IBTCPOTME Novel - Chapter 173
**Chapter 173**
< Colombia (2) >
Finally, the door of the mansion opened.
They had been detained under the pretext of protection for about eight weeks.
The government had periodically delivered food and necessities, but it was a stifling time. However, there were no escape attempts.
They knew.
What had happened.
“Is it over now? It took quite a while.”
“You’ve been through a lot.”
The members of the imperial family, who had encouraged each other, having endured a difficult time, realized that they weren’t actually released.
“Mr. Guillermo Iturbide. I’m sorry, but you need to come with us. The same goes for everyone else.”
The lieutenant of the Morelia police station had personally visited the mansion with police officers.
Guillermo’s face, Leandro’s brother, hardened at those words.
“Go? We just got out, where are we going?”
“I’m arresting you on charges of aiding rebellion.”
“···You know who I’m talking about, right? This must be my cousin’s order.”
“Let’s go.”
The Iturbide family’s Morelia mansion in June was as bright as a palace. The bright sunshine made the marble walls sparkle, and the flowers in the garden were in full bloom, blending with the greenery. But even amidst that beauty, there was a gloomy aura. It was as if the mansion itself was anticipating the impending misfortune.
This mansion, one of the family’s pride and joys, was built by the current emperor when he was crown prince, using his construction company, making it magnificent and grand.
It was a palace in all but name. It was designed with inspiration from Versailles in France, making it quite beautiful, but unlike their mansion, the faces of the people inside were dark.
All the adults in the family had been taken away.
The Iturbide family wasn’t large. It was a family that had recently moved from Spain to Mexico.
Agustín I’s father, José Joaquín de Iturbide, was a nobleman from the Spanish province of Navarra, but he moved to Mexico with his wife and children to make a fortune.
Of his five children, only two were sons: Mariano and Agustín.
Mariano, the older brother, inherited most of the property, including the farm, while Agustín, the younger brother, became emperor.
Leandro and Guillermo were Mariano’s eldest and second sons.
In effect, they owned most of the Iturbide family’s property.
“They’re not reducing the punishment, they’re increasing it···?”
They never imagined that their status as royalty would work against them. Now, all that was left was despair.
“Yes. I don’t know about other crimes, but in the case of royalty, treason is subject to increased punishment. It’s clearly stated in the legislation.”
The local judge, unusually, even explained the reason for the verdict. Guillermo felt like he was going crazy after hearing the explanation.
“Ha, haha. My nephew has gone mad with power, abandoning even his own family.”
“Watch your tongue. What you just said constitutes insult. ···I’ll let it slide because it’s right after the verdict.”
He was sentenced to 14 years in prison and the confiscation of 60% of his property.
“Bring them in.”
There was a reason why the judge was still there. He had ruthlessly sentenced them to prison, but they were still royalty after all. There was a certain level of special treatment.
“Brother!”
“···Brother.”
Leandro Iturbide, who had been sentenced a while ago, appeared with a haggard face.
The judge, after watching them reminisce for a moment, turned his attention back to them.
“Now, choose.”
The law regarding the imperial family also included a clause about what to do if they were sentenced to prison. They could serve their sentences in a few designated places.
“···Is this all there is?”
“We didn’t even expect Morelia, and most of these places are ones we’ve never even heard of.”
“Don’t you know? It’ll be easier if you look at the map here.”
The judge kindly marked the places they could go on the map.
“These are all islands, aren’t they?”
All the places marked on the map were islands in the Caribbean Sea. Even Cuba, the largest island owned by the Mexican Empire, and Hispaniola (the Dominican region), the second largest, were excluded.
“You want me to go to a remote place like this?”
Leandro complained, even at this point.
“Brother, we have no choice.”
Guillermo, who had a better grasp of reality, stopped his brother.
“Ha···.”
“The largest islands are···. Jamaica, which we received from England, and Puerto Rico, which we bought from Spain. It’s these two.”
They were quite large islands, with areas of about 10,000 square kilometers and 9,000 square kilometers, respectively.
They had fairly developed cities and railroads.
“Can we move freely on these islands?”
“No. You can move freely within the house designated by the government, but you can’t go outside, and you’ll have bodyguards following you during your daily walk.”
“···I see.”
They pondered for a moment.
The choices before them weren’t easy. The fact that they had to leave their homeland and live on a strange island made them hesitate.
“Puerto Rico, where they speak Spanish, would be better.”
They made their choice.
Leandro would live on these two islands for the rest of his life, and Guillermo for 14 years.
The problem was the family left behind.
All of Leandro’s property, the eldest son, and 60% of Guillermo’s property, the second son, were confiscated. Naturally, that included the mansion.
‘The Iturbide Mansion’ was now government property, and the rest of the family moved to the old mansion that remained in Morelia.
The mansion that Agustín I’s father had built when he moved to Mexico was large enough, and the remaining farm was still large enough to be called an estate, but it was truly modest considering they were royalty.
“The Iturbide Mansion···. Let’s just use it as a tourist attraction.”
The tourism industry had been emerging and growing rapidly for several years. The Iturbide Mansion was good enough to be confidently promoted as a tourist attraction.
The Iturbide Mansion, famous for its magnificent architecture and luxurious interior, was once a symbol of the imperial glory, but it would become a place to showcase the severity of the law to the public. Heronimo smiled wryly.
Treating them this harshly was a warning.
A warning to the imperial family and their in-laws. It was also a warning to his brothers and children, not just the collateral branches.
Only the emperor has legally inviolable status and cannot be criminally prosecuted.
Members of the imperial family are handled according to the “Law of the Imperial House,” or “Imperial Law” for short, but they basically have the same legal status as ordinary citizens, so if they commit crimes, they are punished according to the same procedures as ordinary people.
‘If these aspects aren’t handled according to principle in a constitutional monarchy, they will eventually lose popularity, and then it’ll be easy for a revolution to happen.’
That’s what Heronimo decided.
In fact, this incident solidified the public’s trust in the imperial family.
***
“We can dispose of the imperial family like that, but what about the rest?”
I asked.
I skimmed through the documents, checking important matters. The imperial family issue had been settled, but there were still mountains of things to resolve.
“Your Majesty, we need to decide how to dispose of the confiscated peóns belonging to the church.”
Diego said.
“Peóns? We’ve already freed all the peóns. I don’t think we need to do anything differently now.”
It wasn’t the first time property had been confiscated, and they had dealt with the peón issue several times.
“This time, the scale is so large that it seems to be attracting a lot of public attention. One newspaper estimated that the number of peóns belonging to the church is between 2 million and 3 million.”
“···2 million to 3 million? I knew it would be a lot, but it’s incredible.”
The church owned almost 40% of the land in central Mexico, based on the territory of Mexico in my previous life. One-third to one-half of the peasant population in that area were peóns.
“Yes. According to that newspaper, the total debt could exceed 100 million pesos. It’s not an exact calculation, but they used a sensational number to boost sales, but it’s become a hot topic.”
“Fine. Cancel all their debts and free them. Our government isn’t short on funds, is it?”
“Understood.”
They had also confiscated a lot of property from the landowners involved in the rebellion. The confiscated property of the church and landowners included not only farms and peóns but also pesos, gold, silver, jewels, valuables, paintings, and various other assets. The government warehouses were overflowing, to the point of being inconvenient.
The next day.
A newspaper article appeared.
[Government Decides to Cancel All Debts and Free All Peóns]
Almost 4 million peóns, including those belonging to landowners, were freed.
“Let everyone have the option to choose immigration benefits. We need manpower on the farms, so try to encourage them to stay in their original areas.”
“It’s essentially land reform. This is the first time I’ve seen land reform carried out this way.”
Diego was impressed.
Until now, they had mainly offered immigration benefits to the northern territories. It was an incentive to develop undeveloped land. But with this incident, the government owned too much land.
The government owned a staggering 60% of the land in central Mexico, which was a highly abnormal structure.
“Most of them will likely end up sharing the farms they worked on. But dividing the farms into small pieces could be inefficient, so consider giving them shares in collective farms. Most of them are natives, so they’ll be more familiar with that system.”
They had to consider how to distribute the land to the peóns without undermining agricultural productivity. It wasn’t a simple problem, but it was a task that had to be solved for the future of the empire. I entrusted this matter to the Ministry of Finance.
“I’ll consider the best way to do it, Your Majesty.”
“Consult with the Ministry of Land and make sure to keep the land the government needs.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Our government was successfully handling the secularization law and the aftermath of the rebellion. But as the emperor of the empire, the issues I needed to address weren’t confined to within the empire.
***
The church-landowner alliance decided to eliminate the revolutionary army in Cartagena, but it took a really long time to actually gather troops.
This was because many of the landowners and churches were located far from Cartagena.
While preparing to exert actual military power, the two factions tried to gain control of public opinion.
“The rebels in Cartagena are not revolutionaries, but just puppets of the Mexican Empire! They openly talk about joining the Mexican Empire, and they’re even receiving support from the Mexican Empire. How can they be revolutionaries? Patriots who will stop those rebels who are trying to sell out the country, join us!”
“You’re full of shit! You’re the ones who got caught trying to establish an independent state! What patriots? We have to decide our own fate, not you landowners and the church!”
It was a ridiculous situation from the perspective of the Nueva Granada central government.
Two armies, unauthorized by the country, had risen up and were fighting. But the central government had very limited military power at its disposal, so it could only watch the two forces fight.
“The Mexican Empire has freed over 4 million peóns!”
“That’s a real country!”
“People tired of endless political strife and poverty, those who are shackled by the peonage system! Join the revolutionaries!”
News from the Mexican Empire spread immediately to Nueva Granada.
“I was a little annoyed when they got the church to move, but this is helpful for us.”
Mexico’s secularization law had provoked the church to attack the revolutionaries, but the subsequent news of the peon liberation drastically increased the number of supporters for the revolutionaries.
The influence of the Mexican Empire’s policies on Nueva Granada was truly immense. The decisions of one country were affecting the fate of its neighbor.
This decision was tantamount to news for the peóns of Nueva Granada that they would be freed if the revolutionaries won.
“This bastard is running away?”
“It’s not just running away. This guy, he was trying to join the revolutionaries.”
“This son of a bitch.”
The church and landowners, who had agreed to gather in Antioquia, south of the Cartagena province, were having a headache over the issue of deserters.
“You guys, keep your mouths shut too. Understand?”
“Yes!”
July 1848.
The showdown between the revolutionaries and the church-landowner alliance was imminent.