Chapter 269: West Africa Development Plan

Although the colonial exchange between Spain and Britain was theoretically confidential, the transfer of colonial governments and local garrisons could not be hidden from everyone, at least not from those European nations keeping a close watch on the matter.

As the colonial exchange operation between Spain and Britain officially began, various European countries had their own speculations regarding the secret treaty reached by the two nations.

Perhaps the most frantic among them was the United States, which had been eyeing Cuba for a long time. If Spain was an opponent the United States could barely manage to defeat, then the British Empire was a mountain the United States could never hope to reach.

No matter how exaggerated the industrial and economic development of the United States became, in the eyes of the British, the United States was merely a nouveau riche that could be manipulated at will.

The Banamayunhe had not yet been built, making communication between the east and west coasts of the United States quite difficult.

Do not be fooled by the fact that the distance between the east and west coasts of the United States is only over 4, 00 kilometers; for ships on the east coast to reach the west coast, they must sail around the entirety of Nanmeizhou.

Even sailing along the coast of Nanmeizhou, this is a journey of at least over 20, 00 kilometers. Crossing the Atlantic from the east coast of the United States, passing through the Mediterranean, traversing the entire Indian Ocean, and then heading to the west coast of the United States from the North Pacific is a journey of over 30, 00 kilometers; this is enough to demonstrate the difficulty of communication between the east and west coasts of the United States, and it is also a major reason hindering American development.

After Britain gained control of the Cuba colony, the United States would have to face the British Empire if it wanted to head south to Nanmeizhou. Under such circumstances, it would not be so easy for the United States to dig the Banamayunhe, and even if the canal could be dug, the sovereignty of the Banamayunhe would certainly not be in the hands of the Americans.

More importantly, the United States was about to face a pincer attack from the north and south by Britain. To the north of the United States was the British Dominion of Canada, and to the south, it faced the British Cuba colony and the Bahamas across the sea.

On land, apart from being able to expand into Mexico, the United States had no other direction for expansion. Expansion on the ocean was even more impossible; relying on the Bahamas, the Cuba colony, and Jamaica, Britain formed a solid defensive line that directly blockaded the United States within the Gulf of Mexico.

After losing the Cuba colony, Spain's influence in the Americas would be significantly reduced. However, Spain also retained Puerto Rico; this was Spain's last colony in the Americas and the only proof of the existence of the Spanish colonial empire.

Compared to the economically valuable Cuba colony, Puerto Rico was merely a military base for Spain.

Spain stationed a colonial garrison regiment in the Puerto Rico colony, which would also become a transit point for trade between Spain and the various countries of the Americas.

Although Spain gave up the Cuba colony, this did not mean that Spain would give up its connections with the countries of Nanmeizhou.

There were a large number of Spanish immigrants in Nanmeizhou, and by virtue of their shared roots and origins, Spain could still establish good diplomatic relations with these Nanmeizhou countries.

After all, to put it bluntly, the countries of Nanmeizhou were only small nations; even the most powerful ones, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, would only be considered slightly stronger small nations if placed in Europe.

To protect their independence and stability in a world situation where the strong prey on the weak, they had to rely on the protection of more powerful great powers.

Argentina possessed vast black soil, and Brazil possessed rich coal and iron ore resources; these were all things that Spain needed.

Compared to the distant iron mines of Australia, Brazil's iron mines were closer to Spain and were, aside from Africa, the most promising source of coal and iron ore for Spain to import in large quantities.

Brazil was once a colony of the Portuguese, and Portuguese immigrants were also a population that Spain could introduce.

If Spain could annex Portugal in the future, the unified Iberian Peninsula would become the most influential European power in the Americas.

If the countries of Nanmeizhou could be cultivated into consumer markets and economic partners for Spain, Spain's industry and economy could also develop rapidly as a result.

In the first month after the colonial exchange agreement between Spain and Britain was signed, the British Gambia colony government officially withdrew, and Spanish troops also officially moved into the Gambia colony later that same day, announcing military administration over the Gambia colony, which would continue until the Gambia colony was officially established.

About a week later, the handover of the Sierra Leone colony was also officially completed. The handover of the Gold Coast colony took a longer time, but it was also completed within two months of the treaty's signing.

With Spain's six colonial garrison regiments moving into the three colonies respectively, Spain's colonization of West Africa officially began.

Compared to the Cuba colony, which had long been prepared for abandonment, the Spanish government clearly attached greater importance to the colonization of the three West African colonies.

Especially the British Gambia colony; although located in Africa, it was an excellent agricultural production area. If managed well, it might well become an important food production base for Spain, compensating for the lack of plains in Spain's homeland.

Although the Sierra Leone colony and the Gold Coast were not as excellent as the Gambia colony, they were also colonies with huge development value.

Since Spain had occupied these three colonies, it did not intend to give them up. Even if developing these three colonies meant facing competition from the French, Spain would absolutely not back down.

Regarding the current colonial situation of Spain, the transportation department proposed the Central-West Africa Railway Plan.

The so-called Central-West Africa Railway Plan would start from the South Morocco colony in the north, follow the coast south to connect Spain's three West African colonies, then enter the Central Africa region from the Guinea colony, with the terminus being Spain's Congo territory.

This railway plan was quite exaggerated; wherever the railway reached, Spain could incorporate those lands into its colonial control.

But the problem was that the Central-West Africa Railway would pass through the colonies of the French and the Portuguese; even if the Portuguese were willing, the French would most likely not be.

If the Spanish government could achieve its railway plan, France's dream of colonizing West Africa would be shattered. Spain's railway would block the northward expansion of France's West African colonies, and the land France occupied in North Africa would be unable to connect with its West African colonies.

This was similar to the conflict between Portugal's Pink Map plan and Britain's Cairo-to-Cape Town line; one country had to concede, otherwise, it would face serious disputes or even war.

In order to avoid conflict with France, after the transportation department proposed the Central-West Africa Railway Plan, Gao Da directly rejected the request and made certain modifications to the plan.

Although the name was still the Central-West Africa Railway Plan, the railway would mainly connect the Gold Coast and the Guinea colony as well as the Congo territory, while another section would connect the Gambia colony and the Sierra Leone colony; the two railways would not be connected in the middle, the reason being that there was a French colony in between.

Furthermore, the South Morocco colony and the Gambia colony would not be connected, for the same reason that there was a French colony in between.

Although conflict between Spain and France over West African colonization was bound to break out, for Spain, the later the conflict broke out, the more advantageous it would be for Spain.

Currently, France was still the world's third-strongest power, second only to Britain and Germany, and there was still a significant gap between Spain and France.

As the saying goes, a lean camel is bigger than a horse; even if France had already fallen behind Britain and Germany in industrial development and the Second Industrial Revolution, France was once the hegemon of Europe, and the afterglow of a hegemon could easily crush a non-hegemonic country.

The good news was that among the three West African colonies, only the Sierra Leone colony and the Gold Coast had a French colony between them, while between the Gambia colony and the Sierra Leone colony was a Portuguese colony.

The Gold Coast colony would expand eastward, striving to connect with Spain's Guinea colony. Meanwhile, the Gambia colony and the Sierra Leone colony would expand south and north respectively, striving to connect and become a larger colony.

As for the Portuguese colony in the middle, Gao Da intended to obtain it through purchase and exchange.

In the southern part of the Congo territory, there was still a large area of land that had not been colonized or developed; this land could be ceded to the Portuguese.

Of course, there was a reason why Gao Da was willing to offer this land, and that was the consideration of the Pink Map plan that the Portuguese were about to propose.

If Spain obtained all the land in the southern part of the Congo territory, the Portuguese Pink Map plan would be aborted halfway.

Without the Pink Map plan, the relationship between Portugal and Britain would not be damaged. Compared to those lands in the southern Congo territory, Gao Da preferred to destroy the relationship between Portugal and Britain, creating more possibilities for Spain to annex Portugal.

If Gao Da remembered correctly, one of the important reasons for the abolition of the Portuguese monarchy was that the Portuguese Pink Map plan was directly curbed by Britain.

The angry Portuguese public was very disappointed with the weak government and the King, and this became the fuse for the popular revolution that eventually overthrew the kingdom.

Colonization was the trend of the era; whether they were great powers or small and medium-sized countries, the public was willing to see their government constantly opening up colonies.

Portugal was like this, and the Netherlands was the same.

Only when the domestic situation in Portugal fell into chaos would Spain have the possibility of fishing in troubled waters. If the situation in Portugal remained stable, it would take a lot of effort for Spain to annex Portugal.

Regarding the construction of the West African colonies, the Spanish government attached great importance to it. This was not just talk; the government specifically proposed the West African Colonial Development Plan and planned to invest at least 1 billion pesetas to develop the West African colonies.

The investment of 1 billion pesetas seemed quite exaggerated, but this West African colonial development plan would take 10 years, equivalent to an annual investment of only 100 million pesetas.

Currently, the Spanish government's fiscal revenue was approaching 1 billion pesetas, which actually meant that the Spanish government only needed to invest one-tenth of its fiscal revenue each year to successfully complete this colonial development plan.

In addition to the previously mentioned Central-West Africa railway construction, the Spanish government would go all out to build the Gambia agricultural production area, making Gambia an important food production base for Spain.

If the development of the Gambia colony went smoothly, the Sierra Leone colony would be merged into the Gambia colony in the next few years, so the construction of the Sierra Leone colony would not be a major undertaking, focusing more on maintaining the status quo.

The colonial development of the Gold Coast would focus mainly on the exploration and mining of gold mines. The importance of gold went without saying, and most of the situation regarding the Gold Coast would ultimately have to be in Spain's own hands.

The Gold Coast was not far from the Spanish homeland, and the gold mined here would be smelted on-site and turned into gold to be transported to the Spanish homeland.

To ensure the safety of the Gold Coast and also to help the Gold Coast colonial government control the local gold, Spain would establish an Africa Squadron on the Gold Coast to protect the coastal safety of the Gold Coast and several surrounding colonies.

The Ashanti Empire north of the Gold Coast was also on Spain's list of conquests; Gao Da would not allow a hostile indigenous country to exist north of his gold production area.

After annexing the Ashanti Empire, the scope of the Gold Coast would expand by more than double. Spain also had hopes of discovering more gold in the newly annexed land; the more gold reserves there were, the more currency Spain could issue, which was quite important for the stability of the Spanish economy.

It is worth mentioning that a few dozen kilometers east of the Gold Coast, Portugal also had a small colony, Ouidah.

Calling it a colony, it was actually more like a large colonial outpost. A large gold mine had once been discovered here, attracting a considerable number of Portuguese gold prospectors.

It was precisely because these gold prospectors were continuously entering the colonial outpost that Spain established this small colony.

Because this colony was on the passage connecting the Gold Coast and the Guinea colony, Spain would not give up its claims to this colony.

Portugal could choose to conduct a colonial exchange with Spain or wait for the arrival of the Spanish army.

It was believed that the Portuguese were still sensible; after all, up to now, Gao Da did not wish for a war to break out with Portugal.

This would not only damage the good relationship that the Spanish and Portuguese had finally established but would also affect Spain's plan to annex Portugal.

To properly develop the three West African colonies, at least a million immigrants were needed. The good news was that because of British colonial development, the population of these three colonies was not small.

Spain only needed to immigrate about 500, 00 people to ensure that the West African colonial development plan proceeded smoothly.

Although 500, 00 people were not many for Spain, Gao Da did not intend to bring these immigrants from the Spanish homeland.

In addition to attracting some Spanish and Portuguese immigrants from the Nanmeizhou region, Gao Da also planned to introduce a batch of immigrants from various European countries at a great cost.

Of course, using the Lanfang Republic to attract a portion of Chinese immigrants was also in Gao Da's plan. Anyway, as long as they were not black, yellow-skinned people were within Gao Da's acceptance range; after all, there were a large number of mixed-race yellow and white people in Nanmeizhou, and if Spain wanted to introduce a large number of Spanish and Portuguese immigrants from Nanmeizhou, it had to accept these mixed-race yellow and white people.

Regarding the West African colonial development plan, Gao Da proposed the plan of replacing black with yellow, and replacing yellow with white.

The initial development of the colony required the participation of black people, but after the preliminary development of the colony was successfully completed, Spain would launch a plan to eliminate the black population.

Whether by manual elimination or by expelling these people, in short, in Spain's colonies, black people were not allowed to exist.

Gao Da did not want the future Spain to become the France of later generations; although Gao Da was not racist, his dislike for black people was real.

The process of Spain expelling black people from its colonies was destined to be quite long, and it would also lead to significant conflicts or even wars with black indigenous people and indigenous forces outside the colonies.

However, this was not bad news. Only war could temper the growth of the army, and the Spanish army also needed the experience of war.

Using these indigenous people to let the Spanish army practice and maintain a high level of combat effectiveness to deal with large-scale wars on the European battlefield in the future was also part of Gao Da's plan.

Regardless of whether fighting these indigenous people could improve the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army, letting the Spanish army see blood first could also avoid the wavering of military morale caused by seeing cruel war scenes on the battlefield.

As for the impact of such a plan on the indigenous people, who would care?

(End of chapter)