Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 604 Good News

Besides desperately trying to shift the blame to the United States, European countries are also trying to prevent the widespread spread of the flu by adopting stricter risk control policies, similar to those in Spain.

Is copying homework really that easy? On this point, European countries have already reached a relatively clear answer: it's not easy at all.

The seemingly simple act of closing borders is fraught with difficulties in practice. First and foremost is public attitude; there are always those who disagree with a complete border closure, even when the country is facing a severe crisis.

Even with public support, it still needs to pass a vote by institutions such as Congress and Parliament before it can be implemented by the government.

After these decrees are issued to governments at all levels, at least a week will have passed, and even if the borders are closed, it will not have any good effect.

Furthermore, Spain has implemented a large-scale centralized quarantine policy, which presents significant challenges for other European countries as well.

Not to mention that a large number of Europeans are unwilling to self-isolate or be centrally quarantined, even if these people were willing to isolate, the establishment of temporary quarantine sites and the supply of materials would be a major challenge.

How did Spain solve the problem of supplying materials? It was only through mobilizing a large number of troops and with the royal family taking the lead in donating supplies.

Carlo paid a hefty price of 5 million pesetas for this, a sum that other European royal families were unwilling and unable to afford.

Even if some royal families were willing, the government wouldn't have enough supplies, or rather, enough transportation capacity, to deliver those supplies to the blockaded cities.

The Spanish army was willing to help transport supplies for the people because, on the one hand, the soldiers were highly loyal to the country and trusted the government and Carlos's rule.

On the other hand, the Spanish army has a relatively detailed compensation system. Even if soldiers are injured or killed during the transport of supplies, their families can receive relief funds and compensation, which is a form of consolation.

In other European countries, where the compensation system is not well-developed, soldiers' families often receive no compensation if they are killed during the transport of supplies.

Even if the soldiers are patriotic, it is impossible to expect all soldiers to give everything for the country.

Unable to achieve the same comprehensive approach as Spain, hastily imitating Spain's control measures is merely copying a tiger without capturing its essence.

The subsequent results were also obvious: the number of flu infections and deaths continued to rise in various countries.

Although the corresponding control policies were quickly implemented, countries like Spain closed public places and required people to wear masks when going out.

But governments around the world are still having a major headache as the number of infections and deaths continues to rise every day.

Compared to European countries, other countries and regions outside Europe are undoubtedly in a more miserable situation.

This brings us to the colonies of various European countries. If Europe, with its excellent sanitation, faced such a severe influenza outbreak, one can only imagine the situation in Africa and other colonies with their extremely poor sanitation.

In the British Indian colonies alone, the number of infections exceeded one million in just one and a half months from early August to mid-September.

More importantly, the British government did not have detailed statistics on the number of infections in India, and the so-called number of infections was just a hasty estimate.

This also means that the actual number of infections in India is likely to be higher than the estimated number, but the British colonial government was unable to count the exact number.

With over a million people infected, the death toll from the flu in India has surpassed 100,000 and continues to rise.

In other words, India has a large population, so this small number of infections and casualties has not caused too much panic in India.

In addition, the strict information blockade by the British colonial government has resulted in India remaining relatively stable, at least not adding fuel to the fire for the British.

The corresponding tragedies were not limited to British colonies; similar situations frequently occurred in various European countries and even Spanish colonies.

Spain possessed vast colonies. Apart from Morocco and the West African colonies, which were either being or had already been localized, the other colonies had poor sanitation, making the widespread spread of influenza inevitable.

Carlo has already discussed this with the Spanish cabinet. Everyone agrees that, if necessary, some colonies should be relinquished.

For Spain, the priority should be to safeguard the operation of its Moroccan and West African colonies, while appropriately relinquishing Guinea and Congo.

This does not mean that these colonies were completely ignored; it simply means that compared to the stricter control measures implemented in the mainland and in colonies in Morocco and West Africa, the control measures implemented in other colonies could be relatively lenient.

Since they do not need centralized quarantine, they naturally do not need the government to provide them with accommodation, food, or a large amount of medical supplies.

These supplies could be saved and used in Spain, given its large population and the enormous daily consumption of masks. Similar control measures could be implemented in the white-populated areas of these colonies, as in mainland Spain. After all, in most cases, white and black communities are completely separate.

As long as it is ensured that there is no flu outbreak in the white settlements of these colonies, the local whites will be safe and can get through the flu season without incident.

As for the significantly larger number of Black people, they were not within the scope of the Spanish government's consideration. After all, Spain's colonies combined numbered at least tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, of indigenous Black people.

If the Spanish government were to take care of all the indigenous Black people, its financial expenditure on this flu would at least double, which is a huge expense, so it's best to save money wherever possible.

More importantly, neither the Spanish government nor the Spanish people treated the black people in the colonies as human beings.

European countries and their people shared the same attitude. With everyone struggling to survive, no one cared about the condition of Black people during the flu. In fact, they hoped that as many Black people as possible would die from the flu, as this would be beneficial for the subsequent management of the colonies.

Compared to the gloomy situation in other European countries, Spain was in a much better position. Both Britain and France were in dire straits at this time.

Funerals are being held everywhere, in big cities and small villages. The number of infections in Europe has surpassed 2000 million, and the death toll has officially exceeded one million, turning Europe into a living hell.

Fortunately, Spain is relatively remote, and with the complete closure of its borders, the spread of the epidemic in Spain has indeed been contained.

While major European countries have seen millions of infections, Spain's cumulative number of infections has remained at only a few hundred thousand so far.

More importantly, most of these infected individuals were infected during the first wave of influenza, rather than during the second wave, which has a higher mortality rate.

If we only count the number of people infected in the second wave of the flu, the actual number of infections in Spain so far is only a few tens of thousands.

The majority of these were brought by tourists and immigrants from outside Spain. After all, Spain closed its borders relatively late, and some tourists and immigrants carrying the virus had already arrived in Spain long before.

In addition, the presence of undocumented immigrants led to several small-scale outbreaks of influenza in Spain.

Fortunately, the spread of the flu was quickly contained by the Spanish government, and the vast majority of people who contracted the flu were forced to undergo treatment in centralized quarantine facilities.

Although some people inevitably get infected, thanks to preventative measures taken months in advance, the number of people who have died from the flu in Spain has remained in the thousands so far, which is an exceptionally high number compared to other European countries.

It's important to understand that in Europe, flu deaths don't even crack the top ten unless they're in the six figures. In countries like the UK and France, where the flu first started spreading, the death toll has already approached 30.

Although these numbers may seem small, and cannot be compared to a world war, it's important to remember that less than two months have passed since the flu became truly highly lethal.

Killing nearly 30 people in one country in just two months is an astonishing number, even in the context of a world war.

Compared to the total number of deaths across Europe, there is no doubt that even the World Wars could not have achieved such a high fatality rate.

In addition to the effective control of the flu in Spain, there was another piece of good news for Carlo: the Grand Duchy of Finland, the country ruled by his son, was also very effective in controlling the flu.

Even when Alexander was still a prince of Spain, he had witnessed firsthand his father Carlos's precautions against the flu.

Trusting his father, Alexander, after becoming Grand Duke of Finland, ordered the production of large quantities of face masks and alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

To this end, he did not hesitate to use part of the savings Carlo had given him to build the largest mask factory and disinfectant factory in Finland.

Planning ahead proved very effective. After the flu outbreak, Prince Alexander, like Carlo, announced, in his capacity as the ruler of the country, that he would donate a large amount of supplies to the people free of charge.

This approach quickly garnered Alexander a large amount of public support, and thanks to Alexander's advance planning, Finland effectively prevented the spread of the flu.

Of course, another very important reason is that Finland is more remote than Spain.

Finland has a vast land area but a small population. Furthermore, most of its territory lies within the Arctic Circle, resulting in a very slow spread of influenza in Finland.

Since the flu began to spread widely, Finland has only had tens of thousands of infections. Moreover, most of these cases were from the first wave of the flu; the second wave had just begun, but the country had already closed its borders, effectively preventing its spread in Finland.

Prince Alexander has now firmly secured his position as Grand Duke of Finland by taking preventative measures against the flu and by donating large sums of money to the public during the flu season.

Although a newcomer, Prince Alexander has already won over the hearts of the people. The Finnish government has also seen his sincerity towards Finland in his actions, and under such circumstances, the people are willing to support him, since everyone shares the same goal: the good of Finland.

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(End of this chapter)