Chapter 272: Death of the Tsar

After the Spanish government fully mobilized Portugal's desire to merge the West African and Mozambique colonies, the Spanish government occupied the initiative in the negotiations.

It is worth mentioning that the current Portuguese King Luis also contributed to the colonial exchange negotiations between the two countries.

As the King of Portugal, Luis could not resist the temptation of expanding territory and obtaining a large colony comparable to Brazil.

Even for Gao Da, he also could not resist the temptation of expanding territory. This could not only effectively enhance his reputation as a king and stabilize his throne, but also bring him visible actual benefits.

The fundamental reason why European countries are keen on developing colonies is that the benefits brought by colonies are quite considerable.

For those colonies that do not have much benefit, the governments of various countries would abandon the development of the colonies and transfer limited energy to those lands with more value.

Spain can still choose among multiple colonies, while Portugal only has these two colonies that are still of considerable scale; the other colonies are small and basically have no great development value.

Under the secret guidance of the Spanish government and the vigorous promotion of the Portuguese King Luis, Spain and Portugal reached an agreement regarding colonial exchange.

Spain will stop colonizing the land south of the Congo Basin in the next few years and will fully support Portugal in conducting colonial development in this region.

The Congo Basin and the region to the south have indigenous tribes and countries of various sizes. After Portugal occupies any one of these indigenous countries, it should begin the colonial exchange with Spain.

Overall, Spain will exchange all the land south of the Congo Basin for Portugal's several colonies in West Africa.

The land Portugal gives up includes Portuguese Jin Shaoer, Portuguese Guinea, Portuguese Weida, and Portuguese Sao Tome and Principe.

It can be said that except for Cape Verde, Portugal has given up all its land in West Africa, pinning all its hopes on the merger of West Africa and Mozambique.

The reason why Portugal is willing to give up so much land actually has its reasons.

First, the lands Portugal gives up are all small colonies, and there are colonies of other Great Powers in the surrounding areas, making it very difficult to expand or develop deeply.

Secondly, Portugal's land area and population are limited, and the experience of developing colonies is also limited.

Even Spain cannot develop several colonies at the same time, let alone Portugal, whose population is only one-fifth of Spain's.

For Portugal, it must prioritize the development of the West African colonies and the Mozambique colony. On this basis, it is not strange that Portugal is willing to give up several colonies in West Africa.

It is just that the geographical location of Cape Verde is still important, and Portugal is unwilling to give up all West African colonies at once, which is why Portuguese Cape Verde was retained.

For Spain, such a land exchange agreement is completely acceptable. After Portugal occupies any indigenous country south of the Congo Basin, Spain can receive Portugal's colonies in West Africa one by one.

Especially Portugal's Guinea and Jin Shaoer colonies, which can be directly merged with Spain's Gambia colony. The area of the merged Gambia colony will also reach over 70,000 square kilometers, which is completely enough to be built into Spain's granary.

Considering that Spain's major actions in the West Africa region will attract the attention or even fear of the French, Gao Da also specifically requested the Portuguese government to keep the agreement reached by both sides as confidential as possible before the colonial exchange is completed.

This is exactly what the Portuguese King Luis thought. Compared to Spain annexing Portugal's West African colonies, Portugal colonizing the land south of the Congo Basin is more difficult.

The Portuguese side does not want to create extra complications. If it can be kept confidential, it can naturally create more opportunities for Portugal to promote the merger of the two colonies.

The good news is that the occurrence of an international major event immediately attracted the attention of all countries in Europe. The small actions between Portugal and Spain were naturally ignored by other European countries.

What is this international major event? Of course, it is the incident of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II that broke out within the chaotic Russia.

For this Tsar, the evaluation of later generations and the current evaluation are completely different. Later generations praise Alexander II as a reformer and admire that Alexander II's reforms extended Russia's life for decades.

But in Russia at this time, because Russia did not obtain much battle results in the Russo-Turkish War, Alexander II's reputation had already suffered invisible damage.

Those who were dissatisfied with the government transferred their hatred to Alexander II and crazily launched assassination attempts against him one after another.

It has only been a few years since the end of the Russo-Turkish War, and the number of assassination attempts Alexander II has encountered has already broken into double digits.

Even though Alexander II has various precautions, the enemies' assassinations are also constantly changing patterns.

Sometimes they bury explosives under the railway tracks where Alexander II's special train travels, sometimes they throw bombs at the Winter Palace where Alexander II lives, and sometimes they use firearms to ambush the travel convoy where Alexander II is located.

As early as 1880, the Winter Palace where Alexander II lived suffered serious damage. The St. Petersburg police caught 17 suspects related to the assassination; these 17 people were directly sentenced to hanging, and their friends and families were also permanently exiled to the remote Siberia.

Such cruel sentencing not only did not make these assassins retreat, but instead triggered revenge again and again.

Finally, Alexander II was assassinated after all. Although the St. Petersburg police strengthened the protection forces around the palace, and the Tsar's Imperial Guard also dispatched troops to be stationed inside the Winter Palace.

When the accident came, it was always so sudden; Alexander II was blown to death in a way he had never thought of.

On March 13, 1881, Alexander II took a carriage from the palace to the government, preparing to attend a routine meeting.

But this itinerary was leaked early. When the convoy arrived at a street corner, a bomb was suddenly thrown under the carriage of Tsar Alexander II.

The good news is that this bomb did not cause any injury to the Tsar. The bomb did not even overturn the carriage; besides delaying a little time, it seemed that this assassination had no effect.

But Alexander II could not laugh for long. When he angrily walked towards the assassin caught by the guards, another bomb was thrown directly at Alexander II.

Alexander II, without the protection of the carriage, was not as lucky as last time. The bomb exploded quickly, and Alexander II was also affected by the aftermath of the bomb, suffering serious injuries.

Fortunately, Alexander II remained conscious; he was not blown to death directly by the bomb.

Unfortunately, the injuries caused by the bomb were simply not something that the medical technology of this era could solve. Alexander II remaining conscious became a kind of torture at this time; he had to endure the pain after being bombed, feel his body gradually weaken, and finally slowly lose consciousness.

When European countries received the news, the time had already reached the second day of the assassination, which was March 14.

For European commoners who believe in God, 13 is really an unlucky number. Alexander II also died on the date of 13; perhaps sometimes it has to be attributed to destiny.

As a monarch of a European Great Power, Alexander II's death received the attention of European countries.

For Austria, the death of Alexander II, who stood on reform, is definitely good news. Russia's reforms were not thorough to begin with, and after the emperor who pushed for reforms passed away, the role that reforms could play would naturally be even lower.

Don't forget, Russia still has a large number of nobles. Abolishing serfdom had already made Alexander II offend many Russian nobles; would the new Tsar still risk continuing to offend the nobles to advocate Alexander II's reforms?

The Tsar's funeral was held grandly in St. Petersburg; basically all European countries dispatched envoys to participate in the Tsar's funeral.

Russia is after all still one of the most powerful countries in this world; the death of the Russian Tsar is definitely big news that can shake Europe, especially the way of death by assassination.

Of course, compared to the deceased Tsar Alexander II, European countries are more concerned about the attitude of the new Tsar Alexander III.

Russia is an autocratic country of the Tsar, and the Tsar possesses unparalleled power. After the replacement of the Tsar's throne, will Russia's diplomatic attitude usher in changes?

Originally, the relationship between Russia and Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was already confusing; European countries were all guessing whether the Three Emperors' Alliance formed by Germany would break.

Right now, the replacement of Russia's monarch undoubtedly makes the direction of the Three Emperors' Alliance even more unpredictable. Whether the Three Emperors' Alliance exists or not also relates to whether the European situation can achieve long-term peace.

European countries are all guessing, but Gao Da, as a transmigrator, naturally knows the changes in Russia after this.

If Russia could persist in Alexander II's reforms, or even have the courage to deepen the reforms and push for Russia's comprehensive reforms, Russia's combat effectiveness might be able to double.

But unfortunately, because of his father's rather painful and tragic ending, the succeeding Tsar Alexander III showed an ambiguous attitude towards reform.

He still supported his father's reforms, but was afraid that he would also be assassinated like his father.

Even the coronation ceremony was postponed until two years later, which is also relatively special among all countries in Europe.

Generally speaking, after succeeding as king, one would hold a coronation ceremony within a year. Although one is already the king of the country after obtaining the throne, the role of the coronation ceremony is to strengthen the legal principle and declare the legitimacy of one's rule.

Alexander III waited two years to hold the coronation ceremony; from this aspect, one can also see that he was truly afraid of assassination.

Mainly, this kind of assassination is hard to guard against; assassins will launch assassinations in various ways, and people will always have a day of relaxation.

Out of etiquette, Spain dispatched the Minister of Foreign Affairs as a representative to participate in Alexander II's funeral. Because the Spanish royal family and the Russian royal family have no relationship, Gao Da naturally does not need to rush to the scene of Alexander II's funeral in person.

Spain dispatching the Minister of Foreign Affairs, besides participating in Alexander II's funeral, actually also wanted to reiterate the previous cooperation with the Russian government to ensure that the cooperation between the two countries would not be affected by the replacement of the Tsar.

What cooperation does Spain and Russia have? Of course, it is about cooperation in immigration.

Although after the end of the Russo-Turkish War, Russia stopped purchasing Spain's weapons and equipment. But Spain did not stop the action of introducing immigrants from the Russian side.

Because Spain introducing immigrants requires paying real gold and silver currency or other valuable industrial products and technical data, Russia is also very willing to continue to reach cooperation with Spain.

In the two years since the end of the Russo-Turkish War, Spain has cumulatively introduced over 50,000 immigrants from Russia, most of whom were transferred to Spain's colonies to engage in agricultural work.

It must be admitted that Russian farmers are also good hands at agricultural work. They have the characteristics of high stress resistance, being easily satisfied, and not easily resisting, and are one of the groups easiest to rule across the entire Europe.

In the situation where the Spanish mainland cannot bear large-scale outward migration, introducing Russian immigrants has become Spain's only choice, and also the most suitable choice.

A few days after the diplomatic representative went to St. Petersburg, good news came back, which is that the Russian government will not change its diplomatic policy in the short term, and Spain can still continuously introduce immigrants from Russia in the next few years.

This is of course good news; after all, Spain's development of the West African colonies in the next few years requires a large number of immigrants. Not all work is suitable for the indigenous people of the colonies to do; a portion of the work still needs to be done by proper European immigrants.

The indigenous people in West Africa only need to be cheap labor; their main use is to do that heavy physical labor with high mortality rates, while other work is to be left for immigrants.

After confirming that the Russian government's diplomatic attitude will not have major changes, Gao Da is even more curious about Germany and Austria's attitude towards Russia.

Will the Three Emperors' Alliance continue? Or is Russia leaning towards France, with the two major military groups forming ahead of schedule and colliding more intensely?

To clarify this point, Kaluo requested the Royal Security Intelligence Agency to pay close attention to the movements between the governments of Germany, Russia, and Austria. Once the three governments met in private, it would signify that the Three Emperors' Alliance was very likely to continue, as neither Germany nor Russia had any intention of leaving the Three Emperors' Alliance.

If there is no private meeting between the three governments, and even the governments of Germany and Russia have no communication, perhaps the Three Emperors' Alliance is not far from dissolution.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 273 =====