Chapter 394

If it is establishing a military alliance with Spain, these Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas are not necessarily willing. But if it is establishing a relatively close economic connection with Spain, whether it is an economic alliance or import and export cooperation, there are quite a few Spanish-speaking countries willing to do so.

The reason is also very simple, which is that among these countries in the Americas, mineral resources are relatively abundant, but there is no industrial foundation.

Not to mention the cars, warships, and power equipment that currently represent the peak of technology, even the simplest steel, there are many countries that cannot produce it.

Don't look at the steel production of European great powers at this time having reached a quite exaggerated level, the steel production of the United States has even reached 9 million tons.

But in reality, for countries around the world, except for these few great powers, the steel production of other countries still remains at a pitiful tens of thousands or even thousands of tons.

Even not to mention non-great power countries, Italy, which has relatively poor industry among the great powers, has an annual steel production of only a little over 110,000 tons at this time.

As of the beginning of 1898, the world's annual steel production reached an exaggerated 25.62 million tons. Such a scale of steel production looks exaggerated at first glance, but those who know the truth all know that steel production is actually concentrated on great power countries.

The total steel production of the eight great powers of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria, Spain, and Italy reached an exaggerated 24.78 million tons, occupying 96.7% of the world's annual steel production.

The annual steel production of all remaining countries added together only occupies less than 3.3% of the world's annual steel production.

This is also why it is said that Europe is the most brilliant pearl in the world in the colonial era; at this time, Europe is the most prosperous and developed region in the world, and even the United States is inferior by quite a bit.

Of course, if it is only discussing steel production, the United States has already ranked as the world's number one, which is also the reason why European great powers like Britain and France are more wary of the United States.

Don't look at the annual steel production of the eight great power countries reaching as high as 24.78 million tons, in reality, a considerable part is contributed by the Americans. The annual steel production of the United States reached an exaggerated 9.07 million tons, while Britain's annual steel production in the same period was only 4.63 million tons, Germany only 5.73 million tons, and France only had a pitiful 1.45 million tons, only a little bit more than Spain.

From this aspect, it can also be seen that a terrible data is that the sum of the annual steel production of Britain and Germany is about the same as the annual steel production of one country, the United States.

More importantly, the population of the United States has also unknowingly exceeded most European great powers. Except for Russia, which has a population of 100 million, the population of the United States can rank first among other great powers.

Although a large population and a strong industry do not mean that the country's military strength is equally strong, these factors can also infinitely raise the potential of the United States.

If it is said that Germany has the hope of growing into a European hegemon and is a huge threat to Britain's rule of the world, then what about the United States? What level can the United States eventually grow into?

Precisely because these countries in Nanmeizhou have almost no achievements in industry, they are still quite willing to conduct economic cooperation with Spain.

Besides being able to obtain industrial products from Spain at a lower price, they can also earn more foreign exchange income through trade with Spain.

These Spanish-speaking countries, besides the common feature of speaking Spanish, also use the official currency of Spain during the colonial period, the peso, in their countries.

This also means one thing, which is that Spain's local currency, the Bisaita, is also commonly used in these countries, which is also Spain's biggest advantage compared to other countries.

With a common currency, doing business can naturally save a lot of trouble.

For economic cooperation with Spain, the Colombian government is quite willing. The current Colombia is quite chaotic, and the construction of the Banamayunhe has attracted the crazy prying eyes of the United States.

Although the status and influence of the United States in Europe are not high, in the Americas, the United States is the well-deserved hegemon, and Colombia cannot ignore the influence of the United States.

If it can obtain the support of the former hegemon of the Americas, Spain, the pressure on Colombia will definitely be much lighter. At least Spain and the United States are great powers of the same level, and their military strength is much stronger than that of the United States.

Colombia's enthusiastic joining of the Spanish-speaking country economic alliance established by Spain is something Gao Da had already expected.

After all, the current situation of Colombia can be said to be internal and external troubles; the Americans are not good people, and even the chaos in Colombia might be instigated by the Americans.

Gao Da is also not in a hurry to show his interest in the Banamayunhe. After all, for Spain, which has lost most of its colonies in the Americas, the role of the Banamayunhe on the surface is minimal, and it can even be said that it has no effect at all.

This has to mention the special geographical location of the Americas.

The world has seven continents and four oceans, among which Antarctica and the Arctic Ocean are the regions least visited by people.

Besides this, the remaining six continents and three oceans have possessed a large population and human activities since the Age of Discovery.

From the map, it can be seen that the Eurasian-African continent can be seen as a whole. The Eurasian continent is completely connected, and the connection with Africa is only a very small part of Egypt.

Although Oceania, where Australia and New Zealand are located, is not adjacent to Asia, there are many islands between the two continents, and trade exchanges are also relatively close.

Only the Americas are separated from other continents by oceans, which also means that there are currently very few ships from outside the Americas that have a need for passage through the Banamayunhe.

As long as Spain does not show interest in the Banamayunhe, the Americans will always keep an eye on the French who are building the canal and the British who are interested in the canal.

With Colombia's first joining, other countries in Nanmeizhou are also much more enthusiastic about joining the so-called Spanish-speaking country economic alliance.

Argentina, which has already had close economic ties with Spain, followed closely to join the economic alliance, and Ecuador and Venezuela also joined one after another.

Chile did not directly join the economic alliance, but it is also willing to strengthen economic ties with Spain and promote closer import and export cooperation between the two sides.

The nitrate mines in Chile are held by the British, but in other aspects, it can still cooperate with Spain.

After these Nanmeizhou countries joined the Spanish-speaking country economic alliance one after another, the establishment of the alliance was almost completed.

Rather than calling it an economic alliance, it is better to call it an economic cooperation treaty between these Nanmeizhou countries and Spain.

Although it is not of the nature of a military alliance, it can also prove one point: these Nanmeizhou countries, which were originally Spanish colonies, did not have much hatred for the Spanish government after completely becoming independent from Spain's sphere of influence.

Thinking about it, it is indeed so. Although the reason for the independence of these Nanmeizhou countries was that Spain's colonial rule in the past was too cruel, and a large amount of funds had to be sent to Spain every year, the population of these colonies had no money instead.