Chapter 180 Congo Territory Established

The birth of Juan Fernando was the last step for Carlo to integrate into the world.

After having his own child, Carlo also had a sense of recognition of the world, and was sincerely willing to work hard for himself, for his wife and children, for all his family members, and for all Spaniards.

Making Spain great again will no longer be a slogan, but a goal that must be achieved, a milestone related to the interests of the royal family.

In the first month after Juan Fernando was born, Carlo was almost inseparable from Queen Sophie and the little guy.

Queen Sophie's body also recovered under the careful care of Carlo and the servants. This is also the advantage of natural childbirth, that is, it recovers faster.

However, Carlo would not be so stupid as to rush to do some happy things with Sophie in just one month.

Anyway, Carlo has two little maids to enjoy, and Queen Sophie's body will naturally be well.

For the development of the Spanish royal family itself, Carlo's children are naturally the more the better. This will not only prevent the royal family from facing the situation of extinction in the future, but also allow the royal family to expand and control more important positions through some royal family members.

At present, the royal family's property has reached hundreds of millions of pesetas. As long as there is no wanton extravagance, these properties will never be squandered.

In this case, the more children Carlo has, the more people will be able to effectively manage these properties. Compared with outsiders, it is obviously more reassuring for capable royal family members to control these enterprises.

Even in some cases, Spanish princes still have the opportunity to become kings of other countries through the election of kings, allowing the Savoy dynasty to expand in more countries.

If the Savoy family was just an ordinary royal family in northern Italy before, then the Savoy family now has two major powers, Italy and Spain, and has become one of the most prominent aristocratic families in Europe.

Although it is not as famous as the Habsburgs and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, it is already a well-known name among the European royal families.

The birth of Juan Fernando Jr. seemed to bring good luck to Carlo. Spain's colonization of the Congo region also became very smooth. The colonial outposts expanded to more than 150 in a short period of time, almost all over the fertile Congo Plateau that was discovered.

The good news is that this plateau in the upper reaches of the Congo River is very suitable for growing food and has certain development value.

There are nearly a thousand Spaniards living here at present. If the army is included, there are almost 3,000 people living near the Congo Plateau.

The railway running through the Baka people has been completed, which has greatly facilitated the transportation of materials from the Guinean colony to the Congo Plateau.

After discussion, the head of the Spanish colonial team sent to Congo and Manuel, the head of the garrison stationed in Congo, unanimously believed that the current Congo has the conditions to establish a territory. Spain's sovereignty over Congo is deeply rooted, and other countries cannot deprive it, nor can they refute the fact that Spain has occupied Congo.

When this news was transmitted back to Spain, it was exactly one and a half months after Prince Juan Fernando was born.

Because the government had reached an agreement on the handling of the Congo region, and the current colonization of Congo was almost smooth sailing.

Therefore, Carlo and the cabinet government discussed and decided to make public Spain's rule and sovereignty over Congo as soon as possible, and establish the Congo Territory, which was directly under Carlo's rule.

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

Spain will rely on these more than 100 colonial outposts to establish the Congo Territory, and the ruler of the territory will be King Carlo of Spain.

This news once again became the front-page headline in Spain, and its popularity was second only to the birth of Carlo's eldest son a month and a half ago.

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

The Spaniards were naturally happy to see this. Although the establishment of the Congo territory has nothing to do with them, who doesn't want to see their country expand its territory and the land area of ​​their country become larger and larger?

Besides, the establishment of colonies is also beneficial to the Spaniards to a certain extent.

The establishment of colonies means that the Spanish government can obtain a large amount of cheap raw materials from the colonies and can also make reasonable use of the local natives. After all, this is hard-won free labor.

Although the Spanish government has long abolished slavery, what is the difference between them and slaves if they give these local natives a certain amount of food and extremely low wages?

It's nothing more than a nice name, but for those capitalists, they have countless ways to exploit these natives and make them their free labor.

The most shocked by Spain's establishment of the Congo territory may be Portugal, which has occupied the Kingdom of Congo for a long time.

It is completely fine to say that Portugal is the country closest to Congo. Even Portugal's West African colonies were established by robbing the land of the Kingdom of Congo.

Going down the river from the Congo territory that Spain had just established, at the mouth of the river, you can see the long-weakened Kingdom of Congo and Portugal's West African colonies.

The fact that Spain could establish a territory in the upper reaches of the Congo River without telling Portugal shocked the Portuguese, and even puzzled them.

The Portuguese didn't even know when Spain discovered the land in the upper reaches of the Congo River. After all, they had been operating in Congo for a long time and had not been able to go deep into the Congo River to discover new land.

You should know that at this time, the progress of European countries' colonization of Africa was only a negligible percentage, and there was only one real large colony, which was the Cape Colony established by the British in South Africa.

In addition to the Cape Colony, Portugal's West African colonies and Mozambique colonies in West Africa were more of simple colonies united by some strongholds on the coast.

In addition to these areas, the colonial expansion of European countries in Africa basically stayed near the coast, or in a few excellent ports.

There are many reasons for this, the first and most important reason is the various viruses and diseases on the African continent. These viruses blocked the explorers' steps and indirectly prevented the mineral resources and fertile land of the African continent from being discovered by European colonists.

There is also the difficulty of colonizing the African continent, and a considerable part of Africa is indeed not worth colonizing.

In addition, the population of European countries has not yet ushered in a blowout growth, which ultimately led to the fact that the colonial development of Africa by European countries has remained at a relatively preliminary scale. Almost no European country has colonized the interior of the African continent. After all, this is not cost-effective for most people.

Take the Spanish colonization of Congo as an example. Although Spain has obtained a large piece of land, the price paid is also not small.

Whether it is to form an exploration team or to build a railway to establish a colonial base, Carlo's expenses are not low. The subsequent maintenance of the Congo territory also requires a steady stream of expenses. For a long time, the income brought by the Congo territory has been negative growth, and it will be in a state of loss for a long time.

This situation may have to wait until the mineral resources in Congo are developed on a large scale and transported to the port by rail to improve.

Fortunately, the railway from Congo to the Guinea colony has been almost built, and perhaps the Congo colony will bring positive benefits to the royal family in a few years.

Italy and Austria-Hungary have successively expressed congratulations to Spain on the establishment of the Congo territory. Because of the kinship between the two countries and the Spanish royal family, the Italian and Austro-Hungarian governments are also in a honeymoon period with the Spanish government, and the relationship is still relatively close.

In addition, the Congo River Basin has no interests with the two countries, so their congratulations to Spain are also sincere.

In particular, the royal families of Italy and Austria-Hungary, Vittorio Emanuele II and Franz Joseph I, both sent congratulatory telegrams in person, obviously supporting Spain's establishment of the Congo territory.

In fact, other countries do not have much reason to oppose the establishment of the Congo territory. Because Spain has indeed established more than 150 colonial outposts, and there is sufficient evidence to prove that Spain is the first explorer and colonizer to arrive in this land.

Under such circumstances, it is difficult for other countries to interfere with Spain's colonial behavior. After all, the closest to this area is the Portuguese, but even the Portuguese have not discovered this land.

The remaining countries are farther away, what can they do? Will they come from afar to interfere with Spain's colonization?

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

For the British, the Congo Territory is not a big deal for the time being. Even if this land has a lot of resources and a large area of ​​arable land that can be developed, it will take a long time to develop and utilize it.

Perhaps after Spain fully develops this land, the British can still obtain this land in other ways, or get a share of this land.

The British do not attach importance to this, and as the younger brother of the British, Portugal naturally has no way to do anything.

More importantly, Portugal has just reached some cooperation with Spain not long ago, which also makes them helpless against Spain.

King Louis I of Portugal can only helplessly strengthen the colonial efforts in Congo, and strive to control this land in the lower reaches of the Congo River as much as possible in Portugal's West African colonies before the Spanish colonial forces move south.

After the announcement of the establishment of the Congo Territory, Spain's colonial development of Congo has already entered the open.

Almost on the same day, the Spanish government sent more colonial teams and construction teams to help the newly established Congo Territory build a more complete railway and strengthen the connection between the Congo Territory and the Guinea Colony.

Because the Congo Territory is located on the African continent, the seaport still depends on the port of the Guinea Colony. This also makes the railway from Guinea to the Congo Territory a very important transportation route. Before the railway from the Congo Territory to the Congo River estuary is built, the railway here will directly affect the survival of the Congo Territory.

At least in the short term, the Congo Territory cannot achieve self-sufficiency and needs to transport a large amount of materials from the outside to make up for the consumption of the colonists in the colonial outposts.

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

After the establishment of the Congo territory, the vast plateau land in the upper reaches of the Congo River became Carlo's territory in the true sense.

However, Carlo did not have the brutal ideas of King Leopold II of Belgium in history. Belgium could not control such a large land of Congo at all, which also led to the Belgian royal family's policy with only one theme, that is, to do everything possible to squeeze Congo and make profits from the land of Congo and ship them back to Belgium.

But for Carlo, Spain has enough strength to control Congo. At least before the complete collapse of the colonial system, Spain has enough time to control this land and operate some areas worth developing.

When developing these areas, the local indigenous population is still very useful. They are natural free labor, which can help Spain build railways more effectively, reclaim arable land, and mine local mineral resources, etc.

It can even transfer the hatred of local indigenous people to some vested interests through the way of indigenous management of indigenous people, thereby reducing the hatred of local indigenous people against the Spaniards.

But then again, no matter what the policy of developing Congo is, the ultimate vested interests are only the Spaniards.

These local natives will be forever excluded from Spain, and they will never become Spanish citizens.

For Carlo, when these natives have played all their available value, Spain will abandon them without hesitation.

In order to prevent Spain from being stained with black one day in the future, Carlo can only start from himself, resolutely prevent the black population from entering Spain, and resolutely prevent the Iberian Peninsula from being stained with ink.

Almost on the same day when the Congo Territory was announced, Spain once again strengthened its naval construction.

Of course, this time it was not a large ironclad ship of several thousand tons or even nearly 10,000 tons, but an auxiliary warship of different tonnage, used to form an ocean-going fleet with ironclad ships as the main combat power.

After the Royal Guarnizo Shipyard received the civilian shipyard purchased from the United Kingdom, it had sufficient design drawings and relevant information on these small and medium-sized warships.

The auxiliary warships mainly built this time include 7 offshore patrol ships with a standard displacement of 1,250 tons, 3 cruisers with a standard displacement of more than 3,300 tons, and 1 main cruiser with a standard displacement of 4,750 tons.

Among them, offshore patrol ships and cruisers are relatively conventional. Although the design refers to the British idea, it is generally the mainstream construction concept of European countries.

The only special one is the main cruiser with a displacement of 4,750 tons. Although it is called a cruiser, it is actually no different from some ironclad ships with smaller tonnage.

It’s just that this cruiser gave up a certain thickness of armor. On the premise of smaller tonnage, it is equipped with the same caliber shipborne main guns as the Renaissance-class ironclad ship, making its firepower at the same level as the ironclad ship.

Such a cruiser is fully capable of joining the fleet’s main decisive battle, and even relying on the powerful firepower equivalent to that of the ironclad ship, it can play a certain role in the naval decisive battle.

In addition to these three types of auxiliary warships worth mentioning, there are also several hundred tons of coastal gunboats, inland patrol boats, etc., which are almost a must for the fleet.

The good news is that because the tonnage of these warships is not large, even if a total of 11 warships of thousands of tons are built, the overall cost is only a little more expensive than building an ironclad ship.

This is also one of the reasons why ironclad ships are expensive. After all, you can't rely on only one ironclad ship to form a fleet. You also need a large number of warships for other purposes to form a mixed fleet formation.

The news that Spain has started to build warships again has been popular in China for a while, but it has hardly received much attention abroad.

After all, these are auxiliary warships for ironclad ships. After building ironclad ships, Spain will definitely build these small warships with other uses.

However, after this, the Spanish Navy has completely stabilized its top five position in the world. Although it is impossible to improve to fourth, the fifth navy in the world also proves Spain's previous foundation.

Carlo will certainly not be satisfied with the current achievements of the Spanish Navy. According to the current scale of Spanish colonies, the current fleet size certainly cannot meet Spain's actual needs.

The mainland and the South Morocco colony can share a fleet, but it can only cover these two regions. It is difficult for the mainland fleet to exert influence on Cuba, which is separated by the Atlantic Ocean, or Guinea, Congo and other regions separated by half of Africa.

Not to mention the Philippines, which is almost half the world away. If the Philippines was not so large before, the Spanish government would not pay so much attention to the Philippines.

But now, the East Indies colony has established a foothold in Kalimantan, and will even start a colonization plan for New Guinea.

This also makes the East Indies urgently need a small fleet to protect the safety of the colonial coast, and at the same time, it can better help the colony to carry out colonial development work, as well as defend against the British and Dutch in this area.

In this way, Spain needs at least two fleets to meet the actual needs. But for Spain's current financial capacity, it is already a bit difficult to maintain a fleet of a fairly large scale, and the real naval expansion may have to wait for several years.

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