I Became The Crown Prince Of The Mexican Empire - Chapter 173



Only Noblemtl

Finally, the door to the mansion opened.

They were detained for about eight weeks under the pretext of protection.

It was a frustrating time, although the government periodically delivered food and necessities. However, there were no attempts at escape.

They knew it too.

What happened?

“Are you done now? It took quite a while.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

The Hwang family had been encouraging each other to get through the tough times, but it turned out that they had not been released.

“Guillermo Iturbide, I’m sorry, but you must come with me. The same goes for everyone else.”

The inspector of the Morelia City Police Department personally visited the mansion with a police force.

At those words, the face of Guillermo, Leandro’s younger brother, hardened.

“You’re going? You’re out now, so where are you going?”

“I will arrest you on charges of aiding and abetting treason.”

“···I’m sure you don’t know who you’re talking about, and it must be an order from our cousin.”

“Let’s go.”

The Morelia mansion of the Iturbide family in June was as splendid as a palace. The bright sunlight sparkled against the marble walls, and the flowers in the garden were in full bloom, blending in with the greenery. But even in this beauty, there was a gloomy air. It was as if the mansion itself was foreboding the coming misfortune.

This mansion, one of the family’s pride and joys, was built with splendid grandeur by the current emperor when he was crown prince, using his construction company.

Although it was only a mansion in name, it was actually a palace in scale. It was designed with inspiration from Versailles in France and was quite beautiful, but the faces of the people inside the house were dark, unlike their mansion.

All the adults in the family were taken away.

The Iturbide family did not have many members, as they had only recently arrived in Spain from Spain.

Agustin I’s father, José Joaquín de Iturbide, was a nobleman from the Spanish state of Navarra who immigrated to Mexico with his wife and children in hopes of making a fortune.

Of his five children, only two were sons: Mariano and Agustín.

His older brother Mariano inherited most of the property, including the farms, and his younger brother Agustín became emperor.

Leandro and Guillermo were Mariano’s eldest and second sons.

In fact, most of the Iturbide family’s property was owned by them.

“Instead of reducing the punishment, you’re saying it’s increasing the punishment···?”

They had no idea that their status as royalty would actually work against them. Now all that was left was despair.

“Yes. I don’t know about other crimes, but treason is punished more severely if you are a member of the imperial family. This is clearly written in the bill.”

The district judge unusually explained the reasons for his ruling. Guillermo felt like he was going crazy after hearing the explanation.

“Huh, heh heh heh. Your nephew is so obsessed with power that he’s even abandoning his family.”

“Watch your words. What you just said is considered insulting. . . . Since it’s right after the verdict, I’ll pretend not to know.”

He was sentenced to 14 years in prison and had 60% of his assets confiscated.

“Please let me in.”

There was a reason the judge stayed until now. He sentenced him to prison without any consideration, but the royal family is still the royal family. He was given special treatment.

“Tongue, bro!”

“···Little brother.”

Leandro Iturbide, who was recently sentenced, appeared with a haggard face.

The judge watched them relieve their tension for a moment, then turned his attention back to them.

“Now, choose.”

The law on the Imperial Family also had provisions for those who were sentenced to imprisonment. They were allowed to live in a number of places within the specified time limit.

“···Is this all?”

“I didn’t even want Morelia, but most of the places are completely new to me.”

“Not sure? It might be easier if you look at this map.”

The judge kindly marked on a map where they could go.

“Isn’t this just an island?”

All the places shown on the map were islands in the Caribbean, except Cuba, the largest island owned by the Mexican Empire, and Hispaniola (Dominican region), the second largest.

“Are you telling me to go to a remote place like this?”

Leandro came all the way here and still complained.

“Brother, I have no choice but to accept it.”

Guillermo, who had a sense of reality, stopped his brother.

“under···.”

“The relatively large islands… Jamaica, which I received from England, and Puerto Rico, which I bought from Spain. Those are the two.”

They were fairly large islands, with areas of about 10,000 square kilometers and 9,000 square kilometers respectively.

Islands with developed cities and railroads.

“Can I roam around freely on this island?”

“That’s not it. You can move around freely within the government-designated houses, but you cannot go outside, and you will be accompanied by a security guard when you go for a walk once a day.”

“···I see.”

The two thought about it for a moment.

The choices before them were not easy. The fact that they would have to leave their hometown and live on an unfamiliar island made them hesitate.

“Still, I think Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico would be better.”

The two chose.

Leandro would live on these two islands for the rest of his life, Guillermo for 14 years.

The problem was the families left behind.

All of the assets of the eldest son, Leandro, and 60% of the assets of the second son, Guillermo, were confiscated, which of course included the mansion.

The ‘Iturbide Mansion’ is now owned by the government, and the rest of the family has moved into their old mansion in Morelia.

The mansion that Agustin I’s father had built when he immigrated to Mexico was large enough, and the remaining farms were large enough to be called landowners, but they were quite modest, considering they were royals.

“The Iturbide Mansion… should just be used as a tourist attraction.”

The tourism industry has been growing rapidly for several years now. The Iturbide Mansion can be confidently introduced as a tourist attraction.

The Iturbide Palace, famous for its magnificent architecture and splendid interior, was once a symbol of imperial glory, but it will now be a place to display the strictness of national law to the public. Jeronimo smiled bitterly.

This harsh treatment was meant as a warning.

It was a warning to the royal family and relatives. It was also a warning to his brothers and children as well as his collateral line.

Only the Emperor has a legally inviolable status and cannot be criminally prosecuted.

Although members of the Imperial family are governed by the ‘Imperial Household Law (Ley de la Casa Imperial)’, or simply ‘Imperial House Law’, they basically have the same legal status as ordinary citizens, and therefore, if they commit a crime, they are punished according to the same procedures as ordinary people.

‘In a constitutional monarchy, if these aspects are not handled according to principle, it will eventually lose popularity, and then it will be a perfect opportunity for a revolution later on.’

Jeronimo decided so.

In fact, this incident has further strengthened the people’s trust in the royal family.

***

“That’s how we should dispose of the royal family, but what about the other things?”

I asked.

I looked through the documents and checked off the important items. The royal family issue was settled for now, but there were still mountains of things to be resolved.

“Your Majesty, we must decide what to do with the confiscated church peons.”

Diego said.

“Peon? Hasn’t Peon liberated everything so far? I don’t think there’s any need to do anything different now.”

There have been more than one or two instances of confiscation of property, and the associated peon issues have been dealt with several times.

“This time, because of the scale of the issue, it seems like a lot of public attention is being focused on it. According to a rough estimate from one media outlet, the number of peons belonging to the church is between 2 million and 3 million.”

“···2 to 3 million? I knew it would be a lot, but it’s still amazing.”

The Church owned land in central Mexico, almost 40 percent of the former Mexican territory. Of the peasant population there, between one-third and one-half were peón.

“Yes. According to the media, the total debt could exceed 100 million pesos. It may not be an exact calculation, but it is a sensational number that was entered based on sales figures, but it has become a hot topic.”

“Okay. Let’s cancel everything and liberate them. It’s not like our government is short on finances.”

“All right.”

The property of the landowners involved in the rebellion was also confiscated. The confiscated church and landowner properties included not only farms and peons, but also pesos, gold, silver, jewels, valuables, paintings, and other various valuables, to the point where government storehouses were overflowing.

The next day.

There was a newspaper article.

[Government decides to forgive all peons’ debts and free them]

Nearly 4 million Peons, including the landowners’ Peons, were liberated.

“Let everyone have the option of relocating. Farms need manpower, so encourage them to remain in their original areas as much as possible.”

“This is essentially land reform. This is the first time I’ve seen land reform carried out in this way.”

Diego was amazed.

So far, the benefits of immigration were given mainly to the northern territories. It was an incentive to develop undeveloped areas. However, this incident has resulted in too much government-owned land.

It was a rather unusual structure, with the government owning a whopping 60% of the land in central Mexico.

“Most of them will probably split up the farms they work on. However, splitting up the farms into smaller pieces may be inefficient, so consider dividing up shares of the communal farms. Since most of them are indigenous people, they will be more familiar with that method.”

I had to figure out how to distribute the land to the Peons without harming agricultural productivity. It was not a simple problem, but it was a task that had to be solved for the future of the empire. I entrusted this problem to the Ministry of Finance.

“I will consider the best course of action, Your Majesty.”

“Consult with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and reserve the lands that the government needs.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Our government was doing a good job of handling the aftermath of the secularization law and the rebellion. But as the Emperor of the Empire, my concerns were not limited to those within the Empire.

***

The church-landlord coalition was determined to eliminate the revolutionaries in Cartagena, but it took a very long time to gather enough troops.

Because there were many landowners and churches in areas far from Cartagena.

While preparing to exercise real military force, both sides sought to dominate public opinion.

“The Cartagena rebels are not revolutionaries, they are spies of the Mexican Empire! How can they be revolutionaries when they openly talk about joining the Mexican Empire and even receive support from the Mexican Empire? Patriots who want to stop these rebels who are trying to sell out their country, join us!”

“What the hell! Those who tried to establish an independent nation but were caught by us, how can they be called patriots? Our fate should be decided by us, not by you landlords and churches!”

It was an absurd situation for the central government of New Granada.

Two unauthorized armies were fighting each other, but the central government had very little military power to mobilize, so it had no choice but to watch the two forces fight each other.

“The Mexican Empire liberated over 4 million Peóns!”

“That’s the country!”

“Those who are tired of endless political strife and poverty, those who wear the shackles of Peon! Let’s join the revolutionary army!”

News from the Mexican Empire reached New Granada immediately.

“It was a bit weird when we got the church guys moving, but this is helping us.”

The Mexican Empire’s secularization laws spurred the Church to attack the revolutionaries, but the subsequent news of the liberation of Peón greatly increased the number of volunteers for the revolutionaries.

The influence of the Mexican Empire’s policies on New Granada was truly enormous. The decisions of one country determined the fate of its neighbors.

This decision was tantamount to news to the peóns of New Granada that liberation would come only if the revolutionary forces won.

“This bastard ran away?”

“He didn’t just run away. He tried to join the revolutionaries.”

“This kid.”

The churches and landowners who had agreed to assemble in Antioquia, south of Cartagena, were troubled by the problem of deserters.

“You guys should also be more thorough with your mouth control. Got it?”

“yes!”

July 1848.

The battle between the revolutionary army and the church-landlord coalition was drawing near.