Chapter 280 Ashanti War

The construction of warships by Spain and Italy did not trigger a naval arms race in Europe, but after the French also announced the construction of six ironclad ships in the next five years, a small-scale naval arms race in Europe broke out.

The reason for the outbreak of the naval arms race was simple: the French’s high-profile expansion of their navy aroused the fear of other countries.

Perhaps even France did not expect that their original intention was to deal with the alliance between Spain and Italy in the Mediterranean region, but unexpectedly it attracted the attention of Britain and Germany in the North Sea region.

The French have the second largest fleet in the world, and they are expanding their navy on a large scale. Isn’t this a clear challenge to the British naval dominance?

The British were not polite at all. A few days after France announced its shipbuilding plan, they announced their own shipbuilding plan.

Since the French announced that they would build six ironclad ships in the next five years, the British naturally chose to follow suit and also announced that they would build six ironclad ships in the next five years.

Germany is next. Germany is perhaps more wary of France than Britain.

The reason why Prime Minister Bismarck formulated the policy of isolating France was precisely because the fear of France within Germany was quite serious, even to the point of “fear”.

Of course, this is not because Germany is afraid of France now. The so-called fear actually refers to Germany’s fear of France’s revenge on Germany after recovery.

It is precisely because of this that the German government is determined to do everything it can to prevent France’s revival, to control the French threat within a certain range as much as possible, and to launch a war to destroy France in a timely manner when it cannot be stopped.

Of course, Germany’s speed in building ironclad ships was certainly not as exaggerated as that of Britain and France. After all, Germany still had a large army, and because it had no colonies to earn income, it was not as wealthy as Britain and France in terms of finance.

Like Spain, Germany also announced that it would build four ironclad ships in the next five years to strengthen its high seas fleet.

After Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also announced its own shipbuilding plan. The Austrian government intends to build two ironclad ships in the next five years to match the strength of the Italian Navy.

If we talk about the country with the worst geopolitical environment among all the great powers, I am afraid that apart from Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire can also be on the list.

Germany is surrounded by the Russian Empire, the bulldozer of Europe, and France, the former overlord of Europe. Its northern coast is across the sea from Britain, and to the south is the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy, which is separated by Switzerland. It can be said that it is surrounded by several major powers.

The situation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not much better. To the north was the powerful German Empire, and to the east was the powerful rival Russia, which was also in a place surrounded by enemies.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire had access to the sea, the location of the access was worse than that of Italy, a Mediterranean country. The Italian navy only needed to go through the Strait of Gibraltar or the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean to reach the ocean, while the Austro-Hungarian navy had to go from the Adriatic Sea to the Mediterranean first, and then cross the strait or canal to reach the ocean.

What’s even more terrible is that the Adriatic Sea is a bay that is narrow from east to west and long from north to south, with the Apennine Peninsula and the Balkan Peninsula on the east and west sides respectively.

This means that the Austro-Hungarian navy will not only be blocked by Britain from its two Mediterranean outlets, but may also be blocked by Italy from its Adriatic Sea outlet.

The reason why Austria-Hungary followed Italy in building its navy was to prevent Italy’s blockade. Although the relationship between Austria-Hungary and Italy was not too bad, it was not too good either.

If the marriage between the Spanish royal family and the Austro-Hungarian royal family had not eased the relationship between Italy and Austria-Hungary to a certain extent, the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s vigilance against Italy would probably have been even greater.

Although most of the European powers participated in this small-scale naval arms race, there was one country that was indifferent to the naval expansion of various countries, and that was the Russian Empire.

After the assassination of Alexander II, Russia became a low-key figure in Europe. Tsar Alexander III was afraid that he would follow in his father’s footsteps, so he rarely participated in government decision-making, especially in the reforms promoted by Alexander II. Alexander III rarely made suggestions and just acted as a ruthless signing machine.

Although this did prevent the assassination of Alexander III by extreme anarchists, it also caused Russia’s reforms to go in the opposite direction of what Alexander II had desired.

In the short period of time since the assassination of Alexander II, the Russian government has abolished many reform-related decrees and has only just stopped short of declaring Alexander II’s reforms illegal.

Under such a chaotic situation, the Russian government would naturally not join the European naval arms race. For the nobles who controlled the Russian government, the precious financial resources of the Russian government could not be spent on the navy, and it was enough for Russia to maintain the current size of the navy.

Even Carlo did not expect that Spain’s order for two ironclad ships signed with Italy would trigger a naval arms race across Europe.

But this is good news for Spain. According to the course of history, the last few years are the last glory of ironclad ships.

By the last year of the 19s, that is, 80, the battleship would be born and the ironclad would be swept into the dustbin of history.

Even though there were still eight years until 1889, it was only a blink of an eye. The construction of a warship took a long time, and it would take two or three years for a warship to be incorporated into the navy.

Even though France built six ironclad ships with great fanfare, it might not have been able to incorporate all six ships into the navy fleet until the era of battleships arrived.

The funds that France invested in ironclad ships were real, which also meant that they would never give up the construction of ironclad ships.

When the battleship era arrives, Spain can vigorously build its own battleships and appropriately abandon its investment in ironclad ships.

Although it unknowingly triggered a naval arms race in Europe, the Spanish government did not focus too much on the naval arms race itself.

After sending away the Italian ship-purchasing group, the Spanish government decided to launch a war against the Ashanti Federation.

During this period, Spain’s efforts to alienate the tribes of the Ashanti Federation were quite effective. At least the attitudes of the other tribes towards the most powerful tribe, the Ashanti, became much colder, and even led to a fierce quarrel in the Ashanti Chiefs’ Council.

The reason for the quarrel was the long-term encroachment of Ashanti Chieftain on the interests of various tribes. Although on the surface Ashanti Chieftain had no power to interfere in the affairs of other tribes, as the ruler of the entire federation, the implicit power of Ashanti Chieftain was much greater than the apparent power.

This also led to considerable hatred among other tribes towards the Ashanti chiefs and the Ashanti tribe, and after Spain’s instigation, it almost caused internal strife in the entire federation.

Although it did not lead to a civil war among the Ashanti tribe, the situation was enough for Spain.

After the five colonial garrisons were fully prepared, the Spanish Gold Coast colonial government issued an ultimatum to the Ashanti tribe, using the excuse that the Ashanti natives had invaded the Gold Coast land while hunting. The tribe was required to hand over the natives who had invaded the Gold Coast land within 24 hours and pay a sum of compensation to the Gold Coast colonial government.

When the original words from the Gold Coast Colony were translated into the indigenous language and conveyed to the Ashanti tribal chief, it immediately caused panic among the entire tribe.

It is worth mentioning that the Gold Coast colonial government stated that it had only discovered that the indigenous people of the Ashanti tribe had invaded its territory, and had not discovered that the indigenous people of other tribes in the Ashanti Federation had invaded Spanish territory. Therefore, the diplomatic notice was only aimed at the Ashanti tribe, and other tribes were not included in Spain’s actions.

It was this additional statement from the Golden Territory that split the Ashanti Federation’s Council of Chiefs into two factions.

One group was led by the Ashanti chief and some weaker indigenous chiefs. They believed that Spain’s diplomatic connections should be denied with all their might. After all, the indigenous peoples were busy hiding from the Europeans, so how could they possibly run to Spanish territory?
They believed that the so-called territorial invasion by Spain was just an excuse, and their real purpose was to annex the Ashanti Federation and eliminate all the indigenous tribes under their federation.

The remaining larger indigenous tribes believe that the main fault for this incident lies entirely with the Ashanti tribe and has nothing to do with their other tribes.

Since it was the fault of the Ashanti tribe, the responsibility should be borne by the Ashanti chief and his tribe. Unless the Spaniards openly invaded the territory of other tribes, they would not be willing to pay for the mistakes of the Ashanti tribe. After all, it was their soldiers and people who died in the war.

The Ashanti chief was surprised to find that the number of indigenous tribes supporting the second opinion was greater than the first.

If it weren’t for the remaining influence of the Ashanti tribe, I’m afraid even those small tribes would have chosen the second opinion.

This isolated scene made the Ashanti chief very panicked. He tried to explain that the territorial invasion that the Spanish said had not happened at all, but the other indigenous tribal leaders no longer believed him.

The discussion in the Council of Chiefs came to a stalemate because the Ashanti chiefs were the supreme chiefs of the entire federation, which resulted in the majority of chiefs supporting the second opinion, but still prevented the Council of Chiefs from making the final decision.

However, this stalemate was not a good thing for the Ashanti tribe. The Spanish diplomatic notice was limited to 24 hours. If the Ashanti tribe failed to hand over the murderers who invaded Spanish territory and pay compensation within 24 hours, the Spanish army would ruthlessly invade the Ashanti tribe’s territory.

The 24 hours passed quickly as the Ashanti chief was angry and terrified.

The Spanish army did not hesitate at all, and in about 20 hours, it had openly invaded the territory of the Ashanti tribe.

The largest indigenous tribe in the entire federation, the Ashanti tribe is located along the Volta River and occupies the most fertile land and forests nearby.

The tribes that were attached to the federation, big or small, were distributed on the more distant riverbanks or around the Ashanti tribe. Some small tribes were squeezed further inland by the large tribes, and they could only exchange gold sand and gold ore from the gold mines in their territory for food with European colonists on the coast to barely maintain the continuation of the tribe.

The Gold Coast is not called this for nothing. To the local natives, the gold here is not very valuable, and a handful of gold sand is worth less than a full meal.

European colonists seized large amounts of gold sand and gold ore from the indigenous people through various means, smelted them into gold, and then transported them to Europe.

Of course, compared to robbing ore, European colonists prefer to rob gold mines directly.

This also resulted in fewer and fewer gold mines in the local indigenous territories, and less and less gold sand and gold ore they could use to exchange for food.

After the Spanish army finished assembling, it marched northward along the river bank. In order not to provoke resistance from the entire Ashanti Federation, the Spanish army’s offensive actions would only target the Ashanti tribe and would not attack other tribes for the time being.

Of course, this does not mean that Spain will let go of other tribes in the federation. After the largest Ashanti tribe is eliminated, other tribes will be the next to be slaughtered.

Obviously, these natives did not have such a clear understanding. They were worried that the Spanish army would occupy their land along the way, but when many native leaders learned that the Spanish army only attacked the villages of the Ashanti tribe and did not harm their villages and other territories, they finally chose to betray the federation.

Since the Ashanti chief has chosen to use his power to oppress other indigenous tribes, he must be prepared to be betrayed by other indigenous tribes.

Sometimes war is not the most terrible thing, but peace is. When the entire federation has a common enemy, no matter how deep the hatred between tribes is, they will always unite to face the outside world and rely on the power of the group to ensure their own safety.

But when these tribes have no common enemy, the conflicts between tribes will be magnified, which is why they eventually chose to betray the Ashanti chieftain.

This is what the British did in history; Spain just did it a little earlier.

Without the help of other tribes in the federation, a small Ashanti tribe would naturally not be taken seriously by the Spanish army.

This time, Spain mobilized five colonial garrison regiments with more than 10,000 troops, so it was naturally easy to conquer a small indigenous tribe.

When they learned that the Spanish army had launched an attack on the Ashanti tribe, the other tribes scattered like birds and beasts and fled back to their own tribes.

In the blink of an eye, Chief Ashanti was left alone with a trace of fear and regret on his face. He regretted that he had exploited those indigenous tribes too harshly, which eventually led to these indigenous tribes betraying him when foreign enemies came.

But there is no such thing as regret. With no other tribe willing to help the Ashanti tribe, it was only a matter of time before the Ashanti tribe was wiped out.

As for those small indigenous tribes who chose to support the Ashanti tribe in the Council of Chiefs, it was simply impossible for them to resist the Spanish attack.

More importantly, the living space of these small tribes was squeezed inland, and they were actually the farthest away from the Ashanti tribe near the river bank.

The question is, will these small tribes, for the sake of so-called federal regulations, bring their small populations to help the Ashanti tribe repel the attack of the Spanish army?
The answer is of course no. Don’t forget that it was the European colonists and the large tribes in the federation that forced these small tribes to retreat inland.

When the largest tribe is in trouble, how can these small tribes support them without caring about themselves?
The reason why they chose to support the Ashanti tribe in the chiefs’ meeting was simply because the prestige of the Ashanti chiefs still remained.

After escaping to their own tribe, they found themselves far away and the Ashanti chieftain had no control over them.

Moreover, the Ashanti chieftain himself was in danger at this time. Without the means to repel the attack of the Spanish army, it was only a matter of time before the Ashanti tribe was wiped out.

These small tribes naturally do not have to worry about the revenge of the Ashanti chief. Who would worry about being hated by a dying person?
Despite their fear, the Ashanti chiefs decided to organize their troops and give it a try. They once repelled the British attack, although it was with the help of the federal forces, but the Ashanti tribe also contributed the most.

Although we are now fighting against the Spanish colonists alone, fortunately, the strength of the Spanish colonists is far inferior to that of the British Empire.

If he could defeat the Spanish colonists alone, it would not only change the situation of the Chiefs’ Council being isolated, but would also quickly enhance his own reputation and allow him to regain control of the situation in the Chiefs’ Council.

At the height of the Ashanti Federation, this multi-tribal nation had a total population of more than 400 million.

However, with the continuous invasion of European colonists, the living space of the local indigenous people was severely squeezed. Coupled with the continuous wars, the population of the Ashanti Federation quickly dropped to more than 300 million.

As the largest tribe in the federation, the Ashanti tribe currently has a population of more than 100 million, which is also the reason why the Ashanti Chief finally decided to give it a try.

The indigenous tribes of Africa are different from European countries. The military forces mobilized by European countries are limited because many people need to be engaged in various industrial production, commercial activities and so on.

But the African natives are different. Apart from hunting, the biggest role of men is to have children and fight wars.

In the tribal survival war, almost half of the male population can be sent to the battlefield, and even many female population can join the war.

Although the Ashanti tribe has a population of only over one million, if the chief tries hard, he can gather an army of hundreds of thousands.

Of course, this is not an army, but just natives holding various backward weapons.

Of course, Chief Ashanti did not have that much time. The Spanish diplomatic notice only gave 24 hours, and because Spain launched the war ahead of time, Chief Ashanti did not have enough time to gather people, let alone mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops.

Before the Spanish army arrived at the Ashanti tribe’s base camp, the Ashanti chief organized about 60,000 people to defend his base camp.

These people held all kinds of weapons in their hands, including muskets purchased from European colonists with gold, knives purchased from European colonies, and even wooden spears and stone axes made by the tribes themselves.

Compared to the diverse weapons of the Ashanti indigenous people, the equipment of the Spanish colonial army was quite uniform.

They were all equipped with standard Vitali M1872 rifles. Because of the war, each person was also equipped with 50 rounds of bullets, so the ammunition could be said to be quite sufficient.

The colonies in the rear continued to transport ammunition to the front line to ensure that every soldier had enough bullets.

The cost of war on the battlefield was huge, and hundreds or thousands of bullets might not kill a person. Fortunately, the Ashanti tribe did not have any decent muskets. The only muskets they had were not only obsolete products in Europe, but some even had a higher chance of bursting than hitting the target.

When fighting against such an enemy, Spanish soldiers also have enough time to aim at the enemy, which can effectively improve the hit rate of bullets.

Of course, the same goes for artillery. The five colonial garrisons had a total of 15 artillery pieces, all of which were pulled to the front line.

Although the weapons and equipment of the Ashanti tribe are varied, and most of them are cold weapons. But considering that the tribe with a population of over one million is still very large, it is necessary to use artillery to quickly conquer the base camp of the Ashanti tribe.

Although the natives did not have fortresses built with reinforced concrete, they did have simple barriers built with wood and mud.

Without artillery, these obstacles would also hinder the Spanish army’s attack. For the Spanish army, they need to occupy the entire Ashanti tribe in a shorter time to prevent other tribes in the federation from reacting to support the Ashanti tribe.

Once the Ashanti tribe is completely occupied, the Gold Coast Colony will send officials to take over these lands.

By that time, it would be too late for other indigenous tribes in the Ashanti Federation to react. Because the Ashanti tribe is located in the heart of the entire federation, as long as the Spanish army occupied the Ashanti tribe, it would mean that all the indigenous tribes in the entire federation would be eaten up one by one by the Spanish army.

As for the possibility that these natives would react and surround the Spanish troops in the central area, this was also something the colonial government had considered before launching the war.

Giving these soldiers enough bullets is also to avoid such a situation. If these natives have the courage to surround the Spanish army, they will face the full-scale attack of the Spanish army.

There was no need to be polite to these natives. The Spanish army would never feel sorry for the consumption of bullets. As long as they could kill these natives, even if they had to use hundreds of bullets to kill one native, it would definitely be worth it.

6000 words second update, sorry for being late

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(End of this chapter)