, Portugal's growth in strength will be extremely terrifying, which is not good for anyone.
“The Argentine president has mentioned this many times, but the main force of opposition is the parliamentary representatives of the provinces bordering Argentina and Portugal.
These parliamentary representatives are very afraid of causing a war, and they are firmly opposed to our joining Argentina and are only willing to increase aid."
Argentina is a patchwork country, and the Caudillo MPs in the province bordering Brazil will certainly not accept Uruguay at the risk of offending Portugal.
Although what the president and the Uruguayan representatives said is very reasonable, if Portugal really launches a war against Argentina, the losses for these parliamentarians who border Argentina will be huge.
Don't be afraid of anything, just be afraid of ten thousand.
What's more, Portugal seems to have a disciplinary plan to deal with Argentina.
Since Uruguay proposed the merger plan, Portuguese public opinion has been that if Argentina dares to accept the merger, it will go to war.
In addition to public opposition, Portugal gathered troops to conduct large-scale exercises in the border areas. During the exercises, some artillery shells even fell into Argentina.
Portugal even told Argentina that two of their soldiers were missing during the exercise and asked Argentina's border provinces to help find them.
The patrol forces of Argentina's border provinces mobilized collectively and actually found the two soldiers from the Northern Military Region who were unfamiliar with the roads and disappeared into Argentina.
This chapter has been completed!