Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 94: Chapter 88: Bountiful Gains

The entire negotiation lasted several days, and finally, under the witness of the British, the Spanish Government and the Moroccan Government jointly signed a new peace agreement, the “Ceuta Peace Treaty”.

In addition to this peace agreement, both governments also agreed that for the next 10 years, they must not provoke any disputes between them for any reason, and all conflicts should be resolved by the neutral country and witnessing country, the United Kingdom.

Regarding this requirement, the Spanish Government naturally had no objections.

First of all, the British Government is not foolish; if Spain extorts a sum from Morocco every once in a while, the British cannot always concede.

Secondly, the Spanish Government has already obtained almost everything it wanted in this peace agreement. The British would never agree to Spain gaining the lands near Tetouan and Tangier in the north, and this situation is unlikely to change in the next ten years.

Next, Spain’s expansion target should be set on other regions of Africa, such as Guinea and Congo, rather than Morocco, which the British are already eyeing.

On October 9, 1870, Prime Minister Prim found Carlo with a smile on his face, reporting on the progress of the negotiations.

“Your Majesty, our goal has been achieved.” Prime Minister Prim wore a rather relaxed smile, seemingly very satisfied with the results of the negotiations.

“How is the situation? Did the British finally relent?” Carlo asked with interest.

Although it was said to be peace talks between the Spanish government and Morocco, the real decision-maker was the British Government.

If it hadn’t been for the intervention of the British Government, this war would have definitely ended in the complete defeat and unconditional surrender of the Moroccan Government.

“The British are willing to make a concession on land in exchange for us making concessions on compensation.” Prime Minister Prim said with a smile: “Unfortunately, our proposed demilitarized zone did not pass; otherwise, we could have used economic means to influence the northern regions of Morocco.”

Carlo nodded, in quite a good mood: “Tell me, what did the Moroccans lose in this war?”

“The British agreed to our territorial claims from Agadir to the west of Tata and our colonial privileges in the Western Sahara region.

We will establish the South Morocco Colony in southern Morocco, incorporating this entire area into our colonial rule,” answered Prime Minister Prim.

Carlo nodded, quite satisfied with this result. More importantly, the colonial governor of Spain is also appointed by the king, adding a new colony is equivalent to strengthening the king’s power.

“Does the government have any suggestions for the new colonial governor?” Carlo suddenly asked.

Prime Minister Prim was slightly taken aback, somewhat unclear about the king’s intention.

“I haven’t been in Spain for long, and haven’t had lasting interactions with the Spanish nobility. Prime Minister Prim, as a local Spaniard, do you have any good candidates to recommend for the governor?” Carlo rephrased, smiling at Prime Minister Prim.

Carlo temporarily had no interest in this new colonial governor position. The reason being, there was indeed no one he particularly trusted.

The power of the colonial governor is quite significant. Besides being directly accountable to the king, they also have military command and administrative oversight of the colony.

The new colony will undoubtedly require the stationing of troops, and controlling the choice of the colonial governor is equivalent to controlling this colonial army.

It was precisely because Carlo had no particularly good candidates at the moment that he decided to offer the colonial governor position to Prime Minister Prim for an exchange of interests.

At the very least, Carlo had a relatively good level of trust in Prime Minister Prim. Prime Minister Prim is in pursuit of current power, while Carlo is in pursuit of future power, with no significant conflict between the two.

Prime Minister Prim was, of course, aware that the colonial governor is directly appointed by the king, and for Carlo to ask him so directly meant either that Carlo trusted him to an extreme degree or that he wanted to reach some kind of interest exchange with him.

For Prime Minister Prim, he leaned more towards the latter belief, that Carlo wanted to use this colonial governor position to obtain some other benefits.

However, what kind of benefits Carlo wanted to exchange for was something Prim was a bit unsure about.

“Tell me more about the achievements of this campaign. How much compensation can we get?” Carlo asked with a smile.

Hearing Carlo change the topic, Prime Minister Prim quickly responded, “A total of 75 million Pessetas in compensation, Your Majesty.

Our diplomatic representatives had to talk themselves hoarse, but the British would only agree to 75 million Pessetas, not a penny more.”

“That’s not bad, Prime Minister.” Carlo was quite satisfied with the amount of compensation. 75 million Pessetas, approximately 2.88 million Pounds, would also aid Spain’s current reforms and development.

If we add the low-interest loans from Italy, Spain will not lack funds for development in the coming years.

What’s more, this 75 million Pessetas is effectively free of charge, as Spain’s expenditures in the war against Morocco were less than a million Pessetas.

“With this funding, can our industrial construction be put on the agenda?” Carlo thought of the new industrial zone previously postponed due to lack of funds and asked.

“Of course, Your Majesty.” Prime Minister Prim’s face once again showed a smile. He had high hopes for the success of Spain’s reforms and the smooth development of its industry.

“That’s certainly good news.” Carlo nodded with a smile, also having high expectations for Spain’s strength: “But we must also not fall behind in education. I wish that by the time our five-year industrial development plan is successfully completed, we can reduce the national illiteracy rate to below 55%.”

Reducing the illiteracy rate from over 70% to below 55% may seem like only a 15% decrease, but for Spain, with a total population of more than 16 million, at least 2.5 million illiterate people need to achieve a primary education level.

Although a large-scale literacy campaign has started, the task is still daunting to reduce the illiterate population by over 2 million in less than five years.

After all, most of the Spanish government’s energy is focused on reforms and industrial development. Although education is also valued, the overall funding is not much.

“I will do my best, Your Majesty.” Prime Minister Prim nodded. He naturally recognized the importance of education for national development, but the problem is that education in Spain is not easy to implement right now.

Literacy campaigns need to be carried out while raising national income, so that more Spaniards will be willing to receive education. If ordinary Spaniards can barely afford food, who would be in the mood to receive education?

This also means that in order to drastically reduce the illiteracy rate, the average annual income must be effectively raised. It’s not simply a matter of investing more funds into education.