Chapter 96: The Arrival of Christmas

The exchange of interests between Gao Da and Primo was quickly concluded, and Antonio Cánovas del Castillo successfully took office as the Spanish Minister of Agriculture, becoming a member of the cabinet.

The candidate for Viceroy of the South Morocco colony had also been determined, and following Gao Da's appointment, the framework of the colonial government was basically established.

The good news was that the total population of the entire South Morocco colony was not large, totaling no more than one million, making it quite simple to manage.

After this war, the Morocco to the north would also understand that Spain was not someone they could afford to provoke, and at the very least, they would not actively seek trouble in the short term.

Under such circumstances, the South Morocco colony would enjoy a relatively stable period. In his report to Gao Da, Prime Minister Primo also mentioned the next task for the South Morocco colonial government, which was the Catholicization of South Morocco.

In the history of European colonization, missionary work and colonization were inseparable. A large number of European missionaries traveled all over the world, spreading Christian ideals to distant, foreign lands.

As mentioned before, the Moroccans were white people who practiced Islam. What Prime Minister Primo had to do was to make the Moroccans believe in Catholicism, so that they could be assimilated into the big family of the Spanish people.

Of course, if they were unwilling to join the ranks of Catholic Spaniards, they would have no choice but to remain colonial natives, enduring the exploitation of the colonial government and the indifference of Europeans.

In addition to spreading the Catholic faith, the South Morocco colony also had to unify the language within the colonial territory, ensuring that these Moroccan natives all learned Spanish.

Although Spain had lost a large number of colonies in South America, Spain's colonial rule was actually successful.

Countries like Argentina were basically all speaking Spanish; they were of mixed Spanish and local indigenous descent and had a natural affinity for Spain.

Although Spain's population now lagged far behind the great powers, Spain was capable of assimilating the populations of these former Spanish American colonies at a low cost.

Even the populations of Portuguese colonies could be assimilated quickly; after all, the difference between Spanish and Portuguese was not great, appearing more like dialectal differences evolved in different regions.

Of course, the promotion of Spanish could not be limited to the colonies; it also had to be vigorously carried out domestically.

Especially in regions that loved to stir up independence like Catalonia and the Basque Country, first making them use Spanish universally, and then letting them slowly accept the broader concept of being Spanish, was the only way to resolve the threat of independence.

In the stage where nationalism was just budding, forced suppression was completely ineffective. Only by letting the Catalans and Basques accept the concept of being Spanish from the bottom of their hearts—just like José Echegaray, who had Basque ancestry—could these regions be thoroughly stabilized.

Relying on compulsion to promote Spanish would not work either.

However, this aspect was still quite simple; it only required allowing Spanish capital to enter Catalonia and the Basque Country in large quantities to create more jobs for these regions.

Since the factories and enterprises were established by Spaniards, it would be quite normal for these factories and enterprises to recruit people who could speak Spanish, right?

If the local Catalans and Basques wanted to enter these factories to work, they would naturally have to learn Spanish.

Of course, there would certainly be some more extreme individuals who had objections to Spanish capital entering the local area and only recruiting those who could speak Spanish.

Gao Da was eager for these people to jump out. After dealing with these more radical individuals, the remaining people would naturally not be so radical.

After all, there were still a large number of farmers and ordinary people who acknowledged the ruling status of the Spanish government, and those more radical nationalists were ultimately in the minority.

It was precisely at this time that there was still hope for Spain to resolve the independence of the Catalonia and Basque regions.

If one truly waited until later generations, when the nationalists in both regions had already reached a certain scale, it would be basically impossible to clear them out.

Unless another large-scale civil war broke out to completely eliminate those independence elements who opposed the Spanish government, perhaps then stability could be restored within Spain.

But Spain would also be severely damaged after a civil war, and the rift between the Catalans, Basques, and the Spanish people would only grow larger.

In the end, it was because the overall scale of the Spanish population was not large. If the Spanish people possessed a population of thirty or forty million, Gao Da would not have to care so much about the Catalans and Basques.

Prime Minister Primo's monopoly on power made Gao Da feel the ease of being a King. Apart from the weekly routine cabinet meeting, Gao Da rarely appeared in the government and did not inquire too much about government affairs.

Besides occasionally caring about the development of royal property, Gao Da seemed to have nothing to do. He could only enjoy the massages and attentive service of his maids while inspecting the construction and experimental areas of the Royal Academy of Physics and Chemistry.

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was Christmas of 1870.

It had been almost a year and a half since Gao Da arrived in Spain.

This also meant that Spain's reforms had been underway for a year and a half as well. Gao Da was still very much looking forward to the results of Prime Minister Primo's reforms, and he could also feel the changes that the reforms had brought to Spain over this year and a half.

However, anticipation was one thing. The necessary Christmas holiday still had to be had.

As the second Christmas Gao Da spent in Spain, his mood was completely different from the first.

During the last Christmas, because he had been in Spain for less than half a year and the internal unrest in Spain had not yet been quelled, the Christmas had been spent very simply.

Now that the internal unrest was quelled, Gao Da naturally did not mind enjoying life, such as holding a celebratory banquet or something similar.

Those qualified to join the banquet held by Gao Da, besides the high-level government officials, were only the nobles.

Of course, because the scale of the Wang Gong banquet hall was not large, not all nobles could receive an invitation from Gao Da.

Who made the Spanish noble class so massive? All the nobles added up to thousands, if not ten thousand; if they all gathered together, it would absolutely cause chaos.

Even if streamlined to nobles of the rank of Marquis and above, the number of invited nobles alone totaled several dozen.

Counting the partners they brought, the number of people attending the banquet already exceeded one hundred.

Adding in the cabinet members led by Prime Minister Primo, it just happened to make over a hundred people attending this banquet.

Those attending the banquet were all members of Spain's upper class, and it was also one of Gao Da's means of winning over the noble class.

Today there will be two updates, and there is one more update around two o'clock.

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(End of this chapter)