Chapter 613 - 291: Establishment of the West Africa Colony (Part 2)

Secondly, this colony exchange is not a loss for Portugal. If they can acquire a super large colony consolidated into one, the gains will be far greater than those from the few smaller colonies in West Africa.

While Portugal has many colonies in West Africa, these colonies share a common feature, which is small territory and sparse population.

The largest colony is the Portuguese Guinea Colony, with an area just over thirty thousand square kilometers and a population of less than a pitiable hundred thousand.

The economic value these colonies can provide to the Portuguese Government is indeed limited, far inferior to the harvest brought by the merger of Portugal’s East and West African Colonies.

Portugal’s only concern is whether Spain will tear up the treaty, wanting both Portugal’s West African Colonies and the land in Southern Congo that Portugal has just occupied.

However, they don’t have the courage to refuse the transfer of colonies and can only try to delay the conversion of colonial sovereignty.

The Spanish Government did not reject Portugal’s proposal to transfer the colonies one by one.

Portugal’s colonies scattered along the West African Coast, receiving altogether at once is indeed rather troublesome. Spain also understands Portugal’s concerns, Carlo did not intend to tear up the treaty, naturally not minding receiving Portugal’s colonies a bit later.

Of course, Portugal has the right to propose conditions, and the Spanish Government naturally has the right to propose conditions.

After the Portuguese Government proposed to transfer its West African Colonies sequentially, the Spanish Government then put forward a new request, that the Portuguese Guinea Colony must be the first colony to be transferred.

The Guinea Colony is Portugal’s largest colony in West Africa, and more importantly, this land is adjacent to Spain’s Gambia Colony.

The earlier the Guinea Colony is acquired, the sooner the two colonies can be merged, accelerating the agricultural development plan of the Gambia Colony.

Originally, the Gambia Colony only had an area of over thirty thousand square kilometers, and the scale of agricultural development has always been limited.

But if it merges with Portugal’s Guinea Colony, the total area of the two colonies combined already approaches seventy thousand square kilometers, which is not small at all.

Of course, the colony of Jijinshao’er adjacent to the Guinea Colony is naturally to be transferred to Spain simultaneously.

As for the remaining Vida Colony and the colonies of São Tomé and Principe, their sovereignty can be transferred at a later time as proposed by the Portuguese.

The remaining two colonies have small areas, transferring their sovereignty at any time basically has no impact on Spain.

Faced with the demands of the Spanish Government, the Portuguese Government had no reason to refuse. Under such circumstances, the actions of sovereignty transfer between the two governments swiftly began.

In July 1882, the Spanish Government formally obtained the colony of Portuguese Jijinshao’er and Portuguese Guinea Colony, and immediately announced the merger of the two colonies with the Gambia Colony, establishing the Spanish West Africa Colony.

The happiest among the Spanish officials can probably be the former Governor of the Gambia Colony, Harrison.

Originally, the Gambia Colony was already in the spotlight due to Spain’s West African development plan. After merging with Portugal’s two colonies to form the West African Colony, the new West African Colony has become a key focus for Spain’s development.

As the former Governor of the Gambia Colony, Harrison naturally became the Governor of the new West African Colony.

From the level of attention by the Spanish Government, the West African Colony can be said to be the third-largest colony after Congo Colony and Philippine Colony, and the position of colony governor naturally holds substantial value.

It should be noted, the name ’West African Colony’ is not randomly given. In the future, Spain’s Sierra Leone Colony or Gold Coast Colony might merge with the West African Colony, with the merged entity certainly being the West African Colony.

Harrison, as the Governor of the West African Colony, might in the future become an existence comparable to the Governor of the Congo Territory.

After serving on the governor’s chair of the West African Colony for several years, Harrison has a great chance of being reassigned back to Spain, serving as the Minister of Colonial Affairs or the Minister of Agriculture.

After all, his main task in the West African Colony is dealing with colonial and agricultural work, and these two tasks are precisely what correspond to the Minister of Colonial Affairs and Minister of Agriculture.

After taking over the Guinea Colony and Jijinshao’er Colony from Portugal, the Spanish Government intensified efforts towards Portugal’s colonization of Southern Congo.

For Carlo, the sooner Portugal occupies the land in Southern Congo, the sooner the British will intervene in Portugal’s colonial actions.

As long as the British choose to intervene and destroy Portugal’s nationwide aspirations for the Great African Colony, then naturally there will be a rift between Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Though it may not cause a break between Portugal and the British, it will greatly damage the relations between the two countries, making Portugal more likely to lean towards Spain.

Don’t look at how everyone in Portugal from King Luis down to every government official and many citizens are eagerly anticipating the merger of the East and West African Colonies.

In fact, Carlo is quite clear that Portugal has no possibility of merging these two colonies.

Unless the British lose Egypt or the Cape Colony, otherwise Portugal’s colonization plans will naturally conflict with those of the British.