Empire Rising: Spain

In Africa, Spain’s primary expansion directions are twofold.

One is the expansion of the South Morocco Colony towards the Western Sahara Desert. Although the Western Sahara Desert is barren with a sparse population, its economic value is still substantial.

After all, it is a coastal area with extremely rich fishing resources along the coast of the Western Sahara Region, where the small population primarily engages in fishing and animal husbandry.

Besides these common fishing resources, the Western Sahara also has extremely rich phosphate deposits, with reserves in Bukra alone reaching 1.7 billion tons.

Phosphate has numerous uses and can be widely applied in agriculture, chemicals, medicine, and crafts.

The primary use is to make phosphate fertilizer, which provides a crucial phosphorus element for crops, making it one of the very important fertilizers.

For Spain, which has insufficient land fertility, large phosphate mines can supply Spain with a vast amount of phosphate fertilizer.

These fertilizers can improve the fertility of the Spanish land, assist in crop production, and increase the yield of Spanish crops, making Spanish agriculture even stronger.

For Spain, occupying the Western Sahara Region poses no difficulty.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that after Spain established the South Morocco Colony, other countries have already tacitly accepted Spain’s occupation of the Western Sahara Region.

Why is that? Originally, this land was controlled by Morocco, but it was not actually managed, merely within Morocco’s sphere of influence.

European colonizers also came to this land but were not interested in this sparsely populated desert area.

Within several hundred kilometers around Western Sahara, there are no other colonizers’ colonies besides Spain’s South Morocco Colony.

Even if Spain does not establish a colony in Western Sahara, there would be unlikely any other powers establishing a colony here.

Unless the powers have completely divided Africa, but dividing Africa completely within the next ten years is very difficult.

After all, the reason the major powers have not ventured deep into Africa is not a lack of desire, but that the costs of venturing into Africa are too great, and currently, no country has the capacity to develop the African interior, so there’s no need to establish colonies deep in Africa.

Like the Congo Territory established by Spain, although it might arouse some envy among powerful nations, most countries would consider it a stroke of good luck.

After all, the process of Spain exploring the Congo Territory was filled with too many coincidences, and without good fortune, Spain might not have discovered the Congo Territory’s vast lands.

From the perspective of other European powers, the process of Spain establishing the Congo Territory is unreplicable. If they were to explore the African interior like Spain, aside from spending vast funds to assemble expeditions, it likely wouldn’t have much other effect.

It would be better to focus on the expansion along the African coast, as the coastal land in Africa is also not fully divided by the powers, and this is where the powers pay close attention.

Besides expanding in the Sahara Desert, Spain has another direction for expansion in Africa, which is to expand the Congo Territory downstream along the Congo River.

According to Carlo’s plan, the Congo River Territory should be connected by rail with the Guinea Colony and the downstream ports of the Congo River.

Currently, the Congo has already completed a rail connection with the Guinea Colony, but the plan to build a railway along the Congo River has yet to formally commence.

The main reason is the presence of a long-standing indigenous country downstream of the Congo River, which is the Congo Kingdom.

Most of the Congo Kingdom’s lands are currently controlled by Portugal, which has also established its African colony on the lands of the Congo Kingdom.

If Spain wants to continue expanding the Congo Territory downstream of the Congo River, a new round of conflict with Portugal is bound to erupt.

Portugal did tolerate Spain establishing the Congo Territory upstream of the Congo River, but if Spain extends its reach to the downstream of the Congo River, it’s unlikely that the Portuguese will easily back down.

After all, the Portuguese expansion in the Congo Kingdom has been ongoing for over a decade, so why would they abandon these already established colonies due to colonial competition from Spain?

Fortunately, the main competitor in the Congo River Basin currently is only Portugal, and Spain is not afraid of the threat posed by Portugal.

While the British backers of Portugal focus their attention on the Balkan Peninsula War, Carlo decided to speed up the expansion of the Congo River’s downstream lands, aiming to control the Congo Kingdom in Spain’s hands before the Portuguese.

The Congo Kingdom has a large indigenous population, which can be used to develop the Congo Territory.

Completing the expansion downstream of the Congo River can also create a triangular area between Guinea and the Congo River Basin, a region that Spain could potentially control.

It’s beneficial to control these lands first before there are any foreign competitors. Even if they cannot be developed in the future, they can be exchanged for colonies that Spain desires more from other major powers through colonial swaps.

Even if colonial swaps are not feasible, having this contiguous colony is easier to manage, requiring only the deployment of a suitably sized military force to ensure the colony’s stability.