The Empire and the Catholic League
In May 1939 the Carlist armies of King Xavier de Borbon-Parma of Spain finally captured the isle of Gibraltar from the remnants of the CNT-FAI. The Carlists reigned supreme having crushed both the old government and the anarcho-syndicalists. The Spanish Civil War was over.
As King Xavier began the work of swaying the loyalists to the former regime to his banner, and hunting down and imprisoning or executing anyone who had supported the CNT-FAI, he also began a diplomatic offensive to once again restore Spain to the status of one of the great players on the world stage.
During the civil war the Carlists had received aid, in the form of supplies, weapons and volunteers, from their brother Catholics in Portugal, Imperial France and, especially, the Italian Federation – which was at that time a theocratic state ruled by the Catholic Church and the Pope.
Before the civil war, Xavier had already persuaded these countries to form a Mediterranean economic block. The next logical step was to transform this economic partnership into a military alliance.
In month, Spanish diplomats arrived at the court of Emperor Napoleon IV and proposed a formal alliance.
This proposal split the government of the empire in two. While the diplomats were politely stalled, furious arguments raged within De Gaulle’s cabinet and the military high command.
On the one hand, many senior officers and diplomats, generally those who had lived through the Weltkrieg and the Communard Revolution, were outraged at a plan which would mean deserting their allies in the Entente and, especially, their fellow government-in-exile in Canada. Several spoke of it as the “height of dishonour” to abandon a faithful ally and petitioned the Emperor to reject the Spanish proposal.
On the other hand, Spain was closer to Imperial France, and shared a land border with the Commune. The Italian Federation, which was almost certain to enter alliance with Spain, also had a land border with the Commune. An alliance with both of these nations would offer a far better chance to retake the homeland than could be offered by Canada which, by virtue of the Atlantic Ocean being in the way, would struggle to even get ships to Europe – let alone participate in or aid the liberation of France.
On top of which, many officers and diplomats had become convinced that Canada and its British exiles simply couldn’t care less about the liberation of France – fixated on liberating Britain, they saw Imperial France as a third rate ally. And, while the Spanish were fellow Catholics, the British and the Canadians were Anglicans who had been more than happy to abandon France to humiliation when they signed the “Peace with Honour” at the end of the Weltkrieg.
The argument raged back and forth throughout the government and the Imperial Court until it was ended when De Gaulle made a direct intervention with the Emperor. After just a half hour private meeting, De Gaulle emerged to his cabinet and spoke the infamous line that he would come to repeat often in the years to come:
“France has no friends, only interests.”
The Spanish proposal was accepted and the Empire formally entered, along with Spain, Italy and Portugal, a new alliance which was to become known as the Catholic League.
However, within just a few days the Catholic League would suffer a dispute between Imperial France and Spain - the two countries which each saw themselves as the leading power of the alliance.
During the Spanish Civil War, the French Empire had occupied Spanish Morocco in order to wrest it from the hands of the Kingdom of Spain and the CNT-FAI. Now that the war was over, the Spanish wanted their African possessions back.
But, despite their decision to join the alliance, and their support of the Carlists during the Civil War, both the Napoleon IV and De Gaulle were united in their refusal to give up the territories. The Empire now controlled it and would incorporate it into French North Africa.
The Spanish were outraged at this theft, as they saw it, of Spanish territory and the resulting diplomatic spat significantly damaged relations between the two countries. Though forced to grudgingly accept the Imperial French annexation of Spanish Morocco as the price of holding the alliance together, King Xavier became to be wary of the French Empire and to see them as much as a rival as an ally. With Napoleon IV and De Gaulle the sentiment was mutual.
However, despite the tension, the Catholic League began planning for mutual defence and security. While Portugal and Spain moved the bulk of their armies to defensive positions along the border with Commune, and the Italian Federation split its armies between the borders with the Commune to the north and the Socialist Republic of Italy to the south, Imperial France moved the bulk of its military to bases along the Algerian coast and began the construction of a series of RADAR installations aimed at providing an early warning of any aerial attack by the Commune.
These military preparations by members of the Catholic League, including the restoration of the Spanish Inquisition to root out syndicalists and subversives throughout the Iberian peninsula (while Portugal was happy to allow the spread of the Inquisition within its borders, Imperial France remained uneasy at the proposal and instead stuck with the Imperial Gendarmerie), proved to be barely in time.
Ever since the Communal elections of 1936, the Commune had been mobilising ever more rapidly in preparation for conflict with the German Empire. In 1938 they had annexed the French-speaking Romandy region of Switzerland and had greatly expanded their military as more and more anti-“imperialist” rhetoric had appeared in the speeches of prominent figures in the Commune.
Whilst the causes of the Second Weltkrieg are well documented in numerous historical texts, suffice it to say here that popular anti-German sentiment in the Commune in the thirties was fuelled by a mixture of ideological opposition to an imperialist power, anger at the humiliation of the defeats of the Franco-Prussian War and the Weltkrieg, and desire to regain the lost territories of Alsace and Lorraine.
At half past eleven on July the 18th 1939 the French ambassador in Berlin presented an ultimatum to the German Chancellor: Alsace-Lorraine or war.
The Commune gave the German Empire twenty four hours to respond to the ultimatum. Kaiser Wilhelm II replied in less than twelve. At 11:00am, Central European Time, on the 19th of July, 1939, the Empire formally refused the ultimatum. By 11:30am the Internationale and the German-led Mitteleuropa were at war.
The Second Weltkrieg had begun.