Empire Rising: Spain

At the same time, Giotto also conveyed the message to the Governor of the Guinea Colony, requesting the Governor to send officials to take over the entire Bam Kingdom.

Since the Guinea Colony directly borders the Bam Kingdom, before Spain fully integrates all the colonies, the Bam Kingdom will be incorporated into Spain’s Guinea Colony and temporarily subjected to militarized management.

Once Spain fully handles the millions of indigenous people of the Bam Kingdom, militarized management will be canceled, and immigrants will be sent for land development.

Of course, the installation of the telegraph lines and railway tracks can start immediately. Connecting the Bam Kingdom with telegraphs and railways will also facilitate subsequent operations against the Alo Alliance and the Sokoto Caliphate.

The Alo Alliance, Niger Kingdom, and further west, the Benin Kingdom and Dahomey Kingdom, are all part of Spain’s conquest plans.

After the complete conquest of these countries, Spain’s Guinea Colony will connect with the Gold Coast Colony, becoming a large colony similar to the Congo Territory.

In the future, Spain will only have four major colonies in Africa, namely the South Morocco Colony, West Africa Colony, Guinea Colony, and Congo Territory.

Each of these four colonies holds development value and strategic importance, marking Spain’s future foothold in Africa.

By the time Carlo received the telegraph about Spain’s complete occupation of the Bam Kingdom, several days had already passed.

Upon hearing the news, Carlo was very pleased and personally issued orders to encourage all Spanish officers and soldiers involved in the attack, and requested the government to ensure the timely provision of supplies, ammunition, medical supplies, and food supplies for the combat forces.

After vigorously developing the West Africa Colony, Spain hardly lacks in food. Moreover, with the domestic agriculture booming, the military has long been fully supplied with vegetables, fruits, and meat like beef, lamb.

According to the original situation, colonial troops were supposed to be treated as inferior and could not enjoy such abundant food supplies.

However, considering that colonial troops will experience multiple wars, ample food supply is indeed necessary.

Of course, compared to the food supply to Spanish officers, the food supply to ordinary indigenous soldiers is surely inferior by several levels.

Nonetheless, having meat twice a week is still achievable, and in cases of sufficient supplies, they could enjoy meat three or four times a week.

In high spirits, Carlo also issued orders to other colonies, demanding that all colonies quickly prepare troops and transport them to the Guinea Colony swiftly for Giotto to personally train them.

As the Guinea Colony grows larger, the available troops will become fewer.

These newly occupied lands require troops to suppress them, and right now the Guinea Colony lacks soldiers.

Conquering the Bam Kingdom without much loss of soldiers is good news, but in the short term, the Guinea Colony is unlikely capable of launching another war.

Firstly, it requires replenishment of supplies like weapons and ammunition from Spain; secondly, the available troops are insufficient, and with other indigenous countries on guard, it becomes difficult to achieve the same success as in the Bam Kingdom.

Mentioned earlier, the Bam Kingdom is the last indigenous country not occupied by Spain in the Cameroon Region.

After occupying the Bam Kingdom, according to the current agreements reached in the Berlin Conference, Spain also needs a very reasonable purpose to effectively occupy this region.

In fact, it’s quite simple — by signing a treaty with all local indigenous tribal leaders to affirm Spain’s dominance over this land.

This method can be learned from the Germans, who used force to conquer local indigenous tribes and then signed treaties with these tribes to affirm their colonial rule.

Regardless of whether these indigenous people can understand the treaty, as long as they sign their names and stamp their fingerprints, the treaty is valid.

No need to worry about these indigenous people not honoring their words, since making them submit once means they can be made to submit the second time.

The treaty isn’t truly intended to bind the indigenous, but the real purpose is to demonstrate Spain’s dominance to other European countries, preventing colonial competition from other nations.

As long as Spain signs a treaty with the indigenous leaders of the Cameroon Region, even if the United Kingdom and Germany are stronger, they cannot interfere with this region’s affairs.

Given the ongoing negotiations of the Berlin Conference, if Germans break the existing agreements first, it would be a slap in their face.

Not only would they lose face, but their effort in convening the Berlin Conference would become meaningless. If Germany breaks the conference content first, other countries wouldn’t adhere to the agreements reached at the conference.

For the agreements to hold any legal validity, Germany, as the initiating country of the conference, must first abide by its contents.

Regarding the treaty, Carlo had instructed Giotto long before, and the Guinea Colony has made corresponding preparations.

After the complete conquest of the Bam Kingdom, the Guinea Colony had already started preparing for the treaty signing.

A bad piece of news is that the Sultan of Bam Kingdom had already died in the war. However, his son is still in Fuban; with the Sultan dead, the former Sultan’s son has actually become the new Sultan.

Spain wants him to be the Sultan, and no indigenous dare stand against it. Including this new Bam Sultan, the leaders and Sultans of various indigenous tribes in the Cameroon Region gathered together, all smiling under the camera’s lens, signing their names and stamping their fingerprints on a Spanish document they couldn’t understand.

The treaty comes in three copies; one stays in Fuban, the capital of the Bam Kingdom, another transferred to the Guinea Colony for safekeeping, and the third transported to Spain as proof of its control over this land.

After the treaty signing, the Spanish Government didn’t conceal the good news, publicly announcing its colonial governance over the Cameroon Region.