Chapter 267: The Secret Anglo-Spanish Treaty

After the specific time for the diplomatic visit was agreed upon with the British government, preparing for the negotiations with the British government became the top priority for the Spanish government.

Although the current direction of events was within the Spanish government's expectations, this did not mean that the final outcome of the negotiations would be as the Spanish government had anticipated.

As fellow European nations, Spain was naturally well aware of the British government's greed. For the British Empire, if it could not obtain more benefits, the British government would never agree to the terms of a colonial exchange.

Spain hoped to obtain all of Britain's colonies in West Africa during the colonial exchange process, and achieving this was not so easy.

However, the good news was that if Britain withdrew from colonial competition in West Africa, then only Spain and France would remain as countries colonizing West Africa.

Although the relationship between Spain and France was considered good, the possibility of the two cooperating in the colonial development of West Africa was near zero.

Considering the British penchant for being troublemakers, even if the British government agreed to abandon all its colonies in West Africa, it would certainly dig a deep pit for the diplomatic relationship between Spain and France.

Considering France's awkward position in Europe, the deterioration of the diplomatic relationship between France and Spain was very likely to cause a series of changes.

Even Gao Da was seriously considering Spain's diplomatic situation; once the Three Emperors' Alliance collapsed, the classic historical confrontation between the German-Austrian Alliance and the Franco-Russian Alliance would instantly emerge.

Where should Spain go in the confrontation between these two major military alliances? Judging by marriage ties, Spain should logically be closer to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

If Spain obtained all of Britain's colonies in West Africa, this would also deepen the conflict with France. If Spain wanted to fully annex Morocco and control the West African colonies, it would also have to stand in opposition to France or even Britain.

But the problem was that the German-Austrian military bloc, plus Spain, was clearly no match for the five major powers of Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and the United States.

Unless Russia could be made to have a revolution early and Italy could be prevented from switching sides, perhaps a situation of Britain and France vs. Germany, Italy, Spain, and Austria could be achieved.

If such a situation could be achieved, the Americans would certainly remain neutral and would not easily join the war.

While Gao Da was still thinking of a way to break the deadlock, time had quickly arrived at September.

The British government organized a grand diplomatic visiting team and headed to Spain for a diplomatic visit in an open and aboveboard manner.

Such a diplomatic visit was quite rare for two countries like Britain and Spain, whose diplomatic relations were not good, and the diplomatic meeting between the two countries also attracted the attention of many European countries.

Neither country would disclose the content to be discussed before reaching an actual agreement, which led to the media of various European countries speculating on what the two governments were going to discuss during the days the British government visited Spain.

At the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain, Gao Da received the diplomatic visiting delegation of the British government. Facts proved that the British attached great importance to the proposal of colonial exchange.

The new Prime Minister Gladstone appeared in person, along with several cabinet ministers; the scale of such a delegation was already quite exaggerated.

Although Gao Da appeared in person to receive the British diplomatic delegation, Gao Da would not appear in the subsequent negotiations with the British government, the purpose of which was to directly distance Gao Da from it.

Regardless of the results of the negotiations between Spain and the British government, the land Spain ultimately obtained through the colonial exchange would certainly not be comparable to Cuba in terms of current value.

This also meant that the officials who facilitated this clause would very likely suffer public criticism or even verbal abuse. As the King of Spain, Gao Da still had to avoid such a situation.

As long as Gao Da did not participate in the negotiations between the two governments, Gao Da would not have to take the blame for this matter.

In this era where monarchy was rampant in Europe, it was quite common for cabinet governments of various countries to take the blame for their monarchs. Especially when the Conservative Party was in power, the interests of the party, the cabinet government, and the monarch were consistent, and taking the blame for the monarch was also very necessary.

If the monarch's reputation was damaged, or even led to public anger, the monarchical system would be impacted, which was not a good thing for the Conservative Party either.

The Conservative Party was mostly composed of landlords and nobles, and these people were natural royalists. If the monarchical system ceased to exist, the special treatment they enjoyed would also disappear in an instant.

This also formed a tacit understanding among European countries; in such risky situations, the cabinet government must take the blame for the King.

Anyway, the cabinet government relied on elections; at worst, the Prime Minister's position would be dismissed, and then a new election would be held.

Taking the blame for the King was not a political stain; under the propaganda and whitewashing of public opinion, officials could even participate in the next cabinet election and soon return to the government stage.

Prime Minister Gladstone clearly understood the ins and outs of this, and he showed a quite respectful attitude toward Gao Da. After all, both Spain's comprehensive strength and the status of the Spanish royal family in Europe were enough for the British government to maintain a respectful attitude.

If Spain's comprehensive strength were not strong, Britain might not even need such diplomatic negotiations and could obtain the colonies by threatening with military force.

After all, this was an era of the law of the jungle. There was only one reason for the two countries to conduct diplomatic negotiations: they were wary of each other's comprehensive strength and were unwilling to offend the other party unless necessary.

Although Gao Da did not participate in the negotiations between the two governments on the surface, in secret, Prime Minister Canovas still had to report the progress of the negotiations to Gao Da every day.

In the first few days of the negotiations, the progress of both sides was quite slow, and it could even be said to be stagnant.

The British government was no fool; they would absolutely not do a losing business. Even for the British government, as long as they earned less on the colonial exchange, it was no different from a loss.

The Spanish government proposed a plan to divide Australia: Spain would exchange the Cuba colony for the West Australia colony plus Britain's Straits Settlements, and Spain and Britain would establish a buffer zone nearly 50 kilometers wide between the West Australia and South Australia colonies.

Such a proposal was flatly rejected by the British government. Although the West Australia colony did not have much population and had no value other than mineral resources.

But the area of this land was still extremely large, and the mineral resources were countless; Britain had no need to pay for West Australia for a small Cuba.

The Straits Settlements naturally went without saying. There was only one road for East Asian countries to travel to Europe, which was to go south through the Strait of Malacca, cross the Indian Ocean along the coast of India, and then reach the Mediterranean from the Suez Canal.

It was not impossible to bypass the Strait of Malacca, but this would at least increase the journey by thousands of kilometers, requiring at least one or two weeks for a round trip.

The geographical location of the Strait of Malacca destined that the British could not abandon this land; regardless of Cuba or not, this was not something that could be decided by economic value.

After rejecting the proposal put forward by the Spanish government, British Prime Minister Gladstone put forward his own proposal, which was to purchase Spain's Cuba colony with the Gold Coast and Spain's colonial rights to the Brunei Empire, plus 5 million pounds in funds.

If the Spanish government's proposal was still considering the value of the colonies, then the British government's proposal did not consider the value of the colonies at all, and the conditions could be described as quite harsh.

The British Gold Coast possessed a large amount of gold mines, which was also the origin of the name Gold Coast. But the problem was that this land was discovered by the Portuguese as early as 1471, and the earliest European colonial settlement, Elmina Castle, was established in 1482, which had a history of nearly 400 years.

During these 400 years, the Portuguese, British, Dutch, Danes, Prussians, and Swedes all flocked here to trade in slaves, gold, ironware, necklaces, glass mirrors, rum, and firearms, plundering a large amount of wealth and occupying many large and small gold mines.

The Gold Coast had two most famous products: one was the gold produced by the grand gold mines, which was the origin of the coast's name. The other was the local specialty, African natives, that is, black people.

The Gold Coast was not controlled by any one country for a long period of time, but was colonized and managed by many European countries respectively.

However, with the strength of the British Empire, after the British Gold Coast was established, it gradually annexed the nearby Danish Gold Coast and the Dutch Gold Coast, and the Gold Coast also evolved into one of the large colonies under British control.

Because of the many gold mines, the Gold Coast was Britain's largest colony in West Africa, and it also had the largest population.

It was just that these people came from various European countries; the proportion of British people in the Gold Coast was not high, and the largest populations were Portuguese and Dutch.

Although the Gold Coast was rich in gold mines, because European countries had been mining for 400 years, the value of the Gold Coast had been greatly reduced.

The property that various countries could exploit and squeeze had long been shipped back to their own countries, leaving only a few relatively large gold mines still holding on.

But the output of these gold mines was not as huge as imagined, and the relationship between the British colony and the Ashanti Empire in the north was not good, and even several wars broke out.

The main condition put forward by the British was the Gold Coast, plus Spain could carry out colonial infiltration into Brunei. Although 5 million pounds of funds was not a small amount, if compared with the Cuba colony, then 5 million pounds was nothing.

Such conditions were slightly shabby compared to the Cuba colony. From this aspect, one could also see the greed of the British; they were really unwilling to pay any great price and wanted to get something for nothing, obtaining Cuba with very little benefit.

Fortunately, Spain had sufficient strength at this time, and Britain did not dare to directly fall out with Spain. Both sides could only sit at the negotiating table to negotiate, which was also beneficial to Spain.

Because Spain had many choices, since it was a losing sale anyway, why not sell it to a country with a better attitude?

Gao Da also had full confidence in this regard. If the British government was really unwilling to reach a cooperation, Spain was not without backup options.

Either sell the Cuba colony to France and let France tacitly approve Spain's annexation of Morocco. Or sell Cuba to Germany or the United States; Germany could provide the industrial technology and some technical personnel that Spain needed, while the Americans could provide sufficient funds, which were also what Spain needed.

When the negotiations between the two sides were in a stalemate, before the British government could take any action, news broke out on the Spanish side that made the British government's face change drastically: the Spanish government had a plan to visit Berlin diplomatically and was considering it.

The British government naturally understood that this news was actually released by the Spanish government. The purpose of releasing this news was naturally to remind and threaten the British.

The Spanish government was openly telling the British government that Spain was not the only country it could cooperate with; all European powers were within the scope of Spain's cooperation.

It did not matter who the Cuba colony belonged to; what mattered was that if Spain were completely pushed to Germany because of this incident, wouldn't France be completely diplomatically isolated by Germany?

The threat from Germany itself was already great, and the British government was considering helping France win over Russia to form a Franco-Russian Alliance to resist the threat from Germany.

If Spain ran to Germany's side, how could the Franco-Russian Alliance play? France would be directly caught in a pincer attack by Spain and Germany, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire's army could also bypass Switzerland to attack France's border.

Don't forget that there was also Italy, a country at the level of a great power; although its army strength was not strong, it could still contain 300, 00 to 500, 00 French troops.

If Spain really leaned toward Germany, then the European situation would be unplayable. Unless the British were willing to personally enter the field to help France, but the problem was that Britain's army was not strong either.

For the British government, it must prevent Spain from leaning toward Germany at all costs. Spain must either remain diplomatically neutral or temporarily lean toward the French side.

Unless the Three Emperors' Alliance collapsed, the British did not want France's situation to be too disadvantageous.

What worried the British even more was that if Spain leaned toward Germany, Germany would have won over four of the seven great powers on the European continent—Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Italy, and Spain—forming an alliance of the five great powers of Germany, Austria, Russia, Italy, and Spain.

In such a situation, what business did the British have in the European situation? No matter how strong Britain was, it could not fight five, let alone count on France alone to resist the union of the five great powers.

This also meant that the British government must make some concessions, at least the conditions could not be too harsh, to avoid Spain leaning toward the Three Emperors' Alliance when it was extremely dissatisfied with Britain.

With such a small episode, the conditions put forward by the British government the next day became much more generous.

On the basis of the British Gold Coast, the British added the British Gambia colony, and at the same time increased the financial compensation from 5 million pounds to 10 million pounds.

According to the cost of 500, 00 pounds for an ironclad ship in this era, 10 million pounds was enough for Spain to build 20 of the latest types of ironclad ships, which was definitely not a small number.

If converted into pesetas, 10 million pounds also had a value of 260 million pesetas, which was more than a quarter of Spain's total annual fiscal revenue.

Although the British government increased its conditions, such conditions clearly could not satisfy Spain's appetite.

Prime Minister Canovas put forward more demands, such as the Sierra Leone colony sandwiched between Britain's two colonies, as well as more land requirements.

Spain could abandon the colonization of Brunei, but Spain should logically obtain a larger area of land to avoid public anger caused by the loss of colonies.

The negotiations continued for several more days after this, and finally led the topic to the land in the Middle East.

For the British, the land in the Middle East was not only large but also of little value. More importantly, this land was not in their own hands, and promising the land in the Middle East to the Spanish was not a loss for the British.

It was precisely because of this that Britain and Spain quickly reached an agreement.

Spain exchanged the Cuba colony for Britain's Gambia colony, Sierra Leone colony, and the Gold Coast, and at the same time, the British government allowed Spain to launch colonial actions against Oman in the Middle East.

The British government would also pay the Spanish government 5 million pounds in financial compensation, and the colonial exchange between the two sides would be completed within the next three months. Only after all delivery work was completed would the two governments consider making the news of the colonial exchange public.

(End of chapter)