Ascending to Glory

[Nagisaki]

A long time ago, I wrote my first TL, an Ameri-wank of incredible proportions. However, I lost my sense of direction for the story to take, particularly when I started expanding outwards to the rest of the world. So, I started again. While it went very well, I still lost my sense of direction late in the story. So, here we go again. New name, new start. Now, here is my prologue.
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May 1, 1845

The sun rose high overhead on the grasslands that seemly stretched on forever. Yet deep in the grasslands next to a small boulder sat a young boy. Barely under six years old, his knew nothing of the outside world except for his own farmhouse. Looking up at the sky, the boy spun around, before having to brush his red hair out of his face. He hopped up and ran back towards his home. Stretching on for miles, there was no limit to where the boy could run; provided he knew where he was going, of course. It would not do to run into a band of the local Bannocks... there was no guarantee that they would bring him home alive, or even at all.

It was around 10 minutes before the boy reached his home. "Joshua!" the boy heard a voice call out to him. He spun and saw his grandfather. A man barely past his prime, he had dark brown hair that was starting to grey a bit.

"Come here, boy." his grandfather called before leading him inside. Inside, at the table, there sat a man with a hat and a long cloak around his body. As soon as they entered the man stood and looked at the boy. After looking at him for a few seconds, the man circled around him a few times.

"The boy is quite my likeness." the man said, coming to a stop and taking off his hat, revealing a head full of red hair. His emerald eyes staring deep into Joshua's grey.

"Grandfather, who is he?" Joshua asked.

"Boy, that man is Patrick Mackenzie. Your father." his grandfather replied. Joshua looked up at the man again. The man had the same concentrated look on his face as before, then he smiled and patted the boy on the head.

"By all I can tell he is more than worthy to carry my own name. I will ride take the records back to Washington with me when I ride."

"How long must the boy stay here? Our son is a bit younger than him, and we won't have enough food for the whole household for longer than a few years." his grandfather said.

"I will return as soon as I am able. I do live in the east after all, this is very far out of my way. Frontier life isn't entirely my thing. It would take quite a lot for me to venture this far out west on my own." the man said, picking up his things and walking to the entrance of the home.

"I thank you for watching over the boy. Give his mother my regards when you see her." Patrick said, before walking out.

***​

In 1847 the United States annexed Liberia, their pseudo-colony in West Africa, but left it under the governance of the Colonial Society. A year later, they went to war with Mexico over the border of Texas and annexed half of Mexico. And thus the nation's official rise to power began.
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The story begins in the United States, but will expand out once I get the first update properly written. Leave you comments, questions, and other things here, and vote in my poll here!

Note, the textbook sections are being told by a secondary school history teacher while the narrative chapters are being told from third person point of views. Enjoy!

I'll finish the story this time guys, I swear! Third times the charm, they say.

 

[Nagisaki]

We have some likes... and the poll is proceeding well!
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"Prayers won't solve anything! Only the will to fight can change the here and now!" -Rise of the Premier, 1917.
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The annexation of the northern provinces of Mexico enlarged the United States dramatically, and created several new territories. It was expected to take many years before any of the territories had the population to become states. The territories of Utah, New Mexico, and California were created from the ceded territory. While the territories held vast amounts of American Indians, the Federal government refused to deal with it for the time being.

Meanwhile, in 1848 the discovery of gold in California led to a storm of migrants from Europe, the East, Latin America, and even China. The Oregon trail gained a new path as people flocked by the thousands to the gold fields once they got tired of sailing there. Chinese immigrants sent word back to their homeland, and this caused the amount of boats to skyrocket... and the word to spread.

Word spread via Chinese trade ships to the Chinese tributiary state of Ryukyu, and from there to the city of Kagoshima, and to Shimazu Narioki (島津 斉興), Lord of Satsuma. Upon hearing about the supposed 'Mountains of Gold' across the seas, he sent his grandnephew Shimazu Katsu (島津勝 ) to find the truth of this matter in 1849, and to return within 120 moon turns. There were to be more men following him soon. The young man took a boat from Kagoshima to Okinawa, and from there took a boat to Canton. He knew Cantonese well enough to travel at least, and from Canton sailed to San Francisco, where he set up a small building big enough to house 5 or 6 souls, with a smaller house on the side.

However, none would follow him. A letter managed to be sent to inform him of what had happened. Apparently, Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi (徳川 家慶) had not approved of their little expedition and they were unable to send men or even funds to assist him. This was not good. The young man had not enough money to make the return trip to China, let alone back to Kagoshima. He had very few skills that he could use to make money. He knew some kenjutsu... well, more of kendo really. He had learned Karate from his Ryukyan sensei, and could cook pretty well since he had to help teach his sister.

And so, he turned the smaller part of his home into an eating house (old term for a restaurant or diner) for Chinese and Japanese dishes. He couldn't cook Sushi particularly well, but he doubted anyone around this area would care. Shimazu got a steady stream of customers from the area building up around him that eventually become Chinatown. His eating house was simply called 'Kagoshima.'

Meanwhile, around halfway through 1849, Patrick Mackenzie passed back through what is now Wyoming and retrieved his natural son Joshua and the boy's mother, Cleo, on his way to California to join in the Gold Rush. Heading west, they reached the small mining town of San Francisco around the turn of the season.

Meanwhile over in Europe in 1849, the revolutions of the previous year had finally started to settle down. France had overthrown their monarchy and the Second French Republic had been declared. Lombardy was back under Austrian rule and Sardinia was left untouched. The simmering fire of Hungary was still under the Austrian yolk, and Switzerland was a united nation. Wallachia also overthrew their boyar in 1848.

But in Europe, there was one problem above all else that the Great Powers looked to. That was the Ottoman Empire, the Sick Man of Europe, the nation that once struck terror into the hearts of all those faithful was now a messy state barely holding itself together as nationalism spread. In the pasts 30 years, the Ottomans had lost Greece, Algiers, Serbia, and much of their control over the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia.

Even more so, the Ottomans had land that other powers were eyeing hungrily for themselves, none more so than that of the Russian Empire to the north and east. Stretching from Finland to Manchuria, there was one prize the Tsar desired above all else since the annexation of the Crimean Khanate in 1774, Constantine's city on the Bosporus, Constantinople, the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church and, more importantly, a warm water port that wasn't out of the way of everything that mattered. Sorry Murmansk, too far away from everything by both sea and land.

But since the other powers didn't want Russia getting their hands on that precious Ottoman clay, they settled for something else important to them. The protection of Christians, particularly Eastern Orthodox Christians, of the Ottoman Empire. Ever since the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca was signed in 1774, Russia had been the Protector of Christians in the Ottoman Empire. After being pressured by France, the Ottoman Empire gave the protectorship of Eastern Christians to France and the Roman Catholic Church, despite the fact that most of the Christians were either Orthodox or Copts. This prompted Russia to send an ultimatum to the Ottoman Empire in 1853 demanding that those rights be returned to them. When neither side could reach a solution, the Ottomans declared war on Russia in 1853. And so the dominoes began to fall in Europe.

 

[Nagisaki]

I look forward to how you develop this. Please update when you are able.

Will do.
*****
“Joshua! Run out and grab yourself something to eat!” Cleo yelled.

“Why?” Joshua replied.

“There’s nothing here! Why do you think I’m sending you out? If you want me to have food more often than go find a job that at least pays enough for you to eat a midday meal. Here’s 40 cents, go buy something, but be back before dusk!” Cleo told him handing him some coins. The boy put on some decent looking clothes and ran out the door.

The streets of San Francisco in 1851 were a bustle of people from all over the world flooding in to find gold. People of all different skin colours, too. From the tall, strong black men to the small yet sophisticated Celestials, there was someone of every kind here. Joshua had heard rumors that New York City back on the East Coast was much the same way, but that was far away and he barely believed it.

Joshua walked up the roads to the area where many Chinese immigrants had set down roots. He could speak enough Cantonese to navigate, and could read directional and numerical signs in the strange yet beautiful Chinese script. He ran up and down the streets of San Francisco, looking for a place to eat something. 40¢ could easily get him a small pastry from Downtown, but in Chinatown he might be able to at least not feel like he hadn’t eaten anything all day… even though he hadn’t. His father only paid for their house, the rest of his money went to his wife and other children. His mother made barely enough working to support herself, let alone both of them.

The Chinese always had cheap stuff, Their food wasn’t all that bad either. In fact, he never said it around his mother, but Joshua actually thought their food was pretty good. Especially dumplings. He really liked dumplings. Thinking this, he passed by a large sized building. That building had a smaller building attached to it, with a sign hanging above its door that said, 鹿児島. Being only able to read small amounts of Cantonese, he asked a passerby for a translation. Luckily the man spoke a decent amount of English. The translation he got was… Deer Island. Hoping it to be cheap, Joshua entered 鹿児島.

Inside was… not at all what Joshua expected. He had expected a small building with a bar and some tables with some Chinese men or women working in the back. Inside, the tables were low, and there were carpets in front of the low tables where there would usually be chairs. There was also a cowbell tied to the door frame, so it would ding whenever someone opened or closed the door. One of the walls also

Once inside, a man with the celestial persuasion crawled out from a small door in the back and walked up to the counter and looked at him. The man looked surprised for a second, blinked, before rubbing his eyes, but then he got his words together.

“He..Hello. You… wish eat?” the man said. Joshua nodded. The man smiled and walked into the area behind the stuck out part of the wall. Looking around, there were tapestries on the walls written in Chinese. Soon enough the man walked back out.

“Where are you from?” Joshua asked in his best Cantonese. The man blinked again and tilted his head.

“My Canton not great. English not good better.” The man said.

“You speak Mandarin?” Josh asked.

“Mandarin bad.” he replied.

“Where is you home?” Joshua asked.

“This.” The man said frowning. As frustrating as the answer was, it was understandable. The man probably missed where he came from, but considered this place to be his home for the time being. As he was contemplating this, his stomach loudly growled. His face went red as he looked down at the ground.

The man looked at him and walked the boy over to a table, telling to knee on the carpet, Josh figured he meant kneel. Thankfully he did. The man gave him 2 dumplings and a bowl of rice. He also had a bowl-looking thing that had 2… chapsticks? Whatever those were called. He at least knew how to use them… mostly. As he started eating, the man grabbed a broom and began sweeping the floor along the entrance area.

The dumplings had a thinner skin than the ones he usually bought in the Chinese district, but that was fine with him. The rice also wasn’t hard to eat, though it took him a while as he kept looking about. After he finished, he placed the chapsticks on the bowl that it was brought in and relaxed a bit. He looked over and saw the man moving trying to sweep quickly and missing a lot of things on the ground. It was only looking at him like this that he seemed to realize the youth of this man. He didn’t seem to act as graceful as his mother did when hurrying, and he seemed to run this place alone. After thinking about it, Joshua took a deep breath, stood up and walked over to the man.

“I can help.” he said as nicely as he could. The man looked shocked. Honestly, Josh couldn’t blame him. Most white people, especially children, carried an air of superiority, as if anyone not of that race was lesser and should serve them. Actually, many of them did think that, even as they grew into adults. Yet another reason he was fine with being unable to go to school.

Looking the man square in his brown eyes, Joshua’s grey eyes stayed determined. This went on for around 2 minutes. Finally, the man relented, and let go of the broom and walked into the back room, which Joshua assumed was the Kitchen. Joshua simply kept sweeping until the dust was all collected in one corner.

The man then walked out from the back room with a steaming hot bowl of… soup? But it had other things in it. He simply placed it on his front counter, before collecting the items from the table Josh had been sitting at and walking back into the Kitchen with them. Joshua finished sweeping before placing the broom against the wall. Sighing, he walked over to the counter to finish eating. The man looked at him for a second, before asking.

“You… help me more?” Josh looked up from his food. It actually smelled really good, and seemed to have some noodles floating in it. He tilted his head before asking.

“You… want me to help you here more?” Josh asked. The man nodded his head.

“My English not good. Your English good good.” he said. Josh smiled.

“My English is very good.” he stood up and held out his hand to the man. “I’m Joshua.” The man looked confused, but then reluctantly took his hand.

“Josh-wa?” the man asked.

“No, Josh-oo-uh.” he replied.

“Josh-wa sound better.” the man said simply, letting go of his hand. Josh sighed, this would take forever.

Spoiler: ”End author’s notes”

Okay, sorry this took so long to get out, everybody. I wanted at least one more narrative chapter that had both Josh and Katsu in it. For reference, Joshua is almost 12 and Katsu is about 17, though the US thinks he is 18 because of a mistranslation of Chinese numbers. Anyway, I’ll be returning to a textbook style for a bit after this, occasionally popping in on our protagonists here. I’ll be spreading out a bit, to avoid my textbook format from getting too far ahead.

 

[Nagisaki]

Thanks for the responces! Enjoy my little role play at the beginning .
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Alright. I'm Mr. Kiekal, your new History teacher. Your last history teacher, as you should know, was fired for inappropriate comments made toward one of our Seventh grade students. I'm going to start off by explaining something. I have a curriculum planned, but it can change based on my whims. You all will listen to me teach the history of this world. I will also be making full use of our technology, so if you'll direct your attention to your desk screens please, we shall begin our lesson today.

Let us cross the seas, over to Greece. After independence in 1829, the Greek State was treated as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire until the 1832 treaty of London, in which Greek independence was recognized and Otto von Wittelsbach was declared King of Greece. After his regency ended, he ruled as an absolute monarch, his subjects lived under a reign of terror. To keep power, the King played the interests of the Great Powers of France and Britain against each other in Greece, while entertaining ties with Russia, he also played their interests in Greece off the British and French.

However, in 1843 his support from Bavaria was cut as troops withdrew from Greece. To solve this, the King invited Russian troops to come to Greece and aid their fellow Orthodox peoples. The Russians refused to send troops, but Tsar Nicholas I offered to extend a line of credit as well as subsidise the Greek economy with high loans, though with high interest attached. Otto saw this as a necessary evil to stabilise his nation, and accepted. Russia was not in great financial condition, but at least had enough confidence to try and gain Greece as an entryway into the Balkans.

Even with the assistance from Russia, the revolt got to the point where King Otto was forced to sign a constitution and allow elections in Greece. Elections that he heavily rigged in his favour, of course, but it was, in the King's mind, a show of weakness. Using funds from Russia now in his possession, he bought luxuries for himself and his wife, as well as military equipment for his military. Unfortunately, much of this equipment was taken and not distributed accordingly, leading to an even greater arms shortage than expected. This would cause many problems going into the early 1850s. But for now, jump back to our protagonists in San Francisco.

Alright, dropping in on our important guys... there is way too much to cover in our time frame, so I'll give you the footnotes. Not long after the last lecture on part of Mackenzie's life, he started dropping by 鹿児島 every day. For those of you who are too lazy to use your auto-translate tool and/or flunked your Japanese class, it means Kagoshima. Obviously it was Shimazu Katsu's way of remembering his home. Anyways, he started coming by in the mornings and helping Katsu with cleaning, waiting on customers, carrying food to and from the kitchen, and a wide expanse of other duties. He even was paid for his work, though less than typical because he also ate meals there and that was taken out of his pay for a bit, but it was eventually adjusted to a fixed rate that he was paid and he could eat lunch and supper for free. Now, a white person working for a minority at this time was just asking for trouble, and, eventually it did come.

And you will find out why in Section 37.13 of your history books. Which you will read for homework tonight. You will give me a full and complete paper on it, due Friday. Now then, let's continue.

Since we cannot really continue the section on Mackenzie until Saturday, I will jump over to another front of the United States, the Political one. The United States in the 1850's was... anything but stable. From the Know Nothings to the debates on Slavery to arguments over States' rights, things were going downhill fast. In 1852 the United States had another election for their President. Franklin Pierce won, putting the Democrats back into the White House yet again. But, this coming Presidency was a big one. The American Colonial Society, the company responsible for running Liberia, was bankrupt yet again. To save money of having to bail out the company again, it was dismantled, the company's assets being absorbed into the brand new Department of Colonial Affairs.

With this, a new type of American Land was created, the Overseas territory. It was 'colony' by any other name. Three categories were made for it: Correctional, Unpacified, and Pacified. Liberia, having suffered no revolts in the time of American Rulership, was registered as an unpacified territory just for safety and Joseph Jenkins Roberts was appointed to keep the position he had held since 1841. Of course, this was just taking advantage of the rules a bit, there would need to be a constitutional amendment to make the territories rule official. Adding to that, slavery was expressly prohibited in Liberia, making the excuse that enslavement of Africans in Africa would end badly. This was extremely frustrating to many southern legislators, who now all but demanded a new territory to add to the US as a slave state or territory at the very least. If the Colonial Department wanted their amendment, they would need to find a territory for what the Southerners were asking for.

 

[Nagisaki]

Spoiler: Author's Notes

I'm done! This is only a fraction of what I intended to have written, but I need a break from this for a bit. Imma go back to writing Code Geass fanfiction and return to this after I feel refreshed to write in AH.

Opening up our next segment, in late 1851, President Millard Fillmore ordered Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry to prepare an expedition to the far east. His mission? To force open the islands of Japan to American ships, by military force if need be. He was given full diplomatic powers to accomplish this. Leaving from Virginia in December of 1852 and heading east, he reached the Ryukyu islands in June, extracting promises of land for a coaling station from officials. He then sailed from the Bonin islands to Edo bay, which he reached on 8 July, 1853. Perry's 4 ships that had accompanied him, upon entering the harbour, found themselves quickly almost completely surrounded by Japanese boats. While Perry ordered any and all boarding attempts to be repulsed, one Japanese boat carried a large sign in French ordering the American ships to withdraw immediately. They obviously didn't.

Because of this, the overseer of the port of Uraga, the Uraga bugyō, at the entrance to Edo bay had one of his yoriki (think samurai questors in terms of what they did) row out to the USS Susquehanna, Perry's flagship, but he was refused access, as Perry carried a letter from the President of the United States, he refused to meet with anyone not of worthy rank to receive such a letter. Therefore, a few days later, another yoriki rowed out to the fleet, pretending to be the Uraga bugyō, and was allowed to meet with Captain Franklin, the captain of the USS Susquehanna. While the yoriki tried to direct them to go to Nagasaki, the designated port for foreign contact, Perry insisted that he had a letter from the President of the United States and if he could not have it delivered then he would land troops in Edo and deliver it personally, burning the city down to do so if need be.

Meanwhile, the actual Uraga bugyō sent a messenger to Edo to request the Shogun’s orders. The only problem with that was the fact that Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi was very sick and near death. Therefore, a rōjū (member of the council of elders) decided on 1 July that simply receiving a letter would not be a violation of Japan’s sovereignty. Therefore, Perry was asked to move his fleet a bit to the southwest to near Kurihama, in modern-day Yokosuka, where he was allowed to land on 14 July.

He was not discreet about his landing. He landed with 250 sailors and Marines in the boats of 15 ships after a 13-gun salute from Susquehanna. Marines presented arms, and a band played ‘Hail Columbia.’ An official was formally presented the letter afterwards. Perry’s squadron departed on 17 July for China, promising to return in Spring of 1854 for a reply. Days after Perry’s departure, Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi died, and was succeeded by his son, Tokugawa Iesada, leaving effective administration in the hands of the Rōjū led by Abe Masahiro. Abe felt that it was currently impossible for Japan to resist the American demands by military force, and yet was reluctant to take any action on his own authority for such an unprecedented situation. Attempting to legitimize any decision taken, Abe polled all of the daimyo for their opinions. This was the first time that the Tokugawa shogunate had allowed its decision-making to be a matter of public debate, and had the unforeseen consequence of portraying the Shogunate as weak and indecisive.

The Shogunate received many different responses to the poll. The results of the poll also failed to provide Abe with an answer, as of the 61 known responses, 19 were in favor of accepting the American demands, and 19 were equally opposed. Of the remainder, 14 gave vague responses expressing concern of possible war, 7 suggested making temporary concessions and two advised that they would simply go along with whatever was decided. The only universal recommendation was that steps be taken immediately to bolster Japan’s coastal defenses. Fortifications were hurriedly built close to current day Odaiba in order to protect Edo from a subsequent American naval incursion. The only specific response that Abe got was from the Daimyo of Satsuma. Lord Shimazu suggested that the Americans be granted the status of the most favoured nation in order to protect against any future incursions by the Western Powers. In addition there seemed to be some Japanese expatriates in the United States that wish to return home, and allowing trade might let them. In the end, it was left to Abe to decide, he was effectively the Shogun’s regent, after all.

 

[Nagisaki]

Update time? Update time.

***​

Good Afternoon, class. I hope you enjoyed your break. Great job on getting all assignments done. As a reward for all the students getting an A on the exam, I will read out another part of Mackenzie's biography soon. Until then though, back to the lesson.

After some debating with the other members of the regency council, Abe ultimately decided not to grant extra privileges to the United States. From his perspective, it would damage relations with countries that may be even more powerful than the United States. There was also always the possibility that the expedition could have been bluffing about the power that their country possesses. Either way, soon the Dutch at Nagasaki passed along information that the countries that had fought in the Opium War were planning on coming to Japan, ready for some good old imperialism- I mean trade. With some Opiates in store, of course.

This was all too true. Only days after Commodore Perry departed from Edo Bay, Russian Vice-Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin arrived in Nagasaki and spent a month trying to force the Japanese to sign a treaty with him. Soon, other countries decided to join the bandwagon, readying expeditions of their own.

However, even Perry himself was on a ticking clock. With the election of 1852, Whig President Millard Fillmore was replaced with Democratic President Franklin Pierce. Pierce was a ‘doughface,’ meaning that he was a Northerner who sympathised with the South. Pierce had less interest in the far east, and more interest in placating the South, who didn’t seem to be satisfied even with the Compromise of 1850. He was also a supporter of making the Colonial Affairs Department an official part of the US government. However, the Senate was refusing to budge. They wanted something in return. Soon, they would get it.

In February of 1854, Commodore Perry returned to Japan. After some negotiations on the location of the summit, they met at the village of Yokohama, and began discussions of a treaty. After the signing of the treaty, the Americans presented the Japanese with a miniature steam locomotive, a telegraph apparatus, various agricultural tools, and small arms, as well as one hundred gallons of whiskey, clocks, stoves, and books about the United States. The Japanese responded with gold-lacquered furniture and boxes, bronze ornaments, porcelain goblets and upon learning of Perry’s personal hobby, a collection of seashells.

Perry then dispatched Saratoga home with the signed treaty, while the rest of the squadron went to survey Hakodate, Shimoda and the site of the future consulate. The Saratoga arrived in San Francisco in late March. However, after arriving at San Francisco, the man realised there had been a mix up, and he had the treaty in the wrong language. The treaty had been written in 4 languages, twice in English, and once in Chinese, Japanese, and French, for the 5 main countries who were watching the treaty. The Japanese somehow got the Chinese one, the British had both English ones, and the Americans had the Japanese one. France had their respective one, and the Chinese observer who was supposed to help translate got nothing. Nevertheless the man bearing the treaty began a 5 week journey across to country to bring the treaty to Washington after about a week in San Francisco[1]. For the rest of that story, I'll explain after the lecture is over.[2] After departing Shimoda, the fleet returned to the Ryukyu Islands, where Perry swiftly drafted the Compact between the United States and the Ryukyu Kingdom, which was formally signed on 11 July 1854.

In March 1854, the steamer Black Warrior stopped at the Cuban port of Havana on a regular trading route from New York City to Mobile, Alabama. When it failed to provide a cargo manifest, Cuban officials seized the ship, its cargo, and its crew. This started a crisis between the United States and Spain. The United States sent Spain an ultimatum to release the ship and it’s crew, as well as apologise for the incident, in early April. Spain refused, as the US had disbanded much of its military after 1848, and the Spanish didn’t see them as a threat. Spain formally rejected the ultimatum in July, calling the demands “outrageous.” The ultimatum had been worded carefully, so when Spain rejected the ultimatum in the way that they did, they alienated the other powers of Europe who would otherwise have helped them.

The crisis continued until October, when the US ministers in Spain, Great Britain, and France met in Ostend, Belgium. They drafted a manifesto stating that the US should attempt to purchase Cuba and, failing that, should not consider war to be unthinkable. Luckily, the meetings were kept secret. The manifesto was read to Congress in November.

The minister for Spain, acting on his own, offered that his government would forgive Spain if they allowed Cuba to be bought for $100 million. This was promptly rejected, and in response, an angered Spanish diplomat declared the any American ships docking at Spanish ports would have to pay 6% higher fees than anyone else. Believing this, President Pierce made a speech before a joint session of Congress on protecting their right to free trade, the exploitation of Cuba, the Monroe Doctrine, and Manifest Destiny, and since he felt negotiations had failed, formally asked Congress for a Declaration of War on Spain. The house voted in favour of it. After ratifying the treaty with Japan, the Senate also voted in favour of a declaration of war. On 29 November, 1854, it was presented to President Franklin Pierce, who signed the document. It was now official, the United States of America was at war with the Spanish Empire.

***​

Spoiler: Apology and notes

Sorry this took so long, everyone.
[1] He couldn't just take the boat he arrived on back because the Saratoga left him in Honolulu to take a trade ship back to the US.

[2] This means I'll write a narrative update to go along with this soon.

 

[Nagisaki]

Thanks for the heads up. The change in the last update about the treaty seems kinda...off. I mean NO ONE(?!) noticed that they had the wrong copy of the Treaty until weeks/months later?

um... one moment
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Now I will take questions on the lecture.

How did no one notice that they had the wrong copy of the Treaty until weeks/months later?

The treaties were put into bags to avoid the spray of the sea from ruining the paper. I guess there was a mix up. I mean, the British noticed it within a few days, but the guy transporting the American copy didn't notice until after he boarded the boat from Honolulu. It really doesn't make sense as why they wouldn't check it... but stranger things have happened. Wait until I get to tell you about the time that Nanjing fell because someone had the wrong fortification type set up and they didn't notice until enemy troops were taking the city.

 

[Nagisaki]

Alright! The next update is nearly done! Just to water your appetites, I'll give you a preview of things to come (it's a narrative):

Joshua slowed down as the memory washed over him like a tidal wave. Putting his hands on his knees, he closed his eyes so as to catch his breath. He let the feeling of dread wash over him, as the memory subsided, he opened his eyes to blurry vision. He felt water running down his face. Wait… it’s not even raining… he thought, before coming to a realisation: he was crying.
***
Also, question, should I separate the narrative and textbook updates in the Threadmarks or should I leave them as they are?