Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 83 Ceuta Rebellion (Subscribe!)
As soon as he returned to Madrid, Carlo couldn't wait to hand over more than 100 Vitali rifles purchased from Italy to the Royal Arsenal for imitation, and tried to understand the principles behind them.

No matter how successful reform and development are, military strength is the standard for measuring whether a country is strong.

Spain is not currently suitable for developing its navy, so it can only focus on the development of its army and try to have a first-class army in Europe.

Because Spain's population is far smaller than that of European powers, the only thing it can focus on at the moment is the advancement of its weapons and equipment.

If Spain had been able to equip itself with advanced rifles and machine guns in large quantities before the European powers, its army would at least be no less superior to any other country in terms of quality.

By establishing the strength of the Spanish army through several battles, Carlo and the Spanish government will be more confident in their diplomatic activities.

After all, to put it bluntly, whether a country can have influence at the diplomatic level depends on its comprehensive strength, especially its military capabilities.

If a country's military is in a mess, no matter how eloquent its diplomats are, they will be helpless in the face of other powerful powers.

National dignity is built on the edge of a knife, and truth is only within the range of cannons. If Spain wants to become strong, military strength is indispensable and even more important while developing industry and economy.

When it comes to weapon design, Carlo actually pays more attention to the research and development of machine guns than rifles.

Especially in colonial wars, a few machine guns were generally enough to face thousands of indigenous troops, something that previous colonial powers had never thought of.

When it comes to the development of machine guns, the United States is definitely far ahead.

The United States currently has a hand-cranked Gatling gun, which has various problems in use, but at least
At least it achieves far more powerful firepower output than a rifle.

With the purpose of learning and drawing lessons, Carlo ordered Cardinal to send people to America to look for talents in firearms design and purchase several finished hand-cranked Gatling machine guns for research by military factories.

As for the 1000 million lire interest-free loan borrowed from Italy, Carlo decided to invest it all in the construction of the factory.

There is no difference between building a factory and making money lying down. It is just a matter of how much money is made. It can also create thousands of jobs for Spaniards, which is a win-win situation.

The comfortable days did not last long. Prime Minister Primo and Army Minister Serrano came together and brought Carlo unexpected news, that is, a small-scale rebellion broke out in Ceuta.

This rebellion was obviously not the reason why Primo and Serrano asked to see Carlo. Such a small-scale rebellion could be solved by the local colonial army, and such news was not even qualified to be reported to the royal government.

What really attracted Primo and Serrano's attention was that Spain could take this opportunity to launch another invasion of Morocco.

Morocco is across the strait from Spain and is the closest African country to Spain.

As early as the reign of Queen Isabella, a colonial war broke out between Spain and Morocco, and Spain occupied the northern Moroccan cities of Tetouan and Ceuta.

Although the Moroccan government of the time was defeated, because the British did not want to see Spain have a strong force near Gibraltar, Spain only gained two small cities under the intervention of the British.

Now, ten years have passed since that war, and the British are also facing problems at home. Prime Minister Primo believes that this is a good opportunity to launch a large-scale invasion of Morocco.

The reason for coming with Serrano was naturally to persuade Carlo to launch a colonial war against Morocco.

This was also the tacit understanding reached by the three Spanish giants. In such major events, Primo had to consider Carlo's attitude in exchange for Carlo's full support for the reform. Primo did it. In major events, even if he could make the decision directly as prime minister, he would ask Carlo's attitude and ask for his consent.

Carlo looked at the map of the Kingdom of Spain hanging in his office. Morocco below was about the same size as Spain, which was really attractive.

In Carlo's plan, Morocco must be taken. It is the only land that Spain can localize, and it is also the sphere of influence that Spain must obtain if it wants to become a great power.

But just as Spain did not gain much benefit in the last colonial war, the British would not allow Spain to own such a large piece of land near Gibraltar.

If Spain occupied a large area of ​​land along the northern coast of Morocco, its territory would once again surround Gibraltar, and the British plans in Gibraltar would come to nothing.

"Your Majesty, I think it is feasible to start a war at this time." Seeing Carlo's hesitation, Primo stepped forward and persuaded him: "Isabel's government ten years ago was able to defeat Morocco, and our current army can certainly defeat Morocco again.

Moreover, even if we cannot obtain the large tracts of land in northern Morocco, we can take the opportunity to announce our claims to African land.

If the British do not want us to acquire northern Morocco, then they will have to agree to our expansion in other parts of Africa. Otherwise, they will have to bear the consequences of our complete surrender to France."

If we were to say which countries are most reluctant to see Spain siding with Germany, the first one is France, and the second is Britain.

After France's defeat, it lost important industrial areas such as Alsace and Lorraine, and its overall strength was no longer as good as that of the integrated German Empire.

Moreover, the French had to pay the Germans 50 billion francs in compensation, which was simply angel capital for Germany's industrial development.

Facing the increasingly powerful German Empire, it was impossible for the British to be unprepared. If there was news that Spain had completely turned to Germany and France was being attacked from both north and south, the British would definitely not be able to sit still.

Not to mention that Italy and Germany are also allies. If a war really breaks out, France might be attacked from three sides.

After all, in order to unify Italy, the Kingdom of Sardinia at that time ceded the two important regions of Savoy and Nice to France.

Just look at the surnames of the Italian royal family to know how important the Savoy region is. This is the birthplace of the Italian royal family.

It is simply impossible to say that Italy has no thoughts about the two pieces of land that it was forced to cede. Once France is faced with a situation of being sandwiched, Italy will definitely get involved.

Under such circumstances, the British absolutely did not want to see the French being directly defeated.

If we want to maintain a balanced situation on the European continent, we must ensure that Spain does not side with Germany. This is why Primo is confident in exchanging interests with the British.

After all, although Spain was not strong, it was not that afraid of the British if a war really broke out. The blockade at sea did not have such a big impact on Spain, because Spain did not have many colonies at that time.

If the British wanted to blockade a large area of ​​Spanish waters, they would have to mobilize a large fleet. Even if the British could withstand such a huge consumption, other European countries might not remain indifferent.

As for whether the British would invade the Spanish mainland, there was no need to worry about it. Primo was confident that he could make the British come back without returning, and in terms of land warfare, it would be better for the British to stand aside.

Day 2, 7/4200, 10000/ words updated. The remaining three updates may be later, but they will definitely be finished by night.

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(End of this chapter)