Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 57 Cuba Ping

May 1870 was an ordinary month, but a wonderful one for Carlo.

Following the successful establishment of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, Carlo received another piece of good news: the Duke of Serrano had resolved the rebellion in Cuba and the army was on the way back to Spain.

This made Carlo feel relieved, as he no longer had to worry about Cuba escaping Spain's control due to any accident.

As one of the few Spanish colonies with positive returns, Cuba is still very important. In addition to providing a steady stream of funds and income in the early stages of Spain's reform, it can also serve as a positive asset to help Spain replace colonies with more potential in the future.

In Carlo's future plans for Spanish colonies, colonies in Africa were the most important, especially Morocco in Northwest Africa.

Because there is only a small strait between Morocco and mainland Spain, it would be quite easy to achieve localization if Morocco could be controlled.

Only colonies that can be localized are territories that can be truly defended. After all, the colonial era cannot last long.

Carlo did not have much ambition for colonies. What Spain really wanted was to have colonies that could provide Spain with much-needed resources and serve as its homeland in the future.

Spain is now too large to control too many colonies, otherwise the rebellion in the colonies would be enough to make Spain overwhelmed.

When Serrano went to Cuba to quell the rebellion, Carlo also talked with Serrano and said that if necessary, he could allow Cuba some power in exchange for Spain's control over Cuba.

You know, the Cuban War of Independence lasted for nearly ten years in history, and the Spanish government paid nearly 7 million pesos.

Carlo doesn't want to see the current Spanish government spend so much money on suppressing the rebellion in Cuba. The best way is to make some compromises with the Cuban government and delay it as long as possible.

Carlo's goal is simply to ensure that there will be no problems in Cuba for the next decade or so.

As for whether Cuba will launch another war of independence more than ten years later, that is something that the country that takes over Cuba at that time should consider.

Serrano did exactly that. As a former governor of Cuba, Duke Serrano knew everything about the situation in Cuba.

It did not require much investigation for Duke Serrano to know which forces could be won over and which forces needed to be dealt with first, so the efficiency of suppressing the rebellion was naturally doubled.

Relying on the strategy of winning over one faction and suppressing another, Duke Serrano quickly stabilized the chaos in Cuba, and this massive Cuban rebellion finally ended.

Of course, the troops that accompanied Serrano to Cuba also played a crucial role. Without these 5000-strong troops, some forces in Cuba would not necessarily have cooperated with Serrano's actions.

In short, after promising political reforms in Cuba and granting more power to certain forces, the Cuban War of Independence officially ended, and Serrano led his army on the journey back to Spain.

For Carlo, he could finally begin preparing to reward the army lavishly and train a new group of nobles loyal to him.

After Primo put down the Carlist rebellion, Carlo wanted to confer the title of Duke on Primo, and a corresponding celebration ceremony was also being prepared.

However, due to various delays, it was delayed until May, which happened to be the time when Serrano put down the rebellion.

Carlo immediately decided to hold two celebration ceremonies at the same time and confer titles on Serrano and Primo at the same time. Since Serrano was already a duke, Carlo decided to make him a grand duke to gain Serrano's loyalty.

Primo will also be conferred the title of Duke and become an important figure among the Spanish nobility.

Carlo considered for a long time before conferring the title of Grand Duke on Serrano. Compared with Primo, Serrano was more conservative and his stance was also that of the royalist faction.

To put it more simply, although Serrano and Primo can be regarded as Carlo's right-hand men, Primo is more loyal to Spain. He only chooses to be loyal to Carlo because Carlo is the king of Spain.

Serrano was different. His political stance was more royalist, and his loyalty to Carlo was not necessarily less than that of Spain.

Moreover, Serrano's prestige in the army is no less than Primo's. If Carlo can gain Serrano's absolute loyalty, his position in Spain will be completely secure.

Even if he loses Primo's support, Carlo does not have to worry about the instability of his throne. At least he is qualified to engage in political struggle with Primo or the next prime minister.

Otherwise, how could he compete for power with the next prime minister relying solely on his status as an outsider and more than 2,000 royal guards?

Carlo is not naive enough to think that all prime ministers are people like Primo who have great respect for the royal power. Moreover, Primo's respect for Carlo is also partly because he wants to promote reforms in Spain, and reforms cannot be achieved without the support of the king.

So no matter what the relationship with Primo is like now, it is very necessary to make plans for the future and to make plans for gradually taking on more power.

Carlo did not come to Spain to be a mascot. If he wanted to realize his ideals and ambitions, he had to have a certain influence in the government, or at least be able to interfere with the government's decisions at certain times.

Serrano's returning fleet set out on May 5, and it would take at least June to reach Spain.

This is a good thing, as Carlo will have more time to prepare for the promotion of Serrano and Primo, as well as rewarding many heroes who have made contributions in suppressing the rebellion.

The good news is that although the Spanish nobility still has considerable privileges, the lowest-level barons and viscounts do not actually have any special rights.

Apart from the fact that the titles can be inherited, these two titles are more of an honorary nature and have no jurisdiction over the lands acquired.

Enfeoffment of such new-style nobility would not cause much harm to the country; it would simply require the sacrifice of some land.

But compared with other European countries, Spain was not short of land. Moreover, there were still large tracts of land in Africa that had not been divided up by the great powers. These lands could be used to enfeoff new nobles.

In the future, whether these new nobles establish large farms or invest in other industries, they will be helpful to the economic development of Spain.

Moreover, compared with the traditional Spanish nobles, the nobles appointed by Carlo himself are obviously more loyal, and they also prefer the method of conferring titles based on military merit.

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(End of this chapter)