Chapter 301: Britain's Concession

The Berlin Conference was held half a year earlier than in history, which also meant that the progress of European Great Powers' colonization of Africa was quite different from history.

After Britain exchanged all West African colonies, their colonies in Africa only remained in South Africa and North Africa, namely the Cape Colony and the Egypt colony.

This also led to the Cairo-Cape Town line being more important than in history, and the British government would definitely not choose to retreat in this regard.

The result was that the Berlin Conference, which representatives of various countries thought would take less than a month to finish, lasted for several months without ending.

Of course, this was not bad news for Spain. The longer the Berlin Conference lasted, the more dissatisfied the European Great Powers were with the existing plan to partition Africa.

The result was that countries that were not so powerful could fish in troubled waters and obtain their own colonies in corners that the Great Powers did not pay attention to.

The first thing the Berlin Conference had to resolve was the contradiction in the southern Congo land between Great Powers led by Britain and Spain.

The requirement proposed by Britain was for Britain to occupy the Kingdom of Barotseland, the Kingdom of Mwata Kazembe, the Kingdom of Malawi, and the Kingdom of Yeke, ensuring that Britain's Cape Colony could be connected to Egypt.

With Spain's support and under the pressure of domestic public opinion, the Portuguese government did not give up these lands and claimed that these lands were obtained when Portugal exchanged colonies with Spain, and Britain had no right to carry out colonial actions like hitting a cow across a mountain from a distance of thousands of kilometers.

The Portuguese government's statement was still very well-founded. The land in the southern Congo was indeed on the route of Britain's Cairo-Cape Town line, but the problem was that the border of the southernmost Kingdom of Barotseland was more than 1,100 kilometers away from Britain's Cape Colony, and the northernmost Kingdom of Yeke was also more than 1,000 kilometers away from the Sudan colony controlled by Britain.

No matter how strong the British Empire was, it could not colonize in such a leapfrog manner. Moreover, Spain was the first country to establish colonies in the Gangguohe basin, and Spain's colonial strongholds had long been spread across the land of the Gangguohe basin.

Originally, the sovereignty of this land naturally belonged to Spain; since Spain exchanged it to Portugal, the sovereignty of the land naturally belonged to Portugal and had nothing to do with Britain.

Britain's demand for land in such a way was obviously too domineering, which was also the reason why the Portuguese government could not agree to the British government no matter what.

If they agreed to the British government's proposal at the Berlin Conference, as long as the domestic people knew the details, the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers of the Portuguese government would not want to end well.

Even King Luis I could be affected by public anger; under the situation where the people highly paid attention to the Berlin Conference, it was impossible for the Portuguese government to make concessions to the British government on the surface.

After all, they could still distinguish between the light and the heavy. Anyway, the colonial dispute had become a Berlin Conference with the participation of Great Powers; unless the British government wanted to commit public anger, they would not launch a war against Portugal during the Berlin Conference.

Although Portugal was one of the competing parties, in the negotiations of the Berlin Conference, the Portuguese representative did not express too many opinions.

The main debates were still between British and Spanish representatives; countries under the Great Powers did not have much say.

At this time, the British government finally valued Spain, which they had always looked down upon; Spain made them feel as difficult as the Russians.

Although they were all Great Powers, there were gaps between Great Powers. For example, Italy, the British government was not afraid at all.

Without Garibaldi, the last hero, the combat effectiveness of the Italian army was extremely poor. Don't look at Italian King Umberto I constantly promoting Italy's military expansion, but the British government had never put Italy in its eyes.

As a Mediterranean coastal country, Britain only needed to block the two exits of the Mediterranean, and no matter how strong the Italian navy was, it would be useless, because they could not reach the ocean at all, let alone pose a threat to the British mainland.

The army was even less worth mentioning; Italy and Britain were separated by 108,000 miles, plus the poor combat effectiveness of the Italian army, two Italys would not be put in the eyes of the British.

Spain was different.

Although Spain was also a Mediterranean coastal country, Spain also had half of its coastline on the east coast of the Atlantic.

This also meant that it was difficult for Britain to completely block the Spanish navy in the Mediterranean, and the Spanish navy also had the ability to pose a threat to the British mainland.

More importantly, Britain's means of blocking the Mediterranean was to control the two exits, and the exit in the western Mediterranean, the Strait of Gibraltar, once belonged to Spain.

Once Britain and Spain started a war, Spain could recover Gibraltar through the army at any time, thereby controlling the Strait of Gibraltar.

Once Britain lost control of the two exits of the Mediterranean, the situation along the Mediterranean coast would become more unpredictable, which also meant that the Suez Canal, which Britain had tried every means to control, would lose at least half of its strategic value.

In a war between Britain and Spain, Portugal might be the first country to be annexed.

A completely unified Iberian Peninsula would become an existence similar to Britain, both powerful and able to drift outside the European continent, unaffected by the chaos of the European continent situation.

Plus the reason for being self-contained, it was also difficult for Britain to pose a threat to the Iberian Peninsula. This also meant that the war between Britain and Spain would become a situation where both sides were helpless, unless Britain was willing to form an expeditionary force, but the casualties of doing so were something the British government could not bear.

Although in terms of the army, the German and French armies were obviously more famous. But this was also more due to Spain's decline; before Spain's decline, the Spanish army was also quite powerful.

If Britain really formed an expeditionary force to attack the Spanish mainland, whether it could achieve victory was really hard to say. The Spanish would turn into the strongest warriors one by one under the buff of defending their homes and country; such a Spain was something no Great Power wanted to encounter.

During the Berlin Conference, all parts of the famous American landmark Statue of Liberty were installed and completed, attracting the attention of many media.

The United States in this era pursued isolationism; they had no interest in Europe across the ocean and only paid attention to the situation in the Americas.

This was also the reason why the United States, which was already a Great Power and whose industrial and economic development speed could not be surpassed by any Great Power, had no presence and influence in Europe.

Plus the reason why the rise of American industry and economy had too much help and investment from European capital, leading to Americans being inferior in Europe.

All Great Powers participated in this conference concerning the partition of Africa, except for the United States across the ocean. On one hand, the United States really did not care about the situation in Europe and Africa, and on the other hand, Germany really did not invite the United States.

Because the negotiations of the Berlin Conference were deadlocked, while European countries were attending the conference, their own colonial expansion did not stop at all.

On the French side, their war with Vietnam broke out vigorously. France successfully annexed Cambodia, expanded its colony by double, and had a trend of expanding northward.

On the British side, the Sudan colony was also constantly expanding southward, laying a good foundation for the Cairo-Cape Town line.

Italy was plotting the Libya colony, and their demands in the Berlin Conference were precisely to obtain the initiative for the colonization of Libya.

The good news was that although Libya was a land with a huge area, because this land was all desert, it was not valued by European Great Powers.

Except for Britain expressing opposition, other European countries did not have obvious opposition to Italy occupying Libya; Italy still had hope of obtaining this hard-won colony.

As the most powerful country on the European continent besides Britain, Germany also had its own colonial actions.

Because Germany unified late, when the German government started the colonial plan, most of the world's land had already been partitioned by Great Powers.

Germany could only set its sights on Africa, looking for land that other Great Powers had not yet set foot on.

In fact, the Germans really found such land.

Regarding this matter, one had to mention Britain's colonial policy in Africa.

Because there were many primitive forests inside the African continent, European Great Powers' colonization of Africa mainly focused on the coast and rarely went deep into the African continent.

This also led to Britain's colonization not focusing on colonial sovereignty, but choosing to control trade in the African region, similar to the form of economic colonization.

Don't look at the footprints of British colonists already spread across the European continent; in fact, there were large tracts of land that Britain had not declared sovereignty over.

The Germans took advantage of such a loophole and found two pieces of land in Africa that Britain had reached but had not declared sovereignty over.

One of the lands was located in the northwest of the British Cape Colony, and the closest distance was only a few kilometers away from Britain's Cape Colony.

It could also be said that the Germans completely established their own African colony in front of the British.

It just so happened that the British had no reason to refute, because Britain indeed had not declared sovereignty over this land.

The way Germany obtained sovereignty was also worth mentioning; they did not choose the traditional process of European Great Powers establishing colonial strongholds and then connecting them to declare sovereignty to establish a colony, but neatly used the army to forcibly conquer local indigenous tribes, and then signed a treaty that they could not understand at all with the local indigenous tribe chiefs.

How could these indigenous people understand the treaty terms written in German? Under the pressure of the German army's steel guns and cannons, they could only sign their names and press their handprints on the treaty inexplicably.

Pressing handprints was another insurance imposed by Germany. After all, the Germans were new here, and they did not know whether these indigenous people were actually called such names.

Indigenous people, of course, would not write in German; they all used their own languages, and the Germans also could not understand them.

However, not understanding did not matter; as long as they pressed their handprints, the handprints could match the people later.

It was precisely with the help of such a treaty where only one side knew the situation, Germany successfully established its first colony in Africa.

The process of establishing the German West African colony could be described as quite wonderful, basically established under the eyes of the British.

This also made the British perceive a trace of crisis; if they really followed Germany's proof method, even if Britain obtained the land in the southern Congo in the Berlin Conference, other land on the Cairo-Cape Town line would also be partitioned by European Great Powers.

Could Britain use its influence to cause colonial competition, and could it use such a method every time?

After all, Britain was also a European country, and Britain's strength did not completely crush other European Great Powers.

Since it was a European country, it naturally had to abide by the rules that European countries had always defaulted to.

After internal discussions, the British government decided to make certain concessions to Spain to promote the compromise on the land in the southern Congo in the Berlin Conference faster.

Only by resolving the dispute over the land in the southern Congo earlier could Britain have enough energy to complete the Cairo-Cape Town line, while simultaneously guarding against more powerful Great Powers like Germany quickly colonizing Africa in their own way.

Spain was, after all, a medium-sized Great Power, and the threat it could pose was limited.

Even if Spain was given a chance, relying on Spain's 20 million-plus people, it could not colonize too much land.

But countries like Germany and France were different. Germany and France possessed more population, more developed industry, and more prosperous economy, which also meant that the African land they could colonize was more, and the blood they could suck was also more.

The African continent was like a big cake; although the British got the biggest share, other countries were staring at this big cake all the time.

Only by completely eating it into their mouths could they ensure that Britain became the biggest beneficiary. What Britain mainly guarded against was Germany and France, who were holding basins to snatch food.

For Great Powers like Spain who were holding bowls, appropriate concessions were no problem. After all, Spain's appetite was limited; even if the cake was given to Spain, Spain was destined to have indigestion.

On the Berlin side, the Berlin Conference was proceeding slowly.

And on the Madrid side, the British ambassador found Gao Da again.

Unlike the last time he requested an audience with Gao Da, this time when he requested an audience with Gao Da, the British ambassador expressed a more respectful attitude, and his words were not as hardline as the last time.

In the conversation with Gao Da, the British ambassador mentioned more than once the importance of the Cairo-Cape Town line to Britain, and expressed that Britain was willing to make certain concessions on land other than the land in the southern Congo.

Britain proposed three conditions for Gao Da and the Spanish government to choose from.

The first condition was in the Dutch East Indies colony; Britain was willing to let Spain occupy more land as compensation for the land in the southern Congo.

However, Britain was unwilling to give up the core Sumatra and Java islands of the Dutch East Indies to Spain.

The second condition was in the colonization of New Guinea. The British government could default to Spain's colonial actions in New Guinea and support the colony Spain would establish in New Guinea in the future.

The third condition was in the Middle East; Britain could allow Spain's Oman colony to expand northward to the scope of the Trucial States.

From these three conditions, one could also feel Britain's concession attitude.

It was just that Britain's concession was not that great. Whether it was the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea, or the Trucial States, the value was not that great.

The reason why Britain was willing to make concessions in these lands was actually because Britain did not have much interest in these lands.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 302 =====