Chapter 284: The Three Emperors' Alliance Re-signed

The place that naturally received the largest number of Ashanti natives was Spain's Gambia colony.

As a key colony for agricultural development in Spain's West Africa development plan, the Gambia colony required a massive labor force to clear land and maintain the operation of plantations.

The land cleared by these native laborers would be used to attract more European immigrants; only by increasing the number of European immigrants in the colony could its stability be maintained.

Of course, some European immigrants did engage in farming, but they were a very small minority. Most people could obtain certain loans from Spain's two major official banks, and using this money to hire low-cost native labor to open a farm or plantation was certainly more profitable than farming it themselves.

Naturally, agricultural planting was not the only path for European immigrants. Immigrants with more substantial capital could go to prospect for minerals; if they encountered high-value mineral deposits, their wealth could multiply several times over, or they could even become millionaires in an instant.

There was also engaging in commercial activities and the like; these jobs, which could earn more money and were easier, were what European immigrants, especially Spanish immigrants, should be doing.

As more and more Ashanti natives were shipped away, the other tribes of the federation finally sensed that something was wrong.

Although the Spanish army had not launched an attack on them, Spain's ruling strategy in Ashanti made it clear that they would not let the matter rest easily.

Several larger tribes gathered once again, attempting to rebuild the Council of Chiefs and discuss how the federation should continue to exist now that the Ashanti tribe was gone, while avoiding war with Spain as much as possible.

The actions of these larger tribes drew high attention from the Gold Coast colony. To dispel the doubts of these natives, the Gold Coast colony made a major decision: to launch a war directly against these natives.

The reason for launching the war was easy to find; in fact, whether there was a reason or not was not that important.

A few days later, the Gold Coast colony used the excuse that the Ashanti Federation had harbored a large number of Ashanti soldiers during the time Spain launched its war against the Ashanti tribe, and directly launched a war against the Ashanti Federation.

The various tribes of the federation, lacking sufficient preparation, experienced the same panic and terror that the Ashanti chief had felt half a month prior; they were terrified that they would follow in the footsteps of the Ashanti chief, not only having all their family members slaughtered by the Spanish, but also seeing their tribes, which had been passed down for hundreds of years, perish as a result.

The Spanish army's decision-making for the attack was the same as the previous attack on the Ashanti tribe, focusing on the principle that speed is the essence of war, striving to resolve these native tribes in the shortest possible time.

In a short period, these native tribes could not gather many hands. The transmission of information required time, and the mobilization of manpower in these native tribes also required time.

And this period was the golden window for the Spanish attack. Because the various tribes had not yet reacted, the Spanish army could defeat them one by one, without worrying about these tribes forming a federal army to resist the Spanish offensive.

As long as the chiefs of these tribes were controlled, it was equivalent to controlling these native tribes. Native chiefs were all afraid of death; as long as they did not want to lose their lives immediately, they had no choice but to cooperate with the Spanish colonial government.

It is worth mentioning that the first target of the Spanish army's attack was the very tribe that had escorted the Ashanti chief to the Spanish-controlled area half a month ago.

At that time, Spain had rewarded the chief of that tribe with a large amount of food, which had also put the other chiefs of the federation at ease, believing that they and their tribes had been spared.

Little did they expect that this was merely a stalling tactic by Spain. After Spain had completely controlled the situation of the Ashanti tribe, the butcher's knife was still swung toward these remaining tribes.

The panicked tribal leaders immediately gathered the natives of their tribes, intending to form a federal army once again to resist the Spanish colonial offensive.

But they forgot one important thing: when facing the British colonial invasion previously, they had only handed their armies over to the federation's ruler, the Ashanti chief, and by managing their own tribes well, they could ensure the safety of the entire federation.

But now, the federation's ruler was gone, and the major tribes had been unable to decide on a new Great Chief for the federation.

Without unified and effective management, even if these tribes were willing to send troops to resist the Spanish colonial invasion, it was destined to be in vain.

The final result of lacking a leader was that each tribe fought for itself; without a unified command, the first choice for the troops sent by each tribe was to protect their own tribe, as these native soldiers' families all lived in their respective tribes, and they could not be indifferent to the safety of their own families.

This also gave Spain the opportunity to defeat them one by one. Even the largest of the remaining tribes of the Ashanti Federation only had a population of a few hundred thousand, and the smaller tribes had only a hundred thousand or even less than a hundred thousand people.

Under such circumstances, tribes fighting on their own could not possibly rely on their own strength to resist the Spanish army's offensive.

In less than a day, the large tribe closest to the Ashanti tribe was successfully occupied by Spain.

This was like knocking over dominoes; in the following week, several tribes were conquered by the Spanish army, including two tribes whose scale reached hundreds of thousands of people.

In just one short week, more than half of the Ashanti Federation's large tribes had been conquered by Spain. All the remaining tribes combined did not have as many people as the Ashanti tribe.

This also represented one thing: that Spain's full occupation of the Ashanti Federation's land had become a future that was not far off.

For the remaining tribes to continue staying on this land, their destruction was only a matter of time.

Among these natives, there were not a lack of smart people. Under the general trend of the federation's continuous defeats, some tribes chose to flee directly into the forests further north to avoid the Spanish army's offensive.

This was a difficult choice for these natives. The Ashanti Federation was already in the interior of the Gold Coast, and their tribes were in the northernmost part of the federation, which was the reason why the Spanish army had not yet attacked the land where their tribes were located.

If they fled further north, there would not be much land left to survive on. Because further north was the vast Sahara Desert, which was a sparsely populated desert with an area of more than 9 million square kilometers.

However, they had no choice if they did not flee. The Spanish army would not give them more time; besides continuing to flee north, these tribes could only wait for death where they were.

As for the directions of east or west, they were likewise not within the consideration of the native tribes. Because native forces also existed in these two directions, rashly leading the tribe there would very likely result in their tribe being swallowed up by other native forces.

Although European colonists were the common enemy of African natives, this did not mean that different African ethnic groups would join hands to resist the European colonists together.

Even let alone different African ethnic groups, even different native tribes under the same ethnic group were highly unlikely to unite to resist foreign invasion.

It must be admitted that the choice of these native tribes fleeing north was indeed successful. Although there were native forces existing north of the Ashanti Federation, compared to the native forces to the east and west of the Ashanti Federation, the native forces in the north were not as powerful.

The Spanish army also knew when to stop; after fully occupying the land that originally belonged to the Ashanti Federation, they did not intend to attack the Gongjia Kingdom further north.

Although the strength of the Gongjia Kingdom was even weaker than the Ashanti Federation, Spain's continuous acts of war would certainly cause panic among these nearby native countries.

Under normal circumstances, they could not unite together, but under the oppression of a strong enemy like Spain, it might really cause these native countries to unite to resist the Spanish colonial invasion.

This would be more trouble than it was worth for Spain. Plus, dealing with the millions of people in the Ashanti Federation would still take some time, so the Spanish army did not intend to set foot on land outside the Ashanti Federation, at least not in the short term.

This annexation of the Ashanti Federation had already expanded Spain's Gold Coast colony by nearly double the land, and the time ahead needed to be spent digesting it properly.

Of course, it was also very necessary to prospect for minerals extensively on the land of the Ashanti Federation. Whether it was gold mines or other mineral resources, Spain would not let any of them go.

If one or two large gold mines could be discovered, that would certainly be better, as gold, besides its extremely expensive value, also represented the stability of Spanish currency.

Regarding the handling of the population of the other tribes of the federation, the Gold Coast colony government still adopted the old method. The elderly and children of the entire federation combined also numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and Spain would not show the slightest mercy to these natives who could not generate economic value.

As for the remaining adult natives, they still had relatively high economic value. As long as they did not court death, the Gold Coast colony government was happy to retain this labor force and let them create greater value elsewhere.

Not long after the Spanish government took the Ashanti Federation, two major events occurred internationally in succession.

The first major event was the re-signing of the Three Emperors' Alliance.

As mentioned before, since the Russo-Turkish War, the relationship between Germany and Russia had dropped to freezing point. Alexander II even almost tore up the Three Emperors' Alliance treaty and chose to form an alliance with France to oppose Germany.

Following the assassination of Alexander II, the Russian government also became low-key in terms of diplomacy. This also allowed the German Chancellor Bismarck to see an opportunity; if possible, he still wanted to repair the relationship with Russia and continue to maintain the Three Emperors' Alliance.

Not long after Alexander II was assassinated, German Chancellor Bismarck summoned the Russian ambassador to Germany and expressed Germany's attitude of wanting to maintain friendly relations with Russia.

The Russian government, which was in need of a stable environment at this time, immediately seized the olive branch thrown by Bismarck. The Russian government did not want to tear up the Three Emperors' Alliance treaty; by continuing to stay under the Three Emperors' Alliance, Russia could maintain long-term stability.

With Germany having the sentiment and Russia having the intention, the relationship between Germany and Russia also moved closer rapidly.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire also saw the repair of the relationship between Germany and Russia; furthermore, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had already taken the Bosnia and Herzegovina region after the Russo-Turkish War, so the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also willing to repair its relationship with Russia, after all, Germany had already expressed a clear attitude of winning over Russia.

Just like that, the Three Emperors' Alliance was established once again.

The diplomatic ambassadors of the Russian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire held a cordial talk with German Chancellor Bismarck in Berlin and re-signed an alliance agreement.

This alliance agreement made certain modifications to the previous alliance agreement regarding the three countries, and overall, it was one that the governments of all three countries were relatively satisfied with.

The treaty stipulated that when any one of the countries concluding the alliance treaty was at war with a fourth country, the other two contracting countries should maintain benevolent neutrality and try their best to localize the conflict.

The so-called localization of conflict was also easy to understand, which was to avoid the outbreak of large-scale multi-country wars.

In fact, this was also the lesson learned by the three countries from France launching the Tunisia War. Even though France had made full preparations, it still ended up being taken advantage of quite a bit by the Italians.

The real reason the Italians could take advantage was precisely due to the support from the Spanish; the intervention of great powers would play an extremely important role in the war.

Localizing the conflict could ensure that the three countries of Germany, Russia, and Austria did not have to worry about the intervention of other great powers in the war. After all, one's allies were not fake; when the war was interfered with by other great powers, one's allies could likewise intervene, ensuring that one would not be isolated in peace negotiations.

The second provision was that any change regarding the Ottoman Empire's territory in Europe required the common agreement of all contracting countries to be permitted.

The main purpose of this provision was to alleviate the conflict between Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Ottoman Empire's only territory in Europe was the Balkan Peninsula, which happened to be eyed by both Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Since they wanted to maintain the Three Emperors' Alliance, Germany certainly could not favor the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the conflict between Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Russian government added this provision mainly to prevent the Austro-Hungarian Empire from controlling the Balkan Peninsula with Germany's support, blocking Russia's path southward.

The third major item of the treaty, and also the last one, stipulated that the Constantinople Straits must not be used by the Ottoman Empire for military actions by any belligerent country.

This point was also easy to understand; it was mainly used by Russia to prevent Britain from blockading its Black Sea Fleet.

Neither the German nor the Austro-Hungarian fleets would pass through the Constantinople Straits, so the beneficiary of this item was basically only the Russian side.

From the three major items of the treaty, it could be seen that in order to keep Russia in the Three Emperors' Alliance, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire still paid certain interests.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire guaranteed that it would not continue to expand in the Balkan Peninsula without Russia's permission, and Germany guaranteed that Russia would not have the Constantinople Straits blockaded by Britain when at war with Britain.

The efforts of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were what earned Russia's return, which was that Russia would continue to stay in the Three Emperors' Alliance, and the alliance between France and Russia was just an unachievable conjecture.

I do not know what Britain and France thought about the re-signing of the Three Emperors' Alliance treaty, but in any case, the continued maintenance of the Three Emperors' Alliance was definitely a good thing for Luo Lun and Spain.

The reason was also very simple. The Three Emperors' Alliance was mainly aimed at France, which also made France absolutely afraid to fall out with Spain and Italy.

After the Three Emperors' Alliance treaty was signed, Russia would certainly have to slow down its approach to France.

If France were to offend Spain and Italy to death as well, basically the entire Europe, except for Britain, would be France's enemies.

Don't forget, the hatred between Britain and France was also not shallow. The situation of doing so would be France being beaten by the entire Europe; let alone the current France, even if Napoleon were alive, he could not lead France to continue sitting firmly on the throne of European hegemony under such a diplomatic environment.

Since France would not fall out with Spain and Italy, it meant that Spain could continue to deepen the development of its West African colonies and expand the existing West African colonies.

These few years were also the best opportunity for Spain to develop its West African colonies. If it followed the course of history, once the Three Emperors' Alliance broke down a few years later, and once the Franco-Russian Alliance was formed, France would not be so polite to Spain and Italy.

France, with powerful allies, would no longer fear the outbreak of war with Spain, and Spain should also seriously consider the consequences of offending two superpowers at the same time.

The signing of the Three Emperors' Alliance treaty was only one of the international major events that happened during this period. Another international major event was the news that the current US President Garfield had been assassinated.

Although the United States was not highly valued in Europe, it was still one of the great powers, and the assassination of the US President was not small news.

More importantly, the Tsar Alexander II had just been assassinated a few months ago, and the US President Garfield being assassinated again also made the monarchs of various European countries begin to worry about their own safety.

With the development of weapons, assassinating rulers had also become easier and easier. Currently, the rifles of various countries had all evolved into breech-loading rifles; this type of rifle not only had greater shooting power but also a longer shooting range.

As long as one hit the torso part with a rifle, no matter what kind of status the person had, the final result would only be death.

Only those with particularly good luck could survive, but overall it was also a narrow escape.

The power of a rifle was not as simple as in a game. Especially high-power rifles; once fired, the bullet would pierce through the body, forming a huge wound the moment it penetrated the body.

Although from the front the muzzle only had a diameter of a few centimeters, the wound on the back often exceeded ten centimeters.

Even if it did not hit the head, as long as it hit the torso part, it could cause serious damage to the internal organs.

Such injuries, let alone in the current medical environment, even with the medical technology of later generations, there was a great risk of death without timely rescue.

The news of two consecutive assassinations of rulers of great power countries made the rulers of many European countries begin to worry about their own safety, and they successively increased their investment in their own security forces.

Luo Lun was naturally among them. As the saying goes, in a big forest, there are all kinds of birds; Luo Lun could not guarantee that Spain would not produce a few such outliers with extreme thoughts.

If he were really attacked by such an outlier with a gun, that would be a big problem. The medical technology of this era was so terrible, and Luo Lun would not entrust his life to the medical technology of this era.

The best solution was to strengthen his own security, while avoiding appearing in public places as much as possible.

Fortunately, the vehicles Luo Lun rode in were all specially modified; they did not require speed, but in terms of safety, they absolutely had to be top-notch.

To ensure the safety of himself and the royal family members, Luo Lun issued a new budget to the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, letting the Director of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, Ka Dier, increase the infiltration of domestic intelligence to avoid the occurrence of assassination events.

Speaking of the assassinated US President Garfield, this president was definitely an extremely unlucky victim of backward medical technology.

As the second American president to be assassinated after Lincoln, the assassination of Garfield sparked widespread heated discussion in the United States.

Although only 50 years old, Garfield's credentials were not shallow. He participated in the Civil War in his early years and was promoted to the rank of Major General.

Afterward, he also served in the Christian Church and became the first president in American history to hold the status of a member of the clergy.

It is just that this American president, who possessed excellent mathematical talent and a clerical status, did not have much good luck.

He was assassinated by an unemployed lawyer at the Washington train station in his country's capital; at a distance of less than two meters from the president, the lawyer pulled out a revolver and fired two shots in quick succession, one piercing the president's arm and the other hitting his torso, causing the president to hemorrhage.

It is worth mentioning that Garfield was not carrying any guards when he traveled. It was the train station security personnel who subdued the assassin, which is also the reason the assassin was able to get within two meters of the president before firing.

It was precisely this sufficiently close distance that effectively increased the pistol's hit rate. Although the assassin only fired two bullets, both of these bullets hit the president's body.

For President Garfield, the good news was that neither of these two shots hit a vital area. The shot to the arm naturally goes without saying; as long as the wound was disinfected and bandaged in time, there would absolutely be no life-threatening danger.

The shot that hit the torso looked dangerous, but in reality, it avoided all important parts and was theoretically non-lethal.

As long as the bullet could be found and the wound bandaged and treated in time, the president would likewise not be in life-threatening danger.

But unfortunately, this era did not have X-ray technology; this technology would not be invented until 14 years after Garfield was assassinated.

American doctors certainly knew that they had to find the bullet to bandage the wound, but how did they search for that bullet shot into the president's body? The answer was by hand.

Yes, by using unsterilized fingers to reach into the wound to explore.

This not only aggravated the president's injuries but also exposed Garfield's wound to the risk of infection.

In history, President Garfield died an unnatural death in exactly this way. He did not die from the assassin's attack; he died during the treatment he received from his doctors.

It is worth mentioning that in order to find that bullet in the president's body, the president's medical team even sought help from Bell, the inventor of the telephone, hoping he could invent a detector to detect metal.

Bell did indeed manufacture such a metal detector, but the president's medical team did not fully follow Bell's instructions; they did not avoid contact between the detector and other metal when using it, which resulted in the detector also failing to discover the bullet in the president's body.

Of course, all of this has not happened yet.

When the news of American President Garfield being assassinated reached Europe, it immediately became hot news discussed by various European countries.

The kings of various countries were strengthening their own security forces while simultaneously mocking Garfield, this American president, for actually not carrying any guards when going out.

Besides strengthening his own security forces, Kaluo also increased investment in medical technology. As the saying goes, even the most careful plan can have a slip; Kaluo dared not be certain that he would never encounter an assassination in his life.

How to survive after being assassinated is something Kaluo must consider and strive to achieve.

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(End of this chapter)