Empire Rising: Spain

Of course, nowadays the name "Gold Coast" is quite fitting. How exaggerated are the gold reserves here? Even in later generations, Ghana remains an important gold-exporting country.

Data shows that Ghana’s annual gold production can reach over 4 million ounces, which is more than 100 tons of gold.

Although annual gold production fluctuates, such a level of production is enough for Ghana to become Africa’s second-largest gold producer after South Africa.

With such massive gold reserves alone, Carlo absolutely won’t abandon the Gold Coast. Not to mention the income from cocoa and timber extraction, which ensures the Gold Coast is a colony where revenue far exceeds expenditure.

Given the Gold Coast’s abundant gold reserves, why would the United Kingdom be willing to exchange it?

The main reason is that although many gold mines have been discovered in the Gold Coast at this time, their reserves aren’t large.

Historically, large-scale gold mining in the Gold Coast waited until the late 19th century, becoming an important gold-producing region in the 20th century.

Ghana’s gold mines are mainly concentrated in the Ashanti region, the area that Spain conquered after taking over the Gold Coast.

The United Kingdom hadn’t had the chance to conquer Ashanti, naturally failing to discover large gold mines there. Without finding gold mines, the Gold Coast’s value in the eyes of the British greatly diminishes.

More importantly, Spain’s Cuban Colony is no less valuable. Cuba’s sugar industry is more lucrative than the Gold Coast’s gold mines, and it strategically holds a significant geographical position against the United States, increasing Cuba’s strategic value.

From a modern perspective, considering Ghana’s gold and other mineral resources in West Africa, it’s hard to say who benefits more from such colonial exchanges.

But from the British perspective in the 1880s, exchanging a few relatively small West African colonies for a complete Cuba means definite profit for the British.

The mere act of controlling Cuba’s sugar monopoly in Europe and America ensures the British earn handsomely.

Of course, this also greatly offends the United States. The pros and cons of this need to be weighed by the current ruler of the Cuban Colony, the United Kingdom.

To prevent interference from Germany in their colonial plans, Carlo immediately decided to accelerate the speed of colonial mergers, prioritizing the merger of the Gold Coast and the Congo Territory.

The distance from the Gold Coast to the Congo Territory extends 3,000 kilometers, located at the bend of Africa’s "7-shaped" region, a land with great potential for development.

The estimated minimum gold reserves in this region are at least 3,000 tons. Since the gold mines here haven’t yet experienced large-scale mining, the gold reserves are even greater than in later generations.

The total value of these 3,000 tons of gold alone is a staggering 78 billion Pesseta. Adding in other mineral resources from this land ensures Spain can reap substantial benefits from this land for decades.

Besides gold mines, the Spanish colonial lands in Africa boast over 20 billion tons of iron ore and 200 million tons of coal, laying a strong foundation for Spain’s future industrial development.

billion tons of iron ore are more than sufficient for Spain’s industrial development. Although 200 million tons of coal isn’t much, Spain’s domestic coal reserves reach 8.8 billion tons, perfectly compensating for the shortfall in Spanish African Colony coal mines.

Judging by the map, Spain faces certain challenges in integrating the lands between the Gold Coast and the Congo Territory.

Especially along the nearly thousand-kilometer coastline from the Gold Coast to Guinea, which hosts formidable indigenous forces including the Sokoto Caliphate, Niger Kingdom, Alo Alliance, Bam Kingdom, and Benin Kingdom.

Like the Asante Federation, these indigenous forces are African indigenes with a certain degree of civilization, rather than backward indigenous tribes.

To conquer these indigenes, Spain must deploy more strategies. Besides deploying more troops for forcible conquest, they need to disrupt the connections between these indigenous nations to prevent them from uniting against Spain’s colonial expansion.

To accelerate the Spanish colonial merger plan, after consultation with the Cabinet Government, Carlo decided to increase investment in the colonial affairs department and also increase military spending for various African colonies.

Last year, the Spanish Government’s total fiscal revenue reached a new high of 1.1423 billion Pesseta, with a fiscal surplus of 99.7 million Pesseta.

Even if the government allocates part of this to repay foreign debts, there’s still plenty of fiscal budget this year to distribute among departments.

The Cabinet Ministers of the Spanish Government have no objections to accelerating the pace of African colonization. As the Berlin Conference convenes, European nations have unanimously accelerated their colonization of Africa.

Spain absolutely cannot lag behind, as the size of the African cake is limited, and it will eventually be divided up by European countries.

The more share Spain gains from this cake, the more benefits it naturally receives. Even if some lands aren’t as important to Spain, they can be exchanged for desired lands through colonial swaps.

Therefore, during the Spanish Cabinet Meeting, the attitude of ministers across departments is quite unanimous, which is to endorse accelerating the colonization of Africa and willing to sacrifice their departmental fiscal budgets for investment in colonial affairs and military expenses.