Chapter 152 One country, one nation, one language

What are the more forceful measures?

In fact, it is to use strong laws to unify the language, writing, customs, religious beliefs, etc. of various regions in Spain, and to expel all heretics who reject Spanish culture, and to make good arrangements with Catalonia and the Basque region at any time. Radical nationalists prepare for battle.

Of course this would not be possible in the future. Because the nationalism of later generations has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, the support of Catalans and Basques for national autonomy and independence is already welcomed by everyone.

But in this era, even the concepts of Catalan and Basque are not that clear. Catalan farmers can’t even tell what nationality they are. They only know that they live in Catalonia, which is the only proof that they are Catalans.

It is naturally impossible for these people who can’t even tell what nationality they are to support Catalonia’s independence. In fact, most farmers in Catalonia are very supportive of Spain. Those who really oppose Spain and want to seek autonomy and independence for Catalonia are extremely radical nationalists and republicans. Previously, they were There were Carlists.

After all, these people are a minority, and even being a little more radical against these people will not destroy the good relations between Catalan farmers and the Spanish government.

In fact, on top of the second option, there is also a third option with more cruel methods. If the second option is to use the law to enforce it forcefully, then the third option is very simple and straightforward, and that is to eliminate the heretics and aliens by force.

However, it is obviously not the time to use the third option yet, and such cruel methods are completely unavailable in Spain.

After deciding to adopt the second approach, Prime Minister Primo's first step was to contact Carlo to seek the support of the royal family.

Why seek royal support? Because the public opinion organizations controlled by the royal family, that is, there are countless newspapers, can be quite effective in improving the direction of public opinion in Spain.

Although Carlo has gone through various disguises for the newspapers under his control, on the surface the royal family only controls one newspaper, the Spanish Sun.

But in fact, the number of newspapers controlled by the royal family is not hundreds but dozens, which has formed a quite terrifying scale in Spain.

To a certain extent, this is a good thing for Spain. After all, the public opinion environment that was originally uncontrollable can be effectively controlled, and the news that can be released is also conducive to controlling the situation.

But it's also bad news. Because such public opinion means are in the hands of the royal family, it is like the sword of Damocles hanging above the government's head.

Although Prime Minister Primo saw the threat of the royal family controlling public opinion, he did not want to pay much attention to it.

The reason is also very simple, that is, the royal family's public opinion empire has grown in scale and cannot be restricted so easily.

The government can only support more newspapers that do not belong to the royal family to compete with each other. However, since the royal family already controls most of the newspapers in the Spanish news industry, it is obviously unable to resist.

Things like news require more credibility. The royal newspapers, headed by the Spanish Sun, have been rooted in the Spanish news industry for several years, and there have been no major errors in their reports.

Unless the Spanish government establishes an official newspaper, it will not be able to compete with The Sun in terms of credibility.

But what is the difference between official newspapers and periodicals and official statements from the Spanish government? What's more, Prime Minister Primo himself has more considerations.

Prime Minister Primo certainly understands the current power structure of the Spanish government, and also understands that the power of the Prime Minister is greater than the power of the king.

Currently, he has quite a tacit understanding with Carlo and Grand Duke Serrano, and the overall situation in Spain is naturally developing for the better.

But if the future Prime Minister of Spain is a guy who strives for power and is even in a mess in terms of national development, some balance of power must be done in advance.

Naturally, it is impossible to strengthen the power of the monarch in an explicit way. This is very likely to destroy Spain's existing constitutional system and reshape an autocratic monarchy.

Letting the royal family control public opinion is a better way. Under normal circumstances, this kind of public opinion does not have much influence on the government. Unless the government itself has major problems, public opinion can fan the flames.

If there are no sparks in the first place, no matter how much public opinion blows, it will actually have little impact on the government.

In February 1873, the Spanish newspaper Sol published a news article that attracted the attention of a large number of Spanish people. The title of the news was "Un país, un pueblo, un idioma!" 》 (One country, one nation, one language!)

Of course, the report in The Sun was not so straightforward, but used a more euphemistic way to convey the good changes this system has brought to Spain.

For example, if Spanish is used, communication among factory workers will be simpler and clearer, and the factory's production efficiency will also increase.

Also, if they were all Spanish, the government's tax and welfare policies would be fairer. Since everyone is Spanish, they will naturally enjoy the same tax policy and welfare benefits.

This report by The Sun was wildly forwarded and published by other newspapers under the influence of the royal family. Through the royal family’s public opinion empire, it quickly aroused discussion among Spanish people.

For most Spaniards, this report did not have much impact on them. After all, they consider themselves Spanish and speak Spanish.

But for Catalans and Basques, there is definitely an impact. Although Catalans also speak Spanish, under the insistence of some radical nationalists with ulterior motives, many factories and newspapers in Catalonia require employees to communicate in Catalan, and even the news is in Catalan.

If the government is really determined to completely ban the use of other languages ​​as described in this report, and only allow Spanish to be used in public, the most affected will be these radical nationalists and their plans.

This report only launched a discussion on national language and religious issues. What really caused an uproar was actually Prime Minister Primo's actions.

After this report fermented for a few days, under the order of Prime Minister Primo, a member of the Progressive Party submitted a "Proposal on the Comprehensive Unification of Nationalities, Religions and Languages" to the Spanish House of Representatives.

This proposal cited the benefits of fully unifying the nation, religion and language to Spain as reported by The Sun, and stated that only by fully unifying the nation, religion and language can Spain truly become a strong country.

This proposal quickly formed a heated discussion in the parliament. There is no way it is not heated, because the member who proposed the proposal is from the Progressive Party?

This is the party of Prime Minister Primo. Who would believe that this member did not get Prime Minister Primo's permission when he proposed the proposal?

Even think about it, this proposal may be proposed by Prime Minister Primo himself, and this member just submitted it on his behalf.

Although there are many conservatives among the members of the parliament, the vast majority of the members are Spanish. There are only a very small number of Catalans and Basques in the parliament, among which the highest-ranking Catalan, Prime Minister Primo, seems to support the proposal to unify the Spanish nation.

Because of this, the discussion in the parliament was very quick, and it only took a few days to formulate a fresh bill, the Spanish National Religious Language Law.

The main contents include three points, corresponding to the requirements of national, religious and linguistic unity.

First, the Spanish nation is the legal title of all Spanish citizens, and no modification is allowed. Spaniards are great and supreme, extremely glorious, and a symbol of honor.

Anyone who calls Spanish citizens other nationalities is discriminatory against Spanish citizens, and violates the legal provisions of the Spanish national concept in the Spanish National Religious Language Law, and will be sentenced to imprisonment and fines.

Second, Catholicism is the national religion of Spain, but the Spanish government also accepts all Christian dogmas of God.

Only Spanish citizens who believe in Christianity have the right to join governments and parliaments at all levels, the army and other official departments. (Including state-owned and royal enterprises)

Third, on Spanish soil, any public place must and can only use Spanish and Spanish. (Such as schools, governments, parliaments, hospitals and train stations)

Some special places can use English, French, German, Italian and Russian as appropriate, but they must be reported to the local government and cannot be used privately.

Spanish must be used as the only language within the government and royal enterprises. Private enterprises can use other languages, but there will be no tax relief.

In other words, if private enterprises want to receive tax subsidies and exemptions from the government, they must require all employees within the enterprise to communicate in Spanish.

Of course, foreign experts are not included in this scope. This regulation only applies to employees with Spanish nationality, and the main purpose is to unify the language.

Although private enterprises are not forced to use Spanish, those capitalists will certainly take the initiative to ban other languages ​​in the enterprise for the government's tax exemptions and subsidies.     Private entrepreneurs can also transfer contradictions by taking the initiative to do so. At least entrepreneurs also bear part of the hatred. After all, the government does not enforce it, and the corresponding language regulations are formulated by the enterprises themselves.

In fact, in the final analysis, this bill mainly affects Catalans and Basques.

However, Spain's history is not short, and its history of unification has lasted for hundreds of years. During such a long period of time, although Spain did not completely assimilate the two regions of Catalonia and Basque, it also made the people in these regions generally use Spanish.

The current reuse of Catalan and Basque is nothing more than a secret layout of some radical nationalists with ulterior motives.

Most people are not opposed to using Spanish, just as they are not opposed to being Spanish.

Prime Minister Primo was born in Catalonia, so he naturally knows the situation in Catalonia very well. Unifying the nation, religion and language seems difficult, but it is actually very easy to do.

Especially since some of the radical elements in Catalonia and Basque have been eliminated, it is even easier to promote the unification of language and nation.

Again, the lower-class civilians don't have so many bad intentions. They still quite recognize the concept of Spain as a big nation. With Spain getting better and better as a whole, there is naturally not much reason to oppose it.

Although the concept of nationalism had sprouted long ago, it was only during this period that it really began to rise.

In other words, the independence issues of Catalonia and Basque, which troubled Spain for a long time in later generations, were just beginning at this point in time.

The newly emerging nationalism was destined to not be supported by most civilians, and the civilians had a rather vague concept of nation.

There is actually not much difference between the current Spaniards and Catalans. The biggest difference is where they live.

The concept of Catalans proposed by some radical nationalists is even more nonsense, because it counts all the Spaniards living in Catalonia.

In theory, the differences between the two nations should come from language, culture, customs, and even other small aspects such as diet.

But there are not many differences between the current Spaniards and Catalans. Both sides use Spanish as the main language of communication, and the food culture is not much different, and even the appearance is not much different.

On the contrary, the people in the Basque region are quite different from the Spanish, and assimilation is much more difficult than that of Catalonia.

Prime Minister Primo has a completely different attitude towards the two regions with serious nationalism, Catalonia and the Basque Country.

Prime Minister Primo was born in Catalonia and has a very thorough understanding of Catalonia. Most people in Catalonia do not actually have much nationalist sentiment and are relatively supportive of the Spanish government.

As long as there is no instigation from radical nationalists, it is only a matter of time before Catalonia is completely incorporated into Spain.

So in terms of the policy towards Catalonia, Prime Minister Primo advocates subtle influence through legal means and strong suppression of some more radical elements.

In terms of the policy towards the Basque region, Prime Minister Primo advocates stronger laws and stronger suppression.

Even when the Basque region is determined to be unable to assimilate, it should be considered to use force to force the Basques to migrate to other regions.

Anyway, there are only a few hundred thousand Basques in Spain, and even if all of them migrate out of the country, the impact on Spain will not be too great.

Even after the Basques are relocated, the northern part of Spain will be more stable and the country will develop more efficiently.

There are more Catalans than Basques, so if they can be assimilated, they will be given priority.

After all, Spain itself has a small population. If the population of Catalonia is lost, the hope of Spain's revival in the future will be even smaller.

Carlo is also keeping an eye on the parliamentary vote and the final law.

For Carlo, it is naturally the best that Prime Minister Primo can take the initiative to promote the unification of national languages ​​and religions.

Because this matter seems to be a hundred benefits and no harm now, at most it will only offend radical Catalans and Basques.

But when nationalism has spread all over the world in the future, will these nations that were once expelled from Spain, or those that were unified under high pressure, consider the harm brought to them by this matter?

Strictly speaking, this may become a stain. Carlo naturally didn't want to bear this stain. After all, as a king under a constitutional monarchy, it is best to keep himself away from a bad reputation, so that it will be conducive to the inheritance of the throne and the stability of the royal status.

It is no exaggeration to say that once this bill, which has been discussed and passed by the parliament, is promulgated, tens of thousands of Catalans and Basques will definitely be forced to leave Spain, or fall under the government's armed suppression.

This is no joke. After the bill is promulgated, the government will definitely implement it more strongly.

Most of the more radical nationalists cannot survive in such a harsh environment. They either directly rebel or have no choice but to leave their homes and leave Spain, which is a hellish environment for them.

Perhaps in order to show their firm attitude to the outside world, after the House of Representatives completed the first draft of the bill, the cabinet government immediately announced the entire bill and announced that it would be officially implemented nationwide three days after the announcement.

Such a fast speed is somewhat unreasonable, because in general, the bill will be announced for a period of time to give the Senate enough time to review and make suggestions, and then it will be submitted to the cabinet government for implementation.

Although the actions were somewhat swift and resolute, Prime Minister Primo still prepared various countermeasures.

The two Spanish divisions that have been formed are stationed not far from Catalonia and Basque Country, and can go to the two regions by rail at any time.

According to the current weapons and equipment of the Spanish army, even if there is another rebellion of the Carlos faction, the Spanish army can solve it calmly.

The artillery equipped by these two divisions is not just for show. Even as soon as the army was formed, it began long-term target shooting and artillery training.

The number of bullets and shells consumed every day is simply unimaginable to the previous Spanish army. Under the premise of such a powerful supply of bullets and shells, the combat effectiveness of these two fully staffed Spanish infantry divisions is naturally rising.

It may sound a bit exaggerated, but since Prime Minister Primo witnessed the training of the two infantry divisions, he has the confidence to use the two divisions, which have just reached a size of 25,000 soldiers, to resist the attack of the 70,000 Spanish local army.

There is no way, the full replacement of rifles and the significant increase in the number of artillery equipment are so confident.

Moreover, the quality of both soldiers and officers in the existing Spanish army has been improved, which is something that the previous Spanish army did not have.

The infantry divisions that are being formed later are okay. The two first infantry divisions are the first and second infantry divisions of Spain, and the soldiers are all veterans who have been carefully selected and left.

With the two infantry divisions eyeing them, let alone dealing with some more radical nationalists, even if they really face the Carlos rebellion that once swept across several regions of Spain, Prime Minister Primo has no panic in his heart.

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