Chapter 266: Colony Exchange (Part 3)

"Is there any news from the British side?" Gao Da looked at Prime Minister Canovas, who came in a hurry, and asked with a smile on his face.

After using the newspaper to release relevant news, the Spanish government had been closely watching the movements of the British government.

The best result was that the British actively proposed the exchange of the Cuba colony, so Spain could avoid a passive situation while striving for more benefits for itself.

The worst result was that the British had no movement, and Spain could only actively propose the exchange of the Cuba colony to the British government, but it would have to fall into a passive situation; the British pressing the price was certain, after all, the value of the Cuba colony was not low, and if the British wanted to exchange at the same price, they would inevitably have to pay several colonies.

"There is already news, Your Majesty." Prime Minister Canovas also had a smile on his face, obviously bringing a piece of good news: "British Prime Minister Gladstone has already put forward the proposal regarding the exchange of the Cuba colony in the cabinet meeting; perhaps soon the British government will actively contact us."

Gao Da nodded, which could be considered a sigh of relief.

Exchanging the Cuba colony was promoted by Gao Da, but there were also some risks in it; after all, the British government could not follow the plan Gao Da had thought out.

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

Don't look at Russia being able to pose a threat to Britain in the Central Asia and West Asia regions; the reason was that Britain had not invested too much energy in Central Asia and West Asia.

Britain's colonies were all over the world, and their colonial expansion plans were also almost all over the world. Africa and Asia naturally did not need to be mentioned, and even the Americas had the footprints of the British.

From this aspect, it could also be seen that Britain certainly had no small ambition for Cuba, this piece of land. In history, even if the United States would not take it by force, Spain might not be able to hold onto Cuba, this piece of land.

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 take Cuba by force.

But if they could obtain Cuba, this piece of relatively large colony, through peaceful means, I believe the British government would still be very happy.

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

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

Regarding the value of the Cuba colony, Gao Da still had considerable confidence.

In history, during the period when Spain was extremely weak, in order to avoid war with Spain, the United States had proposed the proposal of buying the Cuba colony for 150 million US dollars.

The currency exchange rate fluctuation before World War I was not large; 150 million US dollars was equivalent to 30 million pounds, 780 million Pesetas, which was absolutely not a small figure.

What's more, at that time, the world sugar market had already had a relatively large change; because of the strong rise of the rubber industry, the value of the Southeast Asian colonies had already been displayed, so the Cuba colony was not that important.

In such a situation, 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 was not worth so much money, the Spanish government in history would not have invested more than 700 million Pesetas in military expenditure during the Cuban War of Independence.

As early as before starting the proposal of colony exchange, the Spanish government had discussed the value of the Cuba colony internally.

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

It looked like the land, terms, and cash that Spain obtained were a lot, but in reality, these lands combined were also not very valuable.

Britain's three colonies in West Africa naturally did not need to be mentioned; they stood out for their small scale, small population, and low economic value.

Even if they took down the Trucial States and Oman, these two pieces of land were also areas with more desert and sparse population.

More importantly, these two pieces of land were close to Britain's India colony, and the British might not be willing to cede these two pieces of land. Although these two pieces of land were also not theirs, for the British, this piece of 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, it was even less worth mentioning for Spain's loss. Western Australia was too far from Spain itself; it was completely unrealistic to rely on the mineral supply of Western Australia to support the industrial development of Spain itself.

Spain's industrial development would rely more on coal and iron mines from Africa, and of course, there were also mineral resources from Brazil on the other side of the ocean.

Although the iron content of Brazil's iron ore was lower than that of Australia, 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 Spain itself, Brazil obviously had more hope of becoming Spain's partner in mineral imports.

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

And Western Australia was just a colony; whether it would merge into Australia in the future or exist as Western Australia alone, it had to be controlled by the British government.

Would the British government be willing to let Australia export a large amount 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 would be.

Britain did not hope that a superpower of the level of Britain, France, and Germany would be born on the Iberian Peninsula; this would not only destroy Britain's strategic planning for the exit to the sea in the western Mediterranean but also affect the pattern of the European continent.

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

Currently, the European situation was already quite chaotic, and Britain did not hope that any country's interference would make the European situation become more chaotic, completely destroying Britain's regional balance policy.

Currently, the three most powerful countries in the world were Britain, France, and Germany; in the situation where 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 sparks from time to time. Fortunately, the contradiction between Britain and Russia was also not small, which also covered up the contradiction between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia.

Among these several countries, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russia, and Germany maintained the Three Emperors' Alliance, and Russia also had the intention to be on good terms with France; the European situation was quite confusing.

Spain, as the most powerful European country besides these several countries, on one hand, had an in-law relationship with the Austro-Hungarian Empire and had an alliance treaty, and on the other hand, its relationship with France was also not too bad; the two countries had their own cooperation.

In such a situation, no one could push the next step of the European situation. The Three Emperors' Alliance might continue to be maintained, and it might also split because of the conflict between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia.

The direction of the Three Emperors' Alliance was also directly related to the European situation, because once the Three Emperors' Alliance broke, France would inevitably spare no cost to woo Russia, letting itself completely walk out of the shadow of being isolated.

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

Britain and France had hatred, and France being isolated by European powers together made the British feel very good. But the problem was, Britain and Russia also had deep hatred.

Russia relied on the Three Emperors' Alliance to faintly become a power of the same level as Britain, France, and Germany; the Russo-Turkish War could also see the ambition of the Russians in expanding land.

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

Unless Italy and Spain could lean towards France, Europe would establish a Franco-Italo-Spanish alliance to resist Germany, Austria, and Russia.

Not to mention the strength gap between the two and whether the two major military groups could be successfully formed, just the harm brought to the British by the formation of the Franco-Italo-Spanish military alliance made the British determined to avoid the appearance of such a situation.

The Franco-Italo-Spanish three major powers had a common point, 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 indeed powerful, and France was also not weak at all in this era. Added to the already revitalized Spain and the strongly rising Italy, unless Britain had the help of other powers, facing this military group, it could only retreat three houses.

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 also not Britain's colonies in West Africa, but the 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 stand firm, Spain had 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 piece of land in the Middle East. Even before World War I, Spain did not need to worry that the land it occupied would expose its value.

After experiencing World War I, Spain's strength would also become more powerful. At that time, even if large-scale oil fields were discovered in the Middle East region one after another, Spain did not need to worry that it would not be able to hold onto this piece of land.

And before discovering oil fields, the land in the Middle East, besides the Mesopotamia Plain where Iraq was located, which could be considered fertile, most of the remaining land was desert no-man's land, which did not possess development value at all.

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

Since the Spanish government already had a clear cognition of the value of the Cuba colony, then the subsequent negotiations with the British government had a quite clear goal.

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

As Prime Minister Canovas expected, a few days later, the British government actively contacted Spain, probing Spain's attitude towards the Cuba colony.

The reason why the British government actively inquired was naturally another piece of news released by the Cuba colony, which was that the rebellion was about to be suppressed.

If Spain suppressed 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 greater problems for the Cuba colony, making the Spanish government have to give up.

The one who approached the British ambassador was Prime Minister Canovas. Hearing the probing from the British side, Prime Minister Canovas was not in a hurry, but instead expressed an attitude of being unwilling to give up the Cuba colony.

It was just that Prime Minister Canovas's attitude was also not that firm, revealing a little bit of wind to the British ambassador side.

The British government side did not have too much suspicion, because it had already communicated with the British government; the British ambassador thought that Spain already had the idea of giving up the Cuba colony, but because it was afraid of the opposition of public opinion, it was unwilling to loosen its mouth.

Since Spain already had the idea of giving up the Cuba colony, then the next thing was easy to handle, which was to persuade Spanish Prime Minister Canovas to agree to give up the Cuba colony and open the colony exchange negotiations between Britain and the Spanish government.

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

The British government did not intend to use a threatening attitude to force Spain to give up the Cuba colony, because this might backfire, making Spain firm in its attitude of guarding the Cuba colony, while seriously damaging the relationship with Spain.

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

For the British government's step-by-step probing, Prime Minister Canovas 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 initiative Spain could grasp.

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

After all, the status quo of the Cuba colony was still relatively stable; as long as there would not be big problems, the Cuba colony would not depreciate.

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

If the British government was unwilling to spend a large price, they would certainly choose to conduct the exchange of colonies quickly during the period when the Cuba colony's value was damaged, which was the period when the Cuba colony's situation was chaotic due to small-scale rebellions recently.

The British ambassador was probing step by step, and Prime Minister Canovas was also loosening his mouth step by step. After all, Spain also wanted to conduct colony exchange; if he never loosened his mouth, what should he do if the British government gave up?

Under the cooperation of both sides' willingness, the Spanish government and the British government reached an agreement that British Prime Minister Gladstone and some government officials would conduct a diplomatic visit to Spain in early September, and the two sides would reach negotiations regarding the exchange of colonies in the meeting in early September.

Of course, before the final negotiations ended, the two sides agreed that no news would be released, avoiding any external factors destroying the negotiations between the two sides.

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

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

The Cuba colony, this hot potato, could finally be sent out; although on the surface it looked like Spain would have some losses, after all, the land obtained was not valuable, but the actual loss was not as serious as imagined.

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

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

Especially the land in the Middle East region, 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, then Spain would absolutely make a fortune. Although the surface interest was a loss, relying on 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 opened up a Congo territory with an area of millions of square kilometers; what would it matter if they lost a small Cuba?

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 267 =====