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It has been Forty One years since Napoleon became the leader of France, Thirty Six since he was proclaimed Emperor. Five decades since the start of the French revolution, which plunged Europe into a cycle of war and conflict. Such bloodshed has not been seen in Europe for 200 years, but it would be seen again. France and her imperial allies stood against the joint might of Prussia, Russia, and Austria. Truly 1814 was but a twenty year peace as the masses of Europe once against died for their crowned heads. Meanwhile, aloof to it all, Britain rules supreme as the prime naval power, one capable of adapting to the radicalism of the age.
Across the sea, the New World shines brightly with hope and violence in equal measure. The foetid corpse of the American States swirled with infection, bitter and angry. To their north laid the shining Commonwealth on the hill in New England's aristocratic and arrogant bearing. To their west remained the dream of Tecsumseh, whose population saw their numbers dwindling as their white foes grew exponentially. To their south was the proud and Catholic Louisiana, a colonial menagerie of Spanish, French, and English settlers who were slowly coming into their own. Lastly, and arguably least, lie the scattered colonies of England, her dimmest of jewels. The fisherman and harbourmasters of Nova Scotia, loggers of New Brunswick, bickering politicians of Canada, and the rapacious capitalists of the Hudson Bay Company.
But that was just one part of the multiflorid polity which was the New World. Spain's grasp on her colonies had remained firm, retaining New Spain, Cuba, Centroamerica, and Peru in spite of a generation of men and women who dreamed of freedom. Ironically, it was not these individuals who would return the flame of liberation to the colonies, but a spiteful and angry man, one who saw his best step forward being leader of a new country. But he was not alone, as farther to the south, Gran Colombia nursed her wounds, remembering the destructive war which won her freedom at immense cost, Chile enjoyed the wealth of peace and democracy, and Andea sought to become a new Shangri-La in the mountains, combining ancient ways with European Enlightenment.
But perhaps most impressively would be the vast domestic imperial power. The Kingdom of Brazil, lead by the House of Branzaga, had established itself as the inheritor of the European mantle in the most brutal of manners. None of this is most demostrated by the defacto colonisation of Portugal, who saw their autonomy stripped away and the nation run from Rio de Janeiro rather than Lisbon. The dreams of a free Uruguay, Paraguay, or indeed a free people were crushed under Brazilian boot. The United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata were destroyed after a long and brutal war, a match to any on the plains of Poland. In it's place rose the Confederation of Patagonia (an indigenous ally to Andea), the militaristic Argentine Republic of Cordoba, and the autocratic-plutocratic Republic of Mesopotamia. Alone, untouched by Brazilian imperialism, stood the hermit kingdom of Paraguay, and here tightly tied Confederation of Curuguay. Here, the President ran all civil life, creating a perverse mirror of Andean Enlightenment.
Finally, the Kingdom of Haiti lays in ruin. Destroyed by war and famine, it saw victory against the hated Spanish enemy and their Dominican fellows. Abandoned by all but the Commonwealth of New England, the Kingdom of Sugar and Coffee would require years of rebuilding and remolding. Indeed, many in the Caribbean found themselves twelfth fiddle in the plans and goals of imperial powers.
Hello and welcome to Flame and Ashes II, an alternative-history game set in the waning twilight of the Brother's War in Europe. The original game can be found here. This is a custom scenario especially inspired by @Arrow's Legacy of Jupiter (to whom I owe thanks for passively inspiring me to do this), whose lore is detailed in the following post. Usual rules apply, I plan on starting this in a week's time. I will try to run two-week-turns. Please put 3 choices yadda yadda you've all been through the spinner enough times. However returning players have first dibs. Please join us on Discord!
Great Powers:
The United Domains of Brazil and Portugal & the Algarve
Spanish Empire in the New World
United States of America
Secondary Powers:
American Commonwealth
Kingdom of Louisiana
Republic of [Gran] Colombia
Subordinate Powers
Algonquin Confederacy
Kingdom of Andea
Kingdom of Haiti
Province of Canada
Argentine Republic of Cordoba
Republic of Mesopotamia
The Great Sioux
Minor Powers:
Republic of Chile
Confederation of Patagonia
Republic of Paraguay
Mayan Communes
Colony of Nova Scotia
Hudson Bay Company
Comanche Empire
Iron Confederacy
The Haida People
The Apache
The United Domains of Brazil and Portugal & the Algarve
Leaders(s): King-Emperor Pedro IV/Prime Minister the Marques d'Olinda
Regime: Parliamentary Monarchy
Capital: Rio de Janeiro
Faction: Coalition
Economy: Large/Booming
Status: Medium/Critical
Colonial Capacity: Reasonable/Decent
Army: Medium/Poor [Quality trending downwards, size trending upwards]
Navy: Medium/Poor [Quality trending downwards, size trending upwards]
Notes: Soaring Anti-Slavery Pressure, Soaring Pro-Slavery Pressure, Rising internal tensions, Argentinian Intervention, Alvearista violence, Liberal states and Conservative Feds, Colony of Portugal, Bandit Regiments and Communal warships, Repealed Good Sunday Law, Increasing slave importation
Player: @baboushreturns
Province of Canada
Leaders(s): Governor-General Charles Poulett Thomson, Baron Sydenham
Regime: Colonial Landed Democracy
Capital: Kingston
Faction: British Empire
Economy: Small/Growing
Status: Stable/Medium
Colonial Capacity: Small/Miniscule
Army: Token/Awful
Navy: Token/Awful
Notes: Functioning Democracy, Language Divide, Quebec-Ontario Disagreements, British Garrison
Player: @Easter
Republic of Chile
Leaders(s): President Giuseppe Rondizzoni
Regime: Constitutional Liberal Republic
Capital: Santiago
Faction: None
Economy: Medium/Growing [Economic slow down increasingly likely]
Status: Stable/Medium
Colonial Capacity: Small/Miniscule
Army: Small/Average
Navy: Small/Awful
Notes: Functioning Democracy, Chilean Economic Miracle, soft settlement of the Pacific coast
Player: @Livewire231
The Republic of [Gran] Colombia
Leaders(s): President Antonio Jose de Sucre / Premier Jose Antonio Paez
Regime: Constitutional Federal Republic
Capital: Bogota
Faction: None
Economy: Medium/Booming
Status: Stable/Low
Colonial Capacity: Tiny/Non-Existent
Army: Small/High
Navy: Token/Awful [Navy growing],
Notes: extensive DEI and Dutch penetration into economy, institutional Boliviaristas & the Pacto Venezolano, Growing Venezuelan regionalism, developing women's suffrage, Cartagena Centroamericana Club (CCC)
Player: @Kirook
The Argentine Republic of Cordoba
Leaders(s): General Facundo Quiroga & the National Junta
Regime: Proto-Fascist Republic
Capital: Cordoba
Faction: None
Economy: Small/Depression [Size and economic indicators towards growth]
Status: Stable/Low
Colonial Capacity: Tiny/Non-Existent
Army: Medium/Poor
Navy: Non-existent
Notes: Cordoba Cattle Reserve, Brazilian exploitation, Argentine National Myth
Player: @Korona
The Haida People
Leaders(s): Decentralised tribal people united by language and geography
Regime:
Capital: None (tribes based around individual villages)
Faction: None
Economy: Small/Stagnant
Status: High/Stable
Colonial Capacity: None/Non-Existent
Army: Token/Average
Navy: Token/Good
Notes: Haida piracy, gun-canoes, household slavery
Player:
Kingdom of Haiti
Leaders(s): King Henri II
Regime: Autocratic Monarchy
Capital: Cap-Henri
Faction: None
Economy: Pathetic+/Recession [trending upwards]
Status: High/Exhausted [trending upwards]
Colonial Capacity: None/Non-Existent
Army: Token/Average
Navy: Token/Awful
Notes: Post-War Depression, Burning of Port-au-Prince, ravaged by disease, Code Henri (municipal autonomy), growing racial tension, dominance "food-livre"
Player: @Theaxofwar
Kingdom of Hawai'i
Leaders(s): King Kamehameha III
Regime: Autocratic Monarchy
Capital: Lāhainā
Faction: None
Economy: Small/Stagnant
Status: High/Low
Colonial Capacity: None/Non-Existent
Army: Token/Average
Navy: Token/Average
Notes: British commercial influence, Russian orthodox missionaries
Player: @Texan
Hudson's Bay Company (Territory of Rupert's Land)
Leaders(s): Governor-in-Chief Sir George Simpson
Regime: Colonial Chartered Company
Capital: York Factory
Faction: British Empire, HBC Trade League
Economy: Medium/Growing
Status: Medium/Troubled
Colonial Capacity: Reasonable/Decent
Army: Small/Awful
Navy: Token/Awful
Notes: Flourishing fur market, HBC Dollar, American fur-trading rivalry
Player: @natruska
Iron Confederacy
Leaders(s): Council of Elders
Regime: Tribal Confederation
Capital: Fort Pitt / Fort Edmonton
Faction: HBC Trade League
Economy: Small/Growing
Status: Stable/Stable
Colonial Capacity: None/Non-Existent
Army: Token/Average
Navy: Non-existent
Notes: Flourishing fur trade, immense HBC influence, bison reliance, Sioux raiding
Player:
Kingdom of Louisiana
Leaders(s): Roi Charles/G-G Sir William Napier/Duc de Polignac
Regime: Constitutional Monarchy
Capital: New Orleans
Faction: British Empire
Economy: Pathetic/Stagnation
Status: Stable/High
Colonial Capacity: Tiny/Non-Existent
Army: Small/High
Navy: Token/Awful
Notes: Osage & Four Fires Autonomy, Major Cultural and Class Divides, Low Level Crypto-Serfdom & neo-feudalism, Mass immigration & rise of party politics
Player: @Potato Anarchy
Mesopotamian Republic
Leaders(s): President José Ricardo López Jordán
Regime: """"Democratic""""" Unitary Republic
Capital: Corrientes
Faction: None
Economy: Small/Depression [Size and economic indicators towards growth]
Status: Critical/Critical
Colonial Capacity: Tiny/Non-Existent
Army: Small/Average
Navy: Token/Awful
Notes: Bloated BA & Missing Mesopotamians, Autonomous Portenos, Brazilian exploitation, de facto slavery and Brazilian settlement in Corrientes, extensive crime, bush war in Patagonia, Brazilian occupation
Player: @Zorakov
Mexican Revolutionaries
Leaders(s): Revolutionary decentralization [Santa Anna clique dominant]
Regime: Charismatic military revolutionary movement
Capital: Revolutionary decentralization
Faction: None
Economy: Small/Stagnant [economic shrinkage incoming]
Status: Troubled/Stable [Stability trending downwards]
Colonial Capacity: Large/Sprawling
Army: Large/Average
Navy: Token/Awful
Notes: Mayan dominance in Chiapas, Santa Anna Clique in New Mexico, Provincial Cliques
Player: @Skrevski
Church of Christ (Mormons)
Leaders(s): President Joseph Smith
Regime: Insular Theocratic Movement
Capital: Chillicothe, Ohio
Faction: None
Economy: Pathetic/Stagnant
Status: Serene/Low
Colonial Capacity: Tiny/Non-Existent
Army: Token/Poor
Navy: Non-existent
Notes: Zealotry, Mormon PR issues, de facto rulers of Ohio
Player: @Muskeato
Colony of Nova Scotia
Leaders(s): Lt-General Sir Colin Campbell
Regime: Colonial Aristocratic Administration
Capital: Halifax
Faction: British Empire
Economy: Small/Growing
Status: Stable/Medium
Colonial Capacity: Non-existent
Army: Token/Awful
Navy: Non-existent
Notes: Flourishing shipmaking, Responsible Government Movement, British Garrison
Player:
Republic of Paraguay
Leaders(s): Supreme and Perpetual Dictator Dr. José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia y Velasco / Edulfo Iriarte de Francia y Supremo
Regime: Paraguayismo
Capital: Asuncion
Faction: None
Economy: Pathetic/Recession
Status: Zen/Low
Colonial Capacity: None/Non-Existent
Army: Small/Poor
Navy: Token/Awful
Notes: Paraguayan kidnap scheme, Distrust of Paraguay abroad, Curuguayan interconnectedness, Land of the exiles (Uruguayan, Alvearistas, Afrobrazilians), post-emancipation recession
Player: @Skeleton Dandy
Confederation of Patagonia
Leaders(s): Patagonian Triumvirate
Regime: Tribal Confederation of Ranquel, Huilliche, and Tehuelche peoples
Capital: Leubuco
Faction: None
Economy: Pathetic/Recession
Status: Troubled/Low
Colonial Capacity: Tiny/Non-Existent
Army: Small/Poor
Navy: Non-existent
Notes: Tehuelche into Confederation, Active war with Argentine settlers, Viedma autonomy
Player: @ChaoticGenius
The Great Sioux
Leaders(s): Confederate Tribal Council
Regime: Tribal Confederation
Capital: None
Faction: None
Economy: Medium/Stagnant
Status: High/High
Colonial Capacity: Small/Small
Army: Large/Elite
Navy: Non-existent
Notes: Fur Trade Refusal, Raids on Iron Confederacy, Ojibwe rivalry, Warrior Societies, reliance on bison, summer councils
Player:
The Spanish Empire [in the New World]
Leaders(s): Queen Regent Maria Christa / Viceroy de Iturbide & Viceroy Pio de Tristan
Regime: Autocratic Monarchy
Capital: Mexico City/Lima
Faction: Spanish Colonial Empire
Economy: Large/Stagnant
Status: Troubled/High [Stability trending downwards]
Colonial Capacity: Large/Sprawling
Army: Large/Average
Navy: Medium/Poor
Notes: Rising Anti-Slavery Pressure, Institutional pro-slavery pressure, Institutional New Spanish loyalty to de Iturbide, Castilla Submission in Lima, DEI and Dutch penetration of Centroamerica, Texian loyalty, Mexican Revolution, Centroamerican abolition of slavery, Rural Ecuador, populated Tierra del Fuego, Conflict with Comanche, 1786 Apache Peace, Apache Raids
Player: @Komrade Kermit
United States of America
Leaders(s): President Lewis Cass
Regime: Federal Presidential Republic
Capital: Washington DC
Faction: None
Economy: Medium/Stagnation
Status: Troubled/Medium
Colonial Capacity: Reasonable/Decent
Army: Small/Large
Navy: Small/Poor
Notes: Southern Paramilitaries, "Servile Panic", Bank War [won by anti-bankers], Mormons in Ohio, Southern Devastation, Indiana Territory (pro-slave), Second Seminole War, rise of Free-Soilers, Abolitionism v Slavery tensions, pro-slavery military, Indian "Removal"
Player: @Traveller76
The Republic of Paraguay and the Kingdom of Andea pledge good faith, friendship, and cooperation.
The Republic of Paraguay and the Kingdom of Andea pledge to take up arms against any enemy that shall threaten the other, and to not seek a separate peace.
The Republic of Paraguay and the Kingdom of Andea pledge to uphold the independence and sovereignty of Curuguay, and all other native states in the Americas.
The Republic of Paraguay shall undertake to build a turnpike highway connecting it with the Kingdom of Andea, for the mutual prosperity of our countries and our Curuguayan friends.
The Kingdom of Andea shall provide gifts of technicians and wealth to help the Republic of Paraguay construct a riverine navy to uphole it's sovereign rights over its waters.
The Republic of Paraguay and the Kingdom of Andea shall seek to defend the rights of self-government for all oppressed peoples of South America, both of people without governments of their own, and those in occupied lands.
The Republic of Paraguay and the Kingdom of Andea shall work to abolish forever in the world the unjust practice of slavery, which is abhorrent to all moral men.
The Kingdom of Andea is granted a plot of land outside the Republic of Paraguay's capital, for the purposes of building a permanent embassy. All other countries who seek to found embassies in Paraguay will receive plots of land in the same area, to be named La Ciudad de los Forasteros.
Signed,
X - Sapa Inka Tupac Amaru III [Bernardo O'Higgins]
X - Supreme and Perpetual Dictator Dr. José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia y Velasco / Edulfo Iriarte de Francia y Supremo
The Treaty of Cordoba
The Republic of Paraguay and the Argentine Republic of Cordoba pledge good faith, friendship, and cooperation.
The Republic of Paraguay and the Argentine Republic of Cordoba pledge to take up arms against any enemy that shall threaten the other, and to not seek a separate peace.
The Republic of Paraguay and the Argentine Republic of Cordoba pledge to uphold the independence and sovereignty of Curuguay.
The Republic of Paraguay shall undertake to build a turnpike highway connecting it with the Argentine Republic of Cordoba, for the mutual prosperity of our countries and our Curuguayan friends.
The Republic of Paraguay and the Argentine Republic of Cordoba shall seek to defend the rights of self-government for all oppressed peoples of South America, both of people without governments of their own, and those in occupied lands.
The Republic of Paraguay and the Argentine Republic of Cordoba shall work to abolish forever in the world the unjust practice of slavery, which is abhorrent to all moral men.
The Republic of Cordoba is granted a plot of land outside the Argentine Republic of Paraguay's capital, for the purposes of building a permanent embassy in La Ciudad de los Forasteros.
The Republic of Paraguay is granted a plot of land outside the Argentine Republic of Cordoba's capital, for the purposes of building a permanent embassy in Cordoba.
Signed,
X - General Facundo Quiroga & the National Junta
X - Supreme and Perpetual Dictator Dr. José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia y Velasco / Edulfo Iriarte de Francia y Supremo
The Asuncion Resolution
Let it be known that all who sign this Resolution pledge to uphold the Three No's against the Bandit State of Mesopotamia:
No Commerce with Mesopotamia
No Negotiations with Mesopotamia
No Recognition of Mesopotamia
Signed,
X - General Facundo Quiroga & the National Junta
X - Supreme and Perpetual Dictator Dr. José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia y Velasco / Edulfo Iriarte de Francia y Supremo
The Liberation of Portugal (1836): During the first year of peace in the southern cone since 1826, Dom Pedro dispatched an amphibious invasion force to liberate Portugal from the French-aligned Lusitanian government that ruled the country since 1807. With British backing the invasion went off without a hitch as Lusitanian forces fled or defected in mass and Lisbon was captured with hardly a shot fired. With little blood and treasure spilled, 3.5 million people joined the Braganza-led Brazilian Empire.
The Second Argentine War (1834-1835): Months after the Treaty of Parana is signed Argentina's leaders reneged on the peace agreement and launched a surprise attack against Brazil that successfully wiped out the Emperor's most important field army in the region. An Argentine army led by Carlos Maria de Alvear invades Brazil proper for the first time and liberates thousands of slaves leading them on a march to Rio de Janiero. They are intercepted and crushed a few days after Buenos Aires surrenders to a Brazilian naval invasion. The war results in the complete destruction of the Argentine nation and the creation of three successor states Mesopotamia, Cordoba, and Patagonia. Brazil annexed the province of Missiones.
The First Argentine War (1832-1834): Taking advantage of a civil war between competing Argentine factions, Brazil launched an invasion of Argentina and successfully captured all provinces east of the Parana River, establishing the breakaway Republic of Mesopotamia. The Argentines successfully defend Buenos Aires from multiple Brazilian attacks on the city by land and sea, yet the nation suffers greatly as Chile, Andea, and the indigenous peoples of Patagonia take advantage of the instability to seize their own spoils. Ended by the Treaty of Parana.
The Belem Servile Rebellion (1832-1835): The slaves of Belem province rose up and successfully occupied the city. The government contained the rebellion but struggled to defeat it (because of guerilla warfare tactics) despite retaking Belem from the slaves partway through the war. The rebellion eventually ended after the government came to terms with the slaves granting them freedom in exchange for peace.
The Cattle Raid on Paraguay (1831): High tensions between Paraguay and Brazil following the Cisplatine War led to small-scale skirmishes on the border and a Brazilian raid that captured some 300 heads of cattle.
The Cisplatine War (1826-1829, 1830): A rebellion in Cisplatina (Uruguay) provides cover for the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata to invade Brazil. On land, the Brazilians suffer defeats yet overall the fighting is inconclusive. However, the Brazilian navy effectively established a blockade of Buenos Aires and Cisplatina, eventually forcing the United Provinces to end their support for the rebellion, leading to their eventual defeat and flight west into Argentina and Paraguay.
Men in bright red coats marched their way past the signs marking the border of Kingston one clear day, the sunlight streaming past spruce leaves and playing patterns of shadow and light across their red uniforms. They walked shoulder to shoulder, mismatched steps creating an almost constant pattern of thuds that echoed out from the formation. The men's spirits seemed to be mixed within the formation, as young men eager for glory on the frontier marched alongside veterans of the European wars who had retired to this land to settle down. But be them young or old, eager or grim, they marched all the same. After all many of the fighting men of Canada have been called to duty, and they answer it just as expected of them.
Their orders had been rather simple, likely because their officers weren't yet trusted to follow anything truly complex, with the militia units of the Kingston getting a specific town to the west to meet at along with several other units where they would be put under the command of an officer appointed by the Governor himself. Who would be acting as both their commanding officer and their judge; the governor's eyes, ears, and hands all in one.
Though what exactly they'll be doing out west was unknown, and was a ripe topic of gossip amongst the men. No war had been declared, so that had long ago be ruled out. But everything short of it has been proposed, each claim more outlandish than the other. From a training exercise to bandit hunting, and even some claims that the governor was trying to declare independence like the Americans. The last one getting the man who claimed it harshly punished for spouting such nonsense. But no matter the speculation the men were no closer to knowing what they had been called for, but it was certain they would find out soon enough once they made it to the meeting point…
In June of 1787, James Madison addressed the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on the dangers of a permanent army. "A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty," he argued. "The means of defense against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.
Experiences in the decades before the Constitutional Convention in 1787 reinforced colonists' negative ideas about standing armies. Colonials who fought victoriously alongside British redcoats in the Seven Years' War concluded that the ranks of British redcoats were generally filled with coarse, profane drunkards; even the successful conclusion of that conflict served to confirm colonists' starkly negative attitudes towards the institution of a standing army. The British Crown borrowed massively to finance the conflict (the war doubled British debt, and by the late 1760s, fully half of British tax revenue went solely to pay the interest on those liabilities); in an effort to boost its revenues, Parliament began to pursue other sources of income in the colonies more aggressively. In the decade before the Declaration of Independence, Parliament passed a series of acts intended to raise money within the colonies.
While a large professional army was anathema to both Jeffersonian and Jacksonian thought, the experiences that the United States underwent since the War of 1812, the Servile Revolt, the growth of New England, Louisiana and Indian Confederacy forced many to concede that a the country could not rely simply on a small professional force bolstered by state militias of varying quality. While the Southern states were hesitant to fund military expansion, fearing one day the seizure of their property, they did allow the creation of a U.S Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and several Universities started looking into funding Officer Training in various Universities to provide a pool of officers for the militias and US Military. The hope was to create a class of 'Citizen Officers', highly educated men that represented the best and brightest of their communities for others to emulate. While the Regular military would be kept small, the training and equipment standards of the various militias were to be raised to simplify logistics.
A second way to win over critics was the funding of local infrastructure to not only improve trade but make communication and deployment of military troops and supplies easier and faster. Taking a page from Roman history, the construction of roads would bring the national closer together along with providing work for local citizens and businesses, it was here that the local 'spoils system' would appear, with state and Congressional critics brought over with promises of government contacts...
The Kingdom of Hawai'i was a kingdom under siege in a rather non-traditional manner. Instead of armed and angry invaders, the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands were under the constant pressures of influence and trade. Initially the foreign traders used the islands as a harmless stopover, this was not to stay true forever. The first Russian forts arrived in 1821, alongside their missionaries. This brought the attention of the British, Russian rivals in hegemonic influence in the Pacific. This European feud birthed a shadow war on the Pacific Coast of North America, waged between fur traders, frigate captains, and company-men. In Hawai'i, this war remained one of words. Influence was laid on thick for the Hawai'ian royal house, with the Russians making particular effort to ensure the men of Kamehameha were treated with respect. King Kamehameha II even managed a visit to St. Petersburg just in time to the funeral of his friend Tsar Alexander. Kamehameha II would pass later the same year in 1825, succeeded by his son Kamehameha III.
Torn between the Orthodox Christian teachings of his mother and his desires to maintain the old traditions, King Kamehameha III could nothing but watch as his nation was signed away in the Treaty of Kerch without his signature. A vassalage in fact, British forced the Russian Empire to acknowledge the Sandwich Islands as part of the English hegemonic sphere of influence. Without issue, but under watchful and nervous eyes, the vast majority of Russians fled from the island chain. Only a lone monastery remained, staffed by Orthodox monks.
The British quickly made use of the Russian abdication, allowing their colonial corporations to enter the island chain and easily dominate trade. Soon the vast majority of commerce on the island was funneled through British hands, either through the purchase of Hawai'ian goods, the sale of European goods, or acting as a mercantile middleman. This left the Royal House understandably nervous. Taking advantage both of his family's close Russian ties and the current market dominance of the British, the palace sought to arm 50 men to act as a royal guard.
Unfortunately for the King, the Russians were of no assistance as they were focused on treaty negotiations to end the Brother's War. The British, on the other hand, were more than willing to take Hawai'ian specie. Brown Besses were purchased from willing traders, and a mixed ethnicity company of 50 men were housed in temporary structures until the barracks (deemed ʻIolani Barracks) could be completed. Thus was born the Hawai'ian Royal Guard. Armed with British weaponry, officered primarily by immigrants, and residing in tents until the barracks was finished, it was nevertheless the largest permanent garrison on the island. Not counting any roving Royal Navy ships in the vicinity of course.
A Treaty of Peace between the French Empire, Her Allies, and the Russian Empire, Kingdom of Prussia, and Austrian Empire Treaty of Munich
Ever desirous of a return to peace and goodwill among nations, representatives of the French Empire and Her Allies (hereafter France), the Russian Empire (hereafter Russia), the Kingdom of Prussia (hereafter Prussia), and the Austria Empire (hereafter Austria) do agree to the following terms,
ARTICLE I.
That from the moment of the exchange and ratification of Signatures on this Treaty, peace and friendship shall return to the relations of France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria.
ARTICLE II.
That all Prisoners of war and persons held captive by any of the Signatories, having entered into such a state following the outbreak of hostilities, be returned forthwith to their place and Country of origin; and similarly, the known remains of all soldiers, sailors, and diplomatic personnel of the Signatories be also returned to their place and Country of origin.
ARTICLE III.
That from the moment of the exchange and ratification of Signatures on this Treaty, France and Russia, and Prussia and France, shall enter into a pact of non-aggression, which shall expire ten years hence, and which may be extended at any point and under any terms whatsoever.
ARTICLE IV.
That France affirms its recognition of the Grand Duchy of Poland to be the inheritor of the title, realm, debts, and inhabitants of the former Grand Duchy of Warsaw.
ARTICLE V.
That the city of Posen, and it's environs, be ceded by the Grand Duchy of Poland to Prussia.
ARTICLE VI.
That the city of Trieste, and it's environs, be ceded by Austria to the Kingdom of Italy.
Signed in the City of Munich this Third day of March in the Year of Our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty.
OOC: These writings are not the personal views of the author. This is a representation of historical injustices in action.
One of the most popular books of 1840 in the United States would be Nathanael Stafford's Of Tomorrow. Stafford was a Professor of Ancient History, especially Greek and Roman civilization and had already written several textbooks and research papers. This book would be his first book marketed for a broader audience and would be written so that even those with limited secondary education would be able to understand. Stafford would compare the growth of Greek and Roman civilization with the United States, especially in regards to the use of slavery, expansion of the country and the use of military force. Stafford would write that like Carthage and Athens, both the United Kingdom and New England would be dominated by the merchant classes and naval traditions while the United States was like Sparta and Rome, more focused on honor and military expansion. What concerned him the most was the ration of Slaves versus Citizens in many states, stating that there was a constant fear in Sparta that the Helots might rise up since they outnumbered them massively. Only the use of the Krypteia, a sort of Spartan secret police, to literally hunt and kill the strongest and most dissident of the Helots was able to keep control of them.
Stafford proposed instead that the Negro population would be kept as a Permanent Minority by encouraging immigration of White Protestants from Europe, pro-natalist policies and industrialization, while the proposals about industrialization would anger many large landowners, it was seen as necessary to produce armaments for national defense and expansion....
They looked outwardly at the cosmos. The stars that reigned above... the majesty of the universe in its full breadth in the desert coastline of the Atacama.
The sun rose and the cosmos in all of its glory, its vibrancy, had captivated the heart of the soul.
Descriptions of the stars that would be translated into words, words on paper that people read... paints onto canvas bled. But for the eyes to see was second to no other, for the stars above that we are under, remind us that our place is both big and small.
Thoughts of the cosmos pre-occupied the night for the two astronomers, but beyond there were other concerns Andea as a landscape had. The interest in the sciences the Andean nation had shown were enthusiastic, but much of it relied on private partnerships with cooperation largely from the army, with some Quechuan chiefs also taking an interest.
Financiers of expeditions into the mountains, deserts, grasslands and jungles of the nation had become popular stories, as old sites were restored for either historic veneration or to rekindle elements of the landscape's traditional systems.
And most notably, the ancient mountain settlement of Machu Piccu, which lay in contested areas of Peru and Andea.
Emissaries of the Andean government had travelled here, alongside numerous Quechua chiefs, meeting their kin among the Peruvian Quechuans. Declared a site of national significance and of cultural heritage, the site has also been seen as a cultural revolution in Andea, and a site that alongside Peruvian counterparts would help to maintain historical monuments and sites of culture, an effort that was given great leeway thanks to improved diplomatic relations between the New Spanish authorities and Andea, who had tried to maintain a peaceful co-existence with their neighbor despite initial revolutionary hostilities. All the same, the political pressure on Peru that Andea exerted could not be denied, for Andea encouraged great amounts of travel between the nations and welcomed migrants, many of which shared the same cultures of the nation.
The nation of Andea was heavily characterized by the Quechua influences of its people, alongside Spanish settlers and other groups. Little flow of external immigration came to the nation beyond very direct lines that the government secured, either through emancipated slaves then invited to live in the nation, or abolitionists and nativist allies; and as such a mentality of preserving both the nation's traditions as well as its dedication to progress came to a clasping compromise.
As the stars aligned, so too did the Andean society. The Mita system, criticized by some as an anachronistic interpretation of an otherwise feudal state of affairs, had been revolutionized into the Andean popular culture through keen alliances built up between Quechuan chiefs and the government under Emperor Tupac Amaru the 3rd. The nobles wishing to increase their political power by harnessing government interest in potential reforms aimed at bringing back a system that in their eyes, ensured the stability and long term maintenance of the landscape and its resources under (at least they initially hoped) their guidance.
Inside the nation, there was great matters of debate on the organization of labour, the rights of workers- commoners especially. Andea officially had a stance that abolished slavery, yet some fear that the Mita system would render everyone not of a land owning class to the status of a serf. Emperor Tupac Amaru the 3rd, originally Chilean Bernardo O'Higgins, was 62 years of age. Within his nation he had his old military cadre and the generations of soldiers it inspired, who were dedicated to the concept of South American liberation and autonomy. The ideology of which had evolved into forming an egalitarian state that found compromise with the local landscape and its people, that averted from unnecessary war and took measures to protect the peace. No laws against immigration had taken place under his reign, the lack of immigration being a result of European powers having little interest in Andea and many settlers wary of the indigenous influenced government.
What immigration that did occur with Andea, had been with contracted labourers from Japan and China. Populations of these immigrants were offered cheap paying jobs, and also benefitted under the same laws that applied to the Mita system- and were able to learn Quechua, Spanish or Mapuche (the availability of instruction often being regionally dependent) through paid courses... a requirement all immigrants having to have in order to apply and pass the citizenship test being the ability to speak at least one of those 3 languages. Other laws and stipulations as well had made it a very long, gradual process to obtain citizenship in Andea, requiring variable years of residency based off of different conditions... marriage and military service granting expedited, guaranteed citizenship after three years of marriage/service. Otherwise, the wait was five years worth of residency in the nation before one could apply.
Andea knowing its position was unappealing to Europeans had made great sense of accommodation to East Asian immigrants and those across the Pacific, and a growing population of these immigrants found themselves migrating alongside liberated African slaves to the provinces of Jujuy and Salta largely at the discretion of government agents and local interests wanting additional volumes of labour. Housing was provided to each of them, with the availability of sale being given to the immigrants and liberated slaves should they decide to stay. While Argentine homes were offered back to Argentines... only some returned, and many houses ended up abandoned and being occupied and repaired- in which case under Mita laws those who restored a defunct property were given preferential treatment in the claim to its ownership.
A great many homes remained abandoned, and were eventually finding themselves sold to a growing community of freemen and immigrant contract workers from East Asia. While Andea was fairer in treatment of such immigrants than most of the Americas, Chinese and Japanese labourers found themselves in a new land with official state documents requiring knowledge of state languages. Payment, while kept to a national minimum wage as dictated by the Mita system, was at first only on par with unskilled labourers. While protests of workers were not harassed by police elements, the same could not be said by a growing tension between protestors and 'scabs' who sought out to break up any sense of labour organization, and ongoing pressures from law enforcement to mediate such affairs prompted tough decisions to be called.
A growing sense of drug problem also pervaded communities from the years of warfare in the south, from alcohol abuse to opiod addicts, the latter especially being highly prolific among the Chinese labourer community and conflict veterans. With many of the Chinese labourers coming from Guangdong where opium trade was an epidemic. Such substances were seen as illegal in Andea, and were harshly persecuted, with workers too addled by the drug often being sent on ships out of the country and back to their homeland had they proven too problematic for local authorities to deal with, often times picking up new workers in the process... or becoming vagrants, often which had met grim ends out in the wilderness as they travelled from town to town. Opposition to immigration especially from China and Japan among locals had led to cruel indifference to the plight of these workers, despite the government's claims for equity and fairness.
Where some failed to survive, others thrived however.
Law enforcement was dominant in these newly re-populated communities, with many new deputies and sheriffs joining local Argentine numbers from among the various new peoples and groups in the area, often instructed by former Mapuche army sergeants. Such was the demand to keep towns in line at the now once again rowdy taverns and saloons of Salta and Jujuy. Bandits were hunted down with ruthless efficiency by the Andean cavalry corps, and the growing navy on the coast was patrolling the seas more and more.
The rest of the nation remained relatively the same, with communities typically living as they had for hundreds of years, with the added benefit of improved infrastructural concepts being revived and an effective dole system helping most farmers in times of drought and scarcity. The innovations in water management had been a long term investment for Andea, one that kept many communities slated of thirst for both crop and creature.
Many of the new recruits were from settled populations of African freed slaves, with some of these public servants such as law enforcement and Mita system workers being Chinese settlers. Above all though the Mapuche formed the majority the new recruits. Mapuche groups had also settled throughout Andea and tended to migrate, and many of them served in the army, where as most of the immigrants who applied for the military were quickly finding themselves serving in the navy.
Much of the navy was comprised of immigrants who were attracted to the new fledgling navy's decent rates of pay, fair treatment conditions and the promise of guaranteed citizenship after 3 years of service- and while the army offered similar, the navy attracted many impoverished immigrant sailors to fill the ranks. Ships were produced, bought and otherwise brought to port... and there was a great, if chaotic, effort to get the Andean navy in order.
Meanwhile Andea itself was torn on its sense of identity and government, as primarily settler populations who remained worried about the future of democracy in the nation, whether the mixed tri-cameral system of government would remain with the democratic processes they now enjoyed, especially with a new Sapa Inka to take the throne. Unlike most monarchies however, the Sapa Inka had to be tested... the universe had to favour them. And of course, the established government who reviewed them.
Sisar Ramone O'Higgins, the crown prince of Andea and heir apparent, still had to undergo trials that tested his acumen as a leader in spiritual, physical, mental and strategic ways. Different tests that would be judged by a panel of derived experts and representatives of government who would look at the Sapa Inka and come to judge the Sapa Inka for their merit. A position that once awarded, was occupied for life.
But above all, the Sapa Inka had to show a character that was resilient and willing to lead the nation as a vanguard leader that would help shape the Andean future by cordially working with the three layers of the National Assembly.
Sisar had stated that when he reigns, should he pass his trials, that he will be expanding the infrastructure of the nation and building a navy both merchant and marine. For years Andea had expanded its ports in the Atacama greatly, developing its coastline into a series of fortified ports. And a number of shipwrights being employed to drastically expand the navy was already an ongoing effort... but one that Sisar would greatly revolutionize and expand.
He claims he will be connecting Andea to the world, and making sure that it maintains its position under the stars as a surviving nation, a surviving people, of a thriving culture and he will continue to honour the promise of both preserving the historic sanctity of the land and its people, but also tempering that with gradual implementation of new technologies and progress that would enrich the nation. A careful dance between progressives and traditionalists, while empowering the military through the expansion of the navy.
Sisar was also part of the Astronomical Society of Andea, and one of its most enthusiastic members. His father had financed geologists and astronomers to come and study in Andea, and many different scientists from across the world and in South America especially had visited sites with express permissions and guided tours. While there was not many European immigrants who wished to settle in Andea these days, there were many specialists from Europe who were interested in the exotic nature of Andea, and a growing sense of very limited tourism had begun to develop throughout 1840 as written missives, artworks made their way to exported newspaper prints of the Andean Sun abroad, becoming a quaint read for Europeans wanting to read of a romantic far away land that harnessed both technological inventions like gravity trains but yet still had llama caravans with Quechuan chiefs and army officers organizing labour columns that worked diligently to maintain stone roads and structures.
The Mita system, for all its criticism, had been reformed and built to this point as a system of public labour. Citizens had a choice of paying the majority of their taxes through compensated labour or fiscally, with the compensation often acting as a means to pay off what they owed, with many different occupational paths available. In practice providing labour was often a more assured way to be able to pay one's taxes, as paying it all fiscally was only something the middle class and wealthy could afford. A large public sector had developed in Andea, as many of the positions became relatively stable expectant jobs that one could remain in and accrue experience and further training in. The government had been following an aggressive campaign of empowering apprenticeship programs for skilled labourers especially.
Mita system workplaces where the worker was required to be re-housed to attend specific work sites, that their expenses of housing and food were covered, with individual property owners contributing to the Mita system getting both government compensation and tax breaks in order to make the enterprise worthwhile to them.
Conditions of the workplace was monitored, that the government enforced with its appointed Andean Intelligence Agency... who mostly reported information back to then be brought to the National Assembly's Court of Justice should the offense prove to be of a national concern, or to the likes of a Local State Council with each region of Andea having its own autonomous sense of government, unified by a shared constitution. Andea also allowed commoners working in the Mita system the right to protest should they feel that conditions are unfair, and the army did not suppress protesting workers much to the chagrin of many Quechuan noble chiefs.
While the economic advancement of the vast majority of Andean citizens had been greatly improved over the years, with the Neo-Mita system providing a stable public sector economy, it also brought with it simmering tensions under the surface. Quechuan chiefs were divided between revolutionary Mita implementation being an empowering way to reform and advance their nation while still keeping their sense of traditions, to some feeling as if the government appropriated the Mita system as a concept and then radically changed it. With such radical changes completely perverting and warping the original concept of the system.
And for others still not versed in Quechuan cultural principles, the Mita system had been seen as a means for the government to try and align its stars, to appease the nobles who had backed the Chilean exile army led by O'Higgins, the bravado filled cavalry general who literally married himself to the natives of the land by taking his wife Achiq. Positions among non-Quechua saw O'Higgins as a bizarre contrast of both accepting indigenous monarchist sentiments but yet also embodying democratic and social progressive elements. The Mita system was at first seen with apprehension with the connotation that it was Inca inspired serfdom, but over time through careful public portrayal and dedicated officers among the AIA and allied chiefs, the Mita system became a renewed national concept across Andea.
And within the army especially, who were all educated and taught a vast variety of subjects that rivalled the most educated armies of Europe; was a growing class of military intelligentsia with a very progressive and often times radical revolutionary bent. Many of which had read radical authors from Europe, and ones who looked to emerging thoughts on labour from North America and Europe as their own endemic labour system emerged. Translated and directly imported literature from Germany, France, Spain, England, America, Gran Colombia, Peru and from Argentina reached Andean book shelves of military offices and pouches. Andean soldiers, many of which by now are the second generation of locally recruited soldiers entering the Andean army, now finding themselves under a government that advances and invests into its public servants, especially those in the military.
A nation where freedom of speech was allowed, where newspapers that openly critiqued at times the Sapa Inka were allowed to circulate- albeit rebuffs in print and debate was an encouraged factor in Andean society... something that surprised some of the more conservative detractors of the regime. Where even the Sapa Inka- who had in times past of the Inca empire held absolute authority- was open to criticism. Emperor Tupac Amaru the 3rd and his wife Achiq had in the newly formed regime of the tri-cameral assembly system of military, landed elites and state recognized awarded citizens and democratic representatives held a mostly moderate government that focused on diplomatic compromise and gradualist policies. Albeit the biggest loser in the diplomatic game had been by far, the Roman Catholic Church, who while not openly persecuted, had most of its lands over time re-distributed during the early days of nation. Many churches still existed however, and much of the landscape was still Catholic, albeit the political power the church once had, had completely been defanged with priests only being consulted in very specific spiritual contexts and panels. And a surge of other Christian groups and indigenous belief groups had proliferated across the landscape, encouraged by the free thinking atmosphere.
Writers, artists and singers were hired to promote Andean cultural values and for Sisar's astronomer partner, who was a student from La Paz university and son of a military man as well. His good friend Sancho came from an interracial relationship between a Mapuche cavalry officer and that of a local Peruvian Spaniard. Fate had it in that the two young men were travelling to the coastline, Sisar having gone to much of his schooling with Sancho.
Sancho's father had fought in the south in Argentina, and word had it that while the borders of Salta and Jujuy were relatively secure, that another war was brewing. Brazil, Paraguay and the remnant Argentine republics of Mesopotamia and Cordoba were squaring off, with Andea's ally Patagonia looking across the horizon with trepidation for the violence to come. When Sancho had asked his father of the affairs down there, he said that there would be no sober opinions of the south.
A confusing situation... and one that affected both Sisar and Sancho's families quite directly. But for just a night, a singular beautiful night, the two could look at the stars and embrace the beauty of life and the cosmos... even if among such stars was discord and despair.
The stars twinkled brightly, and in that there was hope.
"Bandits will raid Gad, but Gad will raid them back." Gen 49:19 1841
The history of British North America in the period between the American Revolution and the War of 1814 is fascinating. Losing Her Majesty's most populated and valuable series of colonies, the British Empire was only left with Her more fringe holdings. To the north laid Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Lower Canada, Upper Canada, Newfoundland, and Rupert's Land. These constituted lands used in an extractive manner; desired for their exports back home. Timber for Her Navy, fur and fish for Her Subject's heads and stomachs. These lands were populated by fierce people, who were confident in their unique Britishness. A Britishness which was now being fundamentally threatened by the introduction of Americanness, an unruly nature which disrupted the natural balance. However beyond this arrogance hid a people were in the minority (although they thought themselves the only people). French speakers and numerous First Nation bands outnumbered the Anglo-speaker by a significant amount.
These lands, quite cold and unsettled, were only organized when and as needed in order to ensure Her Majesty's taxes were collected and order was maintained. Only in Lower Canada was more bureaucracy required to ensure Her Majesty's Francophone Subjects stayed within the Empire. A royal protection of language, educational, and land rights; of what it meant to be a Canadien in a manner similar to their fathers and forefathers. But the rise of the United States prompted a potentially dangerous rival, a power capable in and of themselves.
This led to the rise of the concept of British North America. One which was realised after the United States' defeat in the War of 1814. A society fundamentally at odds with a violent and expansive bedfellow, a nightwatchmen state above the Great Lakes protecting North America from the USA. British North America was widened rapidly as Algonquin-speaking First Nation allies flocked to Tecumsehland. Her Majesty's Francophone Subjects found themselves returned rapidly and powerfully into land much larger than Lower Canada, a clean slate with it's most offensive recent history being actively deported back to Atlanta, Montgomery, and Norfolk. Wayward Americans, tired of their most raucous fellows, returned partially under their newfound Commonwealth. A new age, and a new focus, for the British Empire emerged. This left Her Most Loyal Subjects in his fringe areas to return to the fringe. A race to the Pacific was no longer a potential race for a border, but a Sunday walk down the market. The British were free to settle as they saw fit.
The peace allowed the ghastly figure of "governmental autonomy" raised it's head once again. In Nova Scotia, the province's Lieutenant Governor Sir Colin Campbell was sending numerous complaints of the ruckus caused by one Joseph Howe called for the end of aristocratic governance and the introduction of "responsible government of citizens". To stop Howe's infernal racket within the chambers, the colonial parliament passed a pair of electoral bills. The first saw the introduction of simultaneous polling across the colony during election days, and elector requirement reduced from land and an annual income of 40 shillings to land and an annual income of 25 shillings.
In Lower and Upper Canada, revolts saw many men dead as they sought to overthrow the oligarchic structures which governed the colonies. The former was solved by the introduction of representative government, and the latter solved by a reorganisation of the two colonies into a single province. This province, Canada, was a strange beast. Held together by promises and expectations, it's provincial government sought to reinforce it's legitimacy with the public. This desire unfortunately fell into the plans of the Governor General, the Baron Sydenham, who was more interested in reinforcing the Anglican nature of province of Canada. The Baron Sydenham ordered the Provincial Assembly to have the various militias and fencibles in the region out "on the Western Theatre". There would always be malcontents and ne'er-do-wells to deal with, he justified. Unfortunately for most, it proved both right and wrong. To a hammer all is a nail, and when malcontents could not be found, new ones were created. Catholics and non-English speakers were targeted and harassed, with battles looking little more than extrajudicial executions. Furthermore, the rugged and far nature of the campaign resulted in numerous deaths.
Thus, when the campaign closed for the winter and the Canadian infantry returned, there was an uproar. The Anglos were angry that good English men died for no purpose, while Catholics and the French were angry about their targeting by militia. Worse, the Baron Sydenham passed away suddenly on September 19, having suffered severe gout in silence. This left the Province of Canada with little to take away from Sydenham's Misadventure. The only good news was the census data collected by Sydenham's troops throughout the rural wilds of Western Canada. The first true attempt at understanding just who and how many lived in those far off settlements.
Unfortunately, this would not save the Baron Sydenham's reputation in the Red River Colony, who would begin to receive stragglers coming out of the bush. Frenchmen and Catholics speaking about being driven from their homes by British soldiers. Yet another thing that Henry Labouchere, Baron Taughton, would have to deal with as he sailed across the ocean to become Canada's new Governor General.
The dissolution of the Republic of Rio Plata would have immense and far reaching repercussions throughout the Southern Cone of South America. Tales of the horrors of the war there would frighten away many poor Europeans, leaving the only ones to arrive those with no knowledge and no ability to read. These people, often from places itself ravaged from war, would be distraught to be simply replacing families in the region who themselves fled. In Buenos Aires, la Ciudad de las Lágrimas, this demographic shift saw shantytowns of Platan emigrants replaced by equally poor Villa Alemana and Polacito. But this was not all. Buenos Aires had exploded in size, all while run not by those who were qualified but rather those who were left. Waves of politically motivated purges and exiles resulted in a distinct type of administration, an othryarchy, or Rule of the Survivors. Coined after Othryades, the sole survivor of the Spartan contingent who fought at the Battle of 300 Champions, it represented amoral parties who were able to stay in the city throughout the various administrations forced upon it. Small business owners, be it a shop or a ship, dominated as their richer compatriots died or fled. These men were in the perfect situation to lead the city under Brazilian guard, as the Imperial Army engaged in systematic kleptocratic practices. In their anger and lack of discipline, the city would be largely looted into private hands, be it Brazilian or othryacrats. Mesopotamian officers, what few could be spared, could only watch utterly helpless.
When the Brazilian government sent down officers to look into the corruption rife there, they were horrified. The expected actions of a conquered army were put to shame as aristocratic Colonels and Majors found a second rape of the Sabines. Their flurry of reports would gain traction in the Imperial Court; the Emperor livid. With the wars over and peacetime here to stay, the resulting budgetary surplus was laid into tackling the problem. Base pay for sailors and soldiers was nearly doubled, while a careful examination of officers and suspect characters within all branches begun. This all would be reinforced a regular rotation schedule of foreign garrisons. This would bring immense relief to the crushed people of the city when word broke out, as well to the few Mesopotamians who found themselves twiddling their thumbs instead of administering in any real way.
This, perhaps understandably, went over incredibly poorly in Buenos Aires. Men had grown accustom to their lives, and resented Imperial investigations into their schemes. Fortunately for these singularly amoral men, a different series of missives arrived from Rio de Janeiro. The Portenos would rise up against Mesopotamia, abandoning the current pretense which existed on maps, and create a city state under the protection of the Brazilians. This played right into the hands of the amoral; wolfish grins spread wide.
On September 8th, 1840, the othryacrats, ever aware of their position, signed a declaration of independence while surrounded by these wayward soldiers. These men, coincidentially those under investigation for heinous crimes or were soon to be returned to the Motherland, would sign on as well. They were no longer Brazilian officers, but the foundation of the Porteno Army. These men would then largely sideline the othryacrats and refuse to sign an agreement presented extending the Brazilian garrison indefinitely. So was born the State of Buenos Aires, the State of Misery.
This would, understandably, cause immense chaos within the city. Again. The Brazilian garrison would rapidly split in two, with a large portion of rank and file remaining loyal to the crown. Those who mutinied would take off their identifiers and took to wearing Phrygian hats, a nod to the city whom they now were loyal. Thankfully violence was minimal, as members of the Army of Buenos Aires would meet with those remaining officers of the Imperial Army and justified their actions as being within the terms of the Emperor's missives. The Brazilian, cowed and unwilling to fight the men they had journeyed years with during the First and Second Argentine Wars, therefore did not listen to the advice of those aristocratic Colonels and Majors sent by the Crown. They accepted what had happened as fate and continued to operate as before from their emptier barracks, this time with exceedingly less crime. The Colonels and Majors would take a ship directly to the capitol, vowing revenge and eternal enmity for what happened.
This would all be made worse by the arrival of the newly created Rio Negro Colonisation Company. A Mesopotamian creation, it sought to end the Tehuelche Bush War with a Mesopotamian victory. Captained by Delegado-General Pascual Echague, a man once close to President Rosas before rejecting Rosas' madness and joining Mesopotamian ranks. He sent his fastest runner to Corrientes, citing the need for assistance as half of Mesopotamia broke away in a single swoop.
Los compañeros de cama desesperados se convierten en enemigos peligrosos 1841
Santa Anna's declaration of revolution was a watershed moment for de Iturbide's regime. It had become a shadow empire, his deft administration reaching from Lima to San Francisco in a near unbroken line. His were the orders which destroyed Zulia province and sparked a bloodfeud with Bolivar. His were the orders to ignore the slavery issue to allow the simultaneous growth of Galveston into the largest slave trading port in the Gulf of Mexico yet the Kingdom of New Grenada was allowed to abolish slavery in entirety. His was the orders to purge the clergy disloyal to him, and replace it with men fleeing from the fall of Argentina. His was a regime held together by a syncretistic regime of benevolent autonomy and vicious autocracy. Now that his former second-in-command saw fit to revolt, so did the thin wire that held peace in the Spanish New World snap.
The first moves were crucial, and both Viceroy de Iturbide and General Santa Anna knew this. To de Iturbide, the menace required containment and punishment. They would starve in the hinterlands, as the bandits of California did not so long ago. To Santa Anna, victory begot victory. A campaign was only a campaign if you could seize it. Thus initiative was decided, de Iturbide would move to defend the many sources of water throughout the north while Santa Anna decided where he struck. He ordered new Presidios to be built, units centralised into a cordon of the north, and water protected at all costs. All of which took manpower, money, industry, and most importantly time. Time which de Iturbide didn't have, but Santa Anna did.
As de Iturbide outlined the formations of the División De Colorado, División de Tuscon, División de Nuevo México, and División de Tejas, Santa Anna struck. Some five thousand men, in high spirits and singing all the way, marched out of Nuevo México into Coahuila. They bypassed El Paso del Norte, where General Anastasio Bustamante had recently arrived from Guatalajara to organise his División de Nuevo México, and made it to Saltillo without issue. Much of the blame of this laid on the incompetent general there, Martin de Cos, who may have been politically loyal but without a tactician's mindset. His four hundred men and few cannon sallied forth to teach his enemy the meaning of defeat before realising they were outnumbered ten to one. The Taking of Saltillo, signed by Martin de Cos in order to save his own and his men's skins, would be Santa Anna's first victory.
The loss of Saltillo, and therefore half of Coahuila-Tejas, shook many liberals out of their disgruntled slumps and into action. Reinforcements from Peru and Cuba were immediately deviated to Tabasco, Tamaulipas, and Michoacan where various governors flow flags of rebellion. Governors Jesus de Cardenas, Juan Alvares, and Francisco de Sentmanat y Zayas all declared that they would no longer accept the reactionary politics of de Iturbide. These troops were joined by a cadre of generals, Diego de Leon, Marcelino de Oraa Lecumberri, and Leopoldo O'Donnell, recently arrived from Madrid. Experienced commanders who fought for Isabella and the Cortes successfully.
What these commanders found was frightful to their liberal pretensions. Repression of the clergy, not in search of a secular society but as an element of political control and policed speech. They found the latifundias fat and wealthy, with the teeming masses who tended to their haciendas illiterate and suffering under malnutrition. They found the local Spanish naval stations and garrisons led by an officer corps politically dedicated to and reliant on de Iturbide's personalist regime, including those troops from far away Peru and Cuba. Worse, reports of widespread slavery in Cohuila-Tejas, with slave ships actively carrying slaves inspite of the Royal Navy's antislavery blockade.
These reports were coalesced into the Lecumberri Papers, and made their way back to Madrid. Read before an embarrassed Cortes, whose arrogant liberalism clashed with the realities of successful colonialism, the answer was simple. Viceroy de Iturbide was ordered to present himself before Her Majesty and explain the situation.
When this royal missive was presented to a visibly thinner and paler de Iturbide, he was fighting for his political and militaristic life. Only to his far west was he seeing victory. Mariano Vallejo's Soldatos de Cuera reported that Alte California was peaceful, but Nicholas Bravo's bandits were raiding Nueva Navarra and Baja California to the fury of local landowners. Thankfully, the local garrison would catch "General" Bravo and his men and slaughter them in their camps. The disgraced general would no more fail to live to his early successes. The Divisións de Colorado y de Tuscon reported restless troops as not even the Apaches dared raise the army's ire. Bustamante was forced to divert his attention east as a Great Raid occurred, with Comanche troops armed with firearms and light cannon burned numerous Texian settlements to the ground, forcing the retreat of the Texian Militia to protect their land. With his path therefore open, Santa Anna marched upon Monterrey, assisted by de Cardenas' garrison in Tamaulipas who cleared the way.
It was in this outlook that de Iturbide rejected the royal summons. Citing military excuses, his decision would have massive ramifications. The writers of the Lecumberri Papers would return to the mainland with de Iturbide's answer in hand, while throughout the Spanish New World the rumors spread. In Spanish North America, General Manuel Pedraza declared de Iturbide a traitor to the crown and declared the province of Pueblo loyal to the Crown. But de Iturbide would not take this lying down. He brought forth his vast political machines, his mammoth personal politics, and forced the clergy, administrators, and tradespeople of New Spain to paint Santa Anna's Glorious Revolution as nothing more than a common bandit's search for a fiefdom. Every slander that could be thought of was allocated to the General. Every raid or crime against Spain, even relating to Comanche or Mayan raids , will be linked to Santa Anna. Stories that he looted Santa Fe, made an alliance with the Comanche by taking a Comanche wife, is secretly homosexual, practices sorcery, or other superstitious slander will spread from bars and bards, pamphlets and plantations, until mothers tell their children to obey 'or else Santa Anna will drown you in the river'.
But Monterrey was not the only theatre, as the one armed general Victoria Guerrero left his jungle hideouts with his Mayan allies and sought to take Oaxaca. With the rising of Tabasco, General Guerrero had an open pathway to Veracruz. The irony of General Guerrero besieging Veracruz not lost upon him, he would barely hold off a Cubano-Peruvian relief force with the help of General de Sentmanat y Zayas. His seizure of the city by the end of the year would be widely applauded, after a revolt of the citizens within who had no wish to experience yet another painful siege, especially against the former defender of the city.
In Guatemala, Francisco Morazan was joined by Vincente Filisola to defeat the various Mayan communes. The two would clash immensely, as Morazan's liberal leanings would push him to seek an amenable peace, while Filisola sought only the sword and the rod for the Mayans. This would come to a head when Morazan sought to defend a Mayan village as Filisola ordered it burnt. The Fight at Tzacol would see Spaniard fight Spaniard, with Filisola's militia driven off by Morazan's forces and a mob of Mayan villagers. Morazan's actions would spark peace throughout Guatemala, as Mayan villages would agree to the Tzacol Agreement as they heard about it, but also prompted the Kingdom of New Granada, extending from Guatemala to Panama, to declare themselves loyal to the Crown.
The penultimate battle of the year would occur outside of Monterrey. Santa Anna's forces would meet de Iturbide, forces of personality backed by men, iron, and powder. Behind Santa Anna was a menagerie of militias, liberal, conservative, and nationalist, surrounding a core of veteran infantry and captured cannon; all enflamed with elan. Behind de Iturbide his tried and true infantry, flanked by the most powerful cavalry columns in the New World, famed for their effectiveness and their brutality, including the reviled American chivalric orders. His army was blood thirsty, confident in the success of reaction over revolution. For that is what it was, revolution versus reaction, republic versus monarchy, man versus man.
But as the men marched ahead and the cannon began to boom, the people of Monterrey climbed and clamoured the walls. Families would pass down stories for generations of the fighting there, of how the man who defeated Bolivar made his stand for his kingdom. But everything that de Iturbide hoped for, everything he worked so hard for, would be gone in an instant. A cannonball, likely looted from Saltillo's armoury after the failure of de Cos, crashed through the legs of de Iturbide's horse and bring it down. Crushed beneath the horse would be de Iturbide, his ribs crushed and his heart still.
As word spread of de Iturbide's death, his army would waver, but it would not fall. Anastasio Bustamente, having heard reports of Santa Anna's movements weeks ago, would enter the field. His march was one compared to Harold Godwinson's march from York to Hastings, where he hurried and harried his troops from northern Tejas to Monterrey in a matter of days. His troops were tired and ill equipped to fight, but that did not matter. Santa Anna accepted his loss without knowing his victory and retreated from the battlefield in good order. So died de Iturbide, and so was Francisco María Lombardo thrust into the position of Viceroy. A conservative minister of finance and lawyer, Lombardo was meant to inherit a peaceful but economically stratified empire. Instead he inherited one in flames and ashes.
Delegado-General Pascual Echague was at a man in the right place at the right time. With the declaration of Porteno independence, the city's fate was set in stone but not the province. Whilst Buenos Aires had spread like an animal, starving and miserable, across the land it had a sizeable rural area encompassing it. Echague's runner returning from Corrientes at top speed, his orders were delivered. These orders he accomplished with a velvet-gloved hand, as was expected from one of Mesopotamia's least blood-sodden generals.
Spreading out his long column into a series of impromptu pickets surrounding the traditional city limits, the State of Buenos Aires was too busy meeting with Brazilian diplomats and biting their nails in anxiety. After all, the citizens of the region had felt the pinch of the Brazilian Navy's blockade, and the deep seated hunger that caused. Whatsmore, cattle payments from Cordoba would likely be stayed if war broke out, forcing immediate food riots.
Thus, with the nascent state unable to counter, the Mesopotamian forces ensured that the province of Buenos Aires did not join the city. For all intents and purposes, Buenos Aires was a true city state in the make of European principalities. Thankfully, the State was able to ink an agreement with the Brazilian government, signing a ninety-nine year lease for a naval base in the city. This statement of peace was accompanied by a quick and bloodless coup by the Buenos Aires armed forces. Her newly loyal soldiers and officers confident in lasting peace, the othracrats were removed and a collective junta established. Ceremonially led by General João Manuel de Lima e Silva, it established a certain reality. No matter who wins, Buenos Aires seemed to lose.
As war engulfed much of the Spanish New World, the British imperial engine roared ever forward. Represented in the vast northern territory of Rupert's Land by the Hudson's Bay Company, Great Britain was more than confident to entrench their domination of the Northwest in the wake of Spanish infighting and Russian retreat.
Orders from York Factory were terse but welcome to any adventuring fur trader. The post-Russian anarchy of the Columbia District is to end. Orders from London are to refill abandoned Russian forts, trade posts, and logging areas with British settlers. English domination must be settled in the most literal of senses.
With the nod from Her Majesty, the Hudson's Bay Company's charter was expanded across the entirety of the Columbia District. This allowed employees to swarm into the region, with British, Metis, immigrant, and rogue Russian trappers taking to the payroll. In a manner most British, physical settlement was part and parcel with economic settlement. James Douglas formalised Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island, John McLoughlin centralised control of the Willamette Valley out of Fort Vancouver, and coastal operations began operating out of Forts Nisqually and Cowlitz under the Metis rector Duncan Finlayson.
With no competition likely as the Spanish continued their war, the Russians had lost the competition for the Columbia district, and the Americans and Louisiens were both blocked by First Nations polities, it seemed a new era of free market governance was dawning in the Pacific North West, under the watchful eye of the Company of course.
The reverberations of the Argentine Dissolution (known by many names throughout South America and the world) continued through into 1841. The secession of the Buenos Aires city state from Mesopotamia, combined with the active slavery practiced by Brazilian expats and Brazilian slave hunters, resulted in a wave of opposition to President Jordan's seeming inefficacy. The freedom he promised was increasingly seen as nothing more than total capitulation to Brazilian interests. Those who didn't quietly cross the border into the proto-fascistic realm of Cordoba began to either plot in secret or express their discontent. Initially unfocused, popular Mesopotamian ire by 1841 was largely targeted the perceived extraterritoriality of Brazilian citizens. Be they coffee barons bringing the slaves into and beyond Missones, Brazilian slave hunters seeking the underground railroads through from Brazil, through Mesopotamia, and into Paraguay, Cordoba, or beyond, or even the Brazilian sailors whose boats travelled the Rio Uruguay, it seemed nothing could be done. Discontent was mitigated slightly by the movement of Brazilian citizens to the Buenos Aires province, where they still existed but at least farther away from the Mesopotamian core of Corrientes. Under the guise of the Rio Negro Colonisation Company, which did not make it to the Rio Negro thanks to the machinations of the Portenos, the Mesopotamian state unsubtly both settled and militarised the Province of Buenos Aires with semi-loyal functionaries.
Unfortunately for the Mesopotamians, this was not enough to prevent the assassination of Dom Pascul Madeiro. A coffee baron originating from Sao Paulo, he had travelled to Mesopotamia to take advantage of the cheap land and lack of competition. Bringing with him thirty five enslaved men, fourteen enslaved women, and two dozen enslaved children, Dom Madeiro had little interest in the rabble rousing of the Mesopotamians. He viewed them only as a broken people in a broken nation. That was until, on December 18th, Dom Madeiro was shot with an old pistol by Memerto Valdez. An eighteen year old, inspired by recent rhetoric, he had stolen the pistol from a nearby house and, hearing Portuguese spoken out the carriage window, quickly mounted the vehicle and fired inside. Madeiro was shot in the lung, dying a slow and painful death. Memerto Valdez, immediately apprehended by locals, would be sentenced to death and executed on December 30th. His last words would be "death to slavers"!
The secession of Buenos Aires, and it's Brazilian-led junta, would cause a wave of nationalist anger in the Argentine Republic of Cordoba. Having become a city nearly the size of Buenos Aires thanks to large influxes of slaves, Argentine refugees, and ardent Argentine nationalists, to many it seemed that this was the latest in a series of insults. One which the Cordoban junta was more than happy to coopt into their military. The Cordoban Army grew, fat and greedy, to include nearly four men in five within the Republic. Discipline was enacted by boot, lash, and bayonet, with lower rank discontent funneled away from their brutal officers and towards the many enemies who had forced the Argentine people into such a plight. Decentralised militias and tangential resistance groups alike were absorbed into the bloated Cordoban military. At the head of the them all was General Facundo Quiroga, whose organisation of officers into a planning core echoed the Austrian and Prussian general staffs of the Old World. Indeed, all who knew what was going on in the boiling kettle which was Cordoba acknowledged that war was on the horizon. It was just a matter of when and who.
Meanwhile, the erstwhile enemy of Brazil of Paraguay continued their hermit state. Life moved slowly, for all but El Supremo. Knowing his time was coming, he was quick to ratify his chosen heir before any sought to establish themselves as the next leader of the Paraguayan state. Forcing all within the town to come to the central plaza to hear El Supremo, all were shocked that he would be retiring by the end of the year. Citing the need for youth and strength in the face of the evil slavers of Brazil, El Supremo would become the grey eminence behind his adopted son.
The new El Supremo, Edulfo Iriarte de Francia y Supremo, would swiftly take the stage. Announcing the discovery of a coup against his father, he ordered the collection and execution of a dozen men who had fallen foul of either men. This included Carlos Antonio Lopez (Dr. Gaspar's nephew), local banker Mariano Gonzalez, and officer Col. Mariano Roque Alonso. Although Mariano Gonzalez and Col. Alonso were captured and executed in short order, Carlos Lopez and his sons Solano, Venancio, and Benigno all managed to successfully cross the border into Mesopotamia. They left behind Carlos' wife and two daughters. A new era was being born in Paraguay, one where Edulfo Supremo was confidently in charge.
The Republic of Gran Colombia would find itself shook as the year 1840. Simon Bolivar, a man who won the independence of most of South America's northern colonies, would pass away from tuberculosis. He was fifty seven years old. From Cartagena to Maracaibo men, women, and children sobbed, tearing their hair out in grief. The Bolivaristas saw a surge of membership as their fortunes grew tremendously in the wake of his funeral. A funeral which contemporary accounts said was witnessed by a million citizens of the Gran Republic, although this was likely naught but well meaning propaganda.
But Bolivar's death, no matter how much of a lion he was, could only distract the nation so much. To the north, de Iturbide's empire was beginning to fray and splinter. New Spain's former designated heir had taken it upon himself to throw off the yoke of Spanish rule, although many said it was only to tie on his own to the haciendas. This mattered little to many Colombians and Venezuelans, who knew of the atrocities committed in Maracaibo and elsewhere in the name of Spain. They remembered the rape of Zulia and the burning of Guayaquil strongly.
This upswelling of righteous anger, along with the endless pamphleteering of Cartagena's plurinational expatriate community, prompted action. President de Sucre announced, finally, the long held dream of the Guardia National, whose ranks grew so quickly that the government had to rely on the independent wealth of officers to provide basics such as boots, bayonets, and bullets. Guardia National units would engage in impromptu parades, women throwing garlands as nationalism seemed to sweep the nation. The people itched for war, but in a surprising turn of moderation, de Sucre simply prepared.
In Buenaventura, multiple new keels were laid down. Most were large schooners or corvettes, similar in nature to those who plied trade and piracy throughout the region for generations and already in the service of the Colombian Navy. However one, aptly the Bolivar, was a ship of the line. Utilising a steampower engine purchased from France, the Bolivar was set to be the strongest warship belonging to a free American nation in the Pacific.
In the Rio Magdalena Valley, what money that wasn't dedicated to the expansion of the Colombian Navy or the creation of the Guardia National was earmarked for the creation of a steamboat shipyard similar to that being built in Belem. With the Canal del Dique cleared, it was now possible for ships to travel from the Caribbean to Bogota. Ships that many merchants hoped would soon be driven by steam rather than wind.
To many, it seemed that peace had brought about real prosperity. A boom which saw Colombia set to surpass all expectations set after the horrific campaigns which sought to destroy it. A boom, some few pacifists thought, which could be threatened by war. A thought quickly crushed by the outpouring of jingoism which occurred after the Cartagenan expats delivered news of de Iturbides death. The hated enemy was dead, the only man who could defeat Bolivar. The people cried out, avenge Zulia, avenge Maracaibo, avenge Bolivar!
All the more, elections were slated for next year.
The North American continent by 1840 was that of incredible, lasting, contrarianism. The ring of statelets formed by the British Empire to cage the American engine was both effective and pointless. Effective insofar as they grew stronger each passing year, if not in the materialistic forms and functions of capital, than in the basic entrenchment which so affected the human psyche. Louisiana was no longer viewed as a breakaway American territory, but a Kingdom in its own right. Tecumsehland's survival, no matter the Ohio War, instilled a sense of continuation. An idea that a First Nation state was not a Londoner's dream but an Ohioan reality. The American Commonwealth represented a whiggish dream, a halfway point between the Revolution of 1776 and the excesses of Southron politics.
But not everything was a simple success. Tecumsehland, like the many rivers it controlled, meandered. Where once there was a level of zealotry inherent in rule, there was increased modernisation. White traders, once limited to a few missions like that of the Chouteau family, grew increasingly common. Louisien and Quebecois shared stories by the fire while the Canadian shared the book of the Lord to Praying Indians. Whatsmore, settlers from the USA were invited west of the Ohio river, nascent farmers who decided the risk of living under "Indian Law" was better than under America's Jacksonianism. In those ranks included more than a few followers of Brigham Young, driven from their lands by hateful neighbours, and Irishmen or Germans who were "encouraged" to leave the Commonwealth.
While there was great opposition in these actions by the stricter adherence to the Two Brothers, the Brave and the Zealot, they could not rule with an iron fist what they could not see. For every trader turned away, two more came in through friendlier rivers. For every settlement failed due to lack of trade, another arose. They could not but cry as Catholic churches, administered by Louisien priests, grew increasingly common throughout the southern territories. Peace, however tenuous, continued.
In Louisiana, this expansion of trade continued the upward trajectory of Saint-Louis. Once a humble fur trading fort, it had grown into the largest trading nexus in the West. Her favourite family, the Chouteaus, made sure to highlight this success by building the large Catholic Church between Montreal and New Spain. Further, Henri Chouteau would sign the treaty of Saint-Pierre with members of the Sioux. Well known to Francophone speakers since contact was initiated in the winter of 1659-1660, the Chouteaus convinced the Sioux to part with a hundred thousand acres on the confluence of the Saint-Croix river in trade for exceedingly large numbers of horses, guns, and ammunition. To defend this land, Fort Chouteau would be constructed. A rough outpost on the very edge of white settlement.
This self-aggrandising name, brow-raising to many in Nouveau Orleans, was but a representation of the time. As the Legislative Assembly of the Kingdom began to flex its might, the Kingdom's most powerful began to flex with it. Housing projects began cutting down on the Anglophone shantytowns, only to be named after noted politicians and be filled with generations of loyal voters. A wave of petty corruption, not tied to the nascent parties within the nation but the personalities within them. Political machines were entrenched in Girodville, Saint-Louis, Nouveau Orleans, Poste de Arkansea, la Petite Roche, and elsewhere. Democracy, and all of its ills, had come to Louisiana. All the while, the Osage and Quatrefeux produced favourite sons, not beholden to the spectacle of democracy but nevertheless able to be representative within it. This entrenchment of democratic institutions was something that King Charles, and his noble kin and peers, looked upon poorly.
To keep his sanity, King Charles commissioned the Marine Royale de Louisiane. Initially the fewer pirate schooners inherited from Louisiana's early years, a royal commission was placed at Greater Yarmouth for the creation of five steampowered river vessels. Unfortunately, the shipyards of Nouveau Orleans were incapable of producing anything more advanced than a common barge. If the Royal Navy could defend the seas, then it was up to the MRL to defend the rivers of Louisiana.
In New England, life continued as it ever did. Abolitionism motivated the political families to provide economic and humanitarian support to the destroyed island. It also motivated popular protest against the purge of abolitionist officers from the American military. These officers, by and large, would reject Commonwealth offers to join their militias, instead returning home (largely to Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, and Delaware) to return to their pre-military jobs or to run for public office. Back home in the Commonwealth, this outrage would see increased private donations to anti-slavery societies in the USA, an action not sanctioned by the polity at large.
Perhaps due to these acts of discontent in America's few free states, or because of it, Washington authorised the creation of a turnpike from Philadelphia to Atlanta. Declared by Congress as an obvious victory, one that connects the north and south in a manner never before seen in the States, the most cynical noted that it also provided a direct path for slaver militias to march into the largest free city left in the nation.
The funding for this turnpike would be sourced half by the federal government, and half by the individual state the turnpike transverses. The various state governments, seeing the benefit of improved internal transit for a myriad of reasons, all approved the Turnpike Act through their own state houses. However Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee issued their own desires to access this turnpike. Only Louisiana demurred, citing that riverine traffic was more than adequate for their uses.
Happy with their first success, Congress turned their eyes to Maryland, where the United States Naval Academy was born. Located in Annapolis, it would be the source of future generations of American naval officers, a class much needed as British, Louisien, and Commonwealth navies encircled America. But many within the states, particularly in Virginia, said this was not enough. Both a modern brownwater and a powerful whitewater nation was required to protect Americans from the enemies who surrounded it.
In the midst of all this politicking, trade, and arming, a wave was coming. The poor, frightened, and tired of Europe. A generation of peoples scarred by the battles that ravaged Germany. Saxons, Westfalians, Rhinelanders, Austrians, Croats, Poles, Hungarians, Russians, Balts, and Czechs all began to come across the Atlantic in ever increasing numbers. Week after week, more and more ships pulled into New York City and Norfolk, into Halifax and Montreal, into Boston and Nouveau Orleans, into Cartagena, Maracaibo, Belem, Sao Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro. The first Great Post-Napoleonic Migration had begun. Now would peace become a defining factor, as populations began to transit the Atlantic in exponential numbers.
America's domestic focus left room for the Seminole's to breath. Or, more importantly, to raid. A raiding party, consisting of 67 men (both Seminoles and free blacks), would mount an exciting expedition. Crossing through to their destination via simple canoes, they would land on April 8th at the banks near Fort White. A dilapidated and terrible fort, it was resident to individuals unable to leave this putrid fort by the swamp. Thieves and men immune to traditional discipline were overseen by officers who were too scandal-ridden to escape. These were the representatives of the American army whom the Seminole war party would resist. In the early morning, and with a great hurrah, the Seminoles would rush the Fort as fourth watch dozed. The men, bored, unmotivated, and weakened by illness, would put up a fight only when it became apparent that their lives were on the line. Alas, it was too late, as they would be cut down to a man. Stealing what they could, the Seminoles tried and failed to burn down the moist wood of the walls, so ingrained with mildew that it could not catch fire. Frustrated, the Seminoles instead furtively pushed over some of the stockade and threw a dead goat down the well. An act more in spite than true damage.
The loss, in the grand scheme of things, was minor. The men who died were of little import to the Army, and there were more than a few problems which were solved by their deaths. However, this did represent a needed morale victory for the Seminoles, and a very real representation of their opposition to Federal encroachment on their lands. The more jingoistic members of Congress called for an expedition to the Florida territory, to deal with the Seminoles in a more permanent manner alike to their civilised kin.
The Republic of Chile, unencumbered by the unfortunate realities of most Latin American nations of being near Brazil, continued to conduct themselves in a manner some would argue was utopic. The University of Santiago, to much fanfare and ado, would be opened after a large state grant purchased and refurbished the former O'Higgins estate. With a state-mandated focus on educating educators, it would pluck professors from second-tier universities in Europe and create the largest education department in the Southern Hemisphere. With graduates expected to enter the Chilean educational system by 1844, a school building program was engaged. From tip to top, children and adults would be able to go to school if they were lucky and well off enough. This opportunity was one which proved popular, as Chilean citizens appreciated their civic nationalism as compared to whatever chaotic anarchy infected the waters of the Rio Uruguay.
Controversial to only some, schools would also be built in lands "soft-settled" by the Chileans. Seeking to prove themselves as good faith actors, the Chileans brought in what state apparatus was not able to be filled domestically from abroad. Soon, Mapuche villagers got Chilean services by Irish-born postal workers, their roads tended by German-born settlers, and their faith tended by French-born priests. Although some of these villagers complained, they were outnumbered by those who embraced the system. One which provided them with steady work, a new faith, and all the benefits of being first class citizens in a modern democracy.
And a modern democracy it was, for not only did European settlers and Chileans go to the polls, but also the Mapuche. Giuseppe Rondizzoni would be re-elected by a healthy margin to the Presidency, with his Liberal Party securing a supermajority within the Chilean Congress. Included in this number would be a few representatives of the settled Aracaunian land. This fact would go largely unnoticed outside of Chile, as the world's quietest colonialist continued propagating what was turning into an utterly unique interpretation of liberal parliamentarism.
The island of Hispaniola was one under immense duress. The horrors of Spain were still actively haunting a population that had only stopped starving. Food had been a currency as much as gold or silver coins, with government payments commonly called "food-livre" appropriately. Thankfully, as the Spanish drew their legions back, others began to help, if with some cost. From the Commonwealth came a cadre of passionate Protestant clergy and abolitionists bringing with them food and materials. From Andea came contracts for the rebuilding of Port-au-Prince's shipbuilding facilities for the purpose of building schooners for the Andean Navy.
To many, their cost was minimal compared to the life of enforced squalor they had been living. The Commonwealth's clergy brought with them a new church, one that began actively (and ironically) thriving in Cap-Henri. The Andeans, on the other hand, began to seemingly poach all the sailors and fishermen from the nation. After all, who would turn down a chance to leave the island and gain both a place in Andean society and a steady pay to boot?
But in Cap-Henri, some within the royal court grew worried. Grateful nevertheless for desperately needed aid, the white men of the Commonwealth began gathering a religious flock while the mestizos of Andean began to deprive Hayti of what was left of her naval skills. Change was needed in order to ensure Hayti continued to retain the bodies and souls of her citizens.
To which, the printing of the food-livre was discontinued. Having reopened silver and gold mines under royal patronage (and assisted by Commonwealth and Andean specie), the monetary symbol of the Spanish War would soon no longer be an active reminder to the Haytian people. As an added bonus, Commonwealth captains were increasingly paid in Haytian food-livre, themselves finding that an active numismatics circle had formed in Boston and were willing to purchase the paper currency at a near par-level with the Commonwealth dollar. In Hayti itself, the food-livre was pegged at a 10:1 ratio to the new royal specie, with counterfeiters heavily prosecuted. It seemed increasingly that the skies were changing, slowly but surely, into a lighter shade of gray.
Dom Pedro, the forceful Emperor of Brazil, was not content with simply birthing yet another nation in the Southern Cone of the South American continent. No, taking a note from his Anglican neighbours to the north the Emperor sought to reform his government's treatment of the motherland. Under the strict guidance of Dom Miguel, the Portuguese Dominion Government (as it was disparagingly called in Paris) would be formed. A constitution, which enshrined Portugal's autonomous but subservient nature to Brazil, was enshrined by men who sought to enrich themselves by ingraining themselves into the new state. Many of these individuals were ambitious commoners or from younger noble families, as by and large the oldest noble families found it appropriate to lock themselves (and their wealth) away in the Portuguese countryside.
This government would be incredibly buoyed by Dom Pedro's return to Lisboa. Accompanied by an armada of ships, Pedro would return a large number of documents, arts, and historic objects that were taken during the flight of 1808. This, alongside a massively public donation to the Portuguese Catholic Church and a number of local charities, gave Pedro (and his lackey government) an immense groundswell of popular support. The Church would be further pleased by Pedro's reopening of Brazil to Jesuits, earning back some of Pope's favour the infamous "crowning" incident. Nevertheless, Dom Pedro and his government would leave for Brazil, and Portugal was relegated to what it was much to the chagrin of the old houses. An autonomous vassal of a former colony.
This trip would be a breath of fresh air for the Emperor, as facts back home showed themselves less than as to his predilection. The Marques d'Olinda's resignation would be accepted by the Emperor and his government collapsed into elections. The Emperor had hoped that his patronage of the Liberal Party would return it to the government, but would find that his desire had been misjudged. Instead he found an empowered Conservative Party, heady and wealthy thanks to the backing of old noble families living in Portugal and Brazil, plantation owners who were rapidly expanding their grip south, and a continued reaction against the seeming abolitionist conspiracy throughout the Southern Cone. Elected would be Zacarias de Gois, a noted provincial president in Sergipe and Parana whose oration considering the required discipline to maintain the Empire spoke to the hearts of many.
The de Gois Parliament would pass two major legislation during its first year. The first, slandered in the press as being stolen directly from the Liberal Party, was to give restitution to old noble families residing in Brazil for their lost Portuguese lands. This included both monetary compensation and the return of family heirlooms. The second would be the authorisation of a trade expedition to China. This would be the result of some extensive controversy, as the British envoy was reputed as telling his Brazilian counterpart that in no uncertain terms that island nations such as Hawaii, Fiji, and Tahiti were under the expressed protection of Her Britannic Majesty's Government and in no way to be interfered by His Imperial Majesty's Government.
Another controversy, underlining the action taken initially by d'Olinda but strengthened by de Gois, would be the raising of the Brazilian flag by members of the Brazilian Navy on Truk Lagoon. Nominally a part of the Spanish Empire's Caroline Island holdings, it was in reality ruled by warring Chuukese tribes seeking control of the island. Remembering Terra del Fuego, three sailors took a small boat out to plant the Brazilian flag on Truk, claiming it for the Brazilian Empire.
The rest of the expedition would not be noteworthy, as the tiny flotilla stopped in Macau, filling their holds with tea, spices, and china, and returned to the motherland. Also of historical note would be an aborted attempt to make a railroad, whose originators would be summarily dismissed after being reminded of what occurred in Mexico and not wanting to be responsible for unprofitable deaths.
Two lands, intricately connected to the conflict which surrounded them but not necessarily involved, were the Kingdoms of Peru and Andea. The former, a loyalist holdout whose victory had more to do from New Spanish interference than their own valour, would be taken aback by the reignition of the Mexican Revolution. Nevertheless, life had to continue on, no matter how terrifying the future may be.
Thus, the Kingdom of Peru (and the Kingdom of New Grenada) would import the teaching methods of Joseph Lancaster into their schools. An English Quaker, Lancaster sought to make education more prevalent by shoving more children into the classroom. Increasing class sizes from a few dozen to between three hundred and a thousand, the New Spanish Kingdoms were more than happy to save funds while expanding the educational potential of the colonies. This allowed some ten thousand children of all walks of life to attend classes taught at the initial fourteen test schools in Peru and two test schools in New Grenada.
The motivation behind this sudden educational reform, no matter how beneficial, began more obvious as Viceroy de Tristán came out of a secretive meeting with General Ramón Castilla announcing that payments to the Cortes will be lowered dramatically. The payment savings will be immediately applied to the federalisation of a Royal Road from Callao to Cusco, and from Cusco onto Quito. This project would be initially headed by a man by the name of Jose Pando, however Pando's unfortunate passing would force Nicholas de Aranibar to take head of the project.
This victory for the decentralists would rally power and influence around Ramón Castilla, no matter how much credit de Tristán gave away. Noted local liberals, bureaucrats, and businessmen (including spymaster extraordinare Vincente Rocafuerte) began engaging in municipal and local politics, leaving Castilla at the head of the growing Peruvista Clique. Unfortunately for de Tristán, the Peruvista Clique would find itself a rival in the de Platan Clique. Populated by military officers such as Jose de Velasco, Jose Ballivian, and Eusebio Mole, these de Platan Clique were formed by now senior officers of the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata. These men opposed the more civil oriented and Peru-dominated aims of the Peruvistans. Instead, they desired the unilateral end of Cortes influence in Peru, the subjugation of the Kingdom of Grenada to the Kingdom of Peru, and the establishment of military rule over the land.
This provided enough discontent for de Tristán to provide a strongly worded plea to the Cortes for the creation of such autonomy in the Kingdom of Peru as was being experienced by de Iturbide. The news of whose death, when spread to Peru, caused a widespread outbreak of terror. With fear of a Bolivarista invasion on the horizon, many peninsulares who were neither unwilling nor unable to flee left the Kingdom to return to Iberia. This in turned caused a minor, sudden, depression as factory and hacienda owners (and their pay boxes) suddenly disappeared in the night.
The Kingdom of Andea, on the other hand, sought a vast and expansive update to their laws. Ever the liberal visionary, Tupac Amaru III would force the court to ban slavery, amend the labour code to allow the Mita system to become a federally approved way of paying taxes via state labour (including all benefits entitled to an employee of the Royal government while serving their Mita obligations), and nearly created a labour board which reflected the values of human decency, job integrity, and responsible government. Unfortunately, Bernardo O'Higgins, Tupac Amaru III, would be found dead of a heart attack at his desk before the latter was put into place.
The nation of Andea would crawl to a standstill as it mourned the loss of its leader. Nobles, notables, and ne'er-do-wells all doffed their caps in respect to the man whose vision single handedly recreated the Quechua nation. The Sapa Inka was dead, long live the Sapa Inka. Thus Bernardo's son Sisar was crowned Tupac Amaru IV, Sapa Inka and Lord of Andea. While not necessarily nor traditionally a directly inheritable throne, the military in no uncertain terms ensured the crowning of the young prince.
Sisar, not nearly as idealistic as his father after seeing the horrors of Haiti, sought to improve Andean society nonetheless. Scraping the nigh-futuristic state labour standards, his regime began by the laying down of keels in Haiti for use in the future Andean navy while a new generation of Andean schooners were built in the newly open shipyards. At long last, a dream held by both Bernardo and Sisar was born into reality. The Royal Andean Navy, consisting of dozens of fresh schooners-at-war (including two with freshly imported steam engines), fifth-, and fourth-rates, with a second-rate who is slated for open ocean by 1844.
And this navy would not be content to sit on its freshly minted laurels. Taking an active part in the anti-slave trade throughout the Southern Atlantic, the Royal Andean Navy (refilling at friendly British islands) would detain some three slave ships, housing some two thousand slaves. These slaves, freed immediately, would find freedom and welcome back in Andea, settling nicely into Jujuy and Salta Provinces.
Further, he forced through one last law of his fathers, creating a basic right law applicable not only to whites and first nations, but also Japanese and Chinese workers brought over for three year labour contracts. With the depopulation of Salta and Jujuy, Asian labourers were used increasing as a way to manage basic projects as Andea was a desired home to neither escaped Brazilian slaves (who preferred the much closer Buenos Aires or Paraguay) or European immigrants (who were largely influenced by imported Cordoban pamphlets). This in turn would create a supportive network encouraging other young Chinese and Japanese men to travel to Andea. Interestingly enough, a non-insignificant number of Haitian immigrants began to live in both provinces, having found cheap and accessible land in which to pay remittances to their families back home.
Tupac Amaru IV would not see all of his projects come to life unfortunately. During the planning of his father's funeral, the government simply refused to move on the expansion of citizenship to a three year residency, killing the bill when the government adjourned for the state funeral. The pushback was not only from the Quechuan nobles, but also the Higginist military, who thought it was simply too short a time for men to prove their loyalty and duty to the state. However, the wily Sapa Inka managed to sneak in a clause to another military bill allowing all those who serve in the military to gain citizenship, after productive talks with the noted generals.
Seeking to improve the Kingdom's international standing, the Andean government began to make diplomatic inroads. Some, such as the establishment of small but real trading posts near Maya settlements off the Yucatan, would be met with skepticism and scorn by individuals of European persuasion but were much appreciated by the local Mayans themselves. The Spanish, particularly, were unimpressed. Others, like the establishment of the Royal Andean Standard (printed in Spanish, English, French, German, and Portuguese) would be met by a sliding scale of apathy and ridicule, to love and delight. Cordoban propaganda, floating aboard ships leaving Buenos Aires to anywhere and everywhere, had made a toxic first impression to many would-be settlers of Andean land. Instead of a culturally rich, economically sound nation, most peasants and workers heard it was a rapacious land run by pagan savages and atheistic cannibals. Interestingly immigrants would be found in countries unaffected by Cordoban propaganda, but also not capable of reading the languages the RAS was printed. In these places, the happy, hopeful drawings of Andea would spark a minor flow of peoples, usually from the most desperate lands like Galicia, White Russia, and Slovakia, to move and live in Andea. By the end of the year, Andea was beginning to be a truly rainbow nation with African, Haitian, Chinese, Japanese, Slavic, Maya, Quechua, Mapuche, and Latino populations across the nation.
Unfortunately this multiculturalism did little to help the growing antagonism between the Andeans and xenophobic Cordobans. Neither did the creation of the Gamarra Line. Named after Agustin Gamarra, a Spanish officer who was executed in 1820 after being (correctly) accused of engaging in a patriot conspiracy, the Gamarra Line comprised two fortresses and half dozen outposts spanning from Jujuy to Salta. Defended with cannons and mortars, having new and well equipped arsenals, and containing workshops which allowed the maintenance and production of basic weaponry inhouse, they represented a new first line of defense for the Kingdom.
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