Gorée Island in the East Atlantic Ocean. Gorée Island is very close to the West African continent. It has always been a major stronghold for European colonization. As early as one or two hundred years ago, Europeans established a colonial settlement here on Gorée Island.
, specifically designed to facilitate travel between West Africa and Europe.
The first people to arrive here were the Portuguese, who used some of the goods shipped from Europe to trade with the chiefs of the Kunlun Nu tribe in East Africa in exchange for slaves and gold.
Relying on this transaction, the Portuguese were once prosperous and made great profits, which greatly stimulated the development of Portuguese navigation and laid the foundation for later opening up the Eastern Route.
Later, as the slave trade became popular in the Mediterranean and the desire for gold, the Spanish, Ingland, French, and Dutch also came to East Africa one after another.
However, among them, Spain is the most powerful competitor, with many colonial strongholds in East Africa, while the English and French exist more as pirates, specializing in plundering Portuguese and Spanish merchant ships.
These inverted the contradictions between Portugal and Spain. In order to compete for colonies, markets and plunder wealth, the two countries fought a long-term war, and the contradictions became increasingly acute.
Later, Pope Alexander VI came forward to mediate and worked out a papal meridian, which temporarily alleviated the conflicts between them.
But later, with the strong rise of the Ming Empire, which relied on powerful force to monopolize the Golden Continent, Spain was unable to expand in the west, and the Papal Meridian naturally lost its significance.
At the same time, due to the problem of piracy, the conflicts between Spain and England, France, and Portugal became deeper and deeper, and eventually two wars broke out in succession.
Spain's two wars with the Three Kingdoms finally achieved victory due to the intervention of the Ming Empire.
Therefore, Spain acquired from Portugal a large number of colonies and colonies that were originally owned by Portugal in West Africa, including Gorée Island.
The area of Gorei Island is not large, it can even be said to be very small, but because it has been in operation for a long time, the infrastructure on it is relatively complete, including forts, fortresses, port terminals, churches, etc., as well as a prison specifically used to hold Kunlun slaves.
The slave room had become Spain's most important colonial stronghold and transit point in West Africa.
At this moment, there are dozens of warships moored at Goree Island's not-so-large port and wharf, making the small port and wharf full.
A large number of sailors who had just been transferred from Spain were drinking and having fun in the taverns on the island, enjoying the coolness before the war.
On the battleship 'San Salvador', the legendary Spanish general Duke Colste was carefully studying the situation in West Africa, frowning, thinking about how to attack Sao Tome Island.
The Duke of Corste, one of Spain's earliest overseas colonists, once carried out colonial activities in Golden Continent. Later, after Golden Continent was occupied by the Ming people, he specialized in trade with the Ming people.
By reselling silk, porcelain, spices and other goods from the East, he became one of the richest people in Spain in just a few years.
Later, two wars broke out between Spain and England, France and Portugal. Duke Corster led the Spanish maritime fleet and the Ming Empire fleet swept across the maritime forces of the three countries. He made great military exploits and was eventually named a Duke.
Successively, he participated in more than a dozen naval battles with Portugal, France, and England. Later, he accompanied the Ming Dynasty to attack the Ottoman Empire and bombarded Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
In the century-old war between the European Allied Forces and the Ottoman Empire in Vienna that ended last year, the Duke of Corster and the Duke of Almeida jointly led the powerful Spanish army to participate in this cruel war and finally won.
It can be said that the experience of Duke Colster is definitely in line with the word legend, and it is also definitely in line with the Western world's perception of aristocrats.
Being born into a noble family is called noble birth.
Dare to go overseas and fight hard, this is called having the pioneering spirit of a knight, and also gained huge wealth. Rich people are real nobles, and nobles without money are called down-and-out nobles.
When the country was in trouble, he was a true knight again, picking up the sword in his hand to defend the interests of the great Kingdom of Spain, and finally commanding the army to defend Christendom and the faith.
This kind of life experience is exactly what every European person dreams of.
Dare to take risks, pursue wealth, be chivalrous, loyal to the country, and defend your beliefs!
Therefore, the Duke of Colste not only has extremely high popularity and prestige in Spain, but is even a household name in various Western European countries.
However, at this moment, he was moved and worried about his next action.
This time, he was ordered to lead fifty-two warships and an army of fifteen thousand men to West Africa to consolidate and develop Spanish interests and colonies in West Africa.
Relying on the previous two victories against the Three Kingdoms War, Spain gained huge benefits.
Not only did they obtain a large amount of land and war indemnities, but all of Portugal's colonies in West Africa fell into the hands of Spain, which owned a large number of colonial strongholds in West Africa.
A large amount of gold, silver, and ivory can be obtained from here every year. Gold and silver are things that can be directly converted into wealth. As for ivory, it is the favorite of the Ming people. One ivory can be used to exchange for a large number of goods from the Ming Empire.
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Therefore, Europeans call the long coastline of West Africa the Ivory Coast and the Gold Coast!
In addition, the slaves here are very popular in the slave market of the Mediterranean. A slave can be sold for more than ten Ming silver coins, and the cost may only be a bag of grain or a piece of coarse cloth.
At the same time, in recent years, as trade with the Ming Empire has become increasingly close, the Ming Empire's overseas colonial methods have also had a profound impact on Spain, Portugal and other countries.
The Spaniards were no longer satisfied with obtaining the gold, silver, ivory and slaves here through trade. The Spaniards were also interested in the vast and fertile land in West Africa.
In West Africa, from the Sahara Desert to the south, the land is fertile, deep, with sufficient rainfall and sufficient sunlight, making it very suitable for the cultivation of sugar cane.
Sugar cane can be used to make sucrose, which is very expensive in Europe because it can only be imported from the Ming Empire and can only be enjoyed by the real nobles and wealthy people.
The Spaniards took a fancy to this, so they began to directly occupy land in West Africa. Like the Ming Dynasty, they began to establish plantations, using local Kunlun slaves to grow sugar cane, boil cane sugar, and then sell it back to Europe.
This model soon allowed the Spaniards to make huge profits and obtain huge returns, so they increased the development and expansion of the West African colonies in order to establish more plantations.
"The Portuguese, English, French, Dutch, Danes, and even Italians came to West Africa to join in the fun."
"They actually want to unite and snatch the colonies from our Spanish hands. They are really not afraid of death. They have been beaten again and again, but they have not been beaten to death."
Duke Colster looked at the map of West Africa, which was densely marked with a large number of colonial strongholds. A large part of them were Spanish, but colonial strongholds from other countries were springing up in West Africa like mushrooms after a rain.
In some key places, people from England, France, Denmark, and the Netherlands began to play their old tricks again, pretending to be pirates, and plundering Spanish colonies and merchant ships wantonly.
Moreover, it gave the Spaniards the feeling that they seemed to be deliberately uniting to target Spain, staring at Spanish colonial sites and colonial merchant ships and plundering them.
This made Spain extremely angry, and the Spanish King sent Castel to lead a huge fleet to West Africa to wipe out the pirates in these countries.
"Hmph~"
"A group of short-sighted people, now they only want to target Spain, and they don't even look at the south. The colonists from the east are about to carve up this place."
"When the time comes, I'd really like to see how you compete with the Orientals."
"The people of the Ming Dynasty are not easy to mess with. There are also Koreans, Japanese, and Persians."
Kolster looked towards the Gulf of Guinea. In the area to the south, there were a large number of colonial strongholds densely packed, but all of them were established by colonists from the east.
There are colonial strongholds established by vassals of the Ming Empire and colonial trading houses, as well as colonial strongholds established by Koreans, Japanese, and Persians.
"I heard that the Portuguese are vying for Sao Tome Island with the Japanese."
"Sao Tome Island is one of the few large islands in the Gulf of Guinea. If it can be controlled by Spain, it will be very helpful for the subsequent seizure of colonies in the Gulf of Guinea."
"I am worried that I have no excuse to capture Sao Tome Island. Since you Portuguese people do not follow the rules first, then don't blame us Spaniards for not following moral principles."
"I will be a mantis stalking the cicada and an oriole behind me. As soon as you capture Sao Tome Island, I will lead my people to defeat it again. This way, if the Japanese want to take it back, we will not snatch it from you Japanese people."
, but snatched it from the Portuguese.”
Thinking of this, Kolster couldn't help laughing.
The geographical location of Sao Tome Island is really great. It is in the Gulf of Guinea. Controlling Sao Tome Island will be very helpful for colonizing the vast area near the Gulf of Guinea.
Spain has been coveting this island, but has been unable to find the opportunity or excuse to take action. Now it finally has the opportunity.