[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-rise-of-the-empire-spain":3,"chapter-rise-of-the-empire-spain-rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-385":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Rise of the Empire: Spain",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2365313,4632,"Chapter 385: Prime Ministerial Candidates","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-385",385,"\u003Cp>The news that the Spanish royal family was about to enter into a marriage alliance with the Danish royal family was no longer a secret, and the Spanish public offered their blessings to the soon-to-be-married Crown Prince Hu An Fernando.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Crown Prince Hu An Fernando’s engagement ceremony would be held in the Iberian Cathedral, a church specifically built by Luo Lun for the Archbishop of Spain, intended for royal weddings, funerals, and other important ceremonial rites.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This engagement ceremony would be personally organized by Queen Su Lu, and the royal family would spend a budget of at least one million pesetas for it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although a budget of one million pesetas was not considered much, it was, after all, only an engagement ceremony. When Crown Prince Hu An Fernando and Princess Louise held their wedding, the funds utilized by the royal family would certainly be even greater.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Luo Lun would never be stingy with his sons. The cost of Luo Lun’s own wedding had reached several million pesetas, and by the time his sons held their weddings, the funds spent would only be more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For members of the royal family, such a grand wedding happens only once in a lifetime. Luo Lun hoped they could all enjoy the highest wedding standards; regardless of whether they would inherit the throne in the future, Luo Lun hoped they would live out their lives in wealth and peace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While the Spanish government prepared for Crown Prince Hu An Fernando’s engagement ceremony, it sent out invitations to friendly nations and royal families.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scale of an engagement ceremony was not as grand as a wedding ceremony, nor was it necessary to invite all European nations. It was only necessary to invite those governments and royal families with good relations with Spain, so that everyone could sit together and reminisce.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only when it came to Crown Prince Hu An Fernando’s wedding ceremony would the Spanish government widely invite the governments and royal families of various European countries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After this engagement ceremony, the time arrived at 1897.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the Spanish government, two things were most important in 1897.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first was the cabinet election at the beginning of the year, which concerned who would hold the supreme power of the Spanish government for the next five years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The second was the Crown Prince’s wedding ceremony. The two protagonists of the wedding would likely be the future King and Queen of Spain; neither the current Spanish cabinet nor the Spanish cabinet after the election could afford to ignore the hosting of this wedding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This wedding would not only invite most European countries and royal families, but even high-level government officials from around the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Luo Lun had specifically instructed that the Spanish navy would be deployed during this wedding. On one hand, it was to increase the scale and momentum of the wedding, and on the other, it was to demonstrate the current strength of Spain to the outside world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the 20th century approached, the situation in Europe would become even more chaotic. Only by demonstrating sufficiently strong military power could Spain attract the attention and apprehension of various European countries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Luo Lun did not want the Spain that had been painstakingly reformed and developed to eventually become cannon fodder for other countries in a world war. Participating in a world war was fine, but Spain had to obtain sufficient benefits and ensure it remained on the winning side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For Luo Lun, there was no bias toward either of the two major military blocs. Whichever side could provide more beneficial support to Spain and occupy a greater advantage in the confrontation, Spain would choose that side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even though the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy in the German-Austro-Italian military alliance had kinship ties with the Spanish royal family, Luo Lun would not change his inclination because of this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As long as the French gave more, being enemies with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not impossible. Of course, if the German side gave more, Luo Lun would not mind becoming enemies with Britain and France directly for the sake of control over Gibraltar and the western exit of the Mediterranean.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the Franco-Russian Alliance currently appeared to have great momentum, Luo Lun knew that this was already the final glory of the Tsarist Russian Empire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a few more years, the war that would allow another country to leap into the ranks of the great powers would break out. Russia would also be severely wounded by this war, indirectly triggering the revolution during the First World War and leading to the final, total destruction of the Romanov family that ruled Russia.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This war that led Russia to total decline was, in fact, the Russo-Japanese War that broke out in 1904.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the war seemed as if Japan had defeated Russia head-on and secured its throne as a great power, the actual situation was that Japan had only defeated Russia’s Far Eastern army and Far Eastern fleet, not the main force of the Russian army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason for Russia’s failure in this war was, on one hand, that Japan’s rise had the support of Britain, with the goal of destroying Russia’s hegemony in the Far East.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the other hand, it was the dissatisfaction of Russia’s own ally, France, with Russia’s actions in the Far East. France’s core interests were in mainland Europe and its African colonies; the French naturally did not want their ally to focus on the distant Far East.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A Russia that focused on the Far East was not a threat to Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If Russia could not tie down a large number of German and Austro-Hungarian troops, France would have to face the situation of confronting Germany and its allies alone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was precisely because of this that France’s support for its ally Russia during the Russo-Japanese War was minimal; they hoped a defeat would make Russia see the situation clearly and refocus its attention back to the European region.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the struggle for hegemony in the Far East, it was not as important compared to the changes in the European situation. As long as the Franco-Russian Alliance succeeded in defeating the German-Austro-Hungarian Alliance, would hegemony in the Far East still be far off?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Europe was the most developed region at the time. As long as one succeeded in dominating Europe, it meant the Franco-Russian Alliance had the capital to dominate the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During the Russo-Japanese War, Japan’s comprehensive strength was actually far inferior to the European great powers. The reason it could defeat Russia was also very simple: Russia’s core regions were too far from the Far East, and the transportation of supplies and the mobilization of troops required immense time and financial costs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Russia was already building the Trans-Siberian Railway that spanned Europe and the Far East, the problem was that this railway began construction in 1891 and was not officially completed until 1916.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On one hand, the Siberian region was too cold, making construction difficult and slowing the speed of railway building. On the other hand, Russia’s own industrial strength was not that strong, and the speed of railway construction was not great to begin with.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was precisely for these reasons that such a railway of over 9,000 kilometers took a full 25 years to build, with an average of less than 400 kilometers of railway built per year.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps even Tsar Nicholas II, who presided over the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, did not expect that the railway he built did not facilitate himself, but instead facilitated the Soviet Union that would later gain power in Russia.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because the construction of the railway was only completed in the middle and late stages of World War I, the Trans-Siberian Railway did not play much of a role in World War I.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But by World War II, the important strategic role of the Trans-Siberian Railway was manifested. Stalin called it the \"Dragon Vein of Russia,\" and it was Russia’s important strategic supply transportation lifeline during World War II.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If such a railway had existed during the Russo-Japanese War, the outcome of the Russo-Japanese War would have been truly hard to determine. Although the individual combat effectiveness of the Russian army was not strong, the Russian army had the largest number of people.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Aside from that great Eastern power with a population of hundreds of millions and Britain’s colony of India, there were truly few countries in this world that could match Russia in mass-producing troops with its population of over a hundred million.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first month of 1897 was the preparation stage for the Spanish cabinet election. Major political parties shouted their slogans during this period, cheering for their own prime ministerial candidates.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Major Spanish newspapers also reported news related to the prime ministerial election, boldly guessing which prime ministerial candidate would achieve final victory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As time reached the end of January 1897, the final prime ministerial candidates were basically determined. In addition to one candidate recommended by each of the four major parties, Luo Lun also recommended the current Minister of Industry, Baron Angelo Orcajo, plus three independent candidates who nominated themselves, totaling eight prime ministerial candidates participating in the election.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, it could be expected that these three independent candidates who nominated themselves for prime minister would likely be screened out in the first round of the election.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was no help for it; independent individuals were at a great disadvantage in such large-scale elections.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those legislators who joined parties would basically not cast their votes for them; the only ones they could win over were those legislators who also had no party affiliation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the problem was that among the 298 seats in the Spanish Lower House, the proportion of independent legislators was only a small fraction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This actually doomed the outcome for these independent prime ministerial candidates; unless they could obtain the support of the King, or luckily win amidst the stalemate of various parties, it was impossible for them to become prime minister.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The purpose of these three independent prime ministerial candidates in running was not to succeed in the election, but to add a bit of color to their resumes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because a regular Lower House legislator and a Lower House legislator who had run for prime minister, no matter how you looked at it, the latter was more impressive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if the prime ministerial campaign was not successful, and they were even eliminated in the first round, they were still legislators who had participated in the prime ministerial election.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this regard, Spain’s election system was done relatively well. Regardless of whether these prime ministerial candidates could eventually win, as long as they met the conditions, they were qualified to be prime ministerial candidates.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To a certain extent, this could be considered a manifestation of fairness. As for running but failing to win, this could only be said to be because they did not get the support of other legislators, rather than a problem with the election process itself. To a certain extent, as the prime ministerial candidate of the largest party, Hoviliar Soler should have possessed the greatest advantage and public support.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But there was no help for it; in this prime ministerial election, Luo Lun personally recommended Baron Angelo Orcajo, and the public, knowing that Luo Lun supported Baron Orcajo, would naturally favor him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the blessing brought by Luo Lun’s immense popular prestige; the public would naturally believe in the candidate recommended by Luo Lun, even if this candidate did not possess an advantage himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Old cabinet ministers like Hoviliar Soler and Ewald Bartel were actually not stupid. When Luo Lun personally recommended a prime ministerial candidate, they understood that this cabinet’s prime minister already had a definite candidate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unless they could rely on the advantage of their own party to cleanly and decisively win quickly with a large number of votes, otherwise, in a situation where the election fell into a stalemate, those small parties would certainly cast their votes for the candidate supported by Luo Lun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Doing this, besides expressing their loyalty to His Majesty the King, was also to curry favor with the new Prime Minister in advance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Baron Angelo Orcajo had a huge difference from other prime ministerial candidates, which was that he himself had not joined any party.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spain did not restrict prime ministers and prime ministerial candidates from joining parties; did this mean that they also had hope of pulling Baron Angelo Orcajo, this highly popular prime ministerial candidate, into their own party?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, pulling him into a party would certainly not be now. Because each party could only recommend one prime ministerial candidate, before the election ended, it was not the best time to win over Baron Orcajo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could also be won over after the election ended. If Baron Orcajo achieved final victory, he would certainly seek re-election after his term ended. If he had the help of a party, Baron Orcajo’s chances of seeking re-election would also become greater.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Baron Orcajo did not win in this election, he could also be pulled into a party to build up his momentum, waiting for the next round of prime ministerial elections five years later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anyway, this was a candidate supported by His Majesty the King; even if this prime ministerial election failed, the possibility of winning the next time would only be greater.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, Baron Orcajo’s own age was also very advantageous. A 49-year-old politician was at the golden stage of his age.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the average life expectancy in Europe was only thirty or forty, this was because a large number of European commoners lowered the average life expectancy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For people in the upper echelons of European society, living to sixty or seventy was still completely no problem. Especially those aristocrats who lived in luxury, their lifespans were basically all over seventy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For these people, an age of less than fifty was really not considered old; Baron Orcajo’s political career had at least ten more years, so investing in him would certainly not be a loss.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if he could only serve one cabinet term, the boost to a party’s power would be immensely huge. During Prime Minister Primo’s administration, the largest party in Spain was the Progressive Party.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the time of Prime Minister Canovas, the largest party in Spain had become the Conservative Party.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was only because Prime Minister Evan Bradley himself had no party affiliation; otherwise, whether the current Conservative Party could continue to maintain its status as Spain’s largest party was really hard to say.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, from the perspective of political parties, one could also explain why Luo Lun finally gave up on letting Deputy Prime Minister Hoviliar Soler become Prime Minister.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Deputy Prime Minister Hoviliar Soler was, after all, a member of the Conservative Party; if he were elected Prime Minister, it would only make the Conservative Party’s power in Spain even greater.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the Conservative Party was also a member of the Royalist Party, the Conservative Party’s support being too high was not a good thing for Spain’s development.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Luo Lun hoped that Spanish politics would have more participation from the Progressive Party, the Liberal Party, and the Workers' Party; only when the political situation blossomed in a hundred flowers would Spain’s development not be confined to one ideology.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To a certain extent, Ewald Bartel might also have been a good candidate. He came from the Progressive Party; if he served as Prime Minister, Spain would return to a situation where the Progressive Party and the Conservative Party checked and balanced each other.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a pity that Ewald Bartel’s age was truly too old; considering that the 20th century was approaching, Spain still needed a Prime Minister who was more energetic and had more open-minded thoughts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As time reached February 1897, the Spanish prime ministerial election officially began.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Several major parties had warmed up for the prime ministerial election for more than a month, but the entire election process lasted less than three days.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as the various parties had expected, at the beginning, the Conservative Party’s Hoviliar Soler did indeed gain a huge advantage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But these advantages were not enough to make him cabinet Prime Minister, and he could no longer obtain the support of other parties, so he could only give up helplessly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ewald Bartel naturally did not need to be mentioned. At this time, the Progressive Party was not the largest party it had been during Prime Minister Primo’s time; wanting to become Spain’s Prime Minister relying solely on the support of the Progressive Party was impossible in the current Spanish political situation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those parties with no hope of competing for the prime ministership would not support the prime ministerial candidates of the Conservative Party and the Progressive Party. When the two parties fell into a stalemate, they instead cast their votes for Baron Angelo Orcajo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Conservative Party and the Progressive Party, seeing that the general trend had passed, could only cast their votes for Baron Orcajo to obtain certain interest exchanges.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The final result was that Baron Orcajo became the Prime Minister of Spain directly after his first cabinet term ended, reaching the supreme throne of Spanish political power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the Conservative Party candidate Hoviliar Soler, who knew when to advance and when to retreat, Luo Lun did not mind giving him a bright future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The day after the prime ministerial candidate was determined, Luo Lun publicly stated that Hoviliar Soler would be reappointed as Deputy Prime Minister, allowing him to end his political career with the high position of Deputy Prime Minister.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although he could not reach the prime ministerial throne in the end, relying on his resume of two terms as Minister of Agriculture (in addition to Primo’s second term and the interim cabinet) and three terms as Minister of Industry, plus two terms as Deputy Prime Minister, Hoviliar Soler could still become a meritorious official of Spain and receive a noble title from Luo Lun after retirement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Winning a noble title for himself and his descendants could be considered the best ending for Hoviliar Soler.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Except for not having too much land, there was no major difference between the new aristocracy and the old aristocracy. The noble title Hoviliar Soler could obtain was likely to be a Count, which was a hereditary title.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Through his own efforts to make his family a true noble family, for Hoviliar Soler himself, such an ending could be considered quite complete.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the Progressive Party candidate Ewald Bartel, he could also retire from the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was not just compensation for him, but also a power balance made by Luo Lun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Conservative Party itself was Spain’s largest party; the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives was destined not to be obtained by a member of the Conservative Party.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives were controlled by the Conservative Party, the House of Representatives, the most important institution of the parliament, would very likely become a mouthpiece for the Conservative Party.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the Conservative Party was loyal to Luo Lun at this time, who could guarantee that the Conservative Party’s political ideology met the needs of Spain’s development?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Letting the Conservative Party dominate alone did not conform to Luo Lun’s political layout; whether now or in the future, the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives could not be obtained by the largest party at the time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ewald Bartel’s seniority was even older than Hoviliar Soler’s; he had served four terms as Minister of Finance and one term as Speaker of the House of Representatives. If he were re-elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives, he could also receive a noble title above Baron in the future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although they could not sit on the highest throne of Spanish political power, such an ending was already quite complete for them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most politicians only sought three things in their lives: first, fame; second, profit; and third, the country.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hoviliar Soler and Ewald Bartel had already achieved both fame and profit. In terms of the country, they had also made no small contributions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now that these three matters have all reached a perfect conclusion, what else could they possibly be dissatisfied with?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of this chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",3396,"2026-06-25T09:27:14.599Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","bc0ca0ba5249887b07785da131b82a9c2b7525a449348016dc9c70130ded936f","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-386","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-384",493,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frise-of-the-empire-spain-cover.jpg"]