Rise of Empires: Spain

Carlo did not care much about the meeting with French President Thiers, but he still took the time to meet with Thiers and had a friendly exchange for a while.

Although the Spanish royal family only has Carlo and Queen Sophie, it is closely connected with the Italian royal family and the Austro-Hungarian royal family.

So even if Carlo is a young man and has not yet taken control of the real power, President Thiers must maintain enough respect for Carlo.

However, because Carlo is not interested in interfering too much in diplomatic affairs, after a brief meeting and greeting with Carlo, President Thiers left the palace and continued to negotiate with the Spanish government for a long time.

For the French government, Spain must be won over. Even if it costs a certain price, it must ensure that Spain is more inclined to France between Germany and France.

Because only in this way can France be ensured not to be completely isolated. This is related to the situation in the future hegemony between Germany and France. The French government will not make any concessions or compromises.

President Thiers had long anticipated the difficulty of negotiating with the Spanish government. Diplomatic negotiations are never accomplished overnight, especially when it comes to the future national policies and strategic routes of France and Spain, which will take at least a few weeks to complete.

However, President Thiers did not intend to negotiate the entire cooperation agreement himself. As the head of state of France, what he had to do was to negotiate a charter for cooperation between the French and Spanish governments, and then the two governments would formulate more detailed cooperation based on the charter agreed upon by the top leaders.

After confirming that the Spanish government did not completely lean towards the Germans, President Thiers' mood finally became wonderful.

At least France would not face the worst situation, which is what President Thiers really wanted to know and ensure.

Although Spain's land environment is the worst in Europe, in terms of tourism resources, Spain still has a lot of scenery worth visiting.

This diplomatic negotiation lasted for a long time, and President Thiers also stayed in Madrid for nearly ten days.

The good news is that before President Thiers left Madrid, he and Prime Minister Primo finally signed a draft cooperation agreement between the two governments.

Some key points of cooperation between the two sides were further discussed, such as the share of funds that Spain can borrow from the French financial industry, etc.

According to the draft of this cooperation agreement, the French government is willing to provide Spain with a low-interest loan of at least 500 million francs.

If the Spanish government borrows more than 500 million francs at one time, the French government will use five years to disburse all the loans to the Spanish government.

Because the loan period is long, the Spanish government has a full 20 years to repay the principal of 500 million francs plus 100 million francs of interest within the 20th year after the loan.

Although the interest of 100 million francs seems a bit high, if it is spread over 20 years, the interest to be repaid each year is only 5 million francs, which is 1% of the principal.

Of course, such a low interest rate also has additional conditions. First of all, at least 300 million francs of the 500 million franc loan can only be used to purchase materials from France, and the remaining 200 million francs can be freely allocated by the Spanish government.

In other words, the Spanish government can only get 200 million francs of the 500 million franc loan. The remaining 300 million francs is more like the virtual currency promised by the French, which can only be used to import materials from France and cannot be used in other countries.

However, Spain can accept this. France is also a powerful industrial country, and Spain can import a large amount of industrial equipment and technical information from France.

At present, the value of francs and pesetas is not much different. According to the latest exchange rate, the value of 500 million francs is equivalent to 516.25 million pesetas, which is equivalent to Spain's total fiscal expenditure for the whole year last year.

It has to be admitted that even if the French bear a compensation of 5 billion francs, they can still provide Spain with a loan of 500 million francs within 5 years. Such an economic scale and volume are quite exaggerated.

Spain's total fiscal revenue last year was less than 500 million francs, which also proves the current gap between Spain and France. Spain is still a long way from being a real power, at least in terms of industry and economy.

Prime Minister Primo naturally accepted the low-interest loan that the French were willing to provide. The French dared not have any strict additional conditions for this loan, after all, they really wanted to win over Spain.

Even if Spain and France cannot establish an alliance treaty, at least they must ensure that Spain is more inclined to France and away from Germany.

In addition to financial assistance, the French will also provide their own industrial technology to help Spain develop and build better.

Except for some important industrial equipment and technology, other common industrial technologies can be sold to Spain.

These include not only heavy industry and chemical industry, but also military industry and mechanical design and manufacturing.

With the loan provided by the French, Spain does not have to worry about having no money to purchase equipment and technology. Although 500 million francs is not an astronomical figure for the powerful countries, for Spain, which is not large in size, it can already purchase a large amount of industrial equipment and related means of production, helping Spain to better build heavy industry and chemical industry, as well as military industry and other industrial industries.

In order to ensure that France and Spain would not cause conflict at the strategic level, President Thiers and Prime Minister Primo also agreed to sign the "Morocco Agreement" on African colonization after the two governments reached a consensus through friendly consultations.

The main purpose of this agreement is to avoid African colonial conflicts between Spain and France. As long as Spain does not stand on the opposite side of France and maintains a neutral or biased attitude towards France in the competition between Germany and France, the French will not interfere with Morocco's colonization for the time being and support Spain's colonial actions in Morocco.

In other words, France temporarily uses Morocco to stabilize Spain, and by giving up colonization in Morocco in a short period of time, it will exchange Spain's neutral or more friendly attitude in the competition between Germany and France.

At first glance, it may be surprising that the French are so accommodating, and even willing to let Spain colonize Morocco unscrupulously.

But in fact, think about it, this is actually a naked conspiracy of the French.

If Spain wants to colonize Morocco, it means that it will definitely conflict with the British Empire. Even if the French do not participate in the colonial competition in Morocco, Spain may not be able to annex the entire Morocco under the pressure of the British.

As long as Spain cannot annex the whole of Morocco, France still has the possibility of colonizing Morocco after the end of the future treaty.

After the relationship between Britain and Spain becomes worse, Spain will definitely need a powerful country of sufficient level to protect itself.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire is obviously not enough. After all, the opponent is the British Empire. The naval strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is not much different from that of Italy, and it cannot pose a greater threat to the British Empire.

Although the French navy is not as good as the British Empire, it is closer to Spain and can provide more support.

As for Germany, although Germany defeated France, Germany can be said to be poor in terms of navy.

In addition, because Germany and Spain are separated by France, the help that can be provided to Spain is more limited than that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Under such a conspiracy of the French government, even if Spain annexed the whole of Morocco, it would face strong pressure from the British.

In order to fight against the British, even if Spain is unwilling, it must continue to approach the French, and even conclude a relevant military alliance with France to ensure its own safety.

If Spain cannot even annex Morocco, it will be a good thing. Not only can France plan to colonize Morocco again after the end of the agreement, but it can also confirm that Spain is not a big threat to itself.

At the same time, it can also use Morocco, which the Spanish cannot get, to hang the Spanish. During the entire period of signing the agreement, the relationship between France and Spain will be relatively friendly, and the French can make their diplomatic situation not so bad without spending much money.

To put it bluntly, the French saw that Britain would not allow Spain to annex the whole of Morocco, so the Morocco Agreement was born.

In fact, Prime Minister Primo also knew the French's thoughts, because the British's ideas were completely exposed.

Perhaps this is also the pride of the British Empire. The British Empire never concealed their defense against Spain, and even actively interfered with Spain's colonization of Morocco.

Even though Spain has a gap in strength with the great powers, it is far stronger than Morocco, an indigenous African country. But Spain has never occupied Morocco, which is only separated from itself by a strait, and even finally divided Morocco through cooperation with the French.

The British are also the biggest obstacle to Spain's expansion at present. They are even more worried about Spain's strength than the French, because Spain's first goal after becoming strong is to regain Gibraltar.

The contradiction between Spain and Britain is irreconcilable, unless Spain is willing to give up the hope of national rejuvenation and willingly become a second-rate country in Europe.

There are various disputes and conflicts between the two countries in later generations about Gibraltar. From this aspect, we can also see the hatred of the Spanish for the British occupation of Gibraltar and how hateful the British are in this era.

The reason why Prime Minister Primo agreed to sign the "Morocco Agreement" is also to make President Thiers and the French government completely relieved.     However, the Spanish government has no plans to colonize Morocco again in a short time. After all, the British are not so easy to deal with.

Maintaining the scope of the existing southern Moroccan colony and stabilizing the Cuban and Philippine colonies are all Prime Minister Primo's ideas about Spain's existing colonies.

If Spain wants to achieve rejuvenation, the most important thing is the construction of local industry and economy. Although Spain's land environment is a bit worse than that of other powers, the size of the territory is still there after all.

Spain has a land area of ​​more than 500,000 square kilometers, which is considered a large land country in Europe. The UK is only 240,000 square kilometers, and Italy is just over 300,000 square kilometers.

With an area of ​​more than 500,000 square kilometers, Spain's development potential has been greatly improved. Even if it cannot accommodate hundreds of millions or even hundreds of millions of people, it is not a problem to bear a population of about 50 million.

However, this population milestone has not been achieved by Spain until 2024. For Spain at present, population is the most lacking and the biggest gap between it and other powerful countries.

Why are countries like Britain, France and Germany so powerful? In addition to their huge industries and economies, their tens of millions of people are also the main factors that make them powerful.

In the current population ranking of European countries, except for the relatively special existence of Russia, Germany has the largest population, with a population of nearly 42 million.

France and the Austro-Hungarian Empire both have a population of more than 36 million, and are also the closest to Germany in terms of population.

The reason why Germany has such a large population is actually because Germany has integrated most of the German region. Bavaria, the largest state in southern Germany, was once a medium-sized country, and now it has become a part of the German Empire, which is enough to show how huge this integrated empire is.

Not counting Russia, whose population is too exaggerated, Germany is alone in terms of population, France and the Austro-Hungarian Empire are one level weaker, and then Britain and Italy are in the third level.

However, because Britain promoted the first industrial revolution, it is the most in industry and economy among all countries.

But the above data also shows the problem of the British. Whether it is land area or population size, the British mainland is different from other countries.

The lead brought by the First Industrial Revolution is also being constantly caught up by other countries, and the impact of the Second Industrial Revolution will become stronger and stronger.

The reason why the British Empire is so powerful is that they maintain a large navy that is enough to crush other countries.

But the powerful Royal Fleet is supplied by all the colonies of the British Empire. When the colonial system collapsed, all the glory of the British Empire disappeared in an instant.

This is why Morocco is very important to Spain. Morocco and Spain are separated by only a strait, which is a completely localized area.

Once Morocco is localized, Spain will become a country spanning the European and African continents, with a total land area of ​​more than 770,000 square kilometers.

If the Western Sahara region in southern Morocco is included, the land area can even exceed 960,000 square kilometers, which is not too far from one million square kilometers.

Although Morocco's land environment is not very good, it can also accommodate tens of millions of people. The population capacity limit of Spain and Morocco combined will be close to 100 million people, which is the biggest hope for Spain's revival in the future.

Before technology has completely replaced manpower, population is the most important thing for a country. Although the strength of a country cannot be fully reflected by its population, a country with a larger population definitely has greater development potential.

Of course, if we have to say it, Spain has another target that can be annexed, that is, Portugal, its neighbor in Iberia.

Portugal has a land area of ​​more than 90,000 square kilometers and is also on the Iberian Peninsula, making it the best target for Spain's expansion.

However, the Portuguese have a better relationship with the British. The British do not agree with Spain's annexation of Morocco, let alone Spain's annexation of Portugal.

Although both countries are countries on the Iberian Peninsula, Portugal is located in the southwest corner of Iberia, and its land environment is much better than that of Spain.

If you have a topographic map of Iberia, you can see that the more fertile land of the entire Iberian Peninsula is distributed around the peninsula, and the most densely populated area is the southwest corner where Portugal is located.

It can be said that the most fertile land in Iberia is in Portugal, while most of Spain's land is desert and mountainous, and the land fertility is far lower than that of Portugal's land.

Although Portugal's land area is only 92,000 square kilometers, the food that can be produced from these 92,000 square kilometers of land is more than the food that can be produced from Spain's 200,000 square kilometers.

Of course, this is compared with those areas with poorer soil fertility. If it is only compared with the plains with more fertile land, there is basically no big difference.

But the Spanish plains area with an area of ​​500,000 square kilometers is smaller than that of Portugal, and the difference in terrain between Portugal and Spain can be seen.

However, Portugal's land is not all advantages. Because it faces the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the westerly belt, the wind in Portugal is too strong, and the temperature difference between day and night is small, which is not suitable for the growth of crops.

In addition, due to the salinization of the land, Portugal, whose plain area exceeds that of Spain, has a grain output of less than one twentieth of that of Spain in later generations.

But if Portugal can be taken, the Iberian Peninsula will form a whole. If Gibraltar can be taken and the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco in the northwest corner of Africa are connected, Spain will have the potential to become a top power and become the overlord of the western Mediterranean.

The integrated Iberian Peninsula is definitely easy to defend and difficult to attack. The only northern region connected to the European continent is blocked by the Pyrenees Mountains, and only the gaps in the east and west directions can be easily passed.

Spain only needs to build military fortresses at these two gaps to easily resist the troops coming from France in the north.

However, it is very difficult to achieve such a strategic goal. Morocco and Portugal are protected by the British, and it is very difficult for Spain to annex these two countries.

Gibraltar has become British land, and if you want to take Gibraltar, you must fight a friendly war with the British.

But it is precisely because such a goal is difficult that Carlo's interest was aroused. If it can be accomplished, Carlo will become the greatest monarch in Spanish history and restore the glory of this long-declined empire.

Even without annexing Portugal, he only needs to recover Gibraltar and colonize Morocco to infinitely improve the favorability of the Spanish people and become a candidate for the greatest monarch in the hearts of the Spanish people.

President Thiers left Madrid at the farewell ceremony organized by Prime Minister Primo and embarked on the road back to Paris.

He left with a smile, and it was obvious that this journey had completed his original purpose.

Prime Minister Primo also smiled. This meeting with President Thiers was only good for Spain.

The financial loans and industrial assistance provided by the French can effectively help the construction of Spain's industry and economy.

The amount of the loan is more than Spain's total fiscal revenue for the whole year last year. Investing all these funds in the development of Spain will naturally bring obvious results.

I have to sigh at the strong economic strength of the French. Being able to become a loan shark empire that is talked about in later generations also proves how strong the economic strength of the French was in this era.

Apart from other things, if the Spanish government wants to raise 500 million francs of funds, it will definitely be a big deal.

Even if it only takes five years to come up with this money, it will definitely put Spain's finances in a great crisis.

This also made Prime Minister Primo and Carlo see the benefits of cooperating with the French. At least the French are really rich and they can really come up with money to help Spain.

Of course, the French did not make a loss. This fund will eventually receive 100 million francs in interest. At present, the exchange rates of various countries do not fluctuate much, and basically private capital in France is still a steady profit.

Although the profit is relatively small, it is difficult for this kind of loan between countries to go bad. After all, countries that can lend are powerful. If countries want to have bad debts, in addition to offending the private capital of the borrowing country, they also have to offend the country that lent the loan.

So unless it is really a last resort, this kind of loan between foreign countries is relatively stable.

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