Chapter 2473
The war against the Spaniards soon broke out in South Asia. This time it was not led by Haihan, but Portugal and the Netherlands. Their purpose is very clear, which is to take advantage of Spain's decline in national power to launch an all-round attack on its overseas colonies. Asia is naturally part of this battlefield.
Although Spain's trade share in Asia has shrunk significantly at this time, and trade with the Ming Dynasty, Japan and other places has almost come to a standstill, Portugal and the Netherlands do not want to miss this opportunity to beat the lost dog. What they want is not only to cut off Spain's influence in the The Eastern trade routes are to be completely driven out of Asia. In this way, they can achieve a monopoly on the East-West trade channels and obtain more generous benefits.
At this time, Spain had completely abandoned the Philippine Islands under successive attacks by Haihan, and had shrunk its territory further south to Sulawesi, Maluku Islands, and New Guinea to ensure that the colonies operating in these areas remained. Can continue to produce various spices. The profits from trafficking spices such as cloves, nutmeg, and pepper to Europe are still considerable, so despite the huge external pressure, the Spanish still refuse to give up their operations in the East.
In order to ensure nothing goes wrong, Portugal and the Netherlands naturally extended an invitation to Haihan, hoping that Haihan could also send troops together as an ally to attack Spain's colonies in South Asia.
However, Haihan no longer has much interest in clearing out the Spanish colonies in these areas. This is because of the long distance. Even if troops are sent from Manila Bay, the nearest military base, the voyage to the target area will be more than 3,000 miles. If the battle is If the period is longer, logistical supplies will become a big problem. Spain's local colonies are relatively scattered, and it is obviously unrealistic to want a quick victory.
Secondly, Haihan successively annexed large areas of land that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty during this period. It will take a lot of time to digest these areas before they can be fully integrated into Haihan's rule. In order to ensure a smooth transition in these areas, Haihan deployed a large number of armed forces to these newly occupied areas, and even transferred some of the troops originally stationed overseas to return to the mainland for this purpose.
Compared with distant South Asia, the East Asian continent is naturally more important to overseas countries. As a result, Haihan was no longer able to dispatch many troops to South Asia to participate in military operations led by Portugal and the Netherlands. Therefore, for this military operation led by Portugal and the Netherlands, Haihan only symbolically sent a small fleet consisting of two warships, a troop transport ship and four comprehensive supply ships from the Manila area to cooperate with the Portugal and the Netherlands. actions of both countries.
When the East Asian continent entered the winter of 1648, the multinational coalition began to launch an offensive against the Spanish colonies in South Asia. Since the area where the Spanish colonies are located is tropical, there is no concept of winter. There are only two seasons of rain and dryness every year, and the dry season is from November to the middle of the following year. Portugal and the Netherlands chose this time to start, because they also considered It is easier to carry out large-scale military operations in the dry season.
The battle first started in the port of Manado on the northern tip of Sulawesi. This is just a small colonial port with a population of less than 2,000. The Spaniards living here are actually less than half of the total population. The other half of the permanent population is made up of explorers from the European continent, exiled criminals, unemployed sailors and local natives. people together.
The port town was built along both sides of a river that flows into the sea here. Due to the lack of a natural harbor, the docks here can only be built on the river banks, so there are not many trading ships traveling here. In the past, it was just a small place that could not be found on the map. It was not until Spain's territory in Southeast Asia shrank to a corner of South Asia in recent years that Port Manado began to become lively.
However, due to the limited scale of development here and the lack of dangerous terrain for defense, the Spaniards did not deploy organized armed forces here, only a small number of armed personnel to maintain local order. The Portuguese fleet that arrived here early encountered little resistance and successfully completed the landing. The Haihan fleet that participated in the operation arrived at Manado Port three days later, but by this time the Portuguese had already captured the area, and everything that needed to be killed and robbed was done, so there was no need for the help of the Haihan army.
The Dutch were coming from the Java Sea west of Sulawesi at this time, but their target was not Sulawesi, which had been occupied by the Portuguese, but across the Florence Sea from its southern end. , headed straight for the Maluku Islands.
The Maluku Islands are also known as the Spice Islands. The Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain have been fighting in this area for a long time. After the Portuguese arrived here in 1511, the Maluku Islands never had peace again. However, in the past, Spain had the upper hand, and Portugal and the Netherlands often lost more than they won. But now that Spain has shown signs of decline, the Dutch East India Company will naturally take advantage of this rare opportunity to beat the losers and seize the territory controlled by Spain. into your own hands.
Due to their geological structure, the Maluku Islands experience frequent earthquakes and active volcanoes, making them not a livable place. Western colonial countries valued this place mainly for the spice crops produced locally.
After Spain was forced to abandon the Philippine Islands, it built and expanded dozens of colonies in the Maluku Islands. Although the scale was not too large, the area of this area was almost the same as that of the South China Sea. The Dutch wanted to occupy each colony one by one. Cleaning up the past took a lot of time.
Spain still maintains dozens of armed sailing ships in this area, but the problem is that their colonies are too scattered. Without knowing the opponent's attack target, it is difficult to concentrate armed forces to defend an island or a port. Therefore, in several early battles, Spain was almost unable to mount a decent resistance and suffered many defeats in succession.
It was not until the spring of 1649 that the Spanish fleet collided with the Dutch fleet cruising in the Banda Sea south of the Maluku Islands, and the two sides officially fought face to face with drums and gongs.
The Spanish fleet had a clear advantage in terms of the number of ships and weapons and equipment, with several retired warships, while the Dutch side had pro-armed merchant ships. During the battle between the two sides, the Spanish side quickly gained the upper hand. After two days of naval battle, the Dutch paid the price of three sailing ships and had to voluntarily evacuate the battlefield. After the Spaniards' victory, their morale was greatly boosted, and they chased for several days until they reached the southern tip of Sulawesi Island, before finally letting go of the Dutch fleet that had been retreating all the way.
(End of chapter)