Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 448 The Trouble for the British Government

As Caro had predicted, the French were indeed wealthy and powerful. They agreed to the prices proposed by Spain for airships and battleships almost without hesitation.

Of course, the French government wasn't without its demands. It hoped that Spain would refuse to sell airship technology to Germany and prioritize the construction of the Dreadnought-class battleships for France.

Spain was initially reluctant to agree, but after the French diplomatic representative offered to raise the price, Spain readily agreed.

This is why the total value of the trade agreement between the Spanish and French governments for airships and battleships reached an astonishing 3 million pesetas, making Spanish military enterprises very wealthy.

Although it's called a military-industrial enterprise, the ultimate beneficiaries are actually the royal family. The Dreadnought-class battleships were developed with funding from Carlo, and the Royal Guanizzo Shipyard, where the relevant design data was produced, also belongs to the royal family.

The airship technology also came from the airship research and development project of the Royal Academy of Sciences, which was funded by the royal family. Although the government also had a share, the royal family still held the majority stake.

The two orders with Italy and France totaled over 550 million pesetas, of which 300 million pesetas was essentially free profit from the sale of airship technology. The royal family only invested a little over 10 million pesetas in airship-related research and development.

The remaining battleships could each earn close to ten million pesetas.

These two orders alone will generate tens of millions of peseta in taxes to be paid to the government, making it a win-win situation for both the government and the royal family. Of course, Spain is the winner.

The Spanish Navy built a total of ten Dreadnought-class battleships, but only two, Dreadnought and Courage, are currently in service.

The battleship HMS Fury was launched last April and is expected to officially enter service with the Spanish Navy by the middle of this year. The battleship Revenge, on the other hand, only began construction at the beginning of last year and will need at least two to three more months before entering the sea trials phase.

The battleship Grimoire is the slowest-progressing of all battleships currently under construction. Construction only began in the middle of last year, and it will take at least another six months before it can be launched for testing, let alone enter service.

After the Colossus, a total of five more battleships need to be built. In addition, with orders from the Italian and French governments, Spain's major shipyards will be fully booked for the next five to six years.

This is a good thing for the development of the Spanish navy. Shipyards can accumulate experience through the continuous construction of battleships, while also gathering information on shortcomings in warship construction and design, thereby improving their own designs.

Shipyards that are constantly expanding production due to a surge in orders will also be able to meet the Spanish Navy's broader expansion needs in the future.

Previously, even with the entire nation's resources, Spain could only build three battleships every two years. Now, however, Spain can normally build two battleships a year, and in extreme cases, even three, nearly matching the warship construction speed of superpowers like Britain, France, and Germany.

According to the orders agreed upon by Spain, France, and Italy, the French required the delivery of the first battleship by the end of 1907 and a total of four battleships by the end of 1910.

Italy, on the other hand, demanded that Spain deliver the first battleship by the end of 1907 and a total of three battleships by the end of 1909.

This also means that Spain would have to build at least two battleships every year for the five years leading up to early 1910 in order to complete the order on time while meeting the needs of domestic naval expansion.

The good news is that, given the current construction speed of the Spanish naval shipyards, building two battleships a year is a breeze for Spain.

Both the Royal Guanizo Shipyard and the Valencia United Shipyard have the capability to build the Dreadnought-class battleships.

These two shipyards have docks capable of building warships of up to nearly 2.5 tons. They are the two largest shipyards in Spain and representatives of the royal family's military industry.

The Royal Guanizo Shipyard and the Valencia United Shipyard are currently expanding their second dry docks, with the hope of realizing the idea of ​​building two battleships simultaneously within a few years.

If the expansion of the second dry dock at these two shipyards proceeds smoothly, Spain may have the capacity to build four or even more battleships simultaneously in the future.

Of course, if a shipyard is building two or more battleships at the same time, the construction speed of each battleship will be affected.

With the two major shipyards currently building only one battleship each, the average construction time for each battleship is around 13 to 14 months, and at the latest, it will not exceed 15 months.

However, if each shipyard were to start construction on two battleships at the same time, the average construction time for each battleship could be delayed by nearly 20 months.

However, this approach is cost-effective. If built one by one, it could take as long as two and a half or even three years for a shipyard to build two battleships.

However, if construction of two battleships were started simultaneously, it would only take about two to two and a half years to complete the construction of both battleships.

Shortly after the military parade, the Spanish government took another major step: awarding titles and rewards to those who had distinguished themselves in the war.

According to statistics, as many as 46 people obtained noble titles through this battle, and another 6 nobles upgraded their noble titles.

Of these 46 new nobles, only two were granted the title of Earl, while the rest were granted the title of Baron. Of the six nobles who upgraded their titles, four were promoted from Baron to Earl, and only two were promoted from Earl to Duke.

In addition to the lavish bestowal of noble titles, the Spanish government also granted away a large tract of land. However, these lands were all located in Morocco, across the Strait of Gibraltar. Sending these new nobles to Morocco would also allow them to accelerate the development and assimilation of Morocco.

Apart from these few newly nobles who had made significant contributions, all the remaining soldiers received rewards, including money and land, based on their contributions in the war.

Even soldiers who had no real merit received an extra six months' salary, which demonstrated the generosity of the royal family.

It's important to understand that the average annual income of a Spanish soldier is currently around 450 pesetas. Even a bonus equivalent to only half a year's salary would amount to an expense of tens of millions of pesetas.

After receiving their rewards, the soldiers' loyalty to the royal family and the government increased somewhat.

Especially those officers and soldiers who had made some contributions in the war, but whose contributions were not enough to earn them a noble title, were thinking about fighting another war to earn a noble title so that they and their descendants could benefit.

Soldiers wounded or killed in the war, along with their families, received substantial compensation. While this compensation wasn't enough to completely change their lives, it ensured that families could continue to have enough to eat even after losing a member of their workforce.

Spain's regulations on compensation were unprecedented in Europe. Even the wealthy British Empire could not guarantee that all wounded and killed soldiers would receive adequate compensation after the war.

Although the amount of compensation received by each soldier may not be much, it adds up to a significant amount of government spending.

The generous rewards and pensions distributed within Spain greatly alleviated the pain caused by the war. The country was largely in a state of jubilation, with many soldiers even looking forward to the next battle.

It is worth mentioning that two of Carlo's trusted confidants from Italy, Minister Jordi and Carmen, also received promotions in rank because of this war.

Carmen Esposito, who commanded the siege of Gibraltar and the landings in Lisbon, has been promoted to general for his outstanding achievements and has been personally nominated by Carlo as his successor as chief of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense, officially entering the top echelons of the Spanish military.

As the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Jordi naturally had outstanding achievements, but since his rank was already that of Army General, it was impossible for him to be promoted further.

Both men were promoted to dukes for their outstanding contributions, which proves that military merit is indeed an effective way to quickly advance in rank and title.

Prime Minister Baron Olcajo was also promoted to count. This war was quite fruitful for the Spanish government and military. Spain recovered Gibraltar at a relatively low cost and regained control of Portugal, thus solidifying Spain's dominance in the Strait of Gibraltar.

And what about Britain? The British government is not in a good position at this time. The peace talks in Lisbon are still ongoing, and the British government is not yet willing to back down.

Although the British government has adopted a tough stance, it is clear to everyone that it is merely putting on a show.

At this time, Britain was in complete chaos. There was the wave of independence demonstrations launched by the Irish people, and thousands of miles away, there was the colonial liberation movement in the Indian colonies, which was giving the British government a major headache.

That wasn't the end of it. The war was a complete defeat for the British government, and the outcome was unacceptable to many British people.

Before the outbreak of this war, the British Empire was the undisputed world's leading power, a country that even European hegemons like Germany and France dared not easily provoke.

How could a single war cause Britain to fall from its pedestal and allow Spain, which originally had less influence, to shine so brightly?

The question then arises: whose fault was this war? Why was the mighty Royal Fleet utterly powerless against the Spanish Navy, even cowering on its home soil and daring not to retaliate in the slightest?

If the Royal Fleet performs like this, then the tens of millions of people in the British Empire will have questions: Are we paying taxes to support such a bunch of good-for-nothings?

With the world's largest navy in terms of size and tonnage, how could the Spanish Navy possibly defeat the British Navy?
Most of the British public found the outcome of the war unacceptable, placing the blame for the defeat entirely on the government and expressing their anger and dissatisfaction with the current British government and Prime Minister Balfour.

Protests against the cabinet government were seen everywhere on the streets of London, with large crowds gathering to demand that King Edward VII dismiss Prime Minister Balfour and replace him with a truly capable prime minister.

It's important to remember that this was only a few years after the end of the Victorian era. During the Victorian era, the British Empire was undoubtedly the world's dominant power, so it was understandable that the British people couldn't accept the defeat in the war.

In the eyes of the British public, Britain was still the undisputed world hegemon at this time. Britain could go to war with Spain, but it absolutely could not afford to be defeated, much less face a situation where its army and navy were both defeated by Spain.

If public anger is one of the problems for the British government, then how to deal with the marches of more than 100,000 prisoners' families is another.

Spain still held more than 100,000 British prisoners of war, who were like a tight rein on the British government and caused it a great deal of trouble.

The British government could not possibly accept Spain's extremely harsh reparations demands, but if it did not accept Spain's reparations demands, the British government would not be able to take back the more than 100,000 prisoners.

The British government originally intended to conceal the fact that the prisoners of war had been captured. They believed that as long as the people did not know that their families had been captured by the Spanish army, they would not cause trouble.

But Spain was not going to give the British government a chance to cover up the incident. After capturing more than 100,000 prisoners, Spain made a big fuss about the battle and circulated many photos of the prisoners.

The flurry of news reports from European countries, coupled with the release of numerous photos of prisoners, made it impossible for the British government to conceal the fact that Spain held a large number of prisoners.

The inability to conceal the large number of prisoners of war led to another problem: the British government simply could not count the number of wounded, killed, and captured soldiers.

Faced with inquiries from the soldiers' families, the British government was unsure whether the soldiers had died in battle or been captured by the Spanish army.

The British government's response infuriated the soldiers' families. Their loved ones had fought for Britain, yet the British government couldn't even determine whether they were alive or dead.

If someone dies on the battlefield, that's one thing; after all, war always results in casualties, and some soldiers' families can accept that.

But if their loved ones were still alive, only captured by the Spanish army, then the problem would be much bigger.

What did these soldiers gain by risking their lives for Britain and rushing to the battlefield? They gained nothing but the British government's disregard for their lives for its own interests. Knowing that a large number of prisoners were in the hands of Spain, they still refused to give up any of their interests for these prisoners.

The British government is still unaware of the condition of most soldiers, so it is impossible for it to provide pensions to the soldiers' families.

This has led to a fact that is unacceptable to all soldiers' families: after their loved ones fought for their country, they not only don't know the status of their loved ones, but they also cannot receive any compensation.

This situation enraged many soldiers' relatives, who gathered together, holding banners that read "Give us back our families," and marched in large numbers through major British cities.

Although the British government was very troubled by the marches by the soldiers' families, they could only send a small number of police officers to persuade them, and dared not obstruct or use the army to suppress them.

This is no joke. These people marching are all family members of British soldiers, and if they were to be suppressed by force, it would discourage all British soldiers.

If the British government were to actually do this, it's likely that public opinion wouldn't even be needed to overthrow the government; the British army would immediately mutini, triggering an even greater crisis for Britain.

It was clear that the British government's persuasion had no effect whatsoever. The families of these soldiers would not accept the British government's explanations; they wanted a clear outcome.

Either their loved ones died in battle, and the government provided them with compensation; or they learned that their loved ones were still in Iberia, in which case they demanded that the government relinquish some of its benefits to ransom the prisoners.

Unfortunately, the British government failed to provide a clear answer. Britain deployed over 20 troops to the Portuguese front. Apart from the remains of soldiers from the early stages of the war, which were brought back home, the remains of soldiers from the later stages were simply too numerous to be brought back in time.

In addition, most of the main force of the British army had been captured by the Spanish, so the British government only knew the general casualties of the war and had no idea about the specific condition of the soldiers.

Are we to ask the British government to lie to these soldiers' families? While this might solve some of the problems, the prisoner issue still needs to be addressed eventually.

The Spanish side was well aware of the chaos within the British government. In order to get the British government to back down as soon as possible, Carlo specifically instructed intelligence agents from the Royal Security Intelligence Service to contact the Irish Republican Brotherhood and have them cause some trouble for the British in Ireland.

The Irish Republican Brotherhood is a major strategic move by Carlo in Ireland, and at least for now, Carlo has no intention of exposing the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

It would be easy for Britain to suppress the Irish uprising at present. It would be necessary to wait until the world war made Britain too busy to plan the Irish War of Independence.

If Britain had been Spain's enemy during the World War, Carlos would not have hesitated at all and would have directly instructed the Irish Republican Brotherhood to plan an independence war during the war, delivering a fatal blow to the British.

If the British had become allies of Spain during the World War, Carlo would have waited until the end of the war to plan for Irish independence, allowing Britain to play its proper role in the war.

Although the Irish Republican Brotherhood could not be exposed at this time, it could still cause some trouble for the British in other ways.

The Irish were already dissatisfied with the British government, so it was incredibly easy to create some conflict between the Irish and the British rulers.

If the British government does not want the situation to collapse completely, it must make some concessions in peace negotiations in order to focus on solving domestic problems.

If the British government still refuses to back down, Carlo wouldn't mind making things even more chaotic for the British government.

It's safe to assume that the European powers were interested in partitioning British colonies. This was especially true for European powers like Germany and Italy, which didn't have many colonies. Faced with Britain's wealthy colonies, these European nations might genuinely be tempted and consider dividing them up.

(End of this chapter)