Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 175: Extremely Timid Portugal

In March 1875, after careful consideration, the Ministry of Defense finally decided to order a Revival-class ironclad from the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard.

Yes, it was the latest type of ironclad designed by the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard, which was absolutely world-class, even top-tier, in terms of design data.

The main problem was that the shipyard had searched North America and Asia but truly could not find customers to purchase warships.

With the economic crisis arriving, there were even fewer fools willing to pay.

This ironclad cost as much as 500,000 pound sterling, and a selling price of 550,000 to 600,000 pound sterling was a figure no ordinary country could bear.

For the development of the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard, the Spanish Navy could only place the first order.

Of course, this was also the result after comprehensive consideration by the Defense Department.

If Spain could not afford the expenditure of the warship, or if there was really no need to build a new ironclad, the Ministry of Defense would not place this order.

The Royal Gualnizo Shipyard naturally knew the importance of this order.

Only by building the finished Revival-class ironclad and letting other countries see the power of this warship firsthand would it attract orders from abroad. To avoid the government suffering too much loss, Carlo personally decided, on the basis of an internal price of 550,000 pound sterling, to give the government a further discount of 50,000 pound sterling, selling this warship completely at cost price.

Considering the current drop in steel prices, even though it was called cost price, the shipyard still had some profit margin.

Further price reductions were a win-win for the shipyard and the government. The shipyard could gain experience in building ironclads while obtaining the order, and the Spanish Government could acquire an advanced ironclad to strengthen its naval strength with lower funds; both sides profited.

500,000 pound sterling was equivalent to 13 million peseta, which was not too much of a burden for Spain’s current financial capacity.

Spain’s army expansion was now complete, and army military expenses would enter a relatively stable period. The Defense Department’s fiscal budget was fully sufficient to squeeze out 13 million to order a warship. For Spain, which possessed vast colonies, this ironclad could play a very important role in the stability of the colonies.

Although continental hegemons like Germany and France were famous for their armies, Europeans actually placed even more emphasis on navy development.

A powerful army did not necessarily make a great power, but a powerful navy basically did.

Even the somewhat backward Russian Empire placed great importance on navy development. During World War I, Russia even had three fleets, with its own fleet headquarters in the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, and Far East.

Currently, Spain as the world’s fifth largest naval power was somewhat undeserved. But if it could add a new ironclad, at least its naval strength could be ensured to rank in the world’s top eight.

A stronger navy was very useful whether for defending the homeland coast or suppressing colonies in various places. Only a country with a powerful navy was qualified to possess vast colonies.

According to the ship construction time given by the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard, this Revival-class ironclad named Revival would not be launched until next summer.

Plus the lengthy sea trials, the time for it to officially enter service with the navy might not come until two and a half years later, around mid-

Since it was still within the term of the current cabinet government, the total two-and-a-half-year construction and testing time was acceptable to the Ministry of Defense.

The news that Spain had built a new ironclad, once released, could also strengthen the public’s confidence in the government.

After all, for Europeans at this time, whether a country’s naval strength was powerful largely determined the country’s overall strength.

The public was very happy to see the country become powerful, and there was even a famous saying about this: “When mentioning the vast wealth of the British Empire, even the lowliest textile worker in Manchester would proudly puff out his chest.”

The stronger the country, the stronger the public’s confidence in the country and government. The stronger the public’s confidence in the country and government, the stronger the country would become.

This was also the role a powerful ironclad brought to Spain; its potential role was even more attractive to some extent than its actual role.

After all, although Spain’s colonies were not large in total area, they were scattered all over the world.

Among all colonial countries in the world today, besides the United Kingdom, only Spain could be considered an empire on which the sun never sets.

The so-called empire on which the sun never sets meant that the sun never set on its territory.

The British colonies were spread across the globe. Besides the European mainland, there were British colonial spheres in North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania, making it a well-deserved colonial empire.

France also had quite a few colonies, even surpassing Spain to become the world’s second largest colonial empire.

But France’s colonies were mainly concentrated in Asia and Africa, with only a small portion in South America.

Looking at Spain, there was Cuba and Puerto Rico in America, South Morocco, Guinea, and Congo in Africa, the Philippines and Borneo in Asia, plus the European mainland and islands and archipelagos scattered across the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean; calling it an empire on which the sun never sets was no problem.

To keep colonies scattered around the globe stable, a powerful navy was very necessary.

The good news was that after merging with a shipyard from the United Kingdom, the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard already had the capability to produce Revival-class ironclads.

The shipyard’s dockyard had also been expanded long ago under Carlo’s orders, making it effortless to build ironclads under 10,000 tons.

If not for the government’s finances being insufficient to support building several ironclads simultaneously, perhaps one could even see the grand scene of several ironclads being built at the same time in the shipyard.

However, given Spain’s current industry and economic growth rate, such a scene might not be far off.

When Spain’s second five-year development plan was successfully completed, it might be the time for Spain to massively expand its navy, declare its return to the ranks of great powers, and compete for international right to speak.

Although current Spain was not yet sufficient to become a top great power, it was no problem to stabilize its colonial scope and meet its colonial needs.

Spain might not be powerful, but countries like Britain and France could not ignore Spain’s opinions either.

The keel-laying ceremony for the Revival ironclad was set for March 14, 1875, and Carlo attached great importance to it, even personally attending the warship’s keel-laying ceremony under the attention of the media.

Attending together with Carlo were Spanish Prime Minister Primó, Minister of Defense Serrano, and others. Although not invited, Lanfang Republic Ambassador to Spain Wu Yongxiang was also present witnessing the entire keel-laying ceremony, filled with endless emotion.

Although the Lanfang Republic had a population of 4 million, 500,000 pound sterling was an enormous sum that the Lanfang Republic could never scrape together.

After all, it was just an agriculture-based country, and due to frequent harassment by the Dutch, the Lanfang Republic’s economy was not that good.

If the Lanfang Republic had a few advanced ironclads, even the Dutch would absolutely not dare to brazenly annex the Lanfang Republic’s territory.

Of course, this was just wishful thinking. The cost of one ironclad was already as high as hundreds of thousands of pound sterling, equivalent to 2 million taels of silver; it was no small sum.

Plus the maintenance of the warship, daily training costs, and navy soldiers’ expenditures, on top of the warship’s selling price of 500,000 pound sterling, it required tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of pound sterling annually in maintenance and other expenses; it was absolutely a money-devouring beast that made every country pale at the mention.

The news that Spain had resumed building ironclads after many years was spread beyond Spain to other countries and regions through reports in domestic and foreign newspaper offices.

The one most worried about this was perhaps Spain’s neighboring country Portugal.

There was no way around it; on the small Iberian Peninsula, there were truly only these two neighbors. The Principality of Andorra was more like a protectorate jointly ruled by France and Spain, with neither army nor diplomatic sovereignty, so it could not count as an independent country.

Even a weakened Spain made Portugal very wary, let alone the Kingdom of Spain that had preliminarily begun its revival.

Regarding his brother-in-law Carlo becoming King of Spain, King Louis of Portugal originally had a very expectant attitude.

It was not due to kinship between the two; after all, blood relationships were common among European royal families, some even close relatives.

Mainly because Carlo’s identity as an Italian outsider, combined with Spain’s chaotic situation at the time, made King Louis feel that Spain could not rise again in the short term, and such a Spain naturally could not pose much threat to Portugal.

But unexpectedly, under the all-out cooperation of Carlo and Prime Minister Primó, Spain’s revival happened visibly to the naked eye.

Current Spain was certainly not that strong, but it had indeed pulled back from the brink, transitioning from the weakness phase to the revival phase.

And Spain resuming the construction of ironclads also greatly increased concerns about Spain within Portugal. A Spain with powerful army strength was already enough to keep Portuguese awake at night; if Spain also built its navy that strong, was there still room for Portugal on this Iberian Peninsula?

After much deliberation, King Louis of Portugal ultimately followed the Portuguese Government’s opinion and decided to proactively deepen contact with the Spanish Royal Family, mainly Carlo, using the blood relationship between the two royal families to draw closer ties between the Portuguese and Spanish royal families, or even the two countries’ governments.

He did not expect Portugal to gain anything from Spain. As long as the reviving Spain had no ideas about Portugal, it would be a blessing in misfortune for Portugal.

Originally, before the economic crisis erupted, Portugal domestically had such ideas, thinking of concluding some treaty with Spain to ensure its own safety.

But due to the economic crisis, Portugal could only postpone it for a while.

Unexpectedly, it was during this postponed period that the Portuguese Government saw an even greater crisis. Spain was not greatly affected by the economic crisis and instead boldly imported large amounts of talent and enterprise equipment from European countries.

What could these talents and enterprise equipment provide to Spain? Of course, industrial experience that Spain lacked the most. With this industrial experience, Spain’s industry would gain tremendous growth and completely widen the gap with Portugal, the Netherlands, and other small European countries.

Although Portugal had good relations with the United Kingdom, Spain was not without allies so far. Italy went without saying; since Carlo took power, relations between Spain and Italy had improved a lot, and on the basis of cooperation treaties, they had already signed relevant defensive alliance treaties.

The cooperation between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Spain was something King Louis had never anticipated. Originally, King Louis was still thinking of selecting a suitable princess from the Portuguese Royal Family to marry Carlo, ensuring Spain would not be hostile to Portugal through marriage ties.

But Carlo clearly had a better choice; an Austro-Hungarian Empire as an ally was much stronger than Portugal as an ally.

With the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s help, could Spain defeat Portugal, which had British help? This question did not need thinking; the answer was of course that it could easily defeat it.

Unless the British were willing to personally intervene to help Portugal, Portugal had no capital to resist against a much stronger country like Spain.

Why say that? For a country, the most important thing was strategic depth. Portugal’s territory looked more like a rectangle, a vertically oriented one at that.

If war broke out between the two countries, the Spanish Army only needed to advance westward from Badajoz to reach Portugal’s capital Lisbon.

This would also split Portugal’s territory in two, then easily nibble away at Portugal’s territory.

Faced with this problem, unless Portugal had a powerful army, it was unsolvable.

All of Portugal’s territory was either by the sea or bordering Spanish territory; to some extent, Portugal already had no room to retreat.

After losing the Brazil colony, Portugal also had no hope of withdrawing to a colony. The African colonies were not large in scale and could not support a country. The other colonies were too small in scale, even struggling with self-sufficiency.

From this aspect, it could be seen that Portugal fundamentally had no choice. Either get along well with its neighbor Spain, or cling tightly to the British thigh, praying that Spain would not risk offending the British to move against Portugal.

On these two paths, how would the Portuguese Government choose?

For most small countries, they lacked the courage to make a firm choice, and the Portuguese Government was naturally the same.

The Portuguese Government’s choice was, on the basis of persisting in alliance with the British as its strategic goal, to strive to improve relations with Spain and ensure the safety of its own territory.

Simply put, it was wanting both; betting on both the United Kingdom and Spain to exchange for its own safety.

Regardless of whether this behavior would offend one side or even both, at least for current Portugal, this was indeed the way with the greatest possibility of preserving its territory.

March 22, 1875, inside the Madrid Royal Palace in Spain.

The sudden arrival of King Louis of Portugal and Queen Maria surprised Carlo somewhat.

Queen Maria was Carlo’s sister; when Carlo came to this world, Queen Maria had already married King Louis.

This also meant Carlo had never met his own sister, even though she appeared very joyful and intimate.

“Carlo, long time no see!” Upon seeing Carlo, Queen Maria happily walked forward, her gaze appraising her brother, her eyes revealing joy.

“Maria sister, long time no see. Your Majesty Louis.” Carlo nodded, first greeting his sister Maria, then nodding to King Louis of Portugal.

Queen Sophie, sitting nearby, also smiled and greeted Queen Maria and King Louis, then sat down again.

Since becoming pregnant at the end of October last year, Queen Sophie’s safety had become the royal family’s top priority. Carlo not only had the royal family’s private doctor move into a room beside the royal palace but also increased Queen Sophie’s attendants.

This made even Queen Sophie’s outings accompanied by over a hundred people, looking quite grand.

Queen Sophie had complained that these people ruined her outing mood. But there was no way around it; after all, it was Carlo’s first child not yet born, and the first prince or princess of the Spanish Royal Family; it naturally had to be taken seriously.

Even before the child was born, Carlo was already selecting teachers for his son or daughter, preparing extremely meticulous elite noble education for him.

If it was a princess, the education would not be so strict. After all, for Carlo, his daughter should be pampered. Anyway, the Spanish Royal Family’s property was already abundant beyond measure; giving a few companies and enterprises casually would be enough for his child to live extremely wealthy for life.

But if it was a prince, then he would be the first in line to the throne. Including subsequent princes, as long as it was his son, he must receive extremely strict elite noble education.

Even if not King of Spain, he would certainly become a great noble of Spain. It was even possible, borrowing certain opportunities, to become king of other countries, just like Carlo being elected king by another country.

No matter which way, Carlo had to ensure his children were extremely excellent elite nobles, not idiots who only knew how to squander extravagantly.

Although Carlo also recognized the stability that primogeniture brought to the country, if his eldest son lacked excellent ability, Carlo would also consider passing the throne to one of his other sons.

After all, this was not the monarchical absolutism era, where even a few mediocre kings could preserve the throne. In the era of freedom and democracy, the king himself was in precarious position.

If lacking ability, it was very likely that a single mistake would lead to the throne being abolished.

Carlo had no ambition to realize monarchical absolutism, but he also did not want the throne he had worked hard to stabilize to be squandered by his descendants.

If wearing the crown, one must bear its weight. If lacking ability, Carlo still advised his descendants to peacefully enjoy noble life and not seek that crown that looked luxurious and noble but could actually lead to family ruin if not careful.

5000-word two-in-one chapter, seeking support!