Chapter 266: Colonial Exchange (Part II)

"Is there any news from the British side?" Gao Da asked, looking at Prime Minister Cánovas, who had arrived in a hurry, with a smile on his face.

After using the newspapers to release relevant information, the Spanish government had been closely monitoring the movements of the British government.

The best outcome would be for the British to take the initiative to propose the exchange of the Cuba colony, allowing Spain to avoid a passive position while striving for more benefits for itself.

The worst outcome would be for the British to remain silent, forcing Spain to take the initiative to propose the exchange of the Cuba colony to the British government, thereby falling into a passive position. The British would certainly drive the price down; after all, the value of the Cuba colony was not low, and if the British wanted to exchange it for an equivalent price, they would inevitably have to pay with several colonies.

"There is news, Your Majesty." Prime Minister Cánovas also wore a smile, clearly bringing good news: "British Prime Minister Gladstone has already proposed the exchange of the Cuba colony in the cabinet meeting, and the British government may take the initiative to contact us soon."

Gao Da nodded, feeling a sense of relief.

The exchange of the Cuba colony was pushed by Gao Da, but there were some risks involved; after all, the British government was unlikely to follow the plan exactly as Gao Da had envisioned.

The British government of this era was quite greedy in its colonial expansion policy. They were, after all, the most powerful country in the world, and no other country could stop the expansion of the British Empire by its own strength.

Do not be fooled by the fact that Russia could pose a threat to Britain in Central and Western Asia; the reason was that Britain had not invested too much energy in Central and Western Asia.

British colonies were spread all over the world, and their colonial expansion plans were also spread almost globally. Africa and Asia went without saying, and even in the Americas, there were traces of the British.

From this aspect, it could also be seen that Britain certainly had no small ambition for the land of Cuba. Historically, even if the United States did not seize it by force, Spain might not have been able to hold onto the land of Cuba.

Of course, the Spain of this world was certainly more powerful. Whether it was Britain or the United States, they had already lost the opportunity to seize Cuba by force.

But if they could obtain this large colony of Cuba through peaceful means, the British government would surely be very willing.

This was also where Gao Da's confidence lay. As long as the British were willing to exchange for the Cuba colony, this scheme of the Spanish government would not fail.

If the British had no ambition for Cuba at all, Spain would have to exchange it with other European countries or sell Cuba directly to the United States.

Gao Da was quite confident in the value of the Cuba colony.

Historically, during the period when Spain was extremely weak, the United States, in order to avoid war with Spain, had proposed to purchase the Cuba colony for 150 million US dollars.

Before World War I, currency exchange rate fluctuations were small; 150 million US dollars was equivalent to 30 million pounds or 780 million pesetas, which was definitely not a small number.

Moreover, the world sugar market at that time had already undergone significant changes. Because of the strong rise of the rubber industry, the value of Southeast Asian colonies had already been demonstrated, and the Cuba colony was no longer as important.

Under such circumstances, the Cuba colony had a value of at least 150 million US dollars; at this time, the price of the Cuba colony could at least double.

If it were not worth so much money, the historical Spanish government would not have invested over 700 million pesetas in military expenditures during the Cuban War of Independence.

Long before initiating the colonial exchange proposal, the Spanish government had already discussed the value of the Cuba colony.

If exchanging colonies with the British, Spain's conditions were the British Gambia colony, the British Sierra Leone colony, and the British Gold Coast colony, plus Spain's colonial rights to the Trucial States, the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, as well as partial mining rights in Western Australia and cash to make up the difference in value.

It looked like the land, terms, and cash Spain would receive added up to a lot, but in reality, these lands combined were not worth much.

The three British colonies in West Africa went without saying; they were characterized by small scale, small population, and low economic value.

Even if the Trucial States and Oman were taken, these two lands were mostly desert and sparsely populated areas.

More importantly, these two lands were close to Britain's India colony, and the British might not be willing to cede them. Although these two lands were not theirs either, to the British, this land on the Arabian Peninsula had already entered their sphere of influence and would sooner or later be incorporated into the territory of the British Empire.

As for the mining rights in Western Australia, they were even less worth mentioning in terms of Spain's losses. Western Australia was too far from the Spanish mainland, and relying solely on Western Australia's mineral resources to supply the industrial development of the Spanish mainland was completely unrealistic.

The industrial development of the Spanish mainland would rely more on coal and iron ore from Africa, and of course, mineral resources from Brazil across the ocean.

Although Brazil's iron ore had a lower iron content than Australia's, Brazil was also one of the top three countries in the world in terms of iron ore reserves. And because of the advantage of being closer to the Spanish mainland, Brazil was clearly more promising as a partner for Spain in mineral imports.

Of course, another important reason was that Brazil was an independent country and could decide its own trade partners.

While Western Australia was just a colony, whether it merged into Australia in the future or existed as Western Australia alone, it would be under the control of the British government.

Would the British government be willing to let Australia export large amounts of coal and iron ore to Spain every year? Of course not.

For Britain, the stronger Spain's industry was, the greater the threat to Britain.

Britain did not want to see the birth of a super power on the Iberian Peninsula on the level of Britain, France, or Germany. This would not only disrupt Britain's strategic planning for the western exit of the Mediterranean but also affect the pattern of the European continent.

After all, although the Iberian Peninsula where Spain was located was enclosed, it was also connected to the European continent. As long as it was connected to the European continent, Spain could influence the European situation.

Currently, the European situation was already quite chaotic, and Britain did not want any country's interference to make the European situation even more chaotic, completely destroying Britain's regional balance policy.

The three most powerful countries in the world at present were Britain, France, and Germany. In the case that Britain did not actively participate in European affairs, the most intense confrontation on the European continent was the confrontation between France and Germany.

And on the Balkan Peninsula, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia also sparked some friction from time to time. Fortunately, the conflict between Britain and Russia was also not small, which covered up the conflict between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia.

Among these countries, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russia, and Germany maintained the League of the Three Emperors, and Russia also intended to be on good terms with France; the European situation was quite confusing.

As the most powerful European country besides these few, Spain was on one hand related to the Austro-Hungarian Empire by marriage and had a treaty of alliance, and on the other hand, its relationship with France was not too bad, with cooperation between the two countries.

Under such circumstances, no one could predict the next step of the European situation. The Triple Alliance might continue to be maintained, or it might split due to the conflict between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia.

The direction of the League of the Three Emperors was also directly related to the European situation, because once the League of the Three Emperors broke down, France would definitely spare no effort to win over Russia, allowing itself to completely emerge from the shadow of being isolated.

This step was also what the British wanted to see, because the European situation at this time was not favorable for the British.

Britain and France were enemies, and the fact that France was isolated by the European powers together made the British feel good. But the problem was, Britain and Russia also had deep hatred.

Russia, by virtue of the League of the Three Emperors, was vaguely becoming a power on the same level as Britain, France, and Germany, and the Russo-Turkish War also showed the Russians' ambition in expanding territory.

Britain did not want the League of the Three Emperors to continue to be maintained; this would not only destroy the regional balance policy established by Britain but also give the originally evenly matched German and French sides a greater gap.

Unless Italy and Spain could lean towards France, and Europe established a French-Italian-Spanish alliance to confront Germany, Austria, and Russia.

Not to mention the strength gap between the two and whether the two major military groups could be successfully formed, the harm that the formation of a French-Italian-Spanish military alliance would bring to the British alone made the British determined to avoid such a situation.

The three major powers of France, Italy, and Spain had one thing in common, which was that they were all countries along the Mediterranean coast.

Once the three countries of France, Italy, and Spain concluded a military alliance, would Britain still have a say in the Mediterranean?

Britain was certainly powerful, and France was not weak at all in this era. Added to the revitalized Spain and the strongly rising Italy, unless Britain had the help of other powers, it would have to retreat three times when facing this military group.

The current situation was also very clear; relying solely on the exchange of colonies, Spain could not obtain land of the same value as the Cuba colony.

Fortunately, Gao Da's goal was not Britain's colonies in West Africa, but land in the Middle East.

Whether it was the Trucial States or Oman, as long as they could occupy a piece of land in the Middle East and gain a foothold, Spain would have the hope of obtaining a large piece of land rich in oil fields in the future.

The good news was that there was still a long time before oil was discovered in this land in the Middle East. Even before World War I, Spain did not have to worry about the land it occupied being exposed for its value.

After experiencing World War I, Spain's strength would also become more powerful. By then, even if large-scale oil fields were discovered one after another in the Middle East, Spain would not have to worry about not being able to hold onto this land.

And before the discovery of oil fields, the land in the Middle East, except for the Mesopotamia plain where Iraq was located, which was still fertile, the remaining land was mostly desert and uninhabited areas, which did not have the value of development at all.

This also meant that Spain still had hope of obtaining land in the Middle East; even if it could not obtain all of the Trucial States and Oman, obtaining any piece of land would count as completing Gao Da's plan.

Since the Spanish government already had a clear understanding of the value of the Cuba colony, the subsequent negotiations with the British government had a very clear goal.

Such conditions were the bottom line of the Spanish government, which was the goal that must be achieved. On this basis, the diplomatic department also needed to make more efforts; after all, whether it was land, funds, or other terms, the more the better.

Just as Prime Minister Cánovas had expected, a few days later, the British government took the initiative to contact Spain to probe Spain's attitude towards the Cuba colony.

The reason for the British government to take the initiative to ask was naturally another piece of news released about the Cuba colony, which was that the rebellion was about to be quelled.

If Spain quelled the rebellion again, it would certainly not give up the Cuba colony so easily. The British side could only seize this opportunity; if Spain was really unwilling to give up the Cuba colony, they could only secretly cause bigger problems for the Cuba colony, forcing the Spanish government to give up.

The person approaching the British ambassador was Prime Minister Cánovas. Hearing the probe from the British side, Prime Minister Cánovas was not in a hurry, but instead expressed an attitude of unwillingness to give up the Cuba colony.

However, Prime Minister Cánovas's attitude was not that firm, revealing a hint of a opening to the British ambassador.

The British government did not suspect much, because they had already communicated with the British government, and the British ambassador thought that the Spanish side already had the idea of giving up the Cuba colony, but was unwilling to speak out because of fear of public opposition.

Since the Spanish side already had the idea of giving up the Cuba colony, the next thing was easy to handle, which was to persuade Spanish Prime Minister Cánovas to agree to give up the Cuba colony and start the colonial exchange negotiations between the British and Spanish governments.

Spain was different from those small and medium-sized countries or indigenous countries, because Spain had returned to the ranks of powers through reform, so one still had to maintain respect for Spain's strength.

The British government had no intention of using a threatening attitude to force Spain to give up the Cuba colony, because this might be counterproductive, making Spain firm in its attitude to defend the Cuba colony, while seriously damaging the relationship with Spain.

If he offended a power country just after taking office, that would not be good news for Gladstone. The anti-war and anti-aggression policies he advocated would also be completely overturned; after all, even the former Prime Minister Disraeli did not dare to easily start disputes with power countries.

For the British government's step-by-step probing, Prime Minister Cánovas could be said to see it in his eyes and be happy in his heart.

For Spain, the more active the British were in the event of exchanging colonies, the more Spain could grasp the initiative.

Although Spain was the party that wanted to exchange colonies, in such a situation, Spain was not in a hurry.

After all, the current situation of the Cuba colony was relatively stable, and as long as no big problems broke out, the Cuba colony would not depreciate.

Even with the development of the Cuban sugar industry and population growth, the value of the Cuba colony would also grow.

If the British government was unwilling to spend a high price, they would certainly choose to quickly carry out the colonial exchange during the period when the value of the Cuba colony was damaged, that is, the recent period when the situation in the Cuba colony was chaotic due to small-scale rebellions.

The British ambassador was probing step by step, and Prime Minister Cánovas was also loosening up step by step. After all, Spain also wanted to carry out colonial exchange; if it never loosened up, what if the British government gave up?

With the cooperation of both sides, the Spanish government and the British government reached an agreement that British Prime Minister Gladstone and some government officials would pay a diplomatic visit to Spain in early September, and both sides would reach negotiations on colonial exchange during the meeting in early September.

Of course, before the final negotiations ended, both sides agreed that no news would be released to avoid any external factors disrupting the negotiations between the two sides.

After formally reaching an agreement with the British government, Prime Minister Cánovas and Gao Da could be considered to have breathed a sigh of relief.

Next, they only needed to wait for the formal negotiations with the British government to achieve the goal of colonial exchange.

This hot potato of the Cuba colony could finally be sent away. Although on the surface Spain would suffer a loss, after all, the land obtained had no value, but the actual loss was not as serious as imagined.

The income brought by the Cuba colony to Spain was also constantly decreasing; if the military expenditure invested in Cuba every year was counted, the income of Cuba would be reduced by another level.

Although the income of these exchanged colonies was not as good as Cuba's, from the perspective of strategic value, the importance was not necessarily lower than Cuba's.

Especially the land in the Middle East, whether it was the Trucial States or Oman, the value was not lower than the Cuba colony.

If they could obtain these two colonies at the same time, Spain would definitely make a huge profit. Although the superficial interest was a loss, by virtue of the prestige brought to the government by Spain's reform, it could also ensure that the public would not have too much dissatisfaction.

After all, the government had already developed a Congo territory with an area of millions of square kilometers, so what would it matter to lose a small Cuba?

(End of this chapter)