Although they had just recovered from the domestic civil war and lost a lot of their effective forces in the Franco-Prussian War. In fact, many overseas colonies also lost a lot of property, but they successfully established another new colonial empire. During the Sino-French War,
After that, France began to comprehensively consolidate its colonial rule in Southeast Asia.
In order to ensure this, the French organization established the French Indochina regime. Later, in order to balance the British, France began to expand its influence in the North African continent, sending troops to control Tunisia and Libya, and then quickly established a sphere of influence in the region.
, and in Central Africa, France has directly extended its hands to Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Niger, Chad, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo.
It seems that it is preparing to directly bring these areas under its complete control, as well as the narrow coast of East Africa around Djibouti. At the same time, France has established a new colony in the South Pacific, including New Caledonia.
Asia, the islands in French Polynesia and the New Sea Breed Islands, that is, this huge colonial empire, rose to prominence during the First World War and finally reached its peak.
France successively took over all the territory of the former Ottoman Turkish Empire, including Cameroon and Togo owned by Germany, which increased the territory of the French Empire again. Later, with the French Empire having high colonial morale, it also established the French Empire in West Africa.
In the West African base area, according to the past history that Li Ningyu knew, this huge colonial empire lasted until after the end of World War II.
The French colonial empire was gradually completely disintegrated, and most of its overseas colonies were occupied by other countries (for example, Japan occupied Indochina, the United Kingdom occupied Syria, Lebanon, and Madagascar, and the United Kingdom and the United States jointly occupied Morocco and Algeria.
Germany robbed Tunisia) but soon after, de Gaulle re-established his regime and took control of these places again.
According to the intelligence summary of the European branch of the Far East Intelligence Group, the total tonnage data of the French naval fleet battle order at this time was approximately 580,000 tons, including a total of approximately 61 ironclad battleships, battleships and cruisers, with a tonnage of 380,000, and 102 non-ironclad ships.
There are 176,000 tons of boats and 194 small torpedo boats of 27,000 tons.
Also, according to the latest construction plan of the French Navy, within ten years from 1890 to 1899, the French Navy will experience a new climax of building battleships. In the ten years, it is expected to build 36 new battleships with a tonnage of 440,000 tons.
, 44 armored cruisers with a tonnage of 250,000 tons, 2 coastal defense battleships, 23 escort cruisers, 44 gunboats (boats), 69 destroyers, 123 torpedo boats, and 13 small submarines.
According to this construction plan, the French navy will have a total of 480 ships of various types in the future, with a total displacement of 1.67 million tons, which is about 1.3 times the total tonnage of the current British navy, but will be 1.1 times the size of the navies of Germany, Russia, and the United States.
times, even three times as much as the current Far East.
According to the division of the French naval fleet, the standing navy fleet is divided into: Mediterranean Fleet, with the port of Toulon in the mainland as its base; High Seas Fleet, with Brest as its base, etc. The warships of the two fleets are better armored.
Artillery has strong offensive capabilities and is the main defense force of the French Navy.
In addition, there are three fleets, which should not be underestimated. They are the Pacific Fleet, the Indian Ocean Fleet and the Asian Fleet. The average tonnage of combat ships is about 150,000 tons.
At this time, Li Ningyu knew clearly in his heart that if the Far East formed an absolute confrontation with France, it would first face an important problem, that is, in the face of France's powerful maritime fleet, the Far East must strike first in order to destroy France's maritime power.
Possible, but even so, if France declares full-scale war on the Far East, and the Far East wins a tragic victory in the end, then the other countries will definitely pounce on the Far East and tear the newly formed Far East into pieces in an instant.
Moreover, the Far East in the African region does not have a maritime force that can compete with the French large fleet at this time. Currently, all the main fleets in the Far East are deployed in the waters of Asia and the American Pacific region to protect the Far East in Asia and the Pacific.
Map of the Pacific region.
At this time, Li Ningyu, what can he do and how should he make a choice?
In fact, Li Ningyu has also thought about a question, that is, to use the help of the British. After all, the current British naval strength, whether it is the total tonnage of the warships or the combat strength of the ships, is stronger than the French fleet, and the total tonnage is even more.
It was twice as much, but Li Ningyu also knew that Britain would definitely refuse, because although the British hoped that the Far East could comprehensively check and balance the development of the French Empire in Africa.
However, they are still allies, so they will never personally help the Far East. At most, they will only support the Far East mentally.
Therefore, in Africa, the war between the Far East and France cannot be fully launched for a while. At least Li Ningyu will not be stupid enough to use his own disadvantages to defeat others' advantages. However, the main advantage of the Far East is that in Asia, it has already controlled
There are several important sea areas, namely the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea, and the South China Sea.
It can be said that all the major transportation routes in the Asian waters at this time are under Li Ningyu's control. At the same time, there are six well-equipped field armies stationed there, with a total number of 900,000. They are well-equipped, well-trained, and capable of fighting.
Shou.
At the same time, according to Li Ningyu’s recollection of the knowledge he learned in the military academy, there will still be several important wars at the end of the 19th century, namely the war between Greece and Turkey in 1897, and the United States launching a war against Spain in Asia in 1898.
, the Second Boer War in Africa in 1899, the Thousand Days War in America in 1899, the Philippine-American War and the Boxer Rebellion.
In fact, France has many colonies in Asia, such as Djibouti, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, French India, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, etc. Yunnan, Hainan, and Guangdong and Guangxi are also the main sphere of influence of France. It can be said that
France is second only to Britain in Asia, so France has deployed a total of two fleets and 500,000 army soldiers in Asia to ensure and consolidate France's position in Asia.
However, with the sudden rise of the Far East in Asia in recent years, France has stagnated in Asia. In addition, the French deeply understand the bravery and proficiency of the Far East Army in their hearts, so they have not taken the initiative to make any big changes.
The action was just to unite Zonglianheng and other countries with power in Asia. They had already begun to exert all their strength to put pressure on the late Qing government and continuously expand their interests in China. But how could the greedy powers be satisfied with this?
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