The Fulani Wars of Expansion and the Following Civil War

{Map of North/West Africa Pre-Civil War}
{See Legend at bottom of Page}

In the years encompassing the range of 1730-1734 the Fulani Caliphate had a massive series of Wars of Expansion, and with their quickly growing arsenal of modern weaponry, they would have an easy shot at many of the tribes. In fact, the whole series of wars only cost them 2,000 of their own Fulanis, while numbering in the 10,000s for the many conglomerations of tribes taken over by the Fulanis. They had assumed this rapid expansion was going to last a good while, they were intimidating the tribes within by selling some as slaves as a scare tactic, while also providing a simple and straightforward living system, where they would simply pay the Caliphate 'protection salt', basically rare minerals and gold, and they would be allowed to continue doing whatever they pleased with limited interference. 

The Caliph, Alfa Ibrahim, assumed the expansionism would only lead to good things, being someone who was studied in the successes of his northern neighbors. His expansion north had hit a halt as he could not cross ottoman territory, while his expansion west was just starting to fruition. Very slowly he had been amassing troops on the border of Grand Bassam, the only nation who he had required to call in a council in order to strategize against seeing as they had an open trade to much of the western world, with France wanting to keep them alive. In February 1735, just two months before the invasion was set to commence, an uprising among some of the Chad tribes had occurred, but Ibrahim decided onto leave one of the Caliphi {Trusted Advisor/Generals}, Abdellah Min-Al Boke, to deal with them. Which started to work out fine, until the uprising of Kanuri-Hausa, a combined group of some of the most oppressed people in the Caliphate. Tired with the frequency at which their people were being rounded up, they decided to rebel while there was a lack of Garrison. Quickly the situation escalated, Abdellah was ambushed at Muonduo on October 7th of the following year and swiftly dealt with, violently and brutally slaughtering everyone including Abdellah. Further instigating other tribes to succumb to the Kanuri-Hausa, and join the war against the Fulani.

Ibrahim had trust in his other two Caliphi, sending them to meet the majority of the Kanuri-Hausa around the river Chari, and to deal with them for good. For if one swift deadly blow was dealt against the Kanuri, all tribes following them would likely give up. 

{Battle of Lake Tchad's final movements (the Triangular piece is artillery, with each Rectangular Piece being around 3,000 men) Red; Caliphi Razak, Purple; Caliphi Amed, Yellow; Kanuri Army}

While the Battle of Lake Tchad seemed it would be easy, everyone had misrepresented the true forthcoming size of the Battle. Caliphi Razak started the action by bombarding the encampment, with his three artillery pieces, something which was rare to be able to afford/craft in Africa in general, and it demonstrated it well. In the first week, there had been massive holes implanted into the palisade erected by the Kanuri, and they had decided to charge at this weakened defense. This resulted in the first massive engagement in the area, the artillery piece had misfired and struck Razak as he was leading the charge, crippling him and the morale of the first ranks. Never-the-less the charge continued, to which they managed to breach the wall, but was met by a fierce melee encounter, to which they hadn't been prepared for since many were equipped with simply Wheellock rifles and not much else. 

Regardless, they fought fiercely, until they started receiving fire from their flanks, to which they were required to retreat back to the coast of Tchad. The Kanuri decided to hold until they allowed the Razaki army to take in the shock of the monumental encounter. Four days ahead of the charge of Razak, the Kanuri decided to advance at night with one of their armies in an effort to take out the artillery pieces which had been continuously bombarding them and securing a spot along the area so as to be able to catch the main armies off guard. They succeeded in dismantling the artillery, although much to their shock, they were met with the army of Caliphi Amed while shifting supplies, and another encounter ensued, they took fortification as well as they could and returned fire on the army of Amed, both were initially shocked to have encountered each other. The firefight lasted until morning, a long tense 9-hour encounter, only ending once the Razaki armies managed to come up onto the off-guard Kanuris and force them into a rout. 

Following this, the armies gathered themselves, and two weeks later, they launched a charge on the Kanuris, exchanging gunfire every step of the way until they were finally within the palisades, and although they managed to put the Kanuris in an awkward position and therefore push them into a final retreat, given a minor flank of the northern-most army, they lost nearly all of their men, making this a very Pyrrhic victory. A whopping 9,000 men combined, while the Kanuris had only lost a sad-in-comparison 6,000 men.

While this was appearing turning point, in the first section of what would come to make up the full Fulani Civil War, there was massive unrest rising in the main trading centers, over their children being so carelessly thrown into battles.

The true civil war had only just begun

The trading centers started encountering mass armed resistance to occupation, people demanding the Fulani change what they are doing, or they'd separate. Forcing Abdellah to re-assign his border-garrison to where the unrest was growing, in order to allow the two remaining Caliphis to deal with the massive insurrection among tribes in the north-east. In response to this increased armed presence, some of the trading cities started attacking the garrisons. War had been declared, and the leader of this group of tradesmen arose to challenge the rule of the Caliph, stating him as weak, and careless, and not fit to rule such a wide, varying, and wealthy nation. The map had become blotting. Battles would occur back and forth, the Ottomans sending troops in, the Algerians sending support for some of the northern tribes. This civil war was now Africa's first proxy war and the Western nations didn't like it. 

The Idowo-supporters, who held much of the trade, refused to trade in slaves, stating it was Anti-Islamic, and overall an insult to the people of the coast. This had caused the United States (against much of slavery, or well the term moreover, since much of their previous 'slave-labor' is now achieved by 'serfs')  to send support and spare weaponry to the people supporting Kwasi Idowo, while the Western Europeans sent weaponry to the Caliph Abdellah. 

This combination of different wars into one huge Civil-War caused a massive un-shifting stalemate in the country, not to be broken until the siege of Benin-City, which was the capital of Abdellah's regime, was decided upon the storming of the Caliph's palace in 1745. 

This left the whole of the ivory coast in shambles. Much of the deeper Niger territory was reclaimed by tribes, while the ivory coast was devastated by the decade of warfare.

The Idowo traded the first and last nine slaves that they would ever trade

As a punishment for the disastrous expansion, and the suffering of the people of what would be called the Isowo Isokan (Trade Union). Trade head -Kwasi Idowo- sold the Caliph, his main council, and his two living Caliphis to slavery. The Fulani Civil War had ended. The only real Fulani left being forced to flee to the Mauritius region of the Sahara.

{{Post Civil War}}

Legend - Pre-Civil War

Gray Crossed Section - Independent Small Tribes/Nonconglomerated States/Uninhabited Areas

Top Left (Orange) - Morocco

Top Center (Pinkish-Orange) - Eyalet of Algeria (Ottoman Protectorate)

Top Right (Red) - Ottoman Empire

Bright Yellow - Southern Algiers

Light Blue (Smack Center) - Sahara Kingdom (Otherwise known as the Ottoman Libyan Sahara)

Forest Green - Fulani Caliphate

Dark Blue (Next to Ottomans) - Conglomerated Abbysinia (Ottoman Northern Abbysinia)

Light Blue (left of Fulani) - Kingdom of Grand Bassam

{{Last two areas are simply tribes which are allied with certain trade companies and aren't fully developed states but rather communities}}

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Casualties of Fulani Civil War:

24,091 Military
150 Ottoman
9,886 Civilian Casualties

34,127 Fulani in total

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1,335 Algerians

9,672 Idowo

8,501 Tribes of the Chad, Niger, and Kanuri-Hausa

19,508 In total for the enemies of the Fulani

Result; Loss for Fulani {Toppling of Abdellah's Regime}