Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 28: Chapter 27: Madrid Royal Military Academy

With the coronation completed, Carlo was feeling quite troubled.

For Spain to achieve a revival, it must have a large number of talents fighting for the expansion of Spain’s various industries.

But for Spain, which has an illiteracy rate of up to 70%, what is most lacking at present is talent, especially high-quality talent trained in formal universities.

Speaking of which, Spain has a very long history of establishing universities.

The earliest University of Salamanca was established in 1218 and has a history of 651 years. In addition to this, there are several universities that have been established for hundreds of years, far better than those European countries with only a few formal universities.

But the problem also lies here.

Clearly possessing so many historically rich universities, yet Spain’s emphasis on the cultivation of university-level talent is far below that of powerful countries like UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Austria.

Previously, the Spanish Government preferred to waste its annual fiscal budget on some unimportant areas rather than investing in education to encourage more Spaniards to apply to universities.

The major institutions also do not receive sufficient educational fund support, making the cultivation of high-quality talent in Spain a complete mess.

Even in the military, the talent shortage is constantly affecting Spain.

During the reign of Isabel, the higher-ranking officers of the Spanish Army were mostly controlled by nobles, making it very difficult for ordinary people to become high-ranking officers in the military.

Although the current army has transformed from the Revolutionary Army, temporarily eliminating this issue, the lack of mid-to-low-level officers remains a significant problem.

Moreover, Carlo is also aware that this time point is quite transformative for military affairs. The line infantry tactics, which could dominate Europe during Napoleon’s era, have now turned into the tactics of lining up for execution.

Although the overall strength of the French exceeded Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War, just by relying on Napoleon III’s establishment of large amounts of French line infantry to emulate his uncle Napoleon, it’s destined that the French’s battle would not be easy.

Therefore, Carlo not only wants to expand the Royal Military Academy but also wants to learn from the excellent ideas and systems of the future world’s leading army, the Germans, to establish a stronger army and officer training system in Spain.

Of course, France is not yet completely weakened, and a Spain that comprehensively emulates Prussia is also a substantial threat to the French.

For Spain now, avoiding trouble is certainly better than causing trouble. While the new military academy learns some systems and ideas from the Prussian Army, it will also absorb some ideas from the French Army, combining the strengths of the German and French armies.

After Carlo proposed the concept of emphasizing university development to Prim, Prim readily agreed and indicated that the Spanish Government would prepare more budget for the education department in the new year.

Taking the opportunity, Carlo also used 3 million Pesseta in funding to acquire ownership of the Royal Military Academy from the government.

Prim certainly understands the importance of the military academy. But for this moment, Prim would rather hand over the ownership of the military academy to Carlo, while he focuses all his energy on the reforms of Spain.

Although this might allow Carlo to infiltrate his influence into the army through officers trained at the military academy, that will be a matter of several years or even more than a decade from now.

By then, Prim will be over 60 years old, and whether he can continue to serve as Spain’s Prime Minister will be in question.

Also, because he is already at the advanced age of 55, achieving the revival of Spain is Prim’s only wish at the moment, and power struggles are no longer important to him.

Having obtained ownership of the Royal Military Academy, Carlo was in great spirits and turned from his initial politeness to genuine respect towards Prim.

No matter how history judges Prim, the current Prim indeed appears as a heroic figure like Garibaldi in Carlo’s eyes.

Italy’s ability to produce a Garibaldi is Italy’s fortune, and Spain’s ability to produce a Prim is Spain’s fortune.

The only difference is, Garibaldi, due to his history of siding with the republic, faced hostility from both the Italian Government and the King. Whereas Prim, by supporting the monarchy and backing Carlo as King of Spain, received Carlo’s trust and strong support.

Carlo, in great spirits, discussed much about the future development of Spanish military academies with Prim, who came from a family of officers, and invited Prim to become the honorary vice-principal of the Royal Spanish Military Academy.

Carlo would become the honorary principal of the Royal Military Academy, ensuring that all academy graduates would understand who truly cultivated them into officers.

Considering the diverse needs of Spanish military for officers, the Royal Military Academy would be split into two parts.

The main campus of the Royal Military Academy would remain in Madrid, tasked with cultivating excellent junior officers for Spain. The main academy’s source of students would be twofold: one part comprising students willing to apply to the military academy from civilian Spain, and the other part being outstanding soldiers selected from the Spanish Army.

The other section, once split, would establish a new military academy in Zaragoza in the Aragon Region, officially named the Royal Military Academy Zaragoza Branch.

The purpose of the Saragossa Royal Military Academy would be to cultivate senior officers for Spain, and can also be called the cradle of Spanish generals.

The two military academies with different objectives would continuously train the outstanding core and lower-ranking officers for the Spanish Army, enabling Spain to maintain excellent combat effectiveness and flexible operational ideas, becoming a first-rate army in Europe.

While cultivating Spanish officers, Carlo can also ensure that these cultivated officers possess a higher degree of loyalty towards himself.

After all, Carlo, as the King of Spain, is the nominal commander and leader of the Spanish Army.

The first lesson of future Madrid Royal Military Academy and Saragossa Royal Military Academy entrance would be loyalty to the King and country.

With these officers baptized in the ideology of loyalty to the Monarch and patriotism, Carlo can exert greater influence over the future Spanish Army.

If the ideology of loyal monarchy and patriotism were woven into the education of Spaniards from youth to adulthood, a perfect loop could be achieved, enhancing all Spaniards’ loyalty to the monarchy and Carlo.

This is also Carlo’s ultimate goal for Spanish education. Only through subtle influence and baptism from childhood to adulthood can Spaniards genuinely embrace the monarchy and display fervent enthusiasm and loyalty towards Carlo.

Having already undergone education at the Turin Royal Military Academy, Carlo is still very familiar with the processes of military academies.

After investing over 1 million Pesseta into the Madrid Royal Military Academy, the Royal Military Academy soon expanded and conducted simple selections followed by mass enrollment both inside the Spanish Army and within civilian sectors.