Chapter 207: Empress of India

In Britain, apart from the major news of the economic crisis making a comeback, another piece of news also sparked heated discussion among the British public: the Royal Titles Bill, which was promulgated in May.

This bill granted Queen Victoria a brand-new title: Empress of the Indian Empire.

Although Britain was called the British Empire, the title of the British ruler was actually King or Queen of Britain. At a time when empires were proliferating across Europe, Britain, as the most powerful nation in Europe, had finally taken a step toward the rank of empire.

However, compared to the imperial titles of other European empires, the title of Empress of India was somewhat awkward.

Regarding the imperial titles of other European countries, the Russian Empire claimed to have inherited the title of the Eastern Roman Empire, while the Austro-Hungarian Empire was formed by the merger of the Austrian Empire—established by the original Holy Roman Emperor—and Hungary.

Although the German Empire was only an empire of the German region, the German region had once possessed the title of the Holy Roman Empire, which carried legitimate legal standing.

On the contrary, the title of Empress of India, which the British had prepared for so long, derived its legal basis from the previous rulers of the Indian region, the Mughal Empire.

In terms of the legal basis for an imperial title, the so-called Indian Empire was completely disproportionate to the imperial titles of other European countries. Europe was a place that placed extreme importance on legal standing, which put a great deal of pressure on Queen Victoria's coronation as Empress of India.

The title of Empress of India originated from the way the native rulers of the Indian region referred to the British Queen. When the method of British rule in India shifted from the East India Company to the East India colony, Victoria, as the Queen of Britain, also began to firmly believe that she was the Empress of India.

Starting more than a decade ago, Queen Victoria had already grown accustomed to the title of Empress of India and considered the lands of India to be a part of the empire under her rule.

In June 1872, when the envoy of the East India colony prostrated himself before Queen Victoria, she used the self-designation of Empress of India: "As the Empress of India, I refuse to accept such etiquette."

Queen Victoria's open acceptance and fondness for the title of Empress of India inspired some nobles to push for her coronation as Empress of India.

As early as three years ago, Queen Victoria's secretary, Frederick Ponsonby, had publicly proposed to the Earl of Granville that Queen Victoria be crowned with the title of Empress of India.

The reason Frederick Ponsonby gave was that the title of Empress of India had long been used to refer to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, only it had not been publicly proclaimed.

As Queen Victoria's secretary, it was impossible for Frederick Ponsonby to spread ideas that the Queen did not agree with.

This also meant that being crowned Empress of India was Queen Victoria's own wish.

The reason Queen Victoria was so anxious to become an Empress, besides her love for such a title, was that her son-in-law, Friedrich Wilhelm Nikolaus Karl, had been promoted from Crown Prince of Prussia to Crown Prince of the German Empire, and his father, Wilhelm I, had been promoted from King of Prussia to German Emperor.

If her son-in-law were to inherit the throne in the future while she remained only the Queen of Britain, would she not be a rank lower than her son-in-law in terms of title?

Among the five traditional European powers, Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Russian Empire were all of imperial rank; France was a republic and was not included.

The fact that Britain, which had the greatest comprehensive strength, was only a kingdom was another point of dissatisfaction for Queen Victoria.

Precisely because of this, even with heavy resistance within Britain, Queen Victoria still relied on the Titles Bill to be crowned Empress of the Indian Empire, becoming the fourth monarch among European rulers to hold the title of Emperor.

While Britain was busy crowning its Queen with the title of Empress, its arch-rival, France, was not idle either.

As the United States was about to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding, France announced it would gift the United States a statue representing liberty. This statue became very famous in later generations; it was the Statue of Liberty, the symbol of American freedom.

This proposal was made in 1865 by the French political intellectual Édouard de Laboulaye, and it received help from many French people, including the sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, as well as the permission of both the French and American governments.

It was also in this year that Bartholdi began the work of building the statue. In just a short time, he finished sculpting the torch held by the Statue of Liberty and shipped it from France to the United States to participate in the Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia.

When the United States became independent a century ago, the French had contributed greatly. A century later, the French went to great lengths to gift the United States the famous landmark, the Statue of Liberty; France could be said to have shown great kindness to the United States.

Karl kept a close watch on the situation in the Balkan Peninsula; according to the current situation, the Russians did not seem to have any intention of starting a war.

After adding the title of Empress of India to Queen Victoria's head, the British were also rushing to prepare for the coronation ceremony in Britain.

After all, this was an imperial title of India; if the coronation ceremony were not held in India, the so-called imperial title would have no sense of presence.

One also had to admire the British attention to the situation in the Balkan Peninsula. Even with their own country so busy, the British could still closely monitor the situation in the Balkans and even complete their material aid to the Ottoman Empire on time, helping the Ottoman Empire stabilize the situation in the Balkan Peninsula.

Seeing that a war would not break out in the Balkans, Karl turned his attention back to Spain, modifying problematic laws while accelerating Spain's development, moving toward the goal of making Spain great again.

For Spain, there had been a lot of good news in the development of the past few years.

First was the aspect of railway mileage.

More than two years had passed since the end of the last Five-Year Plan, and Spain's achievements in railway construction were quite gratifying.

Since entering the second Five-Year Plan, the average annual railway mileage built had exceeded 550 kilometers, bringing Spain's existing railway mileage to an astonishing 8, 75 kilometers, with the hope of increasing the total railway mileage to over 9, 00 kilometers this year.

According to the current speed of railway construction, it was 100% certain that Spain's total railway mileage would break 10, 00 kilometers within the second Five-Year Plan, and there was even hope of exceeding the 11, 00-kilometer target set by the second Five-Year Plan.

In terms of railway mileage, Spain had already surpassed Italy, which was once on par with it, and was striving to catch up with the five traditional European powers.

The construction of railway mileage brought not only convenience in transportation but also a series of improvements in railway-related subsidiary industries.

By radiating these subsidiary industries to stimulate the overall growth of the Spanish economy, these were the benefits of building railways that were not visible on the surface.

As for what could be seen on the surface, there were actually many. These included facilitating communication and cargo transport between various regions of Spain, enabling the Spanish government to control major regions more quickly and effectively, and stimulating population mobility; these were all benefits brought by the railway.

Spain's total railway mileage did not include the simple railways built in the colonies. Otherwise, the total railway mileage within Spain's sphere of influence would have long since exceeded 10, 00 kilometers.

Currently, Spain's colonies could be divided into the Cuba colony, the South Morocco colony, the Guinea and Congo colonies, and the Philippines colony.

Spain had built a large number of railway and road systems in these four major colonies, among which the railways in Cuba and the Philippines had the longest mileage.

However, with the decrease in the importance of Cuba and the new occupation of the South Morocco colony and the Congo territory, Spain's focus on building railways in the colonies had shifted to the African region.

Although the railways in Cuba and the Philippines were still being built, the intensity of construction and the proportion of funds invested were clearly less than those for the other two African colonies.

It is worth mentioning that after the military advisory group arrived in Lanfang, they also planned a railway construction project connecting the Lanfang Republic and the Spanish-occupied territories.

The Lanfang Republic and the Spanish-occupied territories were located in the southwest and northeast of Kalimantan, respectively, and it was quite difficult to build a railway connecting the two regions.

It was fundamentally impossible for the railway to pass through the Dutch colony in the far south, which meant there were only two choices for railway construction between the two regions: either go north through the Kingdom of Sarawak and Brunei, or go through the center of Kalimantan, pass through the primeval forest, and then head north along the Sultanate of Bulungan to connect to the land controlled by Spain.

Going north would pass through the British sphere of influence, and going through the center would pass through the Ilan Mountains in the middle of Kalimantan Island, which made the plan to connect the railways of the Lanfang Republic and the Spanish-controlled Philippines colony very difficult to realize.

The good news was that with the help of the military advisory group, the training of the Lanfang Republic's New Army was proceeding quite smoothly. After a year of training, this army of about 20, 00 people had officially become the main force of the Lanfang Republic.

During the army's training, the local natives and the Dutch had not failed to cause trouble. But because their numbers were small, they were quickly defeated by the newly formed New Army.

After all, it was an army of 20, 00 people, all using muskets and cannons. Although their weapons and equipment could not compare to the main forces of European countries, they were more than enough in Kalimantan compared to those natives.

Most of the native armies used cold weapons, and there were very few thermal weapons. Even if they were equipped with thermal weapons, it was difficult for native soldiers to understand how to use them.

The muskets and cannons possessed by the natives were basically sold to them by the British and the Dutch, which meant they were extremely dependent on ammunition supplies from Britain and the Netherlands.

Even if they could learn how to use guns and artillery, they would have no way out once their bullets and shells were exhausted.

And Britain and the Netherlands were tens of thousands of kilometers away from Kalimantan Island, which meant the weapons, equipment, and ammunition supplies these natives could obtain were limited.

Under such circumstances, it was difficult for them to pose a threat to the 20, 00-strong New Army trained by the Lanfang Republic, unless the Dutch were willing to take the field themselves and transport a batch of weapons and ammunition to the colony before starting the war.

As for the Philippines colony, after unifying the entire Philippine region, Spain carried out a series of reforms and investments in the Philippines colony.

Not only did they strengthen railway construction, ensuring the colonial government's control over the colony, but they also invested in some plantations and mines, allowing the Philippines colony to generate sufficient profits.

Regarding the management of the Philippines colony, the Spanish government adopted a strategy of division and suppression.

They separated the newly incorporated natives from the natives who originally belonged to the Philippines colony, and allowed the natives who originally belonged to the Philippines to enjoy certain privileges.

In this way, the natives of the Philippines were not a monolithic block, which was more conducive to Spanish rule.

Those natives who obtained privileges had to support Spanish rule in the Philippines to maintain their privileges, while simultaneously opposing those natives who had no privileges.

And those natives without privileges faced suppression from the privileged natives, so they would also transfer their hatred to those privileged natives.

Through the method of division and suppression, the Filipinos who should have been hostile to the Spanish colonists were divided into two factions, ensuring they would not unite to oppose Spanish colonial rule.

In fact, in Karl's conception, the Lanfang Republic was also a very important link.

Although it was currently possible to effectively control the Philippines by dividing the Philippine natives, doing so was ultimately only temporary.

There were no major conflicts between the Philippine natives, and their hatred would sooner or later return to the Spanish colonists.

But if the Lanfang Republic were also to join in, it would evolve into a conflict between the Lanfang people and the Filipinos.

Because of the differences in ethnicity and culture, it was difficult for these two peoples to unite to oppose Spanish colonial rule. Spain could also stabilize its rule in the Philippines by controlling these two peoples and making both of them its henchmen.

Future World War I and World War II would still require a large amount of manpower to participate in the war. Spain's own population was not large; if it could provide a large number of auxiliary troops through the Philippines and the Lanfang people, it could reduce the loss of Spain's domestic population.

And the loss of these auxiliary troops was acceptable to Spain. Even if the combat loss ratio was a bit worse, as long as they could contribute, the cost of forming the army would not be a loss at all.

The amount of manpower loss was also related to the distribution of post-war benefits. France's losses in World War I were nothing short of astonishing, almost wiping out a generation of French people.

The resulting economic and agricultural losses were even more severe, and it was not until more than a decade after the end of World War I that France gradually emerged from the shadow of the war.

But it was only emerging from the shadow. The war lost young and strong labor, and the impact on the country could not be made up in just over a decade.

The fact that France in later generations changed from a traditional European white country to a "dyed" country where black people occupied the majority of the population also had a certain relationship with the huge losses in the two world wars.

France lost too much population in World War I, forcing France to rely on colonial labor to supplement domestic manpower needs.

The consequence of this was that a large number of white people were "dyed," and France eventually became a representative country where black people took over as the masters.

For Karl, he did not want to see the day when Spain was "dyed." Precisely because of this, how to minimize the loss of Spanish manpower in war was a problem Karl needed to think about in every possible way.

(End of chapter)