"We will cancel Germany's preferential country status at the end of the year, agree with Portugal and France to jointly develop Guinea's resources, and have no objection to our contact with Iberian countries for military cooperation.
Poincaré, it seems that the Portuguese Empire is still leaning towards our Allied Powers, and is very fond of our Democratic-Republican Party."
The new prime minister, the national Republican Bardo, said this to his party friend Raymond Poingaré.
Barthou, whose full name is Jean-Louis Barthou (1862-1934), has served as French Prime Minister and Minister of War. He has successively served as Minister of Public Works, Minister of the Interior, Minister of Justice and other positions.
Bardo, a national republican, was born in Oluon-Saint-Marie, France. He initially worked as a lawyer and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1889.
After entering politics, Bardo successively served as Minister of Public Works, Minister of the Interior, Minister of Justice, etc. In 1913, he was appointed Prime Minister of the Cabinet. During his term, the three-year compulsory military service law was passed. In 1917, he was appointed Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and after the war, he was a senator. In 1922
——In 1934, Bardo successively served as Chairman of the Reparations Commission, Minister of Justice, and Minister of War.
As a Democratic-Republican, Bardo had always supported the party's Raymond Poincarais in his hard-line policy toward Germany before and after the war.
After World War I, Bardoux advocated the establishment of the Little Entente in Eastern Europe to consolidate France's position in Europe.
After Hitler came to power, Bardo changed his previous attitude of hostility to the Soviet Union and advocated uniting European countries, including the Soviet Union, to establish a collective security system to jointly curb the expansion of fascist Germany.
In 1934, Bardo served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, supported the Soviet Union's entry into the League of Nations, and proposed the conclusion of the "Oriental Locarno Convention" and the Franco-Soviet "Bilateral Treaty." In 1934, he and King Alexander I of Yugoslavia were assassinated in Marseille at the same time.
Louis Bardo originally served as prime minister briefly from March 22, 1913 to December 9, 1913, but history changed slightly and he came to power early.
On March 7, Portugal's official newspaper "Union de Portugal" reported information about the existence of huge and excellent reserves of iron ore in Portugal's Guinea colony.
This news reached France and immediately caused the French cabinet to fall.
Because of the failure of the national policy of the previous cabinet, Aristide Briand, the moderate left-wing leader and founder of the French Socialist Party, who had served as prime minister many times in history, was implicated and ended his second term early.
Although his second term was not long, it lasted from January 21, 1913 to March 22, 1913, a total of three months.
The French political world is always so chaotic. Someone comes to power again and again. Temporary stepping down does not mean permanent.
In the turbulent French political scene, Aristide Briand formed the cabinet 11 times and served as minister 15 times. Bardot's friend Raymond Poincaré also made no concessions and came to power many times.
.
"Indeed, Portugal does have a more favorable impression of France than Germany, and is also optimistic about the Allies organized by France.
The Emperor of Portugal, Pedro III, seems to have a good impression of our Democratic-Republican Party. During the cabinet period when our Democratic-Republican Party came to power, Portugal was more willing to actively communicate with France than before."
Poincaré looked at the news of Portuguese negotiations from Jean Bell, and he saw the prelude of Portugal leading to France.
The cancellation of Germany's preferential country status is obviously to open up relations with Germany and reduce the intensity of economic and trade exchanges between the two countries.
Agreeing to jointly develop Guinea's iron ore was something Brian could not ask for, and when the Democratic-Republican Party came to power, Portugal actually relented.
At the beginning, Briand of the Socialist Party humbly sought to jointly develop Guinea's iron ore. As a result, Portugal directly announced that it would not develop Guinea's iron ore and declared the iron ore here as a reserve resource.
It does not exclude France from contacting the Iberian League countries, but it implies that Portugal does not object to its allies joining the Entente. They are optimistic about the Entente led by France.
If you don’t know, Portugal regards the Iberian Peninsula as its own sphere of influence and has always excluded other countries from entering. The United States’ previous attempt to enter directly caused Portugal’s backlash.
The Portuguese Empire announced that it would not recognize the special status of the United States in Cuba or the Cuban government supported by the United States. It directly cut off diplomacy with Cuba and used the Dominican Republic as a base to blatantly mobilize Cuban progressives to expel American forces.
On the issue of the Iberian Peninsula, Portugal was quite gentle towards France.
After the Spanish-Portuguese War, Portugal fulfilled its promise to the royal family of Poincaré and Orleans, and really only dominated the Navarre military power in the Kingdom of Navarre.
After Portugal determined the unified guidance of the military alliance with the Iberian countries, France's entry into all areas of the Kingdom of Navana was not hindered.
Now, Portugal has allowed France to contact the countries of the Iberian Peninsula for military cooperation. This is too suggestive.
"Pouengale, I want to exchange Madagascar for our French development rights in Guinea. What do you think?" Bardo asked his friend's opinion.
Puengale said without hesitation: "I agree, of course I agree.
Portugal has agreed, and we in France can develop everything in Guinea with them, and our French funds are welcome to enter.
Guinea not only has a conservative estimate of more than 5 billion tons of high-quality iron ore, but also rich bauxite. The current exploration volume of 30 billion tons ranks first in the world. Even gold mines and diamonds have been discovered in large quantities. The reserves are respectively
1,000 tons, 300 million carats.
Oh my God! France actually lost such a treasure, and why didn’t the French properly explore this place when they got it?
Portugal has also reminded us through actions that France should not always focus on North Africa. Southeast Asia, East Asia, and sub-Saharan Black Africa are also worthy of development. They must explore carefully and don’t always simply plunder agricultural and animal husbandry products.”
In order to avoid colonial conflicts, France easily lost the disputed territory of Guinea, and now it regrets it.
"French Guinea should not have been thrown to the Portuguese in the first place." Bardo said regretfully.
"Don't be so frustrated, letting him go is not necessarily a bad thing.
Portuguese people have been calling for the recapture of lost African colonies, and they have always been worried about the lost Guinea, Congo, and pink map areas.
Portugal may have known that there were mines in these places for a long time, but they did not carefully check the reserves.
Portugal used to have a bad habit of hiding things because it was a small and weak country, and they were afraid that others would snatch their precious land.
Now that Portugal is strong and straight, they can loudly show off their wealth."
Poincaré is quite open-minded. He can now be said to be France's expert on Portugal. Since the unification of Portugal, he has been interested in studying Portugal.
"We in France just lost Guinea, which we got from Portugal for free. The key is to prevent Portugal from leading to Germany.
Look at our old rival Britain. Didn't it also return half of the pink map territory in order to prevent Portugal from leading Germany so that Germany could obtain huge economic benefits and mineral resources from Portugal?
Now, isn’t Portugal drawing closer to Germany? This is because Germany is not Portugal’s only choice.”
Bardu still believed in Poonjalai's words. He always believed that his friend was the most visionary and decision-making person in the party.
However, Baldu still hesitated.
"Should we explore the mineral deposits in Madagascar and give them away easily, we may repeat the mistakes of Guinea."
Poonjalai firmly opposed Baldu's proposal. If you want to do it, do it resolutely and don't procrastinate.
"Don't explore. Portugal has plenty of resources. If they know that France has given up the promised conditions because of some mineral deposits, it will make it more difficult for us to cooperate with Portugal in the future.
Didn’t Portugal say that the colonies that France trades to Portugal can be jointly developed in the future, and we, France, can take 50% of the interests.
Portugal's credibility is still good, and they have not violated their commitments to France so far.
Besides, if we discover some rich resources in Madagascar, will the people let us give it up if they know about it?
Our French citizens are always so short-sighted, careless, and unable to think about the country.
Why was Germany able to defeat France? It kept suppressing us after the Franco-Prussian War? It was because of the gap between its citizens.
If it weren't for France, which broke out two conflicts with Germany over Morocco, which left a deep impression on the French people about this place, I would even give this place to Portugal.
Portugal was the first to conquer Morocco in Europe, and even the king died there, resulting in the country being annexed by Spain for a long time.
This area is of little use to us in France now. We are not Italy, we are a country on the two seas and have convenient external transportation.
Morocco's mineral deposits are far less rich than those of Algeria. It would not be a loss to exchange them for Portugal to join the Allies. Unfortunately, the French people may not be able to accept this decision.
This is especially true when Portugal has not explicitly joined the Entente."
This chapter has been completed!