Chapter 404: M1897 75mm Artillery

The Spanish government's actions were still very fast. After Gao Da decided to establish an industrial base in Asturias, the cabinet government soon began to act.

It took less than a month for the preliminary preparation work for the construction of the industrial base to be completely completed, and the construction of the industrial base officially began.

Like the previous Barcelona industrial base, the Asturias industrial base would be divided into three phases. The first two phases would take one year and one and a half years respectively, and the third phase would take two and a half years, totaling five years.

Once the construction of the Asturias industrial base could be completed, this industrial base would become Spain's most important steel production base and heavy industrial base, providing Spain with an annual production of at least 500,000 tons to 1 million tons of pig iron.

It could be said without exaggeration that once the Asturias industrial base was completed, the steel production of this industrial base would be more than the steel production of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy combined.

For this industrial base, the Spanish government would pay at least 35 million pesetas in funds every year, totaling 175 million pesetas in 5 years to build this industrial base.

As long as the Asturias industrial base could be completed, most of the growth in steel production mentioned in the industrial development plan could be realized instantly.

Spain's industrial base was being built in full swing, and basically nothing major happened in Europe.

Britain was still busy solving the problems in Ireland and India, France and Germany were both busy with their own navies, Russia was busy deploying its Far Eastern situation, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy were just watching from the sidelines.

A year passed in the blink of an eye, and time soon came to 1901.

Like 1900, a major event happened at the beginning of 1901, which was the death of Queen Victoria of Britain.

Queen Victoria was not only a symbol of the country for Britain but also a witness to Britain's glorious history.

From the time Queen Victoria became Queen of Britain, Britain firmly sat on the throne of world hegemon and expanded its colonies globally.

This period was also called the Victorian Era, which was the most glorious, prosperous, powerful, and flourishing period of the British colonial era.

But a country would not always be prosperous, just as a person would not always be young.

This queen, born in 1819, was now nearly 82 years old.

In an era when the average life expectancy in Europe was only 40, the advanced age of 82 was absolutely very rare. Because Queen Elizabeth II had not been born yet, Queen Victoria remained the longest-reigning monarch in British history.

The death of such a great monarch who symbolized Britain attracted the attention of Britain and even the whole of Europe.

Even if the relationship between Spain and Britain was not good, Spain still had to send diplomatic representatives with sufficient status to Britain.

There was nothing to hesitate about; the only one who could go to Britain to attend Queen Victoria's funeral was the current Prime Minister, Angelo Orcajo.

Queen Victoria's status in the European royal family was still very high, because her daughters married into multiple European kingdoms, Queen Victoria was also called the Grandmother of Europe and was one of the most powerful and influential European monarchs.

Although Spain and Britain had no kinship, they were both members of the European royal family, and the respect that should be given still had to be given.

The bad relationship between Spain and Britain was a matter for the two governments; before completely tearing their faces apart, the two royal families still had to maintain a friendly appearance.

In addition to Baron Angelo Olcah personally going to Britain, this diplomatic mission also included Foreign Minister William, Minister of the Royal Household Grant Jelifusi, and other important cabinet ministers, which could be said to have given the British government enough face.

This was already a very high degree of importance. Under normal circumstances, only Gao Da personally going to Britain could exceed this degree of importance, but Gao Da could not go to Britain at such a juncture.

After all, there was no connection between the Spanish royal family and the British royal family; everyone was a king, so why should Gao Da personally attend Queen Victoria's funeral?

The king going personally would not only fail to reflect importance but would instead lower his own status.

Unless it was a country like Italy or the Austro-Hungarian Empire that had an in-law relationship with Spain, Gao Da would not condescend to personally attend the funerals of various royal families.

Moreover, Gao Da himself had no interest in going to Britain. Although London was currently the largest city in the world and also the most prosperous and advanced city.

But because Britain did not pay attention to the environment during the Industrial Revolution, London was also a world-famous foggy city.

Fragrant cars, beautiful wine, and stinking London—this was the best description of the British capital London by the people of various countries. Rich people and cars could be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys of London, and wine produced in France and various parts of Europe could also be seen everywhere.

But at the same time, London also had very serious smog. Coupled with the fact that Europeans in this era did not pay attention to hygiene, excrement could be seen in the streets and alleys of London.

Smog plus excrement everywhere; if one was unlucky, one might even step on feces.

Unlike Madrid, which attached great importance to the sanitary environment, London could be said to be a mess in terms of sanitary environment.

Gao Da was not willing to go to such a London unless he wanted to find trouble for himself.

The reason for sending such a luxurious diplomatic mission lineup of the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and Minister of the Royal Household was, in addition to attending Queen Victoria's funeral, Gao Da also intended to let them visit European countries one after another.

As time came to 1901, it was one step closer to World War I.

In recent years, the two major military groups had carried out a lot of wooing of Britain and Spain, and they both wanted to make their lineup more luxurious and lead their opponents in military strength.

This diplomatic visit was to express Spain's attitude to the outside world; at least for now, Spain had no plans to join one of the military groups.

Temporarily maintaining neutrality was the most cost-effective for Gao Da and Spain, because this meant that Spain could do business with both sides at the same time.

Of course, the behavior of a wallflower leaning to both sides was also the most shameful. At the appropriate time, Gao Da would choose the side he liked most without hesitation and would not maintain a neutral status for a long time.

As for how to choose, it still depended on which side of the two major military groups had more sincerity.

In fact, everyone understood that Britain and Spain were gradually standing on opposite sides. If the sincerity to Britain was greater, the sincerity to Spain would be slightly insufficient.

The same was true for the opposite; if one wanted to woo Spain into one's own alliance, then one would definitely have to give up wooing Britain.

Germany and France had also thought about wooing both Britain and Spain at the same time, but such an idea was flatly rejected by Spain.

It was impossible for Spain to become an ally of Britain unless Britain was willing to directly cede Gibraltar and allow Spain to annex Portugal.

But such a situation did not exist at all; Britain could not lose both Portugal and Gibraltar at the same time, and it was even more impossible to make concessions to Spain without doing anything.

Queen Victoria's successor was Crown Wang Chu Edward, and this point was still very subtle for Spain.

Because starting from Crown Wang Chu Edward, Britain would officially enter the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha dynasty.

The origin of this family naturally did not need to be mentioned; it was a noble family with a long history in Germany. Did this mean that after Crown Wang Chu Edward became the King of Britain, Germany would work harder to woo Britain?

After all, in history, even when World War I was about to break out, the Germans did not give up the idea of wooing Britain.

It was just that Britain at that time felt that Germany was the biggest threat, so it chose to stand on the side of France, which was a smaller threat.

Facts proved that the British people's choice was still very smart. If they chose to stand on the side of Germany, once Russia withdrew from the war, France would definitely not be the opponent of Britain and Germany combined.

As long as Germany defeated France, Germany would be the undisputed hegemon of Europe. No matter how strong Britain's industrial foundation was, they would definitely not be the opponent of Germany.

Germany, which had absorbed the essence of French industry, would undergo a complete transformation. Once Germany was given sufficient development time, Britain, whether in terms of navy or army, would not be able to form a sufficient advantage to suppress Germany.

Things were really as Gao Da had predicted.

According to the report of Prime Minister Angelo Olcah, after Queen Victoria's funeral ended, Kaiser Wilhelm II had an intimate conversation with King Edward VII of Britain.

Unlike Gao Da, Wilhelm II had a kinship with Queen Victoria, which was the reason why he personally came to London to attend Queen Victoria's funeral. ===== CHAPTER 405 =====