Empire Rise: Spain-Chapter 24: Suppressing The Cuban Rebellion

As soon as the two decrees on free literacy education and agricultural tax reduction were promulgated, Spaniards surprisingly found that the king above their heads didn’t seem so obnoxious anymore.
At least during Queen Isabella’s reign, the government would not proactively propose agricultural tax reduction, let alone establish any free literacy education.
But for Carlo at this time, he had only just dealt with one trouble.
As early as during the Spanish Revolution, the Cuban Colony took the opportunity to launch an independence war, occupying multiple cities, holding a so-called constitutional convention, and electing a president.
This was unacceptable to Spain, because Cuba was the most valuable among all Spanish colonies and one of the few that could bring positive income.
If the Cuban Colony was lost, not only would the Spanish Government’s annual fiscal revenue decrease significantly, but it would also be a blow to the prestige of Carlo, the new king, and the new cabinet.
The current Spanish Kingdom Government was gradually getting on track, and it was time to deal with the restless Cuban Colony and create more income for the Spanish Government.
The Cuban rebels at this time were not numerous and did not have any advanced weapons and equipment. For the Spanish Government, apart from needing to cross the Atlantic Ocean for long-distance combat, there were no major problems to overcome.
Thus, the first large-scale war since Carlo became king was formally launched.
Minister of War Serrano led 5500 soldiers grandly to Cuba to suppress the rebellion, striving to clear out the Cuban rebels to the maximum extent.
This suppression of rebellion war, which was not actually that large in scale, was also an opportunity for Carlo. Camann Esposito and Andrew Rosso would also join this suppression of rebellion war as grassroots officers.
Carlo’s expectation for them was to establish certain merits in this suppression of rebellion, which would facilitate Carlo’s subsequent promotion and appointment of them.
The more capable Giuseppe was left by Carlo in Madrid to command 500 members of the Court Guard. There was no choice; Carlo’s safety needed more assurance, and a trusted subordinate was required to be responsible for the security of the Royal Palace.
Carlo still trusted Serrano’s own military ability. And more importantly, Serrano had served as governor of Cuba from 1859 to 1862 for three years and was quite familiar with the situation in Cuba.
Sending him to Cuba to suppress the rebellion was the most suitable choice, the one with the most hope of solving the Cuba problem in a short time, and ensuring that no rebellion would occur in Cuba in the short term in the future.
As for things in the long term, they were not within Carlo’s consideration.
Because for Carlo, these Spanish colonies scattered around the world were instead a burden to Spain.
Cuba was a full Atlantic Ocean away from Spain, but only separated from the United States by the Florida Straits.
The United States, having won the Civil War, already possessed the potential to become the world hegemon, with its comprehensive national strength continuously improving.
For Spain, having its most valuable colony right at the mouth of the Americans doomed Spain to be unable to hold Cuba.
Rather than that, it would be better to proactively abandon Cuba at an appropriate time in exchange for other colonies that were not so valuable but could be firmly held in hand.
The Philippines was the same. In Carlo’s future plans for Spain, Cuba and the Philippines both needed to be abandoned; the basic disk of Spanish colonies was in Africa.
However, precisely because Cuba was one of the few Spanish colonies that could bring positive profits, it was very difficult to get the public to agree to lose Cuba.
At least until Carlo had sufficient prestige to bear such a loss, or until a good opportunity arrived, Spain would not carry out colonial exchange.
On September 22, 1869, Carlo saw off Serrano, who was expeditioning to Cuba, in Madrid, and personally promised all Spanish soldiers that he would hold a celebration banquet for them when they triumphantly returned to Madrid, and award fields and nobility titles to those with major merits.
Awarding titles for military merit was very attractive to soldiers; it was also one of the most effective opportunities for grassroots people to climb up.
Including Serrano himself and Primó, they were all representative figures of awarding titles for military merit. Although Spanish soldiers did not have such great ambitions as becoming dukes and marquises, it was no problem to strive for some fields and funds as rewards as much as possible.
After seeing off Serrano and just returning to the Royal Palace, Carlo soon received a from the guard that Prime Minister Primó requested an audience.
Since Carlo fulfilled his promise and firmly supported reform, Primó’s attitude toward Carlo became very respectful, and he was willing to cultivate a praiseworthy monarch-minister relationship with Carlo.
This was also good news for Carlo. Just like now, Primó would often consult Carlo’s opinion and was willing to leave some decisions to Carlo.
Although Primó was not like Garibaldi, who had no ambition for power and status whatsoever, he was also not a dictatorial person.
Carlo was also happy to see this cooperative relationship. By following Primó, he could gain some prestige from reform, then slowly cultivate his own confidants in the government and army, preparing to take over the country after Primó; this was also Carlo’s plan.
“Your Majesty, this is the plan for industrial construction. Please approve it.” As soon as he saw Carlo, Primó handed over a long-prepared industrial plan and got straight to the point.
“Are we starting industrial construction now? Prime Minister Primó, if I remember correctly, it seems our government does not have so much money to build industry.” Carlo was somewhat surprised by the speed of Primó’s reform.
Reforms in education and agriculture had only been carried out for less than a month, and now industrial construction was to begin immediately.
For the current Spain, where the government was urgently short of funds, launching so many projects at once was not a good thing. Carlo could understand Primó’s eagerness for quick success, but if pursuing speed alone led the Spanish Government to face a bankruptcy crisis, it would be somewhat not worth the loss.
“The first batch of industrial construction is expected to require 55 million pesetas. I plan to issue approximately 25 million pesetas of industrial national debt in batches, and obtain the remaining 30 million pesetas by borrowing from foreign capital.
As long as we can promote industrial construction, our economic situation in the next few years will improve, and Spain’s poor situation can also be comprehensively improved.” Primó explained.
The Queen Isabella government only cared about its own enjoyment and ignored national development, which caused stagnation or even regression in all aspects of Spain’s construction for a long time.
The only good news was that the previous government, which ignored development, did not borrow heavily from abroad, so the current Spanish Government could still obtain some project startup funds through borrowing.
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