Chapter 245

The end of the Russo-Turkish War did not bring lasting peace to the world; instead, it intensified the competition between the two great European powers, Britain and Russia.

Beyond the fierce rivalry in the Balkans, Russia and Britain also faced significant conflict in Central Asia.

Between the Ottoman Empire and the Indian colonies lay the two nations of Afghanistan and Iran, which were also the sites of the most intense friction between Britain and Russia.

Originally, there were indigenous states further north, such as the Khanate of Khiva and the Emirate of Bukhara, but they had all been annexed by the Russians a few years prior.

Although these indigenous states still existed in name, their administrative and military powers had already been seized by the Russians. This brought Russia's actual sphere of control to the borders of Afghanistan and Iran, with the potential at any moment to seize a colony with a port between the Ottoman Empire and the Indian

Capture a colony with a port among the colonies.

This was absolutely unacceptable to the British, as their Indian colonies were far too close to this territory.

If the Russians were to open up an outlet to the sea in Central Asia, they would inevitably expand further across the region. The Indian colonies would then face the harassment of a giant bear, and the British Empire would not tolerate losing its crown jewel; any topic concerning the Indian colonies was a taboo for the British Empire.

Since Russia intended to expand in Central Asia, the British naturally had to block that expansion.

Because the indigenous states further north had already been annexed by Russia, Britain had no choice but to focus its attention on the only two remaining countries in Central Asia: Iran and Afghanistan.

Because Afghanistan was the closest to the Indian colonies, Britain decided to control Afghanistan first, and then infiltrate its influence into Iran to ensure the Russians would not gain an outlet to the sea in Central Asia.

At this time, Afghanistan was merely a weak indigenous state, having been established for only 55 years.

Britain naturally had no qualms about such a weak indigenous state.

In the latter half of 1878, the British government took the initiative to contact Afghanistan, demanding that the Afghan government receive a British delegation led by the British General Zhang Bolun, and allowing a small British military force to accompany the delegation into Afghan territory.

Such a request for a diplomatic visit was, in reality, blatant intimidation, and the Afghan government was naturally unwilling.

The Afghan Emir Sher Ali Khan directly rejected the British government's proposal, stating that under no circumstances would he allow British troops to enter his territory.

That the demands of the mighty British Empire were rejected by a small indigenous state naturally incited the anger of the British government and even its public.

The British government seized the opportunity to declare war on Afghanistan, and the Second Anglo-Afghan War successfully broke out.

About 40 years earlier, a war had already broken out between Britain and the Emirate of Afghanistan. The reason for that war was much the same: the Emirate of Afghanistan had leaned toward Russia, and for the security of its Indian colonies, Britain had to launch a war against Afghanistan regardless of the cost.

The so-called Anglo-Afghan War was not news worth paying attention to for Europe; after all, a war between a powerful great power and an indigenous state was entirely a one-sided crushing victory.

The only thing worth noting was the potential Russian presence behind Afghanistan; after all, without Russian support, the Afghan Emir could not have so decisively rejected the British government's proposal.

In the eyes of other European countries, it was Russia that had instigated the Afghan Emirate to quickly reject the British proposal, with the goal of causing the British Empire—which had suppressed Russia during the Russo-Turkish War—to lose face.

But unexpectedly, the subsequent development of events soon exceeded the expectations of all European nations.

After British troops continuously invaded their territory from the borders of the Indian colonies, the Afghan Emir soon sought aid from Russia to the north.

Sher Ali Khan had originally thought that Russian troops would arrive quickly, and that his country could be preserved amidst the power struggle between the two great powers.

But the Russian government's refusal was so cold that it left Sher Ali Khan with a heart more dead than ashes, and he soon died in indignation, much like Tsar Nicholas I who had been betrayed in his time.

After the indignant death of Sher Ali Khan, his son Yaqub Khan became the new Afghan Emir.

However, the situation in Afghanistan was already dire; British troops had occupied a significant portion of Afghan land, and Afghanistan's own army was pitifully small, unable to compete with the British forces in a direct confrontation.

The Anglo-Afghan War was also the final major event of 1878; before the war had even ended, time had quickly arrived at 1879.

At the beginning of 1879, the Anglo-Afghan War ended in a total British victory. However, it would take some time for both sides to sign a treaty; after all, the British government could not fully annex Afghanistan, as this would incite even more intense resistance from the Afghan natives and allow the Russians to find opportunities to create trouble for Britain.

The British main objective was to annex a portion of Afghan land into India and strengthen their control over Afghanistan, ensuring the Russians were blocked outside the Afghan border.

Afghanistan had to exist at the very least; it served more as a buffer zone between the British and Russian spheres of influence.

If Afghanistan did not exist, the spheres of influence of Britain and Russia would directly border one another, and the two nations' armies would engage in even more intense clashes at the border, which was something the British did not want to see.

For Afghanistan, this might be the only good thing; at least the country would still exist and would not become a state that existed only in name, like the Khanate of Khiva controlled by Russia.

Britain had gains in Central Asia, and Spain likewise had gains in Southeast Asia.

As mentioned before, the Spanish-owned Philippine colony had two directions for expansion: expansion on the island of Jialimandandao and expansion on the island of New Guinea.

Britain and Russia needed a buffer zone because the British were also wary of the Russian army. Although the Russian army's combat effectiveness was poor, its numbers were irreplaceable and ranked first across all of Europe.

Relying solely on the indigenous troops of India was not enough to resist Russia, and mobilizing domestic troops would disrupt the balance of power that Britain maintained in various regions.

But Spain had no such need. Spain had only one enemy in Southeast Asia, and that was the Netherlands, a country with a small territory and a sparse population.

The Netherlands was similar to Portugal; both were once-powerful nations that had since declined.

It was just that the Netherlands' comprehensive strength was still much stronger than Portugal's. Whether in terms of industry or economy, the Netherlands could rank among the top of all small European countries, and could even be called one of the top one or two small European nations.

Unfortunately, the Netherlands' opponent was Spain.

Given that the distance from both countries' homelands to their colonies was roughly the same, the comprehensive strength of the homeland became particularly important.

Although the Netherlands was strong, it had no power to resist in front of Spain. Currently, the recognized attitude of European countries was that Spain had already restored its status as a great power and generally ranked 6th to 7th among the world's eight great powers.

Such a ranking was already quite high. After all, the status of the five traditional European great powers was hard to shake, and in the eyes of European countries, Spain's current comprehensive strength was second only to the five European great powers, and even stronger than the United States across the ocean.

According to the opinions of mainstream newspapers and major officials in European countries, the world's eight great powers were Britain, Germany, France, Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Spain, the United States, and Italy.

That the British Empire was the most powerful nation was beyond doubt, followed closely by Germany, which had defeated France on the front lines.

If not for the Franco-Prussian War, the throne of the world's second power would certainly have been contested among France, Germany, and Russia, with the French being the most likely to become the world's second-strongest power.

But unfortunately, Prussia defeated France head-on in the Franco-Prussian War, and France naturally withdrew from the contest for the world's second-strongest power.

Russia was of course also powerful, but Russia had first suffered a crushing defeat in the Crimean War, and finally had been extorted by Britain and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in this Russo-Turkish War, so it could only settle for being the world's fourth-strongest power.

France, relying on its own foundation, ranked as the world's third; the four countries of Britain, Germany, France, and Russia were considered the first tier, also jokingly referred to by many European newspapers and the public as the first-class great powers.

After Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire earned the reputation of the world's fifth-strongest power by virtue of its comprehensive advantages in various aspects. But the Austro-Hungarian Empire showed a slight decline compared to the four first-class great powers, and thus could only settle for the throne of a second-class great power.

Although there was some controversy over the ranking of the world's top five, it was generally not too far off.

The rankings thereafter were somewhat controversial, with the biggest controversy being the ranking between Spain and the United States.

However, because the United States had not yet demonstrated its powerful industrial strength at this time, and because the U. . Navy was too weak, most European countries still ranked Spain as the world's sixth, with the United States in seventh.

After all, Spain also possessed an army of over 100, 00 plus the world's fifth-strongest navy, so ranking sixth in the world was not an exaggeration.

Ranking eighth in the world, and thus at the bottom of the great powers, was naturally Italy.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, Spain, the United States, and Italy were known as second-class great powers. Compared to the first four first-class great powers, these four countries had a large gap in industrial, economic, or military strength, and their international status and influence were far inferior to the first four.

But then again, second-class great powers were still great powers, and they still held a huge advantage over ordinary countries.

The Netherlands' industry and economy were certainly quite excellent, but due to the limitations of its land area and population, the Netherlands could ultimately only be a small country.

As long as there was no interference from great powers, Spain possessed an absolute, overwhelming advantage in the colonial competition between Spain and the Netherlands.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Russo-Turkish War and the Anglo-Afghan War had attracted the attention of European countries, Spain also accelerated its colonial plans on the island of Jialimandandao and the island of New Guinea.

In June 1878, the Spanish army stationed in the Philippines openly invaded the Bulongan Sultanate to the south, and it took less than two days to occupy all the land of the Bulongan Sultanate.

A large number of indigenous people here were captured and taken back to the Philippines as labor, or transferred to the Lanfang Republic to the west.

As mentioned before, the Lanfang Republic made its fortune through gold mining. Gold mining required a large amount of labor, and these indigenous people were natural, excellent labor.

After occupying the Bulongan Sultanate, Spain formally bordered the Kutai Sultanate controlled by the Netherlands.

Spain also dispatched a portion of soldiers to be stationed at the border, but did not strictly defend it.

For the Spanish government, they even hoped that the Dutch would take the initiative to attack Spanish colonies. If Spain were to take the initiative to declare war on the Netherlands, Britain, that troublemaker, might interfere in the war.

But if the Dutch took the initiative to declare war on Spain, Spain would have sufficient reason to fight a great war with the Netherlands.

Whether it was a homeland war or a colonial war, Spain had enough confidence to crush the Netherlands. If Britain still wanted to interfere on the premise that the Netherlands had initiated the declaration of war, the several alliances Spain had signed were not signed in vain.

Not to mention anything else, France and Russia alone would be very willing to trip up the British.

If the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy were also willing to support Spain, even if Britain were the world's number one power, it could not face such diplomatic pressure.

In addition to annexing the Bulongan Sultanate on the island of Jialimandandao, Spain also had colonial actions on the island of New Guinea.

The shape of the island of New Guinea was quite special, looking more like a standing dinosaur.

The area of this island was even larger than the island of Jialimandandao; it was the world's second-largest island, second only to the island of Gelinglandao, where most of the land was uninhabitable.

In other words, the island of New Guinea was the world's largest island with large tracts of habitable land, and coupled with its possession of large amounts of mineral resources and other natural resources, it was not surprising that it was targeted by other great powers.

Currently, on this dinosaur-shaped island, there were colonial teams from multiple European countries, including the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Britain, France, and Portugal.

The colonial teams of Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal were generally concentrated on the upper body of the dinosaur, that is, the dragon's head and the upper dragon body.

While the colonial teams of Britain, France, and Germany were mainly concentrated on the lower body of the dinosaur, that is, the dragon's tail and dragon's claws, as well as a small part of the dragon's body.

Besides this, several large islands around the island of New Guinea were also stepped upon by these European countries; for a time, there was actually a trend of European powers partitioning the New Guinea peninsula.

It was just that the colonial teams of each country had only simply established colonial outposts, and no country had announced a large-scale occupation of the island of New Guinea.

This actually meant that these European countries that had sent colonial teams all had hopes of occupying this island, or at the very least, partitioning a portion of the land to establish new colonies.

And precisely because of this, even though the colonial competition on the island of New Guinea was quite intense, these countries participating in colonization did not give up, but instead increased the intensity of their colonization step by step.

If one were to talk about the three most convenient countries for colonizing the island of New Guinea, they would perhaps be Britain, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Britain's Queensland colony, that is, the protruding area at the northeast corner of Australia, was very close to the island of New Guinea, which also gave the British a greater advantage in colonizing the island of New Guinea.

The Dutch were not far behind. The closest point of the Dutch East Indies to New Guinea was only 200 kilometers away; the troops and indigenous population of the East Indies could quickly arrive at the island of New Guinea, and the speed of establishing colonial outposts was the fastest among these European countries.

And then there was Spain.

The Spanish Philippine colony was about 1, 00 kilometers away from the closest point of the island of New Guinea, so compared to Britain and the Netherlands, it did not have much of an advantage.

But Gao Da still attached great importance to colonizing the island of New Guinea. Under Gao Da's instructions, the Philippine colonial government also strengthened its colonization of the island of New Guinea, which meant that Spain's colonial progress on the island of New Guinea was not inferior to that of the Netherlands and Britain.

Of course, there was also the support and cooperation of the Portuguese in this.

Portugal also had colonies in Southeast Asia, but the scale of this colony was relatively small, and its name was Timor.

Yes, it was that East Timor of later generations.

In fact, Portuguese colonists were the first to come to the island of Timor to colonize, and it was these colonists who established Portugal's Timor colony.

But the Dutch followed closely behind; they discovered and colonized the island of Timor, and drove the Portuguese to the east side of the island. This also made Portugal's Timor colony look like a very small and pitiful piece.

Although the area of the Timor colony was small, Portugal also had troops stationed there; after all, it was an official Portuguese colony.

It is worth mentioning that the Timor colony was only about 800 kilometers away from the closest point of the island of New Guinea, which was closer than the distance between Spain's Philippine colony and the island of New Guinea.

This was also one of the reasons why Portugal joined in colonizing New Guinea; they also had the opportunity to get a piece of the pie in this colonial competition.

Coupled with the issue of colonial cooperation that Gao Da had previously proposed to the King of Portugal, Luis, Spain and Portugal joined forces and indeed established many colonial outposts on the island of New Guinea.

Although Spain and Portugal had both experienced decline, when it came to colonization, Spain and Portugal were still the leaders in this regard.

The main reason was that the colonial history of Spain and Portugal was once too glorious; these two countries combined had occupied more than half of the Americas.

Colonizing a small New Guinea island is absolutely simple for the Iberian dual-teeth, which allows Spain to have a colonization pace no weaker than the Netherlands and England, despite the greater distance.

There will certainly be related conflicts among European countries regarding immigration; it is impossible to obtain ownership of colonies by relying solely on peaceful coexistence.

Because there are only the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal to the west of the dinosaur-shaped New Guinea island, the Iberian dual-teeth occupy a huge advantage in colonial competition, beating the Dutch into a steady retreat and even squeezing their colonial strongholds to more distant locations.

In order to ensure the safety of Spain's colonial strongholds on New Guinea island, the Philippine colony dispatched an entire colonial Garrison Commander regiment to New Guinea.

This also intensified the colonial contradictions in New Guinea, and the Dutch also dispatched some troops to New Guinea without the slightest concession, with the very purpose of guarding against the Spanish.

5, 00-word two-in-one chapter, seeking support!

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(End of this chapter)