Chapter 57: Guba Ping
May 1870 was very ordinary, but for Carlo it was a time of great delight.
Following the successful establishment of the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau, Carlo received another piece of good news: Duke Serrano had dealt with the Cuban Rebellion, and the army was already on its way back to Spain.
This relieved Carlo greatly; he no longer had to worry about Cuba breaking away from Spanish control due to some accident.
As one of the few Spanish colonies with positive profit, Cuba’s importance was still very high. Besides providing a steady stream of funds and income during the early stages of Spanish reform, it could also serve as a positive asset in the future to exchange for Spanish colonies with greater potential.
In Carlo’s future plans for Spanish colonies, colonies in Africa were the most important, particularly Morocco in the Northwest Africa region.
Because it was separated from the Spanish Mainland only by a small strait, controlling Morocco would make localization quite easy.
Only colonies that could be localized were truly territories that could be held; after all, the colonial era wouldn’t last much longer.
Carlo had no great ambition for the colonies; what they could provide were resources Spain urgently needed, and in the future, they could become colonies of the mainland—that was truly what Spain wanted.
Spain’s current volume couldn’t control too many large colonies, or else rebellions in the colonies would be enough to exhaust Spain.
This time, when Serrano went to quell the rebellion in Cuba, Carlo had also spoken with Serrano and indicated that, if necessary, some power could be granted to Cuba in exchange for Spain’s control over Cuba. It must be known that this Cuban War of Independence had historically lasted nearly ten years, costing the Spanish Government nearly 700 million pesos in funds.
Carlo did not want to see the current Spanish Government spend all that money on suppressing the rebellion in Cuba; the best approach was to make certain compromises with the Cuban government and delay as long as possible.
Carlo’s purpose was simply to guarantee that Cuba would not have problems in the next decade or more.
As for whether Cuba would launch another independence war more than a decade later, that would be for whatever country took over Cuba at that time to consider.
Serrano had indeed done just that. Having previously served as Governor of Cuba, Duke Serrano knew the situation in Cuba like the back of his hand.
Which forces could be won over and which needed to be dealt with first required no extensive investigation for Duke Serrano, naturally making the suppression of the rebellion far more efficient.
By employing the strategy of winning over one faction while suppressing another, Duke Serrano quickly brought stability to the chaos in Cuba, and this large-scale Cuban Rebellion finally came to an end.
Of course, the army of over 5,000 that accompanied Serrano to Cuba also played a crucial role. Without this army, certain forces in Cuba might not have cooperated so readily with Serrano’s actions.
In summary, after agreeing to political reform in Cuba and granting more power to certain forces, the Cuban War of Independence officially ended, and Serrano led the army back to Spain.
For Carlo, it was finally time to prepare lavish rewards for the army and cultivate a new batch of nobles loyal to him.
After Primó quelled the Carlist faction rebellion earlier, Carlo had wanted to grant him the ducal title, and the corresponding victory celebration was already in preparation.