Chapter 311: 1885
Maxim had no easy time leading a group of military industry experts to develop the Maxim M1884 rifle, as he also needed to start modifying his own machine gun to develop a new generation of machine gun adapted to smokeless powder machine gun ammunition.
The discovery of smokeless powder was a huge change for rifles, and the change for machine guns might be even greater than for rifles.
Because machine guns rely on high rate of fire for fire suppression, this also means that the smoke produced when machine guns fire is much more than that from rifles.
As long as the smoke problem can be solved, the power of the machine gun can at least double. If the improvement in bullet power from smokeless powder is also factored in, a machine gun adapted to smokeless powder machine gun ammunition would absolutely be several times more powerful than one loaded with black powder machine gun ammunition.
It had to be admitted that Maxim had an extraordinary obsession with machine guns.
Two and a half months after the rifle was developed, Maxim submitted design blueprints and samples of the new machine gun to the Defense Department.
Like rifle ammunition, the machine gun’s caliber was also reduced to cope with the doubled logistics pressure.
Machine guns are ammunition consumption monsters; every reduction in caliber represents a huge reduction in consumption of Spanish ammunition and logistics pressure.
Anyway, the machine gun’s main role is to form a firepower net on the front lines to suppress the enemy’s massed charge. In this situation, the machine gun’s caliber size is not important; what matters is the rate of fire and firepower stability.
Unlike the previous generation of machine guns, to address the heat generation issue during high-speed firing, Maxim specifically developed two types of machine guns with different heat dissipation capabilities.
The previous generation of machine guns was air-cooled, relying on natural wind for cooling, and its heat dissipation capability would be affected during high-intensity combat.
The second-generation machine gun is water-cooled, with an additional water tank to help cool the machine gun. Of course, the water-cooled machine gun’s heat dissipation heavily depends on water sources, which is also a burden for marching and combat.
Therefore, Maxim did not completely abandon the air-cooled machine gun. The second-generation machine gun can freely choose water-cooled or air-cooled versions, and the Defense Department can order whichever type it needs.
The successive emergence of the new rifle and new machine gun was certainly good news for Spain. The only potential concern might be whether the Defense Department’s military expenses could support large-scale rearmament, but this would not be completed in the short term, so the Defense Department naturally did not need to shell out a large sum of military expenses immediately.
After obtaining the new rifles and machine guns, the next task for the Spanish Army was to quickly adapt to the new weapons and continuously conduct related training.
The new firearms could indeed effectively improve the combat effectiveness of the Spanish Army, but the premise was that Spanish soldiers must master these firearms proficiently.
In the first two years of rearmament, the Spanish Army would definitely go through an adaptation period. Machine guns were fine, as changes in rate of fire and loading method were not significant; the main change was just the ammunition.
Rifles were different. The original Vitali M1872 rifle had a maximum rate of fire of only 15 to 20 rounds per minute, while the new Maxim M1884 rifle had quickly increased to over 30 rounds per minute.
This rate of fire improvement was something soldiers had to master, ensuring the army could provide firepower coverage within a certain range even without machine guns or cannons and other heavy firepower, to suppress enemy attacks.
Among all Spanish forces, the first to rearm with the new rifles and machine guns was naturally the most elite Guard Division.
This was not because Carlo favored the Guard Division; mainly, the Royal Arsenal’s production volume could not be increased in the short term, and delivering a few thousand rifles made little difference to the Royal Army with a total strength of over 100,
But the Guard Division was different. The Guard Division had only 15,000 personnel, and after excluding officers, artillerymen, machine gunners, and others who did not use rifles, the number of rifles needed for rearmament was just over 10,
The Royal Arsenal’s production could quickly meet the Guard Division’s needs in the short term, allowing small-scale field testing within the Guard Division to see how this rifle, which performed excellently in tests, would fare in actual combat.
While the Guard Division began large-scale rearmament with the new rifles, the Defense Department was also handling the disposal of old weapons.
The good news was that there were still many small- and medium-scale wars around the world, so disposing of these weapons was not difficult.
Just one month after the new rifle was born, Spain contacted a country in northern Vietnam and signed a very cheap weapons export order.
Spain would sell 30,000 second-hand Vitali M1872 rifles that were being replaced all at once, with 50 rounds of ammunition gifted per rifle, selling these obsolete products in a half-buy-half-give manner.
In addition, the Lanfang Republic purchased 20,000 rifles at once. Although these rifles were second-hand, they had been tested by the Spanish Army, and with ammunition gifted alongside, it was a very cost-effective deal.
Besides Asian countries, Spain also did business in America.
Of course, not the United States, but countries in South America.
Although South American countries were once colonies of Spain or Portugal, this did not mean relations between these American countries were good.
In particular, relations between the three relatively powerful South American countries—Brazil, Argentina, and Chile—could only be described as tense.
Although they had not yet reached the level of war, local conflicts and border skirmishes were plentiful. Historically, while European countries were engaged in a vigorous naval arms race, the three South American countries were also conducting a South American naval arms race, showing just how tense relations between these three countries were.
Since relations were tense, it was very necessary to stockpile weapons and equipment to strengthen their own military power.
As the former master of this land, although these South American countries did not welcome Spanish rule, they still welcomed Spanish industrial products.
Especially rifles sold at nearly half price, which sparked a scramble among South American countries.
This was mainly because when Spanish industry was being built, Carlo had repeatedly instructed to prioritize quality, so while Spanish industrial products could not achieve low price with high quality, their quality was absolutely guaranteed.
At half price, this batch of second-hand rifles could barely be considered cost-effective with good quality. Rifles produced by American countries themselves could not achieve such performance at such a price, which was why they scrambled for them.
What surprised Carlo was that in Asia, only 50,000 rifles were sold, but in America, over 60,000 were easily sold.
As a result, Spain not only cleared all its stockpiled old guns but was also forced to retire and sell a batch of rifles still in use by the army.
This led to several divisions’ soldiers temporarily having no rifles available; they could only train in projects other than target shooting, waiting for the Royal Arsenal to produce more with overtime.
However, this was also good news. Once new rifle production was complete, these units without rifles would be prioritized for equipping.
They could be considered to have turned misfortune into blessing, becoming the first in the Royal Army system to prioritize the new rifle.
The entire year of 1884 was themed around European countries frantically devouring the big cake of Africa, ending with Spain as the biggest winner.
Why say Spain was the biggest winner of 1884?
Because Spain successfully obtained the Trucial States in its colonial conflict with the United Kingdom; although not yet occupied, it was indeed already Spanish land.
In addition, Spain’s colony merger plan had succeeded halfway. The Kingdom of Bam, Yoruba, and other areas had been annexed into Spanish colonies, and contiguity between the Gold Coast and Congo Territory, Guinea Colony was imminent.
Of course, other countries were not without gains.
Besides Southwest Africa, Germany was also actively exploring colonialization in West Africa. After successive failures in colonizing the Cameroon and Togo regions, the Germans turned their gaze to the area between Spanish and French colonies, taking the land of the Mandinka people.
The Mandinka are a large ethnic group, with a total population estimated at several million to over ten million. This ethnic group once created the Ghana Empire and Mali Empire in Africa, both regional hegemons in the African region that were once very powerful.
However, with the fall of those states, these Mandinka had to migrate to the Atlantic coast, which was why they were targeted by the Germans.
With a large population, conveniently located on the coast, and far from French and Spanish colonies, they would not be interfered with by other great powers.
Under these conditions, the Germans easily took this land and became neighbors with Spain and France.
Of course, Germany’s colony had another neighbor: the Liberian Republic, established by descendants of American immigrants.
So-called American immigrants were actually descendants of American black people.
Before the American Civil War, black people in America were slaves with no human rights. This was the country established after these black people escaped back to Africa; Liberia means something about freedom and liberation.
In a strict sense, Liberia was more like an American colony. However, because black people were not valued by the American government, combined with American isolationism, Americans did not vigorously develop Liberia, somewhat letting it drift.
Because of Liberia’s relationship with the United States, although it was entirely black people, it had not been targeted by European powers.
Germany clearly had no intention of conquering this land either; after all, the Mandinka land also had coastline, which did not affect Germany’s colony estuary.
Speaking of this country established by descendants of American black people, one had to mention the bad traits of these black people.
In America, they were inferior people, slaves whom anyone could humiliate. After escaping to Africa, they in turn began oppressing local African black people.
The oppression methods were very simple, almost completely copying the oppression by American whites against them. This also led to racial discrimination existing not only in the United States, an immigrant country composed of various ethnic groups and races, but also in Liberia, a country entirely composed of black people.
Yes, Liberia also had racial discrimination, and it was severe racial discrimination.
Descendants of black people who immigrated from America highly discriminated against local African black populations.
But they never thought that they or their ancestors were actually brought to America by Europeans.
The severe racial discrimination in Liberia even led to internal strife and resistance, but this was not very important for world history.
Besides the merger of the Gold Coast and Congo Territory, Spain was also promoting the merger of the West African Colony and Sierra Leone Colony.
Compared to the former, the latter’s merger was actually much simpler.
After all, the straight-line distance from the Gold Coast to Congo Territory was over a thousand kilometers, and to the Guinea Colony also over 900 kilometers.
The latter was different; the southernmost part of the West African Colony was only just over 300 kilometers from the northernmost part of the Sierra Leone Colony, with no European country’s colony in between, meaning almost no country would interfere with Spain’s colony merger plan.
Under these favorable conditions, Spain’s West African Colony successfully expanded southward by over 100 kilometers, forcibly turning the Muslim theocratic state of Futa Jallon in the south from a coastal country into an inland country.
Benefiting from this, the merger of the West African Colony and Sierra Leone Colony was almost about to be realized soon. According to the report from the Colonial Affairs Department, it was expected that in the new year, the West African Colony would smoothly complete the merger plan and become one of Spain’s important colonies in Africa.
The only Spanish colony in Africa with no activity was the South Morocco Colony.
There was no way around it; the geographical position of the South Morocco Colony was really too poor.
The Sahara Desert had almost no one occupying it; Spain only occupied cities in the desert with certain populations, and had not set foot in the vast deserts elsewhere.
Because south and east were all desert, plus the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the South Morocco Colony could only expand northward.
The north was Morocco, and at this time, neither the French nor the British were willing to let Spain swallow Morocco alone.
This also meant that the South Morocco Colony could hardly expand, and without expansion, the South Morocco Colony naturally had no actions.
Of course, it could not be said there were absolutely no actions.
As a region Spain planned to localize in the future, the South Morocco Colony’s policies were completely different from other colonies.
Spain had even begun gradually dispatching immigrants to the South Morocco Colony; in the future, the South Morocco Colony would establish large and small Spanish cities, and Spaniards would become the main population here.
The capital of the South Morocco Colony, Agadir, had currently become the city with the most Spanish immigrants.
Over half of the Moroccan people here had immigrated out, and among the remaining population of less than 100,000, there were already over 50,000 Spaniards.
The entire city center had also been almost completely rebuilt, with a large number of modern buildings in Spanish style rising from the ground, including the city hall and parliament, all showing Spanish stylistic colors.
If localization went smoothly, the entire South Morocco Colony would become a region of Spain, still with Agadir as the capital.
Agadir’s city council was the best example; it would fully imitate the structure of the Spanish mainland, completely localizing it.
Once the state council and state government construction was completed, it would be about time for the South Morocco Colony to announce the completion of localization construction and become the latest region.
The Berlin Conference, convened due to the Spanish-British colonial conflict, finally successfully concluded at the end of
The reason this conference took so long to negotiate was that the European powers used it to discuss their respective scopes for partitioning Africa and reached certain agreements and compromises.
Africa was large, but there were many powers partitioning it. This led to each great power wanting a big bite of this African cake, with some places even targeted by several great powers at once.
In colonizing Africa, Spain and the United Kingdom were two countries with relatively clear goals.
The United Kingdom wanted to achieve the Cairo-Cape Town Line, in other words, to annex the entire African east coast.
Spain’s appetite was smaller than the United Kingdom’s, but it also had considerable demands and ambitions for central Africa and the West African coast.
Then there was France; their colonial actions were not small either, even covering North Africa, West Africa, and the East African coast.
However, compared to the United Kingdom and Spain, France’s colonies were more dispersed, and individual colonies appeared smaller in scale.
After the Berlin Conference ended, all countries very tacitly accelerated the partition of Africa once again.
After the Berlin Conference delineated the approximate regions for each country’s colonization of Africa, to obtain more land, countries could only delve into the African inland, exploring the almost untouched depths of Africa.
For the land inside the African Continent, each country still harbored some hope.
The Sudan invaded by the United Kingdom and the Congo Territory occupied by Spain were basically obtained in the African inland region.
This also meant that the African inland region still had many lands with huge development value; although not as utilizable as the coast with sea transport, as long as railways were built, those rare resources could still be transported out.
If one had to say the biggest difference between this Berlin Conference and history, it might be the ownership of the Congo Region.
Historically, because during the Berlin Conference none of the countries had actual occupation of the Congo Territory, the obviously weaker Belgium got the bargain in the end.
But now, Spain had long formed actual occupation of the Congo Region, and other great powers naturally had no excuse to refute Spain’s rule.
This also meant that small countries like Belgium and the Netherlands basically had no gains. Portugal, because it had colonized Africa early, still had very large colonies in East and West Africa.
Plus the compensation obtained for land seized by the United Kingdom, Portugal was the non-great power country in Europe that gained the most land in this conference.
The Ruanda Kingdom, Bunda Kingdom, and Luba Kingdom—these three indigenous countries in southern Congo together had an area of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers; plus Portugal’s West African Colony and Mozambique Colony, Portugal’s current colonial scale was second only to Britain, Spain, and France, even ahead of Germany.
As time entered 1885, the Spanish Army’s rearmament officially began.
A large number of retired rifles and ammunition were urgently shipped to Asia and America to be sold before wars ended.
On the Spanish side, soldiers who received the new weapons also loved this new rifle immensely.
Although the original Vitali M1872 rifle was very good, because of its long and heavy body, carrying it for physical training was also a burden.
Now switched to a shorter and lighter rifle, it would make daily training much easier for the soldiers.
Moreover, people almost all have a psychology of preferring new and disliking old; after personally experiencing the powerful performance of this new rifle, how could the soldiers still think of the previous generation rifle they had used for several years?
The colonial army’s weapons had not been updated; first, the Royal Arsenal’s production could not keep up, and second, the colonial army had no need for such powerful rifles.
However, for smoother subsequent operations, the Defense Department 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 cannons.
The biggest difficulty in conquering these indigenous people was not their firearms or cannons, but their endless manpower.
Small countries like the Kingdom of Bam and Togo were fine, with populations only in the millions, so the indigenous armies they could muster were only tens of thousands.
But larger ones like the Sokoto Caliphate were different. Because of a population of over ten million, the armies they could casually muster numbered over 100,000 or even hundreds of thousands.
At this time, machine guns could play a huge role; the indigenous people, unaware of the machine gun’s power, would definitely swarm toward the Spanish Army’s positions.
Spanish soldiers could then rely on the machine gun’s firepower to easily harvest the indigenous lives.
To achieve the best effect, the Defense Department shipped over 50 machine guns from the mainland, along with over a million rounds of ammunition.
This also showed the Defense Department’s attitude: facing the indigenous swarming manpower, Spain naturally did not need to save ammunition.
In the remaining time of 1884, Giuseppe successfully formed 2 colonial divisions in the Congo Territory by transporting manpower from various colonies, plus officers shipped from Spanish mainland.
After these 2 colonial divisions were established, it immediately alleviated the manpower burden on the Congo Territory. At the same time, it allowed more troops to be drawn from the Congo Territory and Guinea Colony.
In the new year, just from the Guinea Colony and Congo Territory, the musterable troops reached 3 colonial divisions, about 60,000 troops.
Plus several colonial defense regiments from the Gold Coast, over 70,000 troops in total—no, not just to deal with a small Sokoto Caliphate; even if the indigenous countries around the Gulf of Guinea united, the Spanish Army would fully have the power to fight.
If the Sokoto Caliphate could be defeated, Spain’s ruling position in the Gulf of Guinea would have no danger at all.
In this situation, the merger of the Gold Coast and Guinea Colony was imminent, and Spain’s layout of its four major colonies had hope of being realized within
6000-word two-in-one chapter, seeking support!
