Chapter 342: African Railway

Only one month after the war between Germany, Austria, and Russia began, Spain sold over 20, 00 rifles and 100 artillery pieces to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was fantastic news for Spain's military industry.

Although this massive arms trade was caused by the weapons shortage resulting from the Austro-Hungarian Empire's rapid military expansion, as the war continues and the strategic supplies stockpiled within the Austro-Hungarian Empire are consumed, the amount of supplies the empire purchases from Spain will only increase.

Thanks to the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a major client, Spain's military factories will not lack orders for the next few months, which has also effectively promoted the growth of Spain's military industry.

Although the military industry is booming because of this war, for Gao Da, the good news regarding the military industry is no longer that important at this moment.

The reason is simple: after several years of arduous construction, Spain's development of its African colonies has finally made some progress.

The greatest progress among these is that the major railway known domestically in Spain as the African Railway has achieved full-line operation, which also signifies a high degree of strengthening in Spain's control over its African colonies.

The so-called African Railway is, in fact, the railway line running from the westernmost part of the original Gold Coast to the southernmost part of the Congo territory.

Why is this railway called the African Railway? First, it is because the total length of this railway reaches an exaggerated 4, 00 kilometers.

Such a railway mileage is already close to the total length of railways within Spain before Gao Da became the King of Spain; from this aspect, one can also see that Spain's efforts in developing Africa are not weak.

More importantly, this railway successively passes through the former Ashanti Empire, Togo, the Kingdom of Dahomey, the Sokoto Caliphate, the Kingdom of Benin, the Kingdom of Nri, the Aro Confederacy, and the Kingdom of Bamum, subsequently entering lands controlled by the Baka and Bantu peoples.

Its significance lies not only in connecting these former indigenous regions but also in allowing Spain's colonial troops to easily reach these areas where the indigenous people are concentrated.

In the future, no matter where a rebellion or other crisis breaks out, the Spanish army will be able to arrive in the shortest possible time, which also greatly strengthens the stability of Spain's colonies.

It is a pity that the West African colony is not connected to the African Railway.

After all, there is a French colony between the West African colony, the Guinea colony, and the Congo territory, and one cannot build a railway on French land.

However, the Colonial Affairs Department attaches great importance to the railway construction within the West African colony. Currently, the West African colony has also built nearly a thousand kilometers of railway, connecting several important grain-producing areas within the colony.

Every grain harvest season, a large amount of grain is transported by train to the ports and then shipped to the Spanish mainland via transport ships.

This grain is transshipped on the Spanish mainland, either transported to local grain storage warehouses or entered into the Spanish mainland's grain market.

Or it is further packaged and then sent to other European countries for sale.

Of the grain Spain exports to Europe every year, nearly one-third comes from the West African colony, which is already an incredibly exaggerated scale.

If it were not for the fact that the mainland also has a grain shortage, I am afraid the scale of grain that the West African colony could export would be even greater.

Grain exports represent foreign exchange earnings, which is extremely important to Spain and is also a very important part of the Spanish government's tax revenue.

The full-line operation of the African Railway is a relatively important milestone for Spain.

However, Gao Da does not intend to go to Africa in person to attend the railway's completion ceremony; instead, the Spanish Minister of Colonial Affairs will go.

Also attending the railway's completion ceremony are the governors of the Guinea colony and the Congo territory; these two were also personally appointed by Gao Da and are his confidants.

One must admit that after nearly 20 years of development, Gao Da also possesses a force that cannot be underestimated.

First of all, the governors of several of Spain's more important colonies are basically all appointed by Gao Da. Although some colonial governors were promoted from among the nobility, most of them are just there to gild their resumes.

But no one can deny that Gao Da has completely reclaimed the power to appoint governors, which also means that Gao Da's influence in the colonies is extremely high.

One must know that each colony has a significant number of garrison troops. This actually also means that the military power in Gao Da's hands is not just the Imperial Guard; hundreds of thousands of colonial troops can also follow Gao Da's mobilization orders.

These armies under his control are the foundation of Gao Da's continuous reforms. With the support of these armies, no one in Spain can defy Gao Da's orders.

Taking advantage of this African Railway opening, Gao Da also conducted a large-scale commendation of the African colonial troops and promoted many young officers.

For Spain, this war against the African indigenous people can be considered a large-scale war.

This war alone saw the promotion of dozens of field-grade officers, and several high-ranking officers with outstanding performance successfully promoted from the rank of Colonel to Brigadier General.

Along with the promotions in rank, various rewards including land, property, and funds were also given out.

Of course, most of the land rewarded was colonial land; there was very little land on the Spanish mainland.

After all, the colonies Spain conquered possess vast tracts of fertile land, while the fertile land on the Spanish mainland has basically been carved up.

Although the soldiers of these colonial troops are composed of indigenous people, after fighting for Spain, they can naturally obtain Spanish citizenship.

Of course, these soldiers are definitely settled in the colonies as a priority. Gao Da even specially transported a large number of indigenous women from other colonies to help these colonial soldiers start families and settle down completely in the colonies.

However, whether they are colonial soldiers or the transported indigenous women, there is no trace of black people among them.

Gao Da knows well the "dyeing" ability of black people; even in Spain's own colonies, Gao Da is unwilling to let black people set foot.

Currently, in Spain's colonies, there is a relatively strict racial segregation system between black and non-black groups.

There are no black people in Spain's colonial cities and strongholds, while black indigenous people are concentrated in the indigenous states within the colonies.

The two sides basically mind their own business; except for necessary activities such as paying taxes or transporting supplies, the two sides do not go into each other's areas under other circumstances.

In order to prevent these black people from finding loopholes to obtain Spanish citizenship through various means, the Colonial Affairs Department and various colonial governments also have relevant regulations.

Regardless of whether they are the descendants of black men or black women, they are all treated as black people and must be driven to the indigenous territories to survive.

Spain's colonies can only sustain non-black descendants; doing this is also to put an end to the idea that some black people might have of letting their descendants change their status.

Even if a black woman can marry a Spaniard or other non-black indigenous person, their descendants will still be unable to obtain Spanish citizenship.

Intermarrying with black people will also violate the colonial government's law against illegal marriage; this crime carries a minimum fine of several hundred pesetas and a maximum of several years to over ten years of imprisonment.

Of course, the colonial government will not really imprison them. Imprisonment means having to provide food, and it is impossible for the colonial government to support them for nothing.

For those criminals who break the law, their final destination is to go to plantations or mines to perform labor. Of course, if European immigrants commit crimes, the punishment will be reduced at discretion. They will not be forcibly sent to plantations or mines to labor, but will truly serve their sentences in colonial prisons.

There will be some less strenuous work for them to do in prison; as long as they can complete their work tasks on time, they can also have their sentences reduced.

Such a situation exists almost simultaneously in the colonies of various countries; the treatment of domestic immigrants, European immigrants, and other local indigenous people is completely different.

Especially between European immigrants and local indigenous people, there is a world of difference in the attitude toward the two.

Take Britain's most important colony, India, as an example. If the British commit a crime in the Indian colony, there will likely not be anything too serious.

But if an Indian commits a crime, especially against a British person, then they will surely face death.

Even without committing a crime, if a British person with a little power finds a certain Indian unpleasant, they have all kinds of means to kill this Indian.

This is also the status quo of the colonies of various countries in this era; the indigenous people at the very bottom of the colonies have no say at all, and they even have to rely on the local European immigrants for the right to survive.

It is worth mentioning that with the outbreak of the war between Germany, Austria, and Russia, the number of European immigrants received by Spain is also constantly increasing.

Especially immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia; just in the first month after the war broke out, the number of immigrants nearly doubled compared to the same period last year.

Actually, thinking about it, it is normal; war and famine are almost the main reasons for the increase in immigration.

Only these two reasons would make people unable to continue living in their own countries. At other times, most people still hold the idea of holding on if they can.

After all, immigration means leaving one's home and going to a very strange foreign land. Not everyone can endure the feeling of leaving their familiar environment and familiar relatives; this is also the reason why the number of immigrants in various countries in this era is not that exaggerated.

Coupled with the fact that the transportation tools of this era are too simple, basically the mainstream transportation tools are only trains and steamships.

The speed of these two types of transportation is too slow; once one needs to go to a farther place, the time required is often calculated in weeks.

Even from the Spanish mainland to the African colonies, a faster warship still takes one or two weeks. If one takes a slower steamship, the time will be extended to two to three weeks.

Just such a long journey is enough to make many people give up the idea of immigrating abroad, not to mention that the tickets for ocean voyages in this era are also very expensive, and many people simply cannot afford them.

Actually, come to think of it, this situation is about the same in later generations.

International air tickets in later generations are also quite expensive, and taking a cruise ship also takes a long time.

This leads to the fact that in later generations, where the economy and industry are relatively developed, there are still countless people who have never been abroad and have never taken an international flight or cruise ship.

For these surging numbers of immigrants, Spain chose to transfer them all to the African colonies.

Compared to the previous relatively even distribution to various colonies, the Spanish government has now changed its strategy for transferring these immigrants.

The main destinations for these European immigrants are the West African colony or the South Morocco colony; after all, one of these two colonies is an important agricultural development zone, and the other is an area Spain plans to localize.

As for the Guinea colony and the Congo territory, they can only pick from the immigrants that the first two colonies cannot accommodate.

Although they are eating leftovers, the Guinea colony and the Congo territory are both super-large colonies with areas of hundreds or even thousands of square kilometers; because they are very short of population, they are not picky.

Facts have proven that these immigrants who came from afar from Russia are really good at agriculture.

Spain's colonies do not have that much oppression; after they arrive in the colonies, they have the same status as other immigrants.

This also means that as long as they pay enough taxes, the remaining grain and other income belong to themselves.

Under these circumstances, the Russian immigrants also burst out with extremely strong motivation. They are even more active in agricultural labor than the Spaniards and have now become an important agricultural group in the West African colony.

Some of these Russian immigrants have even given birth to several large landowners, possessing hundreds of acres of land.

As for how to work these hundreds of acres of land, it is actually quite simple. Most of the time, the farm work is done by the local indigenous population.

These immigrants from Europe only need to manage these indigenous people and let them do the clearing and planting.

Although some European immigrants also engage in agricultural work, the farm owners and plantation owners will also pay them sufficient wages.

The work income and meals of European immigrants are vastly different from those of these indigenous people. As for the indigenous people on these plantations and farms, let alone eating meat, whether they can even eat their fill is a problem.

And for those European immigrants working on plantations and farms, not only can they obtain quite generous income, but the farm owners will also provide them with meat supplies twice a week.

Where does this meat come from? Of course, it comes from the livestock farms in the West African colony, as well as the wild grasslands and forests.

In addition to Spain's colonies raising various animals to provide meat, the local indigenous people will also hand over animals obtained from hunting to Spain.

The colonial government will purchase various animals from the indigenous people at a certain price; this is also the reason why the people in the colonies can obtain sufficient meat supplies.

If it were transported from the Spanish mainland, just this one or two weeks of transport time would be enough for the meat products to rot and stink during the journey.

Moreover, Spain itself is not a major livestock country; it is already quite good that the meat and dairy products produced locally can meet the needs of the local people.

This leads to the fact that the West African colony, in addition to planting agricultural products, also needs to develop animal husbandry.

Several of Spain's colonies will also organize hunting activities from time to time, the purpose of which is to reduce the local wild carnivores and let the herbivores reproduce faster.

When the herbivores reproduce to a certain scale, they then organize hunting activities targeting the herbivores to harvest more meat at once.

It is precisely because of the construction of animal husbandry and the popularity of hunting activities that Spain's colonies can ensure that the supply of grain and meat will not be affected while the population is increasing rapidly.

4, 00 words, second update, asking for monthly tickets!

(End of chapter)