Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 311 1885
It was not easy for Maxim, who successfully led a group of military experts to develop the Maxim M1884 rifle, because he also needed to modify his own machine guns and develop a new generation of machine guns suitable for smokeless powder machine gun bullets.

The discovery of smokeless powder was a huge change for rifles, and probably an even bigger change for machine guns than for rifles.

Because machine guns rely on high rates of fire to suppress fire, this also means that machine guns produce much more smoke when firing than rifles.

As long as the smoke problem can be solved, the power of the machine gun can at least double. If the smokeless powder increases the power of the bullet, a machine gun that can be used with smokeless powder machine gun bullets will definitely be several times more powerful than a machine gun loaded with black powder machine gun bullets.

It has to be admitted that Maxim did have an extraordinary obsession with machine guns.

Two and a half months after the rifle was developed, Maxim submitted the design drawings and samples of the new machine gun to the defense department.

Like rifle bullets, machine gun calibers were reduced to cope with the doubling of logistical pressures.

Machine guns are bullet-consuming monsters. Every reduction in caliber will greatly reduce Spain's bullet consumption and logistical pressure.

Anyway, the main function of the machine gun is to form a firepower network in the front and suppress the enemy's cluster charge. In this case, the caliber of the machine gun is not important, what is important is the rate of fire and the stability of the firepower.

Unlike the previous generation of machine guns, in order to cope with the heat problem when the machine gun is fired at high speed, Maxim specially developed two machine guns with different heat dissipation capabilities.

The previous generation of machine guns were air-cooled machine guns that relied on natural wind to dissipate heat, and their heat dissipation capacity would be affected during high-intensity combat.

The second generation machine gun is a water-cooled machine gun with an additional water tank to help dissipate heat. Of course, the heat dissipation of water-cooled machine guns is heavily dependent on water sources, which is also a burden for marching and fighting.

Therefore, Maxim did not completely eliminate air-cooled machine guns. The second-generation machine guns can be freely selected as water-cooled or air-cooled, and the Ministry of Defense can order whichever machine gun it needs.

The emergence of new rifles and new machine guns is of course good news for Spain. The only worry may be whether the Ministry of Defense can afford the large-scale replacement of armaments, but this cannot be completed in a short period of time, and the Ministry of Defense naturally does not need to spend a large amount of military funds in a short period of time.

With the new rifles and machine guns, the Spanish army's next task is to quickly adapt to the new weapons and continue to carry out related training.

The new firearms can indeed effectively improve the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army, but the prerequisite is that the Spanish soldiers must be proficient in using these firearms.

In the first two years of the weapon replacement, the Spanish army must have gone through a period of adaptation. The machine guns were fine, the firing rate and loading method did not change much, the only big change was the bullet.

步枪就不一样了。原本的维塔利M1872步枪最高射速只有每分钟15到20发子弹，最新的马克沁M1884式步枪则快速提升到了每分钟30发子弹以上。

This increase in firing rate is something that soldiers must master. It can ensure that the army can provide fire coverage within a certain range and suppress the enemy's attack without heavy firepower such as machine guns and artillery.

Among all the Spanish troops, the first to be equipped with new rifles and machine guns was naturally the most elite Guards Division.

This is not because Carlo favors the Guards Division, but mainly because the production of the Royal Arsenal cannot be increased in the short term. Delivering a few thousand rifles each time will not make much difference to the Royal Army with a total number of more than 100,000.

But the Guards Division was different. After all, the number of the Guards Division was only 1.5. After removing the officers, artillerymen, machine gunners, etc. who did not use rifles, there were only rifles that needed to be replaced.

The output of the Royal Arsenal can quickly meet the needs of the Guards Division in a short period of time. It is just right to carry out small-scale actual installation tests within the scope of the Guards Division to see how this rifle, which performed well in the test, performs in actual combat.

While the Guards Division began to replace its weapons with new rifles on a large scale, the Ministry of National Defense was also disposing of old weapons.

The good news is that there are still many small and medium-scale wars around the world, and it is not difficult to dispose of these weapons.

Just one month after the birth of the new rifle, Spain contacted the country in northern Vietnam and signed a very cheap arms export order with it.

Spain will sell 3 second-hand Vitali M1872 rifles at one time, with each rifle given 50 rounds of ammunition, and sell these obsolete products on a half-buy, half-give-away basis.

In addition, the Lan Fang Republic also purchased 2 rifles at one time. Although these rifles were second-hand, they had been inspected by the Spanish army, and they came with bullets, which was a very cost-effective deal.

In addition to Asian countries, Spain has also expanded its business to America.

Of course, it’s not the United States, but the countries in South America.

Although the countries in South America were once colonies of Spain or Portugal, this does not mean that the relations between these American countries are better.

In particular, the relationship between the three more powerful countries in South America, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, can only be described as tense.

Although it has not yet reached the level of war, there are many local conflicts and border fights. Historically, when European countries were engaged in a vigorous naval arms race, the three countries in South America were also engaged in a South American naval arms race, which is enough to show that the relationship between the three countries is tense.

Since the relationship is tense, it is necessary to stockpile a batch of weapons and equipment to strengthen one's military strength.

Spain was once the master of this land. Although these South American countries did not welcome Spanish rule, they still welcomed Spanish industrial products.

In particular, the rifles, which were sold at almost half price, caused a scramble in South American countries.

The main reason is that Carlo had repeatedly reminded Spain's industry when it was being built that, under the premise of paying attention to quality, although Spanish industrial products could not be both good and cheap, their quality was absolutely guaranteed.

These second-hand rifles are sold at half price, which is barely good value for money. Rifles produced by American countries themselves cannot achieve such performance and such price, which is why they are being scrambled for.

What surprised Carlo was that only 5 rifles were sold in Asia, but more than 6 rifles were easily sold in America.

As a result, Spain not only cleared out all the old guns in its inventory, but was also forced to eliminate and sell a batch of rifles currently in use by the army.

This also resulted in several divisions of soldiers temporarily having no rifles available. They could only temporarily train in other projects besides target shooting while waiting for the Royal Arsenal to work overtime to produce them.

But this is also good news. When the new rifles are produced, they will definitely be given priority to those armies that don't have rifles.

It was a blessing in disguise for them as they became the first army under the Royal Army system to give priority to the use of new rifles.

The whole year of 1884 was marked by the frantic efforts of European countries to take advantage of the big pie of Africa, and ended with Spain becoming the biggest winner.

Why is Spain the biggest winner in 1884?

Because Spain had successfully obtained a truce with the British in its colonial conflict, although it had not yet been occupied, it was indeed Spanish territory.

In addition, Spain's colonial annexation plan has been half successful. The Kingdom of Bam, Yoruba and other places have been incorporated into Spanish colonies, and the Gold Coast, Congo Territory and Guinea Colony are about to be connected.

Of course, other countries have also gained something.

In addition to Southwest Africa, Germany was also actively exploring colonization in West Africa. After the failure of colonization in Cameroon and Togo, the Germans set their sights on the middle of the Spanish and French colonies and took over the land of the Mende people.

The Mande people are a large ethnic group, with a total population estimated to be between millions and tens of millions. This ethnic group once founded the Ghana Empire and the Mali Empire in Africa, both of which were regional hegemons in Africa and were once powerful.

However, with the demise of their country, these Mende people had to migrate to the Atlantic coast, which is why they were targeted by the Germans.

It has a large population, is located on the coast, and is far away from the colonies of France and Spain, so it will not be interfered with by other powers.

It was under such circumstances that the Germans took over this land quite easily and became neighbors with Spain and France.

Of course, Germany's colonies had another neighbor, the Republic of Liberia, which was established by the descendants of American immigrants.

They are said to be American immigrants, but in fact they are the descendants of African-Americans.

Before the American Civil War, black people in America were slaves without any human rights. This is the country established by these black people after they fled back to Africa. The meaning of Liberia is about freedom and liberation.

Strictly speaking, Liberia is more like a colony of the United States. However, because black people are not valued by the US government, coupled with the isolationism of the United States, the Americans did not vigorously develop Liberia, and rather let it go.

Because of the relationship between Liberia and the United States, although the population here is all black, it has not been targeted by European powers.

Germany obviously had no intention of conquering this land. After all, the Mande people's land also had a coast, which did not affect the German colonies' access to the sea.

When talking about this country founded by the descendants of black Americans, we have to mention the bad qualities of these blacks.

In the United States, they were slaves who could be bullied by everyone. After escaping to Africa, they began to oppress the local black people in Africa.

The method of oppression is also very simple, almost completely copying the oppression of the white people in the United States. This also leads to racial discrimination not only in the United States, a country of immigrants composed of various nationalities and races, but also in Liberia, a country composed entirely of black people.

Yes, there is racial discrimination in Liberia, and it is serious.

The descendants of black immigrants from the United States highly discriminate against the local black population in Africa.

But they never thought that they or their ancestors were actually brought to America by Europeans.

Serious racial discrimination in Liberia even led to civil unrest and resistance, but this is not very important for world history.

In addition to the merger of the Gold Coast and Congo Territory, Spain is also promoting the merger of the West African colonies and the Sierra Leone colonies. Compared with the former, the latter merger is actually much simpler.

After all, the straight-line distance from the Gold Coast to the Congo Territory is over a thousand kilometers, and the straight-line distance to the Guinea colony is more than 900 kilometers.

The latter is different. The southernmost part of the West African colony is only a little over 300 kilometers away from the northernmost part of the Sierra Leone colony. There is no colony of any European country in between, which means that there will be almost no country to interfere with Spain's colonial annexation plan.

Under such unique conditions, Spain's West African colonies successfully expanded southward by hundreds of kilometers, transforming the Muslim theocracy in the south called Futagena from a coastal country into an inland country.

Thanks to this, the merger of the West African colonies with the Sierra Leone colonies is almost imminent. According to a report from the Colonial Affairs Department, it is expected that in the new year, the West African colonies will successfully complete the merger plan and become one of Spain's important colonies in Africa.

The only Spanish colony in Africa that has remained quiet is the colony of southern Morocco.

There is no way, the geographical location of the South Morocco Colony is really bad.

Almost no one has occupied the Sahara Desert. Spain only occupied cities with a certain population in the desert, and did not set foot in other large deserts.

Because there are deserts to the south and east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the expansion of southern Morocco's colonies can only be northward.

To the north is Morocco. At this time, neither the French nor the British were willing to let Spain take over Morocco alone.

This also means that the South Morocco colony is almost unable to expand. If it cannot expand, the South Morocco colony will naturally not take any action.

Of course, we can’t say that there was no action.

As a region to be localized by Spain in the future, the policies of the colony of South Morocco were completely different from those of other colonies.

Even Spain is gradually sending immigrants to the southern Moroccan colony. In the future, large and small Spanish cities will be established in the southern Moroccan colony, and Spaniards will become the main population here.

Agadir, the capital of the southern Moroccan colony, has now become the city with the largest number of Spanish immigrants.

More than half of the Moroccans here have emigrated, and among the current population of less than 100,000, there are more than 50,000 Spaniards.

The entire city center has been almost rebuilt, and a large number of modern Spanish-style buildings have sprung up, including the City Hall and the Parliament, all of which have Spanish-style colors.

If localization goes smoothly, the entire southern Moroccan colony will become a region of Spain, still with Agadir as its capital.

The best example is the city council of Agadir, which will be completely localized, modeled after the structure in Spain.

By the time the construction of the state assembly and the state government is completed, it will be almost time for the South Morocco Colony to announce the completion of its localization and become the newest region.

The Berlin Conference, which was convened because of the colonial conflict between Spain and Britain, finally concluded successfully at the end of 1884.

The reason why this conference lasted so long was that the European powers used this conference to discuss the scope of their respective division of Africa and reached certain agreements and compromises.

Although Africa is large, there are many powers that are trying to carve up Africa. This has led to each power wanting to take a big bite of this big pie of Africa, and some places are even targeted by several powers at the same time.

In the colonization of Africa, Spain and Britain are two countries with relatively clear goals.

Britain wanted to achieve a Cairo-Cape Town connection, in other words they wanted to annex the entire east coast of Africa.

Spain's appetite was smaller than Britain's, but it also had considerable claims and ambitions for the central and west African coasts.

Then there is France, whose colonial activities were also significant, even covering the coasts of North Africa, West Africa and East Africa.

It’s just that compared with Britain and Spain, France’s colonies are more scattered and the size of individual colonies appears to be smaller.

After the Berlin Conference, all countries tacitly accelerated the division of Africa again.

After the Berlin Conference divided the approximate areas of Africa for various countries to colonize, if they wanted to obtain more land, they could only go deep into the interior of Africa and explore the depths of Africa where almost no one had ever set foot.

Countries still have some hope for the land within the African continent.

The Sudan invaded by Britain and the Congo territory occupied by Spain were basically acquired in inland areas of Africa.

This also means that there is still a lot of land with huge development value in inland Africa. Although it is not possible to fully utilize sea transportation like the coast, as long as railways are built, those precious resources can still be transported out.

The biggest difference between this Berlin Conference and the historical ones may be the ownership of the Congo region.

Historically, because no country actually occupied the Congolese territory during the Berlin Conference, the obviously weak Belgium eventually took advantage.

But now, Spain has already established actual occupation of the Congo region, and other powers naturally have no excuse to refute Spanish rule.

This also led to small countries like Belgium and the Netherlands basically having no gains. Portugal, because it had colonized Africa long ago, still had a very large area of ​​colonies in East and West Africa.

Combined with the compensation received for the land seized by Britain, Portugal was the country that obtained the most land among all non-power countries in Europe at this conference.

The three indigenous countries in southern Congo, the Kingdom of Ruanda, the Kingdom of Bunda, and the Kingdom of Luba, have a combined area of ​​hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. Together with Portugal's West African colonies and Mozambique colony, the scale of Portugal's current colonies is second only to Britain, Spain, and France, and even ranks ahead of Germany.

As time entered 1885, the Spanish Army's armament replacement officially began.

Large quantities of obsolete rifles and bullets were urgently shipped to Asia and America to be sold before the end of the war.

On the Spanish side, the soldiers who received the new weapons also loved the new rifle.

Although the original Vitali M1872 rifle is also very good, it is a burden to carry it for physical training because the gun is long and heavy.

Now that they have switched to a shorter and lighter rifle, it will make their daily training easier for the soldiers.

Moreover, almost everyone has a tendency to get tired of the old and love the new. After personally experiencing the powerful performance of this new rifle, how could the soldiers still remember the previous generation rifle that they had used for several years?

The weapons of the colonial army were not updated. Firstly, the output of the royal arsenal could not keep up, and secondly, there was no need for the colonial army to be equipped with such powerful rifles.

However, in order to ensure the smooth operation of subsequent operations, the Ministry of Defense still equipped the colonial army with a certain number of machine guns.

Yes, machine gun.

In an environment like Africa, machine guns are more effective than artillery.

The biggest challenge in conquering these indigenous people was not the firearms or artillery in their hands, but their endless supply of manpower.

Small countries like the Kingdom of Bam and Togo are not so bad because their populations are only in the millions and they can only muster a few tens of thousands of indigenous troops.

But the larger Sokoto Caliphate is different. Because of its population of tens of millions, the army they can gather easily has hundreds of thousands or even millions of people.

At this time, the machine gun can play a huge role. Without knowing the power of the machine gun, the natives will definitely swarm and attack the Spanish army's positions.

At this time, the Spanish soldiers could easily harvest the lives of the indigenous people with the firepower of machine guns.

In order to achieve the best effect, the Ministry of Defense transported more than 50 machine guns from the mainland, equipped with millions of rounds of ammunition.

The attitude of the Ministry of National Defense can also be seen from this point. Faced with the influx of indigenous manpower, Spain naturally does not need to save bullets.

During the rest of 1884, Jyoti successfully formed two colonial divisions using manpower shipped from the colonies to the Congo Territory and officers transported from mainland Spain.

The establishment of these two colonial divisions immediately reduced the manpower burden of the Congo Territory. At the same time, it also allowed the Congo Territory and the Guinea Colony to mobilize more troops.

In the new year, the army that could be assembled in the Guinea colony and the Congo territory alone amounted to three colonial divisions with a strength of about 3 people.

Together with several colonial garrison regiments on the Gold Coast, with a total force of more than 7, the Spanish army is fully capable of fighting, let alone dealing with a small Sokoto Caliphate. Even if the indigenous countries in the Gulf of Guinea unite, the Spanish army is fully capable of fighting.

If the Sokoto Caliphate could be defeated, Spanish dominance in the Gulf of Guinea would no longer be in any danger.

Under such circumstances, the merger of the Gold Coast and Guinea colonies will be just around the corner, and the layout of Spain's four major colonies will hopefully be realized within 1885.

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(End of this chapter)