Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 383 Tesla and Radio

As the year drew to a close in late 1896, an experiment conducted by the Royal Academy of Sciences caught Carlo's attention.

When talking about the person in charge of this experiment, one cannot help but mention Nikola Tesla.

When Carlo first established the Royal Spanish Academy, he considered recruiting this historically renowned inventor.

Nikola Tesla's name is known to everyone in later generations, and his battle with Edison over the electric current is still talked about with great interest.

During the period when Tesla was about to be expelled from university because he could not afford the tuition fees, the Royal Security Intelligence Service contacted Tesla. After revealing his Spanish identity, he offered to sponsor Tesla's university tuition fees on the condition that Tesla would become a Spanish citizen and immigrate to Spain after graduating from university.

At the time, due to poverty and a desire to continue his studies, Tesla agreed to the request from the Spanish Royal Security Intelligence Service.

This is why Tesla was able to arrive in Spain so smoothly and enter the Royal Academy of Sciences.

Because he was conducting research at the Royal Academy of Sciences while also studying at various universities in Spain, Tesla quickly acquired a wealth of knowledge and became an outstanding researcher.

Tesla performed exceptionally well at Gram’s power lab, even helping Gram develop more powerful generators and batteries that could store more electricity.

It was the invention of the high-power generator that made the use of electricity a reality. Currently, most factories in Spain have adopted electricity, and Tesla deserves immense credit for this achievement.

For a scientist who could be described as a polymath, Tesla certainly wouldn't limit himself to research on electricity.

He declined Graham's appointment as chief engineer of the power laboratory and, while concurrently serving as a specially appointed engineer, began his own independent research and development.

Besides his research on electricity, what Carlo was most interested in during Tesla's research was his research on radio.

The commercial boom in radio occurred in the 1920s, but the invention of radio dates back to the 19th century.

The early 19th century was the foundation period for radio theory, while the mid-to-late 19th century was the period of technological breakthroughs in radio.

Several years ago, Tesla had already figured out the principles of radio communication and had tried using high-frequency oscillators to transmit signals.

Last year, Marconi achieved Morse code transmission over a distance of several hundred meters in Italy. Tesla, naturally unwilling to lag behind Marconi in the development of radio communications, plans to test radio communication over distances of several kilometers this year and apply for a patent in Spain based on this.

Carlo was focused on Tesla's radio communication experiments. The importance of radio goes without saying; it possesses immense strategic value in both civilian and military fields.

As radio communication equipment matures, Spain will even be able to achieve nationwide radio broadcasting.

Radio broadcasting will become a propaganda tool comparable to newspapers. Government policies can be easily conveyed to all Spanish citizens via radio, ensuring they understand the government's intentions behind a policy, rather than being misinterpreted due to secondary dissemination.

Carlo could also announce news via nationwide radio broadcasts on special days.

If wireless equipment becomes more advanced, Carlo plans to give a Christmas speech every year, using broadcasts to bridge the gap between the king and the Spanish people.

As the ruler of Spain, Carlos needed to maintain a distance from the people most of the time. If a king loses his mystique, the people will find that he is just an ordinary person after all.

Once the filter of mystery is removed, the king's mistakes will be magnified infinitely in the eyes of the people. The best way to maintain one's authority is to remain mysterious and prevent the people from knowing too much about one's character.

Similarly, a king cannot be too distant from the people. Maintaining a degree of mystery is a good thing, but if he becomes too distant from the people, or even completely alienates them, then a good thing turns into a bad thing.

A Christmas radio address is clearly a good way to appropriately bridge the gap between the king and the people. Because it only happens once a year, it doesn't get too close, thus maintaining a certain degree of mystery.

Carlos has been King of Spain for nearly 30 years. Because he is no longer young, Carlos still wants to maintain a closer connection with the Spanish common people.

A benevolent monarch is rarely a bad thing, especially one of Carlo's age. The Spanish royal family is now incredibly wealthy, and Carlo hopes to use a portion of these assets to help impoverished Spaniards, while also enhancing the royal family's prestige.

As long as the Spanish people have love and respect for the royal family, even if some unexpected events occur in the future, the Spanish royal family will not have to worry about their throne being abolished.

At best, they'll become like the British royal family—mascots with little power but a life of luxury.

Even a mascot can become a unifying force for the nation if the king reigns for a long time.

In the political systems of European countries, monarchies are more stable than republics.

The reason is simple: a monarchical state has a unified ruler, and all ethnic groups should be loyal to this ruler. This is also the sovereignty and legal basis for national unity.

But if it becomes a republic, the various ethnic groups will fight their own battles. A president can't possibly force all these ethnic groups to pledge allegiance; that's completely impossible.

The president is elected by the people, and can naturally be overthrown by public opinion.

This leads to various ethnic groups under a republic pursuing greater autonomy, and even independence. Without a common ruler like a king to maintain unity, the fragmentation of a republic is more severe than that of a monarchy.

Why was Spain able to maintain a unified country even when Catalonia and the Basque Country were seeking independence?

The reason is that Spain is a monarchy. Whether in Catalonia or the Basque Country, the King of Spain is their ruler.

Even if they pursue autonomy, they cannot change the fact that the King of Spain is their ruler.

If Spain had been a republic in the future, it's hard to say whether the country could have maintained its unity. The Spanish president clearly had no control over the Catalans and Basques; the presidency had no legal basis, and the Catalans and Basques obviously wouldn't have submitted to his rule.

A similar example is later Britain. The reason Britain maintained its monarchy was primarily because the British royal family actually had little power, and the British prime minister did not need to worry about the king taking away his power.

Secondly, the British monarch is crucial for maintaining the unity of the various regions of the United Kingdom. The British monarch is not only the king of England, but also the king of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

It is because the king possesses so many legal legitimacy that Britain has been able to continue to exist as a unified nation.

If Britain were a republic instead of a monarchy, it's likely that only England would remain on the British mainland, with the rest of the country vying for independence.

As a renowned figure in the Royal Society, Tesla's radio communication experiments still attracted the attention of many newspapers and media outlets.

Although Marconi of Italy had already conducted radio communication experiments a year earlier, Tesla had also publicly disclosed the principles of radio communication before that. Marconi cannot claim to be the inventor of radio communication based on this alone.

Although Tesla's radio communication experiments came later, their range was greater than Marconi's. Marconi's experiments only covered a few hundred meters, while Tesla's increased that distance tenfold. Doesn't this also prove that Tesla's research in radio communication was superior to Marconi's?

With these questions in mind, journalists from newspapers across Spain and Europe flocked to the site where Tesla was conducting radio communication experiments.

This experiment, which attracted much attention from newspapers, would take place in Madrid. To support Tesla's experiment, Carlo specifically approved its location in the square in front of the Royal Palace in Madrid.

Radio communication equipment will be installed here, while another piece of equipment will be installed a few kilometers away in the University City of Madrid.

At that time, radio transmitting and receiving equipment was very rudimentary because people did not know what real radio equipment actually looked like.

Based on the principles of radio reception and transmission, Tesla created a relatively simple model. The antenna for the radio equipment was a huge kerosene drum. Tesla then transformed this kerosene drum into a large iron plate, using it as the simplest antenna.

Hanging this large iron plate antenna high above a tree increases the sensitivity of signal reception. Since radio signals in the air can be received through metal fragments, Tesla created a metal powder detector to make it more sensitive in receiving radio signals from the air.

To increase the power emitted by the radio transmitter, Tesla added a small amount of silver and nickel powder to a glass tube and then evacuated the entire glass tube. After experimentation, he found that this really did increase the power.

Because the distance between the radio transmitter and receiver exceeds 3 kilometers, such a test has a very high probability of failure.

With a nervous heart, Tesla carefully inspected his experimental equipment. After confirming that there were no problems with the equipment, Tesla began his experiment.

The University City area of ​​Madrid will serve as the radio transmission site, while the Royal Palace Square area will serve as the radio reception site.

Since the radio transmission was scheduled for 3 p.m., Tesla waited anxiously for the signal as soon as he saw the time on his wristwatch.

After about several tens of seconds, the radio signal receiver suddenly emitted a crisp sound, which meant that the radio signal had been officially received by the receiver.

After the experiment was successful, Tesla's anxiety vanished. This experiment not only proved that Tesla's radio theory was without error, but also signified that the development of radio was about to usher in a new era.

As we all know, the first step in any field is the hardest. Just like in Graham's field of electricity, it took several generations of European scientists decades, even centuries, to explore the first step in generating and using electricity.

However, after a clear understanding of the generation and use of electricity, the development of electricity made considerable breakthroughs within a few years.

The power laboratory has only been established for a little over 20 years, and the power sector has undergone tremendous changes in the past 20 years.

Twenty years ago, most European countries didn't even know what electricity was. But now, streetlights are commonplace in Europe, and electricity has entered factories across the continent, becoming an indispensable energy source for some Europeans.

It is foreseeable that the field of radio communications will inevitably usher in a period of rapid development. Whether Tesla or Marconi invented radio is no longer important; what matters is who can take the lead in the upcoming massive transformation of radio communications, and who will reap enormous benefits as a result.

This is a much more convenient communication method than wired telegraph and landline telephone. When wireless communication can be achieved over distances of tens or even hundreds of kilometers in the future, the role of wireless communication will be even greater than that of wired telegraph and landline telephone.

Marconi and Tesla's two experiments on radio communication also drew attention to radio communication in European countries.

This technology has already demonstrated its significant role, and European countries are naturally well aware of the enormous influence of wireless communications in the military field.

With radio communication, the military no longer needed long telephone lines to maintain contact with the rear. Although wired telephones and telegraphs could also maintain contact with the rear, laying telephone lines took a long time and was easily cut or destroyed by the enemy.

Radio communication is different. Because there are no lines, the process of laying and maintaining lines is eliminated.

A relatively quick connection can be achieved with only one radio transmitter and one receiver in each location.

This is something that traditional wired communication simply could not do. Even though it will take several years or even more than a decade to realize this technology, the strategic value of wireless communication is something that European countries cannot ignore.

Carlo, who was in the palace, naturally received the news of the experiment's success immediately.

Although this only represented the beginning of radio communication, Carlo was still quite excited. Overjoyed, Carlo waved his hand and instructed his butler, Lauren, to prepare a large reward for Tesla and the other radio communication experimenters.

As a principal investigator, Tesla received the most generous reward. In addition to a check for 5 pesetas, he received a brand-new car from Royal Mercedes-Benz, a luxury property in Madrid, and hundreds of acres of farmland.

Because of the annexation of Morocco, Spain is currently not short of land. Carlos has also announced plans to localize Morocco within Spain, with the aim of attracting some Spanish nobles to develop land there.

In any case, the only thing separating mainland Spain and Morocco is the Strait of Gibraltar, and the closest point between the two landmasses is only 14 kilometers apart.

This also means that, without the Strait of Gibraltar being blocked, communication between mainland Spain and Morocco will become extremely easy.

If Morocco were to become part of Spain, its land would not be significantly different from the land on the Iberian Peninsula today.

In fact, some parts of Morocco have higher soil fertility than Spain. Given that Spanish land could be exchanged for several times more Moroccan land, many Spanish nobles were willing to make the exchange.

After all, these old-fashioned nobles who controlled the land earned their income by collecting land rent and trading agricultural products.

The more land you own, the more rent you can collect. Morocco already has a large population, and with Spain expected to relocate many more immigrants in the coming years, owning land in Morocco means you'll have no trouble renting it out.

Even if they are not rented out, they can cultivate the land themselves to grow agricultural products.

In any case, the Spanish colonies had a large pool of free labor, and by growing their own agricultural products and selling them to Carlo's grain import and export company, they could also make a lot of money.

For wealthy nobles, the option was to establish their own agricultural trading companies to transport grain back to Spain or other European countries for sale.

Carlo allowed these nobles to establish their own grain trading companies. Of course, large-scale grain trade had to be registered, which was also to facilitate the statistics of Spain's grain production and grain import and export.

Perhaps it was the message that Carlo released that had an effect. Originally, the Spanish nobles were not enthusiastic about exchanging African lands; they were only interested in the most fertile African lands.

However, after Spain announced its intention to develop Morocco as its homeland, the Spanish nobility increased their efforts to exchange land.

The first piece of good news is that the Spanish government is acquiring more and more land. This land, located on the Iberian Peninsula, is the very foundation of the Spanish nation.

There's not much to say about these lands. They were lands annexed by nobles from commoners throughout history, and naturally, they should be returned to the people of Spain.

Of course, the land cannot be given away to these people for free. It's impossible for this land to be distributed among every Spaniard, and if it were given away for free to a portion of the population, such a policy would be unfair to the rest.

The government resorted to its old method, dividing the land into two parts. The majority of the land was sold to all Spaniards at a price slightly below market value.

Anyone with Spanish citizenship can purchase land at below-market prices. However, there is a limit to the amount of land each person can buy: a maximum of one acre per person and a maximum of three acres per household.

This is to prevent wealthy individuals from acquiring large quantities of government-owned land at low prices and then reselling it to ordinary people at higher prices.

Carlo hoped that these low-priced lands could be sold to ordinary people in Spain, rather than benefiting capitalists and landed aristocrats.

Besides the majority of the land to be sold, a small portion of the remaining land will be held by the government and rented out at lower rents to ordinary people who cannot afford to buy land.

Not everyone can afford to buy land; for those who are relatively poor, renting a portion of the land is the preferred option.

Compared to nobles and capitalists leasing land, Carlo trusted the land leased by the royal family and the government more. After all, the royal family and the government were ethical, and the land rents were not only strictly enforced according to the Spanish land rent law, but were often even lower.

However, if those nobles and capitalists were to lease out the land, they would certainly set the land rent to the limit required by the rent law, and would not let go of even the slightest bit of profit.

There was absolutely no problem with doing so, since they had not violated any national laws; in fact, it could be said that they had strictly complied with the requirements of the land lease law.

Carlo, of course, would not reprimand the capitalists and nobles for this. What Carlo could do was to reduce the rent for land held by the government and the royal family as much as possible, so that the people who rented land from the government and the royal family could obtain more income of their own.

(End of this chapter)