Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 320: Sino-French Armistice
While domestic political reforms were proceeding vigorously, the Colonial Affairs Department was also advancing the process of colonial mergers.

Before May 1885, the Colonial Affairs Department reported to Carlo the good news of the successful merger of the West African colonies.

The current West African colonies are no longer the small area of ​​only 30,000 square kilometers they once were, but have become a huge administrative region consisting of multiple colonies.

The former Gambia colonies, Ziguinchor colonies, Guinea colonies and Sierra Leone colonies were all merged into it, and most of the land of the Gaoye Kingdom and Futagalon surrounding these colonies was also basically annexed.

Precisely because of the merger of multiple colonies, the area of ​​the West African colonies has exceeded 20 square kilometers, which can be considered a medium-sized colony of neither large nor small.

For Carlo, the successful merger of the West African colonies is definitely good news. The West African colonies will be Spain's agricultural development zone in Africa, and their importance is no less than that of larger colonies such as the Congo Territory.

After the successful merger of the West African colonies, the only colonies left for Spain to merge were the Gold Coast and Guinea.

The situation along the Gulf of Guinea is relatively clear at present, with the only two main competitors being Spain and France.

Spain's colonies were mainly concentrated in the corner of the Gulf of Guinea, while France's colonies were distributed further out of the Spanish colonies, such as the land west of the Gold Coast and south of Guinea.

In the colonial development of Africa, France and Spain had a tacit understanding. Although the two sides were in a competitive relationship, the competition between the two countries was not fierce, and they were in a peaceful coexistence environment most of the time.

France will not interfere with Spain's colonial plans, and Spain will not interfere with France's colonial plans.

This also led to the two countries' colonies being relatively concentrated, and facilitated Spain's plan to merge the Gold Coast and Guinea colonies.

Currently, the Gold Coast Colony has successfully merged Togo and Ouidah, and the Guinea Colony has also annexed the Arrow Union.

The closest distance between the two colonies was less than 500 kilometers, which actually meant that Spain's colonial merger plan would soon be successful.

Because of Carlo and the Spanish government's attention to the colonial annexation plan, Colonial Secretary William was obviously eager to prove his ability.

As two new colonial divisions were formed in the Congo territory, the Colonial Affairs Department and the Ministry of National Defense mobilized a total of 3 troops, including three colonial divisions and five colonial garrison regiments, to launch a massive attack on indigenous forces such as the Kingdom of Benin and the Kingdom of Niger between the two colonies.

There are only two indigenous forces worth paying attention to in the area, one is the Sokoto Caliphate located inland, and the other is the Kingdom of Benin.

The Sokoto Caliphate has been introduced before. The other Benin Kingdom has nothing to do with the later Benin. The two just have the same name.

The current Kingdom of Benin is the country established by the Ethiopians on this land. Its founding can be traced back to 1180 AD, which is more than 700 years ago.

In this history of more than 700 years, the Kingdom of Benin also has a brilliant and glorious history. They were once one of the oldest and most developed countries on the West African coast, and they are still a relatively powerful indigenous country on the West African coast.

But such strength is only relative, not to mention that the Kingdom of Benin has become considerably weaker and more corrupt compared to its glorious period.

Spain's conquest strategy for the Kingdom of Benin was mainly based on quickly annexing the coast and slowly encroaching on the inland.

Whether it is the Kingdom of Niger or the Kingdom of Benin, further north of them is the Sokoto Caliphate, a large country with a width of more than 1600 kilometers from east to west.

This also meant that as long as Spain encroached on their coasts, these indigenous countries would have nowhere to escape.

As their land was eroded bit by bit, the living space of these indigenous peoples would continue to be compressed. At that time, they would only have two choices: either go north to join the Soctocharis Caliphate, or submit to Spanish colonial rule.

Once Spain had completely devoured these small countries on the West African coast, it would also consider launching a colonial invasion of the more powerful Sokoto Caliphate in the north.

This country is a huge empire formed by the union of large and small indigenous countries, with a population of at least tens of millions. It is not easy to conquer.

If you rashly attack this country, you are likely to be dragged into the vortex of war. This is why Spain chose it as its final goal instead of conquering it together with indigenous countries such as Benin and Niger.

It is worth mentioning that while the plan to merge African colonies was being carried out, Spain was also carrying out its own actions in the Middle East.

However, compared with the vigorous actions in Africa, the actions in the Middle East seem so insignificant.

To put it bluntly, the truce states, which were large in area but had little population, were brought under Spanish colonial rule. The population here was only a pitiful tens of thousands of people, and most of the land was endless desert, which had no economic value to be developed by the great powers.

This also led to the fact that this land had not been occupied for a long time. The British only arrived here and did not even establish a decent colonial outpost.

It can also be seen from the map that compared with the truce states and Oman with large deserts, the British prefer Bahrain and Qatar with better geographical conditions.

Although Bahrain and Qatar are not large in area, compared with the truce states, these two lands at least have certain development value.

Precisely because European powers including Britain did not attach importance to the truce states, Spain's colonial invasion and occupation of this land was not even news in Europe.

The vast majority of European people don’t even know the term “truce states”, let alone where this land is, so they naturally won’t pay attention to such news.

Even the Spanish people were not very interested in the new colony acquired by the government. Some Spaniards were curious about where the government had opened up this land, but when they learned that the land was all desert, some people who wanted to immigrate immediately gave up their idea.

After all, everyone went to the colonies with the idea of ​​panning for gold and making money. If they immigrated to a desert, let alone making money, even surviving would be a problem.

No one was paying attention to Spain's actions in the Middle East, which was a good thing for Carlo.

Having so much wealth without having to worry about being targeted by others, this feeling made Carlo secretly happy for a long time.

Although no other country is targeting the truce states, the necessary defensive forces still need to be deployed.

Carlo instructed the governor of the Oman colony to build a railway in the next two years with Muscat, the capital of Oman, as the center, which would reach the northernmost part of the truce states in the west and the easternmost part of Oman in the east, in order to strengthen control over the Oman colony.

The Omani colony was formed by the merger of the original Sultanate of Oman and the truce states, with a total population of only a pitiful 100 million people. Most of these 100 million people are located in the northernmost part of Oman. This railway can radiate to the northernmost part of Oman and the truce states, basically ensuring Spain's control over the local indigenous people.

As long as this railway is completed, no matter what accidents happen in the Omani colony in the future, the Spanish army will be able to quickly reach the most populous areas.

Because the population of the entire Oman colony was not large, the number of colonial garrison regiments stationed in Oman was not large, with only two colonial garrison regiments with a total strength of 4000 people.

In addition to these two colonial garrisons, a small colonial fleet will be stationed in Muscat, the capital city of the Oman colony, to facilitate Oman in obtaining supplies from other regions.

After all, large tracts of land here are deserts, and it is difficult to feed a population of more than one million plus the Spanish army and immigrants relying solely on local resources.

Only by obtaining supplies from the outside world continuously through sea transportation can the supply of materials to the colony be ensured.

Of course, various construction plans in the colonies, including railway and port construction, also required the supply of foreign materials.

In addition, because it is located in the middle of the route from Spain to the Philippines, it can be used as a transit station for the Spanish fleet and civilian ships.

The straight-line distance from Spain to the Philippine colony is about 1.2 kilometers. Because it needs to pass through the Suez Canal and the Strait of Malacca, this route is actually winding and much longer than the straight-line distance of 1.2 kilometers.

If there is no transit point that Spain can control, it will be bad news for the Spanish fleet and civilian ships.

Because this meant that Spain's fleet and civilian ships would have to rely on ports in other countries if they wanted to get supplies along the way.

The only places where supplies could be obtained along the way were British India, British Somalia, British Egypt and Italy.

If a large transit port was not built in Oman, the maritime connection between mainland Spain and the Philippines would have to rely on the help of the British.

Although the construction of the port in Oman will not change this situation, it will alleviate some of the supply pressure faced by the Spanish fleet.

This transit station is still of great strategic significance, especially after the relationship between Spain and Britain breaks down in the future, a transit station cannot ensure that the connection between mainland Spain and the Philippine colonies will not be destroyed.

Of course, because the scale of the Oman colony itself is not large, the colonial fleet stationed here is very small and can even only be regarded as a coastal defense fleet.

Not to mention the most powerful warships like ironclad ships, even cruisers of smaller tonnage would not appear in the Omani colony.

Most of the colonial warships here are small-scale warships eliminated by the Spanish Navy, and their tonnage is mostly around 1000 tons or less.

As time came to June 1885, the Royal Arsenal sent probably the last batch of weapons and ammunition to Asia.

Why is it the last batch? Because according to the information sent back by the Spanish ambassadors in Asia, the war between Asia and France was basically over.

In fact, before the war broke out, Carlo already understood that only the French could win this war.

Although there was a huge population gap between the two sides, France was fighting at a long distance and its logistical supplies were not sufficient.

But France is, after all, one of the most powerful countries in Europe, possessing the most advanced weapons, equipment and technology in Europe, which is unmatched by the other side.

Another reason is that the enemy's will to fight was not strong, and they even wanted to negotiate with France at the beginning of the war. If the French had not insisted on fighting, the war might not have started at the beginning.

In addition to the lack of a strong will to fight, the enemy's government's incompetence and corruption were also important reasons for the failure. Although the French government was also in a very chaotic situation, it also depended on who they were fighting against.

At least the French attitude towards this war was quite clear. They were willing to spend more military expenditures and casualties to win the war and expand their own achievements.

What about the other side? Faced with the European countries' timidity, perhaps the other side did not think of defeating France at the beginning, but only wanted to satisfy the French at the lowest cost so as to end the war quickly.

Although the outcome of this war was already determined, it also had an impact on Spain's arms exports.

In the original history, the war ended with an armistice signed on April 1885, 4, and the outcome of the war was clear even at the beginning of the year.

But now, because Spain provided them with a large number of rifles and bullets, they had stronger means to resist the French attack.

The specific impact is that at the beginning of this year, the war between France and the United States was still in a tense situation. Although the French were still in an advantageous position, they did not achieve any decent results.

After two or three months, the French government could no longer tolerate it and once again increased its military spending, sending a large number of troops and weapons and equipment to Asia, which gradually affected the situation on the battlefield.

It was not until the end of May and the beginning of June that the Asian side finally could not hold on any longer and decided to sign an armistice agreement with France to end the war.

Sure enough, a few days after the Spanish ambassador sent the message to Spain, France and Asia also started peace talks on a ceasefire and soon reached an agreement on a ceasefire.

Spain does not know the specific content of the agreement, but what is certain is that the French still gained a lot through this war. After all, it is impossible for them to invest a lot of military expenditure in vain.

Although it was a pity that the war ended too early, Carlo also understood that the enemy would not be able to hold out for long if the French intensified their offensive.

Unless the ruler of the other side really has the courage to fight France to the death, otherwise, facing the French's ever-increasing offensive, he can only choose a ceasefire, a way where the losses are acceptable.

If the French really won a great victory, they would not be able to stop the war. The appetite of European colonists has always been huge, and letting them have complete advantage would be a fatal blow to any country.

Now that the war is about to end, Spain will naturally speed up the process of merging its African colonies.

When the French turn their attention back to Africa, Spain will certainly face greater competitive pressure. It is impossible to continue to expand its colonies in West Africa under the noses of the French. After all, this is also the French base, and the French also have great colonial demands in West Africa.

(End of this chapter)