Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 88: Chapter 85: Hurry and Request the British Government

Even before the Spanish Government declared war on Morocco, it had already received warnings from the Italian Government.

The Italian Government stated that it would offer diplomatic support to Spain in this military action, but it would not interfere if it attracted the attention of other major powers.

Prim naturally understood that the Italian Government could not possibly oppose the British for Spain’s sake. As long as they expressed their support for Spain in the military action against Morocco, that would already be enough.

On the afternoon of September 28, 1870, two and a half hours had already passed since Spain declared war on the Moroccan Government, and fourteen and a half hours since the formal action of the Spanish Army.

Faced with the sudden attack from the Spanish Army, the indigenous tribes of Morocco were unprepared and fled in disarray, although they had neither helmets nor armors.

Morocco is quite special in Africa. Most of Morocco’s population consists of Arabs and Berbers, belonging to the European and Mediterranean races, that is, Caucasians.

However, unlike European white nations, Morocco is an Arab country and practices Islam.

As the most unique African country, Morocco has clear differences from the indigenous peoples of Africa; they are more like the indigenous peoples of the Middle East.

Yet, indigenous are still indigenous, and compared to Spain, Morocco is undoubtedly much more backward.

Moreover, Morocco is not monolithic. There are many tribes within Morocco, and not everyone supports the rule of the Alawi Dynasty’s Sultanate Government in Morocco.

Another reason that Morocco is more suitable for localization is precisely because of these Caucasian populations. Carlo considers himself not a racist, but he harbors an innate dislike for black people.

However, such thoughts are not surprising in contemporary Europe. Although abolition movements are vigorously underway in various countries, white people never truly recognize the human rights of black people.

In the minds of white people, black people should be plantation slaves, what does human rights have to do with them, are they even considered people?

The colonial policies of various countries in Africa never regarded the indigenous as humans, with the number of black people killed by European countries at least reaching eight figures.

Of course, this primarily stems from the insufficient exploration of Africa by various countries. As soon as the nations have completely divided Africa, the number of dead indigenous Africans will increase.

Taking Morocco, a Caucasian nation, into Spanish rule will not darken Spain.

Speaking of which, the Sultan of Morocco at this time was also an old acquaintance. Muhammad IV ascended to the Sultanate in 1859, facing war with Spain as soon as he took office, and suffered the bitter fruit of defeat.

After this defeat, Muhammad IV decided to reform Morocco, introducing Europe’s powerful industry to improve Morocco’s military capabilities to cope with the colonial invasions of European powers.

However, Muhammad IV overestimated Moroccans’ acceptance of advanced industrial technology. When he painstakingly brought the steam engine to the Royal Palace in Marrakesh from the British, he found that the ministers were scared by such an unprecedented behemoth and did not dare to approach it.

Even with Muhammad IV’s orders to print a large number of “bibles” advocating the adoption of the steam engine, it failed to arouse the Moroccans’ curiosity.

In the end, the reforms came to nothing, and Morocco ultimately did not industrialize.

Seeing the failure of industrialization, Muhammad IV had another great idea, which was to strengthen Morocco’s military capabilities.

He formed the new army Ascani Zami and spent a great deal of money to equip it with firearms and provided Western-style training.

Upon learning that the Spaniards were invading from the north of Morocco in large numbers, Muhammad IV was furious and ordered the newly formed army Ascani Zami to head north to resist the Spanish Army’s invasion.

The Moroccan Sultan, born in 1802, held great confidence in his newly formed army at this time.

He even confidently declared at a meeting of the Moroccan Sultanate Government that day, “My army will easily defeat the Spanish Army, and the days of Morocco being invaded by European countries are gone forever.”

But soon, reality dealt a heavy blow to the elderly Sultan.

Shortly after dispatching his new army, intelligence arrived from the south that the Spanish Army was advancing north from Sidi Ifni, heading towards the important southern town of Agadir in Morocco.

Muhammad IV was dumbfounded. His new army was not large, clearly unable to handle the Spanish Army coming from both the north and south.

But if he allowed the Spanish Army to attack Agadir, Marrakesh would seem to be in danger as well.

The confidence Muhammad IV had just kindled with his new army was instantly extinguished, and he was filled with frustration, appearing even older than he already was.

“Damn it, is Morocco doomed to be colonized?” Muhammad IV gazed at the sky, filled with despair about Morocco’s plight.

At this moment, Morocco’s ministers began offering their opinions.

The most common suggestion was to go west, no, to hurry to Western Europe to ask the British Government.

During the last war between Spain and Morocco, it was the intervention of the British Government that allowed Morocco to retain most of its territory.

Otherwise, given Morocco’s tumultuous domestic situation and poor military capabilities at that time, it would have been completely at the mercy of Spain.

The Moroccan Government had no better options at present, and apart from asking the British Government to intervene, there seemed to be no other effective solution.

As for fighting the Spaniards, Morocco’s ministers never even considered it.

Ten years ago, there was indeed such an idea, but they were beaten by the Spaniards to the point where they could no longer distinguish north from south and east from west. At that time, Spain’s domestic situation was no better either, but it was a gap in weapons, equipment, and overall strength.

Although Morocco now has a new army, it’s only about twenty thousand strong.

And the ministers of Morocco knew very well the situation of the new army. In Morocco, with the support of the Moroccan Army, it was quite formidable.

But compared to European countries, there was simply no proportion.

Moroccans’ acceptance of advanced weapons and technology was not high, and since Morocco’s weaponry depended entirely on European countries, it was naturally impossible for the new army’s soldiers to conduct long-term live-fire drills.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the new army conducted less than ten live-fire drills over the few years since its formation, with each soldier allocated only three bullets per drill, which had almost no effect.

Relying on such a new army to block the Spanish Army’s advance would be less reliable than hoping for the British to mercifully save them.