Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 214: Secret Colonial Expansion

In May 1877, Carlo's attention had just shifted from the exciting bullfighting competition to the railway construction in Spain.

Since Carlo was crowned King of Spain, a wave of railway construction has erupted in Spain, and the railway mileage has been continuously increasing.

According to current statistics from the transportation department, the existing railway mileage in Spain has officially exceeded 9100 kilometers, and it is expected that the goal of 9500 kilometers will be reached within this year.

9500 kilometers, the total railway mileage has almost doubled compared to the more than 5000 kilometers when Carlo was just crowned.

It took Carlo less than ten years to accomplish this goal, which was definitely a huge change compared to the reign of Queen Isabella.

The changes that railway construction brought to Spain were not only the increase in railway mileage, but also industrial development and economic growth.

To date, the scale of Spain's industry has increased by more than 60% compared to the time when Carlo was just crowned. In less than ten years, thousands of companies have sprung up, and hundreds of them have developed into famous factories and construction companies in Spain. This data is quite exaggerated.

The number of workers in Spain has also grown from a small number when Carlo was crowned to nearly one million today. Workers have become an extremely important group in Spain and are also a target that Carlo wants to win over.

It may seem incredible that the king would win over the workers, but this was Carlo's goal.

On the premise that the royal enterprises guaranteed the interests and income of the workers, the newspapers controlled by Carlo vigorously publicized the welfare of the workers provided by the royal enterprises and Carlo's protection of the workers' interests, successfully allowing the Spanish working group to maintain an attitude of love and recognition towards the royal family.

What the workers hate are the capitalists, or more precisely, the evil capitalists who exploit the workers' interests and withhold their wages.

Official capital like Carlo's is not among them. After all, Spain's official capital still provides certain protection for workers. At least the income and benefits of workers in capitalist factories are much better.

Speaking of Spain’s current railway construction, the results are quite good.

Picking up the entire Spanish railway map, it looks more like a tilted letter Y. The intersection of the three lines is Madrid, the capital of Spain, which has one of the busiest train stations in Spain.

The three edges of the letter Y are Santiago de Compostela, the capital of Galicia, Barcelona, ​​the capital of Catalonia, and Seville, the capital of Andalusia.

In addition to the above three regions, the three main railway lines forming the letter Y also pass through Valladolid, the capital of the Leon region, Zaragoza, the capital of the Aragon region, and Toledo, the capital of the La Mancha region.

The branch lines extending from these three main railway lines pass through more regions and more cities.

These railways are connected to form Spain's railway network, but the busiest ones are still the three main lines that form the letter Y.

The busiest railway is definitely the one between Madrid and Barcelona. Madrid and Barcelona are the two largest cities in Spain, and Zaragoza, which passes through the middle, is also one of the largest cities in Spain.

Madrid and Barcelona are also two of the few major industrial cities in Spain, and the industrial output of the two cities accounts for more than half of Spain's total industrial output.

The reason why Carlo pays attention to the railway construction in Spain is naturally a piece of good news from the transportation department, that is, the railway from Madrid to Extremadura has been successfully opened to traffic.

Extremadura is a border region of Spain, and further west is the territory of Portugal.

The reason why Carlo was concerned about the construction of this railway was mainly because to the west of Extremadura was Portugal's Portalegre region, and further west were Santarém and Lisbon, with Lisbon being the capital of Portugal.

Spain has previously reached a cooperation agreement with the Portuguese government on railway connection. The main purpose of this railway from Madrid to Merida, the capital of Extremadura, is to connect with the Portuguese railway and directly run through to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal.

The railways of Spain and Portugal are connected, which is a big deal for both countries.

Excluding Andorra, a small country without sovereignty, there are only two countries on the Iberian Peninsula, namely Spain and Portugal.

France, the only country bordering Iberia, has a huge gap in railway track width compared with Iberian countries, which makes economic exchanges between the Iberian Peninsula and the European continent extremely difficult, and most of the time it can only be solved through sea transportation.

In the Iberian Peninsula, the width of the railway tracks in Portugal and Spain is also different. If the two Iberian countries did not have a rich foundation in shipbuilding, the lack of economic connectivity alone would have hindered the development of the two countries.

After the railway between Spain and Portugal is connected, the economic development of both countries will be accelerated. For Spain, which has a larger population, the benefits will certainly be greater.

If the Portuguese government does not control it, more Portuguese people will definitely flow into Spain.

After all, there is not much difference between the two sides in language and culture, and Spain is in the process of rapid development, so there are many job opportunities that the Portuguese cannot refuse.

After the railway was connected, it became much more convenient for Portuguese people to travel to Spain. The straight-line distance from Lisbon to Madrid is only a little over 500 kilometers. If you take the current faster train, even if you add the time required for border crossing procedures, it will definitely not take 24 hours.

This will become very difficult for the Portuguese government. If the outflow of people is not controlled, the population of Portugal will become smaller and smaller.

But if control is implemented, what reason should be used to stop the outflow of these people? If it causes dissatisfaction among these people, it is likely to make the Portuguese more hostile to the government, which will cause greater problems.

Carlo certainly knew that doing so would cause a lot of problems for the Portuguese government, but who cared?
Spain has only so many neighboring countries, and it can't just focus on Britain and France.

Apart from Britain and France, the only country that Spain could be interested in was neighboring Portugal. When it comes to national interests, this cannot be stopped by some relatives.

What's more, Carlo has no intention of annexing Portugal at the moment. He just wants to introduce a part of the Portuguese population through railway connections, and use Portugal to promote the development of Spain.

As time entered May 1877, another important piece of news also changed the situation in the Balkan Peninsula. That was the statement made by Germany, another participant in the Triple Alliance.

For Germany, the choice in this Balkan War was very difficult. Germany's ally Russia was one of the participants in the war, and the other ally was Russia's opponent.

If Germany makes a choice easily, it will obviously offend another ally.

The two allies, Russia and Austria-Hungary, were both great powers and important executors of the policy of isolating France formulated by Prime Minister Bismarck.

For Germany, choosing any ally would undermine Germany's own diplomatic plan. Therefore, the best option is to remain neutral, not express your own attitude, and avoid losing any of the two allies.

But as the situation in the Balkans develops, Germany will eventually have to choose one of its two allies.

The alliance is not just talk, it is to provide help at critical moments. If the ally cannot provide help, then why conclude this covenant?
Before declaring war on the Ottoman Empire, Tsar Alexander II personally sent a telegram to Kaiser Wilhelm I to win German support.

Germany's support was very important to Russia. First of all, Germany's support could ensure that Austria-Hungary would not move its troops. Austria-Hungary relied on Germany's support to defeat the Russians.

Secondly, with the support of the Germans, Russia can be ensured to have no worries during the entire war.

The vast Russian territory will continuously transport supplies to the front line, and Russia has enough confidence to win this war with the Ottoman Empire.

In the end, the Germans chose Russia between Russia and Austria-Hungary.

Speaking of the relationship between the Three Emperors, Germany and Russia were purely allies, while the Austro-Hungarian Empire was more like a bootlicker.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire took the initiative to get closer to Germany, and before the Austro-Hungarian Empire took the initiative to show weakness, the relationship between Germany and Austria was still in a hostile state.

Compared to Austria, with which they had fought a war just a few years ago, the Germans clearly had more trust in Russia, which posed no threat to their interests.

At least in the strategy of isolating France formulated by Prime Minister Bismarck, Russia's role was more important than that of Austria-Hungary.

At present, what the Germans are most worried about is the hatred between them and France. There is not much conflict of interest between them and Russia. This is also the reason why Germany finally chose Russia.

With the support of the Germans, the next thing will be easy.

Without Russia's support, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not have the courage to go to war with Russia. This also meant that Russia could hope to keep the Austro-Hungarian Empire completely neutral in this war through diplomacy alone.

Russia did exactly that. The Austro-Hungarian Empire did not have the courage to start a war with Russia alone, even if the British had a chance to support the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

With Russia promising to allow Austria-Hungary to annex Bosnia and Serbia, Austria-Hungary ultimately chose to remain neutral in the war and gave up the idea of ​​intervening in it.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire's voluntary abandonment also made the British see a greater crisis.

Without the interference of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russia only needs to concentrate on dealing with the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire is no longer a match for Russia. If Russia is allowed to attack the Ottoman Empire at will, perhaps Constantinople will become Russia's next year.

In order to help the Ottoman Empire resist the Russian attack, Hobart, a British man who claimed to have converted to Islam, led the Turkish fleet to blockade the Black Sea to prevent the Russians from transporting supplies to the front line by sea.

Speaking of Hobart, he served in the British Royal Navy in his early years and retired with the rank of British Navy Captain more than ten years ago.

After retiring, Hobart went to the Ottoman Empire and converted to Islam, and was awarded the title of Pasha by the Ottoman Empire.

Pasha was previously called Besha, which generally refers to senior officials in the Ottoman Empire's administrative system, such as governors, generals or senior officials.

After a long period of development, the title of Pasha has evolved into an honorary title, similar to the British title of lord.

Hobart, who was awarded the title of Pasha, held a high status in the Ottoman Navy and would even be awarded the rank of Admiral in the future.

Of course, Hobart's current status and position are also not low. As the actual commander of the Ottoman Navy, he has 22 armored ships, 82 non-armored ships and 763 naval guns, with a total of more than 1.5 naval officers and soldiers. In terms of naval size, the Ottoman Empire's Black Sea Fleet has more advantages than the Black Sea Fleet established by Russia.

Why did the Ottoman Empire have such a large navy? In addition to a small part of the empire's foundation, most of it came from the help of the British.

The British did everything they could to prevent Russia from occupying the Strait of Constantinople. The Ottoman Empire's Black Sea Fleet also successfully blocked the Black Sea, forcing Russia to transport supplies to the front line only by land.

Although this hindered the offensive on the front line, fortunately the problem was not too big. Although at a disadvantage in terms of navy, the Russian army also had a great advantage over the Ottoman army.

Since the Black Sea has been blocked, the Russians have completely abandoned the sea transportation routes on the Black Sea and placed all their hopes of attack on the army.

The Russian army lived up to expectations and quickly advanced the front line with more victories than losses in the battles with the Ottoman Empire's army.

It was called an advancement, but in reality it was just a barely recovered territories in Romania that were occupied by the Ottoman Empire.

Because of the flooding of the Danube River and the blockade of the Black Sea, it was difficult for the Russian army to cross the Danube to fight against the Ottoman army.

For most of May, the Russian and Ottoman armies exchanged fire with each other at intervals, punctuated by a few shots to prove that the war was still going on.

Apart from the consumption of bullets and artillery shells, casualties among soldiers on both sides have been reduced to a minimum.

Originally, the Russian army had a leading advantage in the number of artillery pieces, but after the consumption in April, the artillery supply on the front line was insufficient.

This also caused the firepower of Russia and the Ottoman Empire to almost drop to the same level, and the army was blocked by the Danube River and could not advance an inch on Romanian soil.

The suspension of the offensive made the Russian government begin to become a little anxious.

A large amount of bullets and artillery shells were wasted on the front line every day, and the Russian government's fiscal expenditure was also increasing.

If the stalemate continues, it is hard to say whether the government's finances can support it, and the supply of bullets and artillery shells to the front line will definitely not be sustained.

The front line has a total of 3000 artillery pieces. Each artillery piece fires ten shells a day, and the total number of shells consumed is as high as .

In a month, the number of artillery shells consumed is close to one million, which cannot be compensated by Russia's current military production capacity.

Not to mention that during the most intense period of the war, the artillery on the front line would also fire a lot. The consumption of artillery shells and logistical supply issues alone were enough to give the Russian government a headache.

Not to mention that the bullet consumption on the front line is the biggest expense. Hundreds of thousands of troops consume countless bullets every day. If they cannot be replenished in time, the front-line troops will lack logistical supplies and their morale will be low. Not only will they be unable to continue to launch attacks, but even defense will be difficult.

You can't let these soldiers go up and fight the enemy with bayonets without bullets. Let's not talk about whether the Russian soldiers have the courage to fight the enemy with bayonets. Even if they do, the enemy will not be stupid enough to use rifles without bayonets.

Bayonet fighting is only carried out when the enemy has already entered the trenches, or when the enemy has entered the enemy's trenches, or when the ammunition and food are exhausted.

In other cases, especially when the Ottoman Empire maintained its lead in weaponry, it would certainly be better to use firepower to suppress the enemy if possible.

Seeing that the blockade of the Black Sea was very effective, the British finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Although such a strategy may not necessarily help the Ottoman Empire win the war, it can at least delay Russia for a longer period of time.

Britain also had more time to prepare. Whether it was joining the war to help the Ottoman Empire or ensuring that the Ottoman Empire would not lose more interests after the war, especially ensuring that Russia would not expand its sphere of influence to the vicinity of the Strait of Constantinople, these were all options available to Britain.

Although Austria-Hungary remained neutral due to various pressures, the British did not believe that Austria-Hungary would remain neutral when Russia's sphere of influence annexed the Balkans.

To put it bluntly, Russia has not yet won the war, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was forced to give in under pressure.

When Russia really threatens the Austro-Hungarian Empire's layout in the Balkan Peninsula, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will certainly not remain indifferent even if it faces a threat.

While the war in the Balkans attracted the attention of major European powers, Spain accelerated its expansion into its colonies in Africa and Southeast Asia.

In Africa, Spain has two main directions of expansion.

One is the expansion of the southern Moroccan colony into the Western Sahara Desert. Although the Western Sahara Desert is a barren land with a small population, it still has high economic value.

After all, it is a coastal area. The coast of Western Sahara has extremely rich fishery resources, and the small population here generally relies on fishery and animal husbandry.

In addition to these common fishery resources, Western Sahara also has extremely rich phosphate deposits, with reserves in Bukhara alone reaching 17 billion tons.

Phosphate minerals have many uses and can be widely used in agriculture, chemical industry, medical treatment and handicrafts.

Its most important function is to make phosphate fertilizer, which can provide extremely important phosphorus element for crops. Phosphorus fertilizer is also one of the very important chemical fertilizers.

For Spain, which has insufficient soil fertility, the large-scale phosphate mines can provide Spain with a large amount of phosphate fertilizer.

These phosphate fertilizers can improve the fertility of Spanish soil, help crops produce, increase the yield of Spanish crops, and make Spanish agriculture stronger.

It would not be difficult for Spain to occupy the Western Sahara region.

It is not an exaggeration to say that after Spain established the colony of southern Morocco, other countries have acquiesced in Spain's occupation of the Western Sahara region.

Why do I say that? This land was originally controlled by Morocco, but there was no actual management of it. It was just within Morocco's sphere of influence.

European colonists also came to this land, but they were not interested in this sparsely populated desert area.

Within a few hundred kilometers of Western Sahara, there are no other colonists' colonies except Spain's colony in southern Morocco.

Even if Spain did not establish a colony in Western Sahara, there would be basically no other powers to establish a colony there.

Unless the great powers have already divided Africa up, it will be difficult to completely divide Africa in the next decade.

After all, the reason why the major powers did not go deep into Africa was not because they did not want to, but because the cost of going deep into Africa was too high. Currently, no country has the strength to develop the interior of Africa, so naturally there is no need to go deep into the interior of Africa to establish colonies.

Although the Congo territory established by Spain would arouse the envy of some powerful countries, most countries would regard it as good luck.

After all, the process of Spain's exploration of the Congo territory was full of coincidences. If it were not for good luck, Spain would probably not have discovered such a vast territory of the Congo territory.

In the eyes of other European powers, the process of Spain establishing the Congo territory could not be replicated. If they were to explore the interior of Africa like Spain, apart from spending a lot of money to set up an expedition team, there would probably be no other effect.

It would be better to focus on expansion along the African coast. The land along the African coast has not been divided up by the great powers either, and this is where the great powers focus their attention.

In addition to expanding in the Sahara Desert, Spain also had another direction of expansion in Africa, which was to expand the Congo territory downstream along the Congo River.

According to Carlo's plan, the Congo River Territory was to be connected by rail to the colony of Guinea and the ports downstream of the Congo River.

Currently, the Congo and Territory have completed the railway connection with the colony of Guinea, but the plan to build a railway along the Congo River has not yet been formally implemented.

The main reason is that there is a long-standing indigenous country in the lower reaches of the Congo River, namely the Kingdom of Kongo.

Most of the land of the Kingdom of Kongo is currently controlled by Portugal, and Portugal has also established its own African colony on the land of the Kingdom of Kongo.

If Spain wants to continue expanding its territory in Congo in the lower reaches of the Congo River, a new round of conflict will definitely break out with Portugal.

Portugal did tolerate Spain's establishment of the Congo territory in the upper reaches of the Congo River, but if Spain extended its hand to the lower reaches of the Congo River, I am afraid the Portuguese would not retreat so easily.

After all, the Portuguese expansion in the Kingdom of Kongo had lasted for more than ten years. How could they abandon these established colonies just because of colonial competition from Spain?
Fortunately, the only major competitor in the Congo River Basin at present is Portugal, and Spain is not afraid of the threat posed by Portugal.

While the British, Portugal's backer, were focusing on the Balkan War, Carlo decided to speed up the expansion of the land in the lower reaches of the Congo River and try to take control of the Kingdom of Kongo in Spanish hands before the Portuguese.

The Kingdom of Kongo had a large indigenous population, which was perfect for developing the Kongo territory.

Completing the expansion to the lower reaches of the Congo River would also create a triangle between Guinea and the Congo River basin, and the land within the triangle could potentially be controlled by Spain.

It is very beneficial to take control of these lands before there are other foreign competitors. Even if they cannot be developed in the future, they can exchange colonies from other powerful countries for colonies that Spain wants more.

Even if the exchange of colonies is not possible, this piece of connected colonies will be easier to control, and the stability of the colonies can be ensured by sending a certain size of troops.

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(End of this chapter)