Empire Rising: Spain

If the regulations are not set, there will always be some people who exploit loopholes by temporarily establishing a small shipyard to cheat Carlo’s support funds.

As long as they can design warships that meet Navy requirements, they can receive a bonus of 2 million Pesseta and 3 million Pesseta in support funds.

The bonus has no upper limit; each time a compliant main warship is designed, a reward of 2 million Pesseta will be given.

However many ships are designed will determine the amount of rewards received, and this rule rewards shipyards capable of designing outstanding warships.

Besides rewards and support funds for the shipyards, the Ministry of the Navy will also offer varying shares of rewards to those directly involved in warship design.

Carlo’s attitude is also very clear; he is willing to spend a lot of money to speed up the development and construction of new main battleships.

In fact, from Carlo’s requirements, it can be seen that what Carlo truly desires are not ironclads anymore, but more powerful battleships, or rather pre-dreadnought battleships.

Just as the birth of ironclads overturned the dominance of sailing warships, the birth of battleships will also overthrow the dominance of ironclads.

Carlo is not very clear on exactly which year battleships were born, but he understands that their emergence is likely within a few years.

After all, the birth of dreadnoughts was only in 1906, and as the predecessor, pre-dreadnought battleships must have appeared earlier.

After issuing the relevant warship bidding announcements to various shipyards, Carlo stopped paying attention to the matter.

Even if Spanish shipyards have the capability to design battleships, the design process for them will not be short. It’s not like rifle design, where there are only a few parts, and the design time is naturally not long.

The design of a battleship cannot be completed in just a few months or even more than a year; the design process needs to consider the rationality of the layout of various components, as well as whether the warships composed of these parts can meet the requirements of the naval department.

Currently, the tonnage of the Spanish Bullfighter-class ironclad already exceeds 10,000 tons, and with the comprehensive improvements in speed, firepower, and armor for the new battleships, the minimum tonnage must also be over 10,000 tons.

It’s not easy to design a gigantic battleship of over 10,000 tons, and Carlo does not have extravagant hopes that Spain could have a groundbreaking battleship within just a few years.

As time reaches 1885, Spain’s colonial consolidation plan is also reaching its climax.

On January 25, 1885, Carlo attended a meeting called by the Spanish Cabinet, listened to reports from the Colonial Affairs Department and the Defense Department on the new year’s combat plans, and issued his own demands.

Throughout 1885, Spain needs to launch local wars in two regions.

The first region is the Guinea Gulf Coast in Africa, where the Alo Alliance, Niger Kingdom, Benin Kingdom, Dahomey Kingdom, and Sokoto Caliphate are all on Spain’s conquest list.

The second region is the Arabian Peninsula, where Carlo plans to bring the Truce States under his control to avoid the British breaching the agreement over time.

Conquering the Guinea Gulf Coast is the top priority. Spain plans to send an army of 70,000 men, consisting of 3 Colonial Divisions and 5 Colonial Defense Corps, to launch a full-scale attack on the indigenous peoples in the area, solving the issue rapidly to expand Spanish rule into these territories.

As for the conquest of the Truce States, there is no need for such a fanfare.

The reason is simple: this land is too desolate. Due to it being mostly desert, the population of the Truce States is in the tens of thousands and hasn’t even reached two figures.

Meanwhile, Oman, with its northern mountains and small plains, has a population of millions, several times that of the Truce States.

To conquer this area, Spain doesn’t even need to deploy additional troops. Just mobilizing a small part of the Colonial Defense Corps from the Oman Colony would suffice to occupy the entire Truce States, incorporating them into the Oman Colony.

As for establishing a new colony, Carlo had never considered such a matter.

Building a colony requires significant cost, and currently, the capacity of the Truce States clearly cannot support the construction of a colony.

Incorporating them into the Oman Colony could also let the British see Spain’s indifference to this piece of land, allowing them to not fear Spain’s conquest of it anymore.

While Spain, France, and Germany are all taking colonial actions, the British have also been busy, adding to their Cairo-Cape Town connection.

But what the British didn’t expect was that their rapid conquest of the Sudan Region would provoke even stronger resistance from the local indigenous people.

In January 1885, tens of thousands of indigenous people suddenly erupted in a rebellion against British colonial rule, and before the British could react, they had already occupied several cities.

The negligence of the British allowed the local indigenous people to acquire thousands of rifles. These indigenous people, now armed with hot weapons, resisted even more fiercely, with a significant momentum of driving the British back to Egypt.

The indigenous uprising in the Sudan Region turned the British Colonies into a focal point for European countries, and a large number of nations with grudges against the British gleefully watched the British take a fall.

The British did not disappoint, and in the subsequent counterinsurgency, they fought back and forth with the indigenous people, adding a touch of comedy to the start of 1885.