Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 570 Future Planning
Perhaps even Soviet Russia did not expect that their deployment in Hungary would completely benefit others.

Hungary's government system did indeed become a republic, but a parliamentary republic is completely different from the system of Soviet Russia.

Hungary's current system is largely modeled after the French republican system, with only some unique Hungarian characteristics in its political structure.

Some political parties similar to workers' unions, cultivated by Soviet Russia, did not participate in the reorganization of the Hungarian government at all, nor did they gain any say in the matter.

However, Soviet Russia suffered the backlash for interfering in Hungary's internal affairs, and in the next similar demonstrations by workers in other countries, European nations will first consider whether Soviet Russia will be involved.

Such damage to reputation is actually the most devastating. Moreover, even if Soviet Russia intended to repair relations with other countries, it would be impossible to gain their trust.

The fact that Hungary did not become a regime similar to Soviet Russia is good news for Spain and all of Europe.

The fact that regimes like the workers' union did not expand to other regions effectively reduced the threat posed by Soviet Russia.

As for how the Hungarian government will be reorganized, other European countries are not paying much attention. Even if the current Hungarian president, István Tsá, achieves a dictatorship through a series of means, it is not a big deal for other European countries.

After all, the ideology of authoritarianism will not spread, and Hungary is not large enough to threaten other European countries, or even its neighbors.

After losing large tracts of land, including Transylvania, Hungary's territory was now quite small.

Even more critically, Hungary was caught in a very awkward position. To the west was Austria, with which Hungary had a terrible relationship; to the north was Tsarist Russia; to the east was Romania, which had annexed Transylvania; and to the south was Serbia.

These four countries are much stronger than Hungary in terms of territory, population, and overall strength.

Under such circumstances, even if Hungary can achieve rapid development under the leadership of President István Tsá, it is unlikely to threaten its neighbors.

Moreover, the Hungarian political parties that spearheaded the workers' demonstrations would certainly not be content to be excluded from the Hungarian government.

If Hungarian President István Tsá has not taken a hard line, a civil war may break out in Hungary.

How the situation in Hungary develops in the future is no longer of much concern to Spain.

After completing his plans, Carlo reduced his focus on Hungary and Russia and turned his attention back to Spain.

It was late December 1915, and with 1916 fast approaching, time was still very tight for the Spanish government.

According to the Spanish government's plan, starting in 1916, the government would promote the formation of the Spanish Empire.

With the Portuguese population already significantly reduced in the Portuguese region, the name "Spanish Empire" was no longer an obstacle.

After all, Spaniards, as the dominant ethnic group in Spain, make up the majority of the country's population. If we include the assimilated Moroccans and Portuguese, Spaniards now account for over 90% of Spain's total population, a remarkably high percentage.

Within Spain, Catalonia and the Basque Country, which once caused considerable trouble, are no longer considered a threat.

Even in Catalonia and Navarre, few people would proactively mention the national concepts of Catalonia and Basque.

Today, most Catalans and Basques have fully integrated into the Spanish family.

Those who were unwilling to integrate into Spain were mostly emigrated to colonies or other countries by the Spanish government throughout history.

Of course, the government's approach to ethnic assimilation is not so lenient. Those who strongly oppose assimilation, or even extremely radical nationalists, will be eliminated by Spain with swift and decisive action.

According to the Royal Security Intelligence Service's files, at least a hundred leaders of radical nationalists have been assassinated, most of whom were Catalans, Basques, and Portuguese.

Although assassination is somewhat dishonorable, sometimes dark methods are necessary for the unity and stability of the country.

In any case, as long as the Spanish government does not disclose it, the relevant information will be permanently hidden in the archives of the Royal Security Intelligence Service and destroyed without anyone knowing, thus being completely buried in history.

With the formation of the Spanish Empire imminent, Carlo still needed to do something before that could happen.

Speaking of which, Carlo is no longer young, and it's time for him to lay a solid foundation for his successor.

The first step is to further revise and deepen the reforms implemented during Primo's era, address the problems that have surfaced, and prevent these problems from becoming even more intractable in the future.

From the current perspective, Spain's reforms have been quite successful. However, taking a longer-term view also reveals some problems in the reforms.

First, there is the bloated bureaucracy. There are far too many officials in the Spanish government at all levels, and a large part of the government's budget comes from the salaries of these officials and the expenses of some bloated departments.

The benefits of addressing the bloated bureaucracy, besides significantly reducing government spending at all levels, also included eliminating some of the old guard within the Portuguese and colonial governments.

The Portuguese government, in particular, is now the biggest obstacle to the establishment of the Spanish Empire.

In order to merge with Portugal, Spain promised to retain the Portuguese government, only transferring diplomatic and military powers to the United Kingdom government.

While this did effectively promote the union of Spain and Portugal, the joint rule of the two countries did not cause much of a stir, and there was not much opposition within Portugal.

However, this has led to a problem: apart from lacking diplomatic and military powers, the current Portuguese government is not significantly different from the government during the Kingdom of Portugal era. Spain has no say in Portuguese elections, the Portuguese prime minister wields considerable power, and can even effectively supersede the monarchy.

If a Spanish Empire were to be established, the Spanish government would naturally cease to exist. The Spanish and Portuguese governments would then merge, and the imperial government would control every inch of the empire's territory.

This was a disastrous outcome for the Portuguese government. While many Portuguese officials would continue to serve in the imperial government, many more would lose their positions.

In particular, the Portuguese prime minister was destined not to serve as prime minister of the future Spanish Empire.

Although he is eligible to run for office, in the early days of the empire, Carlo would certainly choose someone more loyal to him to serve as prime minister for the sake of stability.

Needless to say, subsequent elections were even more challenging. With Spaniards making up the majority of Spain's population, being a non-Spanish was consistently a disadvantage in elections, whether running for state or imperial parliament.

Although the Spanish people cannot directly elect the prime minister, Spain's unique electoral system means that the people still have a certain say in the election of the government.

The Prime Minister, Speaker of the House of Commons, judges, and other important positions are all elected by all members of the House of Commons.

Members of the House of Representatives are elected by the state legislatures, and members of the state legislatures are elected by the people of the state.

This completes the decentralization of electoral rights, allowing the public to decide the affiliation of mid-level councilors, who then vote to select upper-level councilors, who in turn elect the prime minister.

With the Portuguese government still in place, even though the Spanish have gained a majority, the majority of members of the Portuguese cantonal parliaments are still Portuguese.

However, this phenomenon would not exist if an imperial government were established. The four Portuguese states would then be no different from the other Spanish states, and Portuguese members of parliament would not have any advantage in elections.

With their own political future at stake, and given that Spain is not granting Portuguese voters an advantage in the election, there is an irreconcilable conflict between Portuguese and Spanish parliamentarians.

As the Spanish government, it will inevitably favor its own people. This forces the Spanish government to sacrifice Portuguese parliamentarians in order to mitigate the possibility of instability in Portugal through proactive planning.

Of course, the Portuguese parliamentarians were not without a way to break the deadlock.

As long as they are willing to join the Spanish family and participate in parliamentary elections as Spaniards, they will not be treated differently.

After the establishment of the Spanish Empire, Carlos would also strengthen his control over public opinion, try to reduce the discrimination against the Portuguese in Spain, and help the Portuguese truly integrate into the Spanish family.

The best-case scenario for Spain and Portugal in the future is that the two countries will be completely integrated into one, with no longer distinguishing between them, and working together for the new empire.

Besides addressing the bloated bureaucracy, another issue needed to be resolved: extending the Spanish reforms to Portugal to weaken the privileges of the Portuguese nobility and the Church.

Ultimately, the reason why Spain and Portugal were backward was not only because they were located on the remote Iberian Peninsula, but also because the nobility and the church jointly controlled most of the country's land.

Such a land distribution significantly reduced the country's development potential, and Spain certainly could not accept that the Portuguese nobility and the church possessed such enormous power.

After gradually gaining control of four Portuguese states through immigration, Spain's subsequent actions will not cause instability in the Portuguese region.

This is the advantage brought by population, which allowed Spain to subtly annex Portugal, and Portugal had no way to resist.

Carlo even hoped that the Portuguese nobility and the church could unite to resist Spain's annexation.

This gave Carlos sufficient reason to settle scores with the Portuguese nobility and church.

Given Spain's current strength, even if the Portuguese nobility and church have the support of some nationalists, they are unlikely to cause any significant trouble.

Even without resorting to heavy weapons like tanks and airplanes, the resistance of the Portuguese nobles and the church was ultimately futile against the formidable Spanish army.

Only by completely eliminating the resistance forces in Portugal and integrating Portugal and Spain through the formation of an empire can a unified and stable Spain in the future be ensured.

These are things Carlo must do. It's better for Carlo to do them now than to leave them to Prince Juan Fernando.

While the public's support and affection for Carlo will also be passed on to Prince Juan Fernando, Prince Juan Fernando certainly does not have Carlo's enormous prestige, which allows him to easily order the government to do anything.

Moreover, Carlos could easily bear any dissatisfaction and public opinion arising from the forced annexation of Portugal, something Prince Juan Fernando could hardly do.

Only by laying a solid foundation for the soon-to-be-established empire can the future successors of the empire realize their ambitions without being hindered by domestic obstacles.

After clearing all obstacles for the establishment of the empire, Carlo would then have to find a way to weaken the power of the monarchy and achieve a balance between the power of the monarch and the power of the prime minister, so as to make the Spanish monarchy more reasonable and the empire more powerful and lasting.

Fortunately, these things were not difficult for Carlo. With his immense prestige and influence, the Spanish political system was essentially at Carlo's disposal.

Moreover, Prince Juan Fernando is certainly capable enough. Carlo believes that even without his own plans for the future, Prince Juan Fernando can lead Spain to become stronger.

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(End of this chapter)