Más Allá: The Revival of España

Razgriz 2K9 · Jan 1, 2014

Prologue: The Birth
1771-1774
Europe
It has only nearly a decade since the end of the Seven Years War, brought about by the various treaties signed all across Europe. On paper, Europe had changed little since Prussia’s King Frederick II, known as Friedrich the Great, conquered Silesia from its rivals, the Hapsburgs of Austria, and with this war, confirmed among all else, Prussia’s position as a Great Power. Internally however, much has changed.
France was deeply in debt. Its King, the ever unpopular Louis XV, who had ruled as Monarch for almost sixty years, was plotting revenge against the British for its defeat and the loss of all its colonies in the New World. Great Britain, riding on the successes of said war, is also deeply in debt, and Britain’s colonial subjects, no longer facing the fear of a hostile neighboring power, looks to clash with both King George III & the British Parliament.
In Germany, two rivals face each other for supremacy, as Frederick’s Kingdom of Prussia tangles with the Hapsburg Monarchy ruled by Maria Theresa and her eldest son, the Holy Roman Emperor Josef II. Both nations seek to be the dominant power among the decrepit Holy Roman Empire.
In Russia, the Romanov’s Star shines brightly, taking advantage of a Civil War in Poland to further its plans to conquer the Commonwealth, whilst taking advantage of the Weak Ottoman Sultan to end the Giray Dynasty and secure a strong Black Sea Port.
Yet the events seem far away compared to the joyous news that came on 19 September 1771. On this joyous day two events would occur. First was the creation of the Order of Carlos III, which would go on to become the most distinguished military award in Spanish history. [1] The other was the birth of the first child of the King’s son, Carlos, Prince of Asturias with his wife and first cousin, Maria Louisa de Bourbon-Parma at the Royal Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. The young child was named Carlos Clemente, named after both King Carlos III and Pope Clement XIV. Despite briefly falling ill in the winter of 1773-1774, he recovered. [2] The son of the Prince and Princess of Asturias for now is safe to live a full life, and become a healthy and active child.

[1]: The Order IOTL became the highest civilian award.
[2]: POD: Carlos Clemente died in 1774. It is unknown how he died however.

----
Author's Note: Welcome to my second attempt at a Timeline, largely because a lack of interest on both sides with my Surviving 2nd French Empire TL, The Empire Means Peace. I hope that you will enjoy this TL as much as I will enjoy writing it.

Derekc2 · Jan 1, 2014

Looks promising, subscribe.

Razgriz 2K9 · Jan 5, 2014

Charles III de Borbón, King of Spain

Chapter I: The Era of Enlightened Despotism
1760-1780
The Spanish Empire

Political Reforms on the Mainland:
The Spain that Infante Carlos Clemente would grow up in was in age of Enlightenment. Spain had come under the rule of Carlos III, the son of Felipe V by his second wife, Isabel de Farnesio, since 1759, and after defeat at the hands of Great Britain, focused primarily on internal development. It was this era of development that saw many changes at home. Throughout the 1760’s such changes involved the curtailing of the power of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the scaling down of the Spanish Inquisition, even going as far as expelling the former in 1767. A Precursor to the Chamber of Commerce, the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País, was created to encourage local economic development, improve infrastructure, foster the development of Spanish manufacturing and the implementation of a unified national monetary system.
However attempts at land and agricultural reform were met with disdain. King Carlos, an advocate of free trade, reduced tariff barriers and thus ending a main feature of Spanish trade policy for many centuries. This move, while supportive of the merchantmen of whom the King favored, was met with lack of support from landed gentry and clergymen alike. Liberalization of the Grain Trade in 1765 was also met with a lack of support from the general populace, whose riots in 1766 forced the King to flee to Aranjuez, leading to governing of the country to be led by Pedro Pablo Aranda, an Aragonese who led a faction favoring a more decentralized system of governance. His successes as well as prominence during the crisis led to him becoming more prominent in court. Leopoldo de Gregorio, the Marquis of Esquilache was dismissed from court and was sent to be ambassador to Venice, where he would die some fifteen years later.
Aranda, would achieve powers similar to that of the First Secretary of State [1], and was even allies with the Chief Minister, Jerónimo Grimaldi. It was Aranda who promulgated his Census Count in 1769, considered to be the kingdom’s first census, although the later Floridablanca Census (first made in 1775) was considered to be more efficient. Through the census, it counted not only the total population (then at over nine million) but also ranked the population by sex, age and marital status. Aranda’s influence would later come to an end in 1773, and would be replaced by José Moñino, whose success in having Pope Clement XIV remove the Papal Charter for the Jesuits ennobled him as Count of Floridablanca.

Spanish-Barbary War of 1774:

Siege of Melilla

For all the troubles Spain had suffered in its martial capabilities, Spain was still considered a force to be reckoned with. It was a fact that Great Britain knew all too well. During the 1760’s and 1770’s Muhammed III, the Alaouite Sultan of Morocco was taking steps to remove the foreign presence on Moroccan coasts, having defeated the French at Larache in 1765 and defeated the Portuguese in 1769, capturing Mazagan in the process. In 1774, Muhammed, using the promise of British supplies and equipment as an opportunity, assembled an army of some 40,000 men and waged war with the Spanish, with the attempt to regain the city of Melilla as well as a fortress at Peñon de Vélez de la Gomera, over a hundred miles southeast of Cueta. For a hundred days, Spanish troops resisted the Royal Moroccan Army as they used long range artillery to pound away at Melilla, in total over twelve thousand shells lobbed throughout the course of the campaign. The Moroccans would eventually be relieved by the Spanish Governor of Melilla, Juan Sherlocke on 19 March 1775. A similar relief effort was made successful at Peñon de Vélez de la Gomera fortress three days later. A combination of factors was the key behind the success at Melilla, including the interception of English ships carrying war material destined for Morocco, the desertion of Muhammad III’s Algerian mercenaries and the Ottomans further encroachment on the Moroccan border.
Whatever the case may be, the conflict provided Carlos’ government with the opportunity to demonstrate what Muhammed was dealing with and plans were drawn to attack the Key Barbary port of Algiers, capital of the Regency of the same name. Ruled by Muhammed V ben Othman, Algiers was a heavily defended port city, and was the closest port for Barbary Pirates to engage the Christian naval powers such as Spain & France in the western Mediterranean. It was for that purpose that the city was chosen to show Muhammad III, the power of Spain’s Army and Christian might. Preparations were made in order to launch an attack on the port city, and such plans were nearly derailed when a series of Berber merchants who were spying for the Barbary Pirates were captured by French authorities in Marseilles. [2]
Finally, on June 26, a fleet of ships, belonging to Spain and its ally, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, set sail from Cartagena, arriving at the Bay of Algiers on 8 July. There, 20,000 Spanish soldiers as well as cannon disembarked on a sweltering summer’s day near Algiers, placed under the command of another Irish-born commander, Alejandro O’Reilly. O’Reilly was a reformer, who served under the allegiance of Charles’ half-brother, Fernando VI, and fought in both the Wars of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War. Thanks to superior Spanish arms and organization, the Spanish was able to defeat their Algerian counterparts in battle in Tizi Ouzou, and successfully managed to occupy Algiers, with help from a bombardment fleet led by Tuscan fleet admiral Sir Gian Acton.
The Spanish occupation of Algiers led to the capitulation of Muhammad V ben Othman, who surrendered in exchange for freedom and the retention of his personal wealth. A week later the Spanish ship-of-the-line San Rafael would take the deposed Dey-Pasha along with his harem and personal fortune out of Algiers. He would live out the rest of his days under house arrest in Alicante, Spain. [3] It would not be until 1785 that Spain would fully pacify the Beylik, and would become a Captaincy-General of the Spanish Crown. (Made effective in 1777)
The Spanish Conquest of Algiers was one of celebration for the Spanish Kingdom, as well as that of other Mediterranean Powers, who finally saw it as a decisive victory over the Barbary Pirates, O’Reilly who would become the first Captain-General of Algeria. , was celebrated as a great hero and increased in his reputation as a military commander in the colonies. To Morocco, the defeat of Algeria achieved the objective of scaring them into making peace. The Treaty of Aranjuez, signed on 25 December 1777, confirmed the status quo ante bellum peace between Carlos III and Muhammed III. The conflict also severely weakened the power of the Barbary States, yet it did not prove enough to deter either Husaynid Tunisia or Karamanlid Tripolitania however from continuing raiding Christian ships. For the British it provided a painful moment. While Great Britain still provided aid to the Moroccans to counter Spain, the British holdings of Majorca was now under threat of being attacked from multiple sides.

Political Reforms in the New World:

José de Gálvez y Gallardo, marqués de Sonora

The New World had changed a great deal since they were first colonized in the 16th century. Since the Bourbons came to power, the colonies in the New World were to restructured to better fit the new absolutist style of Bourbon Spanish Government. The Bourbon Reforms, as they were known were to restructure governing the New World colonies. The Viceroyalty of Peru, which ruled over almost all of South America in its heyday, was divided into three viceroyalties, with the Northern parts joining with the South American parts of New Spain to form the Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1739 (it was originally formed in 1717 but was suppressed in 1723.) The Viceroyalty of the Río de La Plata, would be formed during the reign of Charles III, in 1776. It would be formed from the Viceroyalty of Peru’s Southwestern Territories, and effectively splitting off the main territory of Peru from the Captaincy-General of Chile which remained a part of the administration of Peru.
One of the reforms that came about was the intendencia, administrative units that was designed to make political administration more efficient, while promoting economic, fiscal and commercial development. While the Spanish mainland had already grown into the system after the War of the Spanish Succession, no such system was developed for the colonies, at least until the aftermath of the Seven Years’ War, when the intendencia system was introduced to the Captaincy-General of Cuba in 1764. The intendant was responsible for the island colony’s army and finances. By the end of the year, another intendencia was set up in the new Spanish Louisiana.
Much of the reforms that occurred in New Spain and the colonies came in the figure of the Marqués de Sonora, José de Gálvez. Gálvez established a stronger Spanish Presence in the newly created Government of New California in order to forestall potential Russian advances into the region from Alaska. This was achieved by allowing the Dominican Order to maintain the Spanish missions in Baja California while allowing the Franciscans to establish new missions in Alta California. In addition a naval base was established in San Blas, giving the Spanish a Naval Presence on the Pacific for New Spain.
In 1772, Gálvez created a new Intendency, the Commandancy General of the Provincias Internias, the goal of this new administrative division was to create a new autonomous region for the large frontier provinces in Northern New Spain, and functioned in a similar matter to the Intendencies already in place in Louisiana and Cuba. Galvez’s later reform plans, including introducing Intendencies to the other administrative divisions were met with success in the Río de La Plata, Uruguay, and Peru over the course of the 1770’s, and it would not be until the 1780’s where the system would introduced to Mainland New Spain as well as Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo (the latter implemented in 1791). While this proved to be a good venture, not all of the colonies were receptive to it. The native criollos, people of pure-Spanish descent but having been born in the colonies and had fought to enjoy great positions in colonial government, had a glass ceiling placed over them. This, followed by harsh treatment of the mestizo (Mixture of Spanish and Native American notable blood) and Indian classes would lead to open rebellion in Peru and New Granada during the 1780’s.

The Spanish-Portuguese War of 1776:

The Basilica del Santísimo Sacramento in Colonia del Sacramento

The basis beyond the Spanish-Portuguese War of 1776 stemmed from the Spanish-Portuguese War of 1761, long considered to be a part of the Seven Years’ War. The conflict stemmed from continuing competing territorial claims between the Spanish Viceroyalty of the Río de La Plata (formerly the Viceroyalty of Peru) and Portugal’s Colony of Brazil. The last war while a defeat on the mainland, won them a substantial victory on the South American front, winning various settlements along the Rio Grande do Sul and Cisplatina, however the Colonia del Sacramento, one of the oldest settlements in colonial Cisplatina remained in Portuguese hands as per the Treaty of Paris of 1763.
Since then, Portugal had been building up its colonial forces and harassing Spanish settlements. Between 1767 and 1776, Portugal built up an army of some 6,000 men, over four times greater than the Spanish colonial presence in the Rio de La Plata basin (numbering about 1450). The event that led to the war was on 12 February 1776 when Portuguese ships led by commanders Roberto MacDouall and Jorge Hardcastle shelled the fortress of the Rio Grande de San Pedro, a fortress captured by the Spanish in the last war, with the intent of recapturing it. Despite a valiant effort by the Spanish, whose navy managed to sink two Portuguese frigates, the fortress fell to a Portuguese assault and the fortress’ commander was forced to withdraw.
Carlos III would respond to this gross act by declaring war. Due to the ongoing American Revolution, Great Britain would not involve themselves in a military conflict to support its longtime ally. Carlos would elevate the Military Governor of Buenos Aires, Pedro Antonio de Cevallos, who was at Spain at the time, to the position of Viceroy of the Rio de La Plata. Cevallos was a veteran of the American theater of the 1761 War, as his expedition was responsible for giving the Spaniards victory in the theater in that war. The King gave Cevallos authorization to lead a new expedition, bringing with him 9,000 men along with twelve warships (six ships-of-the-line and six frigates) along with dozens of transports and other smaller ships from the port of Cadiz (set sail on 20 November) to the La Plata Basis on 18 February 1777, of which they captured Portuguese supply ships along the way there.
Upon arriving, the Spanish Navy attacked and severely damaged the Portuguese fleet, even capturing Roberto MacDouall, whose ship was pursued and cut off before it made it to Rio de Janeiro.[4] The Spanish fleet would later attack the Portuguese island of Santa Catarina on 23 February. The size of the formidable Spanish fleet causing the people there to evacuate and Spain would occupy the Island.[5]An attempt to assault Rio Grande de São Pedro was met with failure however when a storm dispersed the fleet, and forced them to land for Montevideo.
Once at Montevideo, Cevallos would split his ships, one aimed to take Colonia del Sacramento, which fell in a siege in 3 June, the rest to come after the remnants of the Portuguese fleet under Jorge Hardcastle and another Englishman in Portuguese Service, Arthur Phillip, the latter of which captured the ship-of-the-line San Augustin and renamed it Santo Augustino in an action off the coast of Rio Grande on 23 May. Despite the setback, Cevallos, supported by a second army under Juan José de Vértiz y Salcedo was able to march into and place Rio Grande de São Paulo under siege [6] when orders for a cease-fire reached the front.
The Treaty of San Ildenfonso formally ended the war on 1 October 1777, and came about with the accession of the new Portuguese Co-Monarchs, Maria I & Pedro III. Maria concluded the treaty which saw the retention of Santa Catarina in exchange for the Rio Grande de São Paulo (renamed Rio Grande de San Paulo) [7] as well the confirmation of other Spanish gains in Cisplatina, including the Colonia del Sacramento, which was denied to them in the 1761 war. The war made Cevallos a hero among the colonies, and his fame saw him make reforms to La Plata, which was later continued by his successor and fellow commander Vértiz.
The war helped to prevent Portuguese intervention in the American Revolution, and the recent string of victories, in Algeria in 1775 and in Portugal in 1777 made Carlos III eager to take on his hated adversary, Great Britain.

The Raising of the Infante Carlos Clemente:

170px-Infante_Francisco_de_Paula_of_Spain_in_his_teens.jpg

Infante Carlos Clemente, age 10

The first few years of Carlos Clemente’s life was filled with love and comfort by the two parents, especially as the Crown Prince and his wife bore six additional children, three of which survived to childhood. (Carlota Joaquina, b.1775; Maria Luisa, 1777-1782; Carlos Francisco, b. 1779; Felipe Francisco, b. 1779; Carlos Domingo, 1780-1782; Maria Theresa, 1782-1784) The young children were raised and trained to be proper princes and princess but much care was taken with Carlos Clemente, the second in line to the throne after his father. He was taught by tutors picked out personally by her mother Maria Luisa de Borbón-Parma, and was taught to eventually succeed her father in the role of being King, Carlos III would dote on his young grandson in a manner not seen since his own children when they were young, and his influences would influence the young Infante later in life. He, like many Infantes would receive the necessary discipline and schooling required for his role, and as a typical Prince of the Enlightenment Age, learned much in the arts, learning music and visual art, in addition to government and languages, rapidly learning the Castilian of the country, the French of the court and the Italian that his mother would speak.[8] He was seen by many foreign ambassador as a very gifted young lad and before he was even of teenaged years he was already considered for royal marriages despite none of them solidifying at the moment.
----
[1]: Equivalent to that of the modern Prime Minister in role in government.
[2]: Part of the reason why the Spanish Invasion of Algiers failed IOTL was largely because of Berber tribesmen who had been following Spanish military preparations in the spring of 1775. This valuable information was passed along to the Berber tribesmen within the interior, who supported the Algerian Regency in repulsing the Spanish.
[3]: The situation would play itself out in a similar matter to that of the French Conquest of Algeria in 1830-1847. Unlike the Conquest however, the deposed Dey-Pasha, Husayn was refused entry into France, and would spend his exile first in Naples, in the Two Sicilies and later in Alexandria in then-Ottoman Egypt until his death. Here, Muhammed would be allowed to spend his exile in the country whose army conquered his own.
[4]: MacDouall IOTL was able to escape.
[5]: This all happened IOTL, the peoples who fled would later go on to found Porto Alegre, both here and in OTL.
[6]: The Spanish OTL never made it to Rio Grande before the cease-fire. This was in turn due to the previous Portuguese monarch, José I, living slightly longer than OTL, allowing the army in question to successfully besiege the town.
[7]: OTL’s Treaty of San Ildenfonso saw Rio Grande confirmed to remain Portuguese.
[8]: Carlos Clemente, the future Carlos V would learn English and Portuguese later in his life.
----
Author's Note:
Thank you all who decided to subscribe to this TL. I hope that I will be able to keep you guys interested and entertained.

Pio2013 · Jan 28, 2014

Nice TL.

Sub'd.

ramones1986 · Jan 28, 2014

so damn good! subscribed, too!

Fairdowner · Jan 31, 2014

A jolly good read. Keep it up.

Razgriz 2K9 · Feb 2, 2014

Thanks for all your support and appreciation, I will indeed continue this, but with a busy uni schedule, a job and other commitments, I won't be able to update as often as I want to, I will at least try to put out at least one or two new chapters a month, and I will see how it goes until I can get it cleared up.

I apologize, and Chapter 2 will be coming soon.

JonasResende · Feb 9, 2014

Razgriz 2K9 said:
Thanks for all your support and appreciation, I will indeed continue this, but with a busy uni schedule, a job and other commitments, I won't be able to update as often as I want to, I will at least try to put out at least one or two new chapters a month, and I will see how it goes until I can get it cleared up.

I apologize, and Chapter 2 will be coming soon.

Just stumbled onto this TL, and it looks exciting.

As to the other, take your time, everyone has busy schedules and life doesn't always allow us to do the things we'd like as often as we want.

Mercenarius · Feb 10, 2014

Just came across this well-written timeline. Subscribed.

Linense · Mar 30, 2014

This alternate history has great potential. Subscribed.

Gwalchy · Mar 31, 2014

Subscribed

Milarqui · Mar 31, 2014

Very interesting read. I do wonder how much you will manage to divert or avoid the independence of the colonies. Will there it be some sort of Commonwealth, but with more power for the metropoli?

Subscribed, if only to know what else happens.

Tredecimus · Apr 1, 2014

Interesting TL. Subscribed.

euromellows · Apr 29, 2014

Bump. Just finished reading this from your post in the thread on Joseph Bonaparte. When can we expect the next update? I really like this thus far - Has very interesting implications.

Huehuecoyotl · Apr 29, 2014

Espléndido.

Lleibi · Apr 29, 2014

Another subscription in case you decide to keep going

elkarlo · Apr 29, 2014

Razgriz 2K9 said:
Thanks for all your support and appreciation, I will indeed continue this, but with a busy uni schedule, a job and other commitments, I won't be able to update as often as I want to, I will at least try to put out at least one or two new chapters a month, and I will see how it goes until I can get it cleared up.

I apologize, and Chapter 2 will be coming soon.

Just found this. Subscribed

Razgriz 2K9 · May 7, 2014

I never thought I'd get that kind of support I'll be quite honest with you all.

To explain myself, I haven't had the time to really work on this TL especially with uni ongoing and a late night job. With school winding down and now finally over I've been trying my best to get back to it, and I'm still trying to motivate myself to pick this up again after being away from it for so long.

So if you're still following this, please bear with me. I am slowly, but surely working on Chapter II.

fasquardon · May 7, 2014

Wow! This looks like it could be a very cool timeline indeed. I love this period in Spanish history.

fasquardon

Linense · Dec 3, 2014

I hope you can update very soon your promising alternate history, Razgriz 2K9.