Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 404 1900
The clock struck midnight on the eve of 1900, marking the beginning of a new era for the world: the 20th century.

For the Spanish people, there is excitement over the government's report on its achievements of the century. Some of the data presented in the report has been reported by numerous newspapers and media outlets, and almost all Spaniards are excited and thrilled by the country's accomplishments.

While the Spanish were excited about their country's achievements, waves of strikes swept across Europe.

The 20th century was destined to be an extraordinary 100 years, because it began in an extraordinary way.

On January 4, 1900, a wave of strikes swept across Europe, with workers demanding that their governments protect more of their interests. Workers in major powers such as Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria, and Italy almost all went on strike.

Spain fared better because Carlos had already formed the Workers' Party early on, which had already diverted workers' discontent with the government.

Furthermore, given the Spanish government's genuine care for its working class, it's unlikely that workers would stage protests against the government.

Moreover, on December 31, 1899, the Spanish government reported on the growth of the average annual income of the Spanish people.

With the Spanish people's living standards improving, how could they possibly oppose the government when they are living a happy life?

After all, opposing the government is opposing their own current life. Do they really want their lives to get worse and worse?

On the second day of the wave of strikes sweeping across Europe, John Edward Edmund, leader of the Irish Nationalist Party, publicly called on the Irish people to resist British rule and drive the British out of Ireland.

While such a public appeal was not enough to bring down British rule in Ireland, John Edward Edmund's actions still caused the British government great humiliation.

For Britain, this was not the only problem. On the second day, January 6, India, Britain's most important colony, experienced the largest famine in its history, affecting hundreds of millions of people and leaving millions on the brink of death.

The British government doesn't care about the situation of these affected Indian people. Even if there were tens of millions of Indians on the verge of death, what difference would it make?

The British government wouldn't care how many Indians die, but the impact of this famine on the situation in India is something the British government needs to worry about.

What the British cared about was the stability of their rule over India. The duration of the famine was less important than preventing opposition among the Indians from sabotaging the system or even launching an armed uprising. This was what the British government needed to focus on.

The British have quite a few troubles.

While the Irish and Indian issues were escalating, in South Africa, Boer guerrillas launched a counter-offensive against British-occupied territories.

Although the small-scale attack was quickly defeated by the British army, such frequent harassment was a huge problem for Britain.

Five years have passed since the end of the Boer War, but the British government has had to deploy nearly 300,000 troops in the Boer-populated areas for military suppression.

These armies faced numerous battles, large and small, every day, and the casualties and material losses they incurred placed a huge financial burden on Britain.

When the Indian colonies were stable, such a financial burden was not a problem for the wealthy British. However, with an unprecedented famine breaking out in the Indian colonies, the British government was forced to do everything possible to cut its budget.

At the end of January 1900, the German government promulgated the second phase of the Naval Construction Act, announcing the expansion of the German Navy and the construction of its own fleet.

The British are facing one problem after another, and other European countries are also facing significant issues.

First came Vienna, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On January 27, 1900, coal miners held a massive strike in Vienna, which subsequently spread to other major cities such as Budapest.

Now other European countries can no longer laugh at Britain. With their own backyard on fire, putting out the fire is the most important thing.

In the UK, the Labour Representatives Council was established. The purpose of the Labour Representatives Council was to achieve independent labor representation in the British Parliament, providing a political platform for the vast working class in the UK.

This labor representative committee was later renamed the British Labour Party, which became the largest party in the British Parliament.

The strikes and demonstrations that have erupted in most industrialized European countries have each had their own methods for handling the situation. However, most of these methods involve political compromises to satisfy the workers and prevent further demonstrations.

This is exactly what the German government did, and the results were very good. In March 1900, striking coal miners in Germany began to return to their jobs, and Germany gradually recovered from the impact of the strikes and demonstrations.

While other European countries were dealing with strikes and demonstrations, in Spain, Carlos summoned engineers and managers from several major shipyards for a secret meeting regarding the development of the Spanish Navy.

The main purpose of this meeting was to discuss the newly developed submarine. Although Spain's current first-generation submarines still have some shortcomings, with the establishment of the National Propulsion Laboratory, the diesel engines are being continuously upgraded.

Carlo convened this meeting to have these naval designers design a more powerful submarine for the Spanish Navy.

In Carlo's plan for the development of the Spanish Navy, the role of submarines was no less important than that of battleships, and in some cases even more important.

In addition to being able to launch surprise attacks on the enemy's main warships, submarines can also harass enemy sea lanes and disrupt enemy supply lines.

With the continuous advancement of diesel engine technology, the performance of Spanish submarines can be greatly improved.

Carlo was naturally not satisfied with the rudimentary submarine design of the previous generation. Spanish submarines not only had to become more powerful, but also had to be improved generation after generation.

It must be acknowledged that there is still a significant difference in power output between gasoline and diesel engines. Under Diesel's leadership, the National Power Laboratory has made generation after generation of improvements to diesel engines, which has enabled current diesel engine power to quickly exceed 200 kilowatts.

How exaggerated is such power? The gasoline engines used in Spain's previous generation of submarines only had a paltry 33 kilowatts of power.

In terms of power, current diesel engines are seven times more powerful than the original gasoline engines.

The increase in diesel engine power is a comprehensive enhancement for submarines.

The previous generation of submarines had a paltry surface speed of only 7 knots and an underwater speed of less than 5 knots. Converted to more familiar units, this is equivalent to a surface speed of 13 kilometers per hour and an underwater speed of 9 kilometers per hour.

It's important to know that a normal person can walk at a speed close to 5 kilometers per hour, and run at a speed of 6 to 12 kilometers per hour.

This also means that the surface speed of the previous generation of Spanish submarines was equivalent to the maximum speed of a person jogging, while the underwater speed was equivalent to the normal walking speed of a person.

With diesel engine power exceeding 200 kilowatts, the surface and underwater speeds of the new generation of submarines are also expected to see a significant breakthrough.

While it may not be able to match the speed of current mainstream warships, its surface speed can easily exceed double digits, and its underwater speed should also be close to double digits.

This is quite important for the development of submarines, since submarine operations cannot be limited to a certain area; they must at least cover a vast sea area.

If the speed were only a pitiful few knots, the enemy warships would probably have already completed their transport mission before the Spanish submarines even reached their designated combat positions.

During this meeting on submarine development, Carlo made his demands to all the warship designers present.

Each shipyard is required to design a more powerful submarine for the Spanish Navy, based on existing diesel engine and submarine manufacturing technologies.

The new submarine must have a surface speed of at least 15 knots and an underwater speed of at least 10 knots, and must be capable of destroying an enemy's main warship in one strike.

In addition, submarines also need to have the ability to travel long distances. The previous generation of submarines had a surface range of up to 1000 kilometers and an underwater range of 50 kilometers.

Carlo hopes that the next generation of submarines will achieve new heights in both surface and underwater range, enabling them to operate at greater distances.

As it turns out, the Spanish warship designers were quite capable. Firstly, Spain had accumulated sufficient experience in submarines, and secondly, these warship designers also had ample experience in warship design.

With the combined efforts of both, these warship designers presented Carlo with a near-perfect submarine design blueprint in less than half a month.

Because the diesel engine power has increased by nearly seven times, the new submarine is significantly larger than the previous generation.

The previous generation of submarines was only 15 meters long, while the new generation of submarines has increased in length to 45 meters, a full three times longer.

The submarine's width also reached an astonishing 6.12 meters, making the entire submarine look like a behemoth, truly resembling a warship.

In terms of submarine power, the new submarine is expected to be equipped with two diesel engines with a power of over 200 kilowatts. Considering the size and tonnage of the submarine, this is more than enough to meet Carlo's requirements for submarine speed.

The new submarine is expected to have a surface speed of 15 knots and an underwater speed of 9.8 knots, which meets Carlo's requirements.

Because the size of submarines has increased several times, they can hold a much larger amount of fuel and batteries.

This also results in an increased expected range for the new submarine compared to its predecessor. The new submarine is expected to have a surface range of 1550 kilometers and an underwater range of 104 kilometers, which can basically meet various combat requirements and situations.

It is worth mentioning that the National Power Laboratory has also made some breakthroughs in the development of electric motors, which has greatly improved the power of the electric motors on this new submarine, which is why the submarine's underwater speed has almost doubled.

Of course, increasing the power of the electric motor comes at a cost. Because of the increased power, even if the submarine accommodates more batteries, its underwater range is still only 104 kilometers, which is less than a fraction of its surface range.

Fortunately, once the submarine submerged, it could begin its combat mission, and the range of over 100 kilometers was sufficient for most of these missions.

After all, current warships do not have radar technology, so it is impossible for them to detect submarines from tens of kilometers away.

As long as the submarine submerges underwater at a distance of ten kilometers, quietly approaches the enemy warship, and launches a torpedo, it can almost always kill the enemy with a single shot and complete its combat mission.

What pleased Carlo the most was the submarine's firepower deployment.

The previous generation of submarines, due to their small size, only had one torpedo tube deployed at the bow.

The new submarine design has a total of three torpedo tubes, with two located at the bow and one at the stern.

In addition to the increase in the number of torpedo tubes, the caliber of the torpedo tubes has also been greatly increased.

The new submarine is equipped with three torpedo tubes, all of which are 15 inches in diameter, or 381 millimeters in diameter.

It's important to know that the main gun calibers on European warships are currently only 13 inches and 13.5 inches. 14-inch guns are not common on warships in European countries, let alone 15-inch guns.

This is also the source of Spain's confidence in its new warships being able to kill enemy warships with a single blow. If the 381mm torpedo hits, there is a very high probability that it can directly destroy the enemy warship.

In addition to the increase in the number and caliber of torpedo tubes, the new submarine also carries more torpedoes, increasing the number from three to six.

Generally speaking, the more torpedoes a submarine carries, the stronger its ability to sink enemy warships.

Even if it takes two torpedoes to sink a warship, these six torpedoes are enough for a submarine to find an opportunity to sink three enemy warships.

Even if the submarine is eventually discovered and sunk by the enemy, exchanging one submarine for three enemy warships is definitely a worthwhile deal.

The previous generation of submarines had a displacement of only 64 tons. Compared to a warship with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons, the entire submarine was as small as a sesame seed.

However, due to the comprehensive increase in size, the new submarine design has resulted in an unprecedented displacement of 427 tons.

This is just the estimated surface displacement; the underwater displacement could reach nearly 600 tons, which is already the tonnage of a small warship.

The previous generation of submarines could only accommodate 7 combat personnel, while the new submarine design can accommodate at least 15 to 20 combat personnel.

The reason for having so many combat personnel is that switching the submarine's power system and loading torpedoes require a large number of people.

Operating a submarine weighing hundreds of tons is not easy. Several people are needed just for the submarine's pilot and observer. Sometimes, even a dozen people are not enough. It takes more than twenty people to properly operate the submarine and carry out combat missions.

So far, the new submarine design has brought almost entirely good news. Carlo is quite satisfied, because the more powerful the submarine's various specifications, the stronger its actual combat capability.

But when Carlo turned to the last page and saw the skyrocketing cost of the new submarine, he couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache.

The previous generation of submarines cost only £50,000, or 750,000 pesetas. The cost of the new generation of submarines has nearly quadrupled, with each submarine costing nearly £200,000, or 5 million pesetas.

The previous generation of submarines, Carlo, built ten at once, and the total cost of the ten submarines was less than ten million pesetas, which was a small sum of money for the Spanish government.

However, with the cost of each submarine approaching 500 million pesetas, Carlo dared not easily make the boastful claim of building ten submarines at once.

Ten submarines would cost close to 50 million to build. Add to that the cost of training submariners and the expenses for daily training, and the total cost would definitely be over 60 million pesetas.

Although such a brand-new submarine is quite expensive, the development of submarines is essential for Spain.

In Carlo's mind, the benefits of recapturing Gibraltar and annexing Portugal far outweighed the disadvantages of being at odds with Britain.

Now that the decision has been made to be enemies with Britain, the shipping routes from British colonies to the British mainland, as well as Britain's powerful navy, need to be addressed.

That depends on the British choice. If Britain sides with France and Russia as it has historically done, then Carlo will have no choice but to join Germany and launch the Battle of Jutland together.

However, the British chose the German side, and the combined fleets of France, Spain, and Russia might not be a match for them.

However, if one were to side with France, one would have to consider the enormous threat posed by Germany after Russia withdrew from the war.

The threat posed by the Anglo-German alliance was greater than that of the Anglo-French alliance, and Spain also needed to commit more troops to the war to prevent France from being completely defeated by Germany on land.

From this perspective, being an enemy of Germany doesn't seem like a good thing. But if Spain stood with Germany and won the world war, what benefit would a dominant Germany in Europe bring?

After much deliberation, the best course of action for Carlos and Spain is to ensure that both the loser and the winner suffer significant losses, regardless of which side they choose.

For Carlos and Spain, either side could be the victor in World War I, but the victor could not be a decisive one; they could only achieve a Pyrrhic victory.

After confirming that there were no problems with the new submarine design, Carlo handed over the design drawings to major shipyards, requesting them to produce new submarines for the Spanish Navy to arm the Spanish fleet.

Although the new submarines were somewhat expensive, Carlos still chose to build ten submarines at once. However, the construction time was delayed from the original three years to five years, which means that the Spanish government will only need to pay one-fifth of the cost each year for the next five years, which is ten million pesetas.

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(End of this chapter)