Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 163: Current State Of The Americas

Upon hearing Gerard Wilson’s report, Carlo was momentarily stunned, then smiled with a hint of joy and looked at Gerard Wilson approvingly, saying, “Minister Gerard Wilson, has Prime Minister Primó heard the Education Department’s development plan report?”

“Prime Minister has already heard it,” Gerard Wilson nodded respectfully and replied.

“What was Prime Minister Primó’s attitude?” Carlo continued to ask.

Carlo now understood why Gerard Wilson had displaced the previous Minister of Education to enter the new Cabinet Government; this man’s ideas on educational reform were indeed very advanced, and he had likely received strong support from Prime Minister Primó.

“Prime Minister is quite supportive of the Ministry of Education’s plan, of course, and thanks to Your Majesty’s support, otherwise the Ministry of Education could not have obtained so much funding budget,” Gerard Wilson said with a smile.

Originally, his plan for educational reform was not so extensive, but after obtaining such ample education budget, he decided temporarily to modify some directions of the educational reform.

For example, he had not originally planned to implement the so-called dual-track education. He thought that strengthening Spain’s basic compulsory education while building more technical schools to cultivate technical talent would be sufficient.

But since he had obtained so much education budget, he definitely had to add dual-track education to the plan list as well.

The benefit of dual-track education was that it greatly increased the cultivation of technical talent, even starting from childhood. Only technical talent who completed basic technical education and advanced technical education could be considered Spain’s truly scarce advanced technical talent.

As for those technical talent cultivated in technical schools over two or three years, they could at best only address the government’s initial demand for talent. But in terms of importance, perhaps 10 junior technical talents were not as good as 1 advanced technical talent. Even in some extremely important fields, 100 junior technical talents were not as important as 1 advanced technical talent.

Spain could only be free of obstacles in the development of various industries after thoroughly solving the demand for advanced technical talent.

“Very good.” Carlo nodded and unreservedly expressed his supportive attitude: “To be honest, I am very optimistic about the Education Department’s reform plan.

Minister Gerard, if the Education Department encounters any difficulties during the reform, you can also come to me. I look forward to what surprises the Education Department can bring me in the second Five-Year Plan. The Royal Family never mistreats Spain’s meritorious officials, and I hope you will be one of them.”

“As you command, Your Majesty.” Gerard Wilson nodded very respectfully, and this impromptu conversation came to a smooth end.

After this conversation, Carlo was quite satisfied with the development plan formulated by the Education Department led by Gerard Wilson.

Although such a development plan was bound to consume a large fiscal budget, on the other hand, how could a country unwilling to invest too much funds in education qualify to become stronger?

Countries that value education are not necessarily great powers, but great powers are certainly countries that value education. Relying on digging up talent from other countries is doomed not to last long; first, other countries will not allow themselves to be dug for talent, and second, the loyalty of these dug-up talents will always be an issue.

Talent cultivated by one’s own country is reassuring to use, which is also why Carlo fully agreed to Minister Gerard’s plan on educational reform without much thought.

For Spain to grow into a powerful country, it must cultivate its own native talent. Only when Spain can meet domestic shortages of advanced talent through its own education system can Spain truly become powerful.

What was somewhat regrettable was Gerard Wilson’s Liberal Party identity. If he had chosen the Conservative Party, Carlo would not mind pushing him to a higher position.

But on the other hand, it was not certain that the Conservative Party could produce talent like Gerard Wilson with long-term plans for educational reform.

If the Conservative Party was not conservative, then the Conservative Party would lose its reason for existence. Those who supported reform and had more ideas on reform had long chosen the Progressive Party or Liberal Party among the three major parties.

Those who remained in the Conservative Party, aside from the Royalist Party that supported the monarchy, were just the more conservative stubborn faction that was not keen on reform.

After Gerard Wilson, the new Minister of Industry Cánovas and Minister of Agriculture Jovellar Soler also sought an audience with Carlo and reported on the layouts of the two departments in the Five-Year Development Plan.

If Minister of Education Gerard Wilson’s visit was more like an accident, then the visits by Ministers Cánovas and Jovellar were expected.

However, compared to the Education Department’s reform, what the Industry Department and Agricultural Department needed to do was relatively simpler.

With a large number of enterprises and production materials from abroad, the Industry Department only needed to smoothly digest this equipment and information in the coming years, while attracting some excellent foreign technical talent for its own use.

Combined with the construction of the Barcelona Industrial Base, the improvement of Spain’s industrial scale in the next few years was visible to the naked eye, and Minister of Industry Cánovas only needed to lie down and earn merit.

Minister of Agriculture Jovellar was not much different. Although Spain’s plain areas were not large, it was instead a major grain-producing country.

Moreover, Spain’s current agricultural situation did not need much tinkering; it only needed to reclaim as much land as possible while maintaining existing grain yield and increase Spain’s fertilizer usage rate, and grain yield would naturally rise steadily.

Moreover, compared to Cánovas’s time, Minister of Agriculture Jovellar’s situation had improved greatly. The government had obtained large tracts of land from the nobles and the Church; after renting or selling these lands to the public, Spain’s per capita arable land area had also increased.

Although the Agricultural Department’s merit would certainly not be as great as the Industry Department’s, it was still one of the Cabinet departments, and the merit Jovellar would gain in the future would not be small.

Plus, neither of them was too old; after gaining enough seniority in the Industry Department and Agricultural Department, they still had opportunities to advance further with Carlo’s support.

As the Conservative Party’s two main representatives, Cánovas and Jovellar deeply understood who they should be loyal to.

After confirming that their development plans had no issues, Carlo also encouraged them and gave each some encouragement.

Before the European countries partitioned Africa, Spain had always been considered the world’s third largest colonial empire.

The most fundamental reason was that Spain had once colonized nearly half of the America region. Yes, the America region combining North America and South America.

Spain once had four viceroyalties in America: the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the Viceroyalty of New Granada, the Viceroyalty of Peru, and the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.

The Viceroyalty of New Spain had the most vast territory, including not only Mexico and Central America, but also large areas of the central United States and the Gulf Coast.

The remaining three viceroyalties were all located in South America, together occupying more than half of South America’s total area. It could even be said without exaggeration that once the entire South America was within the control of Portugal and Spain.

Aside from the Brazil and Guyana regions, the entire South America was once Spain’s colony, which is why Spain was called the third largest colonial empire.

Although Spain had now lost these colonies, and in America, only Cuba still proved the afterglow of the Spanish colonial empire, other regions had no relation to Spain.

But the influence caused by centuries of colonial rule was not so easily erased. Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and other American countries still spoke the Spanish language, and their ethnic groups still had large numbers of Spaniards and Spanish-descended mixed-race people.

This alone made it impossible for them to completely escape Spain’s influence. Although Spain’s cruel colonial rule led to many Americans not having much fondness for Spain.

But those orthodox Spaniards who immigrated from Spain to foreign lands still had deep affection for their homeland.

Especially since these countries and regions had already gained independence from Spain’s colonial rule, the conflicts between locals and Spaniards were no longer so intense.

Instead, Spaniards began to miss their homeland and wanted to promote alliances between American countries and Spain.

As for what role the Spanish Government played in this was unknown, but currently, the public opinion trends in South American countries were indeed favorable to Spain.

Among the many South American countries, Chile and Argentina were definitely more famous. Although Spain’s colonies split into many countries, the number that ultimately became regional powers was not many; all told, only Chile and Argentina.

These two countries happened to be neighboring countries, both located in the southernmost part of South America, which could be considered a fateful enmity.

Precisely because these two countries were adjacent, plus they had once been Spain’s colonies, relations between the two countries were not as good as imagined.

And all of this stemmed from the division of territory after they gained independence from Spain.

At that time, Chile and Argentina, as Spain’s colonies, had relatively good relations with each other. After the two countries gained independence, the division of territory between them was not so detailed, only roughly confirming adherence to the original colonial borders.

But could borders between countries be defined by vague divisions? When the two countries were not so powerful, such vague border divisions actually posed no big problem.

But when the two countries gradually grew stronger, even showing signs of confrontation, the border division between them became particularly important.

Because some lands in disputed areas might be strategically significant buffer locations or possess precious resources as strategic locations.

Although the direct conflict between Chile and Argentina in history would wait more than ten years, at this time, relations between Chile and Argentina had already gradually broken down.

Although good relations with Argentina gradually broke down, Chile clearly showed no panic at all. Due to the discovery of Chile’s saltpeter mines, large amounts of foreign capital surged into South America to invest in saltpeter mine exploitation.

It was also during the influx of foreign capital that Chile reached relatively close cooperation with the British and obtained large amounts of funds through saltpeter mine exploitation.

With the British as backers, Chile naturally did not need to worry about problems with Argentina. But the Argentines did not have such good moods.

Looking closely at Spain’s colonial scope in South America, Chile had already connected with the British and was making a fortune from saltpeter mine exploitation.

Chile’s northern neighbors Bolivia and Peru had also formed an alliance; the two countries united could match Chile’s strength.

In contrast, Argentina, which had tasted sweetness in the Paraguayan War, currently had no reliable ally, and its development speed was far inferior to Chile, which had saltpeter mines.

Moreover, Argentina had an even more powerful neighboring country, Brazil, to the north, doubling the pressure on the Argentine Government.

After much deliberation, the Argentine Government finally felt that Argentina could not sit idly by. Both Brazil and Chile’s national strength were growing stronger, and if Argentina made no significant improvements, it would definitely fall behind in future competition.

But who should Argentina cooperate with? The British were definitely impossible, because the British valued Chile’s saltpeter mines more.

Saltpeter mines could not only be used for arms but also made into fertilizer. In this era, saltpeter mines were extremely important strategic resources; the British clearly could not abandon Chile’s saltpeter mines, nor abandon Chile.

Surveying the European powers, the Argentine Government disappointingly found no country capable of close cooperation with Argentina. After all, Argentina had no strategic-level resources to attract these powers; aside from vast black soil, Argentina seemed to have nothing attractive.

Finally, the Argentine Government turned its gaze to its former colonizer, Spain. Needless to say, Spain’s comprehensive national strength was clearly stronger than any American country. （Not counting the United States）

If Spain was willing to support Argentina, Argentina would not fall behind in competition among South American countries.

More importantly, Argentina was originally a pure immigrant country, with its domestic population either Spaniards or Spanish-descended mixed-race, clearly closer to Spain.

In recent years, pro-Spain sentiments in Argentina had grown louder, even approaching scale.

Although this might be instigated and guided by someone, to a certain extent it also represented Argentina’s public opinion.

The Argentine Government finally decided to go with the flow, strengthen ties with Spain, and borrow Spain’s strength as much as possible to enhance Argentina’s strength to cope with potentially more intense South American competition in the future.

When the Spanish Government received the request from the Argentine Government, Prime Minister Primó was inspecting the progress of various departments.

Since the second Five-Year Development Plan was formally confirmed, various departments had begun fervent action. Prime Minister Primó was very satisfied with inspecting the progress of various departments, and he also had a premonition that Spain’s development this year might be even faster than last year.

The inspection had not yet ended when the diplomatic request from the Argentine Government arrived, and Prime Minister Primó’s smile grew even thicker.

The idea among some in South American countries of strengthening ties with Spain was, of course, spread by Prime Minister Primó.

What Spain could currently utilize were these former colonies, which still had considerable populations; absorbing a little each year could contribute to Spain’s population growth.

Of course, more importantly, these American countries united were also a force. If Spain could regain control of these American countries, or strengthen ties with them, it would be beneficial.

To be honest, even the United States, with its rapidly developing economy and industry, was not taken seriously by Prime Minister Primó.

In Prime Minister Primó’s view, countries that could threaten Spain were not many; all told, only the five traditional European powers Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria.

Even Mediterranean neighbor Italy was not taken seriously by Prime Minister Primó, let alone the United States, which was once just a colony.

Speaking of which, the United States’ independence was less than a century old. U.S. Independence Day was July 4, 1776, and to date, it had only been 98 years since independence.

Spain’s colonial rule in America far exceeded this time, which was why many European countries, including Prime Minister Primó, looked down on the United States.

Even though the United States had developed its population, industry, and economy to great power levels in nearly a century of development, Europeans’ disdain for the United States would not disappear.

In Europeans’ view, the United States was at best a parvenu. Americans’ culture was even inherited from Europe; bluntly put, they were just the son raised by the British.

It was just that this son rebelled too early and deviated from British rule. But to say that the United States could one day threaten the British Empire’s rule, European countries would never believe it.

Today’s Britain was the sun-at-its-zenith empire on which the sun never sets, while the United States in European media’s great power rankings was even only ahead of Italy.

It must be known that Italy’s unification had been less than ten years. And Italy’s predecessor, the Kingdom of Sardinia, could not even rank in Europe’s top ten.

This was also why Americans had long coveted Cuba but waited until Spain was thoroughly weakened before launching the Spanish-American War.

Even before launching the Spanish-American War, Americans had kindly advised the Spanish Government to sell the Cuban Colony to them for a selling price of 150 million US dollars.

But European countries’ discrimination against the United States was long-standing, and the proud Spanish Government naturally could not agree to the Americans’ offer.

Actually, Cuba at that time was already a hot potato for Spain. Although Cuba could bring large profits to the Spanish Government, the separatists in Cuba also required Spain to pay a huge price to maintain rule.

The 150 million US dollars at that time was nearly 800 million pesetas; if the Spanish Government agreed to the Americans’ transaction, it would absolutely be a sure profit.

Using 800 million pesetas to develop African colonies, or even just to strengthen Spain’s military power, would definitely be much better than holding onto Cuba.

Unfortunately, European countries’ discrimination against the United States was heartfelt, which led Spain to ignore the Americans’ requests even in its weakest phase.

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