Rise of Empires: Spain

The whole peace talks lasted for several days. Finally, under the witness of the British, the Spanish government and the Moroccan government jointly signed a new peace agreement, the Treaty of Ceuta.

In addition to this peace agreement, the two governments also agreed not to provoke disputes between the two sides for any reason in the next 10 years, and all conflicts should be resolved by the neutral country and witness country Britain.

The Spanish government naturally had no objection to this request.

First of all, the British government is not a fool. If Spain uses Morocco to blackmail every once in a while, the British will not give in every time.

Secondly, the Spanish government has almost got everything it wants in this peace agreement. The British will never agree to Spain getting the land near Tetouan and Tangier in the north, and this situation will basically not change in the next ten years.

Next, Spain's expansion target should be placed in other parts of Africa, such as Guinea and Congo, rather than Morocco, which the British have already set their sights on.

On October 9, 1870, Prime Minister Primo found Carlo with a smile on his face to report on the progress of the peace talks.

"Your Majesty, our goal has been achieved." Prime Minister Primo had a very relaxed smile on his face, and he seemed very satisfied with the results of the peace talks.

"How is the situation? Did the British finally give in?" Carlo asked with interest.

Although it is said that the Spanish government and Morocco are in peace talks, it is actually the British government that has made the real decision.

If there is no intervention from the British government, this war will definitely end with the complete defeat and unconditional surrender of the Moroccan government.

"The British are willing to take a step back in terms of land in exchange for our concessions on compensation." Prime Minister Primo said with a smile: "It's a pity that the demilitarized zone we proposed was not passed, otherwise it would be possible to influence the northern part of Morocco through economic means."

Carlo nodded, and his mood was quite good: "Tell me, what did the Moroccans pay in this war?"

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

We will establish the South Morocco Colony in southern Morocco and include all this land in our colonial rule." Prime Minister Primo replied.

Carlo nodded, and was quite satisfied with the result. More importantly, the colonial governor of Spain was also appointed by the king, and the addition of a new colony was equivalent to strengthening the king's power.

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

Prime Minister Primo was stunned, not quite sure what his king meant.

"I have not been in Spain for long, and I have not had long-term contact with Spanish nobles. Prime Minister Primo, as a native of Spain, do you have any good governors to recommend to me?" Carlo said to Prime Minister Primo with a smile in a different way.

Carlo is not interested in this new colonial governor for the time being. The reason is that there is no one he trusts more.

The power of the colonial governor is still quite large. In addition to being responsible to the king, he also has the military command and administrative supervision of the colony.

The new colony must send troops to sit in, and controlling the selection of the colonial governor is equivalent to controlling the colonial army.

It was precisely because Carlo did not have a good candidate at this time that Carlo decided to exchange the position of the colonial governor with Prime Minister Primo for benefits.

At least Carlo trusted Prime Minister Primo. Prime Minister Primo needed the current power, and Carlo pursued the future power, and there was no big conflict between the two sides.

Prime Minister Primo certainly knew that the colonial governor was directly appointed by the king. Carlo could ask him so directly, either because he trusted him to the extreme, or because he wanted to reach a certain exchange of interests with him.

For Prime Minister Primo, he believed more in the second point, that is, Carlo wanted to use the position of the colonial governor in exchange for some other benefits.

But what kind of benefits did Carlo want to exchange? Primo was a little doubtful.

"Let's continue to talk about our results in this operation. How much compensation can we get?" Carlo asked with a smile.

Hearing Carlo change the subject, Prime Minister Primo quickly replied: "A total of 75 million pesetas in compensation, Your Majesty.

Our diplomatic representatives have worn out their lips, but unfortunately the British only agreed to 75 million pesetas, not a little more."

"That's not bad, Mr. Prime Minister." Carlo was quite satisfied with the share of the compensation. 75 million pesetas is worth about 2.88 million pounds, which is also a boost to Spain's current reform and development.

If coupled with the low-interest loan from Italy, Spain will basically have no shortage of funds for development in the next few years.

What's more, this 75 million pesetas was obtained for nothing, and Spain's expenditure in the war against Morocco was less than one million pesetas.

"With this money, our industrial construction can also be put on the agenda, right?" Carlo recalled the new industrial zone that was suspended due to lack of funds before, and asked.

"Of course, Your Majesty." Prime Minister Primo's face also showed a smile again, and he had great hopes for the success of Spain's reform and the smooth development of industry.

"That's great news." Carlo smiled and nodded, and he also had high expectations for Spain's strength: "But our education should not fall behind either. I hope that while our five-year industrial development plan is successfully completed, we can also reduce the domestic illiteracy rate to below 55%."

Although it seems that the illiteracy rate has only decreased by 15% from more than 70% to less than 55%, for Spain with a total population of more than 16 million, at least more than 2.5 million illiterate people must have a cultural level above primary school.

Although a large-scale literacy campaign has begun, it is still a difficult task to reduce the illiterate population by more than 2 million in less than five years.

After all, most of the Spanish government's energy is on reform and industrial development. Although education has also been valued, the overall funding is not much.

"I will work hard, Your Majesty." Prime Minister Primo nodded. He certainly knows the importance of education to national development, but the problem is that education in Spain is not so easy to carry out now.

Only when the national income is increased can a literacy campaign be carried out, so that more Spaniards are willing to receive education. If ordinary Spaniards can't even get enough food, who would be in a good mood to receive education?

This also means that if the illiteracy rate wants to drop significantly, it is necessary to effectively increase the average annual income per capita, which cannot be solved by simply investing money in education.

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