Chapter 314: Provinces, Cities, and Counties; States, Cities, and Towns

After the failure to secure the help of Prime Minister Cánovas, the Conservative Party members who opposed the administrative division reform understood that there was no one left in Spain who could stop the reform from happening.

Since that was the case, they could only accept it passively and try their best to guide the reform of the administrative divisions toward a more reasonable direction.

At the routine session of the Lower House a few days later, the proposal regarding the administrative division reform received a majority of affirmative votes.

This greatly surprised the Progressive Party members; they had originally thought this session would require a long period of wrangling before the reform could be pushed forward, but they did not expect the Conservative Party members to surrender right from the start and vote in favor immediately.

Since the biggest opponents, the Conservative Party, had already chosen to agree, the other parties and independent individuals naturally could not continue to maintain a stance of opposition.

Public opinion had already developed to the point where anyone who voted against it was considered a selfish national sinner; under such circumstances, no one dared to bear that kind of pressure.

Consequently, the proposal for administrative division reform received an overwhelming majority of affirmative votes, and most of the remaining members abstained rather than voted against it.

At the session, the then-Speaker of the Lower House, Ferdinand Avery, announced that the administrative division reform had been passed, and that the Lower House would officially initiate consultation meetings regarding the reform, and upon the conclusion of these consultations, submit the results to the Upper House for review and approval.

Regarding the reform of Spain's existing administrative divisions, the ones mentioned most often were the less populated regions in the north, such as Cantabria, the Basque Country, Asturias, as well as Navarre and La Rioja.

As for the southern regions like Andalusia, Valencia, and La Mancha, they were basically not on the list for administrative division reform.

These regions had vast areas and populations reaching into the millions. They were fully qualified to exist as independent regions and naturally did not face the risk of being abolished or merged.

After several days of consultations and voting, the Lower House finally made a preliminary decision that the regions involved in the administrative division reform would be the six administrative divisions of Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Navarre, La Rioja, and Murcia.

These six administrative regions would be abolished or merged, ultimately leaving only two regions to reduce the number of Spain's administrative regions and decrease the number of officials and government agencies.

When the results of the Lower House's discussion were finally announced, this administrative division reform plan immediately sparked heated discussion within Spain.

For the majority of Spaniards, the administrative division reform did not have much to do with them. Even though six regions were involved in the reform, the total population of these six regions did not even equal the population of the single region of Andalusia.

Furthermore, five of the six regions were located in northern Spain, which to a certain extent reduced the impact brought about by the administrative division reform.

If one had to talk about impact, perhaps the most dissatisfied were the Basques.

As one of the most valiant and battle-hardened peoples in Spain, the Basques had never integrated into the big family of Spain. Originally, the Basques possessed two administrative regions; both the Basque region and the La Rioja region were controlled by the Basques, and they were also the third-largest ethnic group in Spain, second only to the Catalans.

If things went according to what the Lower House said, the existing Basque region and La Rioja region would both be merged, and it was unknown whether the Basques would be able to hold onto their existing land.

More importantly, after merging with other regions, the number of Basques in their administrative district would also be significantly reduced.

This was a huge blow to the national independence of the Basques; when they could no longer maintain their uniqueness, which was different from other Spaniards, they would only be able to passively integrate into the big family of Spain.

This was something the Basques were unwilling to see. They attempted to launch protests to resist the Lower House's decision, at least to preserve one of either the Basque region or the La Rioja region, ensuring that the Basques could maintain control within at least one administrative division.

Regarding the very special Basques, Gao Da's vigilance had never weakened.

Although the Catalans were still the largest ethnic group in Spain and the most eager for independence or autonomous status, the ambition of the Basques and their independence from Spain were absolutely the greatest among all the peoples of the Iberian Peninsula.

It is no exaggeration to say that the ethnic differences between the Basques and the Spaniards were even greater than those between the Portuguese and the Spaniards.

It was very difficult to assimilate such a valiant and battle-hardened people; historically, Spain had spent hundreds of years without success, and in later generations, the Basque region remained the area in Spain where the clamor for independence was the fiercest.

Since that was the case, there was naturally no need to be polite to the Basques.

Long before this, Gao Da had launched an immigration plan to move Spaniards from more populous regions of Spain into the two Basque administrative regions to dilute the proportion of the Basque population there.

Currently, judging by the local population ratios, Gao Da's efforts had been quite successful.

At present, the combined population of the Basque region and the La Rioja region reached 850, 00, an increase of about 200, 00 compared to the population of the two regions 15 years ago.

Without a doubt, these 200, 00 additional people were almost all pure-blooded Spaniards.

These Spaniards had a very high sense of national identity, and their arrival effectively diluted the proportion of Basques in the two regions of the Basque Country and La Rioja, allowing Spain to strengthen its control over both areas.

It was precisely with the help of these Spaniards that before the Basques could even organize their protests, news of the protests had already been learned by the Royal Security Intelligence Agency.

Once these Basques organized their protests, it would not be so easy to quell them. Gao Da made a prompt decision to arrest the leaders organizing the protests before they could be fully organized, thereby disrupting the Basques' protest plans.

On March 16, 1885, following Gao Da's order, an action team composed of dozens of people marched toward the Basque army, their target being a secret manor in the suburbs of Gasteiz.

With Gao Da's investment in the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, the intelligence agency's work within Spain was also being carried out very well.

Demonstrations like the one organized by the Basques could be said to be completely exposed to the eyes of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency.

Who the leaders organizing the protests were, where they were planning the protests, and how many people were expected to participate in the protest ranks—the Royal Security Intelligence Agency knew all these important pieces of information clearly, so there was naturally no trouble in taking action.

Soon, the action team arrived at the manor in the southern suburbs of Gasteiz and successfully arrested the Basque protest leaders while they were holding a meeting.

Later that day, some Basque workers wanted to contact the leaders to ask when the protest would actually take place.

They tried every way to contact the leaders, but in the end, they were surprised to find that they could not be reached at all.

Some people were quite puzzled by this, but because they could not find any useful information, they had to give up, incidentally canceling the protest that had been half-prepared.

Some people were clearly smarter; they rushed to the secret manor in the suburbs, and after finding it empty and seeing signs of a struggle, they hid the terrifying conjecture in their hearts and tacitly pretended that nothing had happened.

Under such circumstances, the matter regarding the administrative division reform did not trigger any protest demonstrations within Spain, and the administrative division reform was able to proceed smoothly.

When the Lower House submitted the bill regarding the administrative division reform to the Upper House, the Upper House also put forward some of its own suggestions according to Gao Da's instructions.

Of course, the Upper House did not oppose the results discussed by the Lower House. It was just that on top of the results discussed in this meeting, the Upper House added a few of its own suggestions.

As the largest city and capital of Spain, it was very reasonable for Madrid to be established as a separate administrative division. And because of the industrial and economic development over these years, Barcelona had also become a large city comparable to Madrid.

Considering Barcelona's future economic and industrial development, should it be established as a separate administrative division?

One must know that Barcelona currently had a population of 631, 00, which was more than the population of some regions.

Barcelona's population growth was also the fastest among all cities in Spain, even faster than the population growth of the capital, Madrid.

If Barcelona could be established as a separate administrative division, the speed of Barcelona's economic and industrial development would likely see an even greater increase.

This was a good thing for both Spain and Barcelona, so it was necessary to discuss the matter of establishing a region for Barcelona.

Of course, it could also not be established as a region, but instead as a special city, changing Barcelona from a city under the jurisdiction of the Catalonia region to a city directly led by the Cabinet government; this could also stimulate further growth in Barcelona's industry and economy.

The second suggestion was to reform Spain's existing administrative divisions of regions, cities, and villages/towns, changing them into the form of provinces, cities, and towns, or states, cities, and towns, which were more commonly used in European countries.

Such a reform would be conducive to centralizing power, increasing the Cabinet government's influence over various regions, and facilitating the management of policies for local governments.

Under the existing regional system, the laws of some regions could run counter to the laws of the Cabinet government.

For example, the previous Catalonia region once had a decree stating that only the Catalan language could be used within Catalonia, which was clearly too outrageous.

After reforming the existing administrative divisions into ones similar to states, cities, and towns, it would be possible to reduce the legislative power of state-level administrative divisions and avoid conflicts between the decrees formulated by the Cabinet government and the decrees of local governments.

It was reasonable for various places to have a certain amount of legislative power, but such legislative power must be established on the premise of respecting and upholding national laws.

Although the Upper House only had these two points of opinion, the Lower House dared not ignore them in the slightest.

A few days later, Gao Da personally issued an order to convene an expanded parliamentary session, with all members of the Upper and Lower Houses voting on the matter of administrative division reform.

At this time, because the administrative division reform plan had already been passed, there was no problem with Gao Da stepping forward to convene the corresponding meeting.

Parliament also needed a larger-scale meeting to determine the scope and intensity of the reform, and such an expanded meeting was taken seriously by everyone.

The first item voted on at the expanded meeting was the reform of Spain's existing three-tier administrative system of regions, cities, and villages/towns into other administrative division levels to reduce the legislative power of the major regions.

After a full round of voting, the number of people who finally agreed to the reform slightly led the number of people who opposed it, and the reform of the administrative division system was confirmed.

Next was the voting session on which type of administrative division to reform into.

Currently, the administrative divisions Spain could choose from were states, cities, and towns, or provinces, cities, and counties; these two were theoretically similar.

States and provinces were equivalent to Spain's existing regions, and cities represented the cities under the regions. The only difference was the third level: towns versus counties.

The former was all the villages and towns under the jurisdiction of a city, while the latter was naming larger towns or smaller cities as counties, with the counties managing smaller villages or towns.

For Spain, the first plan of states, cities, and towns might be more reasonable.

The reason was also very simple: Spain's population was not that large, and there were not many large towns, so there was naturally no need to establish the level of county to manage towns.

It could also be seen from Spain's population distribution map that Spain's population was mainly concentrated around cities, and most of the population in the inland areas was located around Madrid.

In this way, it was more appropriate for cities to manage villages and towns, and it would not increase the burden of management.

The final voting result was indeed so; many members did favor the state, city, and town administrative system. Since Spain's existing regions were to be reformed, it would be better to reform them into states, cities, and towns.

The third topic discussed at the meeting was whether to establish a separate administrative region for Barcelona.

It is worth mentioning that after Spain's administrative divisions were reformed from regions to states, there were more possibilities for whether Barcelona should be established as a separate administrative division.

Barcelona could be established as a region-level administrative division like Madrid, or it could also serve as a more special existence, established as a special city directly managed by the Cabinet government.

No longer under the jurisdiction of Catalonia, Barcelona could receive more policy bias, and a large amount of the Cabinet government's resources could also be tilted toward Barcelona.

In this way, this second-largest city in Spain would very likely start to catch up with Madrid, and it was not impossible for it to surpass Madrid to become Spain's largest city in the future.

It was just that, like the Basque region, Barcelona being established separately as a special city or a region-level administrative division was also unacceptable to the Catalans.

The opposition force encountered by Barcelona being carved out separately was even greater than the resistance to the administrative reform of the Basque region.

Fortunately, this expanded meeting included a large number of Upper House members, and through the efforts of these members, the proposal was finally passed by a majority vote.

(End of chapter)