Chapter 721

When Lorida Blanca, the chief minister of the kingdom of Spain, received another letter from the great Chinese Empire, he was really depressed.

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

The Yanhuang tribe, which was very powerful before, was founded!

The most important thing is that before the founding of the people's Republic of China, they also taught the United Fleet a lesson, so that the high-level generals of the three countries in the United Fleet could see the strength of the newly established empire. Moreover, the powerful chief also issued a one-year notice to the three countries, asking them to withdraw from the new continent within one year.

The Spaniards are very clear that this so-called notice has the greatest impact on Spain, but they have nothing to do. Especially when count Paul Fernando and lieutenant general Peres told what they had seen and heard, the whole Spain was shocked.

Spain really can't stir up such a great Chinese Empire.

No matter who is clear, with the establishment of that powerful tribe in the new world on the other side of the ocean, that empire will inevitably have a rigid demand for expansion. However, the kingdom of Spain occupied a large part of the territory of the Great China Empire, and the contradiction between the two countries was immediately highlighted.

As a result, Spanish ministers, led by Lorida Blanca, began to look sad.

It is not up to them to decide how to get along with the great Chinese Empire, whether to fight or to fight. It needs their king, his majesty Carlos III, to decide.

However, his Majesty's situation is very bad now. At the age of 72, his majesty has no ability to preside over state affairs any more.

What can we do?

In fact, as Shi Xiong judged, although the kingdom of Spain seems to be thriving on the surface, its national strength seems to be very strong, but the ministers in charge of peacetime administration are most aware that the huge kingdom of Spain is no longer viable.

Although many historians later boasted that the 1880s was the "golden age" of Spain, those who really knew the inside story knew that the kingdom of Spain in this era could not survive.

More than two hundred years ago, Spain was very beautiful, with its armada all over the world. However, only two centuries later, the former European and Atlantic hegemony was facing collapse.

There are many reasons for this situation, but the most important one is that the contradictions accumulated over the years begin to break out in this era.

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

Before the outbreak of the war of succession to the Spanish throne in the early 18th century, Spain was ruled by the Habsburg dynasty. However, in order to maintain the purity of blood lineage, the successive kings of Habsburg dynasty would not intermarry with foreigners. To put it bluntly, the Habsburg dynasty all married close relatives, and the consequences were self-evident.

For example, Carlos II, the last king of the Habsburg dynasty, suffered from severe ed because he was the product of close marriage. As a result, the king had no offspring in his life. Finally, when he died, there was no heir to inherit this huge Spanish kingdom.

As a result, the war of succession to the Spanish throne broke out, and the Habsburg dynasty was replaced by the Bourbon Dynasty.

It is worth mentioning that Philip V was the grandson of Louis XIV, the French emperor

This war made the kingdom of Spain, which had just recovered a little, 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, Ferdinand VI died in the seven-year war, and Carlos III succeeded his half brother and became the new king of Spain.

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

After his accession to the throne, Carlos III began to carry out various powerful economic promotion policies, which brought a short-term stability and recovery to the rapidly declining Spanish Empire.

The first is the relationship between the kingdom of Spain and the papacy.

The Habsburg family, which ruled Spain in the past, was an ally of the Pope, while the French Bourbon family, which seized the Spanish throne from the Habsburg family, was also quite friendly to Roman Catholicism, thus creating a false image of Spanish Catholicism.

As a matter of fact, since the Bourbon family came to power in Spain, on the one hand, because the Spanish people, who had been bound by the church and the Inquisition for a long time, were quite conservative, they had some innate obedience and sense of responsibility to the church; On the other hand, the citizens, farmers and the middle class who have been affected by the church for a long time hope that their living conditions can be improved. After being influenced by foreign ideas, the aristocracy also began to have doubts about religious power and interest in increasing the secular power of monarchs and nobles.

Therefore, a change aimed at questioning theocracy and yearning for rationality and legal system has begun to germinate in the hearts of the Spanish people.

Carlos III seized this opportunity. He cleverly used compromise means. On the one hand, he used enlightenment to mobilize the resistance of the people and nobles to control the rights of the church; on the other hand, he used traditional thinking to imprison the people's ideas to prevent excessive rationality from threatening his absolute monarchy.

For example, during the reign of Carlos III, the Catholic factional struggle broke out in Spain. In the religious struggle and internal friction of the church, Carlos III skillfully occupied the initiative, eventually expelled the Jesuits and controlled the influence of the church in Spain.

As a result, Carlos is undoubtedly the biggest winner. He successfully weakened the control of Catholicism in Spain, and set up a glorious image of monarchy "leading the people to seek rationality".

Because the status of Carlos III in the eyes of the Spanish people has gradually improved, some of his policies on stimulating the economy have been implemented smoothly. However, compared with his political struggle to strengthen centralization, Carlos III is not really strong in economy. At least, the so-called industrial revolution in Spain is more like a joke than that in Britain at the same time.

In particular, this Carlos III gives people a sense of "recklessness" in his foreign policy.

For example, because of his relationship with the French Bourbons, Carlos III stood with the French just after he ascended the throne. But in the end, the French lost the seven-year war, and Spain also suffered a lot.

However, during the war of independence, Carlos III was in the right position. In 1779, he declared war on Britain. Although he was more in order to regain control of the fort of gibraltarian, Spain also consumed huge national strength in the war, the victory of the war of independence gave the Spanish people hope.

Unexpectedly, a more powerful empire appeared before they could taste the dividend of the victory of the war of independence. Most importantly, this powerful empire does not seem to have a good attitude towards Spain.

But at this time, Carlos III was seriously ill.

What should we do?

This is the common idea of Lorida Blanca, the chief minister of the kingdom of Spain, and other ministers