Chapter 1628 Lieutenant Colonel Lara’s Resentment

The North African Railway will impact northwestern East Africa, a relatively underdeveloped region with limited industrial and agricultural output, making maritime transport more competitive. For example, the region's forestry resources, nestled against the Congo rainforest, are extremely abundant, making timber, a bulk commodity, more suitable for export via sea transport.

The economically and industrially highly developed region on the west coast of East Africa, which was the Angola region in the previous life, currently mainly relies on sea transportation for its commodity exports. Moreover, exporting from here via the North African railway is not much more convenient than sea transportation.

Lieutenant Colonel Lara said: "For Spain's future commercial activities in East Africa, they will still focus on the west coast of East Africa, so we don't have to worry about the impact of the North African railway."

"Besides, this isn't something we should be concerned about right now. If we don't overthrow the Republican government, the fate of Spain won't concern us. So, as long as East Africa can provide us with practical support, that would be great."

"I don't care whether the aid materials provided by the Italians are produced in their own country or purchased from East Africa. If it is the latter, it will be more beneficial to us. After all, the quality of East African products is always much better than that of Italian ones."

In 1936, Italian-made products were labeled as "cheap", "inferior" and "copycat", so it is no wonder that Lieutenant Colonel Lara, a Spaniard, looked down on Italian products.

It is true that at this stage, Spain's industry was not even as good as Italy's, but it was not many years before Italy's industry completely surpassed Spain's.

At the same time, although Spain's domestic industry is not good, they have a wide choice of products. France is next to them and they are not far from the UK. Products from the United States, East Africa and Germany are also very common in Spain. Compared with these industrial powers, Italian products have no advantages at all.

In the past, the brand value of Italian products did not increase until after the 1960s, and its position in the luxury goods and high-end customization fields was completely consolidated at the end of the 20th century. People's image of Italian products was completely linked to "luxury", "high-end" and "art".

But at present, not to mention Italy’s poor industrial level, which has led to seriously uneven quality of its products, the word "Italy" itself has a serious negative connotation internationally, which affects people's impression of Italian products.

Italy industrialized later than major industrial powers, resulting in a weak industrial base and relatively backward technology. Its exports primarily consisted of light industrial products and agricultural products, such as textiles, inexpensive toys, and glassware. Italian goods were inexpensive, of inconsistent quality, and featured crude designs, failing to maintain a high-end image.

After Benito came to power, with the unification of Italy and the construction of a unified domestic market, Italian industry had a certain "breathing" opportunity. The Benito government supported the development of domestic industrial enterprises through protective policies.

However, due to its weak industrial base and short development time, Italy still cannot get rid of the title of "poor imperialism". Like Japan, it ranks at the bottom among the great powers.

Now Italy is also firmly labeled as a "copycat power". From the late 19th century to the end of the 19th century, this label belonged to Germany, and in the early 20th century it was East Africa. However, after the 1920s, both East Africa and Germany reversed their brand image through their own efforts.

The main competitors for this hat will naturally be passed to other countries, and the strong competitors are Italy, the Soviet Union, Japan and other countries.

However, although the Soviet Union's industrial level was relatively backward, its exports were small, and the materials used were solid, so its products could only be described as relatively rough. Moreover, due to the particularity of the Soviet Union's economic system, they were not as good at copying and making "fakes" as Italy.

In Europe, Italian products are relatively “popular” because they have market liquidity, so they copy products from other established industrial powers and create counterfeit brands.

This is also closely related to Italy's economic organization model. The characteristic of Italy is that it has an extremely abundant labor force. Therefore, there are many family workshops in Italy. The products produced by these family workshops are difficult to ensure quality and lack supervision.

As for Japan, to put it bluntly, their products are not much different from "junk" in the eyes of Western countries. They are completely uncompetitive and can only be sold in Asia.

This is a huge disadvantage for Italian industry and brands today, and the reason why Italians reinforce this impression is thanks to Italy's large overseas immigrant community.

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, a large number of Italian immigrants flocked to America and Europe.

They often have a low social status, and the Italian goods they carry with them reinforce the impression that they are "cheap" and "low-end".

Italy's current overseas image is actually worse than in the past. The root cause of this is that Italy was unified later in this time and space, and without a strong "mother country" to support it, it is difficult for Italian immigrants to be respected overseas.

We can refer to the Germans in this regard. Since the Franco-Prussian War, Germany has achieved initial unification and the status of overseas Germans has been greatly improved.

At that time, East Africa liked to use the name of "Germany" in its foreign exchanges in order to gain some advantages.

After the rise of East Africa, the reputation of Germans in the world has been further strengthened. For example, many people naturally equate Germans with being good at developing industry and technology. Hard work and rigor have become common labels of Germans. German has become a world language that can compete with English, and so on.

In contrast, before Benito, Italians could be said to be a group of unwelcome lower-class people overseas.

In the United States, because of organizations such as the Mafia, the entire Italian community is labeled as "born criminals" or "violent."

Most immigrants from southern Italy are poor and poorly educated. They do the hardest and lowest-paid jobs, such as railway construction, canal digging, and factory workers. They live in crowded "Little Italy" communities and are regarded by mainstream society as "others" who cannot be assimilated.

Moreover, the Italian lifestyle is incompatible with that of Americans. For example, Italians like noise, value family, religious beliefs, and have a unique food culture.

The last point would not happen in East Africa, because East Africa has many similarities with Italy. Of course, the Italians who immigrated to East Africa have long been assimilated and lost their own characteristics.

After all, the East African government does not allow Italian immigrants to have independent communities like in the United States.

In South America, Italians were also not welcomed in the past. Many Italians were engaged in hard labor close to slavery on plantations or farms, living in extremely poor conditions. They were regarded as expendable labor or tools to "whiten" the population.

In Europe, mainly in countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Switzerland, Italians are also seen as cheap labor willing to do dirty and dangerous work, and are often treated hostilely for taking jobs away from locals.

In short, Italian immigrants are now associated with cheapness, low quality, and dangerous groups. After the unification of Italy, the attitudes of South American countries towards Italy have changed to a certain extent. After all, a unified Italy is also a strong and great country for the South American countries.

Among Italian immigrants, only those who went to East Africa lived a good life, such as Nairobi, once the textile capital of East Africa.

The only price they paid was that Italian immigrants completely "faded" in East Africa, integrating into the big family of East Africa, and the Italian culture they brought with them also became a part of East African culture.

A typical example is the East African food culture, which has absorbed a lot of Italian elements.

Colonel Valdés said: "Italy used to be far inferior to Spain, but now it has surpassed us and become one of the great powers. Its overall strength is far ahead of ours."

"The main culprits behind all this are Spain's so-called liberals, the Labour Party, and the Republicans. These people only engage in endless quarrels every day and do nothing practical. It would be strange if Spain is not surpassed by Italy."

"So we in Spain also need strong governments like those in Italy and Germany, and to unite Spain and reduce internal friction."

"Given our conditions in Spain, even if we can't reach the level of Germany, East Africa, or the United States, we should at least surpass Italy and catch up with France."

Colonel Valdés did not dare to be too bold in his vision of Spain's future. After all, the situation in Spain was too bad, and many of the basic conditions for development had been lost.

If it were still the Spanish Empire hundreds of years ago, with a large number of overseas colonies, it might be able to challenge the current Britain.

However, Spain's overseas colonies were basically lost, and the few that remained did not have much economic value.

Therefore, in the future international competition, Spain can only rely on its homeland, which puts forward requirements on Spain's land area and population.

However, although Spain has a lot of land, the actual usable land is far less than that of European countries of the same size. It faces a serious water shortage problem. Many places are relatively dry or even deserts. This is also an important reason why Arab religion was able to gain a foothold in Spain.

The Arab religion once dominated the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years, which is closely related to the climate and environment here. Therefore, the economic development model of the Arab religion has a certain adaptability to the Iberian Peninsula.

In terms of population, Spain cannot compete with European countries of the same size. Even France, which has a clear population shortcoming, has more than 10 million more people than Spain. Spain's population barely exceeds 25 million, while France's is about 41 million.

Italy also has a population of over 40 million and lower labor costs.

Therefore, in terms of economic development, Spain is at a huge disadvantage if it wants to compete with other countries through population.

Even Spain's former overseas colonies, mainly those in South America, and the Spanish mainland have no appeal to them.

This can be seen from the three colonial powers of Britain, France and East Africa. There is no doubt that the homelands of these three countries are very attractive to some colonial populations. Therefore, Spain has a small native population and it is difficult to attract and utilize the population of the former colonies.

Colonel Valdés said: "Even if Spain wants to surpass Italy economically again in the future, it will become difficult because their population is much larger than ours."

"We can only find other ways to develop our economy, especially the industrial sector. Spain at least has more abundant resources than Italy, a deeper cultural heritage, and deeper ties with the Americas."

Lieutenant Colonel Lara nodded and said, "It is precisely because of Spain's decline that we have lost our leading role in the Spanish-speaking world. Only after we eliminate the Republican government can Spain regain what we have lost."

The Spanish-speaking world, namely Spain and its former colonial regions, is now in an awkward situation because such an influential group lacks a strong country.

Including the former colonial master Spain, which has now become a second-rate country, and even Argentina and Mexico have the strength to challenge Spain.

Of course, it is highly likely that Mexico will find it difficult to establish its authority in the Spanish-speaking world. After all, it has been suppressed too harshly by the United States. How can a country that is bullied by its neighbors everywhere convince other countries? It would be ashamed to be a younger brother.

If Mexico becomes the big brother of the Spanish-speaking world, an embarrassing situation may arise: "Look, the guy who was beaten up by the United States is our big brother!" This is too embarrassing, so it is basically impossible for Mexico to become the leader.

Then there is Argentina. Argentina is the country most likely to replace Spain, but that is just what the Argentines think. In South America, they cannot conquer Brazil, and their relations with neighboring Spanish-speaking countries are also very bad. Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, and Bolivia actually don't like Argentina very much.

Moreover, although Spain has declined greatly, in terms of hard power, Spain is definitely far superior to Argentina. Argentina is considered the richest country in the Spanish-speaking world, but this wealth is entirely based on agriculture, and it is still a relatively pure agricultural country. Spain at least has its own industry.

If no other country intervened and Spain and Argentina fought, Argentina would have been beaten up by Spain.

Of course, this difference in economic structure is also closely related to the geographical environment of the two countries. Spain has richer mineral resources than Argentina and is located on major world trade routes.

Argentina lacks basic industrial development resources such as coal and iron ore, and is far away from other major regions of the world. It can be said to be one of the most remote countries in the world.

Therefore, Colonel Valdés' fantasy of Spain returning to the throne of the Spanish-speaking world is not just empty talk. In fact, in the past, Spain was the only developed country in the Spanish-speaking world. Even though Spain was not doing well in Europe, none of the former colonial countries in the Americas could surpass Spain.

Lieutenant Colonel Lara wasn't particularly interested in the former overseas colonies. He said, "A true ironsmith must be strong himself. Those countries that broke away from us paid a price. After so many years, few have developed properly, especially Argentina. They were so high up in the past few years, but after the economic crisis, they made a fool of themselves."

"And Mexico is even more of a clown. The foundation we built for them back then was not much worse than that of the United States, yet they have been bullied by the Americans at will."

"However, the Americans and British deserve this. They are now being made to suffer in East Africa just as they did to Spain."

Lieutenant Colonel Lara was very resentful of the Americans and the British. After all, these two countries contributed the most to Spain's loss of its colonies in the Americas, and they were even the ones who overthrew it.

(End of this chapter)