[{"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-454":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},2365382,4632,"Chapter 454: The Reactions of Various Countries","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-454",454,"\u003Cp>Because Portugal’s geographical location is too remote, by the time everything happening within Portugal reached the central regions of the European continent, the Spanish government and the Portuguese government had already officially initiated negotiations regarding the union of the two countries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For Spain, whether it be the Spanish government or the public, they are naturally happy to see a union with Portugal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because a union is not a loss for Spain; Spain can always maintain the right to speak in the personal union and has absolutely no need to worry about its influence within it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The public is also happy to see their country become more powerful; forming a personal union can, to a certain extent, be considered expanding territory. Given Portugal’s size, once they join Spain’s sphere of rule, it will not be so easy for them to leave again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unless there is the full support of some super-power that can also defeat Spain in war, it is absolutely impossible for Portugal to escape from Spain’s grasp.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for whether the Portuguese will compete with the Spanish for jobs after Portugal joins the personal union, the Spanish have no need to worry about that at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because according to the labor laws promulgated within Spain, all factories and enterprises located in Spain must ensure that over 70% of all employees hired are Spanish.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Additionally, Spanish enterprises have a hard requirement that employees must be able to speak Spanish when being hired.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Furthermore, the average educational level of the Spanish is already far ahead of the Portuguese; even in fair competition, the Portuguese would likely not be able to compete with the Spanish, let alone the fact that Spanish enterprises already favor the Spanish.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to the support from the Spanish public for this matter, the attitudes of the public in other European countries were completely different.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whether it be the British or the French, they all felt worried about the news that the Portuguese government was negotiating a union with Spain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spain alone was already a headache; if Portugal were allowed to join Spain’s sphere of influence, thereby letting Spain completely control the entire Iberian Peninsula, then who else would be Spain’s opponent?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A complete Iberian Peninsula would be as solid as a fortress; when the time came to attack Spain, one would either have to cross the Pyrenees from France in the north or forcibly land on the Spanish coast.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Regardless of which choice is made, achieving it is not so easy. Although one can bypass the high mountains from either side of the Pyrenees, the sides of the Pyrenees are very narrow, and such terrain is extremely favorable for defense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spain only needs to stockpile tens of thousands of troops on either side of the Pyrenees to be able to withstand the attack of hundreds of thousands of troops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for landing on the Spanish coast, that is even more difficult than the former. To land, one must satisfy a prerequisite: possessing maritime superiority.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Judging by the combat effectiveness currently displayed by the Spanish Navy, including the British Empire, no country dares to claim they can defeat the Spanish Navy with 100% certainty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without maritime superiority, it is naturally impossible to land on the coast; if discovered by the Spanish Navy, they might not even get to land before being sunk directly into the ocean by the Spanish Navy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seen this way, if Spain completely controls the Iberian Peninsula, then attacking Spain would require paying a much greater price.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One would either have to launch a frontal assault from the land, which would require the permission of the French government, or possess overwhelming superiority at sea and perhaps, at the cost of massive casualties, manage to forcibly land on the Spanish coast.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Regardless of which method is chosen, the army would face massive casualties. If Spain were truly allowed to completely control the Iberian Peninsula, Spain would become a country that no European power would want to provoke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The German government was actually happy to see this. The merger of the Iberian Peninsula is not good news for Germany, but it does not affect Germany at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The German government is even willing to see the unification of the Iberian Peninsula, because such a Spain would pose a greater threat to France, which would naturally damage the relationship between the Spanish and French governments.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Previously, when the relationship between France and Spain was relatively good, the German government had a headache over it for a long time. Once France and Spain conclude an alliance, the difficulty of dealing with France would increase infinitely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spain can easily transport various strategic materials to France via railway, and France can also obtain more powerful support from Spain, including both army and navy forces.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Spain defeated Britain, almost all European countries increased their level of attention toward Spain, and the German government was naturally among them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That the Spanish Army could defeat the British Army was within the German government’s expectations, but that the Spanish Navy could defeat the British Navy was something the German government had not expected at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the relationship between Spain and France remains this good, Germany can only place all its hopes on Britain, sparing no cost to facilitate an alliance with Britain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, the threat posed by Spain is simply too great, in some respects even greater than the threat from France. Without the help of a power of the same level, Germany really does not have full confidence in confronting France.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to Germany’s anticipation of a rupture in Spanish-French relations, Italy only felt envy and jealousy regarding Spain’s upcoming personal union with Portugal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Originally, Italy felt that Spain and Italy were in the same boat, both finding it difficult to expand on the European continent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But they did not expect Spain to pull off such a big move. First, they defeated Britain and reclaimed Gibraltar, and then they directly incorporated Portugal into their own sphere of rule.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Don’t look at Portugal as only being a backwater in Europe; it is, after all, a piece of European land with an area of 92,200 square kilometers and a population of over 5 million.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Italy has to look at the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s face just to get a piece of land in the Balkans, while Spain is about to swallow all of Portugal at once, which can only make the Italian government shed tears of envy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the same time, the Italian government also firmed up its ambition to expand on the European continent. Expanding north is not realistic, but expanding east toward the Balkans should be possible, right?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since the Austro-Hungarian Empire has already set its sights on Serbia and Montenegro, then Italy looking further south at Albania, which is all mountainous, should be no problem, right?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Austro-Hungarian Empire couldn’t possibly have such a big appetite that it would look at Albania across Serbia and Montenegro. Since Spain is already so powerful, can Italy, relying on the relationship between the Italian and Spanish royal families, obtain Spain’s support to plot expansion in the direction of the Balkans?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to the Italian government, the Austro-Hungarian Empire government did not have so many thoughts. Their attitude toward this matter was relatively neutral; simply put, they believed this matter had little to do with them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how powerful Spain becomes, it will not threaten the Austro-Hungarian Empire; after all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire has no need for maritime power, and it is separated from Spain by over seven hundred kilometers of land.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spain couldn’t possibly punch through the territories of France and Italy and then border the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If Spain really had that capability, the Austro-Hungarian Empire naturally would not go to compete with Spain; at worst, they could just give up a portion of their interests and maintain a good relationship with Spain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among all the powers, the only ones that had no reaction to this matter were Russia and the United States.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Russia is currently still busy with domestic turmoil, and Tsar Nicholas II has not the slightest mood to pay attention to movements abroad.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Except for news from their ally France and their greatest enemy Germany occasionally being placed on the desk, most of the remaining documents on the desk are about turmoil occurring in certain regions and the deployment of troops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason the United States had no reaction is that the U.S. government has not received relevant news to this day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, the United States and Europe are separated by the entire Atlantic Ocean, and it is impossible for the United States to obtain first-hand news from Europe. Plus, the United States has always pursued isolationism, and they will not overly concern themselves with things happening on the European continent unless the two major military blocs break out into war.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Small matters like the one between Spain and Portugal are of no consequence to the U.S. government. After Spain and Portugal unite, it will not affect the United States, so the United States naturally does not need to pay excessive attention.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The most intense reaction came from the British government. The British government explicitly stated its opposition, and they even publicly declared that such behavior by Spain is trampling on Portugal’s sovereignty as an independent country.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Various British newspapers and media are also frantically smearing Spain; they portray the union negotiations between Portugal and Spain as a Spanish conspiracy, and even include the war between Britain and Spain, believing that both the Anglo-Spanish War and the union between Portugal and Spain are conspiracies by Spain to seize world hegemony.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In order to reduce the responsibility for the failure of the war, the British government has gone to great pains. Such public opinion propaganda has indeed had a certain effect; at least a portion of the British public truly believes that Spain’s actions do not fully respect Portugal’s sovereignty as an independent country.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, what the British public thinks is not that important to Spain. The views of the British government are also not important, because at this point, Britain is already unable to stop the union of Portugal and Spain.\u003C\u002Fp>",1693,"2026-06-25T09:27:15.200Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","2bd27780139e64d489bc4c39ce35613600606a63f832c5673f984424920f781b","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-455","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-453",493,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frise-of-the-empire-spain-cover.jpg"]