Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 175: Timid Portugal

In March 1875, after careful consideration, the Ministry of Defense finally decided to order an ironclad ship named Renaissance-class from the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard.

Yes, it is the latest ironclad ship designed by the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard. Judging from the design data, it is definitely a world-class or even top-notch ironclad ship design.

The main problem was that the shipyards searched all over America and Asia and really could not find customers who would buy the warships.

With the advent of the economic crisis, there are even fewer people who are being taken advantage of.

The cost of this ironclad ship was as high as 50 pounds, and its selling price of 55 to 60 pounds was simply not something that an ordinary country could afford.

For the development of the Royal Guanizo Shipyard, the Spanish Navy had no choice but to place the first order.

Of course, this is also the result of comprehensive consideration by the defense department.

If Spain could not afford the cost of the warships, or if there was no need to build new ironclad ships, the Ministry of Defense would not have placed the order.

The Royal Guarnizo Shipyard naturally also knew the importance of this order.

Only by building the finished product of the Fuxing-class ironclad ship and allowing other countries to truly see the power of this warship can we attract orders from abroad.

In order to prevent the government from suffering too much loss, Carlo personally made the decision to reduce the government's internal price by 55 pounds on top of the internal price of 5 pounds, and sell the warship at full cost price.

Taking into account the current decline in steel prices, although it is at cost price, the shipyard still has a certain profit margin.

The continued price reduction is a win-win situation for shipyards and the government. The shipyards can gain experience in building ironclad ships while obtaining orders, while the Spanish government can obtain an advanced ironclad ship at a lower cost to strengthen its naval power. Both sides benefit.

50 pounds is equivalent to 1300 million pesetas, which is not too much of a burden on Spain's current financial capabilities.

At present, the Spanish army has completed its expansion, and the army's military expenditure will enter a relatively stable period. The financial budget of the defense department is enough to squeeze out 1300 million to order a warship. For Spain, which has a large colony, this ironclad ship can play an important role in the stability of the colony.

Although continental hegemons like Germany and France are famous for their armies, in fact, Europeans attach more importance to the development of their navy.

Countries with strong armies are not necessarily great powers, but countries with strong navies are basically great powers.

Even the less developed Russian Empire attached great importance to the development of its navy. During World War I, Russia even had three fleets, with its own fleet headquarters in the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and the Far East.

Spain is currently the fifth largest naval power in the world, which is a bit untrue. But if a new ironclad ship can be added, it will at least ensure that its naval power can be ranked in the top eight in the world.

A stronger navy is very useful in defending the home coast or suppressing colonies everywhere. Only a country with a strong navy is qualified to have large colonies.

According to the ship construction time given by the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard, this Fuxing-class ironclad ship named Fuxing will not be launched until next summer.

Considering the lengthy naval navigation tests, it might take two and a half years before it was officially incorporated into the navy for service, which was around mid-1877.

Because it was still within the term of the previous cabinet government, the total construction and testing time of two and a half years was acceptable to the Ministry of Defense.

Once the news that Spain has built a new ironclad ship is released, it will also strengthen people's confidence in the government.

After all, for Europeans at that time, the strength of a country's navy was largely related to the country's overall strength.

The people were still happy to see the country become stronger. There is a famous saying: "When talking about the great wealth of the British Empire, even the lowest textile workers in Manchester would puff up their chests with pride."

The stronger the country is, the stronger the people's confidence in the country and the government will be. The stronger the people's confidence in the country and the government will be, the stronger the country will become.

This is also the effect that building a powerful ironclad ship brings to Spain. To a certain extent, the potential effect is more attractive than the actual effect.

After all, although Spain's colonies were not large in total area, they were scattered all over the world.

Among all the colonial countries in the world today, the only one that can be considered the country on which the sun never sets, besides Britain, is Spain.

The so-called "sun never sets" actually means that the sun will never set on your own land.

Britain's colonies are spread all over the world. In addition to mainland Europe, the British have colonial territories in North America, South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It is a well-deserved colonial empire.

Although France also has many colonies, it has even surpassed Spain to become the world's second largest colonial empire.

But France's colonies were mainly concentrated in Asia and Africa, with only a small part in South America.

Let's look at Spain. It has Cuba and Puerto Rico in America, South Morocco, Guinea and Congo in Africa, the Philippines and Kalimantan in Asia, plus the European mainland and islands and archipelagos across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It is no problem to say that it is the country on which the sun never sets.

A strong navy is necessary to maintain stability in colonies around the world.

The good news is that after merging with a shipyard from the UK, the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard has the capacity to produce Renaissance-class ironclads.

The shipyard's dock had also been expanded under Carlo's order, so it was easy to build an ironclad ship of less than 10,000 tons.

If the government's finances were not insufficient to support the simultaneous construction of several ironclad ships, perhaps we could still see the grand scene of several ironclad ships being built simultaneously in the shipyard.

However, judging by Spain's current industrial and economic development speed, such a scenario may not be far away.

Once Spain's second five-year development plan is successfully completed, it may be time for Spain to expand its navy on a large scale, declare itself back to the throne of a great power, and compete for international discourse power.

Although Spain is not currently strong enough to become a top power, it has no problem maintaining its colonial scope and fulfilling its colonial needs.

Spain may not be powerful, but countries like Britain and France cannot ignore Spain's opinions.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Fuxing ironclad ship was scheduled for March 1875, 3. Carlo attached great importance to it and even attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the warship in person under the attention of the media.

Carlo was joined by Spanish Prime Minister Primo, Defense Minister Serrano and others. Although he was not invited, Lanfang Republic's ambassador to Spain, Wu Yongxiang, also witnessed the opening ceremony and was filled with emotion.

Even though the Lan Fang Republic had a population of 400 million, 50 pounds was a huge sum of money that it could never raise.

After all, it was just an agricultural country, and due to frequent harassment by the Dutch, the economy of the Lan Fang Republic was not that good.

If the Lan Fang Republic had a few advanced ironclad ships, even the Dutch would never dare to blatantly annex the territory of the Lan Fang Republic.

Of course, this is just a thought. The cost of building an ironclad ship is as high as hundreds of thousands of pounds, which is equivalent to 200 million taels of silver. This is not a small amount.

In addition to the maintenance and daily training costs of the warship, as well as the expenses of naval soldiers, on top of the warship's selling price of 50 pounds, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of pounds need to be paid for maintenance every year. It is definitely a money-making beast that every country is afraid of.

The news that Spain had rebuilt ironclad ships after many years was spread to other countries and regions outside Spain through reports from domestic and foreign newspapers.

Perhaps the country that is most worried about this is Spain's neighbor Portugal.

There was no other way. There were only these two neighbors on the small Iberian Peninsula. The Principality of Andorra was more like a vassal state under the joint rule of France and Spain. It had neither an army nor diplomatic sovereignty and could not be considered an independent country. Portugal was very wary of Spain in its weakened period, not to mention the Kingdom of Spain, which had already begun to revive.

King Louis of Portugal was originally very much looking forward to his brother-in-law Carlo becoming the King of Spain.

It’s not that there is a relationship between the two. After all, there is a common blood relationship between European royal families, and some are even close relatives.

Mainly because of Carlo's identity as an Italian outsider, coupled with the chaotic situation in Spain at the time, King Louis felt that it would be impossible for Spain to get back on its feet in a short period of time, and such a Spain naturally could not pose much threat to Portugal.

But unexpectedly, with the full cooperation of Carlo and Prime Minister Primo, the revival of Spain happened so visibly.

Although Spain is not very strong now, it has indeed pulled itself back from the brink and transitioned from a period of decline to a period of revival.

Spain's resumption of ironclad warship construction has once again increased Portugal's concerns about Spain. A Spain with a strong army is enough to make the Portuguese sleep poorly. If Spain builds a strong navy, will there be room for the Portuguese to survive in the Iberian Peninsula?
After much consideration, King Louis of Portugal finally listened to the advice of the Portuguese government and decided to take the initiative to have deeper contact with the Spanish royal family, mainly Carlo, in order to bring the Portuguese and Spanish royal families, and even the two governments, closer together through the blood relationship between the two royal families.

Portugal did not expect to gain anything from Spain. As long as it could ensure that the resurgent Spain would not have any ideas about Portugal, it would be a blessing in disguise for Portugal.

Before the economic crisis broke out, Portugal had this idea in mind, thinking about concluding a treaty with Spain to ensure its own security.

But because of the economic crisis, Portugal can only postpone it for a while.

Unexpectedly, it was during this period of suspension that the Portuguese government saw a greater crisis. Spain was not affected too much by the economic crisis, but instead introduced a large number of talents and corporate equipment from various European countries.

What can these talents and enterprise equipment provide for Spain? Of course, it is the industrial experience that Spain lacks the most. With this industrial experience, Spain's industry will achieve great growth and will completely widen the gap with small European countries such as Portugal and the Netherlands.

Although Portugal and Britain have a good relationship, Spain is not without allies. Needless to say, the relationship between Spain and Italy has improved a lot since Carlo came to power. The two sides have signed a defensive alliance treaty based on the cooperation treaty.

King Louis had never expected the cooperation between Austria-Hungary and Spain. He had originally wanted to select a suitable princess from the Portuguese royal family to marry Carlo, so as to ensure that Spain would not be hostile to Portugal through marriage.

But Carlo obviously had a better choice. An Austro-Hungarian Empire as an ally was much stronger than Portugal.

With the help of Austria-Hungary, could Spain defeat Portugal, which was helped by the British? There is no need to think about this question. The answer is of course that it can be easily defeated.

Unless the British are willing to personally help Portugal, Portugal will have no capital to resist a more powerful country like Spain.

Why do I say that? For a country, the most important thing is strategic depth. Portugal's territory looks more like a rectangle, or an upright rectangle.

If war breaks out between the two countries, the Spanish army only needs to march west from Badajoz to reach Lisbon, the capital of Portugal.

This would also divide Portugal's territory into two, and then easily erode Portugal's territory.

Faced with this problem, there is no solution unless Portugal has a strong army.

All of Portugal's territory is either by the sea or borders Spain, so to a certain extent, it has no room to retreat.

After losing the Brazilian colony, Portugal had no hope of evacuating to other colonies. The colonies in Africa were not large enough to support a country. The other colonies were too small to even be self-sufficient.

From this aspect, it can be seen that Portugal has no choice at all. Either maintain good relations with its neighbor Spain, or cling to the British thigh and pray that Spain will not take the risk of offending the British and take action against Portugal.

Between these two options, what will the Portuguese government choose?

For most small countries, they do not have the courage to make a firm choice, and the Portuguese government is no exception.

The Portuguese government's choice was to maintain its alliance with the British as a strategic goal while working hard to improve relations with Spain and ensure the security of its own territory.

Simply put, you have to have it both ways, betting everything on both the UK and Spain in exchange for your own security.

Regardless of whether this behavior will offend one or even both parties, at least for Portugal at present, this is indeed the most likely way to preserve its territory.

March 1875, 3, inside the Royal Palace of Madrid, Spain.

Carlo was somewhat surprised by the sudden arrival of King Luis and Queen Maria of Portugal.

Queen Maria is Carlo's sister, but when Carlo came into this world, Queen Maria was already married to King Louis.

This also resulted in Carlo never seeing his sister, even though she acted very happy and close to him.

"Carlo, long time no see!" When she saw Carlo, Queen Maria walked up to him happily, looking at her brother with joy in her eyes.

"Sister Maria, long time no see. His Majesty Louis." Carlo nodded, first greeted his sister Maria, and then nodded to each other with King Louis of Portugal.

Queen Sophie, who was sitting nearby, also greeted Queen Maria and King Louis with a smile, and then sat down again.

Since she became pregnant at the end of October last year, Queen Sophie's safety has become the royal family's top priority. Carlo not only let the royal family's private doctor live in a room on the side of the palace, but also sent more entourage to Queen Sophie.

This also means that whenever Queen Sophie goes out, she is accompanied by hundreds of people, making her look very grand.

Queen Sophie had complained that these people ruined her mood for traveling, but there was nothing she could do. After all, this was Carlo's first child, and the first prince or princess of the Spanish royal family, so she had to pay attention to him.

Even before the child was born, Carlo was already selecting teachers for his son or daughter and preparing an extremely sophisticated elite aristocratic education for him.

If she were a princess, her education would not be so strict. After all, for Carlo, he should still spoil his daughter. Anyway, the Spanish royal family has a lot of property, and just giving it to a few companies and enterprises would be enough for his children to live the rest of their lives in extreme wealth.

But if he is a prince, he is the first heir to the throne. Including subsequent princes, as long as he is his son, he must receive an extremely strict elite aristocratic education.

Even if he was not the King of Spain, he would definitely become a great noble in Spain. He might even become the King of another country by chance, just like Carlo who was elected as the King by other countries.

No matter which method he chooses, Carlo must ensure that his children are extremely outstanding elite aristocrats, rather than wasteful good-for-nothings.

Although Carlo also recognized the stability that the primogeniture system brought to the country, if his eldest son did not have any outstanding abilities, Carlo would also consider passing the throne to his other sons.

After all, this is not the era of absolute monarchy, where the throne can be preserved even after a few incompetent kings. In the era of freedom and democracy, the king himself is in danger.

If he has no ability, there is a high possibility that he will be deposed from the throne due to a mistake.

Carlo had no ambition to establish an absolute monarchy, but he also did not want the throne he had worked so hard to stabilize to be wasted by his descendants.

If you wear a crown, you must bear its weight. If you don't have any ability, Carlo still advises his descendants to enjoy the aristocratic life peacefully and not to seek a crown that looks luxurious and noble, but in fact can ruin your family if you are not careful.

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(End of this chapter)