Chapter 281 The Effect of Dissociation

It was obvious that the Spanish government had made sufficient preparations for this war. No matter how much the Ashanti chief struggled, his tribe would eventually be annexed.

The reason is very simple, that is, the technological gap between the two sides is too big. The effects of cold weapons and hot weapons are completely different, not to mention that the Ashanti tribe’s cold weapon manufacturing level is also uneven, and there is no mature iron manufacturing industry.

It would be better to expect the poisonous insects and viruses in the African jungles to stop the Spaniards than to expect the tribal natives armed with wooden spears and stone axes to resist the attacks of the Spanish colonial army.

In the imagination of the Ashanti chief, his people would take up arms and bravely resist the attack of the Spanish colonists. But the actual situation on the battlefield was that the Ashanti natives fell into great panic amid the gunfire and artillery fire of the Spanish army, and some even dropped their weapons and ran home.

The 60,000-strong army that the Ashanti chief had painstakingly organized vanished in just a few hours, leaving only a little over 10,000 troops willing to obey the chief’s orders.

However, these 10,000 people could no longer pose any threat to the Spanish army. In the eyes of the Ashanti natives who were either terrified or hateful, the Spanish army quickly broke through the outermost part of the tribe and marched towards the center where the chief was.

At this time, the Ashanti chief finally reacted. He knew that his tribe alone could not stop the Spanish attack. In order to drive the Spanish out of the Ashanti Federation, he needed the strong support of other tribes.

After ordering the remaining people to resist the attack of the Spanish army as much as possible, the Ashanti chief fled to a large tribe nearby with his few hundred remaining confidants and some food and supplies.

As long as the remaining 10,000 people can barely resist the attack of the Spanish army, as long as they can hold off for a little while, they will have enough opportunities to go to the surrounding large tribes and use food, supplies, and future related powers to win over other tribes to help themselves.

Although his tribe was about to be occupied by the Spanish army, other large tribes could unite and organize an army of hundreds of thousands to resist the attack of the Spanish army.

This is how the Ashanti Federation responded to the British colonial offensive. Although a large amount of territory was occupied by the British, at least it was able to protect itself and avoid being completely annexed by the British.

Just as the Ashanti chief and his small number of trusted men were rushing to other nearby indigenous tribes, the Spanish army had already attacked the interior of the Ashanti tribe.

As the chief of the largest tribe in the federation, the residence of Chief Ashanti is quite different from that of other indigenous people.

The dwellings of other indigenous peoples are basically made of wood boards, thatch, mud, wooden stakes, etc. The area of ​​the dwellings is also very small, and they don’t even have beds.

As a chief, the Ashanti chief’s house is built with stones and cement, and the outside of the house is surrounded by wooden stakes to serve as a fence.

Of course, the roof was still made of thatch, but the chief’s house was much larger, and even the door was covered with a thatched mat.

On both sides of the chief’s residence, there is a slightly smaller building, which looks like the tribe’s meeting room and the residence of trusted soldiers.

Except for some cement and stone walls in the chief’s residence, no cement products can be seen in the entire Ashanti tribe.

This is also the reason why the Spanish army quickly broke into the tribe. A mud wall could not stop the attack of a regular army unless the width of the mud wall was several dozen meters.

But it is obvious that these natives do not have the technology to build walls dozens of meters wide. It is even less likely that the Europeans will leak the steel and concrete technology to them. Of course, whether they can learn it is also a question.

It was precisely because of the eccentricity of the Ashanti chief’s residence that the Spanish army discovered this rather unique building at the first opportunity.

The more than 10,000 soldiers who were ordered by the Ashanti chief to stay in the tribe to hinder the Spanish army’s attack eventually fled when the Spanish army invaded the tribe.

They had no choice but to run. If they didn’t run, the Spanish army would show no mercy. When they saw their friends burst into deep red blood under the enemy’s guns, and some of those who were unfortunately hit by shells couldn’t even find their larger bodies, these natives who originally obeyed the chief’s orders finally gave up their beliefs quickly.

There was no other way, life was more important. There were also some who obeyed the chief’s orders regardless of their own safety. These people were eliminated as soon as the Spanish army arrived, and they had no chance to resist at all.

Without these people to hinder the Spanish army’s attack, the Ashanti chief’s residence was soon occupied by the Spanish army.

But this was only the first step. Spain had only one attitude towards the Ashanti Federation formed by the Ashanti tribe and other tribes, which was to drive them to the primeval forest further north, and directly eliminate those who were unwilling to leave.

Of course, a portion of the indigenous population would be left behind as free labor, but this population did not include women from the local indigenous population, in order to prevent these African natives from reproducing in the land under Spanish control.

The reproductive power of black people is amazing. If we want to prevent the black population from growing larger, we must naturally try every possible means to achieve it.

After the Spanish army occupied the central area where the chief’s residence was located, the Ashanti tribe basically gave up resistance.

The Spanish army thus took control of the situation in the entire Ashanti tribe and implemented Spanish-style militarized management of the tribe.

In order to prevent these Ashanti natives from looking for opportunities to rebel, the elderly and children among them will be executed, and male and female natives will be managed separately.

Some of the male natives would be transported to other Spanish colonies. Dispersing them would not only facilitate management, but also help other colonies develop land.

The remaining male natives would stay on the Gold Coast and become glorious miners serving Spain. Their fate was already determined, either dying of exhaustion or disease in the gold mines, there was no other possibility.

The remaining female natives will also be divided into two groups. One group with relatively poor conditions will stay on the Gold Coast as a reward for the indigenous labor force, giving them more motivation to open up gold mines for Spain.

The remaining native women were sold to other black Africans, including those who had immigrated to the Americas.

These black immigrants to America have no human rights, but they also have the need and desire to reproduce. However, because the demand for male labor was greater than that for female labor during the population trade, this also led to the fact that there are more men than women among black Americans.

The imbalance in the ratio of men to women also means that a considerable number of black men in America cannot find women.

White women are noble beings whom they cannot reach. In this case, dealing with these black women through indirect sales can not only maximize their value, but also solve the problem of excessive black population for Spain.

When the Spanish army had officially implemented militarized management and divided the population of the Ashanti tribe into old and young, adult males and adult females, the Ashanti chief finally came to a large tribe in the surrounding area.

When the chief of the tribe learned from the Ashanti chief that the Spanish army had invaded the interior of the Ashanti tribe, the chief of the tribe showed great panic. He was not panicked because of the speed of the Ashanti tribe’s fall, but because he was worried that the Ashanti chief would run to his tribe for refuge and his tribe would be implicated.

After all, Spain had stated before launching the war that this war would only target the Ashanti tribe and would not involve other tribes in the federation.

Under the horrified gaze of the Ashanti chief, the chief of this large tribe made a decision that would directly destroy the entire federation, which was to escort the Ashanti chief to the Spanish army to avoid his own tribe being implicated.

When the Ashanti chief returned to his tribe in such a ridiculous way, the Spanish army had already roughly completed the population division of the Ashanti tribe.

When the commander in charge of the team saw the Ashanti chief being escorted back by other tribal chiefs, a rare smile with a hint of meaning appeared on his face.

Unexpectedly, the colonial government’s plan of alienation was so effective. When the Ashanti tribe was facing the crisis of extinction, other tribes had no intention of fighting the Spaniards to the death.

This made it easier for the Spanish army to move. Even if they could eliminate the natives, it would cost more to fight against the entire federation.

At least 10,000 troops are definitely not enough. After all, the Ashanti Federation is a country with a population of millions, and it can easily gather an army of more than 100,000.

It’s not that the Spanish army couldn’t defeat an indigenous army of more than 100,000. The problem is that even 100,000 pigs are difficult to manage.

Not to mention the 100,000 natives, which would be even more difficult to manage, and there would also be concern that these natives would take advantage of the chaos to attack the Spanish army, thus creating even greater chaos.

In the current situation of disunity, the Spanish army can easily defeat them one by one. As long as the largest tribe in the federation is eliminated, the other tribes, even if they unite, will be no match for Spain.

The Spanish commander praised the chief of the big tribe for his decision to escort the Ashanti chief back, and rewarded the native chief with some food on the spot.

This made the native chief smile immediately, and he became more certain that his decision was correct. He believed that his tribe would not be affected by this war.

With the farewell of the Spanish army, the chief of this large tribe happily returned to his tribe with a lot of food.

The news that he was rewarded by the Spanish army quickly spread throughout the federation, making those large tribes firm in their thinking. They decided that no matter what happened, they would not help the Ashanti tribe, and that ensuring the safety of their own tribe was the most important thing.

As for the future development of the federation, it has nothing to do with the Ashanti tribe.

At worst, the remaining large tribes could continue to unite to resist Spanish colonial rule and move further inland to Africa.

Anyway, under the original federal rule, these tribes did not occupy much good land. The real good land was occupied by the largest tribe, the Ashanti tribe. Since they could not occupy the best land with or without the Ashanti tribe, why should they allow the Ashanti tribe, the largest tribe riding on the heads of all the tribes, to continue to exist?

In the next few days, Spain completely occupied the land controlled by the Ashanti tribe and thoroughly sorted out the entire tribe’s population of more than 100 million.

More than 20 elderly people and children were secretly executed, which is almost all the elderly people and children in the entire Ashanti tribe.

After all, the medical environment of African indigenous tribes is even worse, and the average life expectancy is even shorter than that in Europe. Under such circumstances, it is difficult for people in the tribe to live to old age.

Even if someone can live to old age, the tribe will not support an old man who cannot provide labor value. Among the 20 elderly people and children, the number of children is the largest.

After all, children are much more valuable than the elderly. The continuation of the tribe also depends on these children, which is why there are so many children in the Ashanti tribe.

The secret execution of these indigenous people inevitably caused resistance from some of them.

Fortunately, without the involvement of other tribes, the resistance of a small number of indigenous people of the Ashanti tribe could be easily suppressed.

The resistance of these natives did not cause much trouble to the Spanish army. Apart from wasting a few more bullets, there was no cost.

However, the population of the Ashanti tribe dropped sharply from more than 100 million to less than 100 million in just a few days.

The war in which the Spanish army occupied the tribe a few days ago alone caused the entire Ashanti tribe to suffer nearly 100,000 casualties.

If these natives had not quickly panicked and chosen to surrender in the face of the Spanish guns and cannons, the death toll would probably have been even higher.

The casualties on the Spanish army side were minimal, and most of them were caused by accidents, such as sprained ankles, bites by snakes or other poisonous creatures, etc.

After dealing with the elderly and children in the tribe, the next step is to deal with the remaining adult male and female natives.

According to the plan, the Spanish army drove most of the male natives to the port of the Gold Coast Colony, where they would be loaded onto ships and then transported to other Spanish colonies.

It is not that there are no natives in other Spanish colonies. It is mainly because other colonies have no plans to use large-scale military forces against the natives for the time being. The natives in the colonies have long been ravaged by the British, and their number is not enough to support the development of the colonies.

These indigenous laborers do hard labor, and it is hard labor with a high casualty rate. Mining is not easy, and the probability of mine collapse is not low.

This kind of work with a relatively high casualty rate was done by the indigenous people, which also led to the fact that if the indigenous population of each colony was not controlled, it would be reduced sharply in a short period of time.

Spain took over small colonies from Britain, and unless it launched large-scale wars against the indigenous people to obtain labor, it was still short of population.

A good opportunity like the Gold Coast’s war against the Ashanti Federation would certainly be to allocate some labor to other colonies and ensure that all colonies had enough labor to develop land and minerals.

First update of 4200 words, please give me your monthly votes!
There is another update of 6,000 words which will have to wait until after 12 o’clock, for the same reason as yesterday.

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(End of this chapter)