Empire Rising: Spain

While the Royal Mercedes-Benz Company entered the Portuguese market, Portugal was also carrying out its own colonial actions.

As previously mentioned, according to the agreement between the governments of Spain and Portugal, the two sides reached a preliminary colonial exchange agreement in Africa.

As long as Portugal could take control of the Southern Congo region with Spain’s help, Portugal was willing to give up all its West African colonies except Cape Verde.

A year and a half has passed since this agreement was reached, and the Portuguese had long been meticulously preparing, launching a grand colonial action against the various indigenous countries in Southern Congo.

In Southern Congo, there are nearly ten indigenous countries of various sizes, among which the relatively powerful ones are the Lunda Kingdom, Bwonda Kingdom, Baloselan Kingdom, and Mwata Kazemb Kingdom.

After careful planning, the Portuguese Government ultimately chose the Lunda Kingdom as the first country to be colonially invaded.

The reason the Portuguese chose this as the first target was simple: it was located in the northern part of the Congo Basin, conveniently separating it from Spain’s Congo Territory.

Obviously, the Portuguese Government was also concerned that Spain might not keep its word, fearing that the Spanish Government would forcibly take over the lands colonized by Portugal after Portugal launched its colonial invasion.

It is indeed a considerable effort to develop on your own, but seizing other countries’ colonies is much less troublesome.

One can simply use military force to occupy it, and given the significant disparity in power between the two countries, even if Spain occupied Portugal’s colony, the Portuguese Government would most likely not dare to say anything.

This once again confirmed the timeless truth: ”Weak countries have no diplomacy, small countries have no sovereignty.”

Although the Lunda Kingdom is a relatively powerful indigenous country in Southern Congo, for Portugal, this so-called country seemed somewhat laughable.

Unlike the Asante Federation that troubled the British for a long time, due to being located within the African continent’s Congo Basin, the indigenous countries and forces here had not encountered advanced technology and were in the most primitive and backward era.

Portugal’s steel guns and cannons were a complete crushing to these natives, and they had no power to resist Portugal’s colonial attack.

Portugal mobilized about 5,000 troops, majestically advancing eastward from the West Africa Colony, and it took roughly three months to completely occupy the Lunda Kingdom.

Why three months? It is due to the geographical location of the Lunda Kingdom.

Located on the edge of the Congo Basin, this area was densely covered with primitive forests and filled with various unimaginable dangerous terrains and germs.

The Portuguese Army took less than a week to occupy the major tribes of the Lunda Kingdom; the remaining time was entirely spent traversing the primitive forest and tracking the natives’ footprints.

If it weren’t for some traitors among the Congolese from the West African Colony who guided the Portuguese Army, the Portuguese Army probably would not have had the capability to cross this primitive forest.

In any case, the Portuguese Army thoroughly occupied the Lunda Kingdom and incorporated it into the West Africa Colony.

After occupying the Lunda Kingdom, the shortest distance between Portugal’s West Africa Colony and Mozambique Colony was less than 600 kilometers.

This excited the Portuguese greatly, as they confidently believed that the time for merging the two colonies had arrived, and Portugal was about to establish another super-large colony after Brazil.

The Portuguese Government was even discussing the naming of this large colony internally. King Luis of Portugal planned to name this large colony Portuguese Africa and, like Carlo, extensively publicize his contributions before the establishment of this large colony.

Carlo firmly consolidated his throne through a Congo Territory, making King Luis, who was also a king, deeply envious.

Just the contributions from developing a Congo Territory were enough to ensure the Savoy Family’s rule in Spain continued.

Currently, Portugal’s political situation is relatively chaotic, and Luis also had such a thought; he too wanted to stabilize Portugal’s political situation so his throne could be smoothly passed to his son.

However, before Portugal continues with its colonial actions, they had a promise to fulfill, which was the colonial exchange with Spain.

When reaching the colonial exchange agreement with Spain, both sides had already agreed: once Portugal completely occupied any indigenous country or force in Southern Congo, Portugal would need to transfer all its West African colonies, except Cape Verde, to Spain.

Only then would Spain permit Portugal to continue colonizing in Southern Congo.

Spain was not afraid of Portugal reneging on its word. As long as the Portuguese Government dared to tear up the previously agreed-upon agreement, Spain could start a war at any time to reclaim the lands in Southern Congo, and even forcibly occupy Portugal’s colonies in West Africa.

Although the colonial exchange agreement between the two countries was signed in secret, there were documents and signatures from the officials of both countries as evidence.

For a small country like Portugal to dare to unilaterally break the agreement would be equivalent to handing the Spanish Government an excuse for war.

The Portuguese Government naturally understood this, and they did not intend to break the agreement.

First, the Portuguese Government did not have the ability to break the agreement, forcibly tearing apart the previous agreement would only waste Portugal’s preparations.