Chapter 50: 1637-1642
On the 12th of July 1637, the sultan recieved a letter from the governor of portuguese Sofala, The cancelled the military access treaty with Oman was cancelled as well as other minor trading treaties with Oman on the orders of the king of Portugal, the sultan became worried that Portugal might be planning to become more active in the area and ordered to send some spies to check the portuguese army in Sofala.
The sultan at this time was planning a couple of reforms aimed at centeralizing the power in his hands, this wasnt met well by the warlords and nobles though.
A royal marriage was made with the Mamelukes sultanate to strenghen ties between the two countries.
The sultan made a second visit to Bahrain to check if the imams he sent were successful in their mission, when he arrived at his small tower in Manama he noticed that the people were using arabic moreo ften than the last time he visited the area and the city which had around 1800 residents included 10 mosques, the population was on a quick rise mainly due to the trade between Omani Africa and Basra, some traders preferred to rest in Bahrain's ports because the tolls and fees were cheaper there than in Qatar, this brought Bahrain considerable wealth and also connected it with the rest of Oman through trading; The sultan loved Bahrains calm beaches and rather unique culture, he wrote a valuable book about what he saw in Bahrain on his way back to Muscat and he kept it in his palace there.
In this calm period, the sultan tried to organize his plans, what he wanted to do now is to strengthen the economy so he can field a larger army that can keep enemies away for the meantime until the new ship builds are ready to replace the old and weak ones that are no longer fit for the 17th century.
This period of peace appeared like it will last for a long time, but France had her plans.
On 31 December 1640 Louis celebrated Christ's birthday with a declaration of war on heathenic Oman, this time it was the whole of France against Oman and its allies which meant that French Africa will be better defended against the omani army.
The french began the war by invading the colony of New Dhofar, the 2nd omani army was deployed nearby to block the french from advancing until the 1st omani army arrives.
The sultan was surprised by the french declaration of war, he wasnt expecting any new wars until his navy is modernized, the navy he possessed wouldnt stand much against big french navies.
On 31 Jauly 1641 the omani navy encountered a small austrian squadron, after a small battle between them the austrians escaped without having delt or recieved much damage.
In Ocotber, omani armies under Ya'rub Abbas encountered the french in their camp, a small battle occured as the rugged mountain terrain did not allow for a big battle, the french were unprepared for defending so regrouping and organizing the troops took a long time that was enough for the omanis to break into the camp, the french unorganized lines quickly broke and in the chaos most of them managed to flee the battle, 1 week after that defeat the french re-deployed inside a small fort along the Karoo but before they could prepare the defenses, omanis broke inside and after a short battle the french surrendered, leading to the destruction of their whole colonial army.
A regiement of 1,000 omani cavalrymen was created to capture french villages and settler in the inner territories along the Karoo, meanwhile the main omani army continued to lay seige and capture the main french coastal fortresses.
The omani navy was seiging the Cape colony's port while the army captures the city but before they could capture it the french navy appeared from the fog and attacked the small omani navy, it was quickly surrounded and crushed, the main omani navy arrived too late to aid it and was also defeated but it managed to escape to the port, the cape colony was succesfully captured however.