Rise of Empires: Spain

May 1870 was very ordinary, but Carlo was in a very good mood.

After the successful establishment of the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau, Carlo received another good news, that is, the Duke of Serrano had solved the rebellion in Cuba and the army was on the way back to Spain.

This made Carlo feel relieved, and he no longer had to worry about Cuba being out of Spanish control due to any accident.

As one of the few colonies with positive returns in Spain, Cuba is still very important. In addition to being able to provide a steady stream of funds and income in the early stage of Spain's reform, it can also be used as a positive asset to replace Spain with more potential colonies in the future.

In Carlo's future plan for Spanish colonies, African colonies are the most important, especially Morocco in Northwest Africa.

Because it is only separated from the Spanish mainland by a small strait, if Morocco can be controlled, it is quite easy to achieve localization.

Only colonies that can be localized are truly territories that can be defended. After all, the colonial era will not last long.

Carlo did not have much ambition for colonies. What Spain really wanted was to be able to provide Spain with urgently needed resources and to be a local colony in the future.

Spain is now too big to control too many colonies, otherwise the rebellion in the colonies would be enough to make Spain exhausted.

When Serrano went to Cuba to quell the rebellion, Carlo also talked with Serrano and said that if necessary, he could allow Cuba some power in exchange for Spain's control over Cuba.

You know, this Cuban War of Independence lasted for nearly ten years in history, and the Spanish government paid nearly 700 million pesos.

Carlo doesn't want to see the current Spanish government spend all of this money on quelling the rebellion in Cuba. The best way is to make some compromises with the Cuban government and delay it as long as possible.

Carlo's purpose is just to ensure that Cuba will not have problems in the next ten years.

As for whether Cuba will re-launch the War of Independence in more than ten years, that is something that the country that takes over Cuba at that time should consider.

Serrano did this. As the governor of Cuba, Duke Serrano knew the situation in Cuba very well.

Which forces can be won over and which forces need to be dealt with first does not require much investigation for Duke Serrano, and the efficiency of quelling the rebellion will naturally double.

With the strategy of winning over one faction and suppressing another, Duke Serrano quickly stabilized the chaos in Cuba, and the massive Cuban rebellion finally ended.

Of course, the army that followed Serrano to Cuba also played a crucial role. Without these more than 5,000 troops, some forces in Cuba would not necessarily cooperate with Serrano's actions.

In short, after agreeing to carry out political reforms in Cuba and giving more power to some forces, the Cuban War of Independence officially ended, and Serrano led the army on the journey back to Spain.

For Carlo, he could finally start preparing to reward the army and cultivate a new group of nobles who were loyal to him.

After Primo quelled the Carlist rebellion, Carlo wanted to confer the title of Duke on Primo, and the corresponding celebration ceremony was also being prepared.

However, due to various delays, it was delayed until May, which happened to coincide with the end of Serrano's quelling of the rebellion.

Carlo immediately decided to hold two celebration ceremonies at the same time, and conferred titles on Serrano and Primo at the same time.

Since Serrano was already a duke, Carlo decided to confer him the title of Grand Duke to gain Serrano's loyalty.

And Primo would also be conferred the title of Duke, becoming an important figure among the Spanish nobility.

Conferring Serrano the title of Grand Duke was also a choice Carlo made after a long consideration. Compared with Primo, Serrano is more conservative and his position is also royalist.

To put it more simply, although Serrano and Primo can be regarded as Carlo's right-hand men, Primo is more loyal to Spain, and he only chooses to be loyal to Carlo because Carlo is the king of Spain.

But Serrano is different. Serrano's political stance is more royalist, and his loyalty to Carlo is not necessarily worse than that of Spain.

Moreover, Serrano's prestige in the army is no less than Primo's. If he can obtain Serrano's absolute loyalty, Carlo's position in Spain will be completely stable.

Even if he loses Primo's support next, Carlo does not have to worry about the instability of his throne. At least he is qualified to fight with Primo or the next prime minister politically.

Otherwise, relying on his identity as an outsider and more than 2,000 royal guards, how can he compete with the next prime minister for power?

Carlo is not naive to think that all prime ministers are people like Primo who have great respect for the royal power. And Primo's respect for Carlo is also partly because he wants to promote reforms in Spain, and reforms cannot do without the support of the king.

So no matter what the relationship with Primo is now, it is very necessary to make plans for the future and for yourself to gradually take more power.

Carlo did not come to Spain to be a mascot. If you want to realize Carlo's ideals and ambitions, you must form a certain influence in the government, at least to be able to interfere with the government's decisions at certain times.

Serrano's returning fleet set out on May 22, and it would take at least June to reach Spain.

This is good, as Carlo can have more time to prepare for the enfeoffment of Serrano and Primo, as well as to reward the many meritorious officials who have made contributions in suppressing the rebellion.

The good news is that although the Spanish aristocracy still has considerable privileges, the lowest barons and viscounts do not actually have any special rights.

In addition to the hereditary nature of the titles, these two titles are more like honorary in nature, and have no jurisdiction over the land they have obtained.

Enfeoffment of such new nobles does not cause much harm to the country, it is nothing more than paying some land.

But compared with other European countries, Spain does not lack land, not to mention that there are still large tracts of land in Africa that have not been divided up by the powers, and these lands can be used to enfeoff new nobles.

In the future, whether these new nobles build large farms or invest in other industries, they will be useful for Spain's economic development.

Moreover, compared with the traditional Spanish nobles, the nobles appointed by Carlo himself are obviously more loyal, and they also respect the method of conferring titles based on military merit.

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