Part 50: 1800-1819, The rise of the Alliances

Dear Kilwa. We have just invented rifles, and are really interested in trying them out. Please find attached a deceleration of war.



By September the war is over.



I would like to do the same to Abssinia, but while they have left the collation against us, they have allied with Rome.







The Horde attack Rome, and call us into the war. This is going to be a bloody one, but it gives us a chance to take land in Abyssinia and to retake Alexandria. This is a risk, but one I feel we should take.



Our allies expand rapidly, lets hope not to rapidly. There are still several large Roman Legions out there.



A new Empress takes the throne. Our fleet moves into a blockade position.



Then, out of nowhere their fleet arrives, and ours is no more.



The Romans counter attack the Horde, and push back their overextended armies.



We knock Abyssinia out of the war, gaining a few provinces as we do it. Now to see if we can hold on to them!







We rush to build troop transports, meanwhile, the Golden Horde turn the tide back towards our side.







We stand stranded on the other side of the Mediterrainian, we cannot get enough troops across to turn the balance. This war will be decided without us it seems. I will not throw away Ogoonu lives for no good reason!



This is a sound tactic, but our men and generals call us impotent and unmanly (except for the Empress of course)







The Horde give in, and have to pay a fortune to the Romans. We on the other hand, being the allies, come out of this war with a number of new provinces!



Our men having spent years in the city, our people now see Alexandria as part of Ghana. Not that we can do anything to threaten the Romans.



We sign an alliance with Croatia, to try and buffer the Romans in – we also form a Collation against them.



Then we forsake the alliance, we are not fighting a long distance war.



The Abbasids then sign a treaty with Portugal, stopping any thoughts we may have of invading them.







The intricate web of alliances continues to grow, and we join the block with Europe’s great old man – Denmark!



I apologise for the roughness of this, but it is the only way to show how much of the world is allied against each other. Green is our side, red the Portuguese block. This would be a world war if it ever erupted. And then there is Rome in the middle of all this.



With a uneasy peace descending on the world, we focus on our people, and introducing as many as possible to the love of the Snake.



While it may well be our dominant religion, Sahelian is not the only one in our country.



I order the formation of a new army. We have a higher force limit now, and if we go to war, we will need ever soldier we can get.







A merchant goes down, apparently with a huge portion of our earnings for a year – how can one ship have so much valuable cargo in it?



While we wait to repay the loan, we get to see the terror that is Denmark going to war.







We research field howitzers and become the most advanced military in the world.



Our trade flourishes as well.



And seeing as this is where most of our money is coming from, this can only be a good thing.



Our people rail against the Roman occupation of Alexandria. They do not truly understand the bloodshed that would be unleashed if we went to war.







The Golden Horde plunge Europe into war. With over half a million men under arms, we have to hope that Denmark also enters the war, or this will be a massacre.



They do, and the forces seem to be in our favour.



We march into Alexandria, while the Roman fleet blockades our rebuilt fleet in the harbour.



Meanwhile, we once more march into Abyssinia. If we can repeat the last war, then we have a good chance of gaining some more land.



Gelre and Denmark clash.



This forces the Horde to face the Romans alone once more.



Of course, war means we need to improve our taxes.







Abyssinia bows out, but does not give us any land.



The Abbasids do something useful for once and start a war against Rome.



We enforce the Ghana standard on the world.



Ghana is as great as she has ever been. All can sense the change in the world, the growing super alliances are causing a shift in power, the colonies are getting rebellious and resent being dragged into these massive wars in the old world.