Empire Rising: Spain

But now, Spain had already practically occupied the Congo Region, and other powers naturally had no excuse to refute Spain’s rule.

This also led to small countries like Belgium and the Netherlands gaining almost nothing. As for Portugal, because they had long colonized Africa, their non-colonial area was still very large.

Plus, with the compensation received for the land grabbed by the United Kingdom, Portugal became the country that gained the most land among all non-great powers in Europe at this conference.

The Lunda Kingdom, the Bwonda Kingdom, and the Luba Kingdom, these three indigenous kingdoms in Southern Congo, together spanned tens of thousands of square kilometers. Coupled with Portugal’s West Africa Colony and Mozambique Colony, Portugal’s current colonial scale was second only to the UK, Spain, and France, even ranking ahead of Germany.

As time entered 1885, the rearmament of the Spanish Army officially began.

A large number of phased-out rifles and bullets were urgently transported to Asia and America, to be sold before the end of the war.

On the Spanish side, soldiers who received the new weapons were very fond of this new rifle.

Although the original Vitali M1872 Rifle was quite good, due to its long and heavy gun body, carrying this rifle for physical training was also a burden.

Now, with a switch to a shorter and lighter rifle, it made daily training much easier for the soldiers.

Moreover, everyone almost has a tendency to prefer the new over the old. After personally experiencing the powerful performance of this new rifle, how would the soldiers even think of the previous generation rifle they had used for several years?

The Colonial Army’s weapons were not updated; for one, the production at the Royal Military Factory couldn’t keep up, and second, the Colonial Army didn’t need to be equipped with such powerful rifles anyway.

However, to ensure smooth subsequent operations, the Ministry of Defense still equipped the Colonial Army with a certain number of machine guns.

Yes, machine guns.

In an environment like Africa, the role of machine guns was even greater than that of artillery.

When conquering these natives, the biggest challenge was not the firearms or artillery in their hands, but their never-ending manpower.

Small countries like the Bam Kingdom and Togo were fine, because with only a million-level population, the native armies they could muster were just tens of thousands.

But a slightly larger entity like the Sokoto Caliphate was different. With a population reaching tens of millions, the army they could assemble could easily be hundreds of thousands or even tens of thousands.

This is where the machine gun could play an extremely significant role. The natives, unaware of the power of machine guns, would surely swarm to assault the positions of the Spanish troops.

Spanish soldiers, at this time, could easily harvest native lives with the firepower of the machine guns.

To achieve the best effect, the Ministry of Defense transported more than 50 machine guns from the homeland, along with over a million rounds of ammunition.

This also showed the attitude of the Ministry of Defense; facing the vast native manpower, Spain naturally didn’t need to conserve bullets.

In the remaining time of 1884, Giotto, relying on manpower transported from various colonies to the Congo Territory, and the officers from Spain itself, successfully organized 2 Colonial Divisions.

Once these 2 Colonial Divisions were established, they immediately eased the manpower burden on the Congo Territory. At the same time, they allowed more troops to be drawn from the Congo Territory and the Guinea Colony.

In the new year, the armies gathered just from Guinea Colony and the Congo Territory amounted to approximately 60,000 troops, equivalent to 3 Colonial Divisions.

Along with several Colonial Defense Corps on the Gold Coast, with over 70,000 troops, not to mention dealing with a small Sokoto Caliphate, even if the several indigenous kingdoms in Guinea Bay united, the Spanish Army would still have the strength to fight.

If the Sokoto Caliphate could be defeated, Spain’s dominance in Guinea Bay would no longer face any threats.

Under such circumstances, the merger of the Gold Coast and the Guinea Colony would be imminent, and the layout of Spain’s four major colonies was hopeful to be realized within 1885.