Chapter 301: Britain’s Concessions
The Berlin Conference was held half a year earlier than in history, which also meant that the European Powers’ colonization progress in Africa had already become vastly different from history.
After exchanging all West African Colonies, the United Kingdom’s colonies in Africa were left only with South Africa and North Africa, namely the Cape Colony and the Egyptian Colony.
This also made the Cairo-Cape Town Line even more important than in history, and the British Government would absolutely not choose to yield in this regard.
The result was that the Berlin Conference, which the representatives of various countries originally thought could be concluded in less than a month, unexpectedly continued for several months without ending.
Of course, this was not bad news for Spain either. The longer the Berlin Conference lasted, the less satisfied the European Powers were with the current plan for partitioning Africa.
The result was that countries not so powerful could fish in troubled waters and obtain their own colonies in corners not focused on by the Great Powers.
The first issue the Berlin Conference had to resolve was the conflict over the land in Southern Congo between the Great Power countries led by the United Kingdom and Spain.
The United Kingdom’s demand was for it to occupy the Barotseland Kingdom, Mwata Kazembe Kingdom, Kingdom of Malawi, and Kingdom of Yeke, ensuring that the United Kingdom’s Cape Colony could connect with Egypt.
With Spain’s support and under pressure from domestic public opinion, the Portuguese Government did not abandon these lands and claimed that these lands were obtained during the colonial exchange with Spain, and the United Kingdom had no right to conduct colonial action across thousands of kilometers like striking from afar.
What the Portuguese Government said was quite well-founded. The land in Southern Congo was indeed on the route of the United Kingdom’s Cairo-Cape Town Line, but the problem was that the southernmost Barotseland Kingdom’s border was over 1100 kilometers from the United Kingdom’s Cape Colony, and the northernmost Kingdom of Yeke was also over 1000 kilometers from the Sudan Colony controlled by the United Kingdom.
No matter how strong the British Empire was, it could not colonize in such a leapfrog manner. Moreover, Spain was the first country to establish colonies in the Congo River Basin, and Spanish colonial outposts had long been spread across the land of the Congo River Basin.
Originally, the sovereignty of this land naturally belonged to Spain. Since Spain exchanged it to Portugal, the sovereignty of the land naturally belonged to Portugal and had nothing to do with the United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom’s demand for land from afar was obviously too overbearing, which was also why the Portuguese Government could not agree to the British Government no matter what.
If they agreed to the British Government’s proposal at the Berlin Conference, once the domestic public learned the details, the Portuguese Government’s prime minister and cabinet ministers would not think of a good end.
Even Louis I might be affected by the public anger. Under the circumstances where the public was highly focused on the Berlin Conference, the Portuguese Government could not yield to the British Government openly.
After all, they could still distinguish what was more important. Anyway, the colonial dispute had turned into the Berlin Conference participated in by the Great Powers. Unless the British Government wanted to offend everyone, they would not launch a war against Portugal during the Berlin Conference.
Although Portugal was one of the competitors, the Portuguese representative did not make too many statements in the negotiations at the Berlin Conference.
The main debate was still between the British and Spanish representatives; countries below the Great Powers had not much right to speak.
At this time, the British Government finally paid attention to Spain, which they had always looked down upon, and Spain made them feel as difficult to deal with as the Russians.
Although they were all Great Power countries, there were also gaps between Great Power countries. For example, Italy, the British Government was not afraid of at all.
Without Garibaldi, the last hero, the combat effectiveness of the Italian Army was extremely poor. Although King of Italy Umberto I had been promoting Italy’s military expansion, the British Government had never taken Italy seriously.
As a Mediterranean coastal country, the United Kingdom only needed to blockade the two estuaries at the east and west ends of the Mediterranean, and even if Italy’s navy was strong, it would be useless because they could not reach the ocean at all, let alone threaten the British Mainland.
The army was even less worth mentioning. Italy and the United Kingdom were separated by tens of thousands of miles, plus the poor combat effectiveness of the Italian Army, and two Italys were not taken seriously by the United Kingdom.
Spain was different.
Although Spain was also a Mediterranean coastal country, half of Spain’s coastline was on the east coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
This also meant that it was difficult for the United Kingdom to completely blockade Spain’s navy in the Mediterranean, and the Spanish Navy also had the ability to threaten the British Mainland.
More importantly, the United Kingdom’s means of blockading the Mediterranean was to control the two estuaries, and the western estuary of the Mediterranean, the Strait of Gibraltar, once belonged to Spain.
Once the United Kingdom and Spain went to war, Spain could reclaim Gibraltar at any time through its army, thereby controlling the Strait of Gibraltar.
Once the United Kingdom lost control of the two estuaries of the Mediterranean, the situation along the Mediterranean coast would become even more unpredictable, which also meant that the Suez Canal, which the United Kingdom had painstakingly controlled, would lose at least half of its strategic value.
If the United Kingdom fought with Spain, Portugal might be the first country to be annexed.
The completely unified Iberian Peninsula would become an existence similar to the United Kingdom, both powerful and able to stay aloof from the European Continent, unaffected by the chaos of the European Continent’s situation.
Plus the reason of being self-contained, it was also difficult for the United Kingdom to pose a threat to the Iberian Peninsula. This also meant that the war between the United Kingdom and Spain would turn into a stalemate where both sides were helpless, unless the United Kingdom was willing to form an expeditionary force, but the casualties of doing so were unacceptable to the British Government.
Although in terms of army, Germany and France’s armies were obviously more famous. But this was more because of Spain’s weakness. Before Spain weakened, the Spanish Army was also quite powerful.
If the United Kingdom really formed an expeditionary force to attack the Spanish Mainland, it was really hard to say whether it could achieve victory. The Spaniards would turn into the strongest warriors one by one under the buff of defending their homeland, and such a Spain was one that no Great Power country wanted to encounter.
During the Berlin Conference, the famous landmark building of the United States, the Statue of Liberty, had all components installed and completed, attracting the attention of many media.
The United States of this era followed isolationism and had no interest in Europe across the ocean, only focusing on the situation in America.
This was also why the United States, which had clearly become a Great Power and whose industrial and economic growth rate no Great Power could surpass, had no presence or influence in Europe.
Plus the reason that the rise of American industry and economy had too much help and investment from European capital, Americans were inferior to others in Europe.
All the Great Powers participated in this conference concerning the partition of Africa, except the United States across the ocean. On one hand, the United States really did not care about the situation in Europe and Africa; on the other hand, Germany really did not invite the United States.
Because the negotiations of the Berlin Conference fell into a stalemate, while attending the conference, the European countries did not stop their own colonial expansion at all.
On the French side, their war with Vietnam broke out vigorously. France successfully annexed Cambodia, doubling its colony, and still had a trend of expanding northward.
On the British side, the Sudan Colony was also continuously expanding southward, laying the foundation for the Cairo-Cape Town Line.
Italy was planning the Libyan Colony, and their demand in the Berlin Conference was precisely to gain the initiative in colonizing Libya.
The good news was that although Libya was a vast land, because this land was all desert, it had not received attention from the European Powers.
Except for the United Kingdom expressing opposition, other European countries did not have obvious opposition to Italy occupying Libya, so Italy still had hope of obtaining this hard-won colony.
As the most powerful country on the European Continent besides the United Kingdom, Germany also had its own colonial actions.
Because of Germany’s late unification, when the German Government launched the colonial plan, most of the world’s land had already been partitioned by the Great Powers.
Germany could only set its sights on Africa, searching for land not yet stepped on by other Great Powers.
In fact, the Germans really found such land.
Regarding this matter, it was necessary to mention the United Kingdom’s colonial policy in Africa.
Because of the many primary forests inside the African Continent, the European Powers’ colonization of Africa was mainly concentrated on the coast, rarely penetrating deep into the African Continent.
This also led to the United Kingdom’s colonization not focusing on colonial sovereignty, but choosing to control trade in the African region, in a form similar to economic colonization.
Although the footprints of British colonizers had spread across the African Continent, in fact, there were large areas of land where the United Kingdom had not declared sovereignty.
The Germans precisely exploited such a loophole and found two pieces of land in Africa where the United Kingdom had already reached but not declared sovereignty.
One of the lands was located in the northwest of the British Cape Colony, with the closest point only a few kilometers from the United Kingdom’s Cape Colony.
It could also be said that the Germans completely established their own African colony right under the United Kingdom’s nose.
Yet the British had no good reason to refute, because the United Kingdom indeed had not declared sovereignty over this land.
The way Germany obtained sovereignty was also worth mentioning. They did not choose the traditional process of European Powers establishing colonial outposts and then connecting them to declare sovereignty and establish colonies, but simply and neatly used the army to forcibly conquer the local indigenous tribes, and then signed a treaty with the local indigenous tribe chieftains that they could not understand at all.
These indigenous people could not understand the treaty clauses written in the German language, and under the coercion of the German Army’s steel guns and cannons, they could only inexplicably sign their names and press handprints on the treaty.
Pressing handprints was also another layer of insurance imposed by Germany. After all, the Germans were new arrivals and did not know if these indigenous people really had such names.
The indigenous people certainly did not use German to write; they used their own language, which the Germans also could not understand.
But it did not matter if they could not understand; as long as the handprints matched the person later, it was fine.
It was precisely with the help of such a treaty where only one side was informed that Germany successfully established its first colony in Africa.
The process of establishing the German West African Colony was quite exciting, basically established right under the United Kingdom’s eyelids.
This also made the British sense a trace of crisis. If really following Germany’s method of proof, even if the United Kingdom obtained the Southern Congo land at the Berlin Conference, other lands on the Cairo-Cape Town Line route would also be partitioned by the European Powers.
The United Kingdom could use its influence to create colonial competition; could it do so every time?
After all, the United Kingdom was also a European country, and its strength did not completely crush the other European Powers.
Since it was a European country, it naturally had to abide by the rules that European countries had always defaulted to.
After deliberation within the British Government, it decided to make certain concessions to Spain to more quickly promote the compromise on the Southern Congo land at the Berlin Conference.
Only by resolving the dispute over the Southern Congo land earlier could the United Kingdom have enough energy to complete the Cairo-Cape Town Line while defending against stronger Great Powers like Germany colonizing Africa in their own way quickly.
Spain was, after all, a medium Great Power country, and the threat it could pose was limited.
Even if given Spain a chance, with just over 20 million people, Spain could not colonize too much land.
But countries like Germany and France were different. Germany and France had more population, more developed industry, and more prosperous economy, which also meant they could colonize more African land and suck more blood.
The African Continent was like a big cake. Although the British got the largest share, other countries were staring at this big cake all the time.
Only by thoroughly eating it into their mouths could the United Kingdom ensure it became the biggest beneficiary. What the United Kingdom mainly guarded against were still Germany and France, who were holding basins to grab food.
For Great Powers like Spain who were holding bowls, appropriate concessions were not a problem. After all, Spain’s appetite was limited; even if the cake was given to Spain, Spain was destined to have indigestion.
Over in Berlin, the Berlin Conference was proceeding unhurriedly.
And in Madrid, the British ambassador once again met with Carlo.
Unlike the last time seeking to meet Carlo, this time when seeking to meet Carlo, the British ambassador expressed a more respectful attitude, and his words were not as tough as last time.
In the meeting with Carlo, the British ambassador mentioned more than once the importance of the Cairo-Cape Town Line to the United Kingdom and indicated that the United Kingdom was willing to make certain concessions on lands other than the Southern Congo land.
The United Kingdom proposed three conditions for Carlo and the Spanish Government to choose from.
The first condition was on the Dutch East Indies colonies, where the United Kingdom was willing to let Spain occupy more land as compensation for the Southern Congo land.
However, the core Sumatra and Java of the Dutch East Indies were not something the United Kingdom was willing to give up to Spain.
The second condition was on the colonization of New Guinea Island. The British Government could acquiesce to Spain’s colonial action on New Guinea Island and support the colonies Spain would establish in New Guinea Island in the future.
The third condition was on the Middle East front, where the United Kingdom could allow Spain’s Oman Colony to expand northward to the range of the Trucial States.
From these three conditions, the United Kingdom’s attitude of concession could also be felt.
However, the extent of the United Kingdom’s concession was not that great. Whether it was the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea, or the Trucial States, their value was not that high.
The reason the United Kingdom was willing to concede on these lands was actually because it had no great interests in these lands.
