Chapter 268: Portugal’s Ambitions
Under the massive funding from the Spanish Government, the West Africa Development Plan proceeded quite smoothly, with railway construction and immigration work unfolding in an orderly manner.
In the last two or three months of the year, Spain immigrated over 50,000 people from the Spanish Mainland and other regions to the three West African Colonies, an immigration intensity unprecedented in Spain.
At a rate of 50,000 immigrants in 3 months, the three West African Colonies could gain approximately 200,000 immigrants annually, which was already one-fifth of the total population of the Cuban Colony.
If calculated by population, Spain would only need five years to recreate another Cuban Colony. With so many immigrants in the three West African Colonies, construction would definitely proceed quite smoothly as well.
The reason over 50,000 immigrants were transferred in less than 3 months was due to efforts and cooperation from all sides.
First, from the Cuban side, thousands of Cubans were willing to go to other Spanish Colonies.
Although this was less than one percent of Cuba’s total population, for the Spanish Government, thousands were not too few.
Before handing over the Cuban Colony, the colonial government transferred these thousands to the South Morocco Colony, and then from the South Morocco Colony to the three West African Colonies.
For these Cubans voluntarily going to other Spanish Colonies, Carlo was quite generous. For those wanting to become Plantation Owners, Spain could provide them with land and low-rent local indigenous labor to help them reclaim land and build plantations.
As for those not very willing to engage in agricultural work, they could also build a small workshop in the colony. The Royal United Bank and Spanish National Bank would enter all Spanish Colonies, and there would be certain support and encouragement policies for these immigrants bringing families to the colonies.
Cuba’s population was one aspect, and the other indigenous populations in various Spanish Colonies were another aspect. With the progress of Spain’s assimilation work among Moroccans, a considerable portion of the population in the South Morocco Colony had preliminarily mastered the Spanish language, and many had converted to Catholicism.
Whether they truly converted to Catholicism or not, they had no right to refuse decisions from the Spanish Government anyway.
The population of South Morocco had sharply dropped to less than 500,000, with most losses due to Spain’s immigration policy, aside from some extreme Muslims dying from labor.
From the establishment of the South Morocco Colony to now, Spain had introduced at least 300,000 immigrants to the Moroccan Region.
The destinations of these immigrants were varied, with some transferred to the Spanish Mainland and others to other Spanish Colonies.
Among the 50,000 immigrants to the three West African Colonies, nearly 20,000 were Moroccans.
The remaining immigrants mostly came from the Congo Territory and Guinea Colony, with the Spanish Mainland also contributing several thousand immigrants.
The reason Spaniards eagerly immigrated was not that they could not survive in Spain, but that the immigration policy promulgated by the Spanish Government was too attractive.
The combined area of the three West African Colonies was still quite large, especially the Gambia Colony, which was relatively suitable for agricultural development.
The Colonial Affairs Department also promulgated different encouragement immigration policies based on the situation of the West African Colonies, including free land, agricultural tax reduction, free ship tickets, and low-interest loans.
In particular, Spain’s great nobles were very interested in building plantations.
This era had a characteristic: mechanized agricultural planting in various countries was only in the starting stage, and most countries were still smallholder economies.
Combined with immature fertilizer technology, grain yields in countries around the world were not very high, and aside from countries with vast plains, few could achieve grain self-sufficiency.
Even countries with relatively high grain yields still had phenomena of starvation.
Spain was relatively better in this regard; because various miscellaneous taxes were abolished and land rent was reduced, farmers could keep enough grain to eat their fill.
Looking across all of Europe, due to insufficient grain yields in many countries, international grain prices were still relatively high.
After European Countries entered a phase of peace, their populations would also usher in a period of explosive growth.
During this period, grain prices would only rise, not fall, which was also why Spanish nobles were keen on farming.
Of course, they did not only plant grain; vegetables, fruits, olives, grapes, and other crops were also within the planting scope of Spanish nobles’ plantations.
In summary, whatever made money, Spanish nobles would plant. If unsure what made money, they would plant grain entirely, as grain was never short of buyers anyway.
It was worth mentioning that Spain was one of Europe’s main agricultural products export countries and also one of Europe’s main grain import countries.
There was no conflict between these. The reason Spain became a main European agricultural products export country was its vegetable and fruit yields.
Including olives for oil extraction and grapes for wine production, which belonged to fruits and were also main agricultural products produced by Spain.
Spain was Europe’s largest olive producer and also one of Europe’s main grape and wine producers. Spain exported large amounts of agricultural products annually, using the money from agricultural exports to purchase large amounts of grain.
Yes, Spain’s current grain yield could no longer meet the needs of over 20 million people nationwide.
This was unavoidable; for a country where most land was mountainous, meeting the grain needs of the national population was extremely difficult.
Unless the country’s population was small, but Spain’s population had grown over these ten-plus years to a scale of 20 million, which was definitely not small looking across all of Europe.
Although there were still many gaps compared to great power countries, looking across all of Europe, not many countries had populations exceeding 20 million; aside from several major great powers, only the Ottoman Empire had over 20 million.
However, the Ottoman was not considered a European country. The Ottoman Empire also had a mocking title: the Sick Man of Western Asia.
This also showed that Europeans did not consider the Ottoman Empire a European country. This meant that in Europeans’ eyes, only great powers had populations exceeding 20 million.
Although the Gambia Colony was relatively suitable for agricultural planting, due to the colony’s currently small scale, Spain’s goal was only to provide some grain supplies to the mainland.
A large influx of grain would also affect Spain’s grain prices and reduce the income of Spain’s vast farmer groups. Therefore, the grain yield of Gambia also needed control.
Or rather, aside from a small portion supplied to Spain domestically, most of the Gambia Colony’s grain yield had to be exported, or further processed before exporting or selling domestically.
For the construction of the Gambia Colony, the Spanish Government’s initial goal was to raise the Gambia Colony’s grain yield to around 200,000 tons, or one-twentieth of the Spanish Mainland’s grain yield.
Although only 200,000 tons of grain yield, it was no problem to support around 1 million people. The grain produced by the Gambia Colony would fully supply the South Morocco Colony, Sierra Leone Colony, Gold Coast, and Guinea.
It was worth mentioning that, because the Gambia Colony was closer to Africa, theoretically, the Gambia Colony’s land yield per mu was higher than the Spanish Mainland.
Especially for rice planting, due to more abundant sunlight, Gambia’s land could achieve two or even three crops per year.
While Spain’s rice could only achieve one crop per year, with only a few areas with abundant sunlight achieving two crops.
From two to three crops compared to one crop meant at least double the grain yield. This was also why Carlo was optimistic about the Gambia Colony becoming an important grain production area for Spain; this land had all the advantages of timing and geography, just lacking large-scale immigration to provide the human element.
With the progress of the West Africa Development Plan, time finally jumped from 1880 to
For the Spanish Government, 1881 would face new challenges. Spain’s goal was to obtain Portugal’s Portuguese Guinea, Portuguese Cacheu, Wida, and Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe in the new year.
The areas of these colonies were not large, but they were all located around the colonies already controlled by Spain. Especially Portuguese Guinea and Portuguese Cacheu; if Spain’s Gambia Colony wanted to expand, Portugal’s colonies were almost the only choice.
After all, the north of the Gambia Colony was France’s Senegal Colony; if not wanting conflict with the French, eyes could only turn to the Portuguese.
Of course, the Gambia Colony could also expand inland. But the problem was that Britain’s Gambia Colony was built along the river, with the entire colony more like a rectangle.
If continuing inland expansion, the colony’s east-west would be infinitely stretched, while north-south was only dozens of kilometers.
If no conflict with France, it was fine; but if conflict erupted with France, French Army could descend from the Senegal Colony at any time and cut east-west connections at any point in the Gambia Colony.
This required advance defense preparations; although the French were unlikely to strike first, necessary defenses must be in place.
If merged with Portuguese Guinea, the Gambia Colony would become a near-square shape, eliminating the risk of being cut off.
As for the previously unmentioned Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe, these two colonies were not on the African Continent but in the Gulf of Guinea, facing Spain’s Guinea Colony across the sea.
Although both called Guinea Colonies, Portugal’s Guinea Colony was at Africa’s westernmost protrusion, while Spain’s Guinea Colony was at the inner corner of Africa’s 7-shaped bend, separated by over 2,000 kilometers.
If able to take São Tomé and Príncipe, Spain could strengthen its influence in the Gulf of Guinea and protect the coasts of various colonies in the Gulf of Guinea.
Although these colonies’ scales were not large, obtaining them from the Portuguese was undoubtedly very difficult.
As a former colonial empire, Portugal also had its own pride. Spain could only acquire these colonies through interest exchanges; attempting forceful seizure would only damage relations with the Portuguese.
Carlo’s initial plan was to obtain these Portuguese colonies through a method similar to colonial exchange.
If the colonial exchange method failed, Carlo would consider other ways.
Anyway, Portugal was a country on the Iberian Peninsula, right in front of Spain. For Spain, Portugal was a piece of fat meat on the chopping block; how to eat it was just a matter of time, and Portugal could not escape.
After New Year’s Day, Prime Minister Cánovas found the Portuguese Diplomatic Ambassador to Spain and talked about the situation of joint colonial development between the two countries.
Due to Portugal and Spain jointly developing New Guinea, Portugal and Spain had relatively good relations in colonial pioneering.
After talking for over half an hour, Prime Minister Cánovas finally shifted the topic to African Colonies and directly revealed the colonial exchange agreement related to the secret agreement between Spain and the United Kingdom.
When the Portuguese Diplomatic Ambassador heard that Spain exchanged the Cuban Colony for Britain’s three West African Colonies, he first showed a surprised expression, then some regret and remorse.
What to regret? Of course, regretting that Portugal did not learn the news in advance and failed to obtain the Cuban Colony from Spain.
Regardless of the Cuban Colony’s shortcomings, Cuba was still an extremely valuable colony at this time. That Spain could abandon the Cuban Colony was unexpected to Portugal, and even more unexpected that the British obtained a complete Cuba with just three worthless West African Colonies.
It was because Spain was vast and had opened the Congo Territory in Africa that it had the capital to abandon the Cuban Colony.
Portugal could not do this; first, Portugal had few colonies domestically, and second, Portuguese public would not accept the government voluntarily abandoning colonies.
Although surprised by the Spanish Government’s decision, the Portuguese Diplomatic Ambassador could only express a positive attitude. He was not foolish and naturally understood that raising different opinions would offend the Spanish Government.
Regardless of whether the Spanish Government was right or wrong, Portugal definitely had no right to speak on this. If the Portuguese Ambassador spoke out of turn, would it not bring trouble to Portugal itself?
After chatting for a while longer, the topic finally shifted to the Congo Territory and the lands south of the Congo Territory.
Cánovas first stated that after obtaining the three West African Colonies, Spain was powerless to conduct a new round of colonial action on the lands south of the Congo Territory.
Immediately after, Cánovas seemed to think of a good idea and proposed to the Portuguese Diplomatic Ambassador a compromise on Congo Basin colonization similar to New Guinea.
Spain would completely abandon colonization of the lands south of the Congo Territory and support Portugal’s colonial action on these lands.
In return, Portugal would transfer its few colonies in the West Africa region to the Spanish Government, helping the Spanish Government better carry out the West Africa Development Plan.
Of course, to show sincerity from the Spanish side, Portugal could first conduct colonial expansion on the lands south of the Congo Territory, and after achieving certain results, then transfer the West African colonies to Spain.
For example, the Ruanda Kingdom in eastern Portuguese West Africa, which was the land closest to the Congo Region controlled by Portugal; the Portuguese Government could colonize it first, then transfer the West African lands to Spain.
The reason for proposing “payment after delivery” was that the Spanish side was not afraid at all of Portugal reneging.
The Portuguese Government should also have self-awareness; in the face of the vast strength gap between Portugal and Spain, unilaterally tearing up the treaty would only make Portugal perish faster.
If war resulted from Portugal unilaterally tearing up the treaty, the United Kingdom would have no good reason to help Portugal, at least unable to preserve all of Portugal’s interests.
This was precisely the source of the Spanish Government’s confidence; as long as Portugal reached the relevant agreement with Spain, the Portuguese Government could only comply, with no other choice.
Hearing Prime Minister Cánovas’s proposal, the Portuguese Diplomatic Ambassador was first stunned, then pondered carefully.
If Spain’s two most important colonies before were Cuba and Philippines, then for Portugal at this time, the two most important were Portuguese West Africa and Mozambique.
Here, Portuguese West Africa did not refer to Portugal’s scattered colonies in West Africa, but the colonies established after Portugal annexed the Kingdom of Congo downstream of the Congo River.
The southern area of Spain’s Congo Territory was right between Portuguese West Africa and Mozambique. According to Spain, although Portugal gave up its scattered West African colonies, it had hope to connect the Congo Region and Mozambique, establishing a larger Portuguese African Colony.
