Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 202: Turbulent Ottoman, Volatile Balkans

In mid-February 1876, the compulsory primary education development plan passed by the Spanish Cabinet Government was officially announced publicly and began to be implemented.

This news immediately caused a sensation and attracted the attention of a large number of Spanish people domestically.

According to the government’s documents and announcements, this compulsory education centered on primary schools would completely waive tuition fees and miscellaneous fees, and provide free three meals a day to primary school students.

The government also specifically mentioned in the announcement that the three meals a day were funded by the Royal Family, which also sparked a wave of gratitude for the Royal Family and praise for Carlo among the public.

What the public cared about most was still their actual interests. If the Royal Family funded three meals a day for students in school, this also meant that Spanish people no longer had to bear the food expenses for their children in school.

The cost of one day’s meals might only be a small expenditure, but looking at the whole year or even the entire six years of primary school, it was absolutely not a small expenditure.

For ordinary families in Spain, saving three meals a day for one person meant saving a large expenditure. If this expenditure was used elsewhere, it could effectively improve the quality of life for all family members.

Carlo was of course also constantly paying attention to public opinion in Spain. After learning that the public was grateful to the Royal Family and himself, Carlo already knew that this move of his was correct.

The more grateful the public was to the Royal Family, the more stable the status of the Royal Family would naturally be. This not only concerned Carlo, but also all future monarchs.

The more stable the status of the Spanish Royal Family, the less future kings would have to worry about their throne. Otherwise, any small accident could lead to the subversion of the throne, which would make Carlo’s hard layout go down the drain. After publicly announcing the compulsory primary education development plan, the Education Department had already begun planning the reconstruction of primary schools in the Madrid region and the Catalonia region.

The Madrid region and the Catalonia region had Spain’s two largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, which was also why these two regions became pilot areas for compulsory education.

But precisely because of this, the populations of Madrid and Catalonia were not small, totaling more than 2 million people.

How to smoothly advance the operation of compulsory education, and solve all problems during the promotion of compulsory education, was something the Education Department needed to constantly pay attention to.

If unsolvable problems occurred during the promotion of the compulsory education pilot, it would affect the nationwide promotion of compulsory education.

Not only was the Education Department very concerned about the compulsory education pilots in Madrid and Catalonia, but the public was also quite concerned about it.

Although Madrid and Barcelona both had a large number of workers, the income of ordinary workers in this era was not that high. Compulsory education that completely waived tuition fees and miscellaneous fees had extremely high attractiveness for Spanish workers and farmers.

The promotion of compulsory education in the two pilot areas was carried out through mutual cooperation between the Education Department and the regional governments of Madrid and Catalonia.

Carlo had also specifically instructed Minister of Education Gerard Wilson and Deputy Prime Minister Count Canovas to require the government to strictly control construction quality during primary school reconstruction work and eliminate any reuse of dangerous buildings.

Once any reuse of dangerous buildings or shoddy engineering was discovered, as well as any corruption during the promotion of compulsory education, the Cabinet Government and the Upper House would handle it seriously at the fastest speed and hold accountable all officials involved in the above events.

Gerard Wilson and Count Canovas naturally would not treat Carlo’s instructions this time as an ordinary conversation. From Carlo’s facial expression, it could be seen that when he said that once it happened, it would be dealt with severely immediately, Carlo’s attitude was absolutely serious.

The two did not dare to be negligent at all, not only repeatedly instructing officials under them to strictly control the quality of reconstructed and newly built primary schools, but also personally going to the reconstruction sites for supervision to ensure no quality problems occurred.

If any of the above events occurred, even if the reason had nothing to do with them, they would definitely bear certain responsibility.

More importantly, under the premise that Carlo had already instructed in advance, if an accident still occurred, it would make them lose Carlo’s trust.

What losing Carlo’s trust meant under the current system of the Spanish Cabinet Government actually did not need to be said much.

Even though Count Canovas, as Deputy Prime Minister, was already a sure next Prime Minister candidate, if he lost Carlo’s trust due to primary school construction quality issues, everything he had would probably vanish into thin air.

Under the premise that Prime Minister Primó did not appear and Grand Duke Serrano did not stand up to oppose Carlo, the current Spanish Government was decided by Carlo alone.

Carlo already had extremely high prestige among the civilian population, which was also the confidence for Carlo to control the government through the upper and lower houses. Not to mention the inexperienced Count Canovas, even if Prime Minister Primó re-entered the political arena, he might not necessarily be able to compete with Carlo.

Of course, this was under the situation of only involving political struggle. If the struggle intensified and caused military mobilization, it would evolve into another Spanish Civil War, and the outcome would naturally be uncertain.

The Education Department’s actions were very fast, and in just over three months, the number of reconstructed primary schools had reached more than a dozen.

Of course, the so-called reconstruction process was actually very simple.

The first step was to select buildings suitable as primary school campuses, and the second step was to complete cleaning and dividing them into individual classrooms and dormitories.

The biggest action during this period was to repair damaged windows and doors, which was also the reason why the reconstruction of primary schools was so fast.

In fact, half of these three months were spent on finding buildings, and the actual transformation work took less than one and a half months.

According to the current progress, before September this year, the two regions had hope of reconstructing more than 60 primary schools, and compulsory education could also be officially launched in the two regions.

60 primary schools were definitely not enough, but in the early stage, students squeezing together was also feasible. When there were not enough schools, priority could also be given to enrolling children of school age from 6 to 12 years old.

After the number of schools was sufficient, the enrollment scope could then be opened to all age groups.

Yes, Spain’s compulsory primary education would be open to all age groups, even adults could participate in compulsory primary education.

But for fairness, and also for the healthy development of primary school students of truly school age from 6 to 12 years old, these older “primary school students” would not be in the same school as primary school students under 12 years old.

After all, compared to youths in their teens or twenties, the true primary school students aged 6 to 12 had not fully matured mentally, and the competition for scholarships would definitely be at a disadvantage.

While education was developing, in May 1876, the situation in Europe also saw a slight change.

It was not the European powers, but changes within the Ottoman Empire, the huge empire that once spanned Europe, Asia, and Africa across three continents.

Because the Ottoman Empire spanned Europe, Asia, and Africa across three continents, and controlled the extremely important Straits of Constantinople in Europe, the changes in the Ottoman Empire attracted close attention from European countries, with the United Kingdom, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russia being the most prominent.

This was actually easy to understand. The Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia had well-known ambitions for the Balkan Peninsula, and the master of the Balkan Peninsula was precisely the Ottoman Empire.

The British were also quite concerned about the situation around the Straits of Constantinople, after all, the title of Europe’s shit-stirrer was not for nothing.

The changes in the Ottoman Empire’s situation stemmed from the empire’s weakness. This huge empire that once spanned three continents and was invincible had long since become a decayed and weak old man.

Although the empire was still maintaining its last breath, it was just hanging on by a thread. Compared to the traditional European powers, the Ottoman Empire was like a piece of partitioned fat meat, even with the hair shaved clean, not prickly at all.

As early as the end of last year, due to a great famine in the central and northern regions of the Anatolian Peninsula, chaos had arisen throughout the Ottoman Empire.

But the European countries only closely monitored the Ottoman Empire’s situation, restraining each other, and no great power had the confidence to intervene in the Ottoman Empire’s situation under the attention of other great powers.

But since May this year, the Ottoman Empire’s situation had once again seen changes.

The then Ottoman Sultan Abdülaziz was deposed by Ottoman Empire’s enlightened figures led by Midhat, and Murad V was installed as the Ottoman Sultan.

This was originally just a power transition within the Ottoman Empire, which should not have caused any changes in the situation.

What the Ottoman public hoped for was a Sultan who could bring a new constitution, lead the Ottoman Empire towards constitutional monarchy, become more democratic, and promote reforms to make the country revived and powerful.

In theory, Murad V, who was deeply influenced by France, had hope of completing the above steps.

But Murad V happened to be unimpressed with the Ottoman Empire’s northern neighbor, the Russian Empire, and even very hostile.

An Ottoman Sultan who was hostile to the Russian Empire naturally attracted the attention and dissatisfaction of the Russians. The Russian Empire had long wanted to control the Straits of Constantinople to control the Black Sea Fleet’s estuary to the Mediterranean Sea, and naturally gloated over the Ottoman Empire’s chaos, even hoping that the Ottoman Empire would become more chaotic.

An Ottoman Sultan who was hostile to the Russian Empire was obviously a very good excuse, which also made the Russian Empire more actively intervene in the Ottoman Empire’s affairs diplomatically, such as supporting the independence of Serbia, fellow Slavic brothers.

The Ottoman Empire’s chaos was not only watched by Russia; the United Kingdom and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were also paying attention.

Russia’s undisguised intervention in Balkan affairs made the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which also greatly desired the Balkans, very dissatisfied, and expressed an attitude completely opposite to that of the Russian Empire, which was to support maintaining the status quo in the Balkans, as a decayed Ottoman Empire was more conducive to the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s infiltration of the Balkans.

In fact, as early as the second half of last year, Russian Foreign Secretary Gorchakov had held secret talks with the Austro-Hungarian Empire to discuss jointly pressuring the Ottoman Empire to allow autonomy in the two provinces of Herzegovina and Bosnia, where uprisings were frequent.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire naturally understood Russia’s intentions, so it did not agree to the Russian Foreign Secretary’s proposal.

Now that the Russians were vigorously supporting the uprisings of various ethnic groups on the Balkan Peninsula, it naturally aroused the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s wariness and defense.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire’s most powerful ally was Germany, but the three countries of Germany, Russia, and Austria were in the state of the Three Emperors Alliance. Germany’s diplomatic attitude in this regard was very ambiguous, neither supporting Russia’s intervention in the Ottoman Empire nor supporting the Austro-Hungarian Empire to maintain the status quo, taking a relatively neutral attitude.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire could only turn its gaze to another ally, which was Spain, which had already preliminarily achieved reforms.

Although Spain was also an extremely weak empire, the current reforms had allowed Spain to recover blood, and calling it a European power was not excessive.

In the situation where Germany did not directly support the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the most reliable ally the Austro-Hungarian Empire could rely on was only Spain.

Of course, the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s hope of maintaining the Balkan status quo would definitely not only be placed on Spain. The most important point was that the British did not want to see Russia expand its sphere of influence on the Balkan Peninsula, nor did they want to see the Russians control Constantinople and the straits.

After the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s diplomatic ambassador contacted the Spanish Government, the Cabinet held an emergency meeting and invited Carlo to attend.

Carlo was also somewhat aware of this period of history. In the end, Russia and the Ottoman Empire still broke out in a war, historically known as the Tenth Russo-Turkish War.

The historical Tenth Russo-Turkish War ended with Russia’s victory, but the war spoils were partitioned jointly by Britain, Austria, and Russia.

It was worth mentioning that this war allowed the Austro-Hungarian Empire to obtain Bosnia and Herzegovina, which indirectly triggered World War I.

After all, the fuse of World War I was very famous, which was the assassination of Crown Prince Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Sarajevo was a city in Bosnia, and the reason for Crown Prince Ferdinand’s assassination stemmed from the conflict between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia over the two provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire hoped that Spain would fulfill the alliance and provide diplomatic support to ensure that the Austro-Hungarian Empire had sufficient confidence to oppose Russia’s forcible intervention in the Balkan Peninsula situation.

Carlo was familiar with the development of this history and naturally knew that the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not participate in this war. Merely supporting the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the diplomatic level would have no loss for Spain.

Although this would offend Russia, Russia was at the easternmost part of Europe, Spain was at the westernmost part of Europe, and there were no interest entanglements between the two countries, so offending it was just offending it.

Moreover, the lifespan of the Russian Empire was not long. The Ottoman Empire was a decayed ancient empire, was the Russian Empire not the same?

Incomplete reforms had given the Russian Empire a breath, but how long this breath could last, Carlo knew very well in his heart.

Don’t look at the exaggerated surface data of Europe’s five traditional great powers; the truly powerful countries were only three, which were Britain, France, and Germany.

Britain, France, and Germany crushed Russia and Austria in industry and economy, and were also the world’s top three powerful great powers.

Russia won the war with the Ottoman Empire, but in the end had to make concessions to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Britain. The fundamental reason was Russia’s weakness and Britain’s strength.

If the Balkan Peninsula dispute only involved the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russia, Russia even had the confidence to go to war with the Austro-Hungarian Empire after defeating the Ottoman Empire and completely control the Balkan Peninsula situation.

But unfortunately, Germany stood behind the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Britain stood behind the Ottoman Empire. It was extremely difficult for Russia to completely control the Balkan Peninsula, just like Spain now wanting to control Gibraltar.

After discussion at the Cabinet Meeting, the Spanish Government officially gave its attitude, which was to agree to support the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the diplomatic level and support the great powers not intervening in the Balkan Peninsula situation.

After receiving the support of the Spanish Government, the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Government finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although Spain was not comparable to Europe’s five traditional great powers, it was absolutely a great power in Europe.

Spain’s diplomatic support was still very important to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and it was believed that it could also make Russia consider some issues more cautiously when planning for the Balkan Peninsula.

While the Austro-Hungarian Empire breathed a sigh of relief, Carlo was already having the armory prepare to produce a batch of new weapons and equipment and cannon cannonballs.

The scale of the Tenth Russo-Turkish War was quite large, with both sides mobilizing more than one million troops and more than 4,000 cannons.

In this war, both sides had large corps confrontations, equipped with rifled guns and cannons, and used railways and field telegrams for communication.

This also made the battlefield scale even larger, and the way of war also changed compared to previous battlefields. The battles of this war were characterized by wide frontal confrontations and large depths, which were worth learning for the Spanish Army.

And the warring parties would definitely need a large number of weapons and equipment, which was a potential opportunity for arms export for Spain’s arms factories.