Empire Rising: Spain

The good news is that, during this era, media battles could only be conducted through newspapers. Due to inconvenient transportation, the influence of newspaper propaganda was limited at this time, and very few newspapers could achieve nationwide publicity, even in countries with relatively small territorial areas like Belgium and the Netherlands.

Achieving nationwide coverage was impossible, let alone cross-national publicity and pressure.

When the newspapers of the UK and Germany reported this event, the French Government and the Spanish ambassador to France were already engaging in related negotiations.

Spain was, of course, willing to see the French initiative to resolve this dispute through negotiation.

France’s proactive concession could not only quickly resolve this dispute but also ensure that Spain would not suffer any losses in it. For Carlo and Spain, this was indeed the most suitable solution.

Although colonial activities in Africa have somewhat strained the relations between Spain and France, Carlo was also well aware that Spain’s biggest enemy was not France.

The main conflict and competition between Spain and France were in the colonization of West Africa; beyond this, the two countries had no other competitive relationships.

Carlo’s plans for African colonization were basically complete, which also meant that Spain was unlikely to continue establishing new colonies in Africa. In fact, the existing colonies would essentially remain unchanged without further expansion.

Currently, Spain has four colonies in Africa: the South Morocco Colony, the West Africa Colony, the Guinea Colony, and the Congo Territory.

The South Morocco Colony needs no further elaboration; there are currently no directions for expansion. The West Africa Colony and the Guinea Colony could indeed continue to expand into the interior of Africa, but the costs of doing so would increase infinitely.

The African Continent is already plagued by various diseases and viruses, making development extremely difficult. The region extending east of the West Africa Colony and north of the Guinea Colony, sub-Saharan Africa, is precisely the area in Africa where viruses and diseases are most rampant.

For now, since Spain only occupies important colonial strongholds along the coast, the diseases and viruses in sub-Saharan Africa do not yet threaten Spain.

However, if Spain were to expand its territory further into the African interior, the Spanish Government would have to consider the threats posed by the diseases and viruses of the African Continent.

For Spain, continuing to explore inland Africa would be a losing proposition. Even if Spain could acquire vast territories amounting to hundreds of thousands or even a million square kilometers, it lacks the capital to develop these lands.

As previously mentioned, Spain’s problem lies in its population deficiency. Compared to other European countries, Spain lacks the capability to develop colonies.

In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that, currently, Spain’s population finds it challenging to develop even just the Congo Territory, let alone other colonies, including those in West Africa and Guinea.

The reason Spain occupies so much land is precisely to exchange benefits with the United Kingdom, France, or even other countries in the future.

Surveying the whole of Africa, the land Carlo desires most is actually just Morocco. Morocco’s land is easy to integrate into Spain, and its white population can be assimilated through various means. Compared to those who cannot integrate into Spain at all, like the black population, the value of developing Morocco is much higher.

To completely annex Morocco, Spain must face pressure from the UK and France. In such circumstances, conducting benefit exchanges becomes very important.

These exchanges of benefits offer Spain an alternative option and also provide the UK and France with their own options.

Once Spain grows strong enough, both the UK and France will be wary of its might. At that point, unless absolutely necessary, no one would want to tear their relationships asunder.

Under the premise that neither side wants to burn bridges, a colonial exchange allows both parties to reach a certain compromise without significant losses.

If Spain can stabilize either England or France through benefits exchange or colonial swaps, Carlo would not fear the remaining one.

As for the British, the upcoming Boer War will be enough to trouble them for some time. For France, their main enemy in the face of Germany’s increasing power during the Second Industrial Revolution would be none other than Germany.

Given that France and Spain were both unwilling to sever ties, their negotiations concluded with a compromise after a very short period.

First, regarding the unexpected conflict, the French Government admitted its fault in the incident and expressed its willingness to provide some compensation.

The French Government also promised to increase supervision of its military, ensuring that such incidents would never happen again.

The Spanish side also apologized for its rash retaliatory actions, stating that Spain and France enjoyed good cooperation and that their relationship should continue to be maintained in a friendly manner.

With the tone set for these negotiations, the next important matter was the division of West African lands.

With the United Kingdom and Portugal successively withdrawing from the colonization of West African lands, only two nations remained colonizing West Africa—the very nations participating in this meeting, France and Spain.

How to partition the West Africa Region, marking the colonial boundaries for the two nations, was of great importance to both France and Spain.

Because there had already been internal discussions within Spain, and Carlo had made it clear he did not want Spain to expand further in West Africa, Spain did not maintain its usual aggressive stance in these negotiations and chose to concede in some areas to France.

Of course, these concessions were not made without compensation. For any area Spain conceded, France was required to provide some level of compensation.

Both nations were great powers, after all, needing to respect each other’s interests. France couldn’t be allowed to take all the benefits alone; Spain needed to garner sufficient benefits as well to appease its domestic public sentiment.

During the meeting, France and Spain clarified the division of West African lands. Spain would maintain its existing colonial scale and committed not to further expand its colonial reach.

This also meant Spain would hand over the remaining land in West Africa to France, making France the only nation eligible to colonize in West Africa.

Of course, the compensation Spain received for its voluntary concessions was substantial.

Because of Spain’s willingness to concede, the French generously allocated tens of thousands of square kilometers of land in the northern French Congo to Spain.

This land, located in the lower Congo River, indeed had some development value.

Spain, too, was not shy about it. After France ceded this piece of land to Spain, it immediately incorporated it into the Congo Territory.

Aside from the tens of thousands of square kilometers in the Congo Region, France also ceded some land in the southern part of the Senegal Colony.

This part of the land wasn’t large, but it was well-suited for agricultural development and held some value for Spain.

Apart from these two minor territories, Spain and France also reached a certain agreement regarding the most important region, Morocco.

For this area, both countries watched keenly, yet tacitly agreed to temporarily set it aside, refraining from initiating colonial endeavors in Morocco.

The reason for Spain’s decision to defer was straightforward. Besides France, there was also the world’s most powerful nation, the United Kingdom, eyeing this land. Spain found it quite challenging to annex Morocco.

For France, they encountered the same concerns.

Spain kept a close watch on Morocco, much like France did on Algeria. In fact, Morocco was perhaps more important to Spain than Algeria was to France.

If France wished to annex Morocco alone, they would either have to cede interests to Spain equivalent to Morocco’s value or face a war with Spain.

Even if the significant threat from Spain could be resolved, the unexpected factor of the UK also needed consideration.

The UK wrested Gibraltar from Spain because it wanted to control that strait. If France were to occupy Morocco, it would likely impact the UK’s control over the strait.

Due to the high interest that the UK, France, and Spain showed in the Moroccan region, it ultimately resulted in Morocco remaining a weak nation that no country was able to annex.

Jointly setting aside Morocco was a relatively suitable choice for both Spain and France. Only when the European situation changes and the other great powers have no time to spare might it become the best time to annex Morocco.