Chapter 266: Planning Naval Construction
Compared to the handover between colonies, the 5 million pounds sterling used as compensation was obviously the easiest to pay.
And the facts proved to be so. To express its sincerity, the British Government paid 5 million pounds sterling to the Spanish Government on the day the treaty was signed. Because the pound sterling was currently the world’s most valuable currency, Spain did not refuse the British Government’s proposal to pay in pounds sterling.
5 million pounds sterling may seem like not much, but it was actually worth 130 million pesetas, which was no small sum for any country.
There was also fierce debate within the Spanish Government over the use of these 5 million pounds sterling funds. In the end, Carlo made the direct decision to use these 5 million pounds sterling for the development of the Spanish Navy.
Of course, the so-called naval development was not simply building warships, but researching and developing a more advanced and powerful warship system, ensuring that the combat effectiveness of Spanish naval warships remained at the forefront of the world.
If it were only used to build warships, 5 million pounds sterling would be enough for Spain to build 10 Revival-class ironclads. Combined with Spain’s existing naval scale, it could almost claim the throne of the world’s third naval power, aside from the navies of Britain and France.
But doing so would obviously only treat the symptoms and not the root cause. More importantly, the battleship era, that is, the pre-dreadnought era, was about to arrive.
Carlo hoped more that Spain could gain sufficient advantage in the pre-dreadnought era and take the opportunity to build the Spanish Navy into one of the world’s top three powerful forces.
After pre-dreadnoughts, there would be the dreadnought era. If Spain could seize both of these major warship revolution eras, it was not impossible to become a naval power second only to the British Empire in one fell swoop.
For Spain, this relatively closed country, naval strength was more important than army strength. The Pyrenees Mountains were already a natural barrier. As long as a few fortresses were slightly built to solidify the defense lines on both sides of the Pyrenees, European countries would be unable to launch attacks on Spain from the continent.
In this way, Portugal would become the only country capable of posing a threat to Spain on land. Considering the huge strength gap between Portugal and Spain, it would be very difficult for Portugal to defeat Spain in land warfare, or even say there was no hope at all.
This also meant that if Spain could build a powerful navy, it would have hope to compete for more interests and no longer fear superpowers on the level of Britain, France, and Germany.
For example, Britain, although it was the world’s number one, the threat to Spain was not that great.
As long as Spain could seize the two warship revolution opportunities to greatly enhance its naval strength, Spain would have hope to recapture Gibraltar or even fully occupy Morocco during the period when Britain was too busy with other matters.
If the ambition was even greater, Spain could withstand the pressure and directly annex Portugal. After successively annexing Portugal and Morocco, Spain would also formally become a superpower on the level of Britain, France, and Germany, no longer having to fear the threats from the British.
These 5 million pounds sterling funds would be divided into two parts. 2 million pounds sterling would be used to build three ironclads and dozens of small and medium-sized warships, strengthening the strength of Spain’s existing army and securing the throne of the world’s fifth naval power.
The remaining 3 million pounds sterling would be fully invested into Spain’s several existing shipyards. Through the joint research and development of these major shipyards, more advanced ironclads or even strategic ships would be designed.
Only after battleships were designed would it be time for Spain to explode its navy on a large scale. By then, Spain would have already greatly promoted the development of industry and economy through electricity. Even if engaging in a naval arms race, Spain would be qualified to laugh to the end.
After reaching an agreement with the British, the Spanish side was also making full preparations for abandoning the Cuban Colony.
The Cuban Colonial Government was already carrying out transfer work, and population transfer had long since begun.
Except for black people, all populations in the Cuban Colony could apply to the colonial government to go to the Spanish Mainland or other colonies. The Spanish Government would treat these people equally, and they would skip the assessment period in Spain’s immigration policy and directly obtain Spanish nationality.
Cuba still had a population of over a million. Although a considerable portion of whites and blacks were dissatisfied with Spanish rule, there was also a portion that was relatively approving of the Spanish Colonial Government.
After all, to put it bluntly, no matter how cruel Spain’s colonial rule was, it would never extend the butcher’s knife to its own people.
Under Spanish colonial rule, the only ones truly in life-threatening danger were black people; whites were at most exploited of some income.
If the black people in the Cuban Colony were truly dissatisfied with Spain’s colonial rule, then most whites were only dissatisfied with the colonial government’s harsh exploitation of them; they did not truly oppose Spain.
Of course, none of this mattered to Spain anymore. Once the colonial handover work was completed, Cuba would have no relationship with Spain.
The officials of the Cuban Colonial Government would be arranged to go to the Spanish Mainland or other colonies. In theory, the number of Spain’s colonies was still increasing, so the officials would not worry about having no place to go.
As for the population willing to go to the Spanish Mainland and other colonies, part of them would be arranged to the three British colonies in West Africa.
Since it had already obtained the three British colonies, the Spanish Government definitely wanted to take control of these three colonies in its own hands.
Spain’s colonies definitely needed a considerable number of Spaniards. For the Spanish Government, Spanish immigrants were the foundation of ruling the colonies.
Of course, those Portuguese immigrants might also submit to Spanish rule. Compared to colonizers from other European countries, they had no communication difficulties with Spanish colonizers, and their cultures were even relatively close, obviously more intimate.
Especially the British Gold Coast, this land had quite a few Portuguese. If the Portuguese could be incorporated into Spanish colonial rule, it could allow Spain to quickly control the situation in the British Gold Coast.
The three British colonies in West Africa were relatively scattered, but the distances between them were not that far.
If these three colonies could be fully controlled, Spain would have hope to obtain over a million square kilometers of land in southern West Africa.
Combined with the Congo Territory and the Guinea Colony, if they could be connected into one piece, Spain’s colonial achievements in Africa would not be less than France’s, and it even had hope to become the country occupying the most land in Africa after Britain.
According to this trend, the future partition of Africa by the great powers would become Britain occupying the east, France occupying North Africa and northern West Africa, and Spain occupying the Congo, southern West Africa, and Morocco.
Most of the land in West Africa would be occupied by Britain, France, and Spain. Even a great power like Germany could only pick up the broken land that Britain, France, and Spain did not want in Africa.
The reason for such a huge gap in land division was mainly the distance between the great powers and Africa, as well as the time spent colonizing Africa.
The great powers that could reach Africa by crossing the Mediterranean Sea were only four: France, Spain, Italy, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Italy’s overall strength was the weakest among these four countries, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the farthest.
In addition, because Italy unified relatively late and the Austro-Hungarian Empire had mainly focused on the German region before, these two great power countries had very slow colonization progress in Africa, or even no results at all.
Germany and Russia’s strength was fully sufficient, but Germany also unified relatively late, and colonizing Africa required detouring a long distance, so there was no significant progress in African colonization.
Russia was even more unnecessary to mention. Between Russia and Africa was the Ottoman Empire, which had once been a vast empire spanning three continents. It was completely impossible for Russia to cross the Ottoman Empire to colonize Africa.
Even now, it was impossible for Russians to colonize Africa. The Ottoman Empire would not agree, and the British would not agree either.
Precisely because of these reasons, among the great power countries, only Britain, France, and Spain had the conditions and strength to colonize Africa.
Of course, if small countries were included, countries like Portugal, the Netherlands, and Belgium also had their own colonial plans for Africa.
However, because these small countries were too weak, their colonial plans would not receive respect from the great powers.
For example, Portugal’s Pink Map Plan. Because they had already occupied the coastal areas of the Kingdom of Congo and the Mozambique region, they once planned to connect these two regions to establish Portugal’s own Great African Colony.
There was no problem with the Portuguese proposing such a colonial plan, but their colonial plan happened to conflict with the north-south line proposed by the British.
The Portuguese Pink Plan obstructed Britain from connecting the land between Egypt and South Africa. The British Empire definitely would not agree.
The conflict between the two countries’ colonial plans not only seriously damaged the relationship between Portugal and Britain, but the British Government even issued an ultimatum to the Portuguese Government.
Faced with the British Government’s overt threat, the Portuguese Government ultimately chose to retreat, which also seriously damaged the prestige of the Portuguese Royal Family.
This also showed that great power countries did not care at all about small countries’ colonial plans. If it did not affect their own colonial plans, it was fine, but as long as it had any impact on their colonial plans, great power countries had various ways to make small countries retreat.
Just like the Portuguese Pink Map Plan and the British Cairo-Cape Town red line plan, Spain also had its own plan for colonizing Africa.
Originally, the Spanish Government only planned to connect the Guinea Colony and the Congo Territory, opening up a Spanish colony of several million square kilometers in Central Africa.
But after receiving the three British colonies now, Spain’s colonial map in Africa would directly double. The colonization scope, besides the Congo Territory, would also have hope to annex the entire Gulf of Guinea coast.
Logically speaking, the British would not so easily abandon all their colonies in West Africa and create a huge colonial empire in the Gulf of Guinea.
There must be a reason for the British to easily abandon the three West African colonies, and the reason was that the French also had a large number of colonial outposts in the Gulf of Guinea.
Britain had established three colonies in the West Africa region, and France also owned several large colonies on this land.
Next to the British Gambia Colony was the French Senegal Colony, and next to the British Gold Coast was also the French Gold Coast.
Even to the west of Spain’s Congo Territory, there existed French colonies.
Combined with the colonial conflict between Spain and France over Morocco, it could be foreseen that in the next few decades, Spain and France would erupt into various conflicts and disputes over African colonization.
This was also the reason why the British were willing to abandon the West African colonies. Because after the British withdrew, the colonial competition in the West Africa region would instead become more intense.
Whether France and Spain would unite to jointly partition West Africa was almost impossible.
The union of the two countries had an important prerequisite, that is, there was another more powerful country coveting it. In the situation where Britain had already completely abandoned the West African colonies, the union of France and Spain had lost its initiative.
This was an era of the law of the jungle. It was better to hope that France and Germany could shake hands and make peace to jointly dominate Europe than to hope that France and Spain could unite to colonize West Africa without external enemies.
Under the premise of no greater competitors, Spain and France were each other’s competitors in the West Africa region.
The British Government also believed in its diplomatic means. Under the British Government’s intervention, France and Spain would not reach any relevant compromises in the West Africa region.
France and Spain continuously erupting colonial conflicts and mutually influencing each other’s colonial plans was precisely the purpose of the British.
If it could use such a plan to influence the second and third colonial powers in one fell swoop, for Britain as the first colonial power, was this not the best plan?
Carlo naturally also saw through the British purpose, but this overt scheme had no particularly good solution.
The reason Britain believed Spain and France would erupt into colonial conflicts was because they believed Spain and France would not abandon colonizing Africa.
Unless Spain or France was willing to abandon its existing colonies, the adjacent colonies between the two countries would inevitably erupt into disputes.
The French had three colonies in West Africa, all connected to Spain’s existing colonies. In this situation, if France and Spain did not erupt into colonial conflicts, it could only be said that God had interfered with the two countries’ diplomatic decision-making.
The only colony in West Africa that Spain had not connected to a French colony was the Sierra Leone Colony. But the south and north of the Sierra Leone Colony each had a French colony, placing it in a situation of being surrounded by French colonies.
This actually also meant that neither Spain nor France had a way out. To colonize West Africa, they must force the other to retreat.
For Spain, there was another trouble, that the dispute between the British Gold Coast and the northern indigenous nation Asante Empire was completely inherited by Spain.
This was not a contradiction between the British Government and the local indigenous people, but between the Gold Coast Colony and the local indigenous people. Since Spain had obtained the Gold Coast Colony, it naturally also had to fight the Asante Empire to protect the safety of the Gold Coast.
The good news was that although the Asante Empire sounded like a vast empire, it was actually just a small country with an area of tens of thousands of square kilometers.
Indigenous nations posed no great threat to Spain. Dispatching 1 to 2 colonial defense regiments was sufficient to protect the safety of the Gold Coast.
Spain deployed a full 6 colonial defense regiments in the Cuban Colony, which could perfectly dispatch 2 colonial defense regiments to each of the newly obtained 3 colonies to maintain local order and safety.
2 colonial defense regiments had 4,600 troops. Fighting other European countries might be somewhat insufficient in troops, but if only used to maintain local order and safety in the colonies, it was absolutely more than enough.
Not to mention that each colonial defense regiment was equipped with 3 cannons. With sufficient ammunition supply, 6 cannons plus 4,600 troops could easily defend against attacks from indigenous armies of less than 20,
