Chapter 279: Naval Development Plan

Although France's attitude during the negotiations was very tough, it was clear that Italy, having returned to the negotiating table, had already gained a considerable advantage.

France had no intention of launching a war against Italy, which meant that the colonial dispute between France and Italy could only be resolved at the negotiating table.

Since Spain was biased toward Italy, no matter what France did, it could only ensure it did not suffer too much of a loss; it was impossible to gain any further benefits from Italy.

Although the negotiations reached a stalemate, with Spain expressing its support for Italy, France ultimately chose to concede.

Both sides agreed to use the land currently occupied by the two countries as a baseline to establish their respective Tunisian colonies.

The French had originally proposed using the central Tunisian region from Gafsa to Gabès in exchange for the coastline from Kairouan to Sfax occupied by Italy.

If both sides could exchange colonies, France would occupy northern Tunisia and Italy would occupy southern Tunisia, avoiding the awkward situation where the two colonies were not connected.

But the Italian government quickly rejected the French government's proposal. Although the Gafsa to Gabès line mentioned by the French was also coastal, it also extended deep into the Tunisian interior.

Not only was there a vast area of the Chott el Djerid salt marsh here, but the south was also a great desert, leaving very limited land for development.

In contrast, the Kairouan to Sfax line currently occupied by Italy had relatively flatter terrain, consisting almost entirely of plains, which was very suitable for developing agriculture or animal husbandry.

Although integrating the colony into one piece was more conducive to colonial development, in a situation where the land value was mismatched, the Italians were certainly more willing to hold onto the Kairouan region.

This also resulted in Italy's Tunisian colony being divided into two parts; the northern and southern Tunisian colonies were not connected, relying only on ports for the transport of supplies.

With the formal signing of the agreement between the two sides, the dispute between the two countries over Tunisia officially came to an end.

For France, they had secured the majority of the Tunisian region, and since these areas were connected to Algeria, it could be considered a not insignificant gain.

For Italy, they had successfully seized two pieces of land in the Tunisian region and successfully established Italy's first colony, which could be considered a good start for their future colonial actions.

More importantly, the southern Tunisia controlled by Italy was connected to Libya, which meant that Italy would occupy a great advantage in the action of colonizing Libya.

France had basically withdrawn from the competition for the Libyan colony. Because if they wanted to colonize Libya, they would have to bypass Italy's colony or cross the desert in southern Tunisia, and the cost of colonization would be enormous.

Of course, the reality was that the French did not intend to colonize Libya either. Although Libya's area was much larger than Tunisia's, Libya's arable land was only 1% of its total area, and the land that could be used for agriculture or animal husbandry was only about one-fifth of Tunisia's land.

This data was quite exaggerated. The total area of Tunisia was only 160, 00 square kilometers, while Libya's total area reached 1. 6 million square kilometers, 11 times that of Tunisia.

Eleven times the national land area only yielded one-fifth of the arable land; this data alone was enough to imagine what kind of country Libya was.

It is often said that the Middle East is a country built on a desert, but the situation in Libya was in no way inferior to the Middle East, and was even more exaggerated than some countries in the Middle East.

It was precisely because it was covered in deserts that Libya had been a sparsely populated marginal zone for a long time, which was the very reason why Tunisia submitted to the Ottoman Empire while remaining relatively independent.

After the peace talks ended, French Foreign Minister Gambetta left without saying goodbye, clearly very dissatisfied with the results of these peace negotiations.

But dissatisfaction aside, France could only accept the results of the peace talks; who told them they could not bear the consequences of launching a war against Italy and Spain?

After Gambetta left, it made the friendly negotiations between Spain and Italy more convenient.

Italy being able to snatch two colonies from the tiger's mouth of France was due in no small part to Spain's strong backing.

Without Spain's firm support, even if Italy could occupy these two pieces of land, they would eventually have to return them under the threat of the French.

The Italian side naturally understood the importance of Spain's backing; Umberto I and Italian Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli had both instructed the Italian Foreign Minister before the peace talks were held that no matter the outcome of these talks, they must maintain good relations with the Spanish government.

Although Italy successfully kept the land it occupied, the subsequent maintenance of these lands still required Spain's support.

Before Italy could gain a firm foothold in the Tunisian region, resisting colonial invasion from France together with Spain was the best choice.

Unless Italy's military strength expanded to the point of ensuring the safety of its own homeland and colonies, Italy would not abandon its good relationship with Spain.

Because both sides had the intention of cooperating, after a brief exchange with the Italian Foreign Minister, Prime Minister Cánovas signed an agreement with the other party regarding colonial cooperation between the two countries in the North African region.

The so-called colonial cooperation was not for the two countries to jointly develop a certain piece of land, but for the two countries' colonies to advance and retreat together in the face of external colonial competition, so as to ensure the safety of the two countries' colonies.

To put it bluntly, it was Spain exchanging its support for Italy's colonization in Tunisia for Italy's support for Spain's colonization in Morocco.

As for colonial conflicts outside of North Africa, such as the colonial competition between Spain and France in the West African region, Italy would not have to abide by this cooperation clause.

This was also the room for maneuver that the two governments left for themselves. Although both countries had various competitive relationships with France in terms of colonization, Spain currently had far more colonies in Africa than Italy.

Although Italy was willing to cooperate with Spain, it was clearly unwilling to completely offend the French for the sake of Spain's West African colonies.

Limiting the scope of cooperation to North Africa ensured that the gap in interests between Italy and Spain would not be too large. Although Morocco had a larger land area, Tunisia had more arable land, which could be considered a balance.

Although he had formally signed the colonial cooperation clause with Italy, Luo Lun did not intend to formulate a plan for invading Morocco.

As for the reason, it was very simple: it was not just France that had its eyes on Morocco, but also the United Kingdom, which seemed to be detached from the European continent but was actually more concerned about the European situation than the countries on the European continent.

Spain and Italy joining forces could contend with France because France's navy could not crush the combined naval power of Spain and Italy, and it was almost impossible for its army to quickly resolve Spain and Italy.

But the British were different. The British navy could easily crush the combined navy of Spain and Italy, which meant that the British could blockade Spain and Italy within their coasts without even deploying their army.

Before their naval power reached the point of threatening the British, or before the British were tied down by other wars, Spain could only temporarily abandon its colonization of Morocco and temporarily bow to the British.

However, temporarily abandoning the colonization of Morocco was not without benefits for Spain. At the very least, Spain could concentrate its energy on developing its West African colonies and facilitate the colonial exchange with Portugal as soon as possible.

As mentioned before, there was an indigenous country in the north of the Gold Coast named the Ashanti Empire, and this indigenous country was precisely the main indigenous force that the British Gold Coast had fought against.

Since Spain had already taken over the Gold Coast colony, in order to ensure the safety and stability of the Gold Coast, it was necessary to conquer this indigenous tribe.

The so-called Ashanti Empire was actually just a loose indigenous confederation, established around the early 18th century.

This indigenous confederation was quite special, managed by an organization called the Council of Chiefs, and the nominal supreme leader was the leader of the Ashanti tribe, who was also the political and spiritual leader of the entire country.

But as the head of state, the leader of the Ashanti tribe had no command authority over other tribes, and all indigenous tribes were equal members.

However, for the stability of the entire confederation, all participants in the Council of Chiefs jointly formulated a code: all indigenous tribes had to swear allegiance to the Council of Chiefs, pay a certain amount of taxes annually, abide by the trade rules formulated by the Council of Chiefs, and hand over the command of a troop during wartime for external combat.

It was precisely this regulation that allowed this seemingly loose confederation to persist against the British Empire until now.

The British possessed strong ships and powerful guns, but these indigenous people were very familiar with the local terrain, and by utilizing the terrain, they caused not insignificant casualties to the British army.

After coming into contact with these indigenous people, the British shifted from the simplest military conquest to a plan of inciting relations between the various states and the most powerful Ashanti tribe.

Facts proved that it was also very effective. Although on the surface the Ashanti leader had no command authority or other power over other tribes.

But the Ashanti leader was always the leader of the entire confederation and could always find opportunities to exercise their power.

Over a long period of time, other tribes in the confederation had more or less dissatisfaction with the powerful Ashanti tribe, which also made the British plan to incite relations achieve certain results.

However, it was clear that after Spain took over the Gold Coast colony, the preparatory work done by the British had made a wedding dress for Spain.

After learning about the situation of the tribes near the Gold Coast from the Colonial Affairs Department, Luo Lun decided to imitate the British policy of inciting relations, continuing to sow discord among the states of the Ashanti confederation and destroying their unity in the face of a strong enemy.

As much as possible, let them have internal chaos first, and then Spain would wipe out the entire confederation in one go.

Compared to the British attitude of divide and rule, Luo Lun did not intend to incorporate these indigenous people into Spain's colonial rule.

Large-scale colonization of Africa would bring a disadvantage, which was the risk of the country becoming "blackened." Historically, France was like this; as a steady stream of black people entered the French mainland, France transformed from a white country into a country where white and black people lived together.

As everyone knows, babies born from black people and all other people are black, which actually means that France is very likely to become a European country where black people occupy the majority or even the vast majority of the population in the future.

Regarding this point, Spain had to be highly guarded. In fact, every race has more or less shortcomings, whether it is the white people who currently consider themselves noble or the yellow people who are currently suffering from oppression, and this is human nature.

But compared to these two races, black people have many shortcomings, and many of them are quite fatal, which is the reason why Luo Lun rejects black people.

First of all, black people are generally lazy and rude. Compared to honestly farming to get food to fill their stomachs, black people prefer simple and brutal ways to obtain income, such as robbery and theft.

When they are the lowest race in the country, their harm is not that great. Once the world begins to value human rights and countries are forced to grant them human rights, the harm of black people will immediately manifest.

When large-scale robbery and theft events occur, it will cause panic and riots in the entire society, and may even cause racial opposition, increasing the risk of national division.

Besides this, the germs carried by black people are also varied. This is not discrimination against black people, but a reality in the true sense.

The sanitary conditions in Africa are extremely poor, whether now or in the future; black people do not value sanitary conditions at all, which also creates various possibilities for the spread of diseases.

At the same time, infectious diseases that everyone talks about, such as AIDS, also spread from Africa.

It is said that the earliest AIDS virus was discovered in gorillas, and as for how such a virus spread from gorillas to humans, one would have to ask what the Africans at that time were thinking.

The consequences of AIDS are already quite serious, but this is not the only disease that has spread from Africa to the world.

Including the Ebola virus, which is quite serious in later generations, these are all fatal viruses with Africa as the source.

Luo Lun will not only not consider incorporating Africans into Spain's colonial rule, but will even consider effectively clearing the number of black people in Spain's existing colonies to avoid the terrible event of African germs spreading to Spanish colonies through contact with black people.

Although frequent wars with these African indigenous people will increase Spain's military expenditure, looking at the bright side, the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army will also increase accordingly.

Wars with African indigenous people are certainly not as effective as regular wars with European countries, but they can also let Spanish soldiers see blood and feel the cruelty on the battlefield.

Currently, the only colony that needs to launch large-scale wars against indigenous people is the Gold Coast; the Congo territory does not need large-scale external expansion for the time being.

The reason is also very simple: the southward expansion direction of the Congo territory has been blocked by the colonial exchange plan between Luo Lun and Portugal, and currently it can only expand to the north or northwest.

But blind expansion is not a good thing; the area of the Congo territory is too vast, and it is also troublesome to manage.

Currently, the number of immigrants in the Congo territory has just broken through 50, 00, and there is no need for large-scale expansion.

It is better to settle down for the time being and concentrate limited energy on other colonies.

At the cabinet meeting after the Madrid peace talks ended, cabinet members voted and passed the Ashanti conquest plan proposed by Colonial Affairs Minister William.

According to this conquest plan, in addition to the two colonial garrison regiments on the Gold Coast, Spain also needed to draw one colonial garrison regiment each from the South Morocco colony, the Congo territory, and the Guinea colony, gathering five colonial garrison regiments to launch a war against the Ashanti confederation.

Five colonial garrison regiments have a force of about 12, 00 people, so conquering a small Ashanti confederation is definitely not a problem.

Of course, preparatory work, such as accelerating the incitement of relations between the various tribes of the Ashanti confederation, is also very necessary. After destroying the internal stability of the Ashanti confederation, the Spanish army's attack can be easier, avoiding more casualties and military expenditure.

Because only colonial troops are used, and the total force is only 12, 00, the military expenditure for this operation is also very small, estimated to be between 15 million pesetas and 25 million pesetas.

This military investment is not much, but if the plan goes smoothly, the area of Spain's Gold Coast colony can double, and the total area will reach more than 100, 00 square kilometers.

This is actually the reason why European countries are keen on colonization. Basically, without too much expense, they can obtain a large piece of land available for development.

You know, the land area of most European countries is only tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, and there is only one country with an area exceeding one million square kilometers, and that is the Russian Empire, whose territory extends to the easternmost end of Asia.

Even Tsarist Russia is very keen on territorial expansion, let alone other European countries with areas of only hundreds of thousands or even tens of thousands of square kilometers.

In addition to passing the proposal of the Ashanti conquest plan, the cabinet meeting also passed a new application from the defense department, which was about the construction plan for new warships.

Several years have passed since the Royal Guanizo Shipyard brought out the design drawings for the Revival-class ironclad, and Spain's major shipyards have not been able to produce a warship design that satisfies the navy.

Spain also has relevant warship construction cooperation with France and Italy, but it is generally focused on the construction of armored cruisers, not ironclads in the true sense.

The so-called armored cruiser, like the battlecruiser that appeared in the future, is a relatively special warship design.

Armored cruisers possess powerful firepower close to that of ironclads, and in terms of firepower, they are definitely at the level of capital ships. But the biggest difference between a cruiser and an ironclad is the construction cost of each warship.

Compared to ironclads, the investment in armored cruisers is lower. This also leads to having to reduce the protection of the armored cruiser when designing the warship to ensure that it can have firepower comparable to an ironclad.

To put it bluntly, an armored cruiser is a cruiser equipped with capital ship guns, and its armored protection capability is only slightly stronger than that of an ordinary cruiser, far behind the ironclads that countries have invested in on a large scale.

This warship was first built with funding from Russia, and its purpose was only to serve as an auxiliary warship for the fleet, providing additional firepower for the capital ship fleet.

But with the decay of Russia, during the Russo-Japanese War, such warships with obvious defects had become Russia's main warships. Because the armor of the armored cruiser was relatively weak, it eventually led to many armored cruisers suffering heavy blows from the enemy during the war.

Under the influence of Luo Lun, Spain's attitude toward the navy is that it does not have to build capital ships, but if it builds them, it must build the best capital ships.

After years of painstaking development, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard finally produced a warship that satisfied the naval military, which is also the reason the military proposed the naval construction plan.

The new warship design is less of a brand-new design and more of a product improved by the Royal Guanizo Shipyard based on the Revival-class ironclad.

Of course, the extent of the improvements is significant. This ensures the new warship design remains world-class and can effectively strengthen the Spanish Navy.

In terms of propulsion, the new warship will use two sets of double-cylinder inverted compound expansion steam engines, with a total of 12 cylindrical boilers, using twin-shaft propulsion, which can provide approximately 7, 00 horsepower under natural draft.

If converted to forced draft mode, it can provide approximately 9, 00 horsepower to the warship, an improvement in power far beyond that of the Revival-class ironclad.

With the power increased, the shipyard can flex its muscles regarding the warship's armor and artillery.

For the main battery, this warship still uses 12-inch 305mm breech-loading naval guns; this cannon is a product of cooperation between Spanish and Austrian military industrial enterprises, with significantly improved range and power.

Although the caliber is the same as the main guns of the Revival-class ironclad, the overall firepower is improved by at least 20 percent.

Next is the armor protection. Because cooperation with Germany has effectively improved Spain's steelmaking capabilities, this ironclad's armor will use Spain's latest special steel plates, with protection capabilities improved by at least 30% compared to previous ordinary steel armor.

Currently, Spain's steel production is more than enough to provide sufficient steel plates for the protection of one warship, which also makes the steel armor thickness in this warship's design even more exaggerated than the previous Revival-class ironclad.

From the ironclad's armor protection capability, one can understand why Spain is not interested in armored cruisers. Although there is not much difference in firepower, an ironclad can withstand the bombardment of several main-caliber guns if it does not hit a weak point.

But an armored cruiser cannot do that. Once hit by the naval guns of an enemy capital ship, an armored cruiser will be either dead or crippled, which greatly affects combat effectiveness.

Back to Spain's warship design. Because of the increased armor thickness, the entire warship's tonnage will reach an exaggerated figure.

The standard displacement alone has reached 9, 52 tons; at full load, the warship's displacement will exceed ten thousand tons in an instant, which is also Spain's first true ten-thousand-ton giant ship.

However, because of the power increase, even though this new ironclad design's tonnage has reached the ten-thousand-ton level, the Royal Guanizo Shipyard estimates the warship's maximum speed can reach about 17 knots.

Overall, this warship's design is not only powerful in firepower, but its armor protection capability is also quite excellent, and its speed is extremely fast.

At full load, this warship can travel a distance of 7, 00 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots, which converts to nearly 13, 00 kilometers, roughly the total distance for Spain to travel to its Philippine colony.

For this new warship design, the navy is most satisfied with the increase in speed. Although the Revival-class ironclad had excellent performance in all aspects, it could only reach about 13 knots in speed, and there was still a gap between it and other European capital ships.

And this latest warship has erased the speed gap; even when fighting against capital ships of powerful nations like Britain and France, there is no need to worry about falling behind in speed.

If Spain can equip a large number of these brand-new warships, there is even hope of challenging the British Navy's status as hegemon.

It is just that the British will certainly not remain indifferent to Spain's behavior of building a large number of capital ships. If Spain insists on building a large number of warships, it will certainly provoke a naval arms race with Britain and even the whole of Europe.

Because they have not built capital ships for a long time, the proposal submitted by the naval department to the cabinet includes the construction of four capital ships.

Unlike the Revival-class ironclad, which cost no more than 500, 00 pounds, the estimated cost of this warship is as high as 530, 00 pounds; added to the shipyard's construction costs, the selling price of each warship cannot be lower than 700, 00 pounds.

This is still the internal price for the Spanish government from the shipyard. If sold to other countries, a large amount of income would have to be added to the 700, 00-pound price.

From the situation where the Revival-class ironclad had no takers, it is enough to understand that it is still very difficult to sell ironclads externally at present.

The cost of an ironclad is too expensive, and major powers have their own construction capabilities, so naturally, they do not need to purchase from outside.

Small countries have tight finances and cannot possibly come up with several hundred thousand pounds to build a warship.

After all, besides the cost of building the warship itself, one must also consider the establishment of the navy and subsequent maintenance costs.

The total cost of a warship adds up to at least one million pounds to start; wanting to build a fleet would cost several million pounds to start.

To put it bluntly, countries that are not of a large scale simply cannot manage current fleets.

Spain's naval strength remained in the world's top eight even during its period of extreme decline; the real reason is precisely that, apart from the great powers, European countries basically do not have any decent naval fleets.

According to the construction cost of 700, 00 pounds per warship, every time Spain builds a latest ironclad, it needs to spend 18. million pesetas.

The naval department requested the construction of four ironclads; the cost of the warships alone is as high as 72. million pesetas. Added to the training of naval soldiers and subsequent maintenance costs, the plan proposed by the navy alone requires the Spanish government to pay nearly 100 million pesetas in funds.

This is just for four capital ships. Equipping these four capital ships with the various auxiliary warships needed for a fleet requires at least another 50 million pesetas in investment.

Even though Spain's finances have clearly improved, it is very headache-inducing for this investment that easily exceeds 100 million.

7, 00-character two-in-one chapter, seeking support!

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(End of this chapter)