Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 395 Economic Alliance of Spanish-speaking Countries
Negotiations between the Liberal Party and the Workers' Party continued for more than a month, finally concluding in early 1898.

Since 1898, the history of the Liberal Party and the Workers' Party in Spain has come to a complete end, and these two parties will also have a new name: the Socialist Workers' Party.

On its very first day of operation, the Socialist Workers Party publicly announced its political demands and party constitution and platform, detailing its future political plans and ideals.

The purpose of this is simple: to introduce this brand-new political party to the Spanish people and attract like-minded people to join.

As expected, as the news published by the Socialist Workers' Party spread throughout Spain, heated discussions about this new party began.

Although the Liberal Party has lost popular support, the Workers' Party firmly controls the votes of the working class. The Socialist Workers' Party, building upon the foundation of the Liberals' Party, added the political ideals of social welfare and social justice, successfully attracting more attention from Spaniards.

While the general public may not be able to distinguish the political ideologies of each party, they can certainly tell which party's political ideology is more advantageous to them.

If you have to support a political party, why not choose the one that is more beneficial to you?
Carlo did not focus on the changes in the Spanish political situation after the founding of the Socialist Workers' Party for too long.

After all, both the Workers' Party and the Socialist Workers' Party are under Carlo's control. These parties will not only not affect Carlo's rule over Spain, but will instead become useful tools for him to govern Spain.

Under these circumstances, Carlo naturally had nothing to worry about. Moreover, the merged Socialist Workers' Party was only the third largest party in Spain, and before the lower house elections began, the Conservative Party and the Progressive Party still held the most seats in the lower house.

Carlo also hopes to stimulate the Conservative and Progressive parties by merging the Liberal and Workers parties, forcing them to do everything possible to implement their party platform in order to gain more public support.

It must be said that the formation of the Socialist Workers' Party did have some impact on the Conservative and Progressive parties.

The newly formed party quickly attracted a lot of attention from Spaniards through newspaper propaganda, which made the Conservative Party and the Progressive Party realize the crisis.

The Conservative Party is in a better position because it has a base of support among nobles and large landowners. In addition, since the majority of Spain's population is farmers, the Socialist Workers Party will not be able to affect the Conservative Party's status for the time being.

But the Progressive Party is completely different. There is some overlap between the Progressive Party's audience and the Socialist Workers' Party's audience. Those people who are attracted by the Socialist Workers' Party's information published in newspapers may be supporters of the Progressive Party.

Faced with the potential poaching by the Socialist Workers' Party, even the Progressive Party, currently the second largest party in Spain, has had to express its concerns.

The Progressive Party's response was simple: to emulate the Socialist Workers' Party by promoting its party constitution and political ideology in newspapers to attract more people to join.

Unlike the Socialist Workers Party, which focuses on workers and social welfare, the Progressive Party incorporates nationalist and Pan-Iberian elements into its propaganda to attract attention.

In fact, as Spain has grown stronger, nationalism has become very prevalent in Spain.

For these nationalists, the Progressive Party's addition of nationalist elements to its propaganda did indeed make them feel a difference.

Pan-Iberianism needs no introduction; it is an ideology that has swept across the entire Iberian Peninsula and has also gained recognition from many people in Spain and Portugal.

In other words, Carlo believed that now was not the best time, otherwise the Iberians in Portugal alone could easily annex the country.

Of course, conquering the world is easy, but maintaining it is difficult. Conquering Portugal was a very simple matter, but how to permanently occupy and assimilate Portugal was an extremely difficult task.

Although the Portuguese and Spanish share a high degree of similarity in language, culture and other customs, this does not mean that the Portuguese will be easily assimilated by the Spanish.

If any problems arise in the assimilation process, it could lead to Portugal being forced to regain its independence, just as Spain did when it annexed Portugal.

The founding of the Socialist Workers' Party ushered in 1898, and Carlo was also paying close attention to the development of the international situation in 1898.

The year 1898 was a very special year in history. The Spanish-American War broke out in this year, and it was the war with the Americans that brought the Spanish government, which was still indulging in fantasy, into reality.

Historically, before the Spanish-American War, Spain occasionally appeared in the rankings of European powers.

However, after the Spanish-American War, Spain had completely fallen out of the ranks of the great powers. At this time, Spain was far behind the great powers in terms of overall strength, international status, and prestige.

Unlike Spain in history, Spain at this time had undergone reforms and nearly 30 years of development, making its overall national strength much stronger.

Carlo was not afraid of war with the Americans at all, because Cuba had been given to Britain, and the United States seemed to have no reason to start a war with Spain.

And that was indeed the case. As two months passed in 1898, Carlo was surprised to find that the Americans had not taken any further action.

It seems unlikely that a Spanish-American war like the one in history will happen again. Even if the Americans wanted to demonstrate their strength to the world, they would probably choose a different target.

After all, Spain was already firmly in the top four among the great powers at this time, and European countries generally believed that Spain's overall strength was stronger than that of Austria-Hungary. The US government did not need to find such a powerful opponent for itself all at once.

Ultimately, the United States only truly deserves its status as a major power in terms of its economy and industry. While its military strength is not weak, it still ranks at the bottom among the major powers.

To think that an army and navy of such caliber could defeat Spain was clearly wishful thinking.

Although it was confirmed that the Spanish-American War would not happen again, Carlo did not reduce his attention to the situation in the Americas.

On the contrary, starting in March 1898, Carlo actually intensified his attention to the situation in the Americas.

The reason is simple: the construction of the Panama Canal has been ongoing for 15 years, and two-thirds of the original construction period has passed.

It would be a big mistake to think that the Panama Canal is nearing completion. Due to the various reasons mentioned earlier, the construction of the Panama Canal is currently only one-third of the total project.

The remaining two-thirds are mostly the most difficult sections, which means the project budget will be higher than before, and it will also take much longer.

Although France, in order to retain control over the operation and management of the canal after the previous canal company went bankrupt, organized another company to take over the project.

However, due to the severe impact on the canal's construction progress, the canal's construction could not be completed within the originally planned timeframe.

This is precisely what Carlo is concerned about. The fact that French companies cannot complete the Panama Canal as originally planned means they must face two choices.

They can either request the Colombian government to extend the construction period by several years or even a decade, or find a strong partner to accelerate the canal's construction by sharing operation and management rights, thus preventing excessive delays in the overall construction schedule.

It is currently virtually impossible to complete the canal construction within the originally scheduled timeframe. However, the duration of the delay varies, and the resulting reputational and financial losses for France will naturally differ accordingly.

Carlo's aim was also to take advantage of France's inability to carry out its planned attack in order to get as much Spanish capital as possible involved in the construction of the Panama Canal.

In this way, Spain could acquire the right to operate the Panama Canal peacefully. Although this operation would be a joint effort with France, it would be beneficial for Spain as long as the Americans were not involved.

Of course, it is still uncertain whether the French government is willing to share the operation and management rights of the Panama Canal with Spain.

However, if they are unwilling to share management rights with Spain, they must request the Colombian government to grant a several-year extension for the construction period, along with some compensation.

Carlo's focus on the Panama Canal's operation and management rights stems primarily from the United States' covetousness of control over the canal.

Even before the construction of the Panama Canal began, the United States established the Panama Canal Project Provisional Association, with Ulysses S. Grant, a famous general from the Civil War and former US President, serving as the provisional association's chairman.

In 1880, the U.S. government dispatched two cruisers to the port of Colombia under the guise of a diplomatic visit to show off its military power.

In 1881, the United States and Colombia signed an agreement stipulating that they should establish maritime military defense outposts at strategic points on the Isthmus of Panama.

These defensive positions are normally guarded by Colombian troops, but in the event of war, they are taken over by the U.S. Marine Corps.

The agreement had already been signed, but it was ultimately rejected by Colombia due to strong opposition from the Colombian Congress.

It was precisely because of the strong pressure from the United States that Colombia had no choice but to call on European countries to jointly guarantee the neutral status of the Panama Canal.

European countries would like to see the Panama Canal remain neutral, but the United States would not.

After all, to put it bluntly, the Panama Canal is the lifeline of the United States, not the lifeline of European countries.

Compared to the number of ships passing through the Panama Canal from European countries, the number of ships passing through the Panama Canal from the United States is several times, or even dozens of times, greater.

Under such circumstances, the only one who would suffer from the Panama Canal's neutrality is actually the United States. Historically, due to the Spanish-American War in 1898, the United States did not have much energy to monitor the Panama Canal's movements at this time.

But things were different now, because the Spanish-American War was not going to break out, so almost all of America’s attention and energy were focused on the Panama Canal.

In February 1898, the American ambassador approached the British government, seeking British support in the struggle for control of the Panama Canal.

But the British weren't stupid either. Without the diplomatic pressure of the Boer War, Britain wouldn't simply give up control of the Panama Canal.

Although the Panama Canal is currently being built by France, Britain's arch-rival, Britain will also gain some control after the canal is completed. Why create more trouble to help the Americans gain control of the canal?

Seeing that it could not gain the support of the British, the United States turned its attention to other European powers.

Apart from France, Spain is currently the only country with real influence in the Americas.

Britain, France, and Spain—these three powers were the colonial empires that once colonized the Americas. Another colonial empire was Portugal, but Portugal was not a major power and had very little influence in Panama, so it was naturally overlooked by the United States.

As can be seen from the language distribution map of South American countries, only Brazil actually speaks Portuguese.

With the exception of Guyana, which was divided between Britain, the Netherlands, and France, almost all of South America is Spanish-speaking.

This also shows how glorious the Spanish Empire was, as most of the countries in South America were once Spanish colonies.

It is precisely for this reason that the United States wants Spain's support to help it compete for control of the Panama Canal.

Unfortunately, the Americans did not realize that Carlo's fear of the United States was far greater than his fear of Britain and France.

If the British were being polite in their refusal, Spain's was a blatant rejection. Spain even expressed interest in controlling the Panama Canal, showing absolutely no leniency towards the American ambassador.

After being thwarted in Europe, the US government realized that it was no longer possible to gain control of the Panama Canal with the support of European countries.

Since this fair and square way of seizing control is not feasible, the United States can only come up with some more insidious methods to gain control of the canal as much as possible.

What insidious method?
Since the Colombian government that controls the Panama region does not support the United States, it's simple: just let the Panama region secede and support a Panamanian government that supports the United States.
With the support of the Panamanian government, the United States could easily gain control of the canal. As for France, which built the canal, since it was a treaty with Colombia, they should go after the Colombian government; what business is it of the Panamanian government?

Thinking about this, U.S. government officials gradually became excited.

The US may not be good at fighting wars, but it is quite adept at causing sabotage within Colombia for these US officials.

Moreover, the political situation in Colombia is already quite chaotic, and the United States only needs to add a little fuel to the fire to make Colombia, like a dormant volcano, erupt again.

The political turmoil in Colombia is mainly due to the conflict between the conservative and liberal parties.

As mentioned before, as early as the New Granada Republic era, Colombia already saw the emergence of independent regimes for the Conservative and Liberal parties.

The Liberal Party was in power from 1849 to 1857 and from 1860 to 1884, during which time it carried out several reforms, abolished serfdom and government monopolies, abolished clergy privileges, confiscated church property, drafted a constitution, stipulated the separation of church and state, and declared freedom of religion, speech and publication for the people, among others.

While these actions did indeed make Colombia stronger at the time, they also caused fierce conflicts between the Liberal Party, a reformist faction, and the clergy and landowning class.

This brings us back to the history of South American independence. Although the South American countries gained independence under Portuguese and Spanish colonial rule, they lacked a clear understanding of their own political systems.

These South American countries have never had a clear stance on federalism versus republicanism. This has led to a situation where the various political parties have developed independently, making the situation completely uncontrollable.

Although the Liberal Party governed for a considerable period, the Conservative Party, with the support of the church and the large landowning class, actually controlled more troops than the Liberals.

Under such circumstances, how could the Liberal Party possibly carry out complete and thorough reforms?
The army held by the Conservative Party and the landowning class is not just for show; in order to protect their own interests, they will certainly launch a corresponding war to end the Liberal Party's reforms.

This is also the biggest difference between these South American countries and Spain.

Although Spain at that time had both reformists and conservatives, the Progressive Party, which was a reformist party, controlled the country's army.

Neither the church nor the large landowning class had enough troops to start a civil war, which is why the reforms in Spain were successful.

Colombia's situation is completely different from Spain's, which is why, despite the Liberal Party's decades-long rule, reforms have not been very effective due to long-term opposition from the conservative party.

The reason the United States had the idea of ​​instigating Panama's independence was precisely because of the chaotic situation in Colombia.

It's no exaggeration to say that Colombia at this time was like a powder keg, ready to explode at any moment.

Colombia also experienced the Thousand Days' War during this period, a civil war between the Conservative and Liberal parties that caused heavy losses and completely removed Colombia from the ranks of South American powers.

Carlo was naturally aware of this part of Colombia's history. Whether war would break out in Colombia was not important to Carlo; what was important to him was whether Panama would secede, and whether the United States would interfere in the Colombian war and Panama's independence.

Colombia can go to war, and Panama can secede from Colombia. The problem is that the US cannot interfere, and it's also necessary to prevent the US from controlling the post-independence Panamanian government.

How can we prevent the United States from taking control of the Panamanian government after independence? The simplest way is to take control of the Panamanian government before the United States does, or to prevent the independence of the Panamanian region.

For Spain at present, both the first and second options are perhaps viable.

In mid-March 1898, the Spanish government formally proposed an economic union for the Spanish-speaking region.

The term "Spanish-speaking region" is easy to understand; it refers to regions where Spanish is spoken. These regions are mainly concentrated in the Americas, including many countries in South America, as well as Central America and Morocco.

For Spain, these former colonies could still provide significant assistance after independence.

In particular, cooperation with many South American countries, even in the economic sphere, can accelerate Spain's industrial and economic development.

Once these Spanish-speaking regions become potential markets for Spain, Spanish industrial products can be easily dumped into these countries and regions.

Although the individual countries are not large in area and population, the combined population and land area of ​​these American countries are still quite large.

In addition to dumping industrial goods into these American countries, Spain could also import large quantities of cheap resources from them.

Needless to say, this proposal was naturally put forward by Carlo's men.

For Spain, integrating Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas would allow it to further narrow the gap with the top European powers.

The proposal was quickly passed in parliament. These Spanish-speaking countries were all former Spanish colonies, so it was only natural for Spain to strengthen ties with these regions.

After all, a significant portion of the population of these South American countries is of Spanish descent. In the absence of conflicting interests, these countries and peoples naturally feel closer to Spain.

To form this economic alliance of Spanish-speaking countries, the support of many Spanish-speaking countries in South America is needed, which requires Spain's diplomatic efforts.

Therefore, Carlo entrusted this important task to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If they could gain the support of these Spanish-speaking countries through diplomatic means and establish an economic alliance among them, it would be beneficial for both Spain and these American nations.

Colombia is also a Spanish-speaking country. If Colombia could be incorporated into the Spanish-speaking countries' economic alliance, Spain's influence in Colombia would increase significantly.

Spain's increased influence in Colombia means it has more power over the control of the Panama Canal.

While it wouldn't necessarily give Spain control of the Panama Canal, it would significantly reduce the likelihood of the United States getting involved in its construction and operation.

Even if Panama were to secede from Colombia, it would still belong to the Spanish-speaking region. Carlo's desire to establish an economic alliance of Spanish-speaking countries stems from this very purpose.

Regardless of whether Panama becomes independent or not, Spain wields significant influence in Panama and Colombia. If the French company building the canal changes hands in the future, Spain could naturally take over the construction and thus gain control of the Panama Canal.

　Second update, 6000 words, completing 10,000 words in one day!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)