Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 345 African Railway
Just one month after the outbreak of the war between Germany, Austria and Russia, Spain sold more than 2 rifles and 100 artillery pieces to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was great news for Spain's military industry.

Although this huge arms trade was caused by the weapons gap caused by the Austro-Hungarian Empire's large-scale military expansion, as future wars progress and as the strategic materials stockpiled in the Austro-Hungarian Empire are consumed, the amount of materials purchased by the Austro-Hungarian Empire from Spain will only increase.

Thanks to the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a major customer, Spain's military factories will have no shortage of orders in the coming months, which will effectively promote the growth of Spain's military industry.

Although the military industry flourished because of the war, the good news about the military industry was no longer so important to Carlo at this time.

The reason is simple. After several years of hard construction, Spain's development of its African colonies has finally made some progress.

The biggest progress was the full opening of the railway, known as the African Railway in Spain, which also represented a significant strengthening of Spain's control over its African colonies.

The so-called African Railway is actually the railway line from the westernmost part of the original Gold Coast to the southernmost part of the Congo Territory.

Why is this railway called the African Railway? First of all, the total length of this railway is an exaggerated 4500 kilometers.

This amount of railway mileage is close to the total length of railways in Spain before Carlo became King of Spain. This also shows that Spain's efforts in developing Africa are not weak.

More importantly, the railway passed through the former Ashanti Empire, Togo, the Kingdom of Dahomey, the Sokoto Caliphate, the Kingdom of Benin, the Kingdom of Niger, the Aro Union and the Kingdom of Bam, and then entered the lands controlled by the Baka and Bantu peoples.

Its significance is not only to connect these original indigenous areas, but also to enable the Spanish colonial army to easily reach these indigenous gathering areas.

In the future, no matter where a rebellion or other crisis breaks out, the Spanish army will be able to arrive in the shortest time possible, which will greatly enhance the stability of the Spanish colonies.

It is a pity that the West African colonies are not connected to the African railway.

After all, there were French colonies between the West African colonies, the Guinea colonies and the Congo territory, and the railway could not be built on French land.

However, the colonial affairs department still attaches great importance to the construction of railways within the West African colonies. At present, the West African colonies have also built nearly 1,000 kilometers of railways, connecting several important grain production areas within the colonies.

Every grain harvest season, a large amount of grain is transported to the port by train and then transported to mainland Spain by transport ships.

These grains will be transferred in mainland Spain, or transported to local grain storage warehouses and enter the local grain market in Spain.

Otherwise, they will be further packaged and sent to other European countries for sale.

Nearly one-third of the grain Spain exported to Europe each year came from its West African colonies, which is a quite exaggerated scale.

If there were not a shortage of local food, the West African colonies would probably have been able to export even more food.

Food exports represent foreign exchange earnings, which are extremely important to Spain and a very important part of the Spanish government's tax revenue.

The opening of the entire African railway line is a relatively important milestone for Spain.

However, Carlo did not plan to go to Africa in person to attend the completion ceremony of the railway, but instead the Spanish Minister of Colonial Affairs would go there.

Also attending the railway completion ceremony were the governors of the Guinea Colony and the Congo Territory. These two were also appointed by Carlo himself and were Carlo's confidants.

It has to be admitted that after nearly 20 years of development, Carlo has a power that cannot be underestimated.

First of all, the governors of several important Spanish colonies were basically appointed by Carlo. Although some colonial governors were promoted from the nobility, most of them went to the colonies to gild themselves.

But no one can deny that Carlo has completely taken back the power to appoint the governor, which also means that Carlo's influence in the colony is extremely high.

You know, each colony has a large garrison. This actually means that Carlo's military power is not limited to the Guards, but hundreds of thousands of colonial troops can also obey Carlo's mobilization orders.

These armies in his hands were the basis for Carlo's continuous reforms. With the support of these armies, no one in Spain could disobey Carlo's orders.

Taking advantage of the opening of the African railway, Carlo also made large-scale commendations to the colonial troops in Africa and promoted many young officers.

For Spain, this war against the African natives was also a large-scale war.

Dozens of field officers were promoted in this war alone, and several senior officers with outstanding performance were successfully promoted from the rank of colonel to brigadier general.

Along with promotion in military rank, there are also various rewards including land, property and funds.

Of course, most of the land awarded was colonial land, and there was very little land in mainland Spain.

After all, the colonies conquered by Spain have large tracts of fertile land, while the fertile land in Spain itself has basically been divided up.

Although the soldiers of these colonial armies were composed of indigenous people, they naturally acquired Spanish citizenship after fighting for Spain.

Of course, these soldiers would definitely be placed in the colonies first. Carlo also specially transported a large number of female natives from other colonies to help these colonial soldiers get married and settle down in the colonies.

However, there were no black people among them, whether they were colonial soldiers or the female natives who were transported here.

Carlo was well aware of the black people's ability to dye, and he was unwilling to let black people set foot even in Spain's own colonies.

At present, in Spain's colonies, there is a relatively strict racial segregation system between black and non-black groups.

There were no black people in Spain's colonial cities and strongholds, and the black natives were concentrated in the native states within the colonies.

The two sides basically do not interfere with each other. Except for necessary activities such as paying taxes or transporting materials, the two sides will not go to each other's area under other circumstances.

In order to prevent these blacks from obtaining Spanish citizenship through various means, the Colonial Affairs Department and the colonial governments also have relevant regulations.

Regardless of whether they are the descendants of black men or black women, they are all regarded as blacks and are driven to the indigenous people's sphere of influence to survive.

Only non-black descendants can survive in Spain's colonies, and this is also to prevent some black people from wanting their descendants to change their identities.

Even if black women were able to marry Spaniards or other non-black indigenous peoples, their offspring would not be able to obtain Spanish citizenship.

Marrying blacks would also constitute illegal marriage under the colonial government, a crime punishable by a minimum fine of hundreds of pesetas or even several years to more than ten years in prison.

Of course, the colonial government would not actually imprison them. Imprisonment meant feeding them, and the colonial government could not support them for nothing.

For those criminals who broke the law, their final destination was to work on plantations or mines. Of course, if European immigrants committed crimes, the punishment would be reduced as appropriate. They would not be forced to work on plantations or mines, but would actually serve their sentences in colonial prisons.

There will be some less strenuous work for them to do in prison, and as long as they can complete the work tasks on time, their sentences can be reduced to a certain extent.

This situation existed almost simultaneously in the colonies of various countries, and the way of dealing with domestic immigrants, European immigrants and other local indigenous peoples was completely different.

In particular, there is a huge difference in attitude between European immigrants and local indigenous people.

Take India, the most important colony of Britain, for example. If the British broke the law in the Indian colony, it would probably not be a serious matter.

But if Indians broke the law, especially against the British, they would be punished with death.

Not to mention breaking the law, if a British person with a little power dislikes an Indian, he will use all kinds of means to kill that Indian.

This was also the current situation of colonies in various countries during this era. The indigenous people at the bottom of the colonies had no say at all, and they even had to rely on local European immigrants for their right to survive.

It is worth mentioning that with the outbreak of the Tripartite War between Germany, Austria and Russia, the number of European immigrants to Spain has been increasing.

Especially the immigrants from Austria-Hungary and Russia. In the month before the outbreak of the war alone, the number of immigrants nearly doubled compared to the same period last year.

Actually, it’s normal to think about it. War and famine are almost the main reasons for the increase in immigration.

Only these two reasons will make it impossible for people to live in their own country. At other times, most people still hold the idea of ​​persisting as long as they can.

After all, immigration means leaving your homeland and going to a foreign country that is very unfamiliar to you. Not everyone can stand the feeling of leaving their familiar environment and familiar relatives, which is why the number of immigrants in various countries in this era is not so exaggerated.

In addition, the means of transportation in this era were too simple, and the main means of transportation were only trains and ships.

The speed of these two modes of transportation is too slow. If you want to go to a distant place, it will take weeks.

Even if it was from Spain to the African colonies, it would take a week or two on a faster warship, and two to three weeks on a slower ship.

The long journey alone was enough to discourage many people from immigrating to a foreign country, not to mention that the tickets for ocean voyages in this era were very expensive and many people simply could not afford it.

In fact, this situation is similar in later generations.

In later generations, cross-border air tickets were also quite expensive, and taking a ship also took a long time.

This has led to the situation that even in later times when the economy and industry are relatively developed, there are still countless people who have never been abroad or taken a cross-border flight or cruise.

In response to this surge in immigrants, Spain chose to transfer them all to its African colonies.

Compared with the previous more even distribution to various colonies, the Spanish government has now changed its strategy for transferring these immigrants.

The main destinations of these European immigrants were the West African colonies or the southern Moroccan colonies. After all, one of these two colonies was an important agricultural development area, and the other was an area where Spain planned to localize.

As for the colony of Guinea and the territory of Congo, they could only choose from among the immigrants whom the first two colonies could not accommodate.

Although they were picking up leftovers, the Guinea colony and the Congo territory were both huge colonies with an area of ​​hundreds or even thousands of square kilometers. Because they were very short of population, they were not picky.

Facts have proved that these immigrants who came from far away Russia are really good at agriculture.

There was not so much oppression in the Spanish colonies, and after they arrived in the colonies, they had the same status as other immigrants.

This also means that as long as they pay enough taxes, the remaining food and other income will belong to them.

Under such circumstances, Russian immigrants also showed great enthusiasm. They were more active in agricultural labor than the Spaniards and have now become an important agricultural group in the West African colonies.

Even among these Russian immigrants, several large landowners emerged, owning hundreds of acres of land.

As for how to work these hundreds of acres of land, it is actually quite simple. Most of the time, the local indigenous population is responsible for the busy work of farming.

These immigrants from Europe only needed to manage the natives and let them cultivate and plant.

Although some European immigrants were engaged in agricultural work, farmers and plantation owners also paid them sufficient wages.

The income and food of European immigrants were very different from those of the natives. For the natives on the plantations and farms, it was a problem whether they could have enough food, let alone meat.

For those European immigrants working on plantations and farms, they not only earned a fairly generous income, but the farmers also provided them with meat twice a week.

Where did all this meat come from? Of course, it came from the cattle ranches of the West African colonies, and from the savannah forests in the wild.

In addition to the Spanish colonies raising various animals to provide meat, the local indigenous people would also hand over animals obtained through hunting to Spain.

The colonial government would purchase various animals from the natives at a certain price, which was why the people in the colonies were able to obtain sufficient meat supply.

If it were transported from mainland Spain, the one or two weeks of transportation would be enough for the meat to rot and stink during transportation.

Moreover, Spain itself is not a major livestock-raising country, and the locally produced meat and dairy products are already quite good if they can meet the needs of the local population.

This meant that in addition to growing agricultural products, the West African colonies also needed to develop animal husbandry.

Several Spanish colonies would also organize hunting activities from time to time in order to reduce local wild carnivores and speed up the reproduction of herbivores.

When the herbivores have reproduced to a certain size, hunting activities targeting them will be organized to harvest more meat at one time.

It is precisely because of the development of animal husbandry and the prevalence of hunting activities that the Spanish colonies can ensure that the supply of food and meat will not be affected while the population is rapidly increasing.

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(End of this chapter)