Empire Rising: Spain

As the time came to March 1885, a once widely discussed topic was brought up again, which was the redivision of Spain’s administrative divisions.

For most countries, the division of administrative regions is not that important. Administrative divisions that have continued for decades, or even hundreds of years, are relatively reasonable to a certain extent.

If Spain’s land were not so problematic, such administrative divisions would actually be entirely acceptable.

But there’s no choice, because a significant portion of Spain’s land is mountainous, leading to current administrative divisions that don’t seem quite reasonable.

Spain has a total of 17 region-level administrative divisions, but a population of only about 22.87 million. This also means that each region-level administrative division has just over 1 million people on average, even less than the population of a city in later generations.

More importantly, regions such as Andalusia, Leon, and Catalonia have populations that have already exceeded 3 million.

This also means that Spain’s region-level administrative divisions with smaller populations have populations less than 1 million, and some regions even have fewer than 500,000 people.

These regions with only hundreds of thousands of people still maintain a complete regional administrative system, which, in Carlo’s view, is somewhat wasteful.

If several regions could be merged, not only would it streamline the number of officials, but it would also make the population of Spain’s various regions more balanced and easier to manage.

On March 11, 1885, during a routine meeting of the Lower House, a member of the Progressive Party proposed a reform of the administrative planning, prompting extensive discussion among all the members.

This member, named Evans, stated that the current administrative divisions in Spain were very unreasonable and that at least five administrative divisions should be abolished, merging those with smaller populations into one. This would reduce the administrative expenses burden on Spain.

Evans had obviously studied the situation of Spain’s administrative divisions and offered several suggestions.

The total population of the five administrative divisions—Asturias, Cantabria, Basque, Navarre, and La Rioja in northern Spain—adds up to only 2.3 million, ranking fourth among Spain’s existing administrative divisions, slightly higher than the population of the Galicia Region.

Spain employs five times the number of officials and government institutions as Galicia Region to manage five regions with similar populations, which is clearly a waste of political resources.

If these five regions could be merged into one or two, it would save more than half of the officials and political resources, making such a reform highly meaningful.

Except for the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, which are overseas territories that are inconvenient to merge administrative divisions, Evans believed that all administrative divisions, other than the capital Madrid, with populations under 1 million should be merged into regions with populations exceeding 1 million.

This would not only cut down Spain’s political resource expenditure but also improve the efficiency of various regional governments, making it easier for the government to manage different areas.

Evans’ proposal sparked a huge uproar in the Lower House, with people expressing both support for his idea and strong opposition.

During the free speech segment, another member from the Conservative Party, Alva, stood up directly to express his opposing opinion: "Ladies and gentlemen, our administrative divisions come from the history of Spain, from our unified history, and have been inherited for hundreds of years.

Such administrative divisions have witnessed Spain’s unity and also the process of assimilation of various ethnic groups in Spain.

Take the Basque Region mentioned by Member Evans; if it were to be merged, the Basque name would be removed from Spain’s administrative regions.

There’s no doubt that this would severely damage the relationship between Spain and the Basque people. We are all part of the country, and we should respect the will of these people.

At this crucial time when our country is gradually prospering and on the rise, I don’t think it’s necessary to reform the administrative divisions.

If the reform of administrative divisions disrupts our rapid development, it would be somewhat counterproductive.

Ladies and gentlemen, developing industry and economy is more important. We don’t need to focus our attention on such minor matters as administrative divisions.

Whether we have 17 administrative divisions or another number does not change the fact that we are Spaniards. How to effectively unite all Spanish ethnic groups is what we should consider."

Alva’s viewpoint was supported by a portion of the members, primarily those from the Conservative Party.

Some of these members genuinely held Alva’s view, believing that Spain does not need political division reform.

Others were beneficiaries of the current political division system, naturally unwilling to change the political divisions, since it would harm their interests.

Evans, before proposing the reform of administrative divisions, anticipated that such a proposal would face strong opposition from many members.

Any reform is never easy unless one possesses the political status, influence, and military power that Prime Minister Prim once had.

Even Prime Minister Prim, with these three assets, faced assassination, let alone Evans, a mere member of the Progressive Party.