Empire Rising: Spain

The news of Prime Minister Prim being critically injured and comatose after an assassination attempt quickly spread through most of Madrid City and even all of Spain.

Both the ministers of the Spanish Cabinet Government and the members of the House of Representatives were all taken aback.

Since the revolution, when Prim was elected as the Prime Minister of Spain, he has always held the reins of Spanish politics and is undoubtedly the anchor of the government.

With Prime Minister Prim around, even in the face of enormous chaos, officials were confident that under his leadership, they could quell it.

But now that Prime Minister Prim is critically injured and comatose, another influential person is urgently needed to step forward and stabilize the situation. Who could this person be?

At this time, the Spanish Government rapidly split into two factions. One faction, led by Minister of Transport Ruiz, mostly comprised members of the Progressive Party. They believed that the Parliament should elect an acting Prime Minister to stabilize Spain’s situation until Prime Minister Prim awakens and the position of acting prime minister is then abolished.

The other faction, led by Minister of Industry Canovas of the Conservative Party, believed that the most important thing currently was to bring back Carlo from Southern Morocco, and let His Majesty the King issue orders to stabilize the situation.

The Progressive Party initially was the largest party in the Spanish Parliament, but lacking the leadership of Prime Minister Prim, they ended up in a tie with the second-largest party, the Conservative Party.

While the parliamentary debates grew heated, actions on the side of the rebellious nobles also began.

Amid malicious agitation from some individuals, workers’ marches in some regions incorporated elements of chaos and violence, turning the original protests into conflicts with local police.

Once the conflict started, even workers who originally did not oppose the government could not intervene to stop it.

The end result was that several streets in Madrid erupted into quite serious conflict incidents, resulting in casualties among both the marching workers and the police attempting to maintain order.

The conflict incidents changed the dynamics of the Spanish Parliament’s quarrels. Minister of Transport Ruiz suddenly received the support of the Liberal Party, and with a majority of parliamentary seats backing him, was elected interim Prime Minister of Spain, performing the duties of the Spanish Prime Minister during Prim’s injury and coma, with the term ending automatically when Prim awakens.

Having overcome many obstacles to become the interim Prime Minister of Spain, Ruiz was undoubtedly full of ambition. He certainly knew that Prime Minister Prim’s injuries were severe, and even if he could be resuscitated, his physical condition would rapidly decline.

Although his term as acting Prime Minister was nominally only for the duration of Prime Minister Prim’s injury, in reality, it was an experience that no one else could gain.

If Prime Minister Prim were to retire in the future, who else could take the reins from him but this person who once served as acting Prime Minister? This immensely aided his future aspirations to become the new Prime Minister of Spain and the new leader of the Progressive Party.

And as for this small workers’ march, Ruiz treated it dismissively.

In the afternoon of November 5, 1875, not long after being elected as the interim Prime Minister of Spain, Ruiz immediately announced, ordering the deployment of troops stationed in Toledo to head north to Madrid and declaring martial law in Madrid, demanding the dispersal of marching workers with a promise to seek justice for the workers.

Even though there were already garrison troops in Madrid, Ruiz wisely did not mobilize Madrid’s main forces. Why so? Because Duke Serrano had moved his Ministry of Defense office to the military camp in Madrid, and the Madrid troops were entirely under Duke Serrano’s control; Ruiz wasn’t foolish.

The Madrid troops were indeed nearer, but they also posed a greater threat to his position as acting Prime Minister. Originally, as a radical reformer, he had divergent views from conservative nobles like Duke Serrano. Should Duke Serrano initiate a coup, it would be a major problem.

Thus, even though it meant mobilizing forces from tens of kilometers away in Toledo, Ruiz preferred not to deploy troops from the military camps closer to Madrid.

What Ruiz hadn’t expected was that before the Toledo troops could arrive, he faced new unforeseen events.

These rebellious nobles were quite dissatisfied with Prime Minister Prim, but they harbored sheer hatred and revulsion for the even more radical reformer Ruiz.

Prime Minister Prim’s reforms took into consideration the opinions of the nobles and did not aim to completely obliterate them. However, Ruiz’s reforms were extremely radical, and he had previously supported abolishing the Monarchy in Spain to establish a fully republican democratic Spanish Republic.

For the rebellious nobles, Ruiz was a definite nuisance to be removed. Should he gain control, he would undoubtedly push for Spain to become a republic given any opportunity.

The rebellious nobles were still hoping to welcome Queen Isabella back to regain their noble privileges; they didn’t want Spain to become a republic before the Queen’s return.

If it were to happen, what would be the point of the Queen returning? To receive a Spanish Republic resident ID card?

While swiftly preparing for armed rebellion, the rebellious nobles also spread various rumors unfavorable to Ruiz.

For example, some said that Prime Minister Prim was actually assassinated by Ruiz’s order, aiming to seize control of Spain’s government once Prim fell into a coma.

There were also rumors claiming Ruiz owned several large factories, and that he was even more despicable than exposed factory owners, attempting to smear Ruiz as acting Prime Minister.