Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 102: On The Great Powers

Although it is a good thing that more and more people are eagerly participating in free literacy education, if the number of participants is too large, it will also put considerable pressure on the government.

After all, whether it is the simple schools needed for literacy education or the teachers who impart knowledge, they are all limited. Prime Minister Primó can only try his best to free up more places for literacy education and provide sufficient teachers for literacy education as much as possible.

Because literacy education only requires simple teaching of some commonly used Spanish language words as well as some historical and cultural common knowledge, simple scientific knowledge, and so on, as long as they have a high school education level or above, they can actually serve as teachers for literacy education.

Prime Minister Primó directly set his sights on those university students studying literature. Their knowledge reserve is absolutely sufficient, and teaching some relatively simple knowledge is naturally a piece of cake.

And these university students who have just entered university are also the easiest to fool. Just wave the banner of contributing to the country, and provide them with a free dinner along the way, and a lot of university students can be attracted to voluntarily join literacy education work.

Of course, the government cannot use these university students for free. As long as these university students are willing to serve as literacy education teachers in their spare time, the government can provide them with wages at the level of the national average annual income.

Although this money is not too much, for many university students, it is indeed a good way to create extra income.

Although many of those who enter university are from wealthy families, there are also talented students from poor backgrounds.

Through this method of creating extra income, they can also ensure their tuition fees and stay in university to continue their studies.

Although Spain’s literacy education is being carried out vigorously, Carlo knows that the most successful period is only these few years ahead. In these few years ahead, because there are a large number of illiterate children who would not generate much income staying at home, the public is naturally willing to send them to simple schools for free literacy education.

But after these relatively young children and teenagers all receive literacy education, those adults who are also illiterate may not accept free literacy education.

They all have jobs and need to keep working to earn income to support their families. In their view, although free literacy education requires no payment, it is also wasting the family’s labor.

For some families with relatively low income, losing that little money earned may cause the entire family’s living standard to drop sharply.

However, Carlo is already satisfied with achieving such an effect.

According to Spain’s illiteracy rate of over 70%, there are at least 11 million people at illiterate level domestically. After several years of literacy education, the illiterate population can be reduced to below 8 million, that is, less than half of the total population.

Although there is still a certain gap compared to other European countries, compared to Spain a few years ago, there is undoubtedly great progress.

On January 25, 1871, just a few days after Carlo immersed himself in the success of the popularization of literacy education, Cadillac brought Carlo even better news, that the mission to the United States has been completed.

The current United States is not yet the powerful world police of posterity, but just a weak country that has just ended the Civil War not long ago.

This is not that Carlo looks down on the United States, but that the current United States’ foundation is far inferior to European countries.

Although the current United States’ economy and industrial scale are at the level of great powers, if other factors are not considered and they truly fight, the United States would probably not be able to defeat Spain.

Spain’s weakness is relative. Compared to superpowers like Britain, France, and Germany, Spain is naturally relatively weak.

But compared to European small and medium-sized countries like Belgium, Netherlands, and Portugal, Spain still possesses considerable advantages.

In the whole of Europe, except for Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria that can steadily surpass Spain, even Italy cannot steadily surpass Spain.

If Spain had not long-term used the wealth plundered from colonies on seeking pleasure, Spain at this time would probably still be a powerful colonial empire.

Of course, if looking solely at the harvest obtained from the colonial aspect and the scale of existing colonies, Spain is still the world’s third colonial empire, second only to the two super great powers of Britain and France in the colonial aspect.

Although Spain’s colonies in America have one after another gained independence, Spain’s influence over these former colonies still exists.

Currently, except for Britain, France, and Germany, which completely crush Spain in population, industry, economy, and military aspect, there are not many countries left that Carlo values.

The Russian Empire appears powerful, but like the former Kingdom of Spain, it has decayed to the core.

Alexander II’s reforms seem to have given Russia a shot in the arm, but in fact, they only changed the surface and did not change the decayed foundation inside Russia.

History has long verified the success or failure of Alexander II’s reforms; the Russian Empire’s national fortune actually has less than 50 years left.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire appears powerful, but in fact, internal problems are innumerable. The Austrian Empire turning into the Austro-Hungarian Empire actually already shows the internal problems of this country; Austrians can no longer obstruct Hungary’s rise, and how long this dual monarchy country can exist depends entirely on whether Hungarians are willing to continue staying under the empire’s rule.

The two great powers that can rise in the future, the United States and the island nation, actually pose limited threats to Spain. The reason the United States is powerful is not because it possesses vast industrial and economic strength, but because the United States crazily sucked Europe’s blood in two world wars and absorbed a large number of European technical talent.

Without these advanced technology and talent from Europe, even if the United States possesses vast industry and economy, in the eyes of Europeans, it would be nothing more than an upstart great power.

Since Carlo has now come to the era before the United States’ rise, it is naturally impossible to allow the United States’ rise as in history.

Moreover, this country, the United States, is not as powerful as it appears. Whether it is the racial conflict between black people and white people, the contradictions existing among a large number of immigrants, or the divisions between the American South and North, for a country whose history can be written in one book, they are really too fatal.

The United States’ Civil War is actually a microcosm of the domestic contradictions in the United States in this era. And the Civil War did not solve this contradiction, but merely suppressed it through military means.

Unless the United States can quickly rise to become a world hegemon-level country, making all immigrants’ sense of identity with the United States far stronger than their opposition to the United States government, perhaps it can suppress the contradictions and conflicts between certain groups domestically.

But if the United States cannot quickly become one of the world’s top three super great powers, these domestic contradictions will continue to exist until they are dealt with or erupt.

Such problems are not only appearing in the United States, but also in those countries that became independent from colonies and continuously absorb immigrant population.

If it is only immigrants from one country, the contradictions are actually not that many, nothing more than the contradictions between the colony and the suzerain.

But like the United States, continuously absorbing immigrants from the whole of Europe, even including a large number of immigrants from Asia and Africans who came to the United States due to the black slave trade, that is really a grand drama.

The mission to the United States that Cadillac mentioned is naturally impossible to be befriending the United States government, and Carlo has no intention of befriending the United States government either.

Not to mention anything else, last year’s Cuban Colony’s independence issue definitely had interference from American forces.

If Spain domestically had not quickly stabilized, and Carlo had not dispatched Marshal Serrano, who had served as Governor of Cuba, to personally lead the army to Cuba for suppression of rebellion, this independence war would probably continue for several years as in history, and deal a heavy blow to Spain’s economy.

It must be known that Spain’s annual fiscal revenue is only 300 million peseta, and historically suppressing the rebellion in Cuba cost 700 million peseta.

This means that the Spanish Government needs to invest more than half of its fiscal revenue into military expenses every year to successfully suppress the Cuban people’s independence uprising.

And what did the Spanish Government gain? A Cuban Colony that desires independence even more and whose economy has been destroyed by more than half.

It is also because the current Spain needs to keep a low profile and focus on development, otherwise Carlo would have long found some trouble for the United States government.

The current Cuban Colony still belongs to Spain, and Americans will definitely not give up their covetousness of the Cuban Colony.

Fortunately, the current United States does not yet have such powerful industrial and economic strength, the Spanish Government has not weakened, and the United States government does not have the guts to launch a war against Spain.

The historical United States also endured until 1898, and even beforehand expressed to the Spanish Government a request to spend 100 million US dollar to purchase the Cuban Colony.

Although it was nearly 30 years later, the US dollar at that time was not cheap at all, roughly equivalent to 20 million Pound Sterling.

It must be known that 1898 was the pre-dreadnought era, that is, the battleship era. Building one of the most powerful main battleships at that time only required a little over one million Pound Sterling.

The 20 million Pound Sterling that Americans were willing to pay was enough for Spain at that time to build a navy in the world’s top eight, which is enough to show that Americans at that time were still somewhat unconfident in their own strength and still attached some importance to Spain.

However, after the war broke out, the Spanish Government’s performance stunned the then unconfident United States, and also allowed the United States government, while seizing the Cuban Colony, to also snatch away Spain’s rare large colony, the Philippines, making the Spanish colonial empire thoroughly become history.

After the Spanish-American War, Spain’s colonies were left only with a few relatively small regions in Africa. This also forced Spain to ultimately set its sights on Morocco and face the pressure from Britain and France head-on.

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