Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 599 Long live my emperor
After the declaration of the establishment of the Spanish Empire, the most important moment arrived: Carlos's coronation as Emperor of Spain.

As with previous coronation ceremonies, Archbishop Christian of Iberia will personally crown Carlo.

Although Carlos already wields supreme authority in Spain, he has no intention of undermining the current power structure in Spain, and naturally, he would never crown himself.

The fact that the Archbishop of Iberia crowned himself not only reflected the fact that people in this era still believed in religion, but also benefited the development of Catholicism in Spain, thus benefiting Carlo, who ruled the Catholic Church in Spain.

Ultimately, the Spanish Catholic Church is controlled by Carlos. The stronger the Spanish Catholic Church becomes, the greater Carlos's power becomes.

With the Archbishop of Iberia, the supreme leader of the Spanish Catholic Church, personally appointed by the Spanish Emperor, it was impossible for the Spanish Catholic Church to break free from the control of the Spanish rulers.

When Archbishop Christian personally placed the crown on Carlo's head, and then Carlo personally placed the crown on Queen Sophie's head, applause and cheers erupted once again.

Unlike before, the cheers of the people gradually became unified, eventually evolving into one sentence: "Long live the Emperor! Long live Spain!"

For Spaniards, especially those who have personally experienced the Bourbon dynasty's rule up to the present, they can clearly feel the changes that have taken place in Spain over the past few decades.

The more you appreciate the changes Spain has undergone over the years, the more you realize how important Carlos is to Spain today.

This is why Spaniards genuinely admire and love Carlo; they know who the greatest contributor to the country's rise is, and they are happy to fully express their love and admiration for Carlo.

Although he had made ample preparations for the coronation ceremony, Carlo was somewhat surprised by the overwhelming enthusiasm of the crowd.

Of course, these weren't necessarily bad things. Looking at the cheering and applauding crowd below, Carlo couldn't help but feel a little excited.

Although some of Carlo's actions were driven by personal motives, ultimately, he still hoped that Spain would become stronger.

Now everything Carlo has done has yielded results, and his efforts have been recognized and affirmed by the Spanish people, which is the best outcome for Carlo.

As for whether Carlos was the greatest monarch in Spanish history, let future generations of Spaniards answer that question.

In any case, Carlos has already left a significant mark on history books and is destined to be mentioned repeatedly in the future, especially while the Spanish Empire is still intact.

While witnessing the fervent gazes and joyful cheers of the Spanish at the coronation ceremony, the diplomatic representatives from various European countries present had completely different expressions.

Despite rigorous training, many of the foreign ambassadors present still found it difficult to maintain a smile on such an occasion.

The more one can appreciate the Spanish people's love and fervent admiration for Carlos, the more one can feel the immense potential of Spain as a nation.

Combined with the formidable combat capabilities of the Spanish army and navy, it is no exaggeration to say that Spain is now one of the most threatening countries in Europe in terms of military strength.

Today, Spain's only weakness compared to the major powers is its industrial foundation. Given a few more years to develop, the industrial gap between Spain and countries like Britain and the United States will only narrow, and Spain's overall strength and international influence will continue to grow.

British and French ambassadors, while outwardly maintaining smiles, inwardly raised the level of threat posed by Spain to several notches.

If Britain and France had not still viewed each other as major threats at this time, given the powerful threat posed by Spain, the Anglo-French alliance that failed to be formed in World War I would probably have been quietly established at this point.

Carlo should also be thankful that the World War deepened the contradictions between Britain and France, and that France, having acquired the German High Seas Fleet, was also seen by Britain as the greatest threat.

The British were unaware of France's vulnerability at the time, which is why they mistakenly saw France as their biggest obstacle. It was the antagonism between Britain and France that allowed Spain room to grow, rather than directly confronting Britain and hastily embarking on its path to European dominance.

The coronation ceremony concluded amidst the fervent cheers of the crowd, the starkly contrasting reactions of diplomatic representatives from various countries, the extensive coverage by international newspapers and media, and the majestic strains of the Royal March.

Carlos thus became the first emperor of the Spanish Empire, and the House of Savoy became the royal family of Spain, completely establishing its position.

Besides the Spanish House of Savoy, the Italian House of Savoy was also significantly affected. After all, the Spanish and Italian royal families share the same lineage, and the elevation of the Spanish throne to imperial status was also great news for the Italian House of Savoy.

This signifies that the House of Savoy is now one of the most prestigious families in Europe. The House of Savoy holds the Spanish throne, the Italian throne, the Estonian throne, and the title of Grand Duke of Finland.

With both Spain and Italy being permanent members of the League of Nations Security Council, the Savoy family has seemingly become the leading royal family in Europe. This is an unparalleled honor and achievement for both the Italian and Spanish royal families. Carlo is quite satisfied with this, while King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy may be somewhat dissatisfied, since all of this is entirely due to Carlo and the Spanish royal family.

The Italian royal family merely provided the Italian throne. Although it was the main branch of the Savoy family, the achievements of the Italian Savoy family were far inferior to those of the Spanish Savoy family.

After the coronation ceremony, order was restored in Spain.

However, the heat generated by the numerous major events in Spain has not completely dissipated, and the government has also clearly noticed that there are more and more foreign tourists. Tourism has become one of the pillar industries of many cities, bringing a lot of revenue to Spain.

With the influx of a large number of foreign tourists, many Spanish products have also entered other European countries, which has affected Spain's import and export trade to some extent.

Of course, the increase in exports is definitely good news. After all, the Spanish domestic market is always limited, and the more goods that can be exported, the more stable the Spanish domestic market will be.

Although Spain's industrial and economic development appears to be thriving, Carlo still has some concerns about the current state of the country.

Of course, this isn't a concern about an impending economic crisis. Spain is still a long way from an economic crisis; in fact, its current industrial and economic development is far from meeting the conditions for such a crisis to erupt.

What Carlo was actually worried about was the impending major flu pandemic the following year. The reason he mentioned the pandemic so many times was because the damage it caused was so devastating, resulting in a death toll far exceeding that of world wars.

According to rough historical estimates, the 1918 influenza pandemic caused at least 5000 million deaths worldwide. This figure was recorded when there were no clear records in many countries and regions at the time.

In other words, there were many more deaths from the influenza pandemic that went uncounted, and the number of these people was certainly not small, because most countries and regions at that time were still in a state of extreme backwardness.

It's important to know that during the great flu pandemic, the world's population was only around 17 billion.

This also represents an extremely terrifying statistic: during the pandemic, it caused the direct death of about one-thirtieth of the human population and infected about one-third of the population, making it no less terrifying than the Black Death.

If we convert this to a future population of 80 billion, the influenza pandemic would have caused approximately 2.67 million deaths and infected approximately 26.7 billion people, which fully demonstrates the terror of influenza.

A virus that shocked the world in later years only infected a total of 500 million people and killed a total of 5 million people.

This is not to say that this virus is not terrible, but compared to this virus, the great flu outbreak in 1918 caused far more devastation than expected.

Based on historical estimates of major influenza pandemics, at least several million people in Spain would have been infected, and hundreds of thousands would have died as a result.

The scale of the devastation was comparable to a world war. For Carlo, it was utterly unacceptable that Spain had suffered such immense casualties in the flu.

Even with adequate preventative measures in place, Spain must still take appropriate, and even extreme, measures after an influenza outbreak to prevent its widespread transmission.

There is good news: compared to Spain in history, Spain today has made great progress in the field of healthcare.

During the spread of influenza, the infection rate was much lower in areas with relatively developed sanitation conditions than in areas with poor sanitation conditions.

Even if people unfortunately contract the flu, the mortality rate can still be kept at a low level as long as they receive timely treatment.

The real cause of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed more than 5000 million people, was the poor sanitation in those areas.

People in these areas had no precautions against the flu, and often one person's infection would spread to a large area, resulting in thousands or even tens of thousands of infections.

What's worse is that these people don't have any coping strategies after being infected; most of them just tough it out on their own.

While you might have a chance to tough it out with a common cold, it's completely impossible to rely solely on your body to fight off a global pandemic like this.

Therefore, in addition to taking adequate preventative measures, Spain's healthcare system must also be prepared to quickly treat flu patients after an outbreak, while minimizing the spread of the flu and reducing the possibility of human-to-human transmission.

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(End of this chapter)