Chapter 322

After negotiating with the French government, Spain also turned its attention to the merger of the Guinea colony.

At this time, the Gold Coast had been incorporated into the Guinea colony, and the Spanish government had to do was to connect these two colonies that were not adjacent to each other and establish a super-large colony with an area of over one million square kilometers.

The good news is that Spain had already cleared most of the indigenous people in this area, leaving only one most powerful Sokoto Caliphate that had not yet been conquered by Spain's military force.

The Sokoto Caliphate was indeed powerful. Compared to other indigenous countries in the Gulf of Guinea with a population of only over 1 million or even less than 1 million, the Sokoto Caliphate had a population of tens of millions at its peak, and currently had a population of nearly 10 million plus 2 to 3 million slaves nationwide.

This also means that the Sokoto Caliphate could arm hundreds of thousands or even millions of troops; for Spain, which could not even scrape together 100,000 troops from the Guinea colony and the Congo territory combined, the Sokoto Caliphate was definitely the biggest challenge.

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

And the Sokoto Caliphate was not a monolithic block internally. This country, with an area of over one million square kilometers and a population of nearly 10 million, was internally divided into dozens of large and small states.

These states had their own rulers, called Emirs, and each state possessed considerable autonomous power. Except for having to pay tribute to the supreme ruler, the Sokoto Caliph, these dozens of large and small states were no different from independent countries.

Each state had its own army, and the Emir of the state had leadership over these armies.

This also led to the fact that the seemingly unified Sokoto Caliphate was actually highly divided internally. Not all states were willing to unconditionally obey the rule of the Sokoto Caliph; there were those who obeyed the rule, and naturally there would be people who opposed the rule.

In fact, speaking of this, it is already clear that Spain's way of dealing with the Sokoto Caliphate was somewhat similar to the Ashanti Confederacy.

Although one was a league composed of states and the other was a unified country in the true sense. But because the power of the states within the Sokoto Caliphate was becoming greater and greater, the two countries were no different in essence.

Especially several Emir states closer to the south were more opposed to the rule of the Sokoto Caliph.

The economic pillars of most countries in the Gulf of Guinea were the same, which was to exchange local crops and slave trade for income.

Whether it was local crops or slave trade, they all needed ports for transport. This also led to a common phenomenon in the Gulf of Guinea, which was that countries closer to the coast would also be richer.

From this point, one could also see the reason why these southern Emir states opposed the rule of the Sokoto Caliph. Although all Emir states needed to pay tribute to the Sokoto Caliph, the problem was, how much tax could those poor countries located in the interior pay?

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

Here, it must also be mentioned that the trade relationship between the Sokoto Caliphate and the British.

As early as 1853, the British government signed a trade treaty with the Sokoto Caliphate. With the British government withdrawing from the contention for West African land, the one who inherited the trade relationship with the Sokoto Caliphate naturally became Spain.

Spain's African fleet was stationed in the Guinea colony, also to protect local trade ships from being harassed by pirates.

Such a trade relationship was a good thing for both sides. Spain obtained a large amount of agricultural products and mineral products from the Sokoto Caliphate, while the Sokoto Caliphate obtained industrial products and other needed materials from Spain, and even included firearms, etc.

But it cannot be denied that with such a trade relationship becoming more intimate, Spain's economic influence on the Sokoto Caliphate would be greater.

Especially these few states in the south of the Sokoto Caliphate, because they were located by the coast, their trade contact with Spain was the most intimate.

It was not an exaggeration to say that the reason why these countries clearly opposed the rule of the Sokoto Caliph was also because of Spain's support.

Especially in recent years, Spain provided a considerable number of firearms to states like Oyo, Iwo, and Ijebu in the south of the Sokoto Caliphate, which greatly enhanced their confidence in resisting the Sokoto Caliph.

Yes, resisting the Sokoto Caliph. How intense was their resistance to the Sokoto Caliph? The tribute paid every year was getting less and less, and it was not even as much as the tribute paid by those relatively poor countries in the interior.

But the Sokoto Caliph had no way to deal with this. Although these states could not resist the central regime of the Sokoto Caliphate if taken out individually, if several states united together, the Sokoto Caliph could not quickly eliminate these rebellious guys.

Especially with Spain's support, wanting to kill the chicken to warn the monkey and ensure domestic stability was quite difficult.

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

Although doing so would be quite slow in progress, the benefit was that Spain did not need to invest too many troops, and could infiltrate the entire Sokoto Caliphate in ten or twenty years, clarifying Spain's colonial rule here.

But because the Berlin Conference accelerated the progress of various countries colonizing Africa, Spain had to choose a more effective and faster way to establish its colonial rule.

Fortunately, through economic infiltration, it had already obtained the support of several indigenous states, so Spain did not need to face the complete Sokoto Caliphate.

In fact, this seemingly powerful indigenous country was already rotten. When it was established by holy war, the combat effectiveness of the Sokoto Caliphate was very powerful.

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

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

Although Spain could be said to be in an invincible position, for this behemoth with a population of nearly 10 million, Spain did not have the slightest contempt and complacency.

In order to eliminate this huge country in one battle, after the mobilization of the colonial affairs department and the Ministry of National Defense, Spain decided to dispatch three colonial divisions plus ten colonial garrison regiments, scraping together a force of 80,000 people.

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

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

For this war, the Spanish government was very serious. This might also be Spain's last colonial expansion in Africa; next, except for Morocco, Spain would basically not be interested in African land.

The reason for not being interested was also very simple, which was the barrier of the Sahara Desert. Because the Sahara Desert spans the entire Africa, it was impossible to connect West Africa and North Africa.

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

And the existing colonies were enough for Spain to develop. Just the agricultural development of a West African colony was enough for Spain to invest a large amount of manpower and material resources and persist for several years to complete.

Not to mention the development of the Guinea colony and the Congo territory; unless Spain had enough population, perhaps it could see results in ten years.

Without enough population, wanting to see the results of developing Guinea and the Congo territory would take at least several decades.

These 80,000 troops would be divided into two routes, launching attacks on the Sokoto Caliphate from the east and west respectively.

The western army was the main force of Spain's attack, composed of two colonial divisions plus five colonial garrison regiments, with a total of about 50,000 people.

The main combat mission of the western army: set off from the Dahomey region and head east, integrate the armies of the states in the south of the Sokoto Caliphate that opposed the Caliph, and then head straight for the capital of the Sokoto Caliphate, Oyo-Iboho.

Oyo-Iboho was only more than 200 kilometers away from the Dahomey region of the Guinea colony; the western army had hope of surrounding the capital of the Sokoto Caliphate before the Sokoto Caliph could react, eliminating the hope of those states that were still loyal to the country.

As long as the Sokoto Caliph and his government could be solved, next, Spain's army would not even need to do anything; those states that were originally dissatisfied with the Sokoto Caliph would naturally stand out, expressing their loyalty by leading the way for the Spanish army, ensuring their own safety.

As for the other army, composed of one colonial division plus five colonial garrison regiments, it had a force of 30,000 people.

The main task of this army was to set off from the Cameroon region and head north, intercepting the reinforcements of the northern states supporting the Sokoto Caliph before the western army could capture Oyo-Iboho.

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

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

Although the Spanish army had powerful thermal weapons, if they fell into an encirclement, logistics would sooner or later have problems.

Thermal weapons without logistical supply would become useless fire sticks; 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 combat plan was formulated, Spain immediately launched relevant actions.

For those southern states that opposed the Sokoto Caliph, Spain did not intend to reveal its combat plan to them. Although these states could be used, no one could ensure whether there were people loyal to the Sokoto Caliph within these states.

If the Spanish army's combat plan was leaked because of these unexpected factors, causing the Sokoto Caliph to strengthen the defensive power of the capital Oyo-Iboho, then it would be a loss that outweighed the gain.

Anyway, when the Spanish army arrived in the territory of these southern states, it could easily control the armies of these southern states.

They could be safe and sound under the clear resistance to the Sokoto Caliph, relying on the support from Spain.

For Spain's request for command of the army, they had to agree even if they didn't want to. After all, the ammunition supply of the firearms of their army all relied on Spain; if they lost Spain's support, their firearms would lose their effect.

Without troops equipped with firearms, what would they use to resist the rule of the Sokoto Caliph? The Sokoto Caliph could rule more than 30 large and small states and maintain the stability of the country, which was not without reason; he possessed a powerful army, and these small states, in front of the Sokoto Caliph's army, as long as they did not have firearms, would not be his opponents at all.

The attack of the western army was still quite smooth. Setting off from the Dahomey region and heading east, the indigenous states encountered were all those that opposed the Sokoto Caliph.

This also led to the fact that the Spanish army obtained a large piece of territory without firing a single shot, and also obtained the command of tens of thousands of indigenous troops.

Of course, it was said to be command, and Spain would not frequently command the indigenous troops.

The biggest role of these indigenous troops for Spain was to consume the enemy's effective strength when attacking the capital of the Sokoto Caliphate, Oyo-Iboho; in other words, they were cannon fodder when attacking the city.

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

When attacking the city, just swarm up; whether they could survive completely depended on whether God could favor them.

In order to let these indigenous states rest assured to hand over the command of the army to themselves, Spain also promised some benefits.

After defeating the Sokoto Caliphate, these indigenous states would be incorporated into Spain's colony and continue to exist in the form of a protectorate.

Their trade relationship with Spain would also not end. It could be said that except for the object of paying tribute every year 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 means shown were quite tough.

Not only did those conquered indigenous countries cease to exist, but even their population was slaughtered to a considerable extent.

For these indigenous states, under the premise of being unable to resist Spain's colonial rule, they could only ensure their own safety as much as possible.

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

(End of chapter)