Chapter 326: 1886

Much as the Colonial Affairs Department had estimated, Spain successfully completed its plan to merge its African colonies within the year 1885.

Following the end of the war against the Sokoto Caliphate, Spain was left with only four colonies in Africa: the South Morocco colony, the West Africa colony, the Guinea colony, and the Congo territory.

As for Ceuta and Melilla in northern Morocco, although these two cities also belong to African land occupied by Spain, they have effectively completed their localization due to the fact that Spain has controlled them for hundreds of years.

The areas of Ceuta and Melilla are not large, each being only a dozen square kilometers. It is precisely because of their small size that these two cities are used primarily for military purposes, and military fortresses are also the largest structures within the cities.

After hundreds of years of development, the primary populations of both cities are Spanish or Portuguese, so they naturally cannot be treated as colonies.

Spain's localization efforts in South Morocco have, to a certain extent, taken Ceuta and Melilla as references. The current capital of the South Morocco colony, Agadir, is no different from cities like Ceuta and Melilla where the Spanish population is in the majority.

In fact, the Spanish government is already discussing the naming of the city of Agadir. Since localization is to be carried out, the name Agadir must certainly be modified through Hispanization.

Europe's naming conventions for new places and cities are relatively simple: either add a "New" to the name of an existing European region, such as New Orleans, New Newfoundland, New York, etc.

Yes, the naming of New York actually follows this form. The English for New York is "New York," and this "York" actually refers to the Duchy of York, the fiefdom of the Duke of York within the United Kingdom.

The true meaning of New York is "New Yorkshire," and the name New York is merely a new name based on transliteration.

There are simply too many examples of adding "New" to existing place names to create new ones, so there is naturally no need to say more.

The second most common naming method is to name them after historically or currently prestigious figures.

For example, the capital of Tsarist Russia, Saint Petersburg, derives its name from the illustrious Peter the Great of Russia. The United States also has such cities; the official name of San Francisco is "Saint Francisco," and Francisco is a relatively famous saint in Catholicism.

There are also many cities named with "Saint," and these two naming methods are also the mainstream ways in Europe for naming new places and cities.

Currently, within Spain, there are several mainstream names being considered for the naming of the South Morocco colonial capital, Agadir.

First is the naming method starting with "New," with names like New Madrid and New Barcelona receiving a certain amount of support.

Then there is the naming method starting with "Saint," such as Saint Carlos, Saint Felipe, and so on.

The "Carlos" here does not refer to the Carlos of the Carlist movement, but rather the first Spanish king of the Habsburg dynasty, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

During his reign over Spain, Spanish territory spanned Europe and the Americas, making him the true world hegemon of that time, and he is also hailed as the second greatest king of Spain.

As for the first greatest king, that would naturally be the Catholic Monarchs who created Spain: Isabella I and Ferdinand II, who integrated the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon through marriage.

Because Spanish history only spans about four hundred years to this day, it results in Spain only having a few kings worth mentioning.

Coupled with the public opinion's hype regarding the achievements of Carlos, in the minds of many Spanish media and citizens, Carlos, who has only been King of Spain for sixteen years, can already be ranked in the top five of Spanish kings, second only to the several kings of the Habsburg dynasty who created the empire on which the sun never sets.

In other words, the contributions of the Bourbon dynasty's Spanish kings have been almost entirely downplayed. Although not all members of the Bourbon family were incompetent rulers like the volatile King Ferdinand VII or the previous inept Queen Isabella II, who could blame them for belonging to the Bourbon dynasty?

In order to weaken the influence of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain, it is very necessary to downplay the contributions of the Bourbon kings of Spain.

Of course, one cannot be too blatant when downplaying the contributions of these kings. In this situation, the best way is to praise the kings of the Habsburg family.

In any case, the Queen of Carlos comes from the Habsburg family, so she is half one of their own. By strengthening the contributions of the Habsburg dynasty kings and weakening those of the Bourbon dynasty, it can greatly ensure stability within Spain and prevent the Bourbon dynasty from being restored in Spain.

From the historical trajectory of Spain during this period, it can be seen that the Bourbon dynasty, which ruled Spain for nearly two hundred years, still had significant influence in Spain.

Historically, Spain established a republic twice after Queen Isabella, but ultimately allowed the Bourbon dynasty to be restored. The Spanish monarchy even persisted into later generations, which is enough to witness the massive influence of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain.

After various measures by Carlos to weaken the prestige of the Bourbon dynasty, the current influence of the Bourbon family in Spain is already negligible.

The nobility and royalists have also been purged; those nobles and royalists who supported the Bourbon family were basically liquidated by Carlos under various names.

It is worth mentioning that there were no proposals to name the city after Carlos in the proposals for renaming Agadir.

Although this seems a bit strange, it is actually a very normal thing.

Because the name of Carlos in Spanish is "Carlos," this actually means that the proposal for "Saint Carlos" can also be said to be named after Carlos.

In fact, according to the naming tradition of Spanish kings, since the name of Carlos is "Carlos" in Spanish, Carlos should also be the fifth king named Carlos, that is, Carlos V.

However, because the Carlist faction of the Bourbon dynasty had successively supported the fake kings "Carlos V" and "Carlos VI," Carlos chose to be unconventional and announced himself as Carlos I of Spain, rather than Carlos V.

At that time, because the focus of Spain from top to bottom was on the formation of the new government and the reform of the political system, there was not much attention paid to the ordinal number of an elected king.

Prime Minister Primo, who had the highest say at the time, expressed support for Carlos calling himself Carlos I because Carlos did not fight for power or independence, which also set the "Carlos I" claim in stone.

By now, because Carlos has gradually been considered a great monarch, Spaniards are no longer so nitpicky about whether it is Carlos I or Carlos V.

Of course, this also has to do with the previous Spanish king named Carlos, Carlos IV. Because of a series of major wrong decisions by Carlos IV, Spain faced a series of crises in the early 19th century.

During the reign of Carlos IV, Spain first mistakenly got involved in the Napoleonic Wars, becoming a pawn for France against Britain.

This decision led to the total annihilation of the Spanish Navy by the British Navy in 1805, and the Spanish government also suffered heavy losses due to its confrontation with Britain.

That was not all; just two years after fighting the British, Napoleon invaded Spain. The war with France made matters worse for Spain; it can be said that it was the poor governance of Carlos IV and his son and granddaughter that caused Spain to face a dark century starting from the early 19th century.

With these "Carlos" figures as precedents, Spain is no longer so repulsed by whether its king is named Carlos or not.

After all, for the Spanish people, the most important thing is whether their monarch is wise and whether his rule can make their living environment and standard of living better.

In fact, Carlos does not pay much attention to the naming of Agadir. Because this kind of thing is indeed not very important, Carlos can accept whatever name Agadir is called in the future.

Of course, the naming of the city should still try to get rid of the influence of the Bourbon dynasty as much as possible. If it is named after a king of the Habsburg dynasty or named after a Spanish place name, Carlos has absolutely no objection.

In addition to Agadir, many colonial cities in Spain will be renamed in the future. Some colonies are named entirely based on local culture, while others were named by their former owners.

Since they already belong to Spain, they naturally have to be renamed with Spanish-style names.

The time Spain launched the war against the Sokoto Caliphate was in July 1885, and the war ended at the end of September, with the whole war taking about two and a half months.

The next two months or so were used to stabilize the situation in the Sokoto region. Because Spain's colonial merger plan has been successfully completed, there will basically be no more colonial wars in the African region in the future.

Spain's only remaining target is Morocco, and it still needs to wait for a suitable opportunity for Spain to ensure that its war against Morocco will not be interfered with by Britain and France.

The war against the Sokoto Caliphate was also the last major event Spain experienced in 1885. In the two months or so that followed, the situation in Spain remained very peaceful, and time thus arrived at 1886 in an unhurried manner.

For Carlos, the thing that best proves that his age is constantly increasing is the age of his children.

Carlos's eldest son, Prince Juan Fernando, was born in 1875. If calculated by the time of 1886, Prince Juan Fernando is almost 11 years old.

Carlos is quite satisfied with this little guy who is almost 11 years old. As the first heir to the throne, Prince Juan Fernando not only possesses a noble status but also carries extremely heavy responsibilities.

With age, the little guy has gradually become sensible. He knows what responsibilities he should shoulder, and for the rather strict aristocratic education arranged for him by Carlos, Prince Juan Fernando not only has no resistance but instead hungrily absorbs all kinds of knowledge.

The teachers Carlos found for him are all the best in all of Spain, and even top professors and experts from various European countries.

These people have expressed to Carlos more than once how sensible Prince Juan Fernando is. Although he is only ten or so years old, Prince Juan Fernando has already shown sufficient intelligence; he has even completed the primary school curriculum customized for him by many professors and experts in advance and is learning middle school courses in advance.

In later generations, learning middle school courses in advance at the age of eleven is already quite exaggerated. You must know that what Carlos arranged for Prince Juan Fernando is elite aristocratic education, and the things the little guy has to learn are naturally more than just the little bit taught in primary school in later generations.

Under such circumstances, Prince Juan Fernando can still complete his primary school studies in advance, which is already a kind of talent.

After entering the junior high school stage, Prince Juan Fernando will have more things to learn. In addition to basic cultural knowledge, he also needs to understand and learn knowledge related to history, science, physics, chemistry, and psychology, and even undergo education related to the nobility, such as aristocratic etiquette, horsemanship, simple medical knowledge, and so on.

So many subjects are enough to drive a middle school student of later generations crazy, but for Prince Juan Fernando, this is just his normal scope of study.

It can be expected that when Prince Juan Fernando completes the education customized for him by Carlos, he will definitely be able to grow into a monarch above the passing grade.

By then, after experiencing a certain amount of training in the military and government, even if he cannot be a great pioneering monarch, he can at least grow into a qualified ruler who maintains the status quo.

Although he attaches great importance to the education of Prince Juan Fernando, Carlos has not neglected the education of his other children.

In addition to Prince Juan Fernando, Carlos also has two sons and two daughters, namely Sofia, Martin, Alexander, and Cristina.

The eldest, Sofia, was born in 1876 and is currently ten years old by any count.

The youngest, Cristina, was born in 1885 and is not yet one year old.

For these little guys of different ages, Carlos has also expressed his love for them. Although he is very busy with government affairs as a king, Carlos still found time to accompany their childhood.

Except for Prince Juan Fernando, who could not enjoy Carlos's company because he had to receive education early as the heir to the throne, the other princes and princesses have had Carlos's company.

Even Sofia, who is already ten years old, will occasionally pester her father, asking him to take her to play in the palace garden.

Whenever this happens, Carlos never refuses his daughter's request.

The good news is that as one of the largest palaces in Europe, the Royal Palace of Madrid has a sufficiently large garden, and this garden is also one of the places where the little ones often play together.

Under Carlos's beneficial management and cultivation, the relationship between the little ones is quite warm and intimate.

This is the best news for the Spanish royal family and Carlos. No one wants to see a fierce competitive relationship between their children, and no one wants their children to hate or even resent them.

Currently, Carlos is doing quite well in this regard; the little ones clearly like Carlos very much and will stick to their father from time to time.

When government affairs are not busy, Carlos is happy to enjoy such leisure time. In any case, Carlos already possesses endless wealth, and taking appropriate breaks and enjoying life is also very important for Carlos.

(End of chapter)