Chapter 322: The Sokoto War

After concluding negotiations with the French government, Spain also turned its attention to the consolidation of its Guinea colonies.

By this time, the Gold Coast had already been incorporated into the Guinea colony; what the Spanish government needed to do was connect these two non-adjacent colonies to establish a massive colony covering over a million square kilometers.

The good news was that Spain had already cleared out most of the indigenous people in this region, leaving only the most powerful Sokoto Caliphate yet to be conquered by Spanish force.

The Sokoto Caliphate was indeed powerful. Compared to other indigenous states in the Gulf of Guinea with populations of only one million or even less, the Sokoto Caliphate possessed a population of tens of millions at its peak, and currently held nearly ten million people within its borders, plus two to three million slaves.

This also meant that the Sokoto Caliphate could arm hundreds of thousands or even a million troops; for Spain, which could not muster even one hundred thousand troops combined from its Guinea colony and Congo territory, the Sokoto Caliphate was undoubtedly the greatest challenge.

Of course, Spain's greatest advantage was its lead in technology, and such a lead was enough to determine the outcome of a war.

Moreover, the interior of the Sokoto Caliphate was not a monolith. This country, covering over a million square kilometers and possessing nearly ten million people, was internally divided into dozens of states of varying sizes.

These states had their own rulers, known as Emirs, and each state possessed considerable autonomy. Aside from paying tribute to the supreme ruler, the Sokoto Caliph, these dozens of states were no different from independent countries.

Each state possessed its own army, and the local Emir held leadership over these forces.

This resulted in the seemingly unified Sokoto Caliphate being highly divided in reality. Not all states were willing to unconditionally submit to the rule of the Sokoto Caliph; where there was submissive rule, there would naturally be those who opposed it.

In fact, having said this, it is already clear that Spain's method for dealing with the Sokoto Caliphate was somewhat similar to that used against the Ashanti Confederacy.

Although one was a league composed of states and the other was a unified country in the true sense, because the power of the states within the Sokoto Caliphate had grown increasingly large, there was essentially no difference between the two.

Especially among the several Emirates closer to the south, opposition to the rule of the Sokoto Caliph was even stronger.

The economic pillars of most countries in the Gulf of Guinea were the same: relying on local crops and the slave trade to earn income.

Whether it was local crops or the slave trade, ports were required for transportation. This led to a common phenomenon in the Gulf of Guinea: the closer a country was to the coast, the wealthier it would be.

From this point, one can also see the reason for the opposition of these southern Emirates to the rule of the Sokoto Caliph. Although all Emirates were required to pay tribute to the Sokoto Caliph, the problem was, how much tax could those poor, landlocked countries pay?

The bulk of the tribute was borne by these southern Emirates, which made these states very dissatisfied with the rule of the Sokoto Caliph.

Here, one must also mention a point: the trade relationship between the Sokoto Caliphate and the British.

As early as 1853, the British government had signed a trade treaty with the Sokoto Caliphate. With the British government withdrawing from the scramble for West African colonies, Spain naturally became the successor to the trade relationship with the Sokoto Caliphate.

Spain's African fleet was stationed in the Guinea colony precisely to protect local merchant ships from harassment by pirates.

Such a trade relationship was a good thing for both sides. Spain obtained large quantities of agricultural and mineral products from the Sokoto Caliphate, while the Sokoto Caliphate obtained industrial products and other necessary supplies from Spain, including even firearms and more.

But it cannot be denied that as this trade relationship became more intimate, Spain's economic influence over the Sokoto Caliphate would also become greater.

Especially for these several states in the south of the Sokoto Caliphate, because they were located along the coast, their trade ties with Spain were the most intimate.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the reason these states explicitly opposed the rule of the Sokoto Caliph stemmed from Spanish support.

Especially in recent years, Spain had provided a considerable number of firearms to the southern states of the Sokoto Caliphate, such as Oyo, Iwo, and Ijebu, which greatly boosted their confidence in resisting the Sokoto Caliph.

Yes, resisting the Sokoto Caliph. How intense was their resistance to the Sokoto Caliph? The annual tribute paid became less and less, sometimes even less than what the poorer inland states paid.

Yet the Sokoto Caliph had no way to deal with this. Although none of these states could resist the central government of the Sokoto Caliphate alone, if several states united, the Sokoto Caliph could not quickly eliminate these rebels.

Especially with these states having Spanish support, it was quite difficult to kill the chicken to scare the monkey and ensure stability within the country.

In fact, according to Spain's original plan, the approach to the Sokoto Caliphate should have been carried out slowly through economic infiltration and supporting the opposition.

Although the progress of doing so would be quite slow, the benefit was that Spain would not need to commit too many troops, and could infiltrate the entire Sokoto Caliphate in ten or twenty years, establishing Spanish colonial rule there.

But because the Berlin Conference accelerated the pace of various countries' colonization of Africa, Spain had to choose a more effective and rapid method to establish its colonial rule.

Fortunately, having already gained the support of several indigenous states through economic infiltration, Spain did not need to face the entire Sokoto Caliphate.

In reality, this seemingly powerful indigenous country was already rotten to the core. When the country was first established through holy war, the combat effectiveness of the Sokoto Caliphate was extremely strong.

With the inheritance of the country, something called power and desire replaced religious fanaticism, and pious warriors were destined to become evil dragons greedy for pleasure.

In July 1885, Spain officially launched an attack on the Sokoto Caliphate, intending to eliminate this seemingly powerful indigenous country in a short period.

Although Spain could be said to be in an invincible position, it did not have the slightest contempt or complacency toward this behemoth with a population of nearly ten million.

In order to eliminate this massive country in one battle, after mobilization by the Colonial Affairs Department and the Ministry of Defense, Spain decided to dispatch three colonial divisions plus ten colonial garrison regiments, scraping together a force of eighty thousand men.

During the war, the West African colony would suspend the transport of food and supplies to the Spanish mainland. These food supplies would be shipped to the Guinea battlefield as strategic war materials.

In addition, Spain would also dispatch a transport fleet to ship large quantities of weapons, equipment, and ammunition supplies from the mainland to the Guinea colony.

The Spanish government was very serious about this war. This might also be Spain's last colonial expansion in Africa; henceforth, apart from Morocco, Spain would basically have no interest in African land.

The reason for the lack of interest was also very simple: the barrier of the Sahara Desert. Because the Sahara Desert spans across all of Africa, it was impossible to connect West Africa and North Africa.

Although it looked like a whole on the map, in reality, the part in the middle located in the Sahara Desert could not be effectively controlled at all.

Moreover, the existing colonies were enough for Spain to develop. The agricultural development of the West African colony alone was enough for Spain to invest a large amount of manpower and material resources, requiring several years of persistence to complete.

Not to mention the development of the Guinea colony and the Congo territory; unless Spain had sufficient population, perhaps results could be seen within ten years.

Without a sufficient population, wanting to see the results of developing the Guinea and Congo territories would have to wait at least several decades.

These eighty thousand troops would be divided into two routes, launching an attack on the Sokoto Caliphate from the east and west respectively.

The western army was the main force of the Spanish attack, composed of two colonial divisions plus five colonial garrison regiments, with a total of about fifty thousand men.

The main combat mission of the western army: starting from the Dahomey region and heading east, integrating the armies of those states in the south of the Sokoto Caliphate that opposed the Caliph, and then striking directly at the Sokoto Caliphate's capital, Oyo-Iboho.

Oyo-Iboho was only a little over two hundred kilometers away from the Dahomey region of the Guinea colony; the western army had the hope of surrounding the capital of the Sokoto Caliphate before the Sokoto Caliph could react, extinguishing the hopes of those states still loyal to the country.

As long as the Sokoto Caliph and his government could be dealt with, there would be no need for the Spanish army to take any further action; those states that were already dissatisfied with the Sokoto Caliph would naturally stand out voluntarily, expressing their loyalty and ensuring their own safety by guiding the Spanish army.

As for the other route of the army, it was composed of one colonial division plus five colonial garrison regiments, with a total force of thirty thousand men.

The main mission of this army was to advance north from the Cameroon region, intercepting reinforcements from the northern states to support the Sokoto Caliph before the western army could capture Oyo-Iboho.

Although the Sokoto Caliphate did not have many modern weapons, their population was something Spain needed to be wary of. If the western army could not capture Oyo-Iboho in a short time, whether the eastern army could intercept the reinforcements would become very important.

If the enemy were allowed to counter-encircle the Spanish army, it would be very uncomfortable for the Spanish army.

Although the Spanish army possessed powerful modern weapons, if they fell into an encirclement, logistics would sooner or later become a problem.

Modern weapons without logistical support would become useless fire pokers; at that time, the Spanish army would lose its sharpest weapon, and wanting to defeat the Sokoto Caliph's army would become very difficult.

After the entire operational plan was formulated, Spain immediately launched the relevant actions.

Regarding those southern states that opposed the Sokoto Caliph, Spain did not intend to disclose its operational plan to them. Although these states could be utilized, no one could ensure whether there were still people within these states loyal to the Sokoto Caliph.

If the Spanish operational plan were leaked due to these unexpected factors, causing the Sokoto Caliph to strengthen the defensive forces of the capital, Oyo-Iboho, then the loss would outweigh the gain.

In any case, once the Spanish army reached the territory of these southern states, they could easily take control of their armies.

The reason they were able to remain safe while explicitly resisting the Sokoto Caliph was due to support from Spain.

As for Spain's demand for command of their armies, they had to agree whether they wanted to or not. After all, the ammunition supplies for their firearms all depended on Spain; if they lost Spanish support, their firearms would lose their utility.

Without troops equipped with firearms, what would they use to resist the rule of the Sokoto Caliph? There was a reason the Sokoto Caliph could rule over thirty-some states of various sizes and maintain national stability; he possessed a powerful army, and these small states, in front of the Sokoto Caliph's army, would simply be no match without firearms.

The advance of the western army was quite smooth. Heading east from the Dahomey region, the indigenous states encountered were all opposed to the Sokoto Caliph.

This also resulted in the Spanish army gaining vast territories without firing a single shot, and also gaining command over tens of thousands of indigenous troops.

Of course, while it was called command, Spain would not frequently direct the indigenous troops.

The greatest use of these indigenous troops to Spain was to consume the opponent's effective strength when attacking the Sokoto Caliphate's capital, Oyo-Iboho; in other words, they were cannon fodder during the siege.

Since they were cannon fodder, there was naturally no need for precise command.

When the siege began, they would just swarm in; whether they could survive depended entirely on whether heaven favored them.

In order to make these indigenous states feel at ease handing over command of their armies, Spain had also promised some benefits.

After defeating the Sokoto Caliphate, these indigenous states would be incorporated into the Spanish colony and continue to exist in the form of protectorates.

Their trade relationship with Spain would also not end. It could be said that, except for the object of the annual tribute changing from the Sokoto Caliphate to Spain, nothing else would change.

This could be considered a guarantee for these indigenous states. After all, when Spain conquered those scattered indigenous countries, the methods displayed were quite tough.

Not only did the conquered indigenous countries cease to exist, but a considerable portion of their populations were also slaughtered.

For these indigenous states, under the premise of being unable to resist Spanish colonial rule, they could only do their best to ensure their own safety.

As for their ruler above, the great Sokoto Caliph, after Spain launched the war, who would care about his future?

(End of chapter)