Empire Rising: Spain

The Spanish mainland is about 7,400 kilometers from the Cuban Colony, and that’s just the direct distance between the two. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean definitely cannot be done in a straight line since there are no supplies along a straight route.

A direct distance of 7,400 kilometers also means that traveling from the Spanish mainland to the Cuban Colony will require covering nearly ten thousand kilometers.

For Spain, traveling thousands of miles to quell the rebellion in Cuba is a rather challenging process, and the military budget to suppress the rebellion will accordingly increase exponentially.

After all, Spain is no longer the Sun Never Sets Empire it once was, and continuing to hold the Cuban Colony is not entirely advantageous for Spain.

Minister Frank grasped the issues with the Cuban Colony and presented his viewpoint, which indeed highlights the current risks of Spanish colonization of Cuba.

Spain is not particularly afraid of a single American, because the impression the United States gives to Europeans at this time is the prosperity of the East and the chaos of the West.

The Eastern United States was the earliest colonized area, and it is also the most developed and densely populated region in America.

Although the United States does not prohibit guns, the order in the Eastern U.S. is relatively safe and prosperous compared to the West.

However, the Western United States appears quite chaotic. The Wild West is not called that for nothing, comprising gangs, criminals, stowaways, and gold miners, with gunfights occurring frequently, and gang skirmishes are countless.

Aside from this impression, the image the United States conveys to Europeans dates back to the colonial era over a century ago.

America is strewn with gold mines, which drives a multitude of gold miners to try every possible means to get to America for gold.

Relying on gold mines, the United States absorbed a large population, with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of European immigrants crossing the ocean each year to seek more opportunities in America, including stowaways and laborers from around the world.

As an independent country from a colony, the United States is quite fortunate. They don’t even need to pay much attention to population growth, as large numbers of immigrants and stowaways arrive in America each year.

But they are also unfortunate. These immigrants come from countries and regions all over the world, and the United States is one of the few countries in the world to gather white, black, and yellow people.

Most of the whites in America are descendants of European immigrants, with many recent arrivals to America among them.

The blacks, on the other hand, were mostly slaves brought from Africa during the slave trade era. They gained the status of free citizens after the Civil War and are legitimate American citizens.

The composition of the yellow race is even more complex, with most being stowaways from Asia or gold miners attracted by the gold rush.

In California on the American West Coast, there is a city named San Francisco. Originally discovered by Spaniards, it attracted a large number of stowaways and gold miners.

Yellow race gold miners refer to San Francisco as the Golden Mountain, signifying mountains of gold here, to describe San Francisco’s vast gold mines.

Later, Melbourne in Australia also became known as the Golden Mountain due to its abundant gold mines. To differentiate between the two Golden Mountain cities, the San Francisco originally called Golden Mountain was termed Old Golden Mountain, and Melbourne later termed the New Golden Mountain.

At this time, U.S. policy is still in a stage of low-profile development, and they are not pursuing too much international influence, which also makes European countries generally underestimate America.

Of course, America’s strength is indeed not very strong at this time, which is one of the reasons European countries look down on the United States.

After Minister Frank finished expressing his opinions, the cabinet meeting fell silent.

No Cabinet Minister stood up to express their views, whether in agreement or opposition.

Deputy Prime Minister Canovas, after casually glancing at Carlo’s expression a few times, finally stood up, glanced at everyone in the Cabinet, and then said: "Minister Frank, there is some truth in what you said. But the Cuban Colony is too important to us, no matter how it’s handled, it cannot be resolved in a short time.

I suggest we leak a portion of the information to observe the public’s attitude. If the public supports exchanging the Cuban Colony, we can naturally go with public opinion, thus avoiding public dissatisfaction.

If the public opposes relinquishing the Cuban Colony, we can then dismiss the leaked information as a rumor and clarify to the public in a timely manner.

What does everyone think?"

The Cabinet Ministers hesitated to express their views because they were actually worried that if the news of abandoning the Cuban Colony leaked, it would bring trouble upon themselves and subject them to public attack.

Do not underestimate Spanish patriotism; they can cheer for the country obtaining new colonies, and likewise, they can angrily denounce when the country loses a colony.

Without sufficient assurance, they would not put themselves in danger, after all, this concerns their future political careers.

Hearing Canovas’ proposal, Duke Serrano nodded, also stood up, and said: "Minister Canovas’ proposal is good, I believe it’s the most appropriate choice right now.

Regarding the Cuban Colony, we must fully consider the opinion of the public. If the public is willing to give up the Cuban Colony, we should naturally relinquish it.

But if the public is unwilling to give up the Cuban Colony, then we can only fight for public opinion, for Spain.