Chapter 204: Turbulent Ottoman, Temperamental Balkans

In mid-February 1876, the compulsory primary education development plan passed by the Spanish cabinet was officially made public and began implementation.

This news immediately caused a sensation and sparked the attention of a large number of people within Spain.

According to government documents and announcements, this primary-school-based compulsory education will be completely free of tuition and miscellaneous fees, and will provide free breakfast, lunch, and dinner to students enrolled in primary school.

The government also specifically mentioned in the announcement that the three daily meals would be funded by the Royal Family, which triggered a wave of gratitude toward the Royal Family and praise for Gao Da among the public.

What the public cares about most is their own practical interests. If the Royal Family funds the three daily meals for students at school, this also means that the Spanish public no longer has to bear the cost of their children's meals while at school.

A day's meal money might only be a small expense, but if you look at the whole year or even the entire six-year primary school stage, that is definitely not a small expense.

For ordinary Spanish families, one less person's three daily meals means one less large expense. If this expense is used elsewhere, it can effectively improve the quality of life for all family members.

Gao Da was, of course, also monitoring the public opinion situation in Spain at all times. Upon learning that the public was expressing gratitude toward the Royal Family and himself, Gao Da understood that he had made the right move.

The more grateful the public is to the Royal Family, the more stable the status of the Royal Family naturally becomes. This concerns not only Gao Da, but also all future monarchs.

The more stable the status of the Spanish Royal Family, the less the future successor king needs to worry about his throne. Otherwise, any small accident could lead to the subversion of the throne, which would also cause Gao Da's painstaking layout to go down the drain.

After announcing the compulsory primary education development plan, the Education Department began the plan to renovate primary schools in the Madrid region and the Catalonia region.

The Madrid region and the Catalonia region possess Spain's two largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, which is why these two regions became the pilot areas for compulsory education.

But precisely because of this, the populations of Madrid and Catalonia are not small, totaling over 2 million people.

How to smoothly promote the operation of compulsory education and solve all problems during the implementation process is something the Education Department needs to pay close attention to at all times.

If some unsolvable problems occur during the pilot implementation of compulsory education, it will affect the promotion of compulsory education nationwide.

It is not just the Education Department that is very concerned about the compulsory education pilots in Madrid and Catalonia; the public is also quite concerned about this.

Although Madrid and Barcelona both have a large number of workers, the income of ordinary workers in this era is not that high. Compulsory education that completely waives tuition and miscellaneous fees has extremely high appeal to the worker and peasant classes of Spain.

The promotion of compulsory education in the two pilot regions is a collaboration between the Education Department and the regional governments of Madrid and Catalonia.

Gao Da also specifically instructed the Minister of Education, Gerald Wilson, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Cánovas, requiring the government to strictly control construction quality during primary school renovation work and to put an end to any phenomenon of reusing dangerous buildings.

Once any phenomenon of reusing dangerous buildings or shoddy construction is discovered, as well as any phenomenon of corruption during the promotion of compulsory education, the cabinet government and the Upper House will handle it seriously with the fastest speed and hold all officials involved in the above events accountable.

Gerald Wilson and Count Cánovas naturally would not treat Gao Da's instructions this time as a casual conversation. It could be seen from Gao Da's facial expression that when he said it would be dealt with severely immediately if it happened, Gao Da's attitude was absolutely serious.

The two did not dare to be the slightest bit careless; not only did they repeatedly instruct the officials under them to strictly control the quality of renovated and newly built primary schools, but they also personally went to the renovation sites to supervise, ensuring that no quality problems would occur.

If any of the above events were to occur, even if the cause had nothing to do with them, they would certainly have to bear a certain amount of responsibility.

More importantly, if an accident were to occur after Gao Da had already given instructions in advance, it would cause them to lose Gao Da's trust.

What losing Gao Da's trust means under the current Spanish cabinet government system actually needs no further explanation.

Even though Cánovas, as Deputy Prime Minister, is already the definite candidate for the next Prime Minister, if he were to lose Gao Da's trust due to primary school construction quality issues, I am afraid everything he possesses would vanish into thin air.

Under the premise that Prime Minister Primo does not appear and Grand Duke Serrano does not stand up to oppose Gao Da, the current Spanish government is decided by Gao Da alone.

Gao Da already possesses extremely high prestige among the people, which is also the confidence Gao Da has to control the government through the Upper and Lower Houses. Let alone the fledgling Count Cánovas, even if Prime Minister Primo were to re-enter the political arena, he might not necessarily be able to contend with Gao Da.

Of course, this is only in the case of political struggles. If the struggle were to intensify and trigger the mobilization of the army, it would evolve into a new Spanish Civil War, and the outcome would naturally be hard to say.

The Education Department acted quickly; in just over three months, the number of renovated primary schools reached more than a dozen.

Of course, the so-called renovation process is actually very simple.

The first step is to select buildings suitable as primary school campuses, and the second step is to complete the cleaning and partition them into individual classrooms and dormitories.

The biggest action during this period was repairing broken windows and doors, which is also the reason why the speed of renovating primary schools was so fast.

Even half of these three months were spent on finding buildings; the actual renovation work took less than a month and a half.

According to the current progress, before September of this year, there is hope to renovate over 60 primary schools in the two regions, and compulsory education can also be officially launched in the two regions.

60 primary schools are certainly not enough, but it is not impossible for students to squeeze in during the early stages. In the case of insufficient schools, priority can also be given to enrolling children of the appropriate age from 6 to 12.

Once the number of schools is sufficient, the enrollment scope can then be opened to all age groups.

Yes, Spain's compulsory primary education will be open to all age groups; even adults can participate in compulsory primary education.

But for the sake of fairness, and also for the healthy development of real primary school students aged 6 to 12, these older "primary school students" will not be in the same school as primary school students under 12.

After all, compared to youths in their teens or twenties, real primary school students aged 6 to 12 have not yet fully matured, and the competition for scholarships would certainly fall into a disadvantage.

While education was developing, in May 1876, the situation in Europe also had a slight change.

It was not the European powers, but the internal changes of the Ottoman Empire, a vast empire that once spanned the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Because the Ottoman Empire spanned the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and controlled the extremely important Constantinople Strait in Europe, the changes in the Ottoman Empire attracted close attention from various European countries, with Britain, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russia being the most prominent.

Actually, it is also easy to understand. The Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia have ambitions for the Balkan Peninsula that are known to all countries, and the master of the Balkan Peninsula is precisely the Ottoman Empire.

The British are also quite concerned about the situation around the Constantinople Strait; after all, the name "European troublemaker" is not called for nothing.

The change in the situation of the Ottoman Empire stems from the decline of the empire. This vast empire, which once spanned three continents and was arrogant, has long since become a rotten and weak old man.

Although the empire is still maintaining its last breath, it is just hanging by a thread. Compared to the traditional European powers, the Ottoman Empire is like a piece of fat meat waiting to be divided, and it is fat meat that has already been shaved clean of hair, not pricking the mouth at all.

As early as the end of last year, because of the great famine in the central and northern regions of the Anatolian Peninsula, it caused chaos throughout the Ottoman Empire.

But the European countries only closely monitored the situation of the Ottoman Empire, and they were in a state of mutual restraint, with no power having the confidence to interfere in the situation of the Ottoman Empire under the attention of other powers.

But since May of this year, the situation of the Ottoman Empire has ushered in changes again.

The then Ottoman Sultan, Abdülaziz, was deposed by Ottoman Empire intellectuals led by Midhat, and Murad V was installed as the Ottoman Sultan.

This was originally just a power transition within the Ottoman Empire, and logically speaking, it should not trigger a change in the situation.

What the Ottoman public hoped for was a Sultan who could bring a new constitution, let the Ottoman Empire move toward a constitutional monarchy, become more democratic, and promote reforms to make the country move toward revival and strength.

Logically speaking, Murad V was deeply influenced by France and had the hope of completing the above steps.

But it just so happened that Murad V did not like the Russian Empire, the neighbor to the north of the Ottoman Empire, and was even very hostile.

An Ottoman Sultan who was hostile to the Russian Empire naturally attracted the attention and dissatisfaction of the Russians. The Russian Empire had long wanted to control the Constantinople Strait to control the exit for the Black Sea Fleet to go to the Mediterranean, so it naturally gloated over the chaos of the Ottoman Empire, and even wished for the Ottoman Empire to become more and more chaotic.

An Ottoman Sultan who was hostile to the Russian Empire was obviously a good excuse, which also made the Russian Empire more actively intervene in the affairs of the Ottoman Empire in terms of diplomacy, such as supporting the independence of Serbia, which is also a Slavic brother.

The chaos of the Ottoman Empire was not only being watched by Russia; Britain and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were also watching.

Russia's undisguised intervention in Balkan affairs made the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was also quite eager for the Balkans, very dissatisfied, and it expressed an attitude completely opposite to that of Tsarist Russia, which was to support the Balkans in maintaining the status quo more; after all, a rotten Ottoman Empire is more conducive to the Austro-Hungarian Empire's infiltration of the Balkans.

In fact, as early as the second half of last year, Russian Foreign Minister Gorchakov had secret talks with the Austro-Hungarian Empire to discuss the two countries jointly pressuring the Ottoman Empire to force it to allow the Herzegovina and Bosnia provinces, where uprisings were frequent, to achieve autonomy.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire naturally understood Russia's intentions, so it did not agree to the Russian Foreign Minister's proposal.

At the moment, the Russians are strongly supporting the uprisings of various ethnic groups on the Balkan Peninsula, which naturally aroused the fear and precaution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire's most powerful ally is Germany, but the three countries of Germany, Russia, and Austria are in a state of the League of the Three Emperors. Germany's diplomatic attitude in this regard is very vague; it neither supports Russia's intervention in the Ottoman Empire nor supports the Austro-Hungarian Empire's maintenance of the status quo, and is in a relatively neutral attitude.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire could only turn its gaze to another ally, which is Spain, which has already initially achieved reform.

Although Spain is also an extremely weak empire, the current reforms have already allowed Spain to recover, and calling it a European power is not an exaggeration.

In the case that Germany does not directly support the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the only ally the Austro-Hungarian Empire can rely on is Spain.

Of course, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's hope of maintaining the status quo in the Balkans will certainly not be placed solely on Spain. The most important point is that the British are unwilling to see Russia expand its sphere of influence on the Balkan Peninsula, and even less willing to see the Russians control Constantinople and the strait.

After the Austro-Hungarian Empire's diplomatic ambassador contacted the Spanish government, the cabinet urgently held a meeting and invited Gao Da to participate.

Gao Da had also heard of this period of history. In the end, a war broke out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, which was historically called the Tenth Russo-Turkish War.

The Tenth Russo-Turkish War in history ended with Russia's victory, but the fruits of victory were divided by Britain, Austria, and Russia together.

It is worth mentioning that this war allowed the Austro-Hungarian Empire to obtain Bosnia and Herzegovina, which also indirectly triggered World War I.

After all, the fuse of World War I is very famous, which is the assassination of Crown Prince Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Sarajevo is a city in Bosnia, and the reason for the assassination of Crown Prince Ferdinand stemmed from the conflict between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia over the two provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire hoped that Spain would fulfill the alliance treaty and provide support in terms of diplomacy to ensure that the Austro-Hungarian Empire had enough confidence to oppose Russia's forced intervention in the situation on the Balkan Peninsula.

Gao Da was familiar with the development of this history and naturally understood that the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not participate in this war. Supporting the Austro-Hungarian Empire only at the diplomatic level would not cause any loss to Spain.

Although this would offend Russia, Russia is at the far east of Europe, and Spain is at the far west of Europe, and there are no conflicts of interest between the two countries, so offending them is just offending them.

What's more, the Russian Empire's lifespan is not long either. The Ottoman Empire is a rotten ancient empire, and isn't the Russian Empire the same?

The incomplete reforms gave Tsarist Russia a breath of life, but how long this breath can be maintained is something Gao Da knows very well.

Don't look at the superficial data of the five traditional European powers as very exaggerated; the actually truly powerful countries are only three, which are Britain, France, and Germany.

Britain, France, and Germany all crush Russia and Austria in terms of industry and economy, and are also the world's top three powerful powers.

Russia won the war against the Ottoman Empire, but in the end, it had to make concessions to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Britain; the root cause is precisely Russia's weakness and Britain's strength.

If only the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russia were involved in the dispute on the Balkan Peninsula, Russia would even have the confidence to go to war with the Austro-Hungarian Empire after winning the war against the Ottoman Empire and completely control the situation on the Balkan Peninsula.

But unfortunately, Germany stands behind the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Britain stands behind the Ottoman Empire. It is extremely difficult for Russia to completely control the Balkan Peninsula, just as it is for Spain to control Gibraltar now.

After discussion at the cabinet meeting, the Spanish government officially gave its attitude, which was to agree to support the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the diplomatic level and support the powers not to interfere in the situation on the Balkan Peninsula.

After obtaining the support of the Spanish government, the Austro-Hungarian government finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although Spain cannot compare with the five traditional European powers, it is definitely a powerful country in Europe.

Spain's diplomatic support is still very important to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and I believe it can also make Russia consider some issues more cautiously when planning for the Balkan Peninsula.

While the Austro-Hungarian Empire breathed a sigh of relief, Gao Da was already letting the military factory prepare to produce a batch of new weapons, equipment, and artillery shells.

The scale of the Tenth Russo-Turkish War was quite large, with the number of troops used by both sides exceeding one million and the number of artillery pieces exceeding 4, 00.

In this war, large-scale army battles appeared on both sides, equipped with rifled guns and artillery, and utilizing railways and field telegraphs for communication.

This also made the scale of the battlefield larger, and the way of war changed compared to previous battlefields. The wide frontal confrontation and large depth of this war are characteristics worth learning by the Spanish army.

And both warring parties will definitely need a large amount of weapons and equipment; for Spain's arms factories, this is a potential opportunity to export arms.

(End of this chapter)