Chapter 267: West Africa Development Plan
Although the colonial exchange between Spain and the United Kingdom is theoretically kept secret from the outside world, the transfer of the colonial governments and local garrisons cannot possibly be hidden from everyone, at least not from those European countries paying attention to this matter.
As the colonial exchange action between Spain and the United Kingdom officially begins, European countries also have certain speculations about the secret agreement reached by the two countries.
Among them, the most frantic is perhaps the United States, which has had its eye on Cuba for a long time. If Spain is still an opponent that the United States can barely defeat, then the British Empire is a towering mountain that the United States can never hope to reach.
No matter how exaggerated the industrial and economic development of the United States becomes, in the eyes of the British, the United States is just an upstart that can be easily manipulated at will.
The Panama Canal has not yet been built, and communication between the east and west coasts of the United States is quite difficult.
Although the distance between the east and west coasts of the United States is only a little over 4,000 kilometers, ships from the east coast wanting to go to the west coast must go around the entire South America.
Even following the coast of South America, this is at least a journey of more than 20,000 kilometers. Crossing the Atlantic from the east coast of the United States, passing through the Mediterranean, traversing the entire Indian Ocean, and then going to the west coast of the United States from the North Pacific is only a little over 30,000 kilometers, which is enough to illustrate the difficulty of communication between the east and west coasts of the United States, and this is also one of the major reasons troubling the development of the United States.
After the United Kingdom controls the Cuban Colony, the United States must face the British Empire if it wants to move south to South America. In such a situation, it will not be so easy for the United States to dig the Panama Canal, and even if the canal can be dug, the sovereignty of the Panama Canal will certainly not be in the hands of the Americans.
More importantly, the United States is about to face north-south pincer attacks from the United Kingdom. To the north of the United States is the British Canada, and to the south, it faces the British Cuban Colony and the Bahamas across the sea.
On land, apart from Mexico, there is no other direction for the United States to expand. Expansion on the ocean is even more impossible; the United Kingdom, relying on the Bahamas, the Cuban Colony, and Jamaica, has formed a solid defense line, directly blockading the United States within the Gulf of Mexico.
After losing the Cuban Colony, Spain’s influence in America will be greatly reduced. However, Spain has retained Puerto Rico, which is Spain’s last colony in America and the only proof of the existence of the Spanish colonial empire.
Compared to the Cuban Colony, which has economic value, Puerto Rico is merely like a military base for Spain.
Spain has stationed a colonial defense regiment in the Puerto Rican Colony, and this place will also become a transit station for trade between Spain and the countries of America.
Although Spain has abandoned the Cuban Colony, this does not mean that Spain will give up contact with the countries of South America.
There are a large number of Spanish immigrants in South America, and relying on the relationship of shared roots and origins, Spain can still establish good diplomatic relations with these South American countries.
After all, to put it bluntly, the countries of South America are just small countries; the most powerful Brazil, Argentina, and Chile would only be slightly stronger small countries even in Europe.
To protect their independence and stability in a world situation of the law of the jungle, they must rely on the protection of even more powerful great powers.
Argentina has vast black soil, and Brazil has rich coal and iron ore resources, both of which Spain needs.
Compared to the distant iron ore in Australia, Brazil’s iron ore is closer to Spain and is also the most promising place for Spain to import large quantities of coal and iron ore besides Africa.
Brazil was once a colony of the Portuguese, and Portuguese immigrants are also a population that Spain can introduce.
If Spain can annex Portugal in the future, the unified Iberian Peninsula will become the most influential European power in America.
If it can cultivate the countries of South America into consumption markets and economic partners for Spain, Spain’s industry and economy can also develop rapidly as a result.
In the first month after the signing of the colonial exchange agreement between Spain and the United Kingdom, the British Gambia Colony government officially withdrew, and the Spanish army also formally entered the Gambia Colony a little later that day, announcing military management of the Gambia Colony, which will continue until the formal establishment of the Gambia Colony government.
About a week later, the Sierra Leone Colony was also formally handed over. The handover of the Gold Coast Colony took a longer time, but it was completed within two months of the treaty being signed.
As Spain’s six colonial defense regiments each entered the three colonies, Spain’s colonization of West Africa also officially began.
Compared to the Cuban Colony, which had long been prepared for abandonment, the Spanish government clearly attaches much more importance to the three colonies in West Africa.
In particular, the British Gambia Colony, although located in Africa, is an extremely excellent agricultural area. If managed well, it may become an important grain production area for Spain, making up for the shortcomings of insufficient plains on the Spanish mainland.
Although the Sierra Leone Colony and the Gold Coast are not as excellent as the Gambia Colony, they are also colonies with enormous development value.
Since Spain has occupied these three colonies, it has no intention of abandoning them. Even if developing these three colonies means facing competition from the French, Spain will absolutely not shrink back.
Regarding Spain’s current colonial situation, the transportation department has proposed the Central-West African Railway plan.
The so-called Central-West African Railway plan starts from the South Morocco Colony in the north, goes south along the coast to connect Spain’s three West African colonies, then goes east from the Guinea Colony into the Central Africa region, with the endpoint being Spain’s Congo Territory.
This railway plan is quite exaggerated; wherever the railway reaches, Spain can incorporate those lands into its colonial control.
But the problem is that the Central-West African Railway will pass through colonies of the French and the Portuguese; even if the Portuguese are willing, the French probably will not be.
If the Spanish government can achieve its railway plan, the French dream of colonizing West Africa will be shattered. Spain’s railway will obstruct the path of French West African colonies expanding northward, and the lands occupied by France in North Africa and its West African colonies will not be able to connect.
This is similar to the conflict between Portugal’s Pink Map Plan and the British Cairo-Cape Town Line; one country must yield, otherwise it will face serious disputes or even war.
To avoid conflict with France, after the transportation department proposed the Central-West African Railway plan, Carlo directly rejected the transportation department’s request and made certain modifications to the Central-West African Railway plan.
Although the name is still the Central-West African Railway plan, the railway mainly connects the Gold Coast and the Guinea Colony as well as the Congo Territory, while another section connects the Gambia Colony and the Sierra Leone Colony; the two railways are not connected in the middle because there is a French colony in between.
The South Morocco Colony and the Gambia Colony will not be connected either, for the same reason that there is a French colony between them.
Although conflict between Spain and France over West African colonization is inevitable, for Spain, the later the conflict erupts, the more advantageous it will be.
The current France is still the world’s third strongest power after the United Kingdom and Germany, and there is still a considerable gap between Spain and France.
As the saying goes, even a skinny camel is bigger than a horse; even though France has fallen behind the United Kingdom and Germany in industrial development and the Second Industrial Revolution, France was once the European hegemon, and the hegemon’s lingering prestige can still easily strangle non-hegemon-level countries.
The good news is that among the three West African colonies, there is only one French colony between the Sierra Leone Colony and the Gold Coast, and between the Gambia Colony and the Sierra Leone Colony is a Portuguese colony.
The Gold Coast Colony will expand eastward to connect with Spain’s Guinea Colony. Meanwhile, the Gambia Colony and the Sierra Leone Colony will expand southward and northward respectively to connect and become a larger colony.
As for that Portuguese colony in the middle, Carlo plans to acquire it through purchase and exchange.
There is still a large area of land in the southern part of the Congo Territory that has not been colonized and developed, and this land can be given to the Portuguese.
Of course, Carlo is willing to offer this land for a reason, which is considering the Pink Map Plan that the Portuguese are about to propose.
If Spain takes all the land in the southern part of the Congo Territory, the Portuguese Pink Map Plan will also fail midway.
Without the Pink Map Plan, the relationship between Portugal and the United Kingdom will not be damaged. Compared to those lands in the southern part of the Congo Territory, Carlo prefers to destroy the relationship between Portugal and the United Kingdom, creating more possibilities for Spain to annex Portugal.
If Carlo remembers correctly, one of the important reasons for the abolition of the Portuguese monarchy was that Portugal’s Pink Map Plan was directly thwarted by the United Kingdom.
The angry Portuguese public was very disappointed with the weak government and king, which also became the fuse for the public revolution that ultimately overthrew the kingdom.
Colonization is the trend of this era; whether great power countries or medium and small countries, the public is willing to see their national governments continuously open up new colonies.
Portugal is like this, and the Netherlands is the same.
Only when the situation in Portugal falls into chaos does Spain have the possibility of fishing in troubled waters. If the situation in Portugal remains stable, Spain will have to expend considerable effort to annex Portugal.
The Spanish government attaches great importance to the construction of the West African colonies. This is not just talk; the government has specifically proposed a proposal for the West African colonial development plan and plans to invest at least 1 billion pesetas to develop the West African colonies.
An investment of 1 billion pesetas sounds quite exaggerated, but this West African colonial development plan spans 10 years, equivalent to investing only 100 million pesetas per year.
The current fiscal revenue of the Spanish government is close to 1 billion pesetas, which actually means that the Spanish government only needs to invest one-tenth of its fiscal revenue each year to successfully complete this colonial development plan.
In addition to the previously mentioned Central-West African railway construction, the Spanish government will fully develop the Gambia agricultural production zone, making Gambia an important grain production area for Spain.
If the development of the Gambia Colony goes relatively smoothly, the Sierra Leone Colony will be merged into the Gambia Colony in the next few years, so the construction of the Sierra Leone Colony will not involve major changes, focusing more on maintaining the status quo.
For the colonial development of the Gold Coast, the focus is mainly on the exploration and mining of gold mines. The importance of gold goes without saying, and ultimately, control over most of the Gold Coast must be in Spain’s own hands.
The Gold Coast is not far from the Spanish mainland; the gold mined here will be smelted on-site and transported as gold to the Spanish mainland.
To ensure the safety of the Gold Coast and also to help the Gold Coast colonial government control the local gold, Spain will establish an African detachment at the Gold Coast to protect the coastal security of the Gold Coast and several surrounding colonies.
The Ashanti Empire in the northern part of the Gold Coast is also on Spain’s conquest list; Carlo will not allow an enemy indigenous nation to exist north of his gold production area.
After annexing the Asante Empire, the area of the Gold Coast will more than double. Spain also hopes to discover more gold in the newly annexed lands; the more gold reserves, the more currency Spain can issue, which is extremely important for the stability of Spain’s economy.
It is worth mentioning that dozens of kilometers east of the Gold Coast, Portugal also has a small colony, Wida.
What is called a colony is actually more like a large colonial outpost. Large gold mines were once discovered here, attracting a considerable number of Portuguese gold prospectors.
It is precisely these gold prospectors continuously entering the colonial outpost that led Spain to establish this small colony.
Because this colony is on the passage connecting the Gold Coast and the Guinea Colony, Spain will not give up its claim to this area.
Portugal can choose to carry out a colonial exchange with Spain or wait for the arrival of the Spanish army.
The Portuguese are surely sensible; after all, up to now, Carlo does not hope for war to break out between Spain and Portugal.
This would not only damage the good relations painstakingly established between Spaniards and Portuguese but also affect Spain’s plan to annex Portugal.
To properly develop the three West African colonies, at least a million immigrants are needed. The good news is that due to British colonial development, these three colonies already have considerable populations.
Spain only needs to immigrate about 500,000 people to ensure the smooth implementation of the West African colonial development plan.
Although 500,000 people is not too many for Spain, Carlo does not plan to bring these immigrants from the Spanish mainland.
In addition to attracting some Spanish and Portuguese immigrants from the South American region, Carlo also plans to spend a large sum to introduce a batch of immigrants from various European countries.
Of course, using the Lanfang Republic to attract some Han Chinese immigrants is also part of Carlo’s plan. Anyway, as long as they are not black people, yellow people are within Carlo’s acceptance range; after all, there are a large number of mixed-race yellow and white people in South America, and if Spain wants to introduce large numbers of Spanish and Portuguese immigrants from South America, it must accept these mixed-race yellow and white people.
For the West African colonial development plan, Carlo proposed a plan of replacing blacks with yellows and whites with yellows.
The early development of the colony requires the participation of black people; once the initial development of the colony is successfully completed, Spain will launch the de-black plan.
Whether by manual annihilation or expulsion, in short, black people are not allowed to exist in Spain’s colonies.
Carlo does not want the future Spain to become like France in posterity; although Carlo is not racially discriminatory, his dislike of black people is real.
The process of Spain’s colonies expelling black people is bound to be quite lengthy and will lead to considerable conflicts or even wars with black indigenous people and indigenous forces outside the colonies.
However, this is not bad news. Only war can train the growth of the army, and the Spanish army also needs the experience of war.
By using these indigenous people for the Spanish army to practice, maintaining high combat effectiveness to cope with large-scale wars on the European battlefield in the future, this is also part of Carlo’s plan.
Even if fighting these indigenous people does not improve the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army, letting the Spanish army see blood first can also avoid morale shaking caused by seeing the cruel scenes of war on the battlefield.
As for the impact of such a plan on the indigenous people, who cares?
