Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 180: Establishment Of The Congo Territory

The birth of Little Juan Fernando was the final step for Carlo in integrating into this world.

After having his own children, Carlo also gained a sense of recognition toward this world and was sincerely willing to strive for himself, for his wife and children and all his family, and also for all Spaniards.

Making Spain great again would no longer be just a slogan, but a goal that must be achieved, a milestone concerning the interests of the royal family itself.

In the first month after Little Juan Fernando’s birth, Carlo stayed almost constantly by the side of Queen Sophie and the little one.

Queen Sophie’s body also recovered its health under Carlo and the servants’ careful care, which was also the benefit of natural birth, namely that recovery was relatively fast.

However, recovery was recovery, and Carlo was not foolish enough to rush into doing some pleasurable things with Sophie after just one month.

Anyway, Carlo had two little maids to enjoy, so Queen Sophie’s body should naturally be nursed back to health first.

For the development of the Spanish Royal Family itself, the more children Carlo had, the better. This not only could avoid the royal family facing a succession crisis on some future day, but also allow the royal family to branch out, and through some royal members controlling relatively important positions.

Currently, the royal family’s property had reached hundreds of millions of pesetas. As long as they did not squander it extravagantly and wastefully, these properties could never be exhausted no matter what.

Under such circumstances, the more children Carlo had, the more manpower there would be to effectively manage these properties. Compared to outsiders, royal members with ability managing these enterprises was obviously more reassuring. Even in some cases, Spain’s princes still had the opportunity to become kings of other countries through king selection, allowing the House of Savoy to branch out in more countries.

If the House of Savoy had previously been just an ordinary royal family in Northern Italy, then the current House of Savoy already possessed two great powers, Italy and Spain, becoming one of the most prominent noble families in Europe today.

Although not comparable to historically renowned families like the Habsburgs or the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in the ranks of European royal families, it was already quite famous.

The birth of Little Juan Fernando seemed to bring good luck to Carlo. Spain’s colonial action in the Congo Region also became very smooth, with colonial outposts expanding to more than 150 in a short time, almost covering the fertile Congo Plateau that had been discovered.

The good news was that this plateau in the upper reaches of the Congo River was very suitable for planting grain and had certain development value.

Currently, the number of Spaniards living here was close to a thousand, and if including the army, there were nearly 3,000 people residing near the Congo Plateau.

The railway through the Bakongo people’s territory had been completed, which greatly facilitated the Guinea Colony in transporting materials to the Congo Plateau.

After discussion, the manager of the Spanish colonial team dispatched to the Congo and the regimental commander Manuel stationed in the Congo unanimously believed that the current Congo already had the conditions to establish a territory. Spain’s sovereignty over the Congo was deeply rooted, and other countries could not deprive it nor refute the fact that Spain had occupied the Congo.

This news reached Spain just one and a half months after Prince Juan Fernando’s birth.

Because the handling of the Congo Region had already reached an agreement with the government, plus the current colonization of the Congo was almost going smoothly.

Thus, after consultation with the cabinet government, Carlo decided to publicly announce Spain’s rule and sovereignty over the Congo as soon as possible and establish the Congo Territory, directly under Carlo’s rule.

On July 14, 1875, the Spanish Government officially announced to the outside world that Spain had established more than 150 colonial outposts in the upper reaches of the Congo River Basin, formally completing the occupation of the upstream plateau of the Congo River Basin.

Spain would rely on these more than 100 colonial outposts to establish the Congo Territory, with the territory’s ruler being King Carlo of Spain.

This news once again became the front-page headline in Spain, with heat only second to the birth of Carlo’s eldest son one and a half months ago.

Of course, this was in Spain. Outside Spain, the heat of this news was even more outrageous than the birth of Carlo’s son, not only closely watched by royal families of various countries but also sparking discussions among many Europeans.

Spaniards’ attitude toward this was naturally something they were happy to see. Although the establishment of the Congo Territory had little direct relation to them, who wouldn’t want to see their country expand its territory and their country’s land area grow larger and larger?

Moreover, the establishment of colonies was beneficial to Spaniards to a certain extent.

The establishment of colonies meant that the Spanish Government could obtain large amounts of cheap raw materials from the colonies and reasonably utilize the local indigenous people—after all, this was hard-won free labor.

Although the Spanish Government had long abolished slavery, giving these local indigenous people some food and extremely low salaries, what difference did they have from slaves?

It was just a nicer name, but for those capitalists, they had countless ways to exploit these indigenous people and turn them into their free labor.

If anyone was most shocked by Spain’s establishment of the Congo Territory, it was perhaps Portugal, which had been encroaching on the Kingdom of Congo for a long time.

It was completely no problem to say that Portugal was the country closest to the Congo. Even Portugal’s West African Colony was established by seizing land from the Kingdom of Congo.

Following the river downstream from the Congo Territory just established by Spain, at the estuary position, one could see the long-weakened Kingdom of Congo and Portugal’s West African Colony.

That Spain could secretly establish a territory in the upper reaches of the Congo River without Portugal knowing left the Portuguese very shocked, even utterly baffled.

The Portuguese didn’t even know when Spain had discovered the land in the upper reaches of the Congo River. After all, they had operated in the Congo for a very long time but had never gone deep into the Congo River to discover new land.

It must be known that at this time, the colonization progress of European countries in Africa was only a minuscule few percent. The only truly large colony was the Cape Colony established by the British in South Africa.

Apart from the Cape Colony, colonies like Portugal’s West African Colony and Mozambique Colony were mostly just simple colonies formed by uniting some outposts along the coast.

Besides these regions, the colonial expansion of European countries in Africa was basically limited to near the coast, or rather, a few excellent ports.

There were many reasons for this. The most important one was the various viruses and diseases on the African Continent. These viruses obstructed the steps of explorers and indirectly prevented European colonists from discovering the mineral resources and fertile land of the African Continent.

There was also the difficulty of colonizing the African Continent, and quite a few African regions indeed had little value for colonization.

Coupled with the fact that the population of European countries had not yet seen explosive growth, this ultimately led to European countries’ colonial development in Africa remaining at a relatively preliminary scale. Almost no European country had gone deep into the interior of the African Continent for colonization, as it was considered unprofitable by most people.

Take Spain’s colonization of the Congo as an example. Although Spain had gained a large piece of land, the cost paid was also not small.

Whether forming exploration teams or subsequently building railways and establishing colonial outposts, Carlo’s expenses were not low. Maintaining the Congo Territory afterward would also require continuous expenditure. For a long time, the Congo Territory would bring negative profits and remain in a state of loss.

This situation might only improve after large-scale development of mineral resources inside the Congo and transportation by railway to the port.

Fortunately, the railway from the Congo to the Guinea Colony was almost completed. Perhaps the Congo Colony bringing positive profits to the royal family could happen within a few years.

Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire successively expressed congratulations to Spain on establishing the Congo Territory. Due to familial relations between their royal families and the Spanish Royal Family, the Italian and Austro-Hungarian Imperial Governments were also in a honeymoon period with the Spanish Government, with relatively close relations.

Moreover, the Congo River Basin had no interests conflicting with the two countries, so their congratulations to Spain were sincere.

Especially the royal families of Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Vittorio Emanuele II and Franz Joseph I personally sent congratulatory telegrams, clearly supporting Spain’s establishment of the Congo Territory.

In fact, other countries had little reason to oppose the establishment of the Congo Territory. Because Spain had indeed established more than 150 colonial outposts, and there was sufficient evidence proving that Spain was the first explorer and colonist to arrive on this land.

Under such circumstances, it was difficult for other countries to intervene in Spain’s colonial actions. After all, the closest to this region was Portugal, but even the Portuguese had not discovered this land.

The remaining countries were even farther away one by one—what could they do? Come from thousands of miles away to intervene in Spain’s colonization?

Even the British, who had always been on guard against Spain, remained silent after Spain announced the establishment of the Congo Territory.

For the British, the Congo Territory was temporarily not a matter of great importance. Even if this land had many resources and vast developable arable land area, it would take a long time to develop and utilize.

Perhaps after Spain fully developed this land, the British could still obtain this land through other means or get a share of it.

The British did not attach much importance to this, and as the British’s little brother, Portugal naturally had no way either.

More importantly, Portugal had recently reached some cooperation with Spain, which also left them helpless against Spain.

King Louis I of Portugal could only helplessly strengthen the colonization efforts in the Congo, striving to control as much of the land in the lower reaches of the Congo River as possible in Portugal’s West African Colony before Spain’s colonial forces moved south.

After announcing the establishment of the Congo Territory, Spain’s colonial development in the Congo had entered the open phase.

Almost on the same day, the Spanish Government dispatched more colonial teams and construction teams to help the newly established Congo Territory build more complete railways and strengthen the connection between the Congo Territory and the Guinea Colony.

Because the Congo Territory was located on the African Continent, the estuary still had to rely on the ports of the Guinea Colony. This also made the railway from Guinea to the Congo Territory a very important traffic artery. Before the railway from the Congo Territory to the Congo River estuary was built, this railway would directly concern the survival of the Congo Territory.

At least in the short term, the Congo Territory could not achieve self-sufficiency and needed to transport large amounts of materials from outside to make up for the consumption of colonists in the colonial outposts.

Fortunately, there were also many local indigenous tribes, and these indigenous people could serve as free labor to help Spain better develop the local land.

After the establishment of the Congo Territory, this vast plateau land in the upper reaches of the Congo River truly became Carlo’s territory.

However, Carlo did not have the brutal ideas of King Leopold II of Belgium in history. Belgium fundamentally could not control such a vast land as the Congo, which led to the Belgian royal family’s policy having only one theme: exploit the Congo by all means and earn profits from this land to transport back to Belgium.

But for Carlo, Spain had sufficient strength to control the Congo. At least before the colonial system completely collapsed, Spain had enough time to control this land and develop some regions worth developing.

When developing these regions, the local indigenous population was still very useful. They were natural free labor and could help Spain more effectively build railways, reclaim arable land, and mine local mineral resources, etc.

They could even manage indigenous people with indigenous people, transferring the hatred of local indigenous people to some entitled beneficiaries among the indigenous, thereby reducing the local indigenous people’s hatred toward Spaniards.

But that said, no matter what the policy for developing the Congo was, the ultimate entitled beneficiaries were only Spaniards.

These local indigenous people would be forever excluded from Spain’s national gates; they could never become Spanish citizens.

For Carlo, after these indigenous people had exhausted all their utilizable value, it would be time for Spain to unhesitatingly abandon them.

To avoid Spain being dyed black on some future day, Carlo could only start from himself, resolutely prevent black population from entering Spain, and resolutely stop the Iberian Peninsula from being stained with ink.

Almost on the same day as the announcement of the establishment of the Congo Territory, Spain once again strengthened its navy construction.

Of course, this time it was not building large thousands-of-tons or even near-ten-thousand-tons ironclads, but auxiliary warships of various tonnages, used to form an ocean-going fleet with ironclads as the main combat force.

After the Royal Gualnizo Shipyard received the civilian shipyard purchased from the United Kingdom, it had sufficient design blueprints and related information for these small and medium warships.

The auxiliary warships mainly built this time included 7 near-sea patrol ships with standard displacement of 1,250 tons, 3 cruisers with standard displacement exceeding 3,300 tons, and 1 main cruiser with standard displacement of 4,750 tons.

Among them, the near-sea patrol ships and cruisers were relatively conventional. Although the design referenced British ideas, it was generally still the mainstream construction concept of European countries today.

The only relatively special one was the 4,750-ton main cruiser. Called a cruiser, it was actually no different from some smaller-tonnage ironclads.

However, this cruiser abandoned a certain armor thickness and, under the premise of smaller tonnage, instead mounted shipborne main guns of the same caliber as the Revival-class ironclad, placing its firepower on the same level as ironclads.

Such a cruiser could fully join the fleet’s main decisive battle and even, relying on firepower equal to ironclads, play a certain role in naval decisive battles.

Besides these three noteworthy auxiliary warships, there were also several hundred-ton coast gunboats, river patrol boats, etc., which went without saying—they were almost essential for the fleet.

The good news was that because the tonnages of these built warships were not large, even building 11 ships over a thousand tons, the total expense was only a little more than building one ironclad.

This was also one of the reasons why ironclads were expensive—after all, a fleet could not be formed with just one ironclad; it also needed a large number of warships for other purposes to form a mixed fleet formation together.

The news of Spain starting construction of warships again was hot in the country for a while, but received almost no attention abroad.

After all, these were auxiliary warships for ironclads. After Spain built ironclads, it would definitely build these small warships for other purposes.

However, after this, the Spanish Navy thoroughly stabilized its position as the world’s top five. Although it was impossible to rise to fourth, being the world’s fifth navy also proved Spain’s previous foundation.

Of course, Carlo would not be satisfied with the current achievements of the Spanish Navy. Based on Spain’s existing colony scale, the current fleet scale definitely could not meet Spain’s actual needs.

The homeland and South Morocco Colony could share one fleet, but it could only cover these two regions. Cuba separated by the Atlantic Ocean, or regions like Guinea and Congo separated by half of Africa, made it hard for the homeland fleet to exert influence.

Not to mention the Philippines, almost separated by half the world. If it was the previous Philippines, it was fine—the area was not that large, and the Spanish Government did not attach that much importance to the Philippines.

But now, the East Indies colonies had already gained a foothold on Borneo, and subsequently even planned to start colonization of New Guinea.

This also made the East Indies urgently need a small-scale fleet to protect the colony’s coastal security, while also better helping the colony with colonial development work and defending against the British and Dutch present in this region.

By this calculation, Spain at least needed two fleets to meet actual demands. But for Spain’s current financial capacity, maintaining one fairly powerful fleet was already somewhat strenuous; a true major naval expansion might have to wait several more years.

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