Excerpted from "Colonial Governors of Cuba," (c) 1962:
After Guy Carleton left the post in 1778, the position of colonial governor fell to John Campbell, a rather unremarkable governor regarded by many historian as a placeholder until Sir John Johnson arrived in 1783. This analysis is often overly broad in nature, as Campbell was instrumental in setting regular plans for towns, distributed lands to a number of families in his five years as governor, began a number of public highways, and enabled a number of businesses to grow. For future historian, one of his insightful policies was a decennial census on every year ending in a zero, noting by language and ethnicity the population of the island and city of residence. His numbers for 1740-1770 are estimations, but are generally considered to be more or less accurate.
The fifth governor, Sir John Johnson, 2nd Baronet of New York, brought with him 3800 Loyalists to the Cuba Colony. He settled them in the town he named New Williamsburg (OTL Puerto Padre) on the Williamsburg Bay. Amongst the Loyalists brought with him, Daniel Claus brought 940 to Bay Town (OTL Baracoa), later renamed Charlotte in 1806 in honor of King George III's wife.
Cuban Royal Governor, Sir John Johnson (1783-1796)
King George's policy after the war was to generously reward Loyalist military with land and positions of power in the remaining colonies, to demonstrate his generosity and beneficence. Many of the cities of Cuba today have roots in Loyalist settlers leaving North America, and though there was some agitation in 1842 for independence or self government, the Loyalist sentiment towards the crown earned Cuba the name "The most faithful Island to her Britannic Majesty."
Just to make sure I understand where things have progressed so far, most of the Caribbean is British territory, most of North America is part of the US (with the capital at it's rightful place in Philly), and Quebec WAS independent but eventually joins America? Hopefully I'm on the right page with this
. The British still hold Newfoundland Island and Rupert's Land, the French still have St. Pierre et Miquelon (for now), so the Americans are constrained to the north. The United Empire Loyalists are pretty much spread around British Honduras (including Petén), Cuba, British Guyana, Jamaica, New Caledonia, and Australia for the most part right now. For the period of about 1780-1800, you can just about say that the Caribbean is the "British Lake."The Revolution: The Final Years, (c) 2001, continued:
1781
Near Princeton, New Jersey, unpaid Pennsylvanian soldiers mutinied in January. They chose their own representatives to negotiate with state officials back in Pennsylvania. This crisis was eventually resolved th[FONT="]rough negotiations, but not before more than half the volunteers abandon the army.
More to the north, Americans wintering in Halifax re-fortify their positions in preparations for an expected return of the Royal Navy to the important port.
Fort Halifax
In the southern theater, Americans find another victory at Cowpens, South Carolina as General Daniel Morgan defeats British General Tarleton.
General Daniel Morgan
General Morgan was a prisoner of war captured during one of the battles of Quebec and Montreal, while under command of Benedict Arnold, and was released in a prisoner exchange 8 months later. Arnold's treason was viewed as humiliating to the country and the cause of the patriots.
Designs for the 1981 Commemorative Silver Dollar of the 200th anniversary of General Morgan's Battle of Cowpens. Morgan's actions would be merged with the accounts of several other Patriot heroes in the 2002 film "The Patriot."
The Battle of Cowpens occured on the 17th of January, where Morgan was joined by militia under Andrew Pickens, and dragoons under William Washington. The British legion under Tarleton was supplemented by light infantry from several regiments of British regulars.
Morgan's plan took advantage of Tarleton's tendency towards quick action and general disdain for the militia, along with the longer range and accuracy of his Virginian riflemen. The marksmen were positioned in front, then the militia, then the regulars on the hilltop. The first two units were to withdraw as soon as they were seriously threatened, but only after inflicting damage, so as to invite a premature charge by the British. This tactic of Morgan's resulted in what was called a 'double envelopment.' As the British forces approached the Americans, whose backs were turned on the British, the Americans reloaded their muskets and fired point-blank in the faces of their onrushing foes as they got too close.
Battle of Cowpens, by Louise Gespard, Quebec City Museum of Science and History, 1848. Gespard was the grandson of a Quebecker who fought with Morgan, and heard tales of his deeds by his grandfather.
In less than one hour, Tarleton's 1,076 men faced 119 killed and 842 captured, including 212 wounded. Although Tarleton escaped capture, the Americans did capture all his supplies and equipment, including the officer's slaves. Morgan's cunning plan at Cowpens would be widely considered to be the tactical masterpiece of the war, and one of the most successfully executed double envelopments of all modern military history. Several towns, counties, rivers, mountains, and islands would be named after the general in the years to come.
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Following this great victory, the patriots had a small victory on St. John's Island, where hundreds of settlers owing Quit-Rent ousted the small British garrison there. Walter Patterson, seeing the tides of sentiment as well as being influenced himself by Jonathan Eddy's success, and the success of the Quebeckers, began openly expressing patriot sympathies this winter, and helped organize supplies for the patriots in Nova Scotia.
Even with their victories, there were more troubles for the Americans as well, with another mutiny amongst the troops in Pompton, New Jersey, this time being put down by a 600-man force sent by General Washington seven days later. Two of its leaders were promptly hanged.
Fort Nassau, having been American-held for some time now, sends four ships to the Turks and Caicos Islands, under John Paul Jones, meeting up with the French occupying the islands at the time. The Americans would garrison several dozen there with their families until the fall.
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February brought more success, in a roundabout way, to the Patriot cause, as General Morgan ordered 500 militia under General William Lee Davidson at the Battle of Cowan's Ford, which served to help to slow Cornwallis' crossing of the Catawba. The British lost several cannon, horses, and men with the militia picking off their soldiers, but they inflicted more damage to the Americans, including a shot to the heart of Davidson, who was found later that night naked, and robbed by British soldiers, proven by his wallet being returned from the Public Records Office in 2001.
In the Caribbean, the Battle of Sint Eustatius brought the capture of the Dutch island, a source of much piracy in the West Indies. Nearer to home, the French and Spanish soldiers capture Minorca from the British in a months-long siege on the fifth of February.
The Americans adopt the Articles of Confederation on the 2nd of March, which included signatures by representatives from Quebec and Nova Scotia, both having representative governments at this point. Several states dragged out the process, when they refused to cede their land claims to the west. Quebec did not give up their claims to the Ontario peninsula, but did cede the northwest area from Lake Nipising.
At Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina, the British win a costly victory, when General Cornwallis defeats Nathanael Greene; Cornwallis' 1900 men defeated the larger American force of 4000, though it would be a costly victory with several ramifications for the future of the British Empire and Africa. Cornwallis was determined to destroy Greene's Army after Cowpens, though the loss of his light infantry led him to burn supplies to be nimble enough to pursue Greene. He chased Greene in an attempt to prevent his escape across the Dan River, which failed. Establishing camp at Hillsborough, his forces foraged for supplies and recruits from amongst the North Carolina Tories. Unfortunately for Cornwallis, the poor state of his army, and Pyle's Massacre deterred Loyalists from turning out.
Due to the fighting, thousands of slaves escaped their plantations in the south, with many having joined the British to fight for their personal freedom. In the waning months of the war, the British evacuated more than 3,000 freedmen to Cuba, British Honduras, and Australia, and eventually New Caledonia. Northern slaves who escaped to the British lines were brought first to Newfoundland, then later to British Guyana, Sierra Leone, Cape Colony, and British South America in the next thirty years. The large numbers of freedmen across the Caribbean helped spur the abolitionist movements in the Empire, along with the 'repatriation movement' of creating a freedmen's colony in Africa for the freed Africans to return "home."
On March 14, while Cornwallis was encamped in the forks of the Deep River, he was informed of Greene's encampment at Guilford Courthouse, with North Carolina militia and reinforcements from Virginia and Maryland, totaling around 4,000-5,000 men. He decided to take the initiative and fight, even though he only had 1,900 men. He detached 120 men under Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton with his baggage train to Bell's Mills, and set off before breakfast for Guilford, arriving near midday.
[/FONT][FONT="]The battle lasted only 90 minutes, and even though he had his horse shot out from underneath him, General Cornwallis won the fight, though with heavy losses made fighting through the first two lines of the Americans. He ended the fight with 93 dead, over 400 wounded; Greene reported a total of 1,046 missing, 79 killed, and 185 wounded. He retreated without chase from the British, who had less than 2,000 men available for it. Instead, he decided to leave Hillsborough, where he spent only a few weeks, to march to Wilmington, North Carolina for refit and recruitment. Instead of remaining to reinforce his position here, General Cornwallis decided to march to Virginia, believing that until he reduced Virginia, he could not securely hold the other southern colonies he had just overrun.
For three months, Cornwallis raided every farm and plantation he came across on his way, and took hundreds of horses for his Dragoons, converted around 700 infantry to mounted duties, and freed thousands of slaves, of which 12,000 joined his own force. American General Greene pushed towards Camden and Charleston, hoping to draw Cornwallis back towards him, along with drawing back Lord Rawdon, whom Cornwallis had left in the field at Guilford Courthouse. Greene faced numerous hard battles and repeated reverses in his attempt to recover the southern states, but largely succeeded by the end of the year. He was quoted as saying, "[/FONT][FONT="]We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again." (This line would later make it into the film "Greene's Men" in 2004.) Cornwallis' move north makes possible the Battle of Yorktown later.
March also brings with it a force of six British vessels to Quebec City, hoping to take the city back; though they bombard the city, Patriots successfully defend against the cannon, forcing their retreat back up the St Lawrence, and eventually to port in Newfoundland. Another force sailed for Montreal, bombarding that city as well, though three American ships at port were able to defend the city and force the retreat in the Battle of Montreal, led by Colonel [/FONT][FONT="]Barthélemy Faribault, who later brought a number of veteran settlers in to St Ignace, in the future state of Manitoulin.
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[FONT="]In April, General Greene faced another defeat at Hobkirk's Hill on the 25th, South Carolina, by Lord Francis Rawdon, followed by an expulsion from Halifax by the British Navy. Colonels Eddy and Viger vow to return to retake the city. Despite these two setbacks, General Bédard managed to successfully defend Montreal from a British force led by General William Robertson, leading a force of 1,800. Bédard declared Rupert's Land United States Territory, though he did not have the manpower to cover the large territory, and it would remain British territory at war's end.
On May 15th, British Major General Andrew Maxwell ceded Fort Granby, South Carolina to patriot Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lee, in one of a series of reversals for the British this year, including the recapture of Augusta on the 6th of June.
Generals Washington and Romchambeau, the French general, met in Connecticut on the 21st for a war council. Romchambeau reluctantly agreed to Washington's plan for a joint French naval and American ground attack on New York.
June was a close month for the Patriots, when Thomas Jefferson narrowly escaped capture by the British at Charlottesville, Virginia, followed closely by the recapture of Augusta. Under the joint command of Marquis de Lafayette, General Anthony Wayne, and Baron von Steuben, Americans form a combined army to oppose the British under Cornwallis and the traitor, Benedict Arnold. At Ninety Six, South Carolina, the British hold off the Americans, who were led by General Greene. In July, "Mad" Anthony Wayne was repulsed at Green Springs Farm in [/FONT][FONT="]Virginia.
By August, after several months of chasing Greene's army through the south with little success, General Cornwallis and his 10,000 tired soldiers arrived to seek rest in Yorktown, Virginia, on the Chesapeake Bay. Hearing of this, General Washington abruptly changed his plans, and abandons the New York attack in favor of Yorktown, after he received a letter from French Admiral Comte de Grasse, indicating that his entire 29-ship French fleet was then heading for the Chesapeake Bay, near Cornwallis. Washington coordinated with Rochambeau to rush their best troops south to Virginia to destroy the British position at Yorktown, leaving behind a token force to make the British believe they would still attack in the north. Another French fleet, under Count Le Fleur, laid siege to the British ships at Halifax, having coordinated with Bédard and Eddy for a dawn attack against the fort there.
Comte de Grasse's French fleet cut off the sea retreat from Cornwallis, and landed troops near Yorktown, which linked up with Lafayette's American troops, cutting off the option of a land retreat.
By September, General Greene's troops were defeated at Eutaw Springs, though this defeat had the effect of forcing the British to abandon most of their southern conquests outside of Charleston and Savannah. As before, Greene faced several reversals on the field before the defeat, which ultimately played into the Americans' favor. Back at Yorktown, a major naval battle between Comte de Grasse's French fleet and British Admiral Thomas Graves resulted in a victory for de Grasse, leaving the French fleet in control of Chesapeake Bay when they retreated to New York for reinforcements. The French established a blockade, cutting off Cornwallis from any hope of retreat by sea. Some French reinforcements arrived from Newport and Halifax, 12 ships in total, demonstrating their control of the sea.
Benedict Arnold burned the port of New London, Connecticut, under orders from General Clinton to attempt to divert General Washington from marching towards Cornwallis in Virginia. On the 6th of September, in what would later be called the Battle of Groton Heights, or the Fort Griswold Massacre, where the defending militia under Lieutenant Colonel William Ledyard faced the numerically superior British forces of Arnold and Lt. Col. Edmund Eyre.
Sketch of Fort Griswold by Arnold
The militia resisted British attempts to capture the fort, located across the Thames River in Groton, with several leaders of the attacking British force either being killed or seriously wounded, and much of the defending garrison being eithier killed, mortally wounded, or captured when the fort was eventually stormed. High British casualties (49 killed, 145 wounded) led to criticism of General Arnold by his superiors, and was the last major northern battle in the United States, preceding the decisive American victory at Yorktown by about six weeks.
Washington and Rochambeau giving their orders before the battle.
The French de Grasse sent ships up the Chesapeake to transport Washington, so that by the 27th, General Washington could begin his siege of Yorktown with his combined allied army of 17,000 men. French cannons bombarded Cornwallis and his 9,000 men from the sea day and night, while the allied lines slowly advanced to encircle him. Lasting several weeks, the constant attacks drained Cornwallis' supplies to dangerously low levels.
On October 9th, Washington fired the first gun after all were in place. Legend has it that its ball smashed into a table where British officers were eating at the time.
Washington firing the first gun.
The Americans approached closer and closer, digging under cloudy skies, reaching just out of musket range, then reaching and storming the redoubts of the British.
Storming of Redoubt #9
An assault by French troops occurred simultaneously, on the Hessian positions, hacking at the abatis, and successfully climbing over the fortification, forcing a Hessian surrender when they saw the French preparing a bayonet charge. The Americans were able to shell the city from three sides, and when a random squall prevented escape across the river, Cornwallis finally decided to surrender on the 17th.
Cornwallis ordered his Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Dundas to discuss terms of surrender, and the Americans sent a Lieutenant Colonel, Laurens, with the Marquis de Noailles to discuss surrender. On the 19th, Brigadier General Charles O'Hara presented the sword of surrender to Rochambeau, who shook his head, and pointed to Washington. O'Hara offered it to Washington, who refused to accept it, motioning to his second in command, Benjamin Lincoln, who had been humiliated by the British at Charleston, to accept it.
With the surrender, the British soldiers marched out and laid down their arms between the French and American armies, while many civilians watched.
Seven thousand British reinforcements under General Clinton arrive nearly a week later at the Chesapeake, but turn back upon hearing of the Yorktown surrender. In November, Governor Walter Patterson ended Quit-Rent on the island, and re-assigned land grants to the current landholders, in allodial title.[/FONT]
Von Steuben Elementary, Bismarck, Florida, 1976.
Little Tommy took out his letter he kept in a protective plastic sheet, holding an original, signed letter of recommendation by General Washington, kept in his family since the American Revolution. It would be donated to the Smithsonian Museum Annex in Alexandria, DC by his family in time for the Bicentennial celebrations in July.
For show and tell at his second grade class that late April day, Tommy Dhom would tell how his ancestors came over from Bavaria, and helped fight in the Revolution, trained under Baron von Steuben with George Washington, then settled in South Carolina.
Mecklenburg County family house
Jakob Dhom married Abigail Saylor in 1781, two years before the end of the Revolution. As it ended, they moved to South Carolina, where they became farmers, and raised a large family.
His family farmed in Mecklenburg County until 1850, when it decided to move south into the new state of Florida. They spent time in Columbia County, Duval County, and then south to Bismarck County in the middle of Florida, where most of Florida's theme parks currently reside.
Still holding on to their German heritage, the Dhom family has continued to speak German in the home, teaching it to all their children, reading two of Florida's five German-language newspapers, while embracing their two centuries of American heritage. They eat Würstchen while enjoying grits for breakfast, and play baseball and soccer. They go hunting and his parents help out with the Parent-Teachers' Associations. Tommy's grandparents and great-grandparents fought in three wars when drafted, earning three Purple Hearts between them, and his great grandfather, William Dhom, rose to the rank of Colonel in the US Army by 1918.
His grandfather, James Dhom, served in the Army, helping recapture the Caroline Islands (German: Karolinen) from the Japanese in the early 1940s before settling down in Arizona along its Gulf of California coastline in Stanton [OTL Puerto Penasco, Mexico], then returning to central Florida in the 1960s.
Tommy's show of the letter got him a lot of questions from his classmates, with which his mother helped when he didn't know the answers. The Dhom Family's story is like that of a number of families we have been highlighting in this bicentennial year, having come to America from both the United Kingdom and Europe, building a life, and becoming part of this American family that we celebrate today, its two centuries of freedom and liberty a beacon for the world. God Bless America!
Excerpted from the Florida Times Union, translated from the Florida Amerikanische Zeitung.
[FONT="]The Revolution: The Final Years, (c) 2001
After the Battle of Saratoga, the writing was on the wall concerning the direction of the war. Starting in January, a number of Loyalists begin leaving America, heading south towards the colonies of Cuba, Jamaica, and the Providence Islands. In all, around 15-20% of Americans resettle, including between 75,000 - 100,000 Black Loyalists, who follow to lands elsewhere in the British Empire. The arrival of so many "free-men" in Cuba, a slave-holding colony, would also begin to spark the 'Back to Africa' movement, for a free-black colony, and start British interest in the continent for regular settler colonies. This movement of people is marked by historians as the beginning of the 'Second British Empire.' Movement of American 'resettlers' would also lead to the rhotic quality of the early Australian and Cuban English accents.
By the end of January, the British had withdrawn from North Carolina. The House of Commons votes against further war in America in February, while fur trappers begin evacuating Rupert's Land, fearing Quebecker invasion to the north and west, which never materializes. On the 22nd, the French capture Montserrat from the United Kingdom, though it would be returned in the pending Treaty of Paris.
In March, the Parliament of the United Kingdom empowers the king to negotiate peace with the United States. Lord North resigns as Prime Minister on the 20th, and succeeded by Lord Rockingham, who then seeks immediate negotiation with the American peace commissioners.
As the fighting dwindled, American militiamen massacred 96 Delaware Indians in the Ohio country in retaliation for Indian raids conducted by other tribes.
British General Clinton began to oversee the end of hostilities as April came, with the start of the withdrawal of British troops from America. With no place to go other than the frigid north of Rupert's Land, and the unfriendly island of Newfoundland, the General would send a letter to Lord Rockingham suggesting resettlement across the British Empire for Loyalists and troops, with free passage for troops and land available for them when they arrived.
In Paris, Benjamin Franklin and Richard Oswald of Great Britain would begin their peace talks between the two nations. The Dutch recognized the young United States of America as a result of negotiations conducted in the Netherlands on the part of John Adams.
Thomas Tingey defeated Governor John Montagu at St. John, Nova Scotia on the 18th, with a force of 2000, capturing the vital seaport. The Patriot's demand annexation of St. Pierre and Miquelon, and capture of Newfoundland Island, but with the war winding down, the Navy and Army scrap any plans to do so, and the Treaty of Paris will specify that those islands remain French. General Washington established an American army headquarters at Newburgh, NY.
In June of this year, the British withdrew from Savannah, while in the Great Lakes, one of the last battles of the Revolution occurs when several Quebecois Patriots take a fur trading post from the British near the northern border of the future state of Minnesota. Congress adopted in June the Great Seal of the United States, with 15 arrows, leaves, and stars on it, representing the original 13 colonies which revolted, along with Nova Scotia and Quebec.
By August, some dwindling fighting continued as Loyalist and Indian forces attacked and defeated American settlers near Lexington, Kentucky. Mohawk Indian Chief Joseph Brant conducted raids on settlements in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, while Americans and British fight in South Carolina along Combahee River. The final battle occurs in November with Americans retaliating against Loyalist-Indian forces by attacking a Shawnee Indian village in Ohio country.
The British signed the preliminary Articles of Peace in Paris in November, and left Charleston, South Carolina in December. In France, strong objections to the peace treaty signing without consulting them first nearly caused a falling out with France, though Ben Franklin soothed their anger with a diplomatic response.
1783
The United Kingdom signed a preliminary peace treaty with France and Spain in January, wherein the British yield East and West Florida to Spain, in exchange for the Bay Islands, Providence Islands, and settlement near the Falklands south of the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata, where there were no other settlements. This would later lead to a clash between Spanish and British settlers, culminating in the future Invasion of the River Plate in 1806. Britain yielded the Mosquito Coast claims in exchange for expanding British Honduras inland.
In February, Spain recognized the United States, followed soon after Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. England officially declared an end to hostilities in America soon afterwards.
An anonymous letter circulated in March among Washington's senior [FONT="]officers at Newburg, NY calling for an unauthorized meeting, urging officers to defy the authority of the new US Congress for its failure to honor past promises to the Continental Army. The next day, General Washington forbade the unauthorized meeting, and instead suggested a regular meeting March 15. A second anonymous letter then appeared claiming falsely that Washington himself sympathizes with the rebellious officers. To resolve the issue, General Washington gathered his officers on the 15th, and talked them out of a rebellion against the authority of Congress, in effect preserving the American republic[/FONT] on that day. He stumbled on the letters, and took out his glasses, which few had ever seen him wear before, telling his soldiers:
"Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country."
As he read, soldiers began openly weeping, and any talk of rebellion fell apart that day, preserving the republic.
As April came, Congress officially declared the end of the Revolutionary War. On the 26th, 7,000 Loyalists sailed from New York to the New Providence Islands, bringing the total to 123,000 Loyalists who left America.
By June, the main portion of the Continental Army had disbanded, as Congress leaves Philadelphia, and relocated to Princeton, New Jersey to avoid protests from angry and unpaid war veterans. On the 11th, Daniel Cartwright would be born to George and Juliana Cartwright on Newfoundland Island, which remained British throughout the war. He would grow up to become the colonial governor of Newfoundland, responsible for succeeding in gaining responsible government for the island.
In July, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts abolished slavery in that state, beginning the rollback of the 'peculiar institution' in North America.
On September 3rd, the Treaty of Paris was formally ratified by the representatives of the United States and the United Kingdom. Congress would ratify the treaty on January 14th of the following year.
As the year drew to a close, Virginia's House of Burgesses granted freedom to slaves who served in the Continental Army in October, while General George Washington delivered his farewell address to the army, followed the next day by the discharge of his remaining troops.
Colonel Eddy made known his intent to retire to Halifax, the new capital of Nova Scotia, which had just signed the Articles of Confederation in October. Washington entered Manhattan as the last British troops left, while Congress met in Annapolis, Maryland.
Colonel Eddy
At Fraunces Tavern on December 4, Washington formally bade his officers farewell and on December 23, 1783, he resigned his commission as commander-in-chief in Annapolis before Congress. Historian Gordon Wood concluded that the greatest act in his life was his resignation as commander of the armies—an act that stunned aristocratic Europe. King George III called Washington "the greatest character of the age" because of this.
General Washington, resigning his commission.
[FONT="]Pierre Bédard and Jonathan Eddy also resign their commissions to return home following Washington's example.[/FONT]
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History of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, (c) 1952.
Settling the Empire
King George II, having gained the colony of Cuba in the War of Jenkin's Ear, and secured it from the Spanish through the valiant efforts of Admiral Vernon, set about securing settlers for his territory. Settlers from Great Britain, as well as the Electorate of Hanover, were allowed land on the island, and later, due to his aid in the Seven Years' War, Frederick II, the Great, gain concession from his cousin to open settlement to his subjects.
After the loss of British North America, the United Kingdom's settlers flowed towards Cuba, Providence Islands, Jamaica, and British Honduras. With the opening of New Caledonia, New Zealand, and Australia to settlement, many Loyalists began settling there, including Hanoverians, and Brandenburg-Prussians, along with Hessian mercenaries who had fought under the British crown.
Continuing his father's policies of encouraging settlement, King George III, after the loss of much of North America, sought other areas for settlement, leading to the Invasion of the River Plate in 1797, capturing Montevideo and Buenos Aires, with the support of a number of natives, based on the plan of Nicholas Vansittart. Though they later rebelled, the aristocracy fell to the waves of British, and later German-speaking, settlers. The War of the River Plate followed by the Treaty of London (1800), where Spain settled its borders with the United Kingdom, ceding the southern cone of South America to the United Kingdom, where waves of English, Scottish, and Irish settlers arrived, along with other European settlers seeking land and escape from the crowded cities of Europe. Though Vansittart planned to take the land all the way to Peru, his plans were later modified by the reality of the situation and by gentlemen such as Thomas Maitland, who brought British ambition more in line with what they could accomplish, namely the capture of the land south of the Bermejo river, west to the Pacific, and east to the lands surrounded by the Parana River. Whitelocke, Beresford, Popham, and Frederick Adam conducted the operation, largely successful due to the distraction of the Spanish Empire with the Napoleonic Wars.
The British South America colony, as it was called from 1800-1827, grew in fits, starting on the east coast and working its way inward, with a number of settlements, chiefly Bonnaire (Buenos Aires), the capital of the colony, and Whitelocke (Montevideo). New Belfast (OTL Viedma) on the Black River in South America, and New Galway (OTL Castro) on the west coast, south of the Hessian settlement of Neupforte (Newport, OTL Puerto Montt) became growing settlements. For their part in the Napoleonic Wars, King George III, and later, George IV, encouraged settlement of veterans and their families in the British Empire, leading to Swedish, Prussian, Genoan, Swiss, and Italian immigration into the inner territories of the colony.
The Cape Colony became another destination for British settlers, on the way to British India, having been annexed in 1806. To aid in their frontier wars with the Xhosa, the government of the United Kingdom encouraged the 1820 Settlers (12,500 English, Scottish, and Irish; 8700 Dutch-Flemish), a large number of them unemployed Dutch, whose passage to the eastern part of Cape Colony came with the Agreement of 1820, where the Dutch Trading Company (founded 1820 by King Willem I) would gain access to markets in Cape Colony, improving the situation in the southern United Kingdom of the Netherlands dramatically.
Dutch Cape Colony, up to 1795
British Cape Colony, 1815
The incoming Dutch formed a border with the Boers, and owing their allegiance and livelihoods to the British crown, formed a linguistic stratum that contains a range of accents from the Boer settlers and Dutch immigrants from Flanders and the northern Netherlands, now called Cape Dutch, which is to this day mutually intelligible with European Dutch. Southern Netherlanders, speaking French and also being Catholic, came to settle both the River Plate colony as well as the Cape Colony, forming the town of South Liege (now a suburb of New Belfast, OTL Viedma) on the Black River in 1819, and South End (Zuidend), just north of Durban, which was founded in 1824.
The British annexed the "Republic of Natalia" in 1843, and with annexation came a British governor and a flood of settlers, this time mainly from the Netherlands, Hanover, and Ireland. The Voortrekkers moved north, establishing what became known as the Orange Free State.
Orange Free State in the southern portion of Africa
The Orange Free State and the Transvaal later fell to British forces in the Boer War of 1862-64, when a gold rush brought the two Boer Republics into conflict with the inrush of British/Dutch settlers.
Transvaal in southern Africa
The Griqua mini-states allied with the British in the face of the overwhelming show of force, being annexed to the British crown, while in practice largely ruling themselves.
With the abolitionist movement succeeding in outlawing slavery across the British Empire, large numbers of newly freed blacks outnumbered a lot of British settlers in the Caribbean, creating a lot of tension with the British settlers and their former slaves. The colony of Freetown, established in 1792, was established for that purpose. It became a Crown Colony in 1808, and after 1834, population crept inland to the north and east with thousands of freedmen and British tradesmen, increasing as gold and diamonds were discovered, taking the name British Guinea (OTL Sierra Leone and Guinea).
British encroachments into the continent drew the attention of the French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and even some German states, leading to the decades-long 'Scramble for Africa' that historians tend to date back to around 1836, as Europeans sought new colonies and resources to exploit, along with new settler colonies for growing populations.
One lasting thing coming out of this would be the strengthening of French as a second language in the future United States, with the addition of multiple states which had French as their first or second language. Canada styled itself as "Quebec" starting in 1785, while the Northwest Territory would be split into three territories: Ohio Territory to the east, Indiana Territory to the west, and north of the Great Lakes, Canada Territory.
In 1800, Congress divided the Northwest Territory at the junction of the Ohio and Great Miami River due north to the Great Lakes, creating the Ohio Territory at the east, where American settlements were increasingly being established, while the west was renamed the Indiana Territory, and the land north was named Canada Territory.
The Canada Territory was settled starting in 1787 by settlers from Quebec, followed soon after by Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and other English-speaking settlers. By 1802, the territory would be split into the Ottawa Territory at Lake Nipissing, and the Canada Territory, while Ohio got a new northern border to include Toledo, taking a portion of Michigan so it could keep its valuable port.
Indiana's northern border was moved ten miles north of the southern point of Lake Michigan, taking the port of Eddy, Indiana (OTL Gary) from Michigan. The territory would lose territory again when the upper peninsula would be assigned to the Canada Territory. Michigan Territory then acquired its modern territory. Illinois gained several miles of territory to the north to keep the city of Chicago in its territory, leaving Wisconsin for a few years with the Upper Peninsula, which was later assigned to Canada Territory. Michigan did retain, however Bois Blanc Island, as well as Beaver Island.
The eventual state of Wisconsin would win territory in its assignment of which branch of the Montreal River would form its northeastern border, getting the eastern branch.
In the end, the territory would be divided into 7 states, with three, Ottawa, Michigan, and Manitoulin, having significant (>10%, and in the case of Ottawa, >20%) population of French-speaking settlers. While these states would conduct their affairs in English, government affairs could be conducted in French on request of any settler, and to this day, French language skills are a requirement for government employment in these states. To the east, Nova Scotia and St. John's Island also offer today government services in French upon request, along with Maine, New York, and Louisiana.
Montreal Gazette, excerted from the 9 September 1794 edition,
(translated from the original French):
The Terror of Paris, of which your papers do not tell you, is the device of the Girondins and Jacobins, both of which spread accusations and lies about their enemies. You are guilty until proven innocent, which often can be several weeks after your death. The revolution in France is not a birth of freedom, but mob rule at its worst. There are mass executions and political purges of enemies, all by the infamous symbol, the guillotine.
The leaders of this blasphemy of freedom are also the enemies of Christianity itself. They seized the property of the church, declaring it the property of the state. The National Assembly then dissolved the priests' oaths to God, made them beholden to a civil constitution, and subjected priests to a popular vote, including oaths of loyalty to the state. Convents and monasteries have been seized and turned into prisons for any priests or royalty who refuse to abide the Assembly. The priests heroically refused, their loyalty remaining with our God, but for this, they were chopped to pieces. Women would cheer their husbands on in their work of butchery, giving them food and drink, then sitting on the sidelines to observe their work, occasionally grabbing severed body parts to serve as decorations. The crowd even forced a little girl to drink blood, which was squeezed from the severed heart of an aristocrat.
I cannot begin to describe the horrors which Princess Lamballe experienced, and the depravations of which she was accused. She was beheaded and her head was placed on a pike outside Queen Marie Antoinette's prison cell for her to see, as the mob shouted obscenities at her to kiss her lover.
The revolution began spreading rumors and lies of the Queen of France before her execution, of all manner of abhorent behavior, not one parcel of which could such a kind and charitable woman could have been thought to have accomplished in her most horrible of moments. Her last letter to her sister-in-law, Princess Elisabeth, reached her in Rome, and affirmed the true image of Marie Antoinette how she should be remembered, as a devout catholic and model of Christian forgiveness in the face of evil.
I did not witness, but have heard that De Launey was beheaded in the streets with a pocket knife, his head I had the misfortune to pass by as it stood upon a pike. The king's Swiss guard was murdered and their corpses were mutilated. Women committed the most indecent mutilations on the dead bodies, from which they tore pieces of flesh and carried them off in triumph. Children kicked their heads around the street as a game. As your ambassadors left France, hills of rotting and defiled corpses were left in the streets as a warning of the power of the left.
The Terror included a trial of which no true court of justice and liberty could ever have part, after which the king was beheaded, saying prayers with his family shortly before his death. It was after this that the true attack on the Christian faith began in earnest, with attacks on churches, priests, and theft of church property to be used for personal use. People who remained loyal to the church in France were murdered in Lyon, with wives and children not being spared by the horror. Pagan festivals to invented gods and goddesses erupted, nuns turned into prostitutes, the calendar which we all use has been discarded, names replaced with invented ones, and even the very clocks we use replaced with absurd created divisions.
Do not hold any illusions about the Revolution. It is nothing like your Revolution here against the King of Great Britain, with whom you now trade as brothers. It is the most despicable sort of mob rule, violence, and depredations against humanity you could imagine, and no Christian could support such acts of barbarism and still remain in communion with the Holy Catholic Church in Rome. Your country has been gracious enough to welcome me here, allow me to worship freely, and speak my native tongue openly with my cousins who left France so long ago, as I should have. May America never fall to mob rule and the violence of the mob, and always be a country of reason and logic, and a refuge for Christians to be free to worship.
The French-American War, Chapter 3 of Early American Military History
The Kingdom of France had been a crucial ally of the United States during the Revolutionary War, beginning in the spring of 1776, most notably after the 1778 Treaty of Alliance. However, in 1794, after the French Revolution toppled the country's monarchy, the American government came to an agreement with the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Jay Treaty, which resolved several lingering issues between Great Britain and the United States, along with several economic clauses.
The United States had already declared its neutrality in the war between post-revolution France and Great Britain, and American legislation was being passed for a trade deal with Britain. Coupled with the US refusal to continue repaying its debt to France, on grounds that the debt had been owed to the French Crown, not to Republican France, the French outrage at the United States led to a series of responses. The French privateers began seizing American ships trading with Britain, impressed French-speaking Americans as deserters (in fact, a number of French citizens had fled the Terror for Quebec and Nova Scotia, including Antoine Lavoisier), and refused to receive the new United States minister to France, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, when he arrived in Paris in December of 1796. In his annual message to Congress at the end of 1797, President John Adams reported on France's refusal to negotiate and spoke of the need "to place our country in a suitable posture of defense."
In April 1798, President Adams informed the Congress of the so-called "XYZ Affair," in which French agents demanded a large bribe for the restoration of normal diplomatic relations with the United States. The French navy had already inflicted substantial losses on American shipping. Secretary of State Pickering reported to Congress on June 21, 1797, that the French had seized 342 American merchant ships in the last 11 months. The hostilities had caused insurance rates on American shipping to increase at least 500%, since the French marauders cruised the length of hte US Atlantic seaboard virtually unopposed.
The Administration had no warships to combat the French; the last had been sold in 1785. The US possessed only a small flotilla of revenue cutters, and a few neglected coastal forts. Even Bermuda could easily be taken by the French if they so desired.
Increased depredations by French privateers from Revolutionary France required the rebirth of the United States Navy to protect the expanding American merchant shipping. Congress authorized the president to acquire, arm, and man not more than 16 vessels, of up to 24 guns each. Several vessels were immediately purchased and converted into ships of war, and the construction of the frigate Congress resumed. Among the ships built, the USS Enterprise, the USS Constitution, the USS Montreal, the USS Halifax, the USS Sydney, the USS Quebec, and the USS Intrepid.
On July 2, 1798, the date that Congress rescinded the treaties with France, is usually considered the beginning of the French-American War. This was followed three days later by the declaration of war against France.
The War Begins
The US Navy operated with a fleet of about 32 vessels. These patrolled the sotuhern coast of the United States, throughout the Bahamas and the Caribbean, and out to Bermuda, seeking French privateers. Captain Thomas Truxtun's insistence on the highest standards of crew training paid off as the frigate USS Constellation captured L'Insurgente, and severely damaged La Vengeance.
The USS Constellation facing off against L'Insurgence
French privateers usually resisted, as did L'Invincible, which was captured on July 8, 1798 by the USS Sydney outside of Saint John in the Bay of Fundy, later renamed after the captain of that ship, John Booth. The USS Enterprise captured 8 privateers, and freed 11 American merchant ships from captivity, and the USS Delaware caught La Croyable outside of Egg Harbor, New Jersey on July 14. The USS Experiement captured Deux Amis and Diane, recapturing numerous American merchantment in the process.
The USS Montreal forced Le Berceau into submission, and in April 1800 led a surprisingly effective assault on St. Pierre near Newfoundland island, with the USS Boston, USS Quebec, USS Sydney, and the USS Halifax, capturing the town for the Americans. Captain Jean Pierre Barsalou and Captain William Huston planted the flag on April 18 in the town, capturing Miquelon two weeks later.
Silas Talbot made an expedition to the Puerto Plata harbor, in the Santo Domingo colony, on May 10, 1800. Sailors and marines from the USS Constitution, under Lieutanant Isaac Hull, captured French Privateer Sandwich in the harbor and spiked the guns of the Spanish fort.
With all the successes, only one US Naval vessel was captured by, and subsequently recaptured from, the French forces, namely the USS Retaliation. Starting as La Croyable, she departed Norfolk on OCtober 27, 1798, with the Montezuma and Norfolk, cruising to the West Indies to protect American commerce. On November 20, the French L'Insurgente and Volontaire overtook Retaliation while her two consorts were away, forcing Lieutenant William Bainbridge to surrender the schooner. Montezuma and Norfolk escaped capture when Bainbridge convinced the French commander that his frigates were outmatched by the American warships, persuading him to abandon the chace. Renamed Magicienne, the schooner returned to American hands on June 26, when a broadside from the USS Merrimack forced her to haul her colors down.
American naval losses were light, but the French did manage to seize many American merchant ships by war's end in 1800. Though fighting the same enemy, the Royal Navy and the United States Navy did not cooperate operationally, nor did they share operational plans, or come to any mutual understandings about the deployments of their forces. The British did sell the American government naval stores and munitions. In addition, the two navies did share a system of signals by which they could recognize each other's warships at sea, as well as allowing the merchantmen of their respective nations to join each other's convoys.
By the autumn of 1800, the US Navy and Royal Navy, combined with a more diplomatic stance by the government of now First Consul Napoleon Bonapart, agreed to the Convention of 1800, signed on September 30, ending the French-American War. Napoleon had other concerns, and left the islands of St Pierre et Miquelon to the Americans, provided that the French citizens there would be allowed to leave and compensated for their land and possessions lost. Unfortunately for President Adams, the news of this treaty did not arrive in time to help him secure a second term in the 1800 presidential election.
Very interesting TL thus far - consider me subscribed!
Espcially interesting is the British possession of the Southern Cone - with that, the British, for all intents and purposes possess the majority share of the Southernmost parts of the Southern Hemisphere. I wonder how that might effect the developments of the colonies and settlements of the regions? Be interesting to see a 'Southern Federation' of sorts in the far future
Also wondering how the expanded and more enlightened USA might expand in the future compared to OTL. Also, what is the fate of the Iroquios, with no Canada to move to?
Colonies of the Second British Empire, Chapter 7: British Guiana
The formation of British Guiana came about after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, when Essequibo, Berbice, and Demerara were merged, with its capital at Georgetown. The city received 5,000 new settlers by the end of 1815, and a new governor, a Loyalist Sir Isaac Coffin.
The colony attracted a number of Loyalist exiles from the United States, who sought new lands and opportunities, including Barton Boucher, son of Jonathan Boucher, who brought the first Anglican Church to Georgetown, with the help of Bishop Charles Inglis, with King George creating the Diocese of British Guiana the same year. Bishop Inglis ordered construction of a cathedral, leading to the Anglican Cathedral of St. James' construction, which was completed in 1828:
British Guyana, which received 5,000 new settlers in 1815, received a new governor after the Anglo-Dutch Treaty took effect. Most of these settlers came from Cuba and British Honduras (3100), with the rest from the United Kingdom. Georgetown became the capital of the colony, which experienced some growth, but its economy grew slowly until gold and diamond deposits were found, and later bauxite. The colony remained majority African ancestry for most of the 19th century, even after the end of slavery, until around 1870, when bauxite began booming, along with settlers, bringing in over 250,000 settlers from the United Kingdom, Cuba, British South America, and British Honduras, not to mention Americans looking for a better life.
Industry grew in the colony starting in the late 1840s, when William Meyers, one of John Meyers' sons from Cuba, settled there with his wife, Catherine Howe, and their son. They began building up Georgetown's industrial base, which attracted more settlers, including Americans from the north, south, and even Quebecois-Americans, some of whom later resettled in French Guiana. Printing, gristmills, breweries, and factories were built, and afterwards, when diamonds and gold were found, a Royal Mint was created, where Sovereigns and other coins were made for circulation in the British Caribbean colonies.
By 1900, the colony counted over 396,000 settlers, and by 1920 around 622,000. As of 1940, there were around 1.6 million, due to birthrate and immigration. By 2010, British Guiana had a population of 3.1 million people.
As the colony expanded, a number of towns grew: New Amsterdam, Summerville (OTL Kamarang), Nieuw Rotterdam (OTL Aishalton), some of which began as border fortifications to secure the British claim to the territory. Victoria (OTL Anna Regina) was founded by Colonel Andrew Deveaux, as New Town, but renamed by his son, William Andrew Deveaux, who became the mayor of that town, in 1837, upon the coronation of Queen Victoria. Today, Victoria is a town of 112,842, with 8 newspapers, 5 local channels, and 9 radio stations. New Amsterdam has long had a sizeable ethnic Dutch population, starting in 1815, when the colony was handed over to the United Kingdom. Today, it has a population of 232,125, and serves as an important tourist port for cruise lines.
The invention of 'Central Air Conditioning' became a boon to the settlers in British Guiana, making the hot and humid climate much more hospitable, and with the discovery by Robert Eden of a way to de-humidify the air, and William Koch, who worked with Sarah Coffin, a nurse who insisted on cleanliness in her work environment, leading to a rough sanitation theory that cleaning your hands and the area around you prevented diseases, vastly improving hospital conditions in the colony and in neighboring Colombia, as well as restaurants where the governor of the colony had issued a rule that to get a license for business, restaurants had to instruct their food handlers to wash their hands.
British South America: The Colonial Years
In 1810, Bishop Stanser, who had been consecrated in Kingstown, Cuba, was ordained a Bishop, and moved to Bonnaire, South America. He was impressed with the land and the British settlers, and found a ready flock, but the churches available were too small and had poor acoustics during service and singing. In 1811, he successfully petitioned for a new cathedral to be built, along the lines of the Canterbury Cathedral, for the Diocese of Bonnaire, which was completed in 1822:
This structure inspired several architects to visit, and eventually settle in Bonnaire, including John Lawrence, who brought in the early Greek Revival-style architecture to Bonnaire, with a number of buildings, including the Old Town Hall:
Old Town Hall, a Registered Historical Building (built 1829, Greek Revival Style)
By 1830, the colony of British South America was growing, drawing more settlers than Rupert's Land and Newfoundland in the north, with the large colonization push of the British government, with promises of gold, land, and wide-open spaces for the cramped citizens of large cities in the United Kingdom. The settlement focused initially on Bonnaire, Whitelocke, and New Belfast, but with the advent of rail travel, settlers moved across the Southern Cone, bringing with them new architecture, foods, accents, literature, and science.
Daniel Leonard, who had been governor in British South America from 1824 till his death in 1830, was replaced by Colonel Joseph Stark, who had done remarkably well in the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. Under his 12-year tenure, he focused on both internal improvements and sanitation, apocryphally due to his having once stepped into horse manure while walking on the street in an expensive set of shoes he had just purchased.
Governor Stark's efforts to improve communication meant that a trip from South Birmingham (OTL Rosario) to Bonnaire (OTL Buenos Aires) dropped from 3 weeks to 2, with the roads being compressed and stone-covered during his time. White Bay, New Belfast, New Calway, Porth Madryn (OTL Puerto Madryn), and New London (OTL Necochea) gained actual highways, though these would be supplemented in 1833 by railroads, which Stark heard of when his brother came back from England with news of this new technology. By 1836, New Canada Railway was founded by William Parker and John Moody in Birmingham, and by 1842, a full Cordoba-South Birmingham-Bonnaire line was in place, and a Cordoba-Sheffield (OTL Santa Rosa)-Portsmouth-South Preston (OTL Comodoro Rivadavia) line. By 1870, over 3,000 miles of track was laid in British South America.
In sanitation, the governor worked to have sanitation improved in restaurants and markets, by having food handlers wash their hands before handling meats and foods, and doctors wash before operating on patients. His focus on cleanliness meant that in the 1837-40 Bolivian-Paraguayan War, British soldiers had a much reduced risk of infection and disease in comparison to the Bolivian and Paraguayan soldiers.
The Bolivian-Paraguayan War solidified the British hold on the northern segment of British South America, and was the only major war during his tenure as governor. The British set the Bermejo and Parana Rivers as the northern borders of British South America, which some had taken to calling New Canada or South Canada during his time, partly due to the New Canada Railway and its competitor, the South Canada Railway.
The settlement of the west coast of British South America improved in 1859, when a rail pass was created between South Bedford (OTL Temuco) and New Hunken (OTL Neuqen), which was called Neu Hünken by the Hanoverian settlers granted a patent to that land in 1846, bringing 200 settlers to the area. The rail extension from New Hunken to White Bay and New Hunken to Cumberland (OTL Cordoba) meant drawing settlers at this junction between east-west and north-south, leading to large growth during the 19th century. South Bedford was settled by a Welshman, Thomas Benbow Phillips, who led a number of settlement sites in the Pacific Territory (OTL Chile), and British South America, including: South Bedford, (OTL Maldonado), Saint James (OTL Villa Maria), Santa Fe, Bangor (OTL Mar del Plata), Pembroke (OTL Valdivia), Swansea (OTL Hualpen), Chepstow (OTL Tomé), Trelew, Rawson, Trevelin, Gaiman, and Porth Madryn. Welsh settlers brought a sizeable presence for these new towns, however, in most they were eventually overcome by new settlers from England, Scotland, Ireland, and from Europe. New Galway (OTL Castro) was the southernmost southern town in British South America, until 1881, when Georgstad (OTL Puerto Aisén) was founded by Henrik Åberg, and then Carl August Kihlberg founded Stockholm (OTL Río Gallegos) later that same year. The first mayor of Stockholm was Albert Hermanson, another Swede who came over to British South America. Rail service came to Stockholm, and eventually Kirkwall (OTL Puerto Arenas).
Kirkwall was founded as a penal colony, but opened to settlers in 1881, when Africa proved a better place to send convicts for settlement. It remained the southernmost colonial town for over 40 years in South America.
