Empire Rising: Spain

The severe racial discrimination within Liberia even led to internal strife and rebellion, but this is not very significant in world history.

Apart from the merger of the Gold Coast and Congo Territory, Spain also facilitated the merger of the West Africa Colony and Sierra Leone Colony.

Compared to the former, the latter merger is actually much simpler.

After all, the straight-line distance from the Gold Coast to Congo Territory is over a thousand kilometers, and to the Guinea Colony exceeds 900 kilometers.

However, the latter is different; the southernmost part of the West Africa Colony is only slightly over 300 kilometers away from the northernmost part of the Sierra Leone Colony, with no colonies from European Countries in between, which means there is almost no interference in Spain’s colonial merger plan.

Under such favorable conditions, Spain’s West Africa Colony successfully expanded southward by several hundred kilometers, forcibly turning the Muslim theocratic state named Fouta Jallon from a coastal country into an inland one.

Thanks to this, the merger of the West Africa Colony and the Sierra Leone Colony is almost about to be realized. According to the report provided by the colonial affairs department, it is expected that in the new year, the West Africa Colony will successfully complete the merger plan, becoming one of Spain’s important colonies in Africa.

The only colony in Africa where Spain has not made any moves is the South Morocco Colony.

There’s no choice; the geographical location of the South Morocco Colony is simply too poor.

The Sahara Desert is virtually unoccupied, and Spain only occupies cities within the desert that have a certain population, while other vast desert areas remain untouched.

Because the southward and eastward are deserts, coupled with the west being the Atlantic Ocean, the expansion of the South Morocco Colony can only be directed northward.

To the north is Morocco, where neither France nor the United Kingdom is willing to let Spain monopolize Morocco.

This also means that the South Morocco Colony is almost unable to expand, in the absence of expansion, the South Morocco Colony naturally will not make any moves.

Of course, it cannot be said that there are no moves at all.

As an area that Spain intends to localize in the future, the policies of the South Morocco Colony are entirely different from other colonies.

Spain has even gradually started to send immigrants to the South Morocco Colony, and in the future, the South Morocco Colony will establish numerous Spanish cities, with Spaniards becoming the main population here.

The capital of the South Morocco Colony, Agadir, has now become the city with the most Spanish immigrants.

More than half of the Moroccans here have immigrated, and of the remaining population of less than 100,000, there are over fifty thousand Spaniards.

The entire city center has almost been rebuilt, with many modern buildings of Spanish style springing up, including the city hall and parliament, all showcasing the colors of Spanish style.

If localization goes smoothly, the entire South Morocco Colony will become a major region of Spain, still taking Agadir as the capital.

The city council of Agadir is the best example, as it will fully mirror the structure of Spain’s mainland and be completely localized.

Once the state council and government are completed, it will be about time for the South Morocco Colony to declare the completion of its localization construction and become the newest region.

The Berlin Conference convened due to the colonial conflict between Spain and the United Kingdom ultimately concluded successfully at the end of 1884.

The reason this conference took so long was that European Powers took advantage of this meeting to discuss their respective divisions of Africa and reached certain agreements and compromises.

Although Africa is vast, there are many Powers eager to divide it. This also leads to each Power wanting to take a large bite out of this big cake; some places are even eyed by several Powers simultaneously.

In the colonization of Africa, Spain and the United Kingdom were considered two countries with relatively clear goals.

The United Kingdom wanted to achieve the Cairo-Cape Town line; in other words, they wanted to annex the entire East Coast of Africa.

Spain’s appetite is somewhat smaller than the United Kingdom’s, but they also have considerable demands and ambitions regarding Central Africa and the West African Coast.

Then there is France, whose colonial actions are not small, even spreading across North Africa, West Africa, and the East African Coast.

However, compared to the United Kingdom and Spain, France’s colonies are more dispersed, and the size of individual colonies appears smaller.

After the Berlin Conference, all countries tacitly accelerated the division of Africa once again.

After the Berlin Conference divided the rough regions of African colonization by various countries, to obtain more land, countries could only delve deeper into the interior of Africa, to explore the virtually untouched depths of Africa.

Regarding the land within the African Continent, countries still hold some hope.

Sudan invaded by the United Kingdom, and Congo Territory occupied by Spain, are essentially obtained in inland regions of Africa.

This also means that there are still many lands in inland Africa with great development value, even though they can’t be perfectly utilized by maritime transport, as long as railways are built, those rare resources can still be transported out.

To say the biggest difference between this Berlin Conference and historical events would probably be the ownership of the Congo Region.

Historically, because during the Berlin Conference, countries did not have actual occupation of the Congo Territory, which ultimately allowed the evidently weaker Belgium to benefit.