Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 174 Assimilation Experiment
The final choice of the Lan Fang Republic was naturally to surrender to Spanish rule.

At least there was still the option of surrendering to the Spaniards. Without the support of Spain, the only outcome waiting for Lan Fang would be destruction.

"Diplomat Wu, you made the right choice." In the Royal Palace of Madrid, Carlo smiled with satisfaction as he reached a preliminary agreement with Wu Yongxiang on cooperation between Spain and Lan Fang.

Because Wu Yongxiang was the plenipotentiary representative of the Lan Fang Republic, the signing of the cooperation treaty between the two parties only required him to sign on their behalf.

As for whether the Lan Fang Republic would break the contract, Carlo didn't need to worry at all.

Before the Lan Fang Republic defeated the Dutch, they had always faced colonial pressure from the Dutch East Indies.

The time when they defeated the Dutch was entirely determined by Spain. As long as Carlo was willing, the Lan Fang Republic could continue to consume the Dutch forever.

On February 1875, 2, Spanish Prime Minister Primo and Lanfang's plenipotentiary Wu Yongxiang jointly signed the document on the "Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Sealand and Lanzhou" in the presence of some media, and left behind precious video materials.

The vast majority of media outlets are not interested in the Lan Fang Republic. What they are interested in is why Spain chose to sign a cooperation agreement with the Lan Fang Republic, which has little fame and strength.

If there is one country that pays attention to this, the Netherlands is probably the only one.

Because the Lan Fang were theoretically within the Dutch colonial sphere, they were even nominally subject to the Dutch East Indies colonies.

However, by the time the Dutch received the news, several days had passed since the two sides signed the cooperation treaty.

No matter how dissatisfied the Dutch were, they had no choice but to swallow their anger.

After all, Spain crushes the Netherlands in terms of size and comprehensive strength. Unless the Netherlands is still the United Kingdom that rules Belgium and Luxembourg, the Netherlands cannot be compared with Spain.

But then again, if the three Low Countries remained united, there would probably not be any competition between Spain and the Dutch; the great powers would have stepped in to force the three Low Countries to disband themselves.

Being located between Britain, France and Germany, it is destined that there can be no truly powerful country in this region.

Not to mention a superpower at the level of the great powers, even a regional power would not be allowed to exist.

To put it bluntly, none of the three parties, Britain, France and Germany, will allow the emergence of a country in the Low Countries that is more powerful than themselves or that poses a threat to them.

When Prime Minister Primo learned that Carlo had already agreed on cooperation matters with representatives of the Lan Fang Republic, he did not express any opposition.

After all, such cooperation is beneficial to Spain, and most of the terms of the entire cooperation agreement can help Spain better colonize in the Kalimantan region.

However, both Carlo and Prime Minister Primo were essentially distrustful of the loyalty of their new brother, the Lan Fang Republic.

It was nothing more than that the Netherlands wanted to destroy this country and completely annex the land of the Lanfang Republic. Spain wanted to control the Lanfang Republic and get help from a country with a population of more than 400 million and relatively developed agriculture while fighting against the Dutch.

It has to be admitted that the land in Southeast Asia is naturally suitable for growing crops.

Because it is located in the tropics, the rice grown here can be harvested twice or even three times a year, and the grain output is several times higher than that in temperate regions.

Although the Lan Fang Republic had a population of only 400 million, the food they produced was enough to feed 1500 million people for more than a year.

This is quite exaggerated, and it also made agriculture in the Republic of Lan Fang the pillar industry of the entire country and the bulk of economic income.

For Spain, the grain output from the Lan Fang Republic can well make up for the food shortage in the East Indies, namely the Philippines.

By allowing the Lan Fangs to provide them with enough food, the Spanish could focus on higher-value crops, such as rubber or other industries.

Of course, the greatest role of the Lanfang Republic for Carlo and Spain was not to provide food production and fight against the Netherlands, but to exist as a vassal state and provide Spain with more troops.

Yes, Carlo had no intention of giving up the Lanfang Republic. In Carlo's strategic plan for the future of Spain, the Lanfang Republic would be a permanent vassal state of Spain, helping Spain to expand its territory and build a prosperous empire.

Although the Lan Fang Republic currently has a population of only 400 million, it is backed by the most populous country.

The reason why the current population is only 400 million, in addition to the continuous colonial oppression by the Dutch, is that that populous country has not completely weakened.

As long as the Lan Fang Republic gains some fame, it will surely attract more people, thus allowing the population of the Lan Fang Republic to exceed 10 million.

A country with a population of tens of millions will have a greater impact on Spain, and the army that can be formed will be as high as hundreds of thousands or even millions of people.

Such an exaggerated army size could pose a considerable threat to not only a small Dutch East Indies colony, but even to India, which the British had been eyeing.

Of course, Carlo would not be stupid enough to compete with the British for India. Putting aside whether it was viable or not, Spain was not big enough to suppress a country as big as India.

But having hundreds of thousands or even millions of troops will undoubtedly make the British pay more attention to Spain's existence and allow Spain to conduct diplomatic activities with greater confidence.

After all, if the two sides really fall out, even if Britain is the final winner, it will definitely be seriously damaged.

Furthermore, even if the enemy is not Britain, the Lan Fang Republic can still play a certain role. After all, population is the most important thing in this era. With a sufficient population, whether it is colonization or war, it represents enough confidence.

But to achieve this goal, it is necessary to achieve dual economic and military control over the Lan Fang Republic.

It is very difficult to achieve dual control, after all, the Lan Fang Republic is unlikely to surrender. The Lan Fang people are not fools. Facing Spain's intention to completely control the Lan Fang Republic, they will definitely be more cautious and even hostile.

But it's not completely impossible. For example, we can carry out cultural penetration and select some talents to train from an early age.

Select some talented children from the Republic of Lanfang, train them in Spain from an early age, and then send them back after they grow up and graduate from university.

Because these people grew up in Spain, they would involuntarily be close to Spain. When these people entered the upper echelons of the Lan Fang Republic, the pro-Spanish faction of the Lan Fang Republic gradually formed and gained the right to speak.

At that time, Spain only needs to support the pro-Western faction in the Lanfang Republic to influence or even control this country.

This is also a common practice used by some countries in later generations. Spain does not even need to show up much, and can gain enough voice just by relying on the pro-Western faction cultivated in the Lanfang Republic.

In addition, by controlling the size of the Lan Fang Republic and ensuring that its population remains at tens of millions, it can be ensured that the Lan Fang Republic will not retaliate against Spain.

It is even possible to form a check and balance through the local indigenous people, allowing the Lan Fang Republic and the local indigenous people to compete with each other, and Spain can rest assured.

After the cooperation treaty between the two parties was signed, Wu Yongxiang stayed in Spain as a diplomatic ambassador.

Now that the relevant cooperation treaty has been signed, the next step will certainly be to carry out further cooperation with the Lan Fang Republic.

At least before Carlo's goal was achieved, Carlo was unwilling to see the Lan Fang Republic destroyed by the Dutch.

The biggest problem between Spain and the Lan Fang Republic is communication. The Lan Fang Republic is relatively backward and naturally does not have any means of ocean communication.

The most urgent issue to be solved at present was the communication between Spain and the Republic of Lanfang. After some discussion, it was finally decided to build a wired telegraph between the Republic of Lanfang and the Spanish East Indies colonies for communication.

The communication between the Lanfang Republic and the Spanish mainland was basically conveyed by the East Indian colonies. There was no other way, after all, the technology of that era was like this, and there was no wireless communication or network technology.

The transmission of telegraph information across the oceans is possible thanks to the transoceanic cables laid by European countries between the oceans.

Moreover, the technology of transoceanic cables is not mature yet, having only been around for about ten years.

This resulted in long-distance telegram transmission taking a long time, and sometimes the received information was incomplete or erroneous due to sudden signal interruptions and other problems.

But there is no way around it, it is already the most effective and fastest way of long-distance communication for humans.

Apart from using transoceanic cables to send telegrams, the only way to spread information was to travel thousands of miles in person.

Within a few days, Spain's first batch of weapons and equipment to support the Lan Fang Republic was successfully loaded and slowly entered the Atlantic Ocean under the watchful eyes of Wu Yongxiang.

In order to express Spain's sincerity in supporting the Lan Fang Republic, this batch of weapons and equipment will be provided to the Lan Fang Republic free of charge.

Neither Carlo nor the Spanish government would lose out by doing this. After all, these were weapons and equipment eliminated from the original army. They were all outdated muzzle-loading rifles and paper-wrapped bullets, without even a single cannon.

It's just that there is a certain amount of transportation cost for transporting these weapons from Spain to Kalimantan, and there is no additional expenses other than that.

If the Lan Fang Republic wants to purchase weapons and equipment again, it must spend real money or exchange them for other valuable materials of equivalent value.

Whether it is the outdated muzzle-loading rifle or the latest breech-loading rifle from the Royal Arsenal, they are all on the list of weapons for export.

After all, the Lan Fang Republic did not have the ability to build an ammunition production line. Even if they bought guns, they had to rely on ammunition imported from Spain.

By selling weapons and equipment, the Lan Fang Republic could be better armed and the attention of the Dutch and the British could be distracted.

Along with this batch of weapons, a military delegation of dozens of people arrived at the Lan Fang Republic.

The purpose of this dispatch mission was to help the Lan Fang Republic army train a new army with strong combat effectiveness that could fight against the Dutch.

On the one hand, the combat effectiveness of the Lan Fang Republic’s army was indeed not good enough, and on the other hand, Spain really needed to carry out military infiltration into the Lan Fang Republic.

Another thing is to observe the actual performance of these weapons on the battlefield. Although only a batch of muzzle-loading rifles have been shipped to the Lan Fang Republic, who can guarantee that the Lan Fang Republic will not purchase advanced breech-loading rifles from Spain?

The army of the Lan Fang Republic can also practice some of the Spanish military's ideas about military organization, helping the Spanish army to carry out better reforms.

Real war is the only way to test an army. Currently, Spain lacks the experience of war, so it can only gain some experience by observing the battlefield closely.

In order to save transportation costs, while transporting weapons and equipment to the Lanfang Republic, Spain will also transport a batch of weapons and equipment to the East Indian colonies at the same time.

Spain's colonial expansion in Kalimantan did not stop, and even war was inevitable. In order to be on the safe side, the colonial army in East India must be supplied with weapons and ammunition.

There is also the expansion plan of the East Indies colony. In addition to Kalimantan, Carlo also plans to expand the East Indies colony in the direction of New Guinea.

New Guinea is an island larger than Kalimantan and the second largest island in the world after Greenland.

Considering that Greenland is quite close to the North Pole and its cold climate is not suitable for development, New Guinea is already the largest developable island.

More importantly, compared to Kalimantan, which has been infiltrated by British and Dutch forces, large tracts of New Guinea have not yet been set foot by the great powers.

Spain had every opportunity to occupy a piece of land on the island of New Guinea to expand its colonies. Whether it was to establish a new colonial region independently or to incorporate it into the already unified East Indies colony, it was a good choice.

Whether these places are planting economic products such as rubber or reclaiming land to grow food, they can bring huge benefits to Spain.

Perhaps Spain alone is not enough to develop these areas, but if the Lan Fang Republic is used to develop them, unexpected results can be achieved.

In the future, the main areas for the Spanish to develop will still be Africa, especially southern Morocco. After all, Morocco is the only place that can be truly localized. The probability of localization for most other colonies is very small, and they will eventually be out of Spanish control in the future.

Yes, Carlo saw this very clearly.

The collapse of the colonial system was inevitable unless the outbreak of the two world wars could be prevented. Fortunately, Spain had already lost most of its colonies, so even if the colonial system collapsed, Spain's losses would not be that great.

What Carlo had to do was to divide up Spain's colonies before the colonial system collapsed. He would increase the development of those that could be localized and completely localize them before that day came.

For those that cannot be localized, their final value should be utilized as much as possible to bring more benefits to Spain.

Speaking of the South Moroccan colony, its construction has been quite successful since its establishment. The railway that runs from north to south in the colony has been completed, which not only greatly facilitates the transportation of materials within the colony, but also strengthens Spain's control over this land.

Morocco's population is not large, even smaller than that of the tiny Lanfang Republic, which has just reached 400 million, while Morocco's population barely exceeds 300 million.

The land occupied by Spain was not small. All the land south of the line from Agadir to Tata to the Sahara Desert belonged to the colony of South Morocco.

But the population of this land is only about one-tenth of the total population of Morocco, and most of the population is located in the largest city, Agadir, which is also the capital of the current colony of South Morocco.

This is bad news, but also good news.

The bad news is that it is difficult for the southern Moroccan colony, with a population of less than 30, to develop into a highly prosperous region like Cuba in a short period of time.

Even in the long term, Spain's investment in the southern Moroccan colony will be a loss. If the southern Moroccan colony is to generate a steady stream of income for Spain like Cuba, it will not be seen in the next ten years.

But there was also good news. Because the southern Moroccan colony was sparsely populated, Spain could use it as an experimental site to explore the possibility of assimilating Moroccans.

As the most special region in Africa, Moroccans are white people, similar to Spaniards. Apart from the two most obvious differences in language and religion, it is really hard to tell a Spaniard and a Moroccan apart when they are standing together in the same clothes.

Morocco's population is not large, so it will be easier to assimilate. Even if only a part of it can be assimilated, it can effectively increase Spain's population and lay a solid foundation for Spain's future strength.

If it is really impossible to assimilate the Moroccans, Carlo can only choose a tougher approach and drive these Moroccans out of Morocco completely.

After all, if you want to localize Morocco, you must ensure that most of the residents living in Morocco are true Spaniards.

Only in this way can true localization be achieved and Morocco can become one of the several regions of Spain rather than existing as a colony.

At present, Spain's main pilot project is in Agadir, a colony in southern Morocco. By building Spanish language schools and vigorously spreading Catholicism, Spain is trying to bring these Moroccans into the arms of Spain as much as possible.

The second thing is to educate these Moroccans from an early age so that they will regard themselves as Spanish.

Through this two-pronged approach, the Moroccans were assimilated as much as possible. Before Spain completely occupied Morocco, there was still a long time to experiment with the assimilation of the Moroccans.

When Morocco is completely occupied, this experiment will eventually have a result. Whether the Moroccans stay or go, and how the Moroccan region will be dealt with, will ultimately depend on the result of this assimilation experiment.

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(End of this chapter)