Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 270 Death of the Tsar
After the Spanish government fully mobilized Portugal's desire to annex West Africa and the colonies of Mozambique, the Spanish government took the initiative in the negotiations.

It is worth mentioning that the current King Louis of Portugal also contributed to the colonial exchange negotiations between the two countries.

As King of Portugal, Louis could not resist the temptation to expand his territory and acquire a large colony comparable to Brazil.

Even for Carlo, he could not resist the temptation of expanding his territory. This would not only effectively enhance his reputation as a king and consolidate his throne, but also bring him visible practical benefits.

The most fundamental reason why European countries were keen on developing colonies was that the benefits they brought from colonies were considerable.

For those colonies that did not bring much benefit, governments would give up colonial development and transfer their limited energy to more valuable lands.

Spain can still choose from many colonies, while Portugal only has two relatively large colonies left. The other colonies are small and have basically no development value.

Under the secret guidance of the Spanish government and the strong promotion of King Louis of Portugal, Spain and Portugal reached an agreement on colonial exchange.

Spain will stop colonizing the land south of the Congo Basin in the next few years and fully support Portugal's colonial development in this region.

There are large and small indigenous tribes and countries in the Congo Basin and the areas to the south. After Portugal occupied any of these indigenous countries, it should begin to exchange its colonies with those of Spain.

In general, Spain would exchange all of its land south of the Congo Basin for several Portuguese colonies in West Africa.

The territories Portugal gave up included Portuguese Ziguinchor, Portuguese Guinea, Portuguese Ouidah and Portuguese Sao Tome and Principe.

It can be said that, except for Cape Verde, Portugal gave up all its land in West Africa and placed all its hopes on the merger of West Africa and Mozambique.

There is actually a reason why Portugal was willing to give up so much land.

First of all, the lands that Portugal gave up were all small colonies, and there were colonies of other powers around them, so it was difficult to expand or develop them in depth.

Secondly, Portugal's land area and population are limited, and its experience in developing colonies is also limited.

Even Spain could not develop several colonies at the same time, let alone Portugal, whose population was only one-fifth of Spain's.

For Portugal, it is definitely a priority to develop the colonies in West Africa and Mozambique. On this basis, it is not surprising that Portugal is willing to give up several colonies in West Africa.

In other words, Cape Verde's geographical location is still important, and Portugal was unwilling to give up all of its West African colonies at once, so Portuguese Cape Verde was retained.

For Spain, such a land exchange agreement is completely acceptable. Once Portugal conquers any indigenous country south of the Congo Basin, Spain will be able to take over Portugal's colonies in West Africa in turn.

In particular, Portugal's colonies of Guinea and Ziguinchor can be directly merged with Spain's Gambia colony. The area of ​​the Gambia colony after the merger will reach more than 70,000 square kilometers, which is completely sufficient to build it into Spain's granary.

Considering that Spain's major moves in West Africa would attract the attention and even fear of the French, Carlo also specifically asked the Portuguese government to keep the agreement reached between the two parties confidential as much as possible before the colonial exchange between the two sides was completed.

This is exactly what King Louis of Portugal thought. Compared with Spain's annexation of Portugal's West African colonies, it was more difficult for Portugal to colonize the land south of the Congo Basin.

Portugal did not want to create any more trouble. If it could be kept secret, it would naturally create more opportunities for Portugal to promote the merger of the two colonies.

The good news is that the occurrence of an international event immediately attracted the attention of all European countries. Naturally, the small actions between Portugal and Spain were ignored by other European countries.

What was this international event? Of course, it was the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, which broke out in the chaotic Russia.

The evaluation of this tsar by later generations is completely different from that by today. Later generations praised Alexander II as a reformer and praised his reforms for extending Russia's life for decades.

But at this time in Russia, because Russia did not achieve much success in the Russo-Turkish War, Alexander II's reputation had been invisibly damaged.

Those who were dissatisfied with the government transferred their hatred to Alexander II and launched assassination attempts on him again and again.

It has only been a few years since the end of the Russo-Turkish War, and the number of assassination attempts on Alexander II has exceeded double digits.

Even though Alexander II had all kinds of defenses, the enemy's assassination methods were constantly changing.

Sometimes they buried explosives under the tracks of Alexander II's train, sometimes they threw bombs at the Winter Palace where Alexander II lived, and sometimes they used guns to attack Alexander II's traveling convoy.

As early as 1880, the Winter Palace where Alexander II lived was severely damaged. The St. Petersburg police arrested 17 suspects related to the assassination. These 17 people were directly sentenced to death by hanging, and their friends and families were permanently exiled to remote Siberia.

Such a cruel punishment not only failed to make the assassins retreat, but instead led to revenge again and again.

Finally, Alexander II was assassinated. Although the St. Petersburg police strengthened the protection of the palace, the Tsar's Guards also sent troops to station in the Winter Palace.

When the unexpected happens it is always so sudden, and Alexander II was killed in a way he never imagined.

On March 1881, 3, Alexander II rode in a carriage from the palace to the government for a routine meeting.

But the itinerary was leaked in advance, and when the convoy came to a street corner, a bomb was suddenly thrown under the carriage of Tsar Alexander II.

The good news is that the bomb did not cause any injuries to the Tsar. The bomb did not even overturn the carriage, and apart from delaying a little time, it seemed that the assassination had no effect. But Alexander II soon stopped laughing. As he angrily walked towards the assassin who was caught by the guards, another bomb was thrown directly at Alexander II.

Alexander II, who was not protected by a carriage, was not as lucky as last time. The bomb exploded soon and Alexander II was affected by the aftermath of the bomb and was seriously injured.

Fortunately, Alexander II remained conscious and was not killed directly by the bomb.

Unfortunately, the injuries caused by the bomb were beyond the reach of medical technology of the time. Alexander II's staying awake became a torture at this time. He had to endure the pain of being injured by the bomb, feel his body gradually weakening, and finally slowly lose consciousness.

When European countries received the news, it was already the second day after the assassination, March 3th.

For Europeans who believe in God, 13 is really an unlucky number. Alexander II also died on the 13th, which may sometimes be attributed to fate.

As the monarch of a powerful European country, the death of Alexander II attracted attention from all European countries.

For Austria, the death of Alexander II, who was based on reform, was definitely good news. Russia's reforms were not thorough to begin with, and after the death of the emperor who promoted the reforms, the effect of the reforms was naturally lower.

Don't forget that there are still a large number of nobles in Russia. The abolition of serfdom had already offended many Russian nobles. Would the new tsar risk offending the nobles and advocate Alexander II's reforms?
The Tsar's funeral was held grandly in St. Petersburg, and basically all European countries sent envoys to participate in the Tsar's funeral.

After all, Russia is still one of the most powerful countries in the world. The death of the Russian Tsar is definitely big news that can shock Europe, especially the way of death is assassination.

Of course, compared to the deceased Tsar Alexander II, European countries are more concerned about the attitude of the new Tsar Alexander III.

Russia is a tsarist autocracy, and the tsar has unparalleled power. After the tsar's throne is replaced, will Russia's diplomatic attitude change?

The relationship between Russia, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was already confusing, and European countries were speculating whether the Triple Alliance formed by Germany would break up.

The current change of monarchs in Russia has undoubtedly made the direction of the Three Emperors' Alliance even more unpredictable. The existence of the Three Emperors' Alliance is also related to whether the European situation can achieve long-term peace.

European countries were all guessing, but as a time traveler, Carlo naturally knew the changes that had taken place in Russia since then.

If Russia could adhere to Alexander II's reforms, and even have the courage to deepen the reforms and promote comprehensive reforms in Russia, Russia's combat effectiveness might be able to double.

Unfortunately, due to his father's rather painful and tragic end, his successor as Tsar, Alexander III, showed an ambiguous attitude towards reform.

He still supported his father's reforms, but was afraid that he would be assassinated like his father.

Even the coronation ceremony was postponed to two years later, which is quite unique among all European countries.

Generally speaking, a coronation ceremony will be held within one year after the succession to the throne. Although the king is already the king of the country after obtaining the throne, the purpose of the coronation ceremony is to strengthen the legal basis and declare the legitimacy of one's rule.

Alexander III held his coronation ceremony two years later, which shows that he was really afraid of assassination.

The main reason is that this kind of assassination is hard to guard against. The assassins will carry out the assassination in various ways, and there will always be a day when people become lax.

Out of courtesy, Spain sent its foreign minister as a representative to attend Alexander II's funeral. Since the Spanish royal family had no relationship with the Russian royal family, Carlo naturally did not need to go to Alexander II's funeral in person.

In addition to participating in the funeral of Alexander II, Spain also sent its foreign minister to reaffirm its previous cooperation with the Russian government and ensure that cooperation between the two countries would not be affected by the change of the tsar.

What kind of cooperation is there between Spain and Russia? Of course, it is about immigration.

Although Russia stopped purchasing weapons and equipment from Spain after the Russo-Turkish War, Spain did not stop introducing immigrants from Russia.

Because Spain has to pay real money or other valuable industrial products and technical information to introduce immigrants, Russia is also happy to continue to cooperate with Spain.

In the two years after the end of the Russo-Turkish War, Spain introduced more than 5 immigrants from Russia, most of whom were transferred to Spanish colonies to work in agriculture.

It has to be admitted that Russian peasants are also good at agricultural work. They have high stress resistance, are easily satisfied and do not easily rebel. Looking at the whole of Europe, they are also one of the easiest groups to rule.

When Spain could no longer afford to export a large number of immigrants, introducing Russian immigrants became Spain's only option, and also the most appropriate option.

Just a few days after the diplomatic representatives went to St. Petersburg, they brought back good news that the Russian government would not change its foreign policy in the short term, and Spain would still be able to continue to introduce immigrants from Russia in the next few years.

This is certainly good news. After all, Spain will need a large number of immigrants to develop its West African colonies in the next few years. Not all jobs are suitable for the indigenous people of the colonies. Some jobs still need to be done by regular European immigrants.

The local indigenous people of West Africa only need to serve as cheap labor. Their main use is to do those jobs that are physically strenuous and have a high mortality rate. Other jobs are reserved for immigrants.

After confirming that the Russian government's diplomatic attitude would not change much, Carlo became more curious about Germany and Austria's attitude towards Russia.

Will the Three Emperors' Alliance continue? Or will Russia move closer to France, and will the two major military groups be established ahead of time and engage in more intense clashes?
In order to figure this out, Carlo asked the Royal Security Intelligence Agency to pay close attention to the actions between the governments of Germany, Russia and Austria. Once the three governments met secretly in private, it would mean that the Triple Alliance would most likely continue, and neither Germany nor Russia had any intention of leaving the Triple Alliance.

If there had been no private meetings between the three governments, and even no communication between the German and Russian governments, the Three Emperors' Alliance might not be far from being dissolved.

(End of this chapter)