Empire Rising: Spain

After the Portuguese Government transferred the sovereignty of the Guinea Colony and Jijinsoer Colony to Spain, they focused all their energy on the plan to colonize the Bwonda Kingdom.

On Spain’s side, besides continuing to promote the domestic five-year development plan, all remaining energy was also devoted to the development plan for the West Africa Colony.

As for Spain’s five-year development plan, it is currently at the mid-term stage of the third five-year development plan.

Due to the formation of a temporary cabinet after Prime Minister Prim was assassinated, the current Spanish Cabinet Government’s term is slightly misaligned with the five-year plan’s timeline.

However, this is not a major issue as, besides the Prime Minister, Carlo is also a main promoter of the five-year plan.

No matter if Spain’s Prime Minister changes or not, the Spanish Government will always promote the continuation of the five-year plan.

On August 18, 1882, Carlo summoned the newly appointed Prime Minister Canovas at the Madrid Royal Palace, congratulating him for successfully winning re-election and becoming the Prime Minister of the fourth Spanish Savoy Dynasty Cabinet Government.

Prime Minister Canovas, of course, understood the reason he stood out among many Spanish officials, and being loyal to the Royal Family was his primary task.

Prime Minister Canovas once again expressed his respectful attitude towards Carlo, stating that the Spanish Government would, under the leadership of the Royal Family, deeply promote the five-year development plan and emphasize the development plan for the West Africa Colony, aiming to achieve Carlo’s goal of making Spain great again.

Their meeting was not long, as with neither the King nor the Prime Minister changing, there would not be significant deviations in the cabinet government’s various policies.

It is worth mentioning that due to Duke Serrano choosing to retire, the position of Minister of State, also known as Deputy Prime Minister, has a new candidate.

Carlo did not select a candidate for Deputy Prime Minister from the Conservative Party, but chose Ewald, the former Minister of Finance who joined during Prime Minister Prim’s era, from the Progressive Party.

Ewald Bartel’s contributions to Spain can be considered immense. As early as the first Cabinet Government period, he held the position of Minister of Finance, contributing significantly to Spain’s economic development.

At that time, he and Ruiz were known as Prime Minister Prim’s left and right arms. These three were also the three giants of the Progressive Party, which was the reason the Progressive Party was the largest party in Spain at that time.

Unfortunately, after Prime Minister Prim was assassinated, Ruiz chose to abandon the path of loyalty to the Royal Family, ultimately failing completely and being executed.

Ewald was not implicated, but with Duke Serrano becoming Prime Minister and Earl Canovas appointed as Deputy Prime Minister, the Progressive Party’s dominance in Spanish politics was entirely dismantled.

If Carlo hadn’t appointed him as Deputy Prime Minister, Ewald would find it difficult to continue holding a position in the Spanish Cabinet Minister.

Because at this time, Prime Minister Canovas already had enough influence, he could completely change these official positions to Conservative Party members to gain control over the government.

Considering that Spain cannot have a single-party dominance, Carlo ultimately chose to let Ewald, the most influential member of the Progressive Party currently, become Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister to act as a check on the Prime Minister’s power.

Of course, this is not due to distrust in Prime Minister Canovas. However, from the perspective of maintaining balance, Spain still needs a Deputy Prime Minister from another party for political balance.

The Spanish Government planned by Carlo is to implement a three-party rotating governance system. The Liberal Party is also undergoing constant changes, and Carlo specifically instructed Prime Minister Canovas to retain the position of Minister of Education for Gerard, which is also to protect the Liberal Party and prevent this third largest Spanish party from completely degrading into a minor party and opposition.

While Spain is vigorously developing its domestic industry and economy, the international situation is not that peaceful.

The French President Rufelli, who previously instigated the Tunisian War, ultimately lost his position as Prime Minister due to France’s extensive expenditure yet failure to occupy the entire Tunisia.

However, he did not give up his political stance; instead, he aggressively promoted the benefits of colonial expansion for France.

In a scenario where all European countries were engaging in colonial activities, France was also searching worldwide for its colonial targets.

Besides having vast colonies in Africa, France also possessed a significant amount of territory in Asia.

Because the United Kingdom occupied all of India, France had to seek colonies further in East Asia and Southeast Asia, ultimately establishing its colonies in Vietnam and Cambodia in Southeast Asia.

However, the scale of French colonies was not that extensive, and countries like Vietnam continued to resist French colonial rule.

As early as when Rufelli was still Prime Minister of France, he approved a military budget of 2.4 million francs, which was specifically for conquering the Vietnam region.

Even though Rufelli was no longer the Prime Minister of France, the colonization of the Vietnam region by France never ceased, and related colonial activities have only intensified.

As 1882 drew to a close, Rufelli, in order to be re-elected as the Prime Minister of France, publicly spread his colonial expansion theory in major cities in France, stating that if he could be re-elected as Prime Minister of France, he would expand France’s colonies by at least several hundreds of thousands of square kilometers.