POD: 1864 Lincoln survives assassination attempt. In Liberia, mismanagement of Government and discrimination an oppression of native populous.
1865: Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen an Abandoned Lands founded, headed by Oliver Otis Howard.
1865-1866: Repatriation of freed slaves to Liberia considered. Seward approaches Great Britain about the possible purchase of Sierra Leone.
1867: US purchase Sierra Leone (Seward’s Folly) for 5.7 million dollars with promised trade concessions and retaining of it’s coaling stations. The free people of color ,who could afford passage, arrive in Sierra Leone/Liberia. Black, ex-Union repatriates, mostly single men, accepts land grants in Liberia.
1868:The Freedmen’s Bureau’s function is divided, becoming the Bureau of Freedmen and Repatriation, still headed by Howard and Bureau of Refugees and Abandoned Lands. Lincoln elected president for an unprecedented third term. Christmas day, except for high-ranking military and civil officials, Confederates given general amnesty.
First indication of a conspiracy amongst the Union veterans against the Americo-Liberian government.
1865-1877: Freedmen’s Bureau’s Work-Passage contracts allows freed slaves to work for passage to Liberia/Sierra Leone, a reverse indenture ship. Metic citizenship given to freed slaves.
1872: Ulysses S. Grant elected president. Before leaving office, Lincoln grants a general amnesty to all confederates.
1873: The Fortnight War. A veteran led insurrection overthrows the Americo-Liberian Government. Martial Law declared by Xerxes Wright, leader of the insurrection.
1873-1875: Military rule in Liberia/Sierra Leone as infrastructure is rebuilt. Civil liberty extended to all with loyalty oath from the old regime and acknowledgement of the new government to the tribal rulers. Diplomatic missions to the Tukolor Empire, the Sokoto Caliphate and the Mandinka states begin at this time.
1875: Xerxes Wright declares an open election, the new congress declare him president by acclamation to a six year term.
1877: In the US, Jim Crow laws come into effect in the south with the end of reconstruction and the beginning of the Redeemer government. The Bureau of Freedmen and Repatriation is pared down and given a smaller budget; Although it became harder to amass the money needed, blacks continue to emigrate. Although it was harder for families, single black men will enlist in the 10th and 9th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments, to earn passage for themselves and families.
1876-1881: President Wright opens diplomatic relations with Great Britain, France and Germany. France refuses an exchange of ambassadors. Liberia agree to the current borders and non-interference in the interior within Britain and Germany’s sphere of influence. Britain agree to non-interference with trade to an from Tukolor and the Mandinkan states. Production of arms is stepped up at this time. Began in 1875, shipyards and fortifications are built along the coast. Attrition rates due to sleeping sickness and malaria amongst new settlers levels at 35%. Mandinka leader Samory extends his conquests to include the Bure goldfields and the upper Niger valley.
1881: Xerxes Wright runs unopposed for a second time and remains as president, states he ‘will step down at the end of his term.
1883: First Liberian steamship, ‘Liberia’, in service; followed by the ‘Oliver Otis Howard’ and’ President Xerxes’.
1884: Four regiments are commissioned as regional police to recruit and train natives in police and military tactics.
1885: Both the American and British consulate, in strict confidence, warns the Liberian government of the claims made by France at the Berlin Conference and the ‘rules by which claims are arranged. US advises caution and maintaining the borders. The British, however, signs a secret pact agreeing to consolidate her claims south of the Benue and Niger rivers, lands east of the Volta and the Gold Coast, if Liberia can disrupt French expansion in West Africa.
1886: Mutual protection pact signed between the Tukolor Empire and Mandikans negotiated by Liberia. Liberia to provide munitions and military advisors. This is the beginning of the West African Alliance. Although the region is metal poor from lack of extensive mines, Liberia purchases scrap iron from the US and other nations to supplement. The area may lack metal, but there is no lack of lumber and improvisation is key to an appropriate defense. Medieval weaponry improvised for nineteenth century warfare. Arbalest, ballistae; and catapults loaded with earthenware canisters. (Clay pots loaded with gunpowder and wooden or metal shards.)
1887: First clash with French troops and Tukolor infantry. With Liberian encouragement, Ahmadu Tal abolishes slavery and begin making treaties with the kings and chieftains north and east of his Empire. Samory Toure also makes
treaties southwest and east; Mandinkan troops taught by ACW veterans on the nature of entrenching defensible positions slows French advancements from the Ivory Coast. The Baoule leave the Fante Confederacy and joins the Mandinkan State.
Xerxes Wrights last year in office, open elections finally held. As a Democratic Meritocracy, only discharged veterans have suffrage. Vice president Jonathon Mason, an Americo Liberian and Wright’s second in command in the insurrection, is elected president. Sedar Diagne, of the Kru tribal group is Vice- president.
1888: In a plan patterned after European trade companies, and funded by the Liberian government, Xerxes Wright creates the Liberian Trade Group with himself as chief executive. Six regiments of infantry and two of cavalry are recalled from the police brigades to form the core of the group. Their primary mission is to legitimize and defend the treaties of the West African Alliance.
1890-1891: Inspired by the Alliance against foreign encroachment, the Sokoto Caliphate petitions to and formally the alliance, abolishing slavery and engaging the French north and east of it’s territory. (Modern Chad.) Civil unrest in Segou, an earlier (1864) conquered region of the Tukolor Empire now in rebellion, threatens the stability of the Alliance. French troops march into Segou.
Samory Toure reconciles the Yoruba chieftains and the Dahomey Kingdom by threatening Dahomey with an alliance with the Yoruba. As a result, the Yoruba break it’s treaty with France.
Dahomey lends it’s military to the Alliance. The combined Yoruba and Dahomey clash with the French. This is the first time women soldiers fight in the conflict (Dahomey’s so-called ‘Amazons.)
1892-1894: Mandinkan-French Wars.
1893: Due to the civil unrest in the Tukolor Empire, General Wright orders the LTG to seize the capital and declares himself provisional Governor. Reinforcements from Mandinka, Sokoto and Liberia are dispatched to the Empire.
French repulsed from the Dahomey-Oyo region.
Although Sokoto fails to spread it’s reach beyond Lake Chad, they make inroads north and west of the Caliphate, slowing French advances.
1895: Order restored to the Tukolor Empire, called now by its historical name, Mali. Tukolor, Massina, Bamana and Segou are now independent states within Mali.
1895-1898: The Senegalese Wars. No longer set-piece treaty coercions and ‘effective resistance’, the final battles are to end French influence and dominance in the West African region. The final push into Senegal and a march to Dakar, Mdangane, Barijul and Oussouye. This is war in the classical sense of the term; advances and retreats, no quarter and no surrender.
1897-1899: Siege of Dakar. With French warships bombarding the ports in Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast, former President Jonathon Mason, acting as the representative for the West African Alliance, books passage on a British steamship for London from Gold Coast. At the Liberian Embassy in London, claims there is no occupation by the French and considerable active resistance to French rule.
US and Britain recognizes West African Alliance’s independence and a formal trade agreement formalized. France retains coastal lands north of Dakar and allowed a free trade zone in the ports of Dakar, Mdangane, Barijul, and Oussouye.
1899-1901: Federal constitution ratified.
The countries of the Alliance(1901)
Mali: Democratic Confederacy
Segou
Bamana
Tukolor
Massina
Liberia/Sierra Leone: Republic
Senegal: Semi-oligarchy with democratic tendencies
Dahomey-Oro: Constitutional Bicameral Monarchy
Mandinkan States: Constitutional Monarchy
Dyula
Burkina Faso
Guinea
Sokoto Caliphate: Constitutional Theocracy
To belong to the West African Alliance, each member state, no matter the form of government must adopt a common ‘Bill of Rights’. The West African Alliance is the Federal government, each member is independent within it. It is a Democratic Meritocracy.
I. Each region may govern themselves as their culture, creed and way of life dictates without interference from other member states.
II. Each region must ratify and implement a common bill of rights.
III. Each region will not maintain a standing army; only a police force to maintain the Laws of that region. These regional police may be made up of residents or Citizen. A resident is defined as a native or naturalized individual of a given member state whose culture, creed and way of life reflects the nature of said individual.
IV. City, municipal or county government may be made up of residents or Citizens; whether elected, inherited, or appointed.
V. Each regions representative, senators, governors, president, principalities, et al, must be Citizens of the West African Alliance.
VI. The Federal Government supersedes all regions on the matter of foreign policy, trade and treaties. The Federal Government supersedes all regions on the matter of the military, the economy, and arbitration between member states. All federal policy and laws to be ratified by all adult Citizens; A Citizen is defined as an adult resident from any member state or territory who, through military, military support or in any way risk health, well-being or life, by dint of service to the Alliance having earned the right to vote for and /or set federal policy that impacts the Alliance as a whole; whose loyalty is to all peoples protected under the Articles of Federation.
VII. Bill of Rights:
A. The first amendment guarantees the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press and freedom of association and assembly. It also protects the right of citizens the freedom of religion and the right not to be forced to support someone else’s religion.
B. A well regulated militia, being necessary to a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
C. No soldier, in time of peace shall be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
D. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
E. No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless in indictment of a grand jury, except for cases arising in the military forces when in time of war or public danger. No person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy, nor be witness against himself, nor deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of the law.
F. The right to a speedy trial, to be informed of the nature of the accusations, to be confronted by witnesses, of obtaining witnesses in his favor and right to counsel
G. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
H. The enumeration in the bill of rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
I. The powers not delegated to the member states nor prohibited by the member states, are reserved for the Federation .
J. Neither slavery, nor forced servitude, except as punishment for crime for duly convicted, shall exist within the Federation or member states, or any place subject to jurisdiction.
K. The right of Citizens to vote shall not be abridged by member states or the Alliance on the basis of race, color, creed, gender, religion or previous condition of servitude.
VIII. Individuals who volunteer for Federal service forfeits his/her national resident status for duration of service, giving full loyalty to the Alliance and the ideals for which it stands.
IX. Individuals who volunteer for Federal service shall have the right to vote (civil and federal) upon resignation, discharge(honorable) or completion of service.
The gray area on the map is the alliance. Sorry about last post.
1865: Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen an Abandoned Lands founded, headed by Oliver Otis Howard.
1865-1866: Repatriation of freed slaves to Liberia considered. Seward approaches Great Britain about the possible purchase of Sierra Leone.
1867: US purchase Sierra Leone (Seward’s Folly) for 5.7 million dollars with promised trade concessions and retaining of it’s coaling stations. The free people of color ,who could afford passage, arrive in Sierra Leone/Liberia. Black, ex-Union repatriates, mostly single men, accepts land grants in Liberia.
1868:The Freedmen’s Bureau’s function is divided, becoming the Bureau of Freedmen and Repatriation, still headed by Howard and Bureau of Refugees and Abandoned Lands. Lincoln elected president for an unprecedented third term. Christmas day, except for high-ranking military and civil officials, Confederates given general amnesty.
First indication of a conspiracy amongst the Union veterans against the Americo-Liberian government.
1865-1877: Freedmen’s Bureau’s Work-Passage contracts allows freed slaves to work for passage to Liberia/Sierra Leone, a reverse indenture ship. Metic citizenship given to freed slaves.
1872: Ulysses S. Grant elected president. Before leaving office, Lincoln grants a general amnesty to all confederates.
1873: The Fortnight War. A veteran led insurrection overthrows the Americo-Liberian Government. Martial Law declared by Xerxes Wright, leader of the insurrection.
1873-1875: Military rule in Liberia/Sierra Leone as infrastructure is rebuilt. Civil liberty extended to all with loyalty oath from the old regime and acknowledgement of the new government to the tribal rulers. Diplomatic missions to the Tukolor Empire, the Sokoto Caliphate and the Mandinka states begin at this time.
1875: Xerxes Wright declares an open election, the new congress declare him president by acclamation to a six year term.
1877: In the US, Jim Crow laws come into effect in the south with the end of reconstruction and the beginning of the Redeemer government. The Bureau of Freedmen and Repatriation is pared down and given a smaller budget; Although it became harder to amass the money needed, blacks continue to emigrate. Although it was harder for families, single black men will enlist in the 10th and 9th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments, to earn passage for themselves and families.
1876-1881: President Wright opens diplomatic relations with Great Britain, France and Germany. France refuses an exchange of ambassadors. Liberia agree to the current borders and non-interference in the interior within Britain and Germany’s sphere of influence. Britain agree to non-interference with trade to an from Tukolor and the Mandinkan states. Production of arms is stepped up at this time. Began in 1875, shipyards and fortifications are built along the coast. Attrition rates due to sleeping sickness and malaria amongst new settlers levels at 35%. Mandinka leader Samory extends his conquests to include the Bure goldfields and the upper Niger valley.
1881: Xerxes Wright runs unopposed for a second time and remains as president, states he ‘will step down at the end of his term.
1883: First Liberian steamship, ‘Liberia’, in service; followed by the ‘Oliver Otis Howard’ and’ President Xerxes’.
1884: Four regiments are commissioned as regional police to recruit and train natives in police and military tactics.
1885: Both the American and British consulate, in strict confidence, warns the Liberian government of the claims made by France at the Berlin Conference and the ‘rules by which claims are arranged. US advises caution and maintaining the borders. The British, however, signs a secret pact agreeing to consolidate her claims south of the Benue and Niger rivers, lands east of the Volta and the Gold Coast, if Liberia can disrupt French expansion in West Africa.
1886: Mutual protection pact signed between the Tukolor Empire and Mandikans negotiated by Liberia. Liberia to provide munitions and military advisors. This is the beginning of the West African Alliance. Although the region is metal poor from lack of extensive mines, Liberia purchases scrap iron from the US and other nations to supplement. The area may lack metal, but there is no lack of lumber and improvisation is key to an appropriate defense. Medieval weaponry improvised for nineteenth century warfare. Arbalest, ballistae; and catapults loaded with earthenware canisters. (Clay pots loaded with gunpowder and wooden or metal shards.)
1887: First clash with French troops and Tukolor infantry. With Liberian encouragement, Ahmadu Tal abolishes slavery and begin making treaties with the kings and chieftains north and east of his Empire. Samory Toure also makes
treaties southwest and east; Mandinkan troops taught by ACW veterans on the nature of entrenching defensible positions slows French advancements from the Ivory Coast. The Baoule leave the Fante Confederacy and joins the Mandinkan State.
Xerxes Wrights last year in office, open elections finally held. As a Democratic Meritocracy, only discharged veterans have suffrage. Vice president Jonathon Mason, an Americo Liberian and Wright’s second in command in the insurrection, is elected president. Sedar Diagne, of the Kru tribal group is Vice- president.
1888: In a plan patterned after European trade companies, and funded by the Liberian government, Xerxes Wright creates the Liberian Trade Group with himself as chief executive. Six regiments of infantry and two of cavalry are recalled from the police brigades to form the core of the group. Their primary mission is to legitimize and defend the treaties of the West African Alliance.
1890-1891: Inspired by the Alliance against foreign encroachment, the Sokoto Caliphate petitions to and formally the alliance, abolishing slavery and engaging the French north and east of it’s territory. (Modern Chad.) Civil unrest in Segou, an earlier (1864) conquered region of the Tukolor Empire now in rebellion, threatens the stability of the Alliance. French troops march into Segou.
Samory Toure reconciles the Yoruba chieftains and the Dahomey Kingdom by threatening Dahomey with an alliance with the Yoruba. As a result, the Yoruba break it’s treaty with France.
Dahomey lends it’s military to the Alliance. The combined Yoruba and Dahomey clash with the French. This is the first time women soldiers fight in the conflict (Dahomey’s so-called ‘Amazons.)
1892-1894: Mandinkan-French Wars.
1893: Due to the civil unrest in the Tukolor Empire, General Wright orders the LTG to seize the capital and declares himself provisional Governor. Reinforcements from Mandinka, Sokoto and Liberia are dispatched to the Empire.
French repulsed from the Dahomey-Oyo region.
Although Sokoto fails to spread it’s reach beyond Lake Chad, they make inroads north and west of the Caliphate, slowing French advances.
1895: Order restored to the Tukolor Empire, called now by its historical name, Mali. Tukolor, Massina, Bamana and Segou are now independent states within Mali.
1895-1898: The Senegalese Wars. No longer set-piece treaty coercions and ‘effective resistance’, the final battles are to end French influence and dominance in the West African region. The final push into Senegal and a march to Dakar, Mdangane, Barijul and Oussouye. This is war in the classical sense of the term; advances and retreats, no quarter and no surrender.
1897-1899: Siege of Dakar. With French warships bombarding the ports in Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast, former President Jonathon Mason, acting as the representative for the West African Alliance, books passage on a British steamship for London from Gold Coast. At the Liberian Embassy in London, claims there is no occupation by the French and considerable active resistance to French rule.
US and Britain recognizes West African Alliance’s independence and a formal trade agreement formalized. France retains coastal lands north of Dakar and allowed a free trade zone in the ports of Dakar, Mdangane, Barijul, and Oussouye.
1899-1901: Federal constitution ratified.
The countries of the Alliance(1901)
Mali: Democratic Confederacy
Segou
Bamana
Tukolor
Massina
Liberia/Sierra Leone: Republic
Senegal: Semi-oligarchy with democratic tendencies
Dahomey-Oro: Constitutional Bicameral Monarchy
Mandinkan States: Constitutional Monarchy
Dyula
Burkina Faso
Guinea
Sokoto Caliphate: Constitutional Theocracy
To belong to the West African Alliance, each member state, no matter the form of government must adopt a common ‘Bill of Rights’. The West African Alliance is the Federal government, each member is independent within it. It is a Democratic Meritocracy.
Articles of Federation(1898)
I. Each region may govern themselves as their culture, creed and way of life dictates without interference from other member states.
II. Each region must ratify and implement a common bill of rights.
III. Each region will not maintain a standing army; only a police force to maintain the Laws of that region. These regional police may be made up of residents or Citizen. A resident is defined as a native or naturalized individual of a given member state whose culture, creed and way of life reflects the nature of said individual.
IV. City, municipal or county government may be made up of residents or Citizens; whether elected, inherited, or appointed.
V. Each regions representative, senators, governors, president, principalities, et al, must be Citizens of the West African Alliance.
VI. The Federal Government supersedes all regions on the matter of foreign policy, trade and treaties. The Federal Government supersedes all regions on the matter of the military, the economy, and arbitration between member states. All federal policy and laws to be ratified by all adult Citizens; A Citizen is defined as an adult resident from any member state or territory who, through military, military support or in any way risk health, well-being or life, by dint of service to the Alliance having earned the right to vote for and /or set federal policy that impacts the Alliance as a whole; whose loyalty is to all peoples protected under the Articles of Federation.
VII. Bill of Rights:
A. The first amendment guarantees the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press and freedom of association and assembly. It also protects the right of citizens the freedom of religion and the right not to be forced to support someone else’s religion.
B. A well regulated militia, being necessary to a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
C. No soldier, in time of peace shall be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
D. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
E. No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless in indictment of a grand jury, except for cases arising in the military forces when in time of war or public danger. No person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy, nor be witness against himself, nor deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of the law.
F. The right to a speedy trial, to be informed of the nature of the accusations, to be confronted by witnesses, of obtaining witnesses in his favor and right to counsel
G. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
H. The enumeration in the bill of rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
I. The powers not delegated to the member states nor prohibited by the member states, are reserved for the Federation .
J. Neither slavery, nor forced servitude, except as punishment for crime for duly convicted, shall exist within the Federation or member states, or any place subject to jurisdiction.
K. The right of Citizens to vote shall not be abridged by member states or the Alliance on the basis of race, color, creed, gender, religion or previous condition of servitude.
VIII. Individuals who volunteer for Federal service forfeits his/her national resident status for duration of service, giving full loyalty to the Alliance and the ideals for which it stands.
IX. Individuals who volunteer for Federal service shall have the right to vote (civil and federal) upon resignation, discharge(honorable) or completion of service.
The gray area on the map is the alliance. Sorry about last post.