Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 216: Western and Italian Cooperation Again

After chatting with his father, Vittorio Emanuele II, Carlo's two brothers, Crown Prince Umberto and Prince Amadeo, also came to the manor.

Prince Amadeo lived in Turin until Vittorio Emanuele II became seriously ill, but because of his father's serious illness, Prince Amadeo also came to Rome.

Speaking of Carlo's two older brothers, Crown Prince Umberto and Prince Amadeo have completely different personalities.

Crown Prince Umberto's desire for power was visible to the naked eye, but Prince Amadeo completely lost his desire for power after missing the opportunity to become King of Spain.

Especially after the death of Prince Amadeo's wife, Duchess Maria, Prince Amadeo became a well-known playboy in Italy, spending his days having fun and not caring about Italian political affairs at all.

Of course, perhaps Prince Amadeo is the least threatening brother to Crown Prince Umberto.

Precisely because Prince Amadeo did not show any threat, the relationship between Crown Prince Umberto and Prince Amadeo was still very friendly.

The two of them came together, and Carlo also stood up to greet his two brothers.

"Carlo, long time no see." Crown Prince Umberto and Prince Amadeo came forward and first greeted Carlo, and then greeted Carlo's wife, Queen Sophie.

Although Crown Prince Umberto and Prince Amadeo were only princes, Carlo was a king of a higher level.

But they are Carlo's brothers after all, and the current occasion is a private meeting, so there is naturally no need for overly formal etiquette.

Vittorio Emanuele II looked at the three brothers who were in harmony and nodded with satisfaction.

Although many of his children died young, what made Vittorio Emanuele II happy was that the three surviving sons had a good relationship with each other.

Harmony among brothers is also an important guarantee for the continuation of the family. Internal strife will only benefit others.

Through conversations with Crown Prince Umberto, Carlo finally understood the physical condition of Vittorio Emanuele II.

There were no advanced examination methods in this era, and the doctor could only give an estimate that the end was approaching by judging the physical condition of Vittorio Emanuele II.

As for when the end will come, the doctor has no idea.

Carlo could only nod helplessly. This was the backwardness of medical technology in this era.

Whether it is an ordinary citizen or a king of a country, doctors will be helpless in the last stage of life.

Of course, if we must talk about methods, some doctors may recommend trying bloodletting. But bloodletting only speeds up death, which is the experience of countless Europeans who died after bloodletting.

Carlo's family was arranged to live in a nearby manor. Although it was far from the city of Rome, it was close to the residence of Vittorio Emanuele II, with more beautiful scenery and few people to disturb them.

This will be the residence of Carlo's family during their short stay in Italy. The Italian government has dispatched hundreds of soldiers to patrol and guard the surrounding area, and Carlo has also arranged most of the guards he brought with him near the manor.

In addition, whether Carlo or Queen Sophie go out, there will be several guards accompanying them to ensure their safety.

This is to prevent assassinations by some assassins. Although Europe is the most developed region of this era, the lives of most European people are not very good.

This also led to frequent assassinations in Europe, and Carlo still attached great importance to his personal safety.

The good news is that compared to other countries, Italy is still tending to be stable. The newly unified Italy actually does not have that many problems, and the public's dissatisfaction with this new country has not accumulated to a limit.

With the protection of the Italian government, as long as Carlo doesn't do anything stupid, he doesn't have to worry about his life.

In addition to Garibaldi's second son, Giotti, some officials from the Spanish government also came to Italy with Carlo this time.

The purpose of these officials coming to Italy is to finalize the next cooperation with the Italian government.

Previous cooperation between the Spanish and Italian governments mainly involved financial loans, industrial mutual assistance, and joint research and development in the military industry.

With the help of Italy, Spain possessed the Vitali M1872 rifle, which is currently the standard rifle of the Spanish army and is still very important to Spain.

Italy still has very good R&D capabilities in industry and military. Spain can also deepen cooperation with Italy. The two sides can cooperate more closely in the design and development of rifles, cannons and warships, and jointly develop and manufacture more powerful weapons.

From historical experience, Italy does have this ability. Although Italy's current navy is not strong, in the next few decades, Italy has built a very strong navy.

It is worth mentioning that the great expansion of the Italian army and navy took place during Umberto's reign.

After Umberto became king, he pushed Italy into the arms race, expanding the Italian army from 10 corps to 12 corps, a total of 42 people, and also increasing the size of the Italian navy at an extremely fast rate.

In the era of battleships, or pre-dreadnoughts, the Italian Navy built the best battleships of the time, and in 1890 it had a total naval tonnage of 24.2 tons, ranking fourth in the world.

You know, Italy at that time was not a very powerful country and was still ranked at the bottom among the great powers.

Being able to equip an army of more than 40 and the world's fourth largest navy is enough to prove Umberto's ambition and that the Italians' military technology research and development capabilities are indeed quite excellent.

At least in terms of the navy, Spain can still learn a lot from Italy. If it can deepen cooperation with Italy, by the time of the pre-dreadnought battleship, Spain and Italy can quickly become countries with battleships.

Although Spain and Italy alone do not seem that powerful, if the two countries unite, their naval power is enough to threaten Britain.

Of course, this can only happen if Italy builds up its navy as massively as it has historically done, and if Spain still maintains its current naval status.

Considering that Spain's comprehensive national strength is constantly rising, such a situation is very likely to happen. If Spain and Italy unite, the danger presented by the navy alone is enough to make Britain pay more attention to the two countries.

With Crown Prince Umberto and Prime Minister Agostino both willing to strengthen cooperation with Spain, discussions between the Spanish and Italian governments became extremely smooth.

It took only one day for the two sides to finalize close cooperation in military technology, with a focus on warships.

We are still in the era of ironclad ships, and the purpose of the cooperation between Spain and Italy is to develop the next generation of more advanced ironclad ships as the main warships in service of the two countries' navies.

Of course, the products developed can only serve as reference templates. The two countries will then make further improvements based on this reference template and their own needs to build derivative products of the reference template.

For example, strengthening firepower, strengthening power, and strengthening armor protection capabilities, etc. These three factors are the most important for warships.

On the basis of the joint development of warships, Spain and Italy also signed cooperation agreements in other areas, such as the joint development of naval guns on warships, the development of warship power groups, and the development of armor materials.

Armor materials are still very important for warships. Good materials can make the armor thinner and lighter while maintaining protection, thereby improving the power of warships.

Even if it is just a simple improvement in defense, it is a huge improvement for warships. Improving any one of the firepower, speed and defense is a huge improvement for warships. If all three can be improved at the same time, then the warship can be completely transformed.

The process of upgrading ironclad ships to pre-dreadnoughts and pre-dreadnoughts to dreadnoughts is the same. They are all comprehensive qualitative changes caused by technology, which have enabled warships to have great breakthroughs in firepower, speed and armor protection capabilities.

Of course, in addition to technology, what has changed also includes the ideas and habits of various countries in designing warships.

Ironclads, pre-dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts are three completely different products, completely different in appearance, structure and technology. Carlo did not know much about shipbuilding, so this could only be improved through cooperation with Italy, with Spanish and Italian warship designers working together.

Since Italy has historically had the ability to design the most advanced battleships, Spain and Italy will not suffer any loss by cooperating.

Moreover, Spain's capabilities in warship design are also not weak. The combined warship design capabilities of the two countries, even if not as good as those of the British, are definitely not much worse than those of other powerful countries, and can even maintain a slight lead.

In addition to cooperative research and development in military technology, Spain has also signed a number of other cooperation agreements with the Italian government.

The most important one is the agreement on the introduction of Italian population.

As early as in the last cooperation agreement signed by the two governments, population introduction was a very important link.

However, Spain was not so stable at that time, and Carlo was not in a hurry to introduce population from Italy.

In recent years, the total number of Italians introduced to Spain has not exceeded 10, and the average number of Italians traveling to Spain each year does not exceed 1.

As Spain's population continues to grow and the country has stabilized, it is time to raise this limit.

In this cooperation agreement with Italy, the two governments reached a consensus on the introduction of Italian population.

Spain can recruit some immigrants from Italy on its own, but the number of immigrants must not exceed 2 per year.

All expenses of immigration are borne by the Spanish government, and for every Italian who chooses to go to Spain, the Spanish government should pay Italy 50 pesetas as compensation.

For the Italian government, the number of immigrants not exceeding 20,000 per year is not painful. Because southern Italy is relatively backward, a large number of people choose to leave Italy every year and go to other European countries or even the United States and more distant regions.

Instead of letting these people go to other countries in vain, it is better to let Spain bring some of them in. Every Italian immigrant who goes to Spain cannot make the Italian government receive 50 pesetas in compensation, which is also an additional income for the Italian government.

For Spain, since there are no more than 2 immigrants each year, this means that the immigration fee paid to the Italian government is only 100 million pesetas at most.

For the current Spanish government, 100 million pesetas is just a drop in the bucket and is nothing compared to the Italian immigrants that were introduced.

This cooperation is a win-win for both parties. Italy's population is close to 2900 million, and despite a large outflow of immigrants every year, the population still maintains a fairly stable growth.

Twenty thousand immigrants each year are nothing to Italy, and will not affect Italy's population growth data at all.

After signing a cooperation agreement with Italy on population introduction, Carlo became even more satisfied with this trip to Italy.

If Spain could import 2 Italian immigrants every year, its population would grow at a much faster rate.

Don't forget that the Spanish and Russian governments also have a cooperation agreement in this regard. Together with immigrants from other European countries, Spain can ideally receive nearly 5 immigrants every year, which is something Spain could never have imagined before.

Combined with Spain's current population growth rate, Spain's annual net population growth will exceed 30 people.

This is already a very good level for European countries today. After all, Spain's population is only 1866 million.

At this rate of population growth, it will only take a few years for Spain's population to exceed 2000 million. As the population grows, the annual population growth will also reach new highs.

Although it cannot completely solve the problem of Spain’s insufficient population, a bright future for Spain is indeed just around the corner.

In addition to the cooperation agreement on population, the cooperation agreement signed between the Spanish and Italian governments also includes one on capital introduction.

Carlo took the path of state capitalism in Spain, with the royal family and the government leading Spain's industry and economy as official capital.

The advantage of doing this is that the royal family and the government have sufficient funds to quickly scale up a certain industry in Spain.

Spain's industry is also growing rapidly along this path of development, and its current industrial scale is almost the same as that of northern Italy.

But this does not mean that Spain has no problems. Because most industries are monopolized by state capital, private capital in Spain is too weak to spontaneously develop a certain industry.

In this regard, Italian private capital is much stronger than Spanish private capital, and it is much stronger.

The purpose of cooperating with Italy in this regard is to attract some Italian capital to invest in Spain.

With more private capital, Spain's industry can develop at a faster pace. If it relies solely on government and royal funds, the time it takes to take effect will definitely be extended.

In fact, compared with Italy, the private capital of France, Spain's northern neighbor, is obviously stronger.

Spain and France also have a certain degree of cooperation, so it is not a problem to attract some French private capital to invest in Spain.

However, the relationship between Spain and France is not that good, and it can only be said that they are taking advantage of each other.

After this trip to Italy, Carlo will also consider contacting the French government to introduce some French capital to Spain.

Compared to the inferior powers like Italy, Spain can obviously gain more benefits from France. France's industrial scale and economic scale are not comparable to countries like Italy, and Italy will not be able to catch up with France even if given decades.

Italy's population of nearly 2900 million may seem large, but France's population surpassed 3600 million a few years ago.

Although there is no clear data, it is certain that the current population of France is at least 3700 million, which is twice the size of Spain.

Such a large population is one of the reasons why France is so powerful. In addition to this population, France also has an extremely strong industry and economy, which is why France was the hegemon of Europe before the Franco-Prussian War.

Although this European hegemon failed in the Franco-Prussian War, it still faced the threat of a policy of isolating France instigated by Germany after the war.

But it is undeniable that a lean camel is always bigger than a horse, and France is still the powerful European hegemon in front of Italy and Spain.

Among all European countries, there are actually only two that can truly reach the level of strength of France: Britain and Germany.

Russia was inferior to France, and Austria-Hungary was inferior to Russia. Apart from Britain and Germany, which were comparable, and Russia and Austria-Hungary, which were inferior, the gap between the remaining powers and France was huge, even the world hegemon, the United States, was the same.

The United States had to wait until World War I and World War II for the opportunity to rise, or to be more precise, until World War II before it could become the world hegemon.

Before Britain, France and Germany were greatly weakened by the two world wars, the United States was just an upstart and had no resistance against them.

Vittorio Emanuele II was also aware of the fact that the Spanish officials brought by Carlo were negotiating a cooperation agreement with the Italian government.

Vittorio Emanuele II also breathed a sigh of relief after learning that the two governments had successfully signed a cooperation agreement and reached comprehensive and close cooperation in industry, economy, agriculture, military technology and other aspects.

In his view, Italy and Spain, which have reached close cooperation, will have the confidence to confront the great powers, and the two countries have nothing to fear from any of the five traditional European powers.

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(End of this chapter)