Chapter 312: Ambitions For A Battleship
In fact, while rifles and machine guns were being upgraded, the generals of the Navy Department in the Ministry of Defense also expressed a request to Carlo to build more ironclad ships.
However, such a request was quickly rejected by Carlo, with no room for negotiation.
A few days later, Carlo gathered these high-ranking naval generals together and stated his requirements for Spain’s next-generation capital ship.
Faster, bigger, stronger—these three words were repeatedly emphasized by Carlo, who clearly demanded that only warship designs meeting these three requirements could become Spain’s next-generation capital ship.
Before Spain’s next-generation capital ship was born, the navy would not build capital ships in the coming years, only a certain number of auxiliary warships to expand the fleet scale.
This requirement from Carlo immediately troubled the high-ranking naval generals.
Although it seemed like just three requirements, they actually permeated the navy’s warship design philosophy.
“Faster” was easy to understand—it meant the maximum speed of the new-generation capital ship.
Spain’s first two capital ship designs, the Revival-class ironclad with a maximum speed of 13 knots, and the Matador-class ironclad reaching 15 knots.
Currently, the speed of the Matador-class ironclad was still top-tier globally, which should have been more than sufficient.
But Carlo was not satisfied with this for Spain’s new-generation capital ship’s speed; instead, he raised it to 18 knots.
The current 15 knots was already top-tier in Europe, so one can imagine how exaggerated 18 knots would be. It was no exaggeration to say that even the British, who were the most advanced in warship propulsion, probably couldn’t reach 18 knots.
This also meant that the design for the next-generation capital ship Carlo required could not be realized in the next few years, and Spain would have to wait at least several years before building any more capital ships.
The following “bigger” and “stronger” were reflected in the capital ship’s armor thickness and the caliber of the guns it carried.
To become Spain’s new-type capital ship, it must maximize armor protection in the warship’s vulnerable areas without significantly increasing tonnage, allowing the warship to withstand enemy cannonballs in head-on confrontations.
At the same time, the naval guns carried by the warship needed sufficient firepower to penetrate the enemy’s armor.
Overall, Spain’s capital ship under Carlo’s requirements would comprehensively surpass the currently most powerful ironclad ships in speed, armor protection capability, and firepower.
This was also why the naval generals were troubled: although the envisioned warship seemed powerful, given Spain’s current shipbuilding technology, Spain probably couldn’t build any more capital ships in the next five years.
According to the navy’s default rule of small improvements in warship technology each year and major improvements every five years, such a warship might emerge after five years.
But thinking that the Spanish navy would have no major actions in the next five years made the navy’s generals shed tears, envying the army’s large-scale re-equipment campaign.
Although they knew such capital ship requirements were somewhat harsh for current shipbuilding technology, the Ministry of Defense still issued a tender announcement for capital ships to Spain’s major shipyards.
What if a shipyard could design a warship meeting the requirements? Even if the possibility was slim, it was better than giving up directly.
Moreover, the order regarding capital ship requirements came from Carlo, and in current Spain, no one could refuse Carlo’s orders.
The navy’s generals could only hope that Spain’s shipyards would step up and soon produce a capital ship design meeting Carlo’s requirements, allowing the Spanish navy to expand again.
The major shipyards that received the navy’s requirements were all astonished by such harsh conditions.
They repeatedly inquired with the naval department, but the final answer was that the requirements were real, and the naval department would not change them.
With no choice, Spain’s major shipyards could only curse while trying to design warships meeting the navy’s requirements.
The difficulty for shipyards to export warships was much greater than for armories exporting weapons and ammunition, which also made Spain’s armories heavily reliant on navy orders.
If they couldn’t design warships meeting the navy’s requirements, it not only meant the Spanish navy wouldn’t build capital ships in the next few years, but also that these shipyards wouldn’t receive large-scale orders.
Although it wouldn’t lead to bankruptcy due to reduced orders, these shipyards would certainly be affected to some extent.
To get these shipyards to build warships meeting his requirements sooner, Carlo even ordered increased rewards and benefits for successful tender shipyards.
As long as they participated in the navy’s tender plan for capital ships, they could receive at least 500,000 pesetas in subsidy funds. This funding was to help shipyards with research and development and warship design; as long as it was within the scope of warship R&D, the shipyard receiving the funds could use the money however they wanted.
Of course, not just any mediocre shipyard could receive subsidy funds. All participating shipyards needed to pass the naval department’s review, must have the capability to design ironclad ships, and the shipyard must have at least a dockyard capable of building warships over 5,000 tons.
Without such regulations, some people would exploit loopholes by temporarily establishing small-scale shipyards to scam Carlo’s subsidy funds.
As long as they could design a warship meeting the navy’s requirements, they could receive a 2 million peseta bonus and 3 million pesetas in subsidy funds.
The bonus had no upper limit; for every type of qualifying capital ship designed, they could receive a 2 million peseta reward.
However many they designed, that many rewards they could claim—this rule was also to reward shipyards capable of designing excellent warships.
In addition to rewards and subsidy funds for shipyards, the Navy Department would also offer varying rewards to the designers personally involved in warship design.
Carlo’s attitude was very clear: spare no expense to accelerate the research, development, and construction of new capital ships.
In fact, from Carlo’s requirements, it was clear that what he truly wanted was no longer ironclad ships, but more powerful battleships, or pre-dreadnoughts.
Just as the birth of ironclad ships subverted the ruling position of sailing warships, the birth of battleships would subvert the ruling position of ironclad ships.
Carlo wasn’t sure exactly which year battleships were born, but he knew battleships should emerge within a few years.
After all, the dreadnought was born in 1906, so as the pre-dreadnought generation before it, their birth must be earlier.
After issuing the relevant warship tender announcements to the various shipyards, Carlo no longer paid attention to the matter.
Even if Spain’s shipyards had the capability to design battleships, the design process wouldn’t be short. This wasn’t like rifle design with just a few parts; the design time naturally wouldn’t be long for that.
Battleship design couldn’t be completed without several months or even over a year; during the process, not only the rational layout of various components had to be considered, but also whether the warship composed of these would meet the naval department’s requirements.
Currently, Spain’s Matador-class ironclad already displaced over 10,000 tons; with comprehensive improvements in speed, firepower, and armor for the new battleship, the tonnage would be at least over 10,000 tons.
Designing a giant warship over 10,000 tons wasn’t easy, and Carlo didn’t expect Spain to have a revolutionary battleship in just a few short years.
As time reached 1885, Spain’s colony merger plan also reached its peak.
On January 25, 1885, Carlo attended a meeting of the Spanish cabinet, heard reports from the Colonial Affairs Department and Defense Department on the new year’s combat plans, and issued his own requirements.
Throughout 1885, Spain needed to launch localized wars in two regions.
The first region was the Gulf of Guinea in Africa, where the Aro Confederacy, Kingdom of Niger, Benin Kingdom, Dahomey Kingdom, and Sokoto Caliphate were all on Spain’s conquest list.
The second region was the Arabian Peninsula, where Carlo planned to incorporate the Trucial States into his sphere of influence to avoid the British reneging due to time.
The conquest of the Gulf of Guinea coast was the top priority; Spain planned to deploy an army of 70,000 men consisting of 3 colonial divisions and 5 colonial defense regiments to launch a full-scale offensive against the indigenous people in the region, solving them in the shortest time and expanding Spanish rule to these areas.
As for the conquest of the Trucial States, there was no need to make such a big show of it.
The reason was simple: this land was too barren. Because it was all desert, the Trucial States’ population was in the tens of thousands, not even reaching six figures.
In contrast, neighboring Oman, with its northern mountains and small plains, had over a million people, dozens of times that of the Trucial States.
To conquer this region, Spain didn’t even need to dispatch additional troops. Just mobilizing a small portion of the colonial defense regiment from the Oman Colony would suffice to occupy the entire Trucial States and merge it into the Oman Colony.
As for establishing a new colony, Carlo hadn’t considered it at all.
Establishing a colony also required considerable cost, and the current scale of the Trucial States clearly couldn’t support the construction of a colony.
Merging it into the Oman Colony would also let the British see Spain’s lack of emphasis on this land, so they wouldn’t need to fear Spain’s conquest of it anymore.
While Spain, France, and Germany all had their own colonial actions, the British weren’t idle either, adding bricks and tiles to their Cairo-Cape Town Line.
But what the British didn’t expect was that their rapid conquest of the Sudan region instead provoked even fiercer resistance from the local indigenous people.
In January 1885, tens of thousands of indigenous people suddenly launched an uprising against British colonial rule, and before the British could react, they had already occupied several cities.
Due to the British’s carelessness, the local indigenous people obtained over a thousand rifles. These indigenous people armed with firearms resisted even more fiercely, showing signs of driving the British back to Egypt.
The indigenous uprising in the Sudan region instantly made British colonies the focus of European countries, with a bunch of nations hostile to Britain pulling up stools to watch the British joke with glee.
The British didn’t disappoint, engaging in back-and-forth battles with the indigenous people during the subsequent suppression of the rebellion, successfully adding some comedic color to the opening of
However, this couldn’t be blamed on the British; the geographical environment in the Sudan region was simply too poor. Even beyond Sudan, northern Egypt was full of deserts.
Only the small river valleys along the Nile were truly habitable, which severely limited the advance of British troops.
Compared to the local African indigenous people, the British army was clearly unadapted to this terrain. The local indigenous people’s resistance emotions toward the British were extremely intense, making it impossible for Britain to use local indigenous armies for suppression.
If they relied on armies composed of local indigenous people, Britain’s colonial rule in the Sudan region would collapse in an instant.
To reduce British casualties, the British Government could only dispatch certain troops from nearby Egypt and farther India and other colonies for suppression.
This wouldn’t change the battlefield situation, as Indians weren’t well-adapted to such an environment either.
Egyptians could adapt, but Egyptians weren’t so compliant toward Britain. It was already good if Egyptian soldiers didn’t take the chance to resist the British; expecting them to attack Sudan indigenous people was impossible.
For a time, Britain had no effective solution to the rebellion in the Sudan region. The British Government could only continuously gather troops and weapons and equipment, secretly building strength for a fatal blow to the local indigenous people.
While the British were busy suppressing the rebellion in the Sudan region, the German Government wasn’t idle at all.
They targeted the land north of Portugal’s Mozambique Colony, the place called Zanzibar, which was once ruled by Oman.
Yes, that Oman Sultanate spanning Asia and Africa. As mentioned before, Oman’s decline was due to losing its African lands, namely the Zanzibar Sultanate.
This land was quite fertile, and because it was on the British Cairo-Cape Town Line, it was also eyed by the British.
When they learned Germany was aggressively conducting colonial actions near Zanzibar, the British Government was extremely anxious but helpless.
It had to be admitted that the Germans had picked a good time.
Britain had gathered large numbers of troops and weapons and equipment for suppression in the Sudan region, making Zanzibar out of reach.
Due to the Berlin Conference agreement, Zanzibar—this land without established colonial rule by great powers—was open for colonialism by all great powers.
The Germans’ actions weren’t unusual; under the premise that they didn’t actively violate the Berlin Conference treaty, Britain had no way to stop them.
Britain could compete with Germany in the Zanzibar region, but it would affect their military actions in the Sudan region.
The Germans’ attitude was clear: let the British choose.
If they interfered with Germany’s colonialism in Zanzibar, Britain’s Sudan colony would become even more chaotic. If they first chose to suppress the rebellion in the Sudan colony, then the situation in Zanzibar would spiral out of control, and the Germans were very likely to establish a colony there, incorporating Zanzibar into their colonial rule.
Facing the aggressive Germans, the British Government didn’t choose to retreat but opted for a scheme to have it both ways.
On one hand, Britain accelerated troop deployments, trying to pacify the Sudan region rebellion in the shortest time.
On the other hand, Britain dispatched a small fleet to the Zanzibar Sultanate to negotiate with the pro-British Zanzibar government, urging them to firmly resist the German invasion.
The Sultan of Zanzibar at this time was Hamad, a pro-British ruler supported by the British Government.
After consulting with the British ambassador, Hamad didn’t hesitate and immediately organized troops to resist German colonialism, engaging in a series of cooperations with Britain, such as purchasing weapons and materials.
The Germans had long anticipated Britain’s actions; knowing the Zanzibar government was pro-British, Germany chose to support anti-British officials in Zanzibar, promoting them as pro-German faction to engage Britain in a prolonged tug-of-war.
The colonial competition between Britain and Germany in Zanzibar was good news for Spain. Without attention from these two colonial giants, Spain’s colony merger plan in the Gulf of Guinea would proceed much more smoothly.
Although there was still France competing with Spain for colonies in the Gulf of Guinea, Spain’s colony merger plan didn’t involve France’s sphere of influence, so the French probably wouldn’t interfere with Spain’s actions, just as Spain wouldn’t interfere with France’s colonialism in West Africa.
In the West Africa region, France and Spain seemed to have a tacit understanding.
Spain focused on the Gulf of Guinea from the Gold Coast to the Congo Territory, while France focused on west of the Gold Coast, north of the Gambia Colony, and African lands.
Of course, France’s colonies also included North Africa’s Algeria and Tunisia, even the Congo Colony in the Congo River Basin, and the Malagasy Protectorate on the East African coast, which was Madagascar in posterity.
In February 1885, Spanish troops officially set foot in the Dahomey Kingdom north of the Whydah Colony.
Faced with the well-prepared Spanish army, the Dahomey Kingdom had no resistance power and was quickly forcibly occupied by Spanish troops.
The Gold Coast Colony and Whydah Colony were thus connected, and Spain promptly merged them into one colony, collectively called the Gold Coast.
On the other side, the Guinea Colony began launching offensives against indigenous nations in the Gulf of Guinea.
Along the Gulf of Guinea coast existed various indigenous nations and tribes. These so-called nations weren’t large in area, some even only 1,000 square kilometers.
Nations of this scale were small countries even in Europe, let alone in vast Africa.
Obviously, when facing Spanish army offensives, these indigenous nations could only be like fish on a chopping board, at the mercy of Spanish troops.
In less than a month, Spain successively signed treaties with indigenous nations in the Gulf of Guinea such as the Kingdom of Calabar, Akwa Akpa city-state, Oyibo Kingdom, incorporating them as protectorates into its sphere of influence.
After nearly occupying all coastal nations in the Gulf of Guinea, the Spanish Government formally announced the merger of the original Gold Coast Colony and Guinea Colony; the merged colonies were collectively called Spanish Guinea Colony, with the capital established at Saint Isabella, and garrison scale increased to 1 colonial division and 12 colonial defense regiments.
5200-word two-in-one chapter, seeking monthly tickets!
