Empire Rising: Spain

The reproductive power of black people is astonishing. If it is possible to prevent the growth of the black population, every effort must naturally be made to achieve this.

After the residence of the chief, located in the central area, was occupied by the Spanish Army, the Ashanti Tribe basically gave up resistance.

The Spanish Army thus controlled the entire situation of the Ashanti Tribe and implemented Spanish-style militarized management of the tribe.

To prevent these Ashanti natives from seeking opportunities for rebellion, the elderly and children among them were executed, and the male and female natives were managed separately.

Some of the male natives were transported to other colonies of Spain. Dispersing them not only facilitates management but also aids in land development for other colonies.

The remaining male natives would stay on the Gold Coast, becoming honored miners serving Spain. Their fate was sealed: they would either die of exhaustion in the gold mines or succumb to illness in the mines. There was no other possibility.

The remaining female natives were also divided into two parts. Those in poorer conditions stayed on the Gold Coast as rewards for the native laborers, giving them more incentive to mine gold for Spain.

The other female natives were sold to other African blacks, including those who had emigrated to America.

These blacks who emigrated to America had no human rights, but they also had the need and desire to reproduce. However, since the demand for male labor was greater than for female labor during the initial population trade, this led to an imbalance—a greater number of men than women among American blacks.

This gender imbalance meant that a significant portion of male blacks in America could not find women.

White women were considered noble beings beyond their reach. In such circumstances, handling these black women through indirect sales not only maximized their value but also helped Spain address the issue of an overly large black population.

When the Spanish Army had officially begun to enforce military management and categorized the Ashanti Tribe’s population into the elderly, adult males, and adult females, the Ashanti chief finally arrived at a large neighboring tribe.

When the chief of this tribe learned from the Ashanti chief that the Spanish Army had already penetrated the heart of the Ashanti Tribe, he showed great panic.

His panic was not due to the rapid downfall of the Ashanti Tribe but rather the concern that the Ashanti chief’s seeking refuge in his tribe would implicate his own tribe.

After all, before the war, Spain had declared that this war would target only the Ashanti Tribe and would not affect other tribes within the Federation.

In the frightened gaze of the Ashanti chief, the chief of this large tribe made a decision that would destroy the entire Federation: he decided to deliver the Ashanti chief directly to the Spanish Army to prevent his tribe from being implicated.

When the Ashanti chief returned to his tribe in such a comical manner, the Spanish Army had roughly completed the categorization of the Ashanti population.

The commander leading the troops revealed a rare smile of subtle meaning upon seeing the Ashanti chief being brought back by another tribal chief.

Unexpectedly, the colonial government’s divide-and-conquer plan was so effective. When faced with the crisis of annihilation, the other tribes had no intention of fiercely resisting the Spaniards.

This greatly facilitated the actions of the Spanish Army. Facing the entire Federation, even if they could annihilate these natives, it would certainly come at a greater cost.

At least ten thousand troops would certainly not be sufficient, considering that the Asante Federation was a nation of millions, capable of easily mustering an army of over one hundred thousand.

It’s not that the Spanish Army couldn’t defeat a native army of over one hundred thousand. The problem is that managing even a hundred thousand pigs would be quite troublesome.

Let alone a hundred thousand natives—managing them would be even more troublesome, and there was the added concern that these natives might seize the opportunity to attack the Spanish Army, creating even more chaos.

In this current divided scenario, the Spanish Army could easily win individual battles. Once the largest tribe within the Federation was eliminated, even if the other tribes united, they would be no match for Spain.

The Spanish commander praised the decision of the large tribe chief to return the Ashanti chief, and on the spot rewarded the native chief with some food.

This made the native chief beam with joy, further confirming that his decision was correct and believing that his tribe would no longer be affected by this war.

With the Spanish Army’s farewells, the chief of this large tribe returned to his tribe happily with plenty of food.

The news of his reward from the Spanish Army quickly spread throughout the Federation, reassuring the large tribes of their decision not to aid the Ashanti Tribe, with the safety of their tribes being the top priority.

As for the future development of the Federation, it would have nothing to do with the Ashanti Tribe.

At worst, the remaining large tribes could unite to resist Spanish colonial rule and even relocate further inland in Africa.

Under the previous ruling environment of the Federation, they hadn’t occupied very good land. The truly good land had been occupied by the largest tribe, the Ashanti Tribe. Since without the Ashanti Tribe, they couldn’t occupy the best land, why continue to let the Ashanti Tribe, the largest tribe overshadowing all other tribes, continue to exist?

In the subsequent days, Spain fully occupied the land controlled by the Ashanti Tribe and thoroughly sorted through the tribe’s population of over one million.

The number of elderly and children secretly executed amounted to over two hundred thousand, which was nearly all the elderly and children of the entire Ashanti Tribe.

After all, the medical conditions of African tribal communities were worse, and the average life expectancy shorter than in Europe. Under such circumstances, it’s difficult for anyone in the tribe to reach old age.

Even if someone could live to old age, the tribe wouldn’t support one who could no longer provide labor value. Among those two hundred thousand, children were actually the majority.

After all, the value of children far exceeded that of the elderly. The survival of the tribe depended on these children, which was why the Ashanti Tribe had a large number of children.

The secret executions of these native populations inevitably sparked some native resistance.

Fortunately, without the involvement of other tribes, the small scale Ashanti resistance could be easily suppressed.

These acts of resistance did not cause much trouble for the Spanish Army. Apart from wasting a few bullets, there was little cost.

For the Ashanti Tribe, in just a few days, the population dwindled from over a million to less than a million.

Just the war waged by the Spanish Army occupying the tribe cost almost one hundred thousand casualties for the entire Ashanti Tribe.

If these natives hadn’t been panicked and surrendered quickly in the face of Spain’s guns and cannons, the number of native casualties could have been even higher.

On the Spanish Army’s side, the losses were negligible, most of them resulting from accidents, like sprained ankles or bites from snakes or other poisonous creatures.

After dealing with the elderly and children in the tribe, it was time to handle the remaining adult male and female natives.

According to the plan, the Spanish Army herded most male natives to the port of the Gold Coast Colony. They would be loaded onto ships at the port and transported to other colonies of Spain.

It’s not that Spain’s other colonies lacked natives. It’s primarily because those colonies had no immediate plans for large-scale military actions against the natives. The native populations within the colonies had already been reduced by the British and were insufficient for the development of the colonies.

The labor these natives performed was hard manual work with high mortality rates. Jobs like mining were far from easy and carried a significant risk of cave-ins.

Given the high mortality rates of such labor, if the native population were not controlled, they would rapidly decline throughout the colonies.

And since Spain inherited smaller colonies from the United Kingdom, unless they launched large-scale wars to gain labor, there was still a shortage of population.

In instances like the Gold Coast war against the Asante Federation, it’s undoubtedly an opportunity to distribute some of the labor force to other colonies, ensuring each has enough labor to develop land and mineral resources.