Chapter 281: The Effects Of Sowing Discord
It was obvious that the Spanish Government had made quite adequate preparations for this war. No matter how desperately the Ashanti Chieftain struggled, his tribe faced only the fate of annexation.
The reason was also very simple: the technological gap between the two sides was simply too great. The effects brought by cold weapons and firearms were completely different, not to mention that the Ashanti Tribe’s cold weapons manufacturing level was uneven and lacked a mature ironware manufacturing industry.
Hoping that those tribal natives holding wooden spears and stone axes could resist the attacks of the Spanish colonial army was no better than hoping that the poisonous insects and viruses in the African jungle could obstruct the Spaniards.
In the Ashanti Chieftain’s imagination, his clansmen would take up weapons and heroically resist the Spanish colonizers’ offensive. But the actual battlefield situation was that the Asante Indigenous People fell into great panic amid the gunshots and cannon fire of the Spanish Army, with some even dropping their weapons and running home.
The army of 60,000 that the Ashanti Chieftain had painstakingly organized dissipated in just a few hours, leaving only a little over 10,000 troops still willing to obey the chieftain’s orders.
However, these more than 10,000 posed no threat whatsoever to the Spanish Army. Amid the terrified or hateful gazes of the Asante Indigenous People, the Spanish Army quickly breached the outermost perimeter of the tribe and advanced majestically toward the very center where the chieftain was located.
At this point, the Ashanti Chieftain finally reacted; he knew that his own tribe alone could no longer obstruct the Spaniards’ offensive. To drive the Spaniards out of the Ashanti Federation, he would need strong support from other tribes.
After ordering the remaining people to resist the Spanish Army’s offensive as much as possible, the Ashanti Chieftain fled with his only remaining few hundred trusted aides, along with some food and materials, toward a large neighboring tribe.
As long as those remaining 10,000 could barely resist the Spanish Army’s offensive and stall them even a little, he would have enough opportunity to go to the neighboring large tribe and use food, materials, and future related power to win over other tribes to help him.
Although his tribe was about to be occupied by the Spanish Army, if the other large tribes united, they could also organize hundreds of thousands of troops to resist the Spanish Army’s offensive.
The previous Ashanti Federation had responded to the British colonial invasion in this way. Although they lost a large amount of territory to the British, they at least preserved themselves and avoided being completely annexed by the British.
Just as the Ashanti Chieftain was hurrying to nearby other indigenous tribes with his small number of trusted aides, the Spanish Army had already attacked into the interior of the Ashanti Tribe.
As the chieftain of the federation’s largest tribe, the Ashanti Chieftain’s residence had a significant gap compared to those of other indigenous people.
The residences of other indigenous people were basically made of wooden boards, thatch, mud, wooden stakes, and so on, with very small areas, and things like beds were nonexistent.
As the chieftain, the Ashanti Chieftain’s house was built with stones and cement, and the perimeter was enclosed with a circle of wooden stakes serving as a fence.
Of course, the roof was still made of thatch. But the chieftain’s house was on a much larger scale, and even the doorway was covered with a layer of thatch mat.
On both sides of the chieftain’s residence were two slightly smaller buildings, which appeared to be the tribe’s meeting room and the place where trusted soldiers lived.
Apart from the walls made of cement and stones visible at the chieftain’s residence, there was no cement product to be seen anywhere in the entire Ashanti Tribe.
This was also why the Spanish Army quickly penetrated into the tribe’s interior; walls smeared with mud could not obstruct a regular army’s offensive unless their width reached dozens of meters.
But obviously, these indigenous people also lacked the technology to build high walls dozens of meters wide. Europeans would certainly not divulge reinforced concrete technology to them, and whether they could learn it was another question.
Precisely because of the uniqueness of the Ashanti Chieftain’s residence, the Spanish Army spotted this quite distinctive building at first sight.
The more than 10,000 soldiers ordered by the Ashanti Chieftain to stay in the tribe and hinder the Spanish Army’s offensive ultimately fled one after another when the Spanish Army attacked into the tribe’s interior.
They had no choice but to run. If they didn’t, the Spanish Army would show no mercy whatsoever. When they personally witnessed their friends blooming deep red blood flowers under the enemy’s gun muzzles, and some unfortunate ones hit by cannonballs leaving not even a large piece of body behind, these indigenous people who had originally obeyed the chieftain’s orders ultimately quickly abandoned their faith.
There was no way around it; their lives mattered more. There were also some who disregarded their own safety to obey the chieftain’s orders; these people had been annihilated the moment the Spanish Army arrived, with no chance to resist at all.
With these people no longer obstructing the Spanish Army’s offensive, the Ashanti Chieftain’s residence was quickly occupied by the Spanish Army.
But this was only the first step. For the Ashanti Tribe and the Ashanti Federation composed of other tribes, Spain held only one attitude: drive them to the more northern primary forest, and annihilate those unwilling to leave.
Of course, a portion of the indigenous population would be left behind as free labor. This portion did not include females among the local indigenous people, also to prevent these African indigenous people from reproducing in the land under Spanish control.
The reproductive strength of black people was astonishing; if black population growth could be avoided, then every means would naturally be exhausted to achieve it.
After the central area where the chieftain’s residence was located was occupied by the Spanish Army, the Ashanti Tribe basically abandoned resistance.
The Spanish Army thus controlled the situation across the entire Ashanti Tribe and implemented Spanish-style militarized management over the tribe.
To prevent these Asante Indigenous People from seeking opportunities for rebellion, the elderly and children among them would be executed, and male indigenous people and female indigenous people would be managed separately.
A portion of the male indigenous people would be transported to other Spanish colonies; dispersing them not only facilitated management but also helped other colonies with land development.
The remaining male indigenous people would stay on the Gold Coast, becoming honorable miners serving Spain. Their destinies were already sealed: either die of exhaustion in the gold mine or die of illness in the gold mine, with no other possibilities.
The remaining female indigenous people would also be divided into two parts. A portion with poorer conditions would stay on the Gold Coast as rewards for those indigenous laborers, giving them greater motivation to reclaim gold mines for Spain.
The remaining female indigenous people would be sold to other African blacks, including blacks who had immigrated to America.
These blacks who immigrated to America had no human rights, but they too had needs and desires to reproduce offspring. However, because the demand for male labor exceeded female labor during the population trade back then, this led to more men than women among American blacks.
The imbalanced gender proportion meant that a considerable portion of male blacks in America could not find women.
White women were noble existences they could not touch, so in this situation, handling these black women through indirect sales not only maximized their value but also resolved Spain’s trouble of excessive black population.
By the time the Spanish Army had formally implemented militarized management and sequentially divided the Ashanti Tribe’s population into elderly and children, adult males, and adult females, the Ashanti Chieftain had finally arrived at a large neighboring tribe.
When this tribe’s chieftain learned from the Ashanti Chieftain’s mouth that the Spanish Army had already attacked into the Ashanti Tribe’s interior, this tribal chieftain showed great panic.
What he panicked about was not the speed of the Ashanti Tribe’s fall, but worry that the Ashanti Chieftain fleeing to his tribe for refuge would implicate his own tribe.
After all, Spain had declared before launching the war that it would target only the Ashanti Tribe and not implicate other tribes in the federation.
Under the Ashanti Chieftain’s terrified gaze, this large tribe’s chieftain made a decision that directly doomed the entire federation: to escort the Ashanti Chieftain to the Spanish Army to avoid his own tribe being implicated.
When the Ashanti Chieftain returned to his own tribe in this ridiculous manner, the Spanish Army had already roughly completed the population division of the Ashanti Tribe.
The commander leading the team, upon seeing the Ashanti Chieftain escorted back by another tribe’s chieftain, rarely showed a meaningful smile on his face.
He hadn’t expected the colonial government’s divide-and-conquer plan to be so effective; when the Ashanti Tribe faced extinction crisis, the other tribes had no intention of resisting the Spaniards to the death.
This certainly made the Spanish Army’s operations easier. Confronting the entire federation, even if they could annihilate these indigenous people, would definitely cost a greater price.
At least 10,000 troops would definitely not suffice, after all, the Ashanti Federation was a country with millions in population; over 100,000 troops could be easily assembled.
It wasn’t that the Spanish Army couldn’t defeat over 100,000 indigenous troops. The problem was, even 100,000 pigs would be quite troublesome to manage.
Much less 100,000 indigenous people; managing them would be even more troublesome, and there would be worries about whether these indigenous people might attack the Spanish Army amid the chaos, creating greater turmoil.
Under the current divide-and-conquer situation, the Spanish Army could easily defeat them one by one. As long as the federation’s largest tribe was eliminated, even if the other tribes united, it would be mere mantis trying to stop a chariot for Spain.
The Spanish commander praised this large tribe chieftain’s decision to escort the Ashanti Chieftain back and immediately rewarded this indigenous chieftain with some food.
This immediately delighted this indigenous chieftain, further confirming that his choice was correct, and he believed his tribe would not be affected by this war.
Under the Spanish Army’s farewell, this large tribe’s chieftain happily returned to his tribe with much grain.
The news of him receiving the Spanish Army’s reward quickly spread throughout the federation, firming the resolve of those large tribes; they decided that no matter what happened, they would not help the Ashanti Tribe, and ensuring their own tribe’s safety was most important.
As for the federation’s future development, it had nothing to do with the Ashanti Tribe anymore.
At worst, their remaining large tribes could continue uniting to resist the Spaniards’ colonial rule, while incidentally relocating further into the African inland.
In any case, under the original federation’s rule, these tribes hadn’t occupied the best land either. The truly good land had been occupied by the largest tribe, the Ashanti Tribe. Since without the Ashanti Tribe they still couldn’t occupy the best land, why let the Ashanti Tribe, the largest tribe lording over all their tribes, continue to exist?
In the following days, Spain fully occupied the land controlled by the Ashanti Tribe and thoroughly sorted the entire tribe’s over 1 million population.
The elderly and children secretly executed numbered over 200,000, which was almost all the elderly and children in the entire Ashanti Tribe.
After all, the medical environment in African indigenous tribes was even worse, with life expectancy shorter than in Europe. In such conditions, it was hard for tribe members to live to old age.
Even if someone lived to old age, the tribe would not support an old man unable to provide labor value. Among those 200,000 elderly and children, the number of children was actually the largest.
After all, children’s value far exceeded that of the elderly. The tribe’s continuation relied on these children, which was why the Ashanti Tribe had so many children.
When secretly executing these indigenous populations, it inevitably provoked some resistance from indigenous people.
Fortunately, without other tribes’ participation, the Ashanti Tribe’s minor resistance could be easily suppressed.
This resistance didn’t cause much trouble for the Spanish Army. Apart from wasting a few extra bullets, there was no real cost.
For the Ashanti Tribe, however, in just a few short days, the tribe’s population plummeted from over 1 million to less than 1 million.
Just the war when the Spanish Army occupied the tribe days ago had cost the entire Ashanti Tribe nearly 100,000 casualties.
If these indigenous people hadn’t panicked so quickly in the face of Spain’s steel guns and cannons and chosen to surrender, the indigenous death toll would probably have been even higher.
Meanwhile, the Spanish Army’s casualties were negligible, most resulting from accidents, like twisting an ankle or being bitten by snakes or other poisonous creatures.
After dealing with the elderly and children in the tribe, the next step was to handle the remaining adult males and female indigenous people.
According to the plan, the Spanish Army drove most male indigenous people to the port of the Gold Coast Colony. They would be loaded onto ships at the port and transported to other Spanish colonies.
It wasn’t that other Spanish colonies lacked indigenous people. Mainly, other colonies temporarily had no plans for large-scale military action against indigenous people; the indigenous people within colonial ranges had already been ravaged by the British, with numbers insufficient to support colonial development.
These indigenous laborers did grueling work, and high-casualty grueling work at that. Things like mining were far from easy, and the risk of mine collapses was not low.
Such high-casualty jobs were left to indigenous people, leading to sharp reductions in indigenous populations across colonies if not controlled.
The smaller colonies Spain took over from Britain lacked population unless large-scale wars against indigenous people were launched to acquire labor; otherwise, they remained short-staffed.
Opportunities like the war the Gold Coast launched against the Ashanti Federation were certainly to be shared with other colonies, ensuring all had sufficient labor for land development and minerals.
4200 words first update, seeking monthly tickets!
One more 6000-word update after midnight, for the same reason as yesterday.
