Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 139: 《morocco Agreement》

Carlo did not pay much attention to the meeting with French President Thiers, but he still took time to meet with Thiers and had a brief friendly exchange.

Although the Spanish Royal Family consisted of only Carlo and Queen Sophie, it was closely connected to the Italian Royal Family and the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Family.

Therefore, even though Carlo was a young man who had not yet taken full control of power, President Thiers still had to show Carlo sufficient respect.

However, because Carlo had no interest in interfering excessively in diplomatic affairs, after a brief meeting and greetings with Carlo, President Thiers left the royal palace and continued lengthy negotiations with the Spanish Government.

For the French Government, Spain was a country that had to be won over. Even if it meant paying a certain price, they had to ensure that Spain leaned more towards France between Germany and France.

Only in this way could France avoid being completely isolated, which concerned the situation in the future hegemony contest between Germany and France. The French Government would not make any concessions or compromises.

President Thiers had long anticipated the difficulty of negotiating with the Spanish Government. Diplomatic negotiations were never quick, especially those involving the future national policies and strategic directions of France and Spain; the shortest process would take several weeks to complete.

However, President Thiers did not plan to personally negotiate the entire cooperation agreement. As the head of state of France, his task was to establish a framework for cooperation between the French Government and the Spanish Government, after which the two governments would formulate more detailed cooperation based on the high-level agreement.

After confirming that the Spanish Government had no intention of completely siding with the Germans, President Thiers’ mood finally improved.

At least France would not face the worst situation, which was truly what President Thiers wanted to know and ensure. Although Spain’s land environment was the worst in Europe, when it came to tourism resources, Spain still had many scenic spots worth visiting.

This diplomatic negotiation lasted a long time, and President Thiers stayed in Madrid for nearly ten days.

The good news was that before President Thiers left Madrid, he and Prime Minister Primó finally signed a draft cooperation agreement between the two governments.

It further discussed certain key contents of the cooperation between the two sides, such as the amount of funds that Spain could borrow from the French finance industry, and so on.

According to this draft cooperation agreement, the French Government was willing to provide Spain with at least 500 million francs in low-interest loans.

If the Spanish Government borrowed more than 500 million francs at once, the French Government would disburse all the loans to the Spanish Government over five years.

Because of the long disbursement period, the Spanish Government’s repayment term was as long as 20 years. They only needed to repay the principal of 500 million francs plus 100 million francs in interest within the 20 years after borrowing.

Although the 100 million francs in interest seemed somewhat high, spread over 20 years, the annual interest repayment was only 5 million francs, which was 1% of the principal.

Of course, such low interest came with additional conditions. First, at least 300 million francs of the 500 million franc loan could only be used to purchase materials from France, while the remaining 200 million francs could be freely allocated by the Spanish Government.

In other words, the Spanish Government could truly obtain only 200 million francs from the 500 million franc loan. The remaining 300 million francs were more like virtual currency promised by the French, usable only to import materials from France and not in other countries.

However, Spain could accept this arrangement. France was also a powerful industrial nation, and Spain could import large amounts of industrial equipment and technical data from France, among other things.

Currently, the value of the franc and the peseta were not much different. According to the latest exchange rate, 500 million francs were equivalent to 25 million pesetas, equivalent to Spain’s total fiscal expenditure for the entire previous year.

It had to be admitted that even after bearing 5 billion francs in indemnity, the French could still provide Spain with 500 million francs in loans within five years. Such economic scale and volume were quite exaggerated.

Spain’s total fiscal revenue last year was less than 500 million francs, which also proved the current gap between Spain and France. Spain was still far from being a true great power nation, at least in industry and economy.

Prime Minister Primó naturally accepted this low-interest loan that the French were willing to provide without any qualms. The French did not dare to impose harsh additional conditions on this loan, as they genuinely wanted to win over Spain.

Even if they could not establish an alliance treaty between Spain and France, they at least had to ensure that Spain leaned more towards France and stayed away from Germany.

In addition to financial aid, the French would also provide their industrial technology to help Spain better develop and construct.

Except for some highly important industrial equipment and technology, other more common industrial technologies could be sold to Spain.

This included not only heavy industry and chemical industry, but also military industry and mechanical design and manufacturing.

With the loans provided by the French, Spain did not have to worry about lacking money to procure equipment and technology. Although 500 million francs was not an astronomical figure for great power nations, for Spain with its small scale, it was enough to purchase large amounts of industrial equipment and related production materials, helping Spain better construct heavy industry and chemical industry, as well as military industry and other industrial sectors.

To ensure no strategic conflicts between France and Spain, President Thiers and Prime Minister Primó also agreed that, after friendly consultations between the two governments reached a consensus, they would sign the 《Morocco Agreement》 regarding African colonization.

The main purpose of this agreement was to avoid colonial conflicts in Africa between Spain and France. As long as Spain did not stand against France and maintained neutrality or leaned towards France in the Germany-France competition, the French would temporarily not interfere in the Morocco colony and would support Spain’s colonial action in Morocco.

In other words, France would temporarily use Morocco to stabilize Spain, exchanging short-term abandonment of colonization in Morocco for Spain’s neutrality or more friendly attitude in the Germany-France competition.

At first glance, it might seem surprising that the French were so accommodating, even willing to let Spain colonize Morocco without restraint.

But upon reflection, this was actually the French’s naked open scheme.

If Spain wanted to colonize Morocco, it would inevitably conflict with the British Empire. Even if the French did not participate in the colonial competition in Morocco, Spain might not be able to annex all of Morocco under British pressure.

As long as Spain could not annex all of Morocco, after the future treaty ended, France would still have the possibility to colonize Morocco.

After the relationship between Britain and Spain deteriorated further, Spain would definitely need a great power nation of sufficient caliber to protect itself.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was obviously not enough. The opponent was the British Empire after all, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s naval strength was not much different from Italy’s, unable to pose a significant threat to the British Empire.

Although France’s navy was also inferior to the British Empire, it was closer to Spain and could provide more support.

As for Germany, although it had defeated France, Germany’s navy could be described as destitute.

Moreover, because Germany and Spain were separated by France, the help Germany could provide to Spain was even more limited than that from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Under the French Government’s such open scheme, even if Spain annexed all of Morocco, it would face strong pressure from the British.

To counter the British, Spain would have to continuously lean towards the French even if unwilling, and even conclude relevant military alliances with France to ensure its own safety.

If Spain could not even annex Morocco, that would be even better for France. Not only could France plan to colonize Morocco again after the agreement ended, but it could also reconfirm that the country of Spain posed no major threat to itself.

At the same time, it could use Morocco, which the Spanish could not obtain, to keep Spain hooked. During the entire period of signing the agreement, the relationship between France and Spain would be relatively friendly, allowing the French to maintain a diplomatic situation that was not too bad without much cost.

In plain terms, the French seized on the fact that Britain would not allow Spain to annex all of Morocco, which led to the birth of this Morocco Agreement.

Prime Minister Primó was also well aware of the French intentions, because the British intentions were completely out in the open.

Perhaps this was also the pride of the empire on which the sun never sets. The British Empire never concealed their defense against Spain and would even actively intervene in Spain’s colonization of Morocco.

Although Spain had a strength gap with great power nations, it was far stronger than Morocco, this African indigenous nation. Yet Spain had not occupied Morocco, which was separated from it by only a strait, and ultimately partitioned Morocco only through cooperation with the French.

The British were also currently the biggest obstacle to Spain’s expansion. They were even more worried about Spain’s strengthening than the French, because Spain’s first goal after becoming powerful would be to recapture Gibraltar.

The conflict between Spain and Britain was irreconcilable, unless Spain was willing to abandon the hope of national revival and contentedly become a second-rate country in Europe.

In posterity, the two countries still had various disputes and conflicts over Gibraltar, which also showed the Spanish hatred for Britain occupying Gibraltar and how hateful the British were in this era.

The reason Prime Minister Primó agreed to sign the 《Morocco Agreement》 was also to completely reassure President Thiers and the French Government.

However, the Spanish Government had no plans to colonize Morocco again in the short term, as the British were not easy to deal with.

Maintaining the scope of the existing South Morocco Colony and stabilizing the Cuba and Philippine colonies was already all of Prime Minister Primó’s ideas regarding Spain’s current colonies.

For Spain to achieve revival, the most important thing was still the industrial and economic construction of the homeland. Although Spain’s land environment was somewhat poor compared to other great powers, its territorial scale was still there after all.

Spain’s territorial area exceeded 500,000 square kilometers, which already qualified it as a land power in Europe. The British Mainland was only 240,000 square kilometers, and Italy was just over 300,000 square kilometers.

Possessing an area exceeding 500,000 square kilometers also greatly enhanced Spain’s development potential. Even if it could not accommodate hundreds of millions of people, supporting a population of around 50 million was no problem.

But this population milestone was still not achieved by Spain even in posterity’s For current Spain, population was the most lacking, and also the biggest gap with other great power nations.

Why were countries like Britain, France, and Germany so powerful? Besides their vast industry and economy, their populations of tens of millions were also a main factor in their strength.

In the current population ranking of European countries, aside from Russia as a somewhat special existence, Germany had the most population, with nearly 42 million people.

France and the Austro-Hungarian Empire both had populations exceeding 36 million, also the closest to Germany in terms of population.

The reason Germany’s population was so large was actually because Germany had integrated most of the German region. The largest state in southern Germany, Bavaria, was once a medium-sized country and was now part of the German Empire, showing how massive this integrated empire was.

Excluding Russia with its exaggerated population, Germany was in a league of its own in population, France and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were one level below, and then Britain and Italy were in the third tier.

However, because Britain had promoted the First Industrial Revolution, it led in industry and economy among all countries.

But from the above data, the British problem was also evident. The British Mainland lagged behind other countries in both land area and population scale.

And the lead from the First Industrial Revolution was constantly being caught up by other countries, while the impact of the Second Industrial Revolution would only grow stronger.

The reason the British Empire was so powerful was that it maintained a massive navy scale that crushed other countries.

But the powerful Royal Fleet was supplied by all the colonies of the empire on which the sun never sets. When the colonial system collapsed, all the British Empire’s glory would instantly vanish into smoke.

This was also why Morocco was so important to Spain. Morocco was separated from Spain by only a strait, making it a region that could be fully localized.

Once Morocco was localized, Spain would become a country spanning the European and African continents, with a total territorial area exceeding 770,000 square kilometers.

If including the Western Sahara region in southern Morocco, the territorial area could even exceed 960,000 square kilometers, not far from one million square kilometers.

Although Morocco’s land environment was not great either, it could still accommodate several tens of millions of people. The combined population capacity limit of Spain and Morocco would approach 100 million people, which was the greatest hope for Spain’s future revival.

Before technology fully replaced manpower, population was the most important thing for a country. Although a country’s strength could not be entirely measured by population, countries with more population definitely had greater development potential.

Of course, if one had to point out another annexation target for Spain, it was its neighbor on the Iberian Peninsula, Portugal.

Portugal’s land area exceeded 90,000 square kilometers, and being on the same Iberian Peninsula, it was the best target for Spanish expansion.

However, the Portuguese had even better relations with the British, and if the British did not agree to Spain annexing Morocco, they certainly would not agree to Spain annexing Portugal.

Although both were countries on the Iberian Peninsula, Portugal was located in the southwest corner of Iberia, with a land environment far better than Spain’s.

If there was an Iberian terrain map, it would show that the more fertile lands on the entire Iberian Peninsula were distributed around the edges, with the densest area being the southwest corner where Portugal was located.

It could be said that Iberia’s most fertile lands were in Portugal, while most of Spain’s land was desert and mountainous, with soil fertility far below Portugal’s.

Although Portugal’s land area was only 92,000 square kilometers, the grain produced from these 92,000 square kilometers exceeded that from Spain’s 200,000 square kilometers.

Of course, this was compared to those areas with relatively poor soil fertility. If comparing only the more fertile plain areas, they were roughly similar.

But Spain, with its 500,000 square kilometers, had even fewer plain areas than Portugal, highlighting the terrain gap between Portugal and Spain.

However, Portugal’s land was not without flaws. Because it faced the Atlantic Ocean and was in the westerly wind belt, the winds in the Portugal region were too strong, with small diurnal temperature differences, unsuitable for crop growth.

Additionally, soil salinization meant that Portugal, with plains exceeding Spain’s, had grain yield in posterity less than one-twentieth of Spain’s.

But if Portugal could be taken, the Iberian Peninsula would form a whole. If Gibraltar could also be taken, connecting the Iberian Peninsula with Morocco in northwest Africa, Spain would have the potential to become a top great power and the hegemon of the western Mediterranean.

The unified Iberian Peninsula would absolutely be easy to defend and hard to attack. The only northern region connected to the European Continent was blocked by the Pyrenees Mountains, with only two gaps on the east and west that could be easily passed through.

Spain only needed to build military fortresses at these two gaps to easily resist armies coming from the north, from France.

However, achieving such a strategic goal was very difficult. Morocco and Portugal were under British protection, and it would be very hard for Spain to annex these two countries.

Gibraltar had even become British land, and taking Gibraltar would mean having to go to war with the British.

But precisely because such goals were relatively difficult, it aroused Carlo’s interest. If accomplished, Carlo would become the greatest monarch in Spanish history, restoring the glory to this long-declined empire on which the sun never sets.

Even without annexing Portugal, just recapturing Gibraltar and colonizing Morocco would infinitely boost the favor of the Spanish people, making him a candidate for the greatest monarch in the hearts of the Spanish people.

President Thiers left Madrid under the farewell ceremony organized by Prime Minister Primó, embarking on the journey back to Paris.

He left with a smile, clearly having accomplished his original purpose for this trip.

Prime Minister Primó also smiled. This meeting with President Thiers was nothing but beneficial for Spain.

The financial loans and aid in industry provided by the French could effectively help Spain’s industrial and economic construction.

The loan amount exceeded Spain’s total fiscal revenue for the entire previous year. Investing all these funds into Spain’s development would naturally yield obvious effects.

One could not help but marvel at the strength of the French economy. Becoming the high-interest loan empire much discussed in posterity also proved how powerful the French economy was in this era.

Needless to say, if the Spanish Government had to raise 500 million francs, it would require selling the family silver.

Even if it only needed to come up with this amount over five years, it would still put Spain’s finances in great crisis.

This also allowed Prime Minister Primó and Carlo to see the benefits of cooperating with the French. At least the French really had money, and they could really provide it to help Spain.

Of course, the French did not make a losing deal. This funding would ultimately yield 100 million francs in interest, and with minimal currency exchange rate fluctuations among countries currently, France’s private capital would still make a steady profit.

Although the profit was relatively small, such inter-state loans were hard to default on. After all, countries capable of borrowing were strong ones, and defaulting would offend not only the lending country’s private capital but also the lending country itself.

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, such loans between foreign countries were relatively stable.

5600 words, two chapters combined, seeking support!