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.
