Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 372 Siege of Rabat

As Carlosso expected, after capturing Casablanca, the Royal Army did not call for troops to move north to join the Guards, but instead sent part of its forces south to attack the two nearby major cities of Settat and El Jadida.

Since launching the war, the Guards have occupied more than 20,000 square kilometers of land. Currently, several large cities in Morocco have been controlled by Spain, which is naturally a great achievement. The commander of the Guards, Andrew, also has the hope of being promoted.

The Royal Army naturally wanted such military merit. Between Casablanca, El Jadida and Settat, there was also an area of ​​tens of thousands of square kilometers.

If they could occupy this land before joining forces with Rabat, the Royal Army would naturally have more achievements recorded in its future merit book.

Unlike the Guards, the Guards only had one division, and the commander of the Guards was still the division commander Andrew, so naturally there was no need to worry about the distribution of credit.

The Royal Army has dispatched several divisions. If they do not try their best to expand the results of the battle, the credit distributed to each division in the future will naturally be much less.

Now the combat results of each native division are not as much as those of the two colonial divisions in the south. If they just go to Rabat to join up, even if they can capture the capital of Morocco, these native divisions will not have the face to return to Spain.

The treatment of the Spanish native divisions is very different from that of the colonial divisions. In this war, these native divisions must achieve greater results than the colonial divisions.

If attacking Jadida and Settat was not enough, they also planned to attack Khouribga further east.

In this way, the occupied land can be expanded to nearly 2 square kilometers, and the contribution will not be much different from that of the Guards.

While the Royal Army was moving south to attack several large cities in the surrounding areas, two colonial divisions further south had already joined forces in the Marrakech area.

In fact, in the original plan, the two colonies were one in the east and one in the west, and they would not merge so soon.

This is mainly because after the main Spanish army joined the battle, Morocco also transferred most of its troops to the northern region.

After all, Rabat is close to the north, and for Morocco, protecting its capital is the top priority at this time.

After all, the population of the capital and northern Morocco accounts for the majority of the entire Morocco. The loss of large tracts of land in the south is nothing, but the loss of a few cities in the north is already a heavy loss for Morocco.

After the Moroccan government evacuated part of its garrison in the south, the two colonial divisions in the south took advantage of the situation.

Many small cities encountered along the way had basically no defensive forces, and most of them surrendered without any resistance when they saw the Spanish army.

This also allowed the two colonial divisions to arrive smoothly in Marrakech, which is also the largest city in southern Morocco.

Marrakech is located in the central region of Morocco, not far from El Jadida and Settat in the north.

From here we can also see how much land the two colonial divisions occupied. The occupied area to the south is at least tens of thousands of square kilometers. However, due to the terrain, there are not many Moroccans in this land.

Although the land occupied by each army was only tens of thousands of square kilometers, if they were added together, it would be larger than the area of ​​Portugal.

Although Morocco has a large territory, it cannot withstand such losses.

At this time, except for the area around the capital Rabat and the areas further east close to the Sahara Desert, most of the rest of the country was under the control of Spain.

The Moroccan government was filled with despair about the war because there was no clear support from the European powers. The capitulation faction within the Moroccan government was already greater than the pro-war faction.

Although capitulationism is prevalent in the country, the Moroccan nobles and royal family know that officials will always be officials, but the royal family and nobles will definitely no longer be nobles.

Winning over officials would help Spain rule Morocco, but continuing to retain Morocco's nobility and royal family would make Spain's rule in Morocco unstable.

Therefore, the first thing Spain did after annexing Morocco was to abolish the Moroccan royal family and nobles. This is also the reason why Morocco has not surrendered so far, because the royal family and nobles are unwilling to give up their power, and they are also worried that Spain will liquidate them after winning the war.

In order to find a way out for itself, the Moroccan government contacted the British ambassador to Morocco and sought help from the UK.

The British ambassador declined Morocco's request but said Britain was willing to provide asylum to the Moroccan royal family.

If the Moroccan royal family wishes, they can establish a government in exile in the UK and seek to restore the throne at some point in the future.

The main reason why the UK is willing to accept the Moroccan royal family is that they are unwilling to give up Morocco.

The current concession is only temporary. In order to concentrate on winning the Boer War, they can only temporarily give up the enemy of the more powerful Spain.

But after winning the Boer War in the future, the British will definitely turn their attention back to Morocco.

Even if there is no war with Spain at that time, they will definitely try their best to make Morocco independent from Spanish rule.

An orthodox Moroccan royal family is very important. As long as the Moroccan royal family still exists, the Moroccan nobles will naturally support the restoration of the Moroccan royal family for their own status.

After hearing the British ambassador's assurance, the Moroccan royal family was somewhat disappointed, but fortunately it was a way out. If they could not defend Rabat in the future, they could also try to evacuate to London, form an exile government there, and wait for the opportunity to return to Morocco in the future.

While the British and Moroccan royal families were conducting relevant discussions, Spain was also preparing to besiege the Moroccan capital of Rabat.

As time came to the end of May, the Royal Spanish Army and the Guards finally met in Rabat.

The two colonial divisions in the south had also captured Marrakech at this time. They were marching towards Rabat in the north and were expected to arrive in the capital of Morocco within a week to attend this final feast.

During this period, the Royal Army captured El Jadida and Settat, expanding its occupied area to tens of thousands of square kilometers.

While they joined the Guards in Rabat, they sent a division of troops to continue attacking Khouribga and Wadizem eastwards.

If the attack goes smoothly, the division can continue to attack Beni Mellal to the southeast and occupy all the prime land in central Morocco.

This would result in the Guards occupying northern Morocco, the Royal Army occupying central Morocco, and the Colonial Division occupying southern Morocco.

Although it seems that Morocco was divided into three parts, the greatest contributions must be made by the Guards and the Royal Army.

After all, the essence of Morocco is in the central and northern parts. Although the south seems to have the largest area, its economic value and population are not high, and there is only one city with a large population, Marrakech.

Central and northern Morocco have many cities with large populations, which is unmatched by southern Morocco.

At this time, the Moroccan government also withdrew all its remaining troops around the capital, trying to resist the attack of the Spanish army.

Because Spain took away southern Morocco, Morocco now had a population of just over 400 million.

Morocco organized an army of nearly 20 in this war. After being consumed in many wars, there are currently less than 7 troops left to be mobilized.

These 7 troops were all surrounded around Rabat. The elite troops armed with firearms had been eliminated, and most of the remaining troops were armed with cold weapons. They guarded the capital with complicated expressions, looking at the Spanish army in the distance with fear.

At this point in the war, almost all Moroccans understood the gap between themselves and Spain. Without the support of Britain, Morocco would not even be able to form a hot weapons army.

In order to build a hot weapons army of 5000 people, the Moroccan government spent a lot of manpower, material and financial resources, and it took as long as 10 years.

The original purpose of establishing this army was to prevent Spanish colonial invasion. The Moroccan government wanted to avoid tragedies like the one in southern Morocco from happening again.

Unfortunately, the role played by this army was extremely limited. Under the attack of the Spanish Guards, the 5000-man hot-weapon army was almost completely destroyed in just two days.

Without the help of the hot weapons army, the remaining Moroccan army was simply vulnerable to the Spanish army.

Morocco is still an indigenous African country after all. Even if the government has a tendency to learn from the West, it is impossible for it to build large-scale industrial and military forces in a short period of time like European countries.

Spain's military power is feared by all European powers, and naturally it is not something that a small country like Morocco can contend with.

It is no exaggeration to say that the current combat effectiveness of the Spanish Army is so high that, facing the armies of other countries of the same level, only the armies of France and Germany can put the Spanish Army in a tough fight.

The remaining armies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia, which were known for their land forces, could not gain any advantage over the Spanish army. Even with its superior weapons and equipment, the Spanish army could still gain a certain advantage.

However, because the population of these countries is larger than that of Spain, in most cases, they cannot fight Spain with an army of the same size.

The good news is that Spain's population has been slowly increasing, and there is hope that the gap between it and the European powers will be further narrowed in the future. If the whole of Morocco can be annexed, it will not only greatly expand Spain's territory, but also increase Spain's population size.

These Moroccans, who are white, will not be much different from the Spaniards as long as they can complete assimilation.

As long as Spaniards are encouraged to intermarry with Moroccans in large numbers, the mixed-race children born from both sides will be pure Spaniards in the future.

If they are exposed to Catholicism and Spanish from an early age, when the next generation grows up, they will have a stronger sense of identity with Spain, and naturally there will be no such thing as Moroccans.

At present, Spain is very effective in assimilating Moroccans in its southern Moroccan colonies. Spain has transported a considerable number of European immigrants to its colonies, some of whom are Spanish.

The colonial governments encouraged these European immigrants to intermarry with Moroccans. The offspring of these intermarriages naturally considered themselves Spanish after receiving a Spanish-style education.

This is also one of the reasons why the proportion of Spanish people in various colonies has been increasing. Spain does not discriminate against these mixed-race descendants, and it is even much easier for them to obtain Spanish citizenship.

If Spain included the Hispanics and mixed-race descendants of these colonies, the total population of Spain should increase by at least hundreds of thousands.

The second update of 3,400 words.

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(End of this chapter)