Nigerian Empire

The Sokoto Caliphate was a city based empire in West Africa, near the Niger River. It was established by the Fula people as a part of a Jihad war. The Johad is a relgious war under the following of Muhammed as Islam should be shared. Since the West African kingdoms replaced islam with animsim or other pagen beliefs, the Fulu felt they should bring back the worship of Allah. 

Starting in the 1800, a caliph was elected among the faithful. They grew by conquering the nearby cities and kingdoms. In the decade, four separate Fula states were created; Futa Toro, Futa Jallon, Masina, and Sokoto. Sokoto was the most powerful, able to establish an empire of emirates which would declare allegiance to Sokoto’s ruler, the caliph. 

The allegiance created a system of feudal fidelity. Each emir didn’t have to care for each other and only referred to the caliph. The state also adopted two usual islamic policies, Sharia Law and the waqf (which allowed for public ownership of land). It would then expand along its neighbors, either defeating them in war or gaining their submission. It got to the point of 30 emirates. The power system established would be feudal fidelity. The Caliph of Sokoto would elect emirs of the other cities based on their faithfulness and when they died, the new Caliph would be chosen by the emirs. The title was not hereditary. Emirs had to offer a tax of cowshells and slaves. Scholarship and the reintroduction of Arab ideas was promoted. As they expanded they built ribats which were forts that established farms, schools, and markets. While there were some revolts, the country was primarily successful. By 1837, there was a population of 10 million.

During the reign of Abu Bakr Atiku, he faced dissent due to his policies. Then there was the Adamawa War in which the emirate was to be annexed by some neighbors. Eventually, this caused the death of the unfavorable caliph and an attempt by the Adamawa Emir to join the Ottoman Caliphate. The Emir and Caliph died before fighting occurred though. Then in 1842, Ali Babba bin Bello took the title of caliph. He continued to suffer emirate disobedience for the next few years but was able to keep the Adamawa emirate. The Bornu Empire took advantage of this and invaded Sokoto in revenge. 

In 1848, a general by the name of Samer Sankara returned from his Hajj to Mecca. He had traveled across the Sahel, across the Nile, across the Red Sea, and into Mecca. Then, he was inspired to take a less direct route. He went to Medina, to Jerusalem, to Cairo and stayed in Egypt for a year. There he learned of a quickly changing world outside of Nigeria. Egypt was being modernized by Muhammed Ali. Great British ships of the line secured every port. Guns were better and tactics wiser. In Egypt, Samer gathered some intellectuals to follow him home. They went across Tripolitania and visited Fez for a few months. Then they went back to the Niger basin, back to Sokoto. There he personally met with Caliph Bello and introduced him to the intellectuals which could further improve the country. Bello ignored him. As a general though, Samer garnered respect from the army. Sokoto was also losing the allegiance of several emirates all at once. So Samer took the advantage and promised protection to these emirates as long as they considered his policies. In a week, 20 of the 30 emirates declared Samer the new Caliph. This was obviously insulting to Bello who put a bounty on his head. The entire army sided with Samer though. Samer continued sending peaceful letters with his policies, promising not to kill the caliph. Eventually, Bello was arrested and forced to be exiled to Egypt. Thus Samer was the first elected caliph to not declare descent from Abdullahai dan Fodio and was fully Fulani. 

At first though, Samer did not want to declare himself caliph. He simply directed early industrialization projects such as the inclusion of factories to the ribats. The factories would be manned by slaves or low class citizens that would craft new more modern guns. The advisors followed Samer to his home though so he soon took to the capital and became head of the Sokoto Caliphate.

His literal reign began 1849. He first directed the construction of manned factories. These were new rooms attached to the ribats as described above. The workers worked on an assembly line. There were up to three factories per emirate although each expanded in size in accordance to employment. Each emirate was concerned with producing specific products. These included guns, artillery, certain food products, clothing, and furniture. Everything was made at a necessity but factories easily over produced causing an expansion for the market. Guns were always kept by the army but other products could then be sold by the factory which were to share the profit. 

With his Egyptian intellectuals, Samer had the army retrained with new tactics and concepts. Samer also had scouts search for coal, iron, and other material useful for military and industry. By 1854, many factories would adopt coal for energy. Coal powered machines were also created to support factories. Urbanization grew at the pace of capitalism and coal. They also discovered oil but would slowly learn to use its burning in a similar way to coal. 

The ten emirates that never submitted to Samer were building their forces up. Unfortunately, they were territorially divided while most of the Caliphate was connected to one another. In 1852, one by one, they started to attack the caliphate. Their armies were swiftly obliterated. Samer garnered their submission but did not interfere with their own improvements. He only asked for the absorption of their armies. Now they could not fight. Samer continued to recruit and train more men. In 1857, he began his second policy, Total Jihad. There were still animist kingdoms near Sokoto and Samer had always felt they should continue expanding. He also hated the French and British on the ivory coast and wanted to eventually drive them out. He now had an army of 3 million men and ~100 artillery cannons. His first conquest was that of the Bornu Empire, simply because they had been aggressive. But he did not stop at just defeating their army but annexing their territory all of the way up to Lake Chad. He then raided the Borgu kingdoms for slaves and to sabotage the land in a policy of scorched earth. The Borgu replied next year with a combined army which was destroyed by cavalry men and cannons. Samer asked the kings to be their suzerain which they eventually agreed to. At the same time, Half of his army was campaigning on the Niger River. Samer felt it important to control the whole river similar to how Egypt controls the whole Nile. Some of the area had no cities so he asked the Fulani civilians to ‘colonize’ the region as soon as it was annexed. 

First, the army would move into untouched land to scout for enemies. Then they built one or two ribats where they saw it could stand. The ribats at first just held supplies, a factory, mosque, garden, and crop yard. Roads were then paved to connect to the caliphate. As people moved in, homes, markets, and schools were built. In regions with a civilization, the same process was repeated, they just had to actually defend themselves. The Edo Kingdom of Benin would be the hardest fight but they eventually lost too. In each battle, the army only sent out a fraction of the total force for one day. Then the next corp was sent the next day, completely fresh but with full knowledge of the enemy. In this way, Samer divided the army into 7 corps, one to fight once a day. The previous day’s loss would not matter until that corp fought next week. The Fulani soon reached the coast where the cities there easily surrendered. Those cities were then forced to trade their global imports only to Sokoto. The Fulani established nearby cities in the Niger Delta. Samer established Second Sokoto, a city in the delta that would serve as a second capital. During the annexation process, Islam was strongly promoted and enforced. Samer also had direct control of the land but he soon appointed an emir of the new Benin Emirate. After this, the armies rejoined each other to conquer the Oyo further west. Their territory was annexed as the Oyo Emirate. The Jihadist process continued. Massive enslavement and Fulani colonization. The people were not to be genocided though. Their temples would become mosques and the oral stories were later preserved by scholars simply to show respect. Some other emirates already within the Caliphate also began to expand under the permission of Samer. He made sure they expanded outwards in a coordinated effort to not argue over ‘claims’. All land they conquered was technically his until he divided it between the conquers. But in this way, some of the exterior states swelled in size. The interior states simply provided material for the jihad. Now during the 1850s, the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey was facing territorial threats from the French. They had defeated the Oyo empire long ago. With the growing possibility of Sokoto expansion, the Dahomey King declared the caliphate his suzerain. Samer actually did not accept this and forced islam onto the country with an occupation. Only after this was Dahomey accepted as a protectorate. Such a move could anger the French though so Samer set up huge defensive forts just in case. Samer then went up the Niger river, absorbing Gao and Tombuctu. In 1864, the newly founded Toucouleur Empire would come to a head with Sokoto. It was also a Jihad state so Samer tried to gain its peaceful submission. This was not done by the king who kind of invaded Tombuctu. It was not fully annexed by Samer but after a series of diplomatic talks were ignored, he declared war on Toucouleur. Despite both countries sending armies of a million, not all battles were deadly. Sometimes the Toucouleur army surrendered as they recognized Samer as a true caliph. Other times, +100k people would die in a single battle. Finally, the empire broke apart. The city of Nioro was left alone while Samer claimed Jenne and Segu. Futa Jallon captured Dinguray but accepted Sokoto as suzerain. After ten years of war (1867),  Samer stopped all war production. The armies were put to rest in the new regions in order to defend them. They would be called on again after ten years of peace. They could start families in order to replace those that had died. 

Samer knew his quick expansion may be hard to keep if he did not tend to it. So he did. The caliphate’s population swayed as many were asked to move into the new territories. The greater food production allowed for more babies to fill in though. Food also stayed relatively cheap although new products from new lands were still somewhat luxurious. River travel became important as it was much quicker than any roadway and the empire was basically centered on the Niger. With the river, armies moved quick enough to stop the many revolts especially in the west. After fully annexing the Niger Delta, they adopted naval techs to protect the coast. In a few years, these ships were upgraded into galleys which traveled the West African coast for trade. They traded slaves, crops, and materials. These trades were down with other Africans. They soon adapted to the Atlantic Coast though, especially with Samer hiring British and French sailors. In 1865, Samer truly modernized the caliphate. At least for it’s core Niger region certain services were established such as postal services, public schools, and banks. Samer also instituted a constitution to define citizenship. It also defined the usual policies of the state and it’s not like the state became more democratic. First class citizenship was granted to all muslims but it was also important for them to learn Arabic and/or Fulani to be seen as intellectual. Second class citizens were those that have not yet become muslims, they were taxed higher and were easily enslaved. The lowest class was of course the enslaved. They were forced to work in factories, farms, or the army with no pay and could be traded across the Sahara to the Ottomans or Egyptians. Many people died as slaves, not wanting to give up their religion for Islam. Others converted thus becoming first class. A national flag was created; a simple green background with an orange crescent moon. 

In 1866, a great mission was sent across the world. Samer wanted recognition from other world powers and large trade with them. Unbeknownst to him, no one was buying slaves anymore. Anyways, four ships were sent across the Atlantic, each with a diplomat. The first landed in Brazil, meeting Emperor Pedro II. After learning Portuguese and Arabic respectively, they recognized each other’s countries and began talks of trade. Slaves? Brazil and Sokoto have plenty. Brazil also did not need their gold and silver so they simply traded their unique crops. A diplomat landed in New York City in 1867. He was traveling with a Brit who obviously knew English and served as translator. They then traveled to DC to meet President Andrew Johnson. He was kind to the visitors to their faces but never recognized the country. He also instituted no trade. The next year, a diplomat landed in London. Queen Victoria formerly recognized the Caliphate and they agreed to not overstep borders between them. Victoria sent more colonists to the Ivory Coasts to begin good relations with the Fulani. She wanted to win them over before the French could. They traded Sokoto gold and tin for British cotton. The diplomat then still visited Paris. President Emperor Napoleon-Louis Bonaparte was very kind and offered many gifts. The French traded cotton, silk, and factory machines for oil as the French already knew they had oil. The French would use the oil for naval ships as they quickly learned from the Fulani how to make it useful. The country grew richer due to Brazil, Britain, and France. Also, while the French recognized Samer as a caliph, they dubbed the country the Nigerian Empire (Empiro de Nigeria). That name would catch on with the rest of the world.

During the 70s, modernization was finalizing in the core. Modernization was just beginning along the western wing. The revolts were completely subdued as those people became tired of receiving Ls. The Ashanti and Kenedougou empires contributed to Sokoto but kept their independence. The Futa Yalon soon became just another emirate of the Caliphate. Borgu was used for slave raids. Dahomey continued slowly becoming islamic while also wrestling to keep tradition. The Empire became acquainted with Mexico, Venezuela, Columbia, Haiti, and Argentina. For the first time, one Fulani sailor traveled the world also coming across the Japanese and Australia. Samer was able to establish an alliance with Egypt despite the distance. 

In 1877, they fell back into war. First they colonized some of the Sanaga River but not all of the way down to the Atlantic. The Volta River became Samer’s next target, for territorial integrity and its materials. There were five major groups in the region but their combined number wouldn’t stop 4.5 million guns. The Dagomba were also already Islamic so Samer simply sent missionaries alongside a small army and formed them into an emirate. Samer also signed treaties with the Ashanti and Kenedougou to allow them to expand to a certain point. They adopted some Fulani technology by this point. In the next few years, the Red Volta River was absorbed into a total of three emirates. They also fully annexed the Borgu lands. Next was the conquest of Gurma. Territory unclaimed went to new colonies. Large farms were built which fed even more people. The population was reaching 20 million. Samer realized a problem though and stopped the war. He was not able to profit much longer from expansion alone. In 1885, peace was held for the army.

During this final peace time (of Samer’s reign), he reorganized the divisions of state. He did this to make profits off of taxes and tributes. He also wanted to lessen the number of emirs enough that a division of the empire wouldn’t be too numerous and nor would revolts. To also prevent popular dissent, he promoted the idea of a united Niger-Sanaga-Volta nation which could rule at the top of the world and lead followers to Allah. A Fulani nationalism was born which overwhelmed other nationalist ideals. 

The Ashanti and Kenedougou continued to expand with their Fulani weapons and tactics. Great roads were built between the three empires to facilitate trade. Then the Ashanti and Kenedougou partitioned the coast between them as they decided to tag team the Anglo-Franco colonies. Germany also became a presence in their Camerun colony. After a year of peace, Samer decided to join them although only for the territories of Lagos and Contonou in order to keep Dahomey safe. The Western Branch suffered many attacks from French Senegal (which even conquered Futa Yalon) but Samer’s wants were met. In those territories, the Europeans were much surprised at the organization of the African armies and also at their size and weaponry. The war ended in 1890 but it wasn’t going to stop forever. Germany had fully expanded into its claimed territory. Samer realized they could join the British and French in a terrible alliance. Samer looked to Brazil and Egypt for help. It was unfortunate that Kenedougou was currently overextending itself with claims to territory it barely populated. The Ashanti were much more successful although they were Christian so some Fulani basically associated them with the Europeans. The Kingdom of Kong, which was a quiet Islamic-animist state, was now forced to side with Sokoto. They were offered some territory to do so but it might be considered an overextension. 

Now over the next two years, the French loaded Senegal with troops. To be honest, they only lost some territory due to expanding across the coast, connecting Senegal to Bassam. Now they planned to connect Senegal to Sudan in a trans-Sahel colony. This means deleting Sokoto and their allies. Now, as for Samer, he died before the new war started. He had a son that the emirs agreed could succeed him. Muhammed Abdul Sankara was 38 years old at this point. He became caliph in 1891. 

The West African War (1893-1897)

French Empire, British Empire, German Empire, Ashanti Empire (total force of 1 million)

Vs

Nigerian Empire and Dahomey Protectorate, Kenedougou Empire, Kong Kingdom (total force of 4.7 million)

So as predicted, the French claimed the Christian Ashanti as a protectorate against the muslims. They were promised some slice of Sokoto land and independence. Lol. Britain was simply concerned with regaining their Cape and Lagos. They weren’t going to be cooperative with anyone except Germany. And similarly, Germany was just looking for some northern expansion, perhaps to Lake Chad. They were both aiming to stop a French trans-Sahel. The British would take further east from German Cameroon. Regardless of their ambitions, Sokoto had to defend its territory. It fought purely guerilla wars which made gatling guns less useful. If they ever entered French territory, they committed Scorched Earth. The same was done to Ashanti. Now Kong was very protected during the war, only having a single small front which was defensible. The Kenedougou was obliterated by France though. Germany would be unable to finish their campaigns, they ran out of men that could possibly expand. They left the war sooner than Britain who left it next year. By now, Sokoto was able to steal some gatling guns and apply them to their own force. For the last two years, they fought France alone. Finally, they agreed to a peace by partitioning the shattered Kenedougou. This would allow a pause for ten years as well. The war was not profitable at all for the Ashanti although they were still independent. Britain won back Lagos and some indemnity in the payment of private oil. Muhammed praised this victory as the result of his father’s nation building. 

By now, Egypt had been absorbed into the British Empire. The Brazialians were afraid of helping but immediately went to trade after the war. This helped the nation economically recover, at least for those who lived in the Delta. The Western Branch was obliterated and needed time to rebuild. Muhammed focused on these things including the modernization of the Volta region. He also wanted to punish the Ashanti. In 1903, the Ashanti asked for French support for their attack on the British Ivory Coast. “Why would you fucking do that?” The French sent guns and men to them. The Anglo-Ashanti War lasted two years, ending with a partitioning of the country because of its massive failures. Now an Anglo-Fulani alliance would prevent the French Sahel. Muhammed wanted to make himself stronger though. He amended the constitution by creating two levels of the caliphate. The primary would be the Islamic System which placed all religious laws, promoted Allah, kicked out pagan beliefs, and the caliph would take a spiritual leadership position. Then the second level would be the Civil System in which a legal code that saw all citizens as equal (regardless of religion) and would punish them, tax them, and appraise them based on legal status. Men and women were equalized before the Civil System but women were still subrodrinate to muslim men due to the Islamic System. This move, he believed, would further nationalize Nigeria. He remained Caliph and could elect emirs who held previous spiritual beliefs. In the same emirates though, muslim and non-muslim men would vote for civil leaders which could dictate the economy (to a point) and local ordinances. Now tribute wasn’t centered on Sokoto but each emirate would support itself. Now slaves still existed but only as long as they resisted Islam which was still the state religion. As for the puppet states, they were now invited for full annexation as emirates. They could keep their religions and their kings were automatically elected as governors for the Civil System. After they accepted this deal, Muhammed invested in Kong and Dahomey. 

After a quick visit to Egypt, Muhammed learned of railroads. From 1910, he turned the county’s irons into tracks. These mostly existed in between Niger and Volta as there were no connecting rivers. They transported crops, people, and materials. Trains forced more urbanization but also ecological damage with the smoke. Nigeria became a large oil exporter from 1900 and it was large shipments of oil that kept the French at bay. The presence of oil also allowed for The United States to recognize the country in 1902. During this time, Nigeria allied with the only free African country; the Abyssinian Empire of Ethiopia. It’s other big allies were Brazil, a weak one with Ottoman Turkey, and another weak one with the UK. 

European tensions in the 1910’s forced it to ally with the Triple Entente. This alliance brought them into war with the German colony of Cameroon. For the first year of the Great War, they simply rested. Every country knew the war would be over by Christmas. In 1915, the war continued and was in fact at a halt in the Rhine region. Cameroon then invaded Nigeria in order to make sure it stayed out of the war. Yeah. The British Cape colonists and French Senegal colonists would help Nigeria in it’s war. Cameroon was to be divided by the three of them. Europeans would learn that they outclassed the Nigerians who still used gatling guns while they adopted the machine gun. Anyways, the war would end in 1918 and Cameroon was cut up. Nigeria gained it’s old territory but that was all. It fell back into peaceful slow growth. It was proud to have participated in a War Across the World. 

Unfortunately, the Ottomans fell. Brazil was again too internally distracted to help. Nigeria would have to tread a careful line between the French and British who were still recovering in their homelands. The twenties was a slight economic boom as they took in cars and sold even more oil. They founded a timber market and found more rocks such as diamonds, manganese, zinc, copper, limestone, nickel, and lead. Cities grew a bit and there was a monumental mosque built in the city of Sokoto. Trade expanded to Japan, Iran, and Chile. Militarism died off under the next Caliph. Some regions were never ‘modernized’ as the pastoralists there voted to keep their lifestyle. Life was peaceful. After the 1929 American fuckup, the country lost many of it’s Global North imports. Brazil was the only one who made expensive trades with it. Nigerian civilians never depended on banks too much so actual livelihood was unaffected. Taxes were lessened for the most part as well. 

Then, Italy colonized Ethiopia. Japan colonized the Pacific. Germany colonized Poland. Again. A Second World War Started. At first, Nigeria materially supported the British and French, obviously. They didn’t have much else to do until Brazil invited them to war. Hitler also invited them to fight Britain and France who neglected their colonies. “You could rule the whole thing”. Nigeria played it safe. It required France and Britain to give up its colonies to the natives or it would attack those regions in a war of liberation. They lied so Nigeria joined the Allies. Nigeria sent a force along with Brazil’s. These troops marched through Italy causing it to fold on itself. Brazil and Nigeria then otherwise supported America in Germany. The war ended in Allied Victory. 

None of the war treaties implied a hint of African independence which disturbed the whole Caliphate. Since they were still recovering, they thought it best to act now. They allied with Brazil (who wanted Portugal to let go of Angola and Mozambique) and Ethiopia (who just recovered from Italian occupation) but all three of them realized they needed to first prepare to take on the world’s strongest nations. There was fear of American nuclear attack in support of its parents Britain and France. Soviet Russia may also intervene which wasn’t a worry for life. So they prepared for the next couple of years until 1953, when Algierans started to revolt. 

In tandem, the Anticolonialist Allies declared war on Britain, France, and Portugal. They only invaded their African colonies albeit not in tandem. The World Powers were horrendously surprised. Over the next decade, Nigeria would form new countries as its neighbors and annex some territory it deserved for itself. It gave independence to Dahomey and Ashanti. Cameroon became it’s own independent kingdom. So did Senegal become an independent confederation of it’s peoples. Lastly, the United Guinea Coast was founded as a democratic Republican Federation. Liberia gained nothing. Most white nations argued Nigeria was only doing this to create weaker free states that it would later conquer. But there were no such ambitions among the Africans. They were just looking to get out of unfair European trade. France tried to establish a payment plan from its colonies to itself but Nigeria’s presence in the UN and every diplomatic talk disallowed this. France could not profit at all. In the 60’s, the Organization of African Unity was founded. A sort of economic and defensive union, several nations would act as pillars to support its neighbors in becoming stronger; Nigeria in the West, Ethiopia in the East, Egypt in the North, and Congo in the South. As more countries were founded, more members formed. The African Union evolved from this with stronger capabilities. Nigeria was easily it’s richest member. The caliphate continued to exist with never an emperor named. It still held it’s green flag with orange crescent and history from 1803 and even to the Mali Empire of Mansa Musa. Sunni Islam found a strong home in West Africa.

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