Empire Rising: Spain

However, compared to these two races, black people have many shortcomings, many of which are quite fatal, which is also the reason Carlo rejects them.

First of all, black people are generally lazy and rude. Compared to working diligently in the fields to fill their stomachs with food, they prefer simpler and more violent means to earn income, such as robbery and theft.

When they are at the bottom of the country’s racial hierarchy, their harm isn’t as significant. But once the world begins to value human rights, and countries have to grant them human rights, their harm will immediately manifest.

When large-scale robbery and theft occur, it will cause panic and unrest in the whole society, and might even lead to racial confrontation, increasing the risk of national division.

In addition, the bacteria carried by black people are also varied. This is not discrimination against black people, but a genuine reality.

Africa’s sanitation conditions are extremely poor, both historically and in future generations. Black people simply don’t pay attention to sanitation conditions, which also creates various possibilities for disease transmission.

At the same time, infectious diseases like AIDS, which everyone fears, have also spread from Africa.

It’s said the earliest AIDS virus was discovered in gorillas. As for how such a virus transmitted from gorillas to humans, that question should be posed to the Africans of the time.

The consequences of AIDS are already quite serious, but this is not the only disease Africa has spread to the world.

Deadly viruses such as the Ebola virus, which became quite serious in later generations, also originate from Africa.

Carlo not only would not consider incorporating Africans into Spain’s colonial rule, but he would also consider effectively reducing the number of black people in Spain’s existing colonies, to avoid the horrific event of African bacteria spreading to Spanish colonies through contact with them.

Although frequent wars with these African natives would increase Spain’s military expenditure, on the bright side, the combat effectiveness of the Spanish Army would also increase accordingly.

Wars with African natives surely don’t have the same effect as regular wars with European countries, but they can still let Spanish soldiers see blood and experience the cruelty of the battlefield.

Currently, the only colony requiring large-scale wars against the natives is Gold Coast, and the Congo Territory doesn’t need large-scale external expansion for the time being.

The reason is simple. The southward expansion direction of the Congo Territory has been blocked by Carlo’s colony exchange plan with Portugal, and currently, it can only expand northward or northwestward.

But constant expansion is not necessarily a good thing, as the Congo Territory is too huge, making management troublesome.

At present, only just over 50,000 immigrants have settled in the Congo Territory, so there’s no need for further large-scale expansion.

It’s better to settle down temporarily and concentrate limited energy on other colonies.

After the peace talks in Madrid, at the Cabinet meeting, members voted and passed the Asante Conquest Plan proposed by the Minister of Colonial Affairs, William.

According to this conquest plan, besides the two Colonial Defense Corps of Gold Coast, Spain also needs to draw one Colonial Defense Corps each from the South Morocco Colony, Congo Territory, and Guinea Colony, making up five Colonial Defense Corps to launch war against the Asante Federation.

These five Colonial Defense Corps add up to about 12,000 soldiers, and conquering a small Asante Federation would surely be a piece of cake.

Of course, preliminary work, such as accelerating the alienation of relationships between various tribes within the Asante Federation, is also very necessary. Once the internal stability of the Asante Federation is destroyed, the Spanish Army’s attack will also be easier, avoiding more casualties and military expenditure.

Because only colonial troops are used, and the total force is only 12,000 people, the military expenditure for this operation is very low, estimated between 15 million Pesseta to 25 million Pesseta.

Although this military expenditure is not much, if the plan goes smoothly, the territory of Spain’s Gold Coast Colony could double in size, with a total area exceeding 100,000 square kilometers.

This is actually also the reason European countries are keen on colonization. With minimal expenditure, one can obtain a large tracts of land available for development.

Be aware that most European countries have land areas ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. Only one country exceeds a million square kilometers, which is the Russian Empire extending to the far east of Asia.

Even Tsarist Russia is quite enthusiastic about territorial expansion, let alone other European countries with areas of only tens of thousands or even thousands of square kilometers.

Aside from passing the proposal of the Asante Conquest Plan, the Cabinet meetings also approved a new application from the Defense Department, which is a new warship construction plan.

It has been several years since the Royal Guanizuo Shipyard presented the blueprint of the Rejuvenation-class Ironclad. Spain’s major shipyards have not yet produced ship designs satisfactory to the Navy.

Spain, along with France and Italy, also has relevant shipbuilding cooperation, but generally focuses on the construction of armored cruisers, rather than genuine ironclads.

The so-called armored cruiser, like the future battlecruiser, is a rather special warship design.

An armored cruiser has firepower comparable to ironclads, definitely of the level of a main battleship. But the biggest difference between a cruiser and an ironclad is the cost of each warship.