Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 197 Rebuilding Parliament and Institutional Reform

Although there were only about a hundred nobles and officials involved in the rebellion, the actual number of people affected far exceeded this number, reaching thousands.

If the armed forces destroyed in the rebellion are included, the actual number of people involved in the rebellion is even higher. After being tried, all these people will be sent to the South Moroccan colony and Congo Territory in Africa for colonial development.

They will join the local Moroccans and Congolese people and become part of the ordinary Spanish plantations. In order to ensure that these people will not unite again to cause trouble, these thousands of people will be dispersed throughout southern Morocco and Congo and strictly guarded.

Parts of southern Morocco are barren deserts, and the Congolese territory is also an uninhabited African interior outside of the colonial outposts.

In such a place, even if they successfully escaped Spanish supervision, there was a high probability that they would die in the wild.

This was no joke. A well-equipped and large-scale colonial expedition could be at risk of death if it wasn’t careful, not to mention the criminals who might have managed to escape from plantations and other guarded areas.

Unless enough food, weapons and medicine can be found, fleeing on the African continent is a torture worse than death.

Carlo did not pay much attention to the fate of these rebellious nobles and officials, but was considering whether to re-establish the Spanish Parliament.

Although Carlo dissolved the parliament on the grounds of poor performance and that the election of an acting prime minister was unconstitutional, the Spanish parliament now has sufficient influence.

Unless the parties can be further dissolved, Parliament will eventually have to be reconstituted.

Carlo did not intend to establish an autocratic government, and it would be very beneficial to make rational use of parliament.

However, the power of the Spanish Parliament is currently too great, and certain restrictions must be imposed. The Spanish Parliament must be reorganized and the Constitution amended in order to form a more reasonable Spanish Royal Government.

On November 1875, 11, Carlo convened a meeting of the Spanish Senate and announced the decision to merge the Royal Parliament and the Senate to establish the Royal Senate.

The newly established Royal Senate instantly became a huge organization with hundreds of senators, and it is also the only existing parliamentary institution in Spain.

Immediately afterwards, Carlo convened a meeting of the Royal Senate for a public vote to discuss whether to restore the House of Representatives and hold new elections for members.

In the end, the Senate voted in favor of restoring the House of Representatives, which put the reorganization of the Spanish Parliament on the agenda.

1875年11月19日，卡洛宣布重新组建西班牙众议院，并且将于12月到1月期间重新选举出西班牙众议院的议员。

Unlike the previous Chamber of Deputies, the reorganized Chamber of Deputies will have exactly 298 seats, which will be distributed proportionally among the Spanish regions and colonies.

Take Madrid, the capital of Spain, for example. Madrid currently has a population of over 50 and will receive 8 seats in the House of Representatives.

The eight seats for the House of Representatives will be filled in an open election in the Madrid Chamber, where members of the Madrid Chamber are eligible to nominate other candidates or register to run.

The eight people with the highest number of votes will be elected to the House of Representatives for a three-year term. If any unexpected event occurs during this period and the person is unable to serve as a member of the House, the vacant regional council will be re-elected to fill the seat.

By increasing the number of seats in the House of Representatives and electing all of them by the parliaments of the regions and colonies, the possibility of a single political party controlling a large number of seats in the House of Representatives can be avoided.

A political party that can still occupy a majority of seats in the House of Representatives under this rule can to a certain extent prove that it is deeply supported and trusted by the people.

Along with the seats in the House of Representatives, Spain's laws on political parties and the election of cabinet governments were also amended.

First, about the political parties in Spain.

In Spain, if you want to establish a legal political party, you must report it to the Royal Senate for review and voting, and it can only be considered a legal party after obtaining at least 50% of the votes.

Otherwise, it is an illegal political party and is not allowed to engage in any political activities. Members of illegal political parties are also not allowed to participate in activities such as parliamentary elections.

Most of the current senators in the Royal Senate are nobles, and the nobles obey Carlo's orders. This also means that Carlo in Spain can determine the legality of any political party.

This ensures to a large extent that there will be no large party like the Republican Party emerging in Spain to interfere with the Spanish parliamentary and government elections.

As long as Carlo is unwilling, any political party established in the future will be considered illegal. Illegal parties cannot receive any support from the government, cannot participate in any political activities, and have very little chance of expansion.

Currently, there are only three legal political parties declared by the Spanish Royal Senate, namely the Progressive Party, the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party.

These three parties were also the original top three parties in Spain, and there was a big gap between them and other parties. It was naturally impossible for them to be declared illegal by Carlo for no reason.

Regarding the election of the Spanish cabinet government, with the expansion of seats in the House of Representatives, the election conditions have also undergone certain modifications.

Although in theory the cabinet government is formed by the Prime Minister or the ruling party, several positions in the current Spanish cabinet government are not appointed by the Prime Minister, but by King Carlo and elected by the Royal Senate.

The cabinet positions directly appointed by Carlo were Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Royal Affairs.

The official name of the Spanish Deputy Prime Minister is Minister of State, which means a cabinet minister who assists the Prime Minister in handling state affairs. The Deputy Prime Minister will play the role of the Prime Minister when the Prime Minister is unable to handle government affairs, so it is still quite critical.

As the name suggests, the Minister of Royal Affairs is a cabinet minister who helps the government deal with matters related to the royal family. Because he needs to have sufficient knowledge of royal affairs, this position is also directly appointed by Carlo.

In addition, the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Secretary of State for Justice are elected by the Senate, and the Prime Minister and the ruling party do not have the power to replace or nominate.

As one of the most important positions in the cabinet, the Minister of Defense was also listed separately by Carlo. Of course, the Minister of Defense is not appointed directly by Carlo, nor is he elected by the Senate, but is appointed by a vote within the Spanish Defense Council.

The members of the Spanish National Defense Council were: the King of Spain, the then Prime Minister of Spain, the then Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Army, the then Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Navy, the then Chief of Staff of the Spanish Ministry of Defense, the then Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Guard and the then Minister of Defense, a total of seven people.

The seven-member Spanish Defense Council votes to elect Spain's new Defense Minister at every change of cabinet government, thus avoiding the situation where the Defense Minister could be completely controlled by the Prime Minister.

For Carlo, such a regulation is obviously in his favor. As the Grand Marshal of the Spanish Navy and Army, it is quite normal for the King of Spain to become a member of the National Defense Committee.

Most of the remaining members of the National Defense Committee were also high-ranking military officials, especially the then-Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Guards, who was completely under Carlo's command. This also meant that Carlo only needed to win over one of the marshals of the navy and army, the Minister of Defense, and the Chief of the General Staff to be difficult to lose in the vote for the Minister of Defense. As long as he won over two of them, Carlo would have the right to appoint the Minister of Defense.

Although he cannot directly decide the candidate for Defense Minister, the Spanish Prime Minister still has great power.

Nine departments, including finance, industry, agriculture, people's livelihood, transportation, public security, medical care, education, and foreign affairs, are still controlled by the prime minister. Together with the prime minister, there are ten cabinet seats.

The positions of Secretary of State, Secretary of Justice, Secretary of State for the Crown, Secretary of State for the Colonies and Secretary of State for Defense, which are not under the control of the Prime Minister, actually only add up to five seats.

But as long as he keeps the most important military affairs in his own hands, no matter how the next Spanish Prime Minister changes, Carlo will not have to worry about a similar crisis happening again.

Of course, it is impossible for Spain to have a leader like Prime Minister Primo in the future. Prime Minister Primo's monopoly of power is quite special because he not only controls the government, but also the Spanish army.

It was for this reason that Carlo separated the position of Minister of Defense from the appointment of the Prime Minister and handed it over to the Defense Committee for election.

Carlo himself has one seat on the National Defense Committee, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Guards has another seat.

As long as Carlo can win over any two of the remaining four positions: Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and Army, Minister of Defense, and Chief of the General Staff, he will be able to control the selection of the Spanish Minister of Defense.

By controlling the selection of the Minister of Defense, he could exert his influence on the army without restraint. With the cooperation of the Guards, Carlo, who controlled the army, would completely control the whole of Spain and make Spain move in the direction he indicated.

Although Spain's parliament will be re-formed, Carlo does not intend to re-elect Spain's cabinet government.

The most appropriate option is to keep the current cabinet government running. After all, Carlo has a high say in the current Spanish cabinet government, and blind changes are not good.

The current Spanish cabinet positions are as follows:

Archduke Serrano serves as Spain's Chief Minister and Minister of Defense, and is nominally the highest-ranking and most powerful person in the current Spanish government.

Count Canovas served as Secretary of State and Minister of Industry, and like Archduke Serrano, he was a high-ranking official holding two cabinet seats.

Unlike Archduke Serrano, although he is nominally the prime minister, he is actually mainly responsible for the affairs of the Ministry of Defense.

Although Canovas was only the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry, he had actually begun to bear the responsibility for the economic development of the entire Spain.

After all, Carlo had said before that Grand Duke Serrano had enough status and influence, but he was not very good at economic development.

There are currently no candidates for the posts of Secretary of State for Justice and Secretary of State for the Colonies, and the elections for these two cabinet seats in the newly merged Royal Senate have not yet begun.

Carlo, the Minister of Royal Affairs, intended to appoint Menotti to the position. From the exploration of Africa, it can be seen that Menotti is loyal and has certain abilities, so Kano does not mind using him.

Ewald Bartel was still the Chancellor of Finance. Ewald was Prime Minister Primo's confidant and was indeed very capable in managing finances.

Since the cabinet did not hold an election, there was no need to replace a very capable Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The Minister of Agriculture was Jovillar Soler. As a member of the Conservative Party, Jovillar Soler had gained Carlo's initial trust and was given a certain degree of importance.

The Minister of People's Livelihood is Carlisle Daniels, who is also a member of the Progressive Party, but unlike the radical Ruiz, Carlisle is obviously conservative.

He did not achieve much during his tenure as Minister of People's Livelihood, but he also did not make any mistakes. His political performance can only be considered mediocre.

Ruiz was originally the Minister of Transport, but Ruiz, who was elected as acting prime minister by parliament, performed extremely poorly during the workers' march. Carlo dissolved parliament and abolished the Spanish cabinet at the time.

Ruiz, who served as acting prime minister for only one day, was gloriously unemployed and arrested by the Spanish army for crimes against the country.

Carlo did not have much affection for such a radical reformer. If this guy were allowed to take power, Spain would probably become a republic in no time.

But the lessons of history are enough. Spain did become a republic during this period, but the republic did not mean the end of the internal struggle in Spain. On the contrary, the struggle between various political parties and forces led to the collapse of the republic that had lasted for several years.

Looking at this period of Spain's republican history from a God's perspective, it started rather hastily and ended rather badly.

Radical reformers like Ruiz did not see the situation in Spain clearly. Spain did not need a republic at the moment, but rather a monarchy to maintain national unity and stability.

The position of Minister of Transport is currently vacant, but Carlo intends to promote Icarus Montoya, the deputy minister of the transport department.

Icarus's performance in the transportation department is quite good, even excellent. If Icarus had not blocked some of Ruiz's more radical decisions, perhaps the performance of the transportation department this year would have been greatly reduced.

Having such a capable and familiar guy take over the transportation department can effectively reduce the work stagnation caused by the rotation of department heads for the Spanish transportation department.

Garcia Herrera is the Minister of Security. Garcia is a rare non-partisan figure in the Spanish cabinet government, but he is also a member of the Spanish nobility and theoretically more inclined to the Conservative Party.

The name of the Minister of Health, Carlo, is unfamiliar, which may be related to the relatively poor medical environment in Spain.

After all, the medical level of that era was indeed very poor. Carlo mainly focused on the research of drugs and biology, and did not pay much attention to the medical sector.

The current Minister of Health is Javier Haakon, a relatively well-known figure in biology and medicine.

Gerard Wilson continued to serve as the Minister of Education. Gerard Wilson had made good achievements in literacy education in Spain, and Carlo also intended to make further use of him.

Anyway, there is no term limit for Spanish cabinet ministers. As long as they are capable enough, it is not an exaggeration to have a term in a cabinet position for decades.

Finally, there is the Foreign Minister. The Foreign Minister is also a member of the nobility and holds the title of Marquis. Carlo is no stranger to the Marquis of Everton, because the Marquis of Everton is not only the first Spanish nobleman to express goodwill to Carlo, but also one of the first Spanish nobles to join the Royal Parliament.

(End of this chapter)