Empire Rising: Spain

The full name of the Oman Region is the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, which was once a country spanning two continents.

During the reign of the previous Sultan, Said bin Sultan, the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman occupied vast lands, encompassing not only the territories of present-day Oman but also parts of the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan Gwadar.

Of course, this also included Oman’s East African Territory, which is why it was said that Oman was once a country spanning two continents.

However, after the old Sultan’s death, his two sons inherited the mainland of Oman and the East African Territory respectively, leading to their split.

The current Sultanate of Muscat and Oman only governs the mainland of present-day Oman, with all other lands belonging to other countries.

Spain’s colonial target was also just the mainland of Oman; even if Oman still controlled the East African Territory at this time, Carlo wouldn’t be bothered with any extra thoughts.

After all, Oman’s East African Territory is located on the East Coast of Africa, just north of Portugal’s Mozambique Colony.

This area is precisely on the vertical line of the British Cairo Cape Colony, and any country that establishes a colony here would inevitably face resentment and retaliation from the British.

Carlo wasn’t overly concerned with Spain’s colonial war, as for Spain, this was a war with no suspense.

The civilization level of the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman was somewhat higher compared to most African natives, but that was about it.

Faced with European colonizers, they found it difficult to form strong resistance, and with no other European countries interfering, Spain’s colonial war was bound to succeed.

The facts indeed bore this out. As soon as the Spanish Army arrived on the Arabian Peninsula, they immediately launched an attack on the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman.

This nation, once capable of contending with European countries and even defeating Portugal’s colonial invasions, had now deteriorated into just another ordinary small country.

Back when the Sultanate still controlled the East African Territory, it annually provided a substantial amount of fiscal revenue to Oman’s mainland, which enabled Oman to build a decently strong navy.

When the East African Territory was lost, Oman not only lost a piece of land that could provide significant fiscal revenue but also a large portion of the navy stationed in the East African Territory.

This has led the current Sultanate of Muscat and Oman to a state of dismal military and economic strength, and when facing the attack of the Spanish Army, the current Sultan, Turki bin Said, tried every possible means to fend off Spain’s attack, but all to no avail against Spain’s steel guns and cannons.

On April 22, 1883, just a month and a half after the departure of the Spanish Army, they had already occupied nearly one-third of Oman’s territory.

The Spanish attack on Oman was launched from north to south, with the first target being the capital of the Sultanate of Muscat, Muscat.

The Middle East is a land covered with deserts, which also leads to a common phenomenon among Middle Eastern countries, where the land is vast but sparsely populated, with populations generally concentrated in areas with less desert.

Though Oman is a medium-sized country with a north-south length of about 1000 kilometers, the vast majority of its population is concentrated in the northern two regions, especially in the Muscat region where the capital is located, which holds over sixty percent of the Sultanate’s population.

This has led to the scenario where, even though Spain has only occupied one-third of Oman’s territory, it has effectively controlled the majority of Oman’s population.

Of course, Oman’s population is not abundant either. The entire Arabian Peninsula’s population adds up to only around three to four million, with Oman having only one-tenth of that.

After occupying the northern territories of Oman, there was no rush in occupying the central and southern regions of Oman.

Anyway, most areas heading south are deserts with few Omanis, posing no real challenge to Spain’s colonial rule.

Other European Powers also showed no interest in this desert land; the British even preferred for Spain to occupy Oman’s southern great desert while they occupied the most elite region in the Middle East, the Mesopotamian Plain.

As Spain launched its colonial aggression towards Oman, the sales personnel of the Royal Military Factory also began engaging with the dynasty behind Vietnam.

It’s worth mentioning that once the Spanish sales personnel revealed their identities and expressed their intention to sell weaponry, the other side showed no eagerness to purchase weapons and instead hoped for Spain to mediate in its conflict with France.

After painstaking efforts, the sales personnel discovered that the nation was divided into two factions over the war with France. One faction advocated resisting France at all costs, fearing that the loss of Vietnam would expose its southern border to French invasion.

The other faction advocated seeking peace with France, as the nation had never won a war against European Powers, and there seemed little point in starting a war with a great power like France over Vietnam.

Because the proponents of peace controlled the diplomatic and military rights, this made it challenging for Spain’s weapons and equipment to be sold promptly.

Carlo never imagined that the offered equipment would remain undesired, as the other side preferred to pin its hopes on faint prospects of peace rather than seizing weapons and resisting.