Empire Rising: Spain

And the Minister of Agriculture Jovellar is not much different. Although Spain doesn’t have a large area of plains, it is instead a major grain-producing country.

Moreover, the current state of agriculture in Spain does not require much upheaval; it simply needs to cultivate as much land as possible while maintaining the current grain yield and increasing the use of fertilizers in Spain, and the grain yield will naturally rise steadily.

Furthermore, Minister of Agriculture Jovellar’s situation is much better compared to the time of Canovas. The government has already acquired large tracts of land from the nobility and the Church, and after these lands were leased or sold to the people, Spain’s per capita arable land area has improved.

Although the accomplishments of the agricultural department will certainly not be as significant as those of the industrial department, it is still one of the cabinet departments, and the merits Jovellar will receive in the future will not be small.

In addition, both are not too old, and after gaining enough experience in the industrial and agricultural departments, they still have opportunities for further advancement under Carlo’s support.

As the two primary representatives of the Conservative Party, Canovas and Jovellar also clearly understood who they should be loyal to.

After confirming that there were no issues with their development plans, Carlo offered some encouragement to both of them, and each received a word of motivation.

Before the division of Africa by European countries, Spain was always considered the third-largest colonial empire in the world.

The most fundamental reason was that Spain once colonized nearly half of the American region. Yes, the combined regions of North America and South America.

Spain once had four major Viceroyalties in America: the Viceroyalty of New Spain, the Viceroyalty of New Granada, the Viceroyalty of Peru, and the Viceroyalty of La Plata.

The Viceroyalty of New Spain’s territory was the most extensive, including not only Mexico and Central America but also large areas of the Midwestern United States and the South Coast.

The remaining three Viceroyalties were all located in South America, with their combined area occupying more than half of South America’s total area. It can even be said without exaggeration that almost the entire South America was under the control of both Portugal and Spain.

Except for Brazil and the Guyana Region, the entire South America was once Spanish colonies, which is also why Spain was called the third-largest colonial empire.

Though Spain has now lost these colonies, except for Cuba, which still bears the afterglow of the Spanish Colonial Empire, other areas no longer have any ties with Spain.

Yet, the impact of the colonial rule that lasted for centuries is not so easily erased. Countries like Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Argentina still speak Spanish, and their nations still have a large number of Spaniards and Spanish mixed descent.

For this reason alone, they cannot completely rid themselves of Spain’s influence. Although the harsh colonial rule of Spain left many people in America with little fondness for Spain.

But those who emigrated from Spain to other countries still have a deep affection for their homeland.

Especially after these countries and regions gained independence from Spanish colonial rule, the conflicts between the locals and Spain are no longer as intense.

Instead, Spaniards began to yearn for their homeland and tried their best to form alliances between the American countries and Spain.

As for what role the Spanish Government is playing in this, it remains unknown, but currently, the direction of public opinion in South American countries is indeed favorable to Spain.

Among the many countries in South America, Chile and Argentina are definitely well-known. Although Spain’s colonies split into many countries, not many of them eventually became regional powers, and at most, only Chile and Argentina achieved this status.

It so happens that these two countries are neighbors and are both located in the southernmost part of South America, which could be considered a twist of fate.

Precisely because these two countries are neighbors, and both were once Spanish colonies, the relationship between the two is not as good as one might imagine.

And all of this stems from their division of territories after gaining independence from Spain.

At that time, when both Chile and Argentina were Spanish colonies, their relationship was relatively good. After both countries gained independence, the division of territory between the two was not very detailed; it merely adhered to the main structure of the original colonial boundaries.

But how can a country’s borders be defined by vague divisions? When the strength of the two countries was not very strong, such vague border divisions actually posed no significant problems.

But as the strength of both countries gradually grew, and there was even a faint trend of confrontation, the division of the border between the two countries became extremely important.

Because some of the land in disputed areas is likely to be strategically significant as a buffer zone or contains valuable resources as a strategic location.

Although the historical direct conflict between Chile and Argentina is still a decade away, by this time, the relationship between Chile and Argentina had already begun to unravel.

Despite the gradual breakdown of the good relations with Argentina, Chile was obviously not panicking at all. Because of the discovery of nitrate mines in Chile, a large amount of foreign capital poured into South America to invest in nitrate mining.