Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 617 The Tragic Situation in Central and Eastern Europe

Spain is undertaking massive construction projects, with various infrastructure and industrial developments attracting large numbers of Spaniards to watch.

These projects will provide numerous jobs for Spain from the very beginning. Once the industrial zones are completed, the relocation of factories will require a large number of workers for industrial production.

This is entirely beneficial for Spain, and its economy will maintain a high growth rate for the next few years.

Compared to Spain, other European countries were not so fortunate. Leaving aside Britain and France, which experienced earlier flu outbreaks, the situation was far more dire for the people of Central and Eastern Europe than for those in Western Europe.

While Central Europe was not backward, it depends on the timeframe. Following the World Wars, Central Europe experienced industrial decline and its economy was in complete disarray.

After the Allied powers jointly divided up Germany's industrial equipment, what remained of Germany's once vast industry were only some insignificant scraps.

The bankruptcy of numerous heavy industries and military factories in Germany has resulted in the unemployment of millions. Even without the flu, the German government would have struggled to cope with such a staggering unemployment rate.

The flu outbreak exacerbated the chaos in Germany and caused prices to rise to an extremely high level.

Of course, there are other reasons for the rapid rise in prices in Germany. The primary reason is that capitalist forces, led by Jews, made a fortune from the national crisis.

Whether now or in the future, Jews have never had a good reputation. The reason is simple: this ethnic group, famous for its business acumen, constantly displays a blatant capitalist attitude.

At that time, there were a large number of Jews in Germany, whose status was accepted by the German government; to be precise, they were Jewish Germans.

But it's clear that these Jews didn't respect their German identity. Instead of trying to save Germany from its internal crisis, they seized the opportunity to profit from the national calamity.

Historically, when Hitler (the French Prime Minister) initiated his purges of Jews, there was little opposition within Germany. If the Jews' actions hadn't chilled the hearts of Germans, Germany likely wouldn't have turned its swords against its own people during the World Wars.

Carlo never had a good impression of this people. What happened afterward is self-evident, but even now, this people are definitely not considered law-abiding citizens.

While accepting a large influx of European immigrants, Spain also guarded against the gathering of Jews. To date, the Jewish population in Spain is not large, a situation deliberately orchestrated by Carlos.

Carlo also kept his distance from Jewish capital. Spain follows the path of state capitalism, where domestic capital power, while not entirely controlled by the government and the monarchy, is at least primarily controlled by them to prevent capital from growing too large on its own.

If it weren't for the fact that Jews might still be useful in the future and could help Spain balance the situation in the Middle East, Carlo might even have considered pushing for the mass extermination of Jews by European countries in a future world war.

If the Germans were already suffering terribly, then the Russians were even worse off. Although the intervention war by the World League ended early, the internal civil war in Russia did not cease.

The Russian Civil War had progressed to such a point that annihilating the enemy in a single battle was no longer possible. Both Tsarist Russia and Soviet Russia understood this.

The two sides have shifted from military struggle to ideological struggle, constantly infiltrating enemy-controlled areas, attempting to win over the enemy's government and people, and plotting a coup that would benefit themselves.

In the ideological struggle, Soviet Russia clearly held the advantage. Although Tsarist Russia had a glorious history, in recent decades, Russia had generally lost more wars than it had won.

If Tsarist Russia had not been a victor in the World War, it would likely have been completely unable to compete with Soviet Russia in the ideological struggle.

In the years following the end of World War II, Tsarist Russia received some war reparations from Germany and Austria-Hungary, which gave its finances a much-needed reprieve.

However, good times are always short-lived. Following the flu outbreak, Germany's industry and economy were thrown into chaos. The German government has repeatedly requested the League of Nations to pass legislation to reduce Germany's reparations payments or delay the payment process.

Although the French government initially took a very hard line and was unwilling to reduce the amount of reparations owed to Germany, the German government at that point had no choice. After all, Germany could not risk its own survival by insisting on paying reparations to the Allied Powers.

Seeing that the French government's threats of war had failed to force the German government to comply, France finally chose to back down. After discussions among the Allied powers, it was unanimously decided to reduce Germany's reparations payment by approximately 10% of the total amount, and to allow Germany to temporarily suspend reparations payments for two years, from 1918 to 1919.

The German government has achieved its objectives, which is not good news for the Russian government.

It is no exaggeration to say that Tsarist Russia's finances were basically sustained by reparations from Germany. With France unable to provide support, Russia's finances were in dire straits.

Adding to the impact of the flu, the current situation in Russia can only be described as chaotic.

So how bad is the situation in Russia?

To date, the Russian government is still unable to tally the number of people who have died from influenza in the country.

One reason was that the flu had killed so many Russians, conservatively estimated at several million. For the Russian government at that time, counting these deaths was a huge task, practically impossible to complete during the flu season.

On the other hand, the number of Russians killed by influenza was only a portion. In addition to those killed by influenza, there were Russians who starved to death, died from injuries sustained in fights over food, and died from plague and other diseases.

These people number at least in the millions, which means that the number of people who died in Russia during the flu season has reached an astronomical figure, which is why the Russian government has been unable to compile statistics for so long.

Even if the number of Russians who died during the flu pandemic could be tallied, the Russian government would absolutely not release it. Once this information is released, it would immediately cause turmoil within Russia, and the hard-won balance of power in the civil war would crumble instantly.

The chaos within Tsarist Russia was, in fact, good news for Spain. Although Russia occupied vast plains, its agricultural production had drastically decreased, and the annual grain output was far from sufficient to meet the needs of the Russian people.

This forced the Russian government to import large quantities of grain from Spain and other European countries, and the expenditure on grain imports alone brought the Russian government's finances to the brink of collapse.

This is why it's said that Russia was almost entirely sustained by German reparations. The majority of the reparations paid by Germany were used by the Russian government to purchase grain.

In addition to subsidies from the Russian royal family, Russia was able to hold on for so long.

Speaking of the Russian imperial family, the Romanov clan's legacy dates back hundreds of years. Having ruled such a vast and powerful nation as Russia for so long, the Romanov family amassed immense wealth, making Nicholas II one of the richest rulers in Europe. But this glory was only temporary. During the World Wars, Nicholas II was forced to convert the imperial wealth into cash or directly exchange it for large quantities of grain and military supplies from France and Spain.

This also led to a sharp decline in the wealth of the Russian royal family in a short period of time, and the Russian government and the royal family lost almost half of their gold holdings.

Although Nicholas II of Tsarist Russia has lost power, he is well aware that the existence of Tsarist Russia is crucial to the fate of the Romanov family.

If the Russian Provisional Government had not chosen to cooperate with the royal family, the royal family would probably have been purged by the Republicans the day after the revolution broke out in Russia, and Nicholas II would not be alive today.

It was for this reason that Nicholas II was willing to use the remaining assets of the royal family to help the Russian government overcome its financial difficulties.

After the Russian royal family ran out of gold, Nicholas II sold off a large number of his castles and estates, and even his land holdings.

Although this significantly reduced the Romanov family's wealth, it ensured the financial stability of the Russian government.

Nicholas II's generosity earned him the approval of the Russian government. Even within Tsarist Russia, there were still some voices advocating for the abolition of the monarchy.

After all, Nicholas II's reputation within Russia was not very good, and his and his wife's favoritism towards Rasputin was one of the important reasons for Russia's decline.

It is important to know that during the height of Rasputin's power, he repeatedly handled military affairs on behalf of Nicholas II and took over command of the army.

For someone with almost no experience in military command, doing so would be tantamount to sending hundreds of thousands of Russian troops to their deaths.

It's no wonder Nicholas II's reputation within Russia was tarnished by his actions. This is also why, historically, the Russian royal family suffered extremely brutal massacres after the outbreak of revolutions.

Throughout European history, there have been few countries that were so cruel to royalty. Although many European countries later became republics, the process of transitioning from monarchy to republic was actually quite mild.

Take Italy as an example. Historically, Italy became a republic after the end of World War II, and the fate of the monarchy was decided by a national referendum.

Although the Savoy family lost their throne after the referendum, they were not purged by the government; they only lost their throne.

One reason why Tsarist Russia was inferior to Soviet Russia in ideological struggle was the rule of Nicholas II.

Although Nicholas II did not have much say in Tsarist Russia at the time, the people did not care about that.

The people fear that Tsarist Russia will repeat the mistakes of the past; they do not want to experience the terrible rule of Nicholas II, nor the devastation of Russia during the World Wars.

For the Russian people under Tsarist rule, what they wanted was a long-lasting peaceful and stable environment where they could have enough to eat and live their lives in peace.

Nicholas II's generous donations to some extent comforted the Russian people within Tsarist Russia and also temporarily dissuaded many politicians who had originally planned to abolish the monarchy.

Although Nicholas II has no real power in modern Russia, the aristocracy and capitalists still wield considerable influence.

Both classes supported the monarchy, which was one reason why Nicholas II's position in Russia was relatively stable. Unless absolutely necessary, some reformers in Tsarist Russia did not want to break ties with the nobility and capitalists.

After all, this is a major issue concerning national stability, and at least during times of crisis, a complete breakdown in relations would not benefit Russia at all.

When talking about Tsarist Russia, another Russia that must be mentioned is also worth mentioning.

However, compared to Tsarist Russia, Soviet Russia was in a much better situation.

Although both were experiencing the flu, Soviet Russia's control over its domestic situation was far more effective than that of Tsarist Russia.

More importantly, a large number of workers in Soviet Russia were also quite supportive of the state.

Following the influenza outbreak, Soviet Russia implemented a system of resource distribution. Although Soviet Russia had a more limited capacity to import food from other countries compared to Tsarist Russia.

However, with the implementation of a resource distribution system, it was possible to ensure that most people would not starve. As for being well-fed, that was unrealistic for Soviet Russia at the time.

The scale of Russia's current industrial base is a testament to the severe damage inflicted on the country by world wars, civil wars, and influenza.

Before the outbreak of World War II, Russia was a typical industrial power in Europe, with an annual steel production of 332 million tons and an annual pig iron production of 431 million tons.

Now, Russia's annual steel production is only slightly over 40 tons, and its annual pig iron production is only 62 tons, which is a fraction of what it was before the outbreak of the World War.

Before the outbreak of World War II, Russia's industrial scale ranked among the top six in Europe and even the world. Now, the combined industrial scale of the two Russias cannot even rank among the top twenty.

This ranking is based on the combined industrial scale of both Russias. If we consider only Tsarist Russia or Soviet Russia, neither of them would be able to rank among the top 30 in the world.

The sharp decline in Russian industry also foreshadows the decline in Russia's economy and agricultural production.

The World Wars caused immense destruction to all of Europe, but Russia also experienced a civil war after the war. Even now, the Russian civil war is not over.

Under such circumstances, Russia's steel production could still reach hundreds of thousands of tons, which can only mean that the working class truly supported Soviet Russia.

(End of this chapter)