Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 267 West Africa Development Program

Although the colonial exchange between Spain and Britain was theoretically kept secret, the transfer of colonial governments and local garrisons could not be hidden from everyone, at least not from the European countries that were paying attention to the matter.

As the colonial exchange between Spain and Britain officially began, European countries also had certain speculations about the secret agreement reached between the two countries.

The most frantic among them may be the United States, which has been eyeing Cuba for a long time. If Spain is still an opponent that the United States can barely defeat, then the British Empire is a mountain that the United States can never reach.

No matter how exaggerated the development of the United States' industry and economy is, in the eyes of the British, the United States is just a nouveau riche that can be easily manipulated.

The Panama Canal had not yet been built, and communication between the east and west coasts of the United States was quite difficult.

Even though the distance between the east and west coasts of the United States is only 4000 kilometers, ships from the east coast must sail around South America if they want to go to the west coast.

Even if you go along the coast of South America, it is at least a journey of more than 20,000 kilometers. From the east coast of the United States, across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Mediterranean Sea, across the entire Indian Ocean, and then from the North Pacific to the west coast of the United States, it is only more than 30,000 kilometers. This is enough to reflect the difficulty of communication between the east and west coasts of the United States, which is also a major reason that troubles the development of the United States.

After Britain took control of the Cuban colony, the United States had to face the British Empire if it wanted to go south to South America. Under such circumstances, it was not so easy for the United States to dig the Panama Canal. Even if the canal could be dug, the sovereignty of the Panama Canal would definitely not be in the hands of the Americans.

More importantly, the United States was about to face a pincer attack from Britain, with the British Dominion of Canada to the north and the British colony of Cuba and the Bahamas to the south.

The United States had no other expansion directions except Mexico. Expansion on the sea was even more impossible. Britain formed a solid defense line with the Bahamas, Cuban colonies and Jamaica, directly blocking the United States in the Gulf of Mexico.

After the loss of the Cuban colony, Spain's influence in the Americas will be greatly reduced. However, Spain also retained Puerto Rico, which is the last colony of Spain in the Americas and the only proof of the existence of the Spanish colonial empire.

Compared to the economically valuable Cuban colony, Puerto Rico is just a military base for Spain.

Spain stationed a colonial garrison in the colony of Puerto Rico, which will also become a transit point for trade between Spain and various American countries.

Although Spain gave up its Cuban colony, it does not mean that Spain will give up its ties with the South American countries.

There are a large number of Hispanic immigrants in South America. Relying on the common roots, Spain can still establish good diplomatic relations with these South American countries.

After all, to put it bluntly, the South American countries are just small countries. The most powerful Brazil, Argentina and Chile are just slightly stronger small countries in Europe.

If one wants to protect one's independence and stability in a world where the strong prey on the weak, one must rely on the protection of more powerful countries.

Argentina has vast black soil and Brazil has rich coal and iron ore resources, which are what Spain needs.

Compared with the iron ore in Australia, which is far away, the iron ore in Brazil is closer to Spain. It is also the coal and iron ore producing area that Spain is most likely to import in large quantities, apart from Africa.

Brazil was once a Portuguese colony, and Portuguese immigrants were also a population that Spain could introduce.

If Spain can annex Portugal in the future, the unified Iberian Peninsula will become the most influential European power in the Americas.

If the South American countries can be developed into Spain's consumer markets and economic cooperation partners, Spain's industry and economy will also be able to develop rapidly.

In the first month after the signing of the colonial exchange agreement between Spain and Britain, the British Gambia colonial government officially withdrew, and the Spanish army officially entered the Gambia colony later that day and announced military management of the Gambia colony, which would continue until the Gambia colony was officially established.

About a week later, the Sierra Leone colony was officially handed over. The handover of the Gold Coast colony took a longer time, but it was completed within two months of the signing of the treaty.

With Spain's six colonial garrisons each stationed in three colonies, Spain's colonization of West Africa officially began.

Compared with the Cuban colony, which the Spanish government had already prepared to abandon, the three colonies in West Africa clearly attached more importance to them.

In particular, the British colony of Gambia, although located in Africa, is an excellent agricultural production area. If it is well managed, it may not be an important grain production area for Spain, making up for the lack of plains in Spain.

Although the Sierra Leone colony and the Gold Coast are not as excellent as the Gambia colony, they are also colonies with great development value.

Since Spain occupied these three colonies, it had no intention of giving them up. Even if developing these three colonies meant facing competition from the French, Spain would never back down.

In response to Spain's existing colonial situation, the transportation department proposed the Central and West African Railway Project.

The so-called West and Central African Railway Project starts from the southern Moroccan colony in the north, goes south along the coast to connect Spain's three West African colonies, then goes east from the Guinea colony into the Central African region and ends at the Spanish Congo territory.

This railway plan was quite exaggerated. Wherever the railway reached, Spain would be able to bring those lands under its colonial control.

But the problem is that the West and Central African Railway will pass through the colonies of France and Portugal. Even if the Portuguese are willing, the French are unlikely to agree.

If the Spanish government could achieve its own railway plan, France's dream of colonizing West Africa would be shattered. The Spanish railway would block the expansion of France's West African colonies to the north, and the land occupied by France in North Africa and the colonies in West Africa would be unable to connect.

This is similar to the conflict between Portugal's Pink Map Project and Britain's Cairo-Cape Town Link. One country must give in, otherwise it will face serious disputes or even war.

In order to avoid conflict with France, after the Ministry of Transport proposed the Central and West African Railway Plan, Carlo directly rejected the Ministry of Transport's request and made certain modifications to the Central and West African Railway Plan.

Although the name is still called the West and Central African Railway Project, the railway mainly connects the Gold Coast and Guinea colonies and the Congo Territory, while the other section connects the Gambia colony and the Sierra Leone colony. The two railways are not connected in the middle because there is a French colony in the middle.

The South Morocco Colony and the Gambia Colony would not be connected because there was a French colony in between.

Although conflicts were bound to break out between Spain and France over the colonization of West Africa, the later the conflict broke out, the more advantages Spain would have.

At present, France is still the third most powerful country in the world after Britain and Germany. There is still a big gap between Spain and France.

As the saying goes, a lean camel is bigger than a horse. Even though France has fallen behind Britain and Germany in industrial development and the Second Industrial Revolution, France was once the hegemon of Europe, and its afterglow as a hegemon can easily strangle non-hegemonic countries.

The good news is that among the three colonies in West Africa, there is only a French colony between Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast, and the colony between Gambia and Sierra Leone is a Portuguese colony.

The Gold Coast colony will expand eastwards, striving to connect with the Spanish colony of Guinea. The Gambia colony and the Sierra Leone colony will expand southwards and northwards respectively, striving to connect to form a larger colony. As for the Portuguese colony in the middle, Carlo plans to acquire it through purchase and exchange.

There are still large tracts of land in the southern part of the Congo territory that have not been colonized and developed, and this land can be ceded to the Portuguese.

Of course, there was a reason why Carlo was willing to give up this land, and that was considering the Pink Map plan that the Portuguese were about to propose.

If Spain took all the land in the southern part of the Congo territory, the Portuguese pink map plan would be aborted halfway.

Without the Pink Map Plan, the relationship between Portugal and Britain would not have been damaged. Compared with the lands in the southern part of the Congo Territory, Carlo hoped to damage the relationship between Portugal and Britain and create more possibilities for Spain to annex Portugal.

If Carlo remembers correctly, one of the important reasons why the Portuguese monarchy was abolished was that Portugal's Pink Map plan was directly curbed by Britain.

The angry Portuguese people were very disappointed with their weak government and king, which became the fuse for the popular revolution that eventually overthrew the kingdom.

Colonization is the trend of this era. No matter whether it is a powerful country or a small or medium-sized country, the people are willing to see their government continue to expand colonies.

This is true in Portugal and the Netherlands as well.

Only when the situation in Portugal fell into chaos could Spain take advantage of the situation. If the situation in Portugal remained stable, it would take a lot of effort for Spain to annex Portugal.

The Spanish government attached great importance to the construction of West African colonies. This was not just talk. The government also proposed a plan for the development of West African colonies and planned to invest at least 10 billion pesetas in the development of West African colonies.

The investment of 10 billion pesetas may seem exaggerated, but the development plan for the West African colonies took 10 years, which was equivalent to an investment of only 1 million pesetas per year.

Currently, the Spanish government’s fiscal revenue is close to 10 billion pesetas, which actually means that the Spanish government only needs to invest one-tenth of its fiscal revenue each year to successfully complete this colonial development plan.

In addition to the construction of the Central and West African railway mentioned earlier, the Spanish government will make every effort to build the Gambia's agricultural production area, making Gambia an important grain producing area for Spain.

If the development of the Gambia colony goes smoothly, the Sierra Leone colony will be incorporated into the Gambia colony in the next few years. Therefore, the construction of the Sierra Leone colony will not involve much fuss, but will rather maintain the status quo.

The colonial development of the Gold Coast mainly focused on the exploration and mining of gold mines. Needless to say, the importance of gold is self-evident. For most of the Gold Coast, it is still in the hands of Spain.

The Gold Coast is not far from mainland Spain. The gold mined here will be smelted on site and turned into gold and transported to mainland Spain.

In order to ensure the safety of the Gold Coast and to help the Gold Coast colonial government control the local gold, Spain will establish an African Squadron on the Gold Coast to protect the coastal security of the Gold Coast and several surrounding colonies.

The Ashanti Empire north of the Gold Coast was also on Spain's conquest list, and Carlo would not allow a hostile indigenous country to the north of his gold producing area.

After the annexation of the Ashanti Empire, the Gold Coast will more than double in size. Spain also hopes to find more gold in the newly annexed lands. The more gold reserves, the more currency Spain can issue, which is very important for the stability of the Spanish economy.

It is worth mentioning that a few dozen kilometers east of the Gold Coast, Portugal also has a small colony called Ouidah.

Although it is called a colony, it is more like a large colonial outpost. A large gold mine was once discovered here, which attracted a considerable number of Portuguese gold diggers.

It was the continuous influx of these gold diggers into the colonial outpost that allowed Spain to establish this small colony.

Because this colony is located on the channel connecting the Gold Coast and Guinea colonies, Spain will not give up its claim to this colony.

Portugal could choose to exchange colonies with Spain or wait for the arrival of the Spanish army.

I believe the Portuguese are still very sensible. After all, so far, Carlo does not want a war to break out between them and Portugal.

This would not only destroy the good relationship that had been hard-earned between the Spaniards and the Portuguese, but would also affect Spain's plan to annex Portugal.

To properly develop the three colonies in West Africa, at least millions of immigrants would be needed. The good news is that due to Britain's colonial development, the population of these three colonies is not small.

Spain only needs to immigrate about 50 people to ensure the smooth development of its West African colonies.

Although 50 people is not a large number for Spain, Carlo does not intend to bring these immigrants from mainland Spain.

In addition to attracting some Hispanic and Portuguese immigrants from South America, Carlo also plans to spend a lot of money to introduce a group of immigrants from European countries.

Of course, using the Lanfang Republic to attract some Chinese immigrants was also in Carlo's plan. Anyway, as long as they were not black, Carlo would accept the yellow race. After all, there were a large number of yellow and white mixed races in South America. If Spain wanted to introduce a large number of Spanish and Portuguese immigrants from South America, it had to accept these yellow and white mixed races.

Regarding the development plan of the West African colonies, Carlo proposed a plan to replace black with yellow and yellow with white.

The early development of the colonies requires the participation of blacks. Once the initial development of the colonies is successfully completed, Spain will launch an anti-black plan.

Whether these people were manually eliminated or expelled, blacks were not allowed to exist in Spanish colonies.

Carlo does not want the future Spain to become the France of later generations. Although Carlo is not racist, it is true that Carlo hates black people.

The process of expelling blacks from the Spanish colonies was destined to be a long one, and would also lead to considerable conflicts and even wars with the black natives and indigenous forces outside the colonies.

But this is not bad news. Only war can train the army to grow, and the Spanish army also needs the experience of war.

Carlo's plan was also to use these natives to train the Spanish army and maintain a high level of combat effectiveness in preparation for future large-scale wars on European battlefields.

Regardless of whether fighting with these natives can improve the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army, letting the Spanish army see blood first can also avoid the morale of the army being shaken by seeing cruel war scenes on the battlefield.

As for the impact of such a plan on the indigenous people, who cares?

(End of this chapter)