Seeing the Spanish revolution spread like wildfire towards Madrid, Queen Isabella, whose private life was notoriously chaotic, finally panicked.
Faced with the choice between resisting or fleeing, Queen Isabella did not hesitate for a moment, and quickly fled north to France with her family.
The Queen's escape also accelerated the Spanish revolution; the revolutionaries entered Madrid without any effort and declared the demise of the Spanish Kingdom.
On October 8, 1868, Francisco Serrano declared himself President of the Provisional Government, and Juan Prim, who was quite prestigious among the revolutionaries, served as the Minister of War of the Provisional Government. Spain officially entered a state of extreme chaos.
Whether this grand revolution was the savior of the Spanish people remains unknown, but the chaotic situation in Spain created an opportunity for Cuba, far away in the Americas, to strive for independence.
On October 10, Cespedes Borja del Castillo, a famous Cuban plantation owner and lawyer, led a group of Cuban patriots in an uprising near Yara in the eastern province of Oriente, and issued the Yara Proclamation to all regions of Cuba, calling on all Cubans to fight for freedom, equality, and independence.
This was a heavy blow to the hastily established Spanish Provisional Government, as Cuba was one of the few remaining colonies that brought positive revenue to Spain.
The Cuban War of Independence not only forced the Spanish Provisional Government to send troops to suppress it but also subjected the nascent government to huge military expenditures under extremely difficult financial circumstances.
But this was not the only problem the Provisional Government faced. The revolution was successful, but the Provisional Government had not yet gained control of the entire country.
Furthermore, how to stabilize the rule of the Provisional Government and establish an administrative system completely different from the former absolutist monarchy is currently the biggest challenge.
Moreover, the Provisional Government was not a unified entity; the relationship between various classes and forces was like fire and water, and the chaotic situation of the Provisional Government was not much better than that of the former Spanish Kingdom government.
The initiators of this revolution were the Spanish upper bourgeoisie and liberal intellectuals; their original intention was to overthrow the former absolute monarchy and establish a democratic monarchy with power centralized in the national government.
But the Spanish petty bourgeoisie, workers, and peasants had had enough of the oppression of the monarchy and the aristocracy. They preferred to establish a federal republic with dispersed but unified power and advocated replacing the king with a president to govern all of Spain.
Carlos was also closely following the situation in Spain. The good news was that Italy and Spain were separated by the sea and only by France on land, so news traveled quickly.
What Carlos least wanted to hear at this time was that the Spanish Provisional Government had decided to abolish the monarchy, as that would mean Carlos would completely lose any connection to the Spanish throne.
Time moved to November 9, when the Spanish Provisional Government finally issued a decree on the establishment of a parliament and announced that parliamentary elections would be held in February of the following year, 1869.
Although the decree did not mention the composition of the future Spanish government, everyone following the news from Spain understood that the outcome of the parliamentary elections would determine Spain's destiny.
If the big capitalists and liberal reformers gained a majority in the parliament, then the new parliament would have the power to enact legislation on a constitutional monarchy.
Similarly, once the working or peasant class gained a majority in the parliament, the Spanish monarchy might cease to exist, and a republic would very likely take the stage in Spain.
As things stood, there was still a high probability that the situation in Spain would develop as it did historically.
Prim, who supported a constitutional monarchy, still held significant power in the Spanish government and was likely to gain an advantage in the parliamentary elections a few months later.
The timing of the parliamentary elections is also noteworthy. From the establishment of the Provisional Government to the parliamentary elections was only four months, and from the issuance of the decree to the elections was less than three months.
These three months would be difficult to change the attitudes of the Italian public, and it would also be difficult to change the influence of the nobles and big capitalists in Spain.
However, to make his plan more secure, Carlos decided to subtly influence the Spanish public.
What kind of influence? Of course, it was to promote the monarchy.
As for the harm that the Spanish Bourbon dynasty had brought to the Spanish people, it could all be blamed on the tyrannical rule of the dissolute Queen Isabella.
Carlos also had a basis for advocating for the monarchy.
Currently, the world's strongest navy is definitely Britain, which is a constitutional monarchy. The world's strongest army should be France (a remnant of Napoleon's glory), and France is also a monarchy.
Old European powers like Russia and the Austrian Empire, and the rising power of the Kingdom of Prussia are all monarchies. Even Italy, which has just achieved unification and joined the ranks of the powers, is a monarchy.
Looking at the world, the only major power that is not a monarchy is the United States, and the United States at this time was not seen as that powerful in the eyes of Europeans.
The rise of the United States would have to wait until after World War I and World War II; the US in this era did not yet have such an exaggerated industrial and economic scale.
Since the vast majority of European powers are monarchies, what reason do the Spanish people have to voluntarily abandon such a very advanced system?
As for the failure of the monarchy in the past, that was entirely the fault of the Bourbon family and Queen Isabella; everyone should just blame Queen Isabella.
Carlos did this not only to preserve a shred of trust in the monarchy in the hearts of the Spanish people but also to make the Spanish people dislike the Bourbon dynasty and Queen Isabella as much as possible.
Only in this way would the Spanish people be less resistant to an outside dynasty, and Carlos's hope of ruling Spain would be much greater.
As for the Bourbon family, Queen Isabella, and the famous Alfonso XII, they had already bled Spain dry for decades, so it was time for them to make some contribution to the Spanish people.
Moreover, this was not really slandering the Bourbon family. Queen Isabella's rule in Spain was well known, characterized by debauchery, tyranny, and chaos.
If the Spanish people could lose trust in the Bourbon dynasty, the long-standing Carlist rebellion that plagued Spain could also be properly resolved.
After all, the Carlists were also part of the Bourbon family, and they also contributed somewhat to Spain's chaos.
On November 27, 1868, the already popular Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore published an article titled 'We Want Bread, Not a Republic', and it quickly spread throughout North and South Italy.
The main content of this article was to discuss the advancement of the current monarchical system and the success of various monarchical countries in Europe, stating that monarchy is the most reasonable choice for European countries, and that republicanism is a deformed evolution for Europe.
Regardless of whether this article made sense or not, for the European monarchical countries at this time, such an article was definitely better than nothing.
Publishing such articles in newspapers was better than publishing articles that advocated for republicanism, liberalism, and democracy; at least such reports would not cause public dissatisfaction with the monarch's throne.
With no opposition from various countries, this report also began to spread on a small scale along the Mediterranean coast, particularly in the Mediterranean countries centered around Italy.
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