Part 32: 1444-1459, Protectorates and wars.

Our relations with the Abbasids continue to be strained. The idea of needing a cause for war is taking hold, and they cannot help but give us one!



The newly conquered Egyptians are also rowdy, several regiments rise up to try and defeat us. It is time to try out this new army that Firhun is so proud of.



We form up an army and march into battle.



We take more losses than I would like, but we are able to defeat the enemy.



We defeat the enemy then march south to deal with the other army. But we also find out that its not only the government that is improving.



We reach the south and overwhelm our enemies.







With the revolts over, Firhun begins to build forts all over the East of Ghana. Just as he has spent all of his money, a minor Ogoonu branch comes begging for aid, which the Emperor cannot give.



We also discover several new tribes just to the south of our lands! How could we have gone so long without knowing these people were there? Its almost like someone drew an artificial boundary on the map! We begin to try different approaches with our brothers. The Ashanti are trying to improve their relations with us, so we do the same to them, the Hausu however are trying to get into bed with the Abbasids, so we move to steal their lands.







Disease hits Ifni, and we quarantine the place to stop another major outbreak.



The first conversion completes, and our relations with the Ashanti are as good as they will get. We follow this with a marriage treaty, using sex to get what we want as usual.



With a bit more persuasion, they agree to become our protectorate.



Oyo is the next tribe to realise the worth of working with Ghana.







Hausa refuses to see the light of the snake, and refuses to accept the fact that all of Africa is Ghana and Ghana is Africa. It is decided to reach them a lesson.



This coincides with the idea of national ideas. The concept that the people can work together for a thing.



The people now thirst for expansion, and we see more and more people ready themselves to expand Ghana.



The concept of settlers enters the Ghanan dictionary – the idea of sending off all the excess sons and daughters into the unclaimed lands to the south.



Sierra Leone becomes the first Ghanan colony.



This is not the only place where technology is advancing, and we learn to better control our men in battle. See, War is good for something.



The war begins to go well as we take Kano from the Hausa.








Firhun has made many changes in his life, but all must come to an end, Umar comes to the throne, bringing his son Maghan.



The stability of the realm drops, and the natives in Sierra Leone rise up – thankfully, a new army was being recruited in the area. Almost as if this kind of thing was expected.



They are too slow, and the few colonists in the area are butchered.



Umar will not stand for this, and he takes the Colonial Defense Force into Sierra Leone personally to deal with these natives.



This brutal reprisal has an effect on the Hausa, who surrender the captured provinces to Ghana.







The CDF has to put down another native uprising – we currently have 12,000 men protecting 64 settlers. The land down here is tropical, making it hard for our desert dwelling people to live.



Umar works to improve the stability of his realm, and then moves to encourage people to trust in the works of the mighty snake, mainly by throwing the guts of minor snakes around then saying that the prettiest girl in the village should marry them.



When asked on the Empire's military strategy, Umar goes on the offensive, as all his ancestors have.



We also know how good our seamen is. Are, I mean. We also continue to put down the natives. We could wipe them out, but we keep hoping they will come around to seeing things our way.







He has only been dead six years, but people already dream of the return of Firhun II. Umar is not best pleased, but it is a mark to his father that the man is so loved for the changes he brought to the realm. Civil war has been vanquished, and only the occasional native uprising causes any trouble. Umar of course pays to record his fathers exploits.



He then turns to his own legacy – and declares war upon Abyssinia.



The Abyssinian's move quickly and get the early victory.



We form a larger army, but no one of note steps up to lead it, and they are soon beaten back as well. The conquests in west Africa are being consolidated however.



The men march retreat all the way to Cairo before General Abdul-Azeem Aichata (A loyal snake worshipper from the north of Ghana) can turn them around and march south.



The Abbasids see this sign of weakness and attack with their own forces. Across Ghana fresh troops are levied.



The war in the south at least seems to be turning around.



The Natives in Sierra Leone are getting tired of being killed, some join our new settlement.



Meanwhile, the Abbasids flow into Egypt.







We reform the army and march back, we need to hit these enemy formations before they can reform.



We hit their force, but they manage to get a good army together.



Things get bloody. We lose of course.



We are forced to move our 12,000 men from Sierra Leone to the front, the Natives take no time in butchering our 250 colonists in the region. This will not stand, but will need to wait for now.







The war drags on, the enemy are ravaging our Egyptian holdings.



They have a long way to go still however.