Empire Rising: Spain

Actually, starting from March 1877, bullfighting events hosted by the Royal Family have already begun simultaneously across Spain.

Although called events, they are essentially a nationwide competition among Spanish bullfighters. This competition will select the best bullfighter in Spain, to be personally awarded the title of Spanish Royal Bullfighter by Carlo.

Because the selection takes place all over Spain, the first four months of the bullfighting competition are held in various regions, aiming for the first round of screening in each region, and selecting the more outstanding bullfighters to proceed to Madrid for the second and final round.

It’s currently April, and it’s the hot season for bullfighting in Spain.

In Carlo’s plan, bullfighting is a national activity concerning the combat strength of the Spanish Army, providing Spanish people with an entertaining way to vent emotions, while cultivating the combative and fearless spirit within the Spanish nation.

This is the first year the nationwide bullfighting competition is held, and Carlo pays considerable attention to it.

In mid-April of 1877, Carlo, along with numerous Spanish officials, made a grand show of watching the bullfighting competition in the Madrid Region, and praised the bullfighters who performed exceptionally well.

According to the rules of the bullfighting competition, from March to July every year, the initial screening takes place in various regions, and the final ten are selected to proceed to Madrid for the second round of competition.

The main reason for this rule is to make bullfighting a nationwide phenomenon. If the competitions were only held around Madrid, it would be difficult for the influence of bullfighting to extend across the whole of Spain.

Although Madrid is the largest city in Spain, its geographic advantages are not as notable as Barcelona’s, apart from being located in the very center of Spain.

Barcelona is a port city in Spain, surrounded mostly by plains and foothills, virtually unaffected by urban development constraints.

Madrid, on the other hand, is surrounded by mountains on all sides, which not only hinders the city’s development but also leaves no major cities within several dozen kilometers.

The massive Central Mountain Range lies to the west of Madrid, Cuenca Mountain to the east, the Meseta Plateau stretches endlessly to the north, and Toledo Mountain forms a barrier to the south.

This area among the mountains is where Madrid, the largest city in Spain, was born. But precisely because Madrid is situated among many mountains, its development has been restricted.

The numerous mountains and plateaus are also the reason Spain lags behind other European Powers in national development.

Despite having extremely vast territory, the massive Meseta Plateau in north-central Spain turns much of Spain’s land into unsuitable mountainous and desert areas for development.

Spain is also the only country among many in Europe to have a desert, the Bennas Desert located between Morena Mountain and Penitico Mountain. The northern and southern mountain ranges block the moist climate from the ocean, coupled with drought and little rain, forming a desert area here.

The Bennas Desert is a rather unique natural landscape in Spain and even all of Europe. Due to its resemblance with the geographical environment of the Southwestern United States, it later attracted many Hollywood crews to shoot and take scenes.

Famous movies like "Once Upon a Time in the West" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" were filmed in Spain, and more than forty percent of films depicting the American West took scenes in the Bennas Desert.

From this perspective, possessing this desert isn’t really a bad thing for Spain. The size of Bennas Desert is merely 280 square kilometers, only about the size of a few towns, yet it can enrich Spain’s geographical environment and attract tourists from Europe.

Carlo still clearly underestimated the allure of bullfighting in Spain. This nationwide bullfighting competition hosted by Carlo has undoubtedly captured the attention of most Spaniards.

The Madrid Region also needs to select the top ten most excellent bullfighters to join the second round competition. Whether held in Lereta Square or other bullfighting rings, bullfighting attracts large numbers of Spaniards and garners lots of attention.

This causes almost every bullfighting match to be packed, driving commercial growth near the bullfighting ring.

Take Spain’s largest bullfighting arena, Lereta Square, as an example. Lereta Square can accommodate more than 3,500 spectators, and lately, bullfights are held almost every day.

Just the ticket revenue from the daily bullfights has already brought enormous profits to Lereta Square.

A portion of this transforms into tax revenue, providing more income for the Madrid City Government.

Not to mention that the food, drinks, and other purchases by tourists around the square drive economic development.

Although most tourists spend little money, the role of currency circulation on the economy is more than the mere surface value of currency.

More importantly, this kind of economic circulation takes place every day. Solely because of the hosting of this bullfighting event, Spain’s economic growth rate far surpasses that of the same period last year.

This is even under the premise that Spain doesn’t have a large bullfighting ring yet. Once Spain’s large bullfighting ring is completed, a bullfighting event could attract nearly ten thousand spectators.