When it came to overseas interests, the United States and Britain had been the foremost predators gnawing away at Spain's overseas possessions. The United States in particular—at the end of the nineteenth century, the Spanish-American War had been the decisive war that brought down Spain's colonial empire.
The loss of colonies such as Cuba and the Philippines had left Spain with virtually none of its overseas colonies of significant economic value.
The Canary Islands were an island group in the Atlantic Ocean beside Morocco, separated from the Moroccan coast by only a little over a hundred kilometers. They were Spanish territory, yet lay more than a thousand kilometers from the Spanish homeland.
In other words, East Africa was even closer to the Canary Islands than Spain was. Of course, East Africa here mainly referred to the Dakhla Bay military base that East Africa had previously purchased from Spain.
Although Dahla was not part of the East African mainland, it was unequivocally East African overseas territory rather than a colony. Its status was roughly similar to that of Lanfang Overseas Province, though Dahla was mainly used for military purposes.
From Dahla, it took only a voyage of just over seven hundred kilometers to reach the Canary Islands.
On May 2, 1936, an East African merchant ship passing through Dahla ultimately arrived at the Canary Islands, attracting no particular attention.
Like Cape Verde, the Canary Islands were an important "transfer station" between the Americas, Africa, and Europe. They were also Europe's military outpost.
In his previous life, the Canary Islands had been the outpost from which NATO and Spain monitored Atlantic sea lanes during the Cold War.
This route possessed immense strategic, military, economic, and energy value. Strategically, the Canary Islands were one of the Atlantic Ocean's core hubs, an important