Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 103 Buy One Get Two Maxim

The task that Carlo gave to Cardil was to go to the United States to find Gatling and Maxim, and invite them to come to Spain to work as much as possible.

The names of these two people are also quite famous. One is the originator of the machine gun, and the other is a genius designer who is praised as the father of automatic weapons.

If these two people can be brought to Spain, Spain's progress in machine guns will definitely have the hope of reaching the world's top level in the future.

Even Maxim's talent was not limited to machine guns. He also made considerable achievements in smokeless gunpowder. Smokeless gunpowder is a powerful booster for machine guns. The reason why machine guns are so powerful is definitely one of the main contributors.

The task that Carlo gave to Cardil was to invite Gatling and Maxim to work in Spain as much as possible, or at least invite one of them.

In terms of the priority of the two, Carlo said that if he could only choose one person to come to Spain, he would try to invite Maxim instead of Gatlin.

The reason is very simple. Gatling was already well-known in the United States, and the hand-cranked Gatling machine gun he developed had already shown quite good effects during the American Civil War.

And he never stopped his research and development of machine guns. Gatling himself had long been valued by the US government, and it was very difficult to win him over to Spain.

Compared to Gatlin, Maxim, who is younger and has not yet demonstrated his abilities, is obviously the easier one to win over.

Moreover, if we only talk about the impact on Spain, Carlo is more optimistic about the Maxim. The Maxim machine gun played a great role in the history of World War I and World War II. The Maxim machine gun he developed was also copied and improved by many countries, which is enough to show his talent in machine guns.

As the father of automatic weapons, Maxim's technology can be applied not only to machine guns, but also to artillery.

If the Spanish army can be equipped with machine guns and semi-automatic artillery in the future, coupled with advanced military concepts, it will definitely be able to create a world-class and powerful army.

It doesn’t matter if Gatling doesn’t want to come to Spain, because the hand-cranked machine gun developed by Gatling is already available for purchase.

If you can't bring the Gatling gun, then bring a few Gatling machine guns and hand them over to the Royal Arsenal for imitation and learning, and then make Spain's own machine gun.

Today's Gatling hand-cranked machine guns are actually not that stable. Carlo is more looking forward to Maxim's achievements in machine guns, and the Maxim machine guns produced by Maxim that can truly influence the war.

On January 1871, 1, Carlo finally met his long-cherished friend, Hiram Stevens Maxim, one of the greatest mechanical geniuses in history and the famous father of automatic weapons.

During these few days, Carlo also learned the whole process of Kadir's attempt to win over Maxim.

This is indeed the case. Compared to Gatling, which had become famous for its hand-cranked Gatling machine gun, Maxim had no reputation in the United States at that time.

Maxim was born in February 1840, and was only 2 years old at the latest.

Speaking of which, Kadir was also very puzzled as to why Carlo was determined to win over Maxim, because although Maxim was a mechanical researcher, the patents he invented did not have such a huge effect.

Maxim had only a few patents to his name, including his first patented hair curler and a headlamp that could be mounted on a train.

During the days when Kadir went to the United States, Maxim was hesitating whether to accept an invitation from an American company to work as an engineer for the electric light company.

However, after meeting Kadir, Maxim immediately had a new choice.

There was no other way. After all, the conditions offered by Carlo were too attractive for Maxim, who was only 31 years old, to resist.

Carlo was also very happy when he learned that Maxim was coming to Spain, because recruiting Maxim was not only equivalent to getting Maxim, a top talent in weapon design, but also buying one and getting two for free, as his brother Hudson Maxim and his son, Hiram Percy Maxim, who was only two years old, also came to Spain together.

Although not as famous as his brother, Hudson Maxim was also an outstanding military inventor and had his own achievements in explosives.

Maxim's son Hiram Percy Maxim was also an outstanding talent. Like his father, he chose to become a mechanical engineer. He not only invented the gun silencer, but also made certain improvements to the internal combustion engine.

Spain is currently lacking inventors of military weapons, so Maxim's buy one get two free offer is naturally very welcome.

At the Royal Palace of Madrid, Carlo met with the two Maxim brothers and welcomed them to Spain from the United States.

"Mr. Hudson Maxim, Mr. Hiram Stevens Maxim, welcome to Spain." Carlo said to the two with a smile.

"Thank you, Your Majesty. It is our honor to receive your invitation. Thank you for giving us the opportunity." Maxim said to Carlo very respectfully.

Although he was born in the republican country of the United States, this does not mean that Maxim was opposed to the monarchy in European countries.

His gratitude to Carlo was genuine as Carlo provided him with such generous treatment.

Maxim was born in a poor family, and he got a job by virtue of his diligence and love of study. Later, Carlo was willing to offer him a job with higher income and that he liked more, and Maxim was unwilling to miss this opportunity, which was also the reason why he persuaded his brother to come to Spain with him.

Compared to staying in the United States, Maxim was more willing to leave the United States and go to a new place.

The reason is very simple. At that time, the United States had already formed a huge capital force, and capital was not so friendly to these inventors.

Maxim certainly wanted to earn money from his inventions, but the reality was very cruel. Companies created by inventors like him would be suppressed by other capitalists, which was the real reason why Maxim eventually left the United States for Britain.

Now that Carlo has personally invited him, Maxim is of course willing to leave the United States to seek new development opportunities.

It is true that he is keen on invention and design, but what he is more interested in is firearms, such as the design of automatic weapons.

Although the United States also has a hand-cranked Gatling machine gun, in Maxim's view, such a design is not truly automated, but just a trick.

The hand-cranked Gatling gun also has problems of one kind or another, which is why such weapons have shown their effectiveness in the Civil War but have not yet been popularized in Europe.

Maxim had the idea of ​​inventing his own automatic weapon in his mind, and Carlo gave him the position of weapons design engineer at the Royal Arsenal, which was a perfect match for Maxim's idea.

Both Maxim brothers would serve as weapons design engineers at the Royal Arsenal, which happened to be the same hobby that the brothers had.

The real estate and 5000 pesetas of resettlement funds that Carlo promised them would also allow them to quickly find a place to settle down in Spain and better adapt to their new life in Spain. Carlo still attached great importance to the Maxim brothers. Although they had not been involved in weapons research and development before, Carlo was still willing to give them an annual salary of 2000 pesetas, and said that as long as their design made some progress, he could give them a salary increase and award them at any time.

The two were naturally very satisfied with such a salary. After all, they were not famous inventors in the United States, and it was impossible for them to have a high salary of thousands or tens of thousands of pesetas at the beginning.

Along with the Maxim brothers came the equally famous Gatling, or hand-cranked Gatling machine gun, to Spain.

Yes, Gatlin finally chose to stay in the United States and did not accept the invitation from the King of Spain.

But this doesn’t matter to Carlo. With the two Maxim brothers, Gatling’s role is not that important.

Because of Carlo's order, Kadier finally brought back several hand-cranked Gatling machine guns to provide to the Royal Arsenal for related research.

The historical Maxim machine gun was born around 1883, passed the test and officially applied for a patent in 1884.

This year is only 1871, which is at least 12 years away from that time. However, considering that Maxim had only been researching machine guns for a few years, Carlo was optimistic that he would develop the Maxim machine gun before 1883.

When talking about the history of Maxim's development of the machine gun, we have to mention an equally famous figure, Edison, known as the great inventor.

Yes, during this period of time, Edison was everywhere in the United States, which is also the reason why Edison's reputation became worse and worse.

Although Edison did have a certain talent for invention, he was more of a capitalist, and a capitalist who constantly suppressed other inventors.

Maxim was born in the United States, but had to flee to Britain because of Edison's suppression of him. This ultimately benefited Britain, as it gained Maxim, the famous weapons design genius.

If Maxim had started research on machine guns earlier, with the help of Carlo and the Spanish government, I believe Maxim would have been able to achieve relevant research results earlier.

As long as Spain can have machine guns and more advanced artillery, Carlo will not be afraid of any country in the land war.

Regardless of the combat effectiveness of other countries, in the land wars of this era, the difference in weapons and the advancement of military doctrines directly affect the direction of the war.

The reasons why the Prussian army was able to defeat the French army also included the large number of French armed line infantry and the fact that Krupp cannons could shoot farther and more stably than French cannons.

If the military concepts and weapons technology of both sides were at the same level, Prussia would definitely not be able to defeat the French army.

This is why Carlo is determined to develop machine guns and semi-automatic artillery. Once Spain takes the lead in machine guns and semi-automatic artillery, the Spanish army will become the top army in Europe.

With a strong army, the Spanish government now has the confidence to control its own destiny.

Carlo's plans for the development of the Spanish military will all focus on the development of the army in the next few years.

Of course, the overall size of Spain's army will not change much, but there will be more improvements in weapons technology.

As for the navy, its development must wait until Spain has built sufficient industry and economy.

It’s not that Carlo is unwilling to develop the navy, but the navy costs more money than the army and is more difficult to develop.

Why did only a few powers participate in the naval arms race before World War I? Because other countries simply could not afford to build a navy.

The cost of building an ironclad ship today is easily hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds, and the cost of building a battleship in the future will exceed a million pounds.

As for the later dreadnoughts, the cost of building any one of them is over a million pounds, and there are even super dreadnoughts that cost two or three million.

What’s more, the construction of a navy does not only refer to the surface shipbuilding costs, the maintenance of the fleet is also a huge cost.

There is also the training of naval soldiers, the fuel costs of warships, etc., which add up to an astronomical figure.

The current Spanish government is still incapable of managing the navy. Even if it can build a navy, it will only have a few small and medium-sized warships.

If the current Spanish government were to grit its teeth and build ironclad ships, that would be truly beyond belief.

Not to mention whether the Spanish government's financial situation can support the maintenance of the navy, the British alone can cause considerable trouble.

Spain's geographical location is already very important. If it continues to blindly develop its navy, the British will definitely be worried.

The British were worried, so how could Spain have fewer troubles? Spain's reputation as a troublemaker was not in vain. If Spain could develop a naval development plan today, Britain could support the independence of Cuba and the Philippines tomorrow and completely oppose Spain's colonial expansion in Africa.

This is also the reason why Carlo formulated the army development plan. Spain is limited by its population size, and no matter how powerful its army is, it will not pose such a high threat.

Unless Spain can become the strongest army in Europe, developing the army will not touch the bottom line of the British, and it will also mean that there will be a period of peace between Britain and Spain.

There is no way, it is still the glorious Victorian era in Britain. Not to mention Spain, even the Germans have to admit the glory of the British.

As long as they keep a low profile for now, the British will not take the initiative to provoke Spain.

Because the British are also wealthy and powerful, they also have various conflicts with other countries.

After Prussia defeated France, the conflict between Britain and France was not so intense. At present, the most intense competition with the British is Russia, and the two sides have launched an extremely fierce colonial competition in Central Asia.

Compared with the Russians, the Spanish were not taken seriously by the British. As long as Spain could develop honestly and low-key, the British would not cause trouble for themselves.

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(End of this chapter)