Chapter 303: Colonial Merger Strategy

With the progress of the Berlin Conference, European nations also accelerated their pace of colonizing Africa.

Although Gao Da had no intention of establishing new African colonies, he still needed to implement necessary stabilization measures for the African colonies that Spain already controlled.

Following internal discussions within the Spanish government, it was determined that Spain's African colonies needed to be consolidated, ideally reduced to three distinct territories.

The largest of these would be the Congo Territory; according to the Spanish government's plan, the current Huang Jinhaian, the Guinea colony, and Sao Tome and Principe would all be merged into the Congo Territory, which would then become the largest colony in Central-West Africa.

In the West Africa region, the smaller Mount Shizi colony would also be merged with the West Africa colony. The new West Africa colony would occupy the westernmost part of Africa, with a scale reaching at least over a hundred thousand square kilometers.

The final African colony would be the South Morocco colony. All land occupied by Spain in Morocco would be merged into the South Morocco colony; if the entire Morocco could be annexed, the Morocco colony would gradually become a domestic province of Spain, no different from regions like Ma Deli.

As for the originally planned land connecting Gambia to the Congo Territory, it currently appears there is basically no hope of realizing it.

These two colonies are interspersed with several French colonies, and Germany has also dispatched some merchants and colonial expeditions into this land; it is impossible for Spain to monopolize these territories.

The good news is that the war between France and Vietnam is still ongoing, which has diverted some of the French government's energy.

It would be quite easy for Spain to merge its existing colonies, and it is unlikely to trigger conflicts with the Great Powers during the consolidation process.

It is worth mentioning that precisely because the scale of the war between France and Vietnam is growing, the country behind Vietnam has also had to invest a large amount of financial resources into this war.

The most obvious difference is that previously, the peace faction held the upper hand, which resulted in sales representatives from the Royal Military Factory being unable to sell weapons even when they took the initiative to approach them.

But now, after feeling the threat from the French, they have also begun to find ways to purchase firearms to resist the French offensive.

During the period when the Berlin Conference was held, sales representatives of the Royal Military Factory had already signed an arms purchase order with the other party, including tens of thousands of rifles, hundreds of artillery pieces, and the corresponding ammunition and shells.

Regarding naval vessels, the other party also purchased several small cruisers, all of which were warships that the Spanish Navy had already equipped for several years; the prices were not expensive, basically at the cost of construction.

Purchasing a second-hand warship at the price of a new one seems like a loss. But considering that the purchased warships can be quickly put into this war, the strategic value exerted is definitely worth it.

After all, in terms of current naval power, the Vietnamese side has already fallen into a disadvantage. If they do not find a way to make up for their maritime power, the French military can land from ports without restraint.

Because Spain's main purpose is to delay the progress of the French war, the batch of weapons and equipment sold by Spain was sold at a relatively low price.

And precisely because of this, Spain has successively sold a large batch of weapons and equipment; relying solely on these weapons and equipment, one would think

the other party could also effectively slow down the French military's speed of attack.

Time came to August 1884, when the Minister of Colonial Affairs suddenly reported an emergency: evidence of Germany attempting to establish colonial strongholds was discovered within the range of the Huang Jinhaian and Guinea colonies.

This was a serious matter, immediately arousing the vigilance of Gao Da and the Spanish government.

The strength of Germany is beyond doubt. Although their establishment of Southwest Africa under the nose of the British has a hint of opportunism, it was indeed land taken from the British.

If it were another country, it might not have been able to make the British back down.

The reason why the British chose to back down in the competition for land in southern Congo and compensate the Spanish government was that their colonization had not yet set foot in southern Congo.

Rashly triggering a dispute was not a good thing for the British either; to reach the land in southern Congo, they would also have to cross several indigenous tribes, and even pass through the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic, which did not have such good relations with the British.

These two countries might not be that famous, but mentioning the Boers, who lived extensively in these two countries, would certainly remind many people of the Boer War that broke out in the early 20th century.

Although the British achieved victory in the Boer War, this war also cost the British a great deal of manpower, material resources, and financial resources.

The cause of the war was somewhat similar to the dispute over the land in southern Congo; the positions of Orange and Transvaal happened to block the British Cairo-Cape Town connection.

Coupled with the fact that the British Cape Colony had been expanding northward, it seriously affected the living space of Orange and Transvaal.

Returning to Spain's colonies, after discovering that the Germans wanted to establish colonial strongholds in Huang Jinhaian and Guinea, Gao Da immediately convened a cabinet meeting, demanding that the government discuss a solution.

Whether it is Huang Jinhaian or the Guinea colony, Spain cannot give them up.

The name Huang Jinhaian is somewhat unfamiliar to many people; this land has another name in later generations, which is Ghana.

Of course, the name Huang Jinhaian is also quite appropriate now. How exaggerated are the gold reserves here? Even in later generations, Ghana remains an important gold exporter.

Data shows that Ghana's annual gold production can reach more than 4 million ounces, which is more than 100 tons of gold.

Although the annual gold production fluctuates, such gold production is enough for Ghana to become the second-largest gold-producing country in Africa after South Africa.

Just for such huge gold reserves, Gao Da could never give up Huang Jinhaian. Not to mention the income brought by cocoa and timber mining, this destined Huang Jinhaian to be a colony where income far exceeds expenditure.

Since Huang Jinhaian has such rich gold reserves, why would the British be willing to exchange it?

The main reason is that although many gold mines had been discovered in Huang Jinhaian at this time, the reserves of these gold mines were not large.

Historically, large-scale gold mining in Huang Jinhaian had to wait until the end of the 19th century, and it only became an important gold-producing area in the 20th century.

Ghana's gold mines are mainly concentrated in the Ashanti region, which is the area that Spain only conquered after taking over Huang Jinhaian.

The British had not yet had time to conquer Ashanti, so naturally, they could not have discovered large gold mines on Ashanti land. Without discovering gold mines, the value of Huang Jinhaian in the eyes of the British would be greatly reduced.

More importantly, Spain's Cuba colony is not inferior at all. Cuba's sugar industry is more profitable than the gold mines of Huang Jinhaian, and its geographical location, which is sufficient to check the United States, also makes Cuba's strategic value even more important.

If viewed from the perspective of later generations, counting Ghana's gold and other mineral resources in West Africa, it is unclear who gained and who lost in such a colonial exchange.

But standing from the perspective of the British in the 1880s, using several small colonies in West Africa to exchange for a complete Cuba, the British definitely gained.

Just manipulating the sugar industry in Europe and the Americas by controlling Cuba's sugar was enough for the British to make a fortune.

Of course, doing so would also offend the United States even more. The pros and cons of this needed to be weighed by the current owner of the Cuba colony, the British.

To prevent the Germans from interfering in his colonial plan, Gao Da immediately decided to accelerate the speed of colonial merger, and prioritize the merger of Huang Jinhaian and the Congo Territory.

The distance from Huang Jinhaian to the Congo Territory is 3, 00 kilometers long from east to west, located at the bend of Africa's "7" shape, and is a piece of land with huge development value.

Just the gold reserves in this area are estimated to be at least 3, 00 tons to start with. After all, the gold mines in this area have not yet undergone large-scale mining at this time, and the gold reserves are even higher than in later generations.

The total value of these 3, 00 tons of gold alone reached an exaggerated 78 billion pesetas. Adding other mineral resources in this land, it can ensure that Spain will receive huge benefits from this land for decades to come.

In addition to gold mines, these Spanish colonies in Africa also possess over 20 billion tons of iron ore and 200 million tons of coal, which laid a good foundation for Spain's future industrial development.

20 billion tons of iron ore is already completely sufficient for Spain's industrial development. Although 200 million tons of coal is not much, Spain's domestic coal reserves are as high as 8. billion tons, which just makes up for the lack of coal mines in Spain's African colonies.

From the map, there is still a certain degree of difficulty for Spain to integrate the land from Huang Jinhaian to the Congo Territory.

Especially the coastline of nearly a thousand kilometers from Huang Jinhaian to Guinea, where there are stronger indigenous forces including the Sokoto Caliphate, the Kingdom of Nri, the Aro Confederacy, the Kingdom of Bamum, and the Kingdom of Benin.

These indigenous forces, like the Ashanti Confederacy, are African natives with a certain degree of civilization, not those backward indigenous tribes.

To conquer these natives, Spain must use more means. In addition to dispatching more troops for forced conquest, it is also necessary to destroy the connections between these indigenous countries to prevent them from uniting to stop Spain's colonial expansion.

To accelerate Spain's colonial merger plan, after consultation with the cabinet government, Gao Da decided to increase investment in the colonial affairs department and simultaneously increase military spending for various African colonies.

Last year, the Spanish government's total fiscal revenue reached a new high of 1. 423 billion pesetas, and the fiscal surplus was also 99. million pesetas.

Even if the government used a portion to repay foreign debt, the Spanish government still had a large fiscal budget this year that could be allocated to various departments.

The cabinet ministers of the Spanish government had no objections to accelerating the progress of African colonization. With the convening of the Berlin Conference, European countries tacitly accelerated the progress of colonizing Africa.

Spain must absolutely not fall behind; after all, the size of the cake that is Africa is limited, and it will sooner or later be carved up by European countries.

The more share Spain can get from this cake, the more benefits it will naturally obtain. Even if some land is not that important to Spain, it can be exchanged for the land it wants through colonial exchange.

Precisely because of this, the attitude of the ministers of various departments in the Spanish cabinet meeting was quite consistent, which was to approve the acceleration of colonization in Africa and to be willing to sacrifice their own department's fiscal budget to invest in the colonial affairs department and military spending.

Thanks to the cooperation of various departments, the Spanish government quickly raised a fund of 50 million pesetas.

This is not a small number; if used sparingly, it could launch a medium-scale war.

Investing this fund into the development of African colonies shows how much the Spanish government officials value the merger of colonies.

Among them, the colonial affairs department will receive an additional budget of about 15 million pesetas, used for the integration and construction of colonies, and to prepare logistics for the military.

The remaining 35 million pesetas will all be invested in the war against African natives.

If it were only African natives, it wouldn't take so much military spending. But the problem is that with the convening of the Berlin Conference, European countries have increased their investment in African colonies.

If Spain wants to integrate existing colonies, it will face conflicts with other European powers.

Although the British have withdrawn from the competition for West African colonies, with the addition of Germany, the West Africa region will become lively.

Do not forget the British's nature as a troublemaker; under the premise that Spain has offended the British many times, the British would not mind completely muddying the waters of West Africa to create greater trouble for Spain.

Investing so much military budget is also a warning to the European powers: if they want to interfere in Spain's colonial affairs, they must be prepared to get stuck in this quagmire.

Currently, Spain's colonization in Africa has made great progress; the indigenous population of the Congo Territory alone is as high as tens of millions.

Forcibly arming these natives could also form hundreds of thousands or even millions of indigenous troops. If it does not involve the European mainland and only involves local conflicts in parts of Africa, other European powers may not necessarily be Spain's opponents.

Of course, relying on huge industrial and economic gaps could drag Spain down, but whether it is worth it to fight Spain to the death for a small piece of African colony is also a question that other European powers need to ponder.

Since a large military budget has been invested, it is certain that the colonial troops in the African region must be greatly expanded.

Currently, Spain has a total of 1 colonial garrison division and 22 colonial garrison regiments, totaling 70, 00 indigenous troops, which is clearly not enough in the more severe African colonial competition.

After discussion by the Spanish Military Committee, it was decided to expand Spain's colonial divisions to 3 and colonial garrison regiments to 35 to cope with more intense colonial conflicts.

In this way, Spain's military strength in the colonies will reach about 138, 00, which is basically enough to maintain the security of existing colonies.

Two of the three colonial divisions will be deployed along the line from the Congo Territory to Huang Jinhaian; these two divisions are also the main force for fighting the natives.

The remaining one colonial division will be deployed in the West Africa colony, tasked with the mission of annexing the indigenous areas between the West Africa colony and the Mount Shizi colony.

As for the 35 colonial garrison regiments, their main role is to garrison the colonies locally and maintain local order and security.

Therefore, these 35 colonial garrison regiments will be dispersed throughout all of Spain's colonies, adding bricks and tiles to the stability of Spain's colonies.

Expansion is something that is welcomed by Spain.

First, expansion can increase the upward channels for Spain's grassroots officers. Although the treatment of colonial troops is not as good as that of domestic troops, the seniority of officers in colonial troops is also solid.

The middle and high-level officers in these colonial troops are all held by Spaniards, which is also a means to control the loyalty of the army.

Currently, Spain's military academies can cultivate a large number of military talents for the country every year; only if the Spanish army continues to expand can these talents have employment opportunities.

Secondly, expansion also means that the army needs more weapons and equipment. For the Royal Military Factory and other small factories that produce weapons and equipment for the military, this is a large source of income.

Especially those small private military factories, if it were not for the Royal Military Factory outsourcing many less important orders to them, I am afraid they would not be able to survive at all.

After all, Europe in this era is relatively peaceful; although there are small conflicts, war is absolutely impossible.

Without the threat of war, the size of each country's army has always been kept at a low level. Even the Italian King Umberto I, who has been calling for army expansion, only raised the size of the Italian army to 200, 00 at this time.

The smaller the army, the less the wear and tear of weapons and equipment and the consumption of ammunition, which is bad news for the military factories of various countries.

Larger military factories are fine; like Spain's Royal Military Factory and Germany's Krupp Company, they can find foreign buyers through their own channels.

Even if they cannot find foreign buyers for various reasons, these large military factories can get support from the domestic government, and maintaining normal operation is no problem.

Small military factories are different. Because of their small scale and production, they cannot attract foreign buyers.

A better situation is like the Royal Military Factory; because the master behind the scenes is the King, Gao Da, Gao Da is very willing to support these small military factories.

A worse situation is that large military factories are also private enterprises; capitalists are not willing to give up the orders in their hands, and it is even more impossible to transfer their already signed orders to those small enterprises.

Upon learning that Spain was going to expand its colonial troops, Spain's small military factories breathed a sigh of relief one after another.

For them, this expansion of the colonial army was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a small profit and keep their Jiagongchang running.

The good news is that the Royal Jiagongchang has signed an arms order with Vietnam and the nation behind it; coupled with the orders to be signed after the Spanish military expands, the Royal Jiagongchang will not be short of orders during this period.

Since the Royal Jiagongchang is not short of orders, these small enterprises have hope of obtaining some orders from the Royal Jiagongchang that the latter deems beneath them.

For example, producing bullets for rifles, producing certain parts for firearms, and so on.

Although the income from these orders is destined to be incomparable to finished firearms, for small-scale factories, having something is definitely better than having nothing.

5100-word two-in-one chapter, seeking support! By the way, asking for a few monthly tickets; only one hundred more are needed to reach one thousand! Thank you for the support!



(End of this chapter)