Super Chief - Chapter 722

When Lorida Blanca, the chief minister of the Kingdom of Spain, received the letter of credence from the Great Chinese Empire again, he was really depressed.

　　 At the end of last year, the Spanish fleet, which formed a three-nation joint fleet with the British and French, had successfully returned to the Kingdom of Spain, but the news they brought back was not so pleasant.

　　 The Yanhuang tribe, who was very powerful before, has even established a nation!

　　 The most important thing is that before the founding of the nation, they also gave the joint fleet a severe lesson, so that the high-level generals of the three countries of the joint fleet saw the strength of the newly established empire. Moreover, the extremely powerful warchief also issued a one-year notice to the three countries, asking them to withdraw from the North American New World within a year.

　　 The Spanish know very well that this so-called notice has the greatest impact on Spain, but they have nothing to do. Especially when Count Paulo Fernando and Lieutenant General Perez told them in detail what they had seen and heard, the whole of Spain was shaken.

　　 Spain really can’t afford such a great Chinese empire.

　　 Everyone knows that as that powerful tribe establishes a nation on the new continent on the other side of the ocean, that empire will inevitably have rigid demands for expansion. However, the Kingdom of Spain occupied a large area of ​​the Great China Empire, and the contradiction between the two countries immediately became apparent.

　　 Therefore, the Spanish ministers, headed by Lorida Blanca, began to look sad.

　　 How to get along with the Majestic Empire, whether to fight or fight this kind of thing is not something they can decide, it needs their King Carlos III to decide.

　　 However, His Majesty’s current situation is very bad. The 72-year-old King is no longer able to preside over national affairs.

This is how to do?

　　Actually, as Shixiong judged, the current Spanish kingdom does not seem to be thriving on the surface, and its national power seems to be very strong, but these ministers in charge of usual government affairs know best in their hearts that the huge Spanish kingdom is no longer good.

　　 Don’t look at later generations. Many historians boasted that the 1880s was the “golden age” of Spain, but anyone who really knows the insider knows that the kingdom of Spain in this era can no longer survive.

　　 The scenery of Spain more than two hundred years ago was incomparable, with an invincible fleet that crisscrossed the world, but only two centuries later, the former European hegemon and the Atlantic hegemon were already facing collapse.

　　 There are many reasons for this situation, but the most important thing is that the contradictions accumulated over the years have begun to erupt in this era.

　　 Not to mention the most beautiful 16th century in the Spanish empire, what happened in the past century is enough to drag this huge empire into an endless abyss.

　　 Before the Spanish Succession War broke out in the early 18th century, Spain was ruled by the Habsburgs. However, in order to maintain the purity of the bloodline of the Habsburg dynasty at that time, the successive kings of the Habsburg dynasty did not marry foreigners. To put it bluntly, the Habsburg dynasty all married close relatives, and the consequences are self-evident.

For example, the fuse that triggered the war of the Spanish throne was that the last king of the Habsburg dynasty, Carlos II, was a product of close relatives, which caused the Spanish king to suffer from severe ED. As a result, the king did not have ED in his entire life. Any heir, when he died in the end, there was no heir to inherit this huge Spanish kingdom.

　　 Then the War of Succession to the Spanish Throne broke out, and the Habsburg dynasty of Spain disappeared and was replaced by the Bourbon dynasty of Spain.

　　 It is worth mentioning that Philip V was the grandson of French Emperor Louis XIV…

　　 This war caused the Kingdom of Spain, which had just recovered a little energy, to fall into the abyss again. Even in 1739, the Kingdom of Spain declared bankruptcy…

　　 Neither Philip V nor Ferdinand VI could change the situation in the Kingdom of Spain. Later, when Ferdinando VI died in the Seven Years’ War, Carlos III succeeded his half-brother as the new king of Spain.

　　 Not to mention, Carlos III is much better than his father Philip V and his half-brother Ferdinando VI, at least better than his father and his brother in internal affairs.

　　 After Carlos III ascended the throne, he began to implement various powerful economic promotion policies, which brought short-term stability and recovery to the rapidly declining Spanish empire.

　　 First is the relationship between the Kingdom of Spain and the Papal State of Rome.

The Habsburgs that previously ruled Spain were allies of the Pope, and the French Bourbons, which had seized the Spanish throne from the Habsburgs, were also very friendly to the Roman Catholic Church, thus creating a illusion of pro-Catholicism in Spain. .

In fact, since the Bourbon family entered Spain, on the one hand, the Spanish nationals, who have been constrained by the church and the Inquisition for a long time, have been quite conservative, and have a certain innate obedience and sense of responsibility towards the church; The citizens, peasants, and middle class who are burdened by the church very much hope that their living conditions can be improved. After the aristocracy is affected by foreign thoughts, they have also begun to have doubts about the religious power and interest in increasing the secular power of the monarch and aristocracy.

　　 Therefore, a change in the question of theocracy and the yearning for reason and the rule of law has begun to sprout in the hearts of the Spanish people.

Carlos III seized this opportunity. He was very smart in using compromise methods. On the one hand, he used Enlightenment to mobilize the resistance of the people and nobles to control the rights of the church, and on the other hand, he used traditional thinking to restrain the people’s ideas to prevent excessive His rationality threatens his absolute kingship.

For example, during the time of Carlos III’s reign, Spain broke out in Catholic factional struggles. In the religious struggles and the internal friction of the church, Carlos III very cleverly took the initiative, and eventually expelled the Jesuits and controlled the influence of the church in Spain. force.

　　 From the results, Carlos is undoubtedly the biggest winner~www.mtlnovel.com~ He successfully weakened the Catholic Church’s control in Spain, and at the same time established a glorious monarch image of “leading the people to seek rationality.”

　　 Because Carlos III’s status in the eyes of the Spanish people has gradually increased, some of his policies regarding stimulating the economy have also been implemented smoothly. However, compared to his political struggle to strengthen centralization, Carlos III is really not too strong in economics. At the very least, the so-called industrial revolution in Spain is more like a joke than the United Kingdom of the same period.

　　Especially this Carlos III gave people a “reckless” feeling in terms of foreign policy.

For example, because of the relationship with the French Bourbon dynasty, Carlos III stood with the French just after he became the throne, but in the end the French lost the Seven Years’ War, and even Spain suffered a lot. loss.

However, during the War of Independence, Carlos III was in the right position. He declared war on Britain in 1779. Although it was more to regain control of the fortress of Gibraltar, Spain also consumed huge national power during the war. The victory gave the Spanish people hope.

　　 What I didn’t expect was that before they had time to taste the dividends brought by the victory of the War of Independence, a more powerful empire appeared. The most important thing is that this powerful empire does not seem to have a good attitude towards Spain.

　　 But at this time Carlos III was seriously ill again.

what should we do?

　　 This is the common idea of ​​the Chief Minister of the Kingdom of Spain Lorida Blanca and other ministers…