Empire Rising: Spain

As time moved to 1881, the work of the Spanish Government, besides implementing the West Africa development plan, also included further large-scale construction in Spain itself.

Since the last event in Madrid’s Nocturnal City, the importance placed on the electricity industry by European countries has visibly increased.

Spain, as the current leader in the electricity industry, naturally could not fall behind in this regard.

Now that a year has passed since Madrid’s Nocturnal City, what achievements has Spain made in the electricity industry?

First is the popularization of electricity. As of now, the power companies in Madrid and Barcelona have already expanded significantly.

The cumulative users of the Madrid Power Company have exceeded 7,200, including about 4,200 enterprise users and 3,000 household users.

In simple terms, approximately 4,200 factories and enterprises in Madrid have connected to electricity, and 3,000 households have connected to electricity.

From the perspective of numbers alone, the achievements of the Madrid Power Company are quite remarkable. However, in reality, among the 3,000 households connected to electricity, the majority are nobles, capitalists, and influential people, with the truly proactive civilian households connecting to electricity being less than 300, which is only one-tenth.

The situation in Barcelona is even worse. Although the Barcelona Power Company also has 6,500 users, the vast majority are enterprise users, namely factories and related companies in industrial zones.

Fewer than 1,000 households have connected to electricity, with true civilian enjoyment of electricity being less than one-tenth.

The good news is that the electricity development situation in other European countries is not much different from Spain’s, and some countries are even worse off than Spain.

Even though this era is the European era, for most European civilians, it is considered a very bad time.

The Industrial Revolution stimulated capital development, which exacerbated the exploitation of the populace. While industries in various countries rapidly developed, workers and farmers were increasingly exploited.

This also led to a common phenomenon throughout European countries, where ordinary citizens could not afford electricity. Only factories and enterprises, or the capitalists behind them, could afford it.

But not all capitalists were willing to widely use electricity; after all, the cost of electricity at this time was not small, not to mention the comprehensive use of electricity in factories.

Speaking of the fastest electricity popularization, aside from Spain, perhaps only Germany, with its keen sense of electricity, is comparable.

As early as mid-last year, Germany constructed numerous street lights in Berlin and announced that Berlin had entered the City of No Sleep era.

On the evening of the news report, street light after street light illuminated the faces of the proud Germans under the street lamps in Berlin’s city.

Germany’s electricity development advanced at an extraordinarily fast pace. If Spain had not prepared earlier, Germany might have surpassed Spain in just one year.

Carlo is extremely serious about electricity development.

Half of the funds obtained from the sale of technology by the power company is used to popularize electricity in Spain, and the other half is used to develop more advanced electricity technologies.

The current primary research directions of the Spain Electricity Laboratory are higher-power generators and electric motors. If these can be achieved, perhaps electric machinery can partially replace steam machinery, formally leading Spain into the electric industry era.

After a year of development, Spain’s rail transport system is also starting to take shape.

At present, both Madrid and Barcelona have built two tram tracks, worth mentioning is that the first track established in both cities connects the city and industrial areas.

This also shows the importance both cities place on industry. In this era, the stronger a country’s industry, the stronger its comprehensive national power.

Although this statement is not absolute, currently the strongest nations, the UK, France, and Germany, are also leaders in global industry.

The only exception is the United States, mainly because it does not prioritize military development.

Ultimately, it’s because of the United States’ superior geographical position, which lacks strong adversaries, naturally leading to negligence in military development.

The situation in Europe differs. Competition amongst European countries has always existed, with several nations even being arch-enemies.

In such circumstances, if European countries abandon military development, it would be tantamount to abandoning national security and independence.

Approximately a week or so passed, and the Portuguese Government finally took the initiative to contact the Spanish Government.

This was a relief to Prime Minister Canovas. Spain was about to abandon the idea of exchanging colonies with Portugal; if Portugal had not proactively contacted Spain, Spain might have continued colonial activities in the southern lands of the Congo Territory.

Although Spain already controls sufficient land, there can never be too many colonies.

If Spain does not colonize, sooner or later other countries will colonize this land. Even if Spain does not need these lands, holding them can still be used for exchange of interests.

After the Portuguese Government took the initiative to contact the Spanish Government, they immediately expressed Portugal’s interest in Spain’s colonial exchange proposal.

There is no denying that the entire Portuguese nation is fascinated by the idea of establishing a vast colony connecting West Africa and Mozambique.

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