Chapter 96 Christmas is coming

Carlo and Primo's exchange of interests was completed quickly, and Antonio Canovas del Castillo was successfully appointed as the Spanish Minister of Agriculture and became a member of the cabinet.

The candidate for the governor of the South Morocco colony has also been determined. After being appointed by Carlo, the framework of the colonial government has been basically established.

The good news is that the population of the entire South Morocco colony is not large, and the total population does not exceed one million, so it is still quite simple to manage.

After this war, Morocco in the north will also understand that Spain is something they can't afford to offend, at least not in the short term.

Under such circumstances, the South Morocco colony will go through a relatively stable period. Prime Minister Primo also mentioned the next task of the South Morocco colonial government in his report to Carlo, which is the Catholicization of South Morocco.

In the history of European colonization, missionary work and colonization are inseparable. A large number of European missionaries traveled around the world, spreading the concept of Christianity to distant foreign countries.

It was mentioned before that Moroccans are white people who believe in Islam. What Prime Minister Primo has to do is to make Moroccans believe in Catholicism, so that they can be assimilated into the Spanish family.

Of course, if they are unwilling to join the ranks of Catholic Spaniards, they can only continue to be their own colonial natives, enduring the oppression of the colonial government and the indifference of Europeans.

In addition to spreading the Catholic faith, the southern Moroccan colony also needs to unify the language within the colony and let these Moroccan natives learn Spanish.

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

Countries like Argentina basically speak Spanish. They are a mixture of Spanish and local natives and have a natural affinity with Spain.

Although Spain's population is now far behind that of the great powers, Spain can assimilate these people who originally belonged to the Spanish American colonies at a low cost.

Even the population of the Portuguese colonies can be quickly assimilated. After all, the difference between Spanish and Portuguese is not great, and it is more like the dialect differences evolved in different regions.

Of course, the promotion of Spanish cannot be limited to colonies, and the local area must also be vigorously carried out.

Especially for regions like Catalonia and Basque Country that love independence, we should first let them use Spanish universally, and then let them slowly accept the concept of Spaniards, so as to solve the threat of independence.

In the early stage of nationalism, it is completely impossible to suppress it by force. Only when the Catalans and Basques accept the concept of Spaniards from the bottom of their hearts, just like José Echegaray, who has Basque ancestry, can these regions be completely stabilized.

If you want to promote Spanish, you can't rely on coercion.

However, this aspect is still very simple. You just need to let Spanish capital flow into Catalonia and Basque Country in large quantities to create more jobs for these regions.

Since factories and enterprises are run by Spaniards, it is normal for factories and enterprises to recruit people who can speak Spanish, right?

If local Catalans and Basques want to work in these factories, they will naturally have to learn Spanish.

Of course, there will definitely be some more extreme people who have certain opinions about Spanish capital entering the local area and only recruiting people who can speak Spanish.

Carlo is eager for these people to jump out. After dealing with these more radical people, the remaining people will naturally not be so radical.

After all, there are still a large number of farmers and ordinary people who recognize the ruling status of the Spanish government. Now those more radical nationalists are a minority after all.

At this time, Spain still has hope to resolve the independence of Catalonia and the Basque region.

When the nationalists in the two regions have reached a certain scale in the future, it will be basically impossible to eliminate them.

Unless a large-scale civil war breaks out again, and those independence elements who oppose the Spanish government are completely eliminated, perhaps the stability in Spain can be restored.

But Spain will also be seriously injured after the civil war, and the rift between the Catalans and Basques and the Spanish will become larger and larger.

In fact, in the final analysis, it is because the overall size of the Spanish is not large. If the Spanish have a population of 30 to 40 million, Carlo will not care so much about the Catalans and Basques.

Prime Minister Primo's monopoly of power makes Carlo feel the ease of being a king. Apart from the weekly cabinet meetings, Carlo rarely appeared in the government and did not ask too much about government affairs.

Apart from occasionally caring about the development of the royal family's property, Carlo seemed to have nothing to do. He could only enjoy the massage and caring service of the maid while inspecting the construction and experimental area of ​​the Royal Institute of Physics and Chemistry.

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

It has been almost a year and a half since Carlo came to Spain.

This also means that the reform in Spain has also been going on for a year and a half. Carlo is still looking forward to the results of Prime Minister Primo's reform, and can also feel the changes that the reform has brought to Spain in the past year and a half.

However, expectations are expectations. The Christmas holiday that should be had must still be had.

This is Carlo’s second Christmas in Spain, and he has a completely different mood from his first Christmas.

Last Christmas, because he had just arrived in Spain for less than half a year, the civil unrest in Spain had not been settled, so Christmas was spent very simply.

Now that the civil unrest has been settled, Carlo naturally doesn’t mind enjoying life, such as holding a celebration banquet or something.

In addition to the top government officials, only the nobles are eligible to join the banquet hosted by Carlo.

Of course, because the banquet hall of the palace is not large, not all nobles can accept Carlo’s invitation.

Who made the Spanish noble class so large? All the nobles together have thousands of people, if not tens of thousands. If they all gather together, it will definitely cause chaos.

Even if the nobles are streamlined to the marquis and above, the number of nobles invited alone is dozens.

Including their companions, the number of people attending the banquet has exceeded 100.

In addition to the cabinet members headed by Prime Minister Primo, there are just over 100 people attending this banquet.

The people who attended the banquet were all upper-class people in Spain, which was also one of Carlo's means of winning over the aristocracy.

There will be two updates today, and there will be another update around 2 o'clock.