Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 302 Pan-Iberianism

Of the three places that Britain was willing to give up, Carlo did not want any, except for the truce states.

In the last conflict over Kalimantan, Spain had already occupied the Kutai Sultanate. If it expanded further south, Spain would take over all of the Dutch lands in Kalimantan.

As a result, the situation in Kalimantan changed from colonial competition between Spain and the Netherlands with Britain staying out of the world to direct competition between Britain and Spain.

Carlo did not want to engage in colonial competition with Britain in such a faraway place. The time required to travel back and forth between his homeland and Borneo was already a huge expense.

The same is true for New Guinea. Carlo asked the Philippine colony to send a colony team to join the colonization of New Guinea in order to delay the speed of other powers colonizing New Guinea.

Spain's colonization of New Guinea Island has been very effective. If it has the support of the British, it would not be an exaggeration to take over half of New Guinea Island.

But the problem is that New Guinea and Kalimantan are in the same embarrassing situation, that is, they are too far away from the Spanish mainland.

In addition, Spain has a small population, and Carlo has no plans to develop these lands in the short term.

Maintaining these colonies also requires huge expenses, so what Carlo really cares about is only Britain’s third condition, a truce among the states.

However, Spain could not directly express the importance it attached to the truce states, and had to adopt a kind of helpless compromise to gain this area.

If Spain took the initiative to claim this area, the British would doubt Spain's motives. If the British discovered the large oil fields on the Middle East Peninsula, Spain would not be able to defend the occupied Middle East land.

Only by passively accepting this land would the British not doubt the Spanish government's motives, and Spain could accumulate strength to protect this land.

As long as they could survive World War I, Spain would definitely be able to defend this land after World War I. By then, the European powers that had experienced the World War would not be able to recover in a short period of time, and even the powerful British Empire would not be able to launch another war of the great powers level.

Carlo did not talk with the British ambassador for long, but only determined that the conflict between Spain and Britain over the land in southern Congo should be rational and conciliatory.

As for what compensation the British should pay subsequently, that is something the Spanish government should negotiate with the British.

Although Spain and Britain reached a compromise on the ownership of the land in southern Congo, both sides tacitly did not mention Portugal.

Although the compromise reached between the two countries seems to be a sign of repairing relations, in fact, both the British and Spanish governments understand that such a compromise is a helpless move.

After the compromise is reached, the two countries' wooing of the Portuguese government will become the main policy of the two governments.

The British did not want to see Portugal side with Spain, while Spain wanted to seize the opportunity to continue to alienate the relationship between Portugal and the British.

After long negotiations between the British and Spanish governments, the two sides finally reached a compromise on the land issue in southern Congo.

The Kingdom of Ruanda and the Kingdom of Buunda that Portugal had already acquired still belonged to Portugal, which also fulfilled the proposal reached when Portugal and Spain exchanged colonies.

Spain obtained the Kingdom of Kuba to the north of the Kingdom of Runda, and Portugal obtained the Kingdom of Luba to the east of the Kingdom of Runda, which was another compensation to Portugal.

As for the most critical Kingdom of Barotherland, the Kingdom of Mwatakazembe, the Kingdom of Malawi and the Kingdom of Yeke, they were taken over by the British to build the Cairo-Cape Town connection planned by the British.

To compensate Spain, Britain also needed to cede the warring states and allow Spanish merchants and immigrants to freely enter and exit the land in southern Congo.

Of course, the Portuguese also think the same way. This also gives the Portuguese government a little face, so that the Portuguese government will not get nothing.

After the two countries reached an agreement, the dispute over land in southern Congo at the Berlin Conference quickly ended.

Originally, this debate was caused by the competition between Britain and Spain. Since the competition between the two countries no longer exists, there is naturally no need to discuss this issue.

The other great powers did not interfere in the compromise reached between Britain and Spain, nor would they offend Britain and Spain over such a trivial matter.

After the first agenda item was concluded, the Berlin Conference soon ushered in the second agenda item, which was the issue of Guinea-Africa.

European countries all have their own colonial plans for Africa. At the Berlin Conference, each country put forward its own colonial plan, among which there were many conflicts.

In order to avoid conflicts among the great powers in their colonial dealings in Africa, German Chancellor Bismarck proposed provisions for effective occupation.

The so-called effective occupation means that when the participating countries establish colonies or protectorates on the coastal lands of Africa in the future, they must notify other countries participating in the conference so that other countries can put forward their own requests.

At the same time, if countries want to establish colonies, they must ensure that they have ruling power that can protect the existing rights of European countries and ensure freedom of trade and transit under prescribed conditions when necessary. Only when the above conditions are met can it be regarded as effective occupation, which is the so-called legal colony.

Such legal colonies will be recognized by all countries participating in the conference. No country may destroy the legal colonies of other countries and must respect the sphere of influence of other countries.

The principle of effective occupation proposed by Prime Minister Bismarck was supported by many European countries, but for the British government, such a proposal still had a great impact.

As we all know, the country that currently occupies the most land in Africa is the British Empire.

While other countries' occupation of Africa was limited to the coast, Britain had already established the Cape Colony and the Egyptian colony, and had penetrated deep into Sudan, inland Africa.

If we follow the principle of effective occupation proposed by Prime Minister Bismarck, in fact, Britain's three existing African colonies do not meet the requirements of legal colonies.

Although there were no blind countries that would engage in colonial competition with Britain in these three places, this nominal illegality would always restrict the British Empire.

The occupied regions of Egypt, South Africa and Sudan were not so bad as Britain had already established effective rule and it was difficult for other countries to destroy Britain's colonies.

But elsewhere on the continent, Britain would be on the same level as other nations, all of which would need to establish legal colonies to assert their dominance.

This also means that Britain will face direct competition from European powers led by Germany and France, and the African coast, where colonial rule has not yet been established, will also usher in more intense colonization and competition.

Even if the British representatives argued, they could not refute the principle of effective occupation, which was supported by many countries. Germany and France both saw the benefits in it. With the support of the two great powers of Germany and France, Britain could not prevent the principle of effective occupation from being included in the treaty unless it obtained the support of the powers of the same level.

But the problem is that Russia is unlikely to support Britain because of its conflicts with Britain in Central Asia.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was an ally of Germany, and it was impossible for it to betray its ally and support Britain.

The remaining Spain and Italy are even less likely to support Britain. The former has just had a colonial conflict with Britain, and the conflict was resolved only a few days ago. The latter has no interest in Britain, and Italy is also a powerful country that colonized Africa.

Before it knew it, Britain had found itself isolated and helpless at the Berlin Conference.

The final result was also very obvious. The British representatives were unable to prevent the principle of effective occupation from being included in the treaty. They could only seek more clauses that were favorable to the British side.

Carlo only paid a little attention to the situation of the Berlin Conference after the Spanish government and the British government reached an agreement, and then no longer paid attention to the negotiations of the conference.

The division of Africa will require a long period of negotiations. After all, it involves several major powers and European countries, and no one wants the fat piece of meat in their mouth to be snatched away by others.

It is estimated that this meeting will not be completed until the end of the year at the earliest, and if it is slow, it may even take until next year to produce results.

Carlo was not in a hurry to wait for the Berlin Conference to end. In this colonial conflict, Carlo had already achieved his goal and had reaped a lot of rewards.

As for the truce states, Carlo has no plans to send troops to conquer them for the time being.

Anyway, the British had already promised Spain that it could colonize this land, and it would make no difference whether they conquered it earlier or later. Anyway, this land had no value before the discovery of oil.

Taking the land later would also allow the British to see Spain's reluctance, and their defenses against Spain occupying the truce states would naturally be reduced.

Based on the Royal Security Intelligence Service's attention to the domestic situation in Portugal, the relationship between Portugal and Britain can be said to have been seriously damaged so far.

The Berlin Conference had been held for several months, but from time to time, people in Portugal still took to the streets to protest. Holding high banners that read "Resist British Colonial Blackmail," the Portuguese marched through the streets of Portugal.

Such marches gained the support of many Portuguese people, and even overnight many political parties opposing the Anglo-Portuguese alliance emerged in Portugal.

These Portuguese believed that the so-called Anglo-Portuguese Alliance seriously damaged the relationship between Portugal and Spain, which were supposed to be united, and that it was a forced interference of the British in the Iberian Peninsula.

Before Britain seized Portugal's colony in southern Congo, it had already forcibly seized Gibraltar from Spain, which was a previous record.

The Portuguese government can no longer trust Britain and should keep its distance from the British government to prevent Portugal's colonies from being further annexed by Britain.

During this conflict, Carlo, as the King of Spain, won the favor of many Portuguese by his high-profile support for Portugal. This also led many Portuguese people to support Iberianism, the so-called Iberian unity idea.

Iberianism, also known as Pan-Iberianism, previously existed mainly in Spain, but has now spread widely to Portugal.

Iberianism was first proposed by Spanish hawks with the aim of unifying the Iberian Peninsula and bringing Portugal under Spanish rule.

After it was introduced into Portugal, Portuguese intellectuals made some modifications to its ideas, but it was still almost the idea of ​​Portugal and Spain uniting to form a federation.

Portuguese scholars who support Iberianism believe that it is difficult for Portugal to compete with powers like Britain. Only when Spain and Portugal unite to form a strong Iberian Federation can they counter external interference factors like Britain.

These scholars are very well educated. They did not just speak without thinking, but produced a lot of data to prove the strength of the Iberian Federation.

If Spain and Portugal were to form a federation, it would have a population of over 2700 million and would have almost exclusive control over the entire Iberian Peninsula.

This new country will have the world's fifth largest army, the world's fifth largest navy, the world's second largest colonies, and its industrial and economic levels will also be among the top five in the world.

In this way, the traditional five major European powers will become the six major European powers, and even the comprehensive strength of the Iberian Federation will surpass that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, becoming a first-class power in the true sense.

The data put forward by Iberianists in Portugal are quite reasonable, and the strength demonstrated by the so-called Iberian Federation is even more exaggerated.

Because of this, Iberianism instantly became a popular ideology in Portugal. Many famous writers expressed their support for this ideology, and in the context of the weakness of the Portuguese government and royal family, supporting Iberianism seemed to have become a trend.

Against this backdrop, many new political parties related to Iberianism were established in Portugal.

Among these parties, two have developed to a certain scale, namely the Greater Iberia Party and the Federal Party.

The Greater Iberia Party was founded by Portuguese writers who support Iberianism and has now gained the support of the Portuguese literary community.

The Federalist Party was founded by the opposition party in Portuguese politics. They did not have such a strong desire to establish a Portuguese-Spanish federation. It seemed more like they wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to win over more Portuguese people to support themselves.

The rise of Iberianism in the country was a headache for the Portuguese government. Upon hearing the news, Louis I was livid. He speculated that the intellectuals who continued to emerge in Portugal in support of the federation might have been funded by Spain.

But the problem is that without any evidence, he cannot hold the Spanish government accountable.

The best the government can do is arrest those who support Iberianism, but doing so will sometimes only cause greater trouble.

The wave of demonstrations in Portugal has not yet cooled down. If news of the Portuguese government forcibly arresting Iberianists is revealed again, it will only ignite the wave of demonstrations among the people again.

The people's disappointment with the government and the royal family in this incident has been expressed beyond words. If Louis I did anything stupid again, there might be radicals among the people who would force a revolution to promote the formation of a federation.

Despite all the intellectuals shouting about the benefits of forming a federation, Louis I understood that as long as Spain and Portugal formed a federation, the Portuguese government would lose all its voice.

King Carlo of Spain was still very resourceful. If he had annexed Portugal, Portugal might not have been able to find an opportunity to become independent again like the last time it was annexed.

(End of this chapter)