The revolution in Spain and the establishment of a provisional government attracted the attention of many countries in Europe.
After the Spanish Parliament announced that it would not abolish the monarchy and would search for a new king, many countries adopted a wait-and-see attitude, while also wondering which lucky person would become the new Spanish monarch.
However, the French government soon stopped smiling.
According to news from Spain, among the many candidates for the Spanish throne, Prince Leopold of the House of Hohenzollern was at the forefront and was very likely to become the next King of Spain.
(There were several Prince Leopolds in Germany, i.e., Leopold. The candidate for the throne here is Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, not the one from Bavaria. Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern is the father of King Ferdinand I of Romania.)
This was deadly for the French. Prussia alone already posed a huge threat to France. Especially after defeating Austria, the threat Prussia posed to France was unprecedented.
If a member of the House of Hohenzollern obtained the Spanish crown, France would be attacked from two sides by Prussia and Spain.
Although Spain was not a strong power and was only barely a second-rate country in Europe, it was located south of France and possessed the natural defense line of the Pyrenees Mountains.
Prussia would only need to station less than 100,000 troops in Spain to cause great trouble for the French and threaten many cities in southern France.
On June 21, 1869, the angry French government expressed strong opposition to the Spanish and German governments, stating that the moment Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern was crowned King of Spain would be the moment France declared war on Prussia and Spain.
The threat from the European hegemon was quite effective. Under such a threat, King William I of Prussia also somewhat backed down, even publicly stating that he did not approve of his cousin, Prince Leopold, inheriting the Spanish throne.
The Spanish government was also a little panicked. If their choice of king led to a war with France, it would undoubtedly be more loss than gain.
William I's concession greatly satisfied the French government, and they also relaxed their vigilance against Prussia, which had just defeated Austria.
The French ambassador to Prussia even sought an audience with William I in early July and conveyed Emperor Napoleon III's hope that William I would guarantee that he would not demand the candidacy that had already been relinquished in the future.
Such a demand was absolutely rude, which made the originally planning-to-concede William I feel a little displeased.
The French would never have thought that even with William I backing down, there were even more stubborn figures within Germany, who had already begun preparing for war with France.
William I, who was treated rudely by the French ambassador, was somewhat annoyed. He immediately sent an urgent telegram to Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck that day, hoping Bismarck could come up with a reasonable solution to the crisis Prussia was facing.
But William I did not expect that Bismarck's so-called solution to the crisis was to defeat France through war, which was essentially solving the problem itself.
After receiving William I's telegram, Bismarck showed no signs of panic, and even a slight smile appeared on his face.
After asking Chief of the General Staff Moltke if he was confident of victory in a war with France and receiving an affirmative answer, Bismarck decided not to wait any longer.
He drastically modified the content of William I's telegram, deleting all the words about taking a long-term view and subtle concessions, and also added some provocative words at the end of the telegram to stimulate the French government and officials: "Due to your country's unreasonable demands and attitude, His Majesty King William I has decided to henceforth refuse to approach the French ambassador, and will only inform your country through this telegram that there is nothing more to discuss between our two countries."
Although this telegram, intended to provoke the French government, was not sent directly to the French government's telegraph station, it was publicly released in major Prussian newspapers in the form of news and disseminated throughout Europe through all Prussian missions abroad.
The firm attitude of the Prussians caused an uproar in the French government, and this completely enraged the originally smug French government.
Perhaps Carlo did not realize that his small action would directly impact the world and shorten the Franco-Prussian War by a year.
On July 11, 1869, the angry French government, after several days of preparation, expelled the Prussian ambassador to France and expressionlessly announced the war between the two countries to the Prussian ambassador.
However, the French did not see the expected panic and tension on the face of the Prussian ambassador; they could only watch the Prussian ambassador walk out of the embassy with a relaxed expression and board the train back to Prussia.
Even more bewildered than the French was King William I of Prussia. Although William I was angry because of the French rudeness, he truly had not thought of starting a war with the French at such a moment.
But with things having reached this point, William I could not stop the war from happening. On July 12, William I announced a general mobilization in the North German Confederation and called upon all constituent states within the Confederation to fight for Germany.
Prussia called this war the German-French War, attempting to unite Germany to demand troops and resources from the various states.
The French referred to this conflict as the Franco-German War. The animosities between the French and German regions had deep historical roots.
This war, larger in scale than the Austro-Prussian War, broke out with lightning speed, which somewhat surprised the Spanish government, which was theoretically the direct cause of the Franco-Prussian War.
However, given the situation, no matter who won the Franco-Prussian War, Prince Leopold of Prussia was no longer suitable to be the King of Spain.
Furthermore, Prince Leopold himself publicly stated that he refused to inherit the Spanish throne, although this was more due to William I's opposition, it was still Prince Leopold himself who gave up.
After these various events, only two princes from the Italian House of Savoy remained among the original five candidates for the Spanish throne.
Whether Amadeus or Carlo became the King of Spain, Savoy would be the ultimate winner.
Leaving aside the advantage of both being from the House of Savoy, Amadeus's advantage was that he was older and more mature and stable. Carlo's advantage was that he had a friendly reputation that might be more recognized by the Spanish people and was more likely to support reforms.
If considering reforms, Prim would undoubtedly be more supportive of Carlo becoming the King of Spain. After all, although Prim supported the monarchy, he was a thorough reformist.
Serrano was more like a neutral party between the reformists and conservatives, and could also be classified as a royalist from the aristocratic faction.
Both of them were undecided between Amadeus and Carlo. For the stability of the Kingdom of Spain, Prim decided to personally go to Italy to investigate the two princes and determine the final candidate for the Spanish king during this investigation.
Serrano agreed to Prim's proposal and stated that he would support either Amadeus or Carlo becoming the King of Spain and was willing to pledge allegiance to the new king.
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