Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 313 Reform Dispute
As time came to March 1885, a topic that had once caused heated debate was brought up again, that is, the redivision of Spain's administrative divisions.

For most countries, administrative divisions are not that important. Administrative divisions that have lasted for decades or even hundreds of years are reasonable to a certain extent.

Such an administrative division would actually be perfectly desirable if the land in Spain were not so bad.

But there is no way, because a considerable part of Spain's land is mountainous, which makes the existing administrative divisions seem not so reasonable.

Spain has a total of 17 regional administrative divisions, but the population is only about 2287 million. This also means that on average each regional administrative division has a population of just over 100 million, which is even less than the population of a city in later generations.

What’s more, regions like Andalucia, León and Catalonia all have populations of over 300 million.

This also means that the regional-level administrative divisions in Spain with relatively small populations have a population of less than 100 million, and some regions even have a population of less than 50.

These regions with a population of only a few hundred thousand still have complete regional administrative systems, which Carlo thinks is a bit of a waste.

If a few regions could be abolished, it would not only streamline the number of officials, but also make the population of the Spanish regions more balanced and easier to manage.

On March 1885, 3, during a regular meeting of the House of Commons, a Progressive Party member put forward a proposal to reform administrative planning, which immediately aroused extensive discussion among all members.

The congressman named Evans said that Spain's current administrative divisions are very unreasonable. At least five administrative divisions should be abolished and those with small populations should be merged into one. This will reduce Spain's administrative expenditure burden.

Evans had obviously learned about the situation of the various administrative divisions in Spain and put forward several suggestions of his own.

The total population of the five administrative regions of Asturias, Cantabria, Basque Country, Navarra and La Rioja in northern Spain is only 230 million, ranking only fourth among the existing administrative divisions in Spain, slightly higher than the population of Galicia.

Spain has to use five times the number of officials and government agencies as Galicia to manage five regions with similar populations, which is obviously a waste of political resources.

If these five regions can be merged into one or two regions, more than half of the officials and political resources can be saved. Such a reform is definitely meaningful.

Except for the Balearic and Canary Islands, which are overseas islands and it is not convenient to merge administrative divisions, Evans believes that all administrative divisions with a population of less than one million, except the capital Madrid, can be merged into regions with a population of over one million.

This will not only reduce the expenditure of Spanish political resources, but also improve the efficiency of regional governments and facilitate the government's management of various regions.

Evans' proposal caused an uproar in the House of Commons. There were people who expressed support for his idea, and naturally there were also many people who expressed opposition.

During the free speech session, another Conservative MP, Alva, stood up and expressed his opposition: "Ladies and gentlemen, our administrative divisions are derived from the history of Spain, the history of unification, and have been passed down for hundreds of years.

Such administrative divisions witnessed the unification of Spain and also witnessed the integration process of the various ethnic groups in Spain.

For example, the Basque region mentioned by Councillor Evans, if it is merged, the name Basque will be deleted from the administrative regions of Spain.

There is no doubt that this will seriously damage the feelings between Spain and the Basques. We are all part of the country and we should respect the wishes of these people.

At this important juncture when our country is gradually prospering and thriving, I do not think administrative division reform is necessary.

If our rapid development is disrupted due to the reform of administrative divisions, it would be a loss.

Ladies and gentlemen, developing industry and economy are more important things. There is no need for us to focus on trivial matters such as administrative divisions.

Whether it is 17 administrative divisions or any other number, it cannot change the fact that we are Spanish. How to unite all Spanish people more effectively is something we should consider. "

Alva's views were echoed by some MPs, most notably those from the Conservative Party.

Some of these MPs do share the view expressed by Alva that there is no need for political reform in Spain.

There are also some people who are vested interests in the existing political divisions. They are naturally unwilling to change the political divisions. After all, this will harm their own interests.

Before Evans proposed reforms to administrative divisions, he anticipated that such a proposal would be strongly opposed by many legislators.

Any reform is not easy unless one has the political status, influence and military power that Prime Minister Primo once had.

Even Prime Minister Primo, who possessed all three of these qualities, was assassinated, not to mention Congressman Evans, who is just an ordinary member of the Progressive Party.

However, some people can see the benefits that political division reform will bring to Spain and choose to vote for Evans to support his proposal.

For a while, the number of people supporting and opposing political district reform remained almost the same. Opponents could neither completely veto the proposal nor supporters could push the resolution forward.

The meeting came to nothing, but Evans' proposal and Alva's objections sparked widespread discussion in Spain.

Some people support the merger of administrative divisions. After all, some administrative divisions not only have small land areas, but also have pitifully small populations, which seems unnecessary.

Some people, like Alba, oppose the reform of administrative divisions. Many of the names of Spanish administrative divisions reflect the history of Spain, such as Galicia, Basque Country and Catalonia.

The names of these regions come from either the names of local ethnic groups or the countries that once existed in the area.

Although these ethnic groups and countries have been unified into the Spanish family for various reasons, this does not mean that they have completely disappeared.

If administrative divisions are merged, it means that several regions will be removed from the list. This is definitely a harm to those countries that once existed and the nations that still exist.

Most of those who oppose the proposal hold the view that it is better to do less than more and that there is no need to make major changes to the existing administrative divisions.

This nationwide discussion quickly attracted Carlo's attention. Or rather, it attracted Carlo's attention.

Long before Evans put forward the proposal for administrative division reform, Carlo had already considered whether the existing administrative divisions in Spain were reasonable, and it was Carlo who contacted members of the Progressive Party and asked the Progressive Party to help propose the corresponding administrative division reform in the House of Commons.

The reason for choosing the Progressive Party instead of the Conservative Party is mainly because the two parties have different attitudes towards reform.

Although the Conservative Party is theoretically a royalist party, most of its members, as the name suggests, have relatively conservative attitudes.

They will not oppose existing reforms, but they are also unwilling to continue with new reforms in Spain.

After all, they have become vested interests, so why should they hurt their own interests to promote reform?

Even Prime Minister Canovas, the representative of the Conservative Party, could not change the views of the Conservative Party members. The Conservative Party is composed of a large number of aristocrats, landowners and conservative officials. Their class determines their thinking, which cannot be changed by individuals.

This is also the reason why Carlo retained the Progressive Party and the Liberal Party and allowed the three major parties to compete freely.

If there were only the Conservative Party, any reform would face great resistance, unless Carlo himself came forward to promote the reform, but doing so would make Carlo bear all the responsibilities of the reform, which was something that a king should avoid as much as possible.

Seeing that the proposal for administrative division reform was at a stalemate, Carlo decided to secretly provide assistance to help those who were progressive to push the proposal forward more quickly.

How can we help? Of course, we can make reasonable use of Spanish public opinion.

The Spanish government also needs to consult public opinion on whether to reform administrative divisions.

As long as the people can reach a unified opinion, would these legislators elected by the people dare to ignore the opinions of the people?

Of course not.

This also means that as long as Carlo can lead the Spanish people to support political division reform, he will be able to push the proposal for political plan reform through the House of Commons.

On March 3, the Spanish newspaper El Sol published an article entitled "The Pros and Cons of Administrative Division Reform for Spain", which pointed out the pros and cons of administrative division reform and gave examples of the reasons why the parliamentarians opposed the administrative division reform.

The article immediately attracted the attention of readers and made administrative division reform the hottest news in Spain.

This is not the end. Another major newspaper, Royal Daily News, directly interviewed thousands of ordinary people in Spain's two major core cities, asking them about their attitudes towards administrative division reform.

More than 5000 people were interviewed, of which more than 3000 supported administrative division reform, and more than 1000 said that it did not matter whether administrative division reform took place or not, because no matter how the reform took place, it would not affect their lives.

Only a few hundred people expressed opposition to the administrative division reform, because it would cause representative regional names to disappear from Spanish history.

Such a huge gap in the number of supporters and opponents immediately made the public believe the reason pointed out by the Sun for those MPs who opposed the administrative division reform, that is, the administrative division reform would harm their interests.

Such reports directly put the lawmakers who once opposed the report in a difficult position. They could not explain, nor should they not explain.

If they don't explain, the public discussion will be heated, and the blame they bear will become bigger and bigger.

The explanation seemed to confirm the fact that they opposed proposals that were beneficial to the country for their own interests.

There was no other way, the Conservative MPs could only find Prime Minister Canovas, who had the highest status and the most power in their party, and seek his help.

To be honest, Prime Minister Canovas was unwilling to get involved.

These congressmen don't understand, but Prime Minister Canovas sees it clearly.

The only ones in Spain who could mobilize these public opinion forces were the cabinet government and King Carlo.

The cabinet government has not taken any action during this period, which only proves that it was King Carlo who mobilized the power of public opinion.

Although Carlo did not express his attitude towards administrative division reform, his act of mobilizing public opinion to help the Progressive Party has actually indirectly expressed his attitude.

Prime Minister Canovas is not Primo. He does not have military power, nor does he have the great influence and status of Prime Minister Primo.

In addition, Prime Minister Canovas was promoted by Carlo, and he had no power to resist Carlo.

What's more, Prime Minister Canovas himself also believes that the reform of administrative divisions is a good thing, but as prime minister he cannot express his attitude too bluntly, otherwise it may cause a large number of people to agree with him and lose their thinking and judgment.

When several Conservative MPs led by Alva found Prime Minister Canovas, Prime Minister Canovas had just finished the work at hand.

After hearing the various opinions of these parliamentarians on the disadvantages of administrative division reform and asking him to express his attitude in the name of the prime minister, Prime Minister Carlos smiled and decisively rejected their request: "In my opinion, administrative division reform is not a completely good thing for Spain, but it definitely has more advantages than disadvantages.

As long as we can overcome some of the problems brought about by administrative division reform, we will be able to gain far more benefits than problems.

Whether or not you truly oppose administrative division reform, you cannot change the choice of public opinion.

Go back, and you will know the result when the next House of Commons votes. Before that, I hope you can investigate Spanish public opinion and stand on the side of the Spanish people. "

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister, if you also support opposing the administrative division reform, we still have a chance to prevent the reform from happening.

Do you want to see historic names like Catalonia, Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia disappear in our reforms?

As long as you oppose reform, the Progressive Party will never be able to promote reform." Some Conservative MPs were unwilling to see the reform happen and proposed it to Prime Minister Canovas.

Prime Minister Canovas paused with a smile on his face, and looked at the congressman. After a while, he said, "First of all, I personally support the reform of administrative divisions. Perhaps the names of some regions will disappear as a result, but for all Spaniards, such a sacrifice is worth it.

We will have more reasonable administrative divisions, and the saved political resources can be invested in other departments. Isn’t this a good thing?

Besides, even if I oppose reform now, I cannot stop it from happening.

I suggest you investigate Spanish public opinion. Didn't the Royal Daily News list the opinions of thousands of Spaniards interviewed? Are you going against the will of the Spanish people? "

In the Royal Daily, Prime Minister Canovas deliberately emphasized the word royal.

This somewhat deliberate change of tone immediately made the congressmen realize what was going on.

They finally understood why Prime Minister Canovas was unwilling to oppose the reform. It turned out that the king was behind the reform.

With their doubts completely dispelled, these Conservative MPs had no choice but to bid farewell to Prime Minister Canovas and give up the last glimmer of hope in their hearts to prevent the reform.

At this time, Carlo was just like Prime Minister Primo at the time. He had both influence and status, and also controlled the military power of Spain.

If this was really the reform Carlo wanted to promote, then no one could oppose it. Conservative MPs like them were even less likely to change Carlo's views, so they could only obey, after all, a mantis cannot shake a tree.

(End of this chapter)