Chapter 293 West African Colony Established

At the same time that Royal Mercedes entered the Portuguese market, Portugal was also carrying out its own colonization efforts.

As mentioned before, according to the agreement between the governments of Spain and Portugal, the two sides reached a preliminary exchange agreement on their colonies in Africa.

As long as Portugal could take over the southern part of Congo with the help of Spain, Portugal was willing to give up all of its West African colonies except Cape Verde.

A year and a half had passed since the agreement was reached. The Portuguese had already made careful preparations and launched a massive colonization campaign against the indigenous countries in southern Congo.

There are nearly ten indigenous countries of various sizes in southern Congo. Among them, the more powerful ones include the Kingdom of Runda, the Kingdom of Buunda, the Kingdom of Barotheram and the Kingdom of Mwatakazembe.

After careful planning, the Portuguese government finally chose the Kingdom of Ruanda as the first country to be colonially invaded.

The reason why the Portuguese chose this place as their first target was very simple. It was located in the northern part of the Congo Basin, which just separated it from the Spanish Congo territory.

Obviously, the Portuguese government was also worried that Spain would not keep its word and was afraid that the Spanish government would forcibly take over the lands colonized by Portugal after Portugal launched a colonial invasion.

Developing your own country requires a lot of time and effort, but seizing colonies from other countries doesn’t require that much trouble.

As long as the army is used for military occupation, given the large gap in power between the two countries, even if Spain occupied Portugal’s colonies, the Portuguese government would most likely not dare to say anything.

This also once again proves the famous saying: “A weak country has no diplomacy, and a small country has no sovereignty.”

Although the Kingdom of Rwanda was a relatively powerful indigenous country in southern Congo, this so-called country seemed a bit ridiculous to Portugal.

Unlike the Ashanti Federation that had troubled the British for a long time, because of its location in the Congo Basin, the indigenous countries and forces here have not been exposed to advanced technology and are in the most primitive and backward era.

Portugal’s steel guns and cannons were a complete crushing blow to these natives, who were simply unable to resist Portugal’s colonial offensive.

Portugal mobilized an army of about 5000 people and marched eastward from its West African colonies. It took almost three months to completely occupy the Kingdom of Rwanda.

Why three months? This has to do with the geographical location of the Kingdom of Lunda.

Because this land is located on the edge of the Congo Basin, it is covered with dense virgin forests and is filled with all kinds of unimaginable dangerous terrain and germs.

It took the Portuguese army less than a week to occupy several large tribes of the Kingdom of Rwanda, and the rest of the time was spent traveling through the primeval forest and looking for traces of the indigenous people.

If there had not been traitors among the Congolese in the West African colonies and some of them had led the Portuguese army, the Portuguese army would probably not even have been able to pass through this primeval forest.

In any case, the Portuguese army did completely occupy the Kingdom of Ruanda and incorporated it into its West African colonies.

After the occupation of the Kingdom of Ruanda, the shortest distance between Portugal’s West African colonies and the Mozambique colony was less than 600 kilometers.

This also made the Portuguese very excited. They firmly believed that the time had come for the merger of the two colonies and that Portugal was about to establish another super-large colony after Brazil.

Even the Portuguese government was discussing the name of this large colony. King Louis of Portugal planned to name this large colony Portuguese Africa, and like Carlo, he would publicize his contributions before the establishment of this large colony.

Carlo completely consolidated his throne with a Congolese territory, which made his fellow king Louis envious.

The contribution of developing a Congo territory alone was enough to ensure the continuation of the House of Savoy’s rule in Spain.

The current political situation in Portugal is rather chaotic. Louis also has this idea. He also wants to stabilize the political situation in Portugal and pass his throne smoothly to his son.

However, before Portugal continued its colonial activities, they had a promise to fulfill, which was to exchange colonies with Spain.

When the colonial exchange agreement was reached with Spain, the two sides had already agreed that after Portugal completely occupied any indigenous country or force in southern Congo, Portugal would need to transfer all of its West African colonies except Cape Verde to Spain.

Only in this way would Spain allow Portugal to continue colonizing southern Congo.

Spain was not afraid that Portugal would break its promise. As long as the Portuguese government dared to tear up the previously agreed agreement, Spain could launch a war at any time to take back the land in southern Congo, and even forcibly occupy Portugal’s colonies in West Africa.

Although the colonial exchange agreement between the two countries was signed in secret, there is evidence of documents and signatures by officials from both countries at the time.

If Portugal, as a small country, dares to break the contract, it would be equivalent to giving the Spanish government an excuse to declare war.

The Portuguese government naturally understands this and they have no intention of breaking the contract.

First of all, the Portuguese government does not have the power to break the contract. Forcibly tearing up the previous agreement will only make Portugal’s preparations fail.

Secondly, this colonial exchange was not a loss for Portugal. If it could obtain a large integrated colony, the gains would be far greater than those small colonies in West Africa.

Although Portugal had many colonies in West Africa, they all had one thing in common: they were small in size and sparsely populated.

The largest colony was Portuguese Guinea, which had an area of ​​just over 30,000 square kilometers and a population of less than 100,000.

The economic value that these colonies could provide to the Portuguese government was very limited and far less than what would be gained from the merger of Portugal’s East and West African colonies.

Portugal’s only concern was whether Spain would tear up the treaty and demand both Portugal’s West African colonies and the land in southern Congo that Portugal had just occupied.

However, they did not have the courage to refuse to transfer the colonies and could only delay the transfer of colonial sovereignty as much as possible.

The Spanish government did not reject the Portuguese government’s proposal to transfer colonies one by one.

Portugal’s colonies were scattered along the coast of West Africa, and it was indeed troublesome to take them all at once. Spain also knew the Portuguese government’s doubts. Carlo did not intend to tear up the treaty, and naturally did not care about taking over Portugal’s colonies later.

Of course, the Portuguese government is qualified to put forward conditions, and the Spanish government is naturally also qualified to put forward conditions.

After the Portuguese government proposed to transfer its West African colonies one by one, the Spanish government put forward a new requirement, that is, the Portuguese Guinea colony must be the first colony to be transferred.

The colony of Guinea was Portugal’s largest colony in West Africa, and more importantly, this land was connected to Spain’s colony of Gambia.

The sooner the Guinea colony is taken over, the sooner the two colonies can be merged and the agricultural development plan of the Gambia colony can be accelerated.

Originally, the Gambia colony had an area of ​​only more than 30,000 square kilometers, and the scale of agricultural development was always capped.

But if merged with Portugal’s Guinea colony, the total area of ​​the two colonies would be close to 70,000 square kilometers, which is not a small area at all.

Of course, the Ziguinchor colony, which was adjacent to the Guinea colony, would naturally be transferred to Spain at the same time.

As for the remaining colonies of Ouidah and São Tomé and Principe, the transfer of sovereignty could be postponed for a period of time as proposed by the Portuguese government.

The remaining two colonies are not large in area, and when sovereignty is transferred will basically have no impact on Spain.

Facing the Spanish government’s request, the Portuguese government had no reason to refuse. Under such circumstances, the two governments soon began to transfer colonial sovereignty.

In July 1882, the Spanish government officially acquired the Portuguese colonies of Ziguinchor and Guinea, and immediately announced the merger of the two colonies with the Gambia colony to establish the Spanish West African colony.

The happiest Spanish official was probably Harrison, the former governor of the Gambia colony. The Gambia colony had already attracted much attention due to Spain’s West African development plan. After merging with two Portuguese colonies to form the West African colony, the new West African colony was the focus of Spain’s development.

As the former governor of the Gambia colony, Harrison naturally became the governor of the new West African colony.

Judging from the importance attached by the Spanish government, the West African colonies can be said to be the third largest colony after the Congo colonies and the Philippine colonies. The position of colonial governor is naturally quite valuable.

You know, the name of the West African colony is not a random one. In the future, Spain’s Sierra Leone colony and the Gold Coast colony may be merged with the West African colony, and the main body after the merger will of course be the West African colony.

As the Governor of the West African colonies, Harrison may become a figure comparable to the Governor of the Congo Territory in the future.

After serving as Governor-General of the West African colonies for several years, Harrison had great hopes of being transferred back to Spain to serve as Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs or Secretary of Agriculture.

After all, his main task in the West African colonies was to engage in colonial and agricultural work, and these two jobs corresponded exactly to the positions of Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs and Secretary of State for Agriculture.

After taking over the colonies of Guinea and Ziguinchor from Portugal, the Spanish government stepped up its efforts to colonize southern Congo with Portugal.

For Carlo, the sooner the Portuguese government occupied the land in southern Congo, the sooner the British would interfere with Portugal’s colonial operations.

As long as the British chose to interfere with Portugal’s colonial activities and destroy the Portuguese people’s expectations of a large African colony, cracks would naturally appear in the relationship between Portugal and Britain.

Although it is not enough to cause a break between Portugal and the British, it will greatly damage the relationship between the two countries and make Portugal more likely to turn to Spain.

Even though everyone in Portugal, from King Louis to every government official and many citizens were looking forward to the merger of the East and West African colonies.

In fact, Carlo was quite clear that there was no possibility for Portugal to merge the two colonies.

Unless the British lost Egypt or the Cape Colony, there would be a natural conflict between Portugal’s colonial plans and Britain’s colonial plans.

For Portugal at this moment, the greater the expectations now, the greater the disappointment will be when their expectations are shattered by the British in the future.

They would not only be angry at the British for crushing their dreams, but would also be disappointed with the cowardly Portuguese government and royal family.

The Portuguese who were disappointed with the government and the royal family naturally couldn’t help but compare themselves with their neighbor Spain, and at this time Carlo’s strong attitude paid off.

The conflict between Italy and France over their Tunisian colony alone was enough to make the Portuguese feel the difference in the diplomatic attitudes of Spain and Portugal.

The reason why Italy was able to snatch two pieces of land from France was inseparable from the support of Spain.

Compared with the Portuguese government’s abandonment of its colonies under British interference, Spain’s performance of not fearing a powerful country is even more valuable.

By then, with the addition of some propaganda, it is hard to say how the situation in Portugal will develop.

As long as he could guide Portuguese public opinion towards hostility towards Britain, such a plan would be a win-win for Carlo.

It would be great if the Portuguese could become completely disappointed with their government and royal family, so that they could overthrow the revolution and re-elect the monarch like Spain did.

If Carlo cannot become the King of Portugal through the king election, he can only rely on war or other means to forcibly annex Portugal.

But this was ultimately the worst-case scenario. As long as Portugal could be annexed peacefully, Carlo would never consider using force.

After all, using force to annex would only damage the relationship between the Portuguese and the Spanish, thereby increasing the difficulty of assimilating the Portuguese.

After annexing the Kingdom of Ruanda, Portugal did not choose the Kingdom of Mwatakazembe, which was connected to the Kingdom of Ruanda and the colony of Mozambique, but chose the Kingdom of Buunda south of Ruanda.

Although the conquest of the Kingdom of Mwatakazembe would provide a direct link between Portugal’s West African colonies and its colony of Mozambique, such a connection was not strong.

The Kingdom of Mwatakazembe is located in the eastern part of the entire Congo region. In addition to the Portuguese colony of Mozambique, there are many large and small indigenous countries and forces around it.

Occupying this place would indeed allow Portugal to forcibly connect its two colonies in East Africa and West Africa, but it would also allow several surrounding indigenous countries to unite to resist Portugal’s colonial actions.

Portugal is different from Spain. Spain has a population of more than 2000 million, and can form an army of millions on its own.

This also gave Spain the confidence to confront other powers, or at least it was not so afraid of falling out with them.

But Portugal is different. The native population of Portugal has not exceeded 500 million, and the maximum number of troops that can be mobilized is about 2 to 30.

More importantly, these Portuguese colonies did not have very large populations. The population of the two colonies in West Africa and Mozambique combined was less than that of Portugal itself.

This also meant that Portugal was unable to form a large-scale colonial army like Spain, and the local Congolese and Mozambican people were not so submissive to Portuguese rule.

If Portugal blindly formed a large-scale colonial army, it would only cause mutiny among the colonial troops composed of indigenous people, making Portugal’s colonies even more dangerous.

Since it was unable to utilize the indigenous manpower on a large scale, Portugal could only rely on its own army to conquer the land.

However, the population of Portugal is not large, which has formed a vicious circle. Although these indigenous people will not pose much threat to Portugal’s colonial plan, if the surrounding indigenous forces unite together, Portugal will definitely suffer considerable casualties if it wants to take over these lands.

For a country with a population of less than 500 million, avoidable casualties must be avoided; in some cases this is more important than expanding territory.

Portugal itself can only mobilize a limited number of troops. If it loses tens of thousands of troops due to the colonization of southern Congo, how can it guard against the covetousness of the powerful countries on Portugal’s homeland?
Although Portugal and Spain achieved their respective goals through colonial exchanges, this does not mean that the relationship between the two Iberian neighbors has become friendly and harmonious.

Spain has never given up the idea of ​​re-annexing Portugal, and Portugal has also been guarding against the covetousness of its powerful neighbor Spain.

For Portugal now, how to conquer the land in southern Congo without losing too much manpower is a question that needs to be carefully considered.

Any military action that may cause heavy losses needs to be avoided as much as possible. After all, there is no permanent good relationship between countries, and one’s own military strength is also very important.

It was because of these reasons that Portugal finally gave up its colonization plan for the Kingdom of Mwatakazembe and chose the Kingdom of Buunda, which was closer to the West African colonies.

When Carlo learned that the Portuguese colonization plan was based in the Kingdom of Bunda, he shook his head with some regret.

Because if the Portuguese chose to conquer the Kingdom of Muwata Kazenbe to connect their two colonies, the British would surely intervene forcibly before long.

But the Portuguese chose the Kingdom of Buunda. Even if it could attract the attention of the British government, the British government would not necessarily intervene forcibly at this time.

After all, there were still large tracts of uncolonized land between the Kingdom of Bunda and the colony of Mozambique.

The British would not forcibly interfere with Portugal’s colonization until Portugal’s colonial plan completely conflicted with Britain’s colonial plan.

After all, such behavior that damages national interests will inadvertently force Portugal towards Spain.

It would be a huge joke if the Portuguese government sided with the Spanish government and formed an Iberian Alliance.

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(End of this chapter)