Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 328: Policy of Using Barbarians to Control Barbarians
Omar Ben Ali, it turns out, was quite wise.

There was no way that Spain would let go of the Caliph. As long as he was alive, the Sokoto Caliphate would still exist in name only.

Once he died, Spain could abolish the title of Caliph and legitimately bring Sokoto under its rule.

As long as the entire Sokoto was brought under Spanish colonial rule, no matter how cruel Spain was, it would not kill all the indigenous people of Sokoto.

After all, European countries claim to be the representatives of civilization, so they still have to do enough surface work. Historically, Belgium did not do a good job in surface work, and the final result was that the European powers intervened forcibly to prevent Belgium from further damaging the image of European countries.

Some examples can also be seen from Spain's rule over other colonies. The whole of Spain is full of anti-black sentiment, and blacks are the only race that cannot obtain Spanish citizenship.

However, Spain did not carry out a genocide-like massacre against black people. Since Carlo's coronation, the total number of black people massacred in Spain did not exceed one million.

Moreover, many of these so-called massacres were caused by forced labor, which was also a common practice among the powerful countries and naturally would not be counted as massacres.

The number of people who actually took up the butcher knife and slaughtered directly was probably only a few hundred thousand. This number was not even a fraction of the total indigenous population of the colonies massacred by Britain and France, and naturally would not attract the special attention of European countries.

Only after Andrew was sure that Omar bin Ali was the Caliph himself and was dead did the army take over the order of Oyo Igboho and implement a brief military rule.

Andrew did not execute the Sokoto officials who had surrendered to the Spanish army, but only ordered the army to keep them under strict surveillance.

After all, the help of these officials will be needed to take over the order of the entire Sokoto Caliphate, and even their help will be needed to rule the entire Sokoto in the future.

Spain implemented the strategy of using barbarians to control barbarians in its colonies. Letting the local natives manage the local natives can not only reduce the resistance of the local natives, but also more effectively control the colonies.

Apart from anything else, these natives are really cruel to their own people. For the various benefits promised by Spain and their own future, they will not hesitate to raise their butcher knives to face their own people.

It is precisely thanks to the management of these indigenous officials that Spain's colonies in Africa remained relatively stable.

When the news that the Sokoto Caliph had died and the Spanish army had occupied Oyo Iboho reached Spain, it immediately attracted the attention of the Spanish.

Unlike the previous small-scale conflicts with indigenous countries, the Sokoto Caliphate was a large country. Being able to annex such a country also meant that Spain's colonies would expand greatly in terms of land area.

The expansion of colonies not only represents the enhancement of Spain's sphere of influence and overall strength, but also represents a large number of opportunities to make a fortune.

Of course, the most important thing at the moment is to determine the actual Spanish occupation of the Sokoto Caliphate. After the conclusion of the Berlin Conference, these nominal matters will also be important.

Although Omar Ben Ali was dead, the previous caliph had other sons. Spain temporarily replaced Omar Ben Ali's brother as caliph, but after signing a colonial treaty with the Spanish colonial government in Guinea, Spain abolished his caliphate.

Although the title of Caliph of Sokoto was abolished, Spain did not abolish the emirs of those states.

Of course, Sokoto currently has nearly 30 emirs, and it will definitely not retain so many in the end. According to the area of ​​the Sokoto Caliphate, retaining less than ten emirs can help Spain better manage this land.

Naturally, the emirs of the three southern states, Oyo, Iwo and Ijebu, who sent troops to help Spain in the war, were retained. They would also have the opportunity to obtain large tracts of land and become a model of cooperation with Spain and gaining benefits.

Setting such an example is also very effective. After seeing the benefits obtained by these three states, the natives of other states will try to contact Spain and obey Spanish rule when they have no choice.

After all, they had previously obeyed the rule of the Sokoto Caliphate, it was just that the ruler was replaced by a pagan.

There must be some fanatical religious elements in these states who are certainly full of prejudice and hatred towards non-Muslim pagans.

But these people obviously could not hinder the Spanish rule in Sokoto. As long as someone dared to resist Spanish rule, the Guinean colonial government would not mind letting them go to see their God.

After completely controlling the situation in Oyo Iboho, Andrew immediately led his army north to take over the power of the numerous states.

If there were more sensible natives like those in the southern states, Andrew would not mind cooperating with them and letting them continue to be his emirs.

How to judge whether they are sensible and willing to obey Spanish rule? The method is also very simple, that is, to see whether these states are willing to hand over their troops.

As long as there are people willing to hand over their troops to help, Spain will not deal with them for the time being. But if they are not willing to hand over even the command of their own army, then they must have evil intentions.

Andrew was not polite to these people. He directly ordered the army to attack and capture the capital of the state and then execute the ruler of the state, the Emir.

Compared to the time it took to attack the Sokoto Caliphate, Spain took longer to attack these nearly thirty states.

The reason is very simple. These thirty states are distributed over a land that is 1,600 kilometers wide from east to west and more than 900 kilometers long from north to south. It takes the longest time to travel to each emirate.

The actual time required to attack each state was not long. After all, the population of each state was not large, and was even smaller than that of the small indigenous states of the Kingdom of Bam and the Arrow Alliance that had been conquered by Spain.

The Sokoto Caliphate has a population of nearly 10 million, and also has nearly 30 indigenous states. This also means that on average each state has a population of only more than 300,000. What can such a small population do?

After nearly two months of integration, Andrew destroyed more than a dozen of the indigenous states, leaving just ten indigenous states to rule the Sokto area.

In addition to the three states in the south that were originally subject to Spanish rule, Andrew also left behind seven emirates: Mandala, Wukari, Bawuchi, Bed, Kano, Borgu, and Kebbi, which together formed the ten states that ruled the Sokoto region.

In order to prevent anyone from reintegrating the ten states to form a stronger resistance force, the Guinea colonial government decided, after discussion, to abolish the military power of each emirate.

These ten emirates were only allowed to have an army of a thousand people to protect their own security.

As for the protection of the sovereignty of this land, with the protection of the Spanish colonial army, there is naturally no need for these indigenous troops.

In addition to reducing the armies of these ten states, Spain also continued the policies of the original Sokoto Caliphate. These ten emirates were required to pay tribute to the Guinea colony, and those who did not pay enough tribute would be punished. Although the original nearly 30 emirates were reduced to 10, these ten emirates did not take over all the land area of ​​the Sokoto Caliphate.

The land that once belonged to the core of the Caliphate was directly taken over by the Guinea Colony. The ten emirates annexed more land from other states, which also meant that the population of these emirates basically did not exceed one million.

In order to prevent collusion among these emirates, Spain also established corresponding rules within these ten emirates.

Once the ruler of a state discovered that other states intended to resist Spanish colonial rule, they could report it to the Guinea colonial government.

If the report is found to be true, not only will the Emir who planned the rebellion be punished, but the reporting state will also receive its own reward.

What reward? Of course, the land and population of the Emir who planned the rebellion.

The direct benefit of this regulation is that the Emir that planned the rebellion will stand against other states. In the future, if an Emir wants to plan a rebellion against Spanish colonization, they will not only need to prevent being discovered by the Spanish colonial government, but also by other Emirs.

Because reporting can earn them land and population rewards, these emirates will also take the initiative to pay attention to the situation and actions of other states.

As a result, the emirates that were originally able to cooperate became enemies. Since everyone was in a hostile relationship, there was naturally no possibility of cooperation.

This approach had already been implemented in federal indigenous states such as the Ashanti Empire, and Spain was no stranger to it.

After completely controlling the situation in the Sokoto Caliphate, Spain took less than half a month to establish such a ruling system.

During this period, Spain also mobilized approximately half a million men from the Sokoto Caliphate to other areas of the Guinea colony.

In addition to reducing the population in the Sokoto area and improving local stability, this will also increase manpower in other areas.

Spain has discovered new gold mines in the Gold Coast area. These people can go to the Gold Coast to mine for gold, or reach the Congo region to open up new land for Spain.

Of course, a certain amount of manpower must be retained in the Sokoto area. Now that Spain has completely controlled this area, the next most important thing is to build a railway in Sokoto.

Railways not only make it easier for Spain to obtain resources from various states, but also enable Spain's colonial troops to reach the states more quickly.

As long as the railways can connect the lands of the various states, even if rebellions break out in the states in the future, it will not be a difficult problem for Spain to solve.

It is worth mentioning that because the entire Sokoto area was included in the Guinea colony, this also made the Guinea colony become Spain’s largest colony in Africa.

In addition to being the largest in area, the Guinea colony was also the Spanish colony with the longest coastline in Africa and the largest indigenous population.

Although the large area and long coastline are good news, how to deal with such a large number of indigenous people is also a big problem for Spain?
It is definitely impossible to kill them all. If you want to massacre all the indigenous people in this area, you have to kill at least 10 million people.

Such a massacre was too crazy, and the resulting public pressure was unbearable for the Spanish government. If this were to happen, not only would Carlo be branded a tyrant, not to mention the Spanish government.

At that time, it will have a huge impact on the international influence, status and reputation of the Spanish government and Carlo himself.

Even though Europeans do not care about the lives of Africans, if there was news that Spain massacred tens of millions of indigenous people, almost all Europeans would condemn the cruelty of the Spanish government.

By then, Spain’s diplomatic environment will be extremely bad, and European countries can use this as an excuse to make heavy profits from Spain.

It is also because of this that Spain has long since changed its approach to dealing with the black population in Africa from massacre to transfer.

At present, the transfer of the black population is still very effective. Over the past few years, Spain has transferred a total of millions of indigenous people.

Of the millions of Africans, more than half traveled to America by ship, and more than half of them traveled to the United States.

Who makes the United States the most attractive country for immigrants at this time? The United States was founded only a little over a hundred years ago, and its population has surpassed many European powers.

In the future, during World War I, the population of the United States crushed many European powers and was one of the largest in the world.

The rapid increase in the U.S. population is due to its attractiveness to immigrants. Since the U.S. is so attractive to immigrants, Carlo doesn't mind helping Americans to increase the U.S. population faster.

In the future, Spain will invest more in the transfer of black population. Carlo even discussed this matter with William, the Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs. William told Carlo that in the next five years, the Colonial Affairs Department expected to send at least 300 million black people abroad.

Although 300 million black people may seem like a lot, it is actually very easy to achieve.

The population transfer within Africa alone can achieve most of the goal. Add in the population transferred to the United States and other countries, and 300 million is just a number that can be easily achieved.

Based on the intensity of this population transfer, by around 1890, the African population in the Guinea colony would be reduced by about one-eighth, and the population in the Congo territory would be reduced by about one-tenth.

Perhaps one day in the future, one of Spain’s African colonies will be able to achieve the milestone of zero black people.

Of course, the most special colony of South Morocco cannot be counted. Morocco is a special African country with basically no black population in the country, so it is naturally not counted.

At present, among the remaining three major African colonies, the West African colonies have the greatest hope of achieving zero black population.

The main reason is very simple, that is, the African population here is the smallest. In addition, it is the main area for agricultural development in Spain, and it has received the greatest support from the Spanish government.

Perhaps before the outbreak of World War II, the West African colonies really had the hope of becoming colonies with zero blacks, and that would have been the time for the West African colonies to be localized.

(End of this chapter)