Help Wanted: Seeking Emperor - Bonaparte Mexico
- Thread starter Lord Atlas
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Yeah, definitely makes sense there!
I wonder how the British/Canadians will take the Mormons living up there. Also, I'm wondering if any of the folk from Mexico's African protectorates came to Mexico for the gold.
I think the Mormons would make a play for independence at the first opportunity, maybe while Britain's busy elsewhere and with American support.
A few hundred to a thousand might have come to California but definitely not enough to have a lasting impact outside of certain foods and fashions.
It would certainly be interesting though wonder if the Mormons will try and do better with the natives. And makes sense with the African protectorates.
You are one of the best timeline makers on here and this is a wonderful thing to see Mexico get so much love, growth and development!
You are truly amazing, dude!
After reading through this so far, I'm greatly reminded of the old 1815: Andy and Leo's Excellent Adventure map game we had.
We ended up with Bonapartist Mexico, Haiti, Austria-Italy, and a bit of messing around in Brazil and China, though.
Still good show.
We ended up with Bonapartist Mexico, Haiti, Austria-Italy, and a bit of messing around in Brazil and China, though.
Still good show.
Also, I imagine this was the Will Walker that caused the mess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_(filibuster)
Yup. Figured that he'd be up to something in this TL with his ambitions.
So the next update is going to talk about nations on the periphery so far and that find themselves joining or interacting with the Bonapartists, Amphictyons ,or Hegemons (the name for the British and Prussian led alliance is still a work in progress). So far I'm set on Brazil (H), Egypt (B), Denmark (B), Andalusia (B), Castile (H), Hawaii (A), and Sweden (H), but still working out the specifics.
What about Russia? I could see Russia turtling in and heightening repression.
You should probably also give a refresher on who is on who’s side since we might’ve gotten mixed up.
But this should be very interesting to see
Russia's more or less with the Bonapartists now to go after the Ottomans. Might also join the Amphictyons for the sake of Alaska and close relations with US and Mexico.
Alexander II is set to become emperor and at least one assassination attempt won't happen (the Polish nationalist would have more reason to kill the Prussian king now that all of Russian Poland is independent), and it looks like it's the assassination attempts that made him go reactionary so who knows how he might go.TTL.
I'm curious if there's been any butterflies in the Asia-Pacific- India, China, and even Australasia.
Chapter XXVII: The Great Game Begins
New Players Enter the Great Game
Even before the War of the Eighth Coalition, the three great alliances of the world were beginning to take shape as two European factions seemed poised to fight each other over the balance of power in Europe, and the countries of the Americas tried to focus on internal matters and not fighting each other. Following the War of the Eighth Coalition, the alliances stood as follows:
The two European alliances expanded during the 1840s and 1850s, either out of strategic interests or due to the tense situation leaving other nations to feel like it was best to side with one or the other. It was the era of the Great Game, and the alliances were counting cards on the blackjack table/ drafting players/ choosing their party.
The Empire of Brazil: Black Sheep of the New World
Brazil was in an awkward state for most of its early history. Emperor Pedro I abdicated in 1831 in order to support his daughter’s claim to the Portuguese throne and left a 5-year-old as emperor. Government instability followed.
Thankfully, the country survived long enough for Pedro II to reach his maturity and take control of government, expel the courtiers who abused their influence of him, and appoint a new conservative cabinet.
Moreover, the British, looking for a way to offset Bonapartist influence in South America, began looking for an alliance with Brazil. This meant that British didn’t enforce a treaty with Brazil that was meant to eliminate the slave trade, and the illegal importation of slaves into Brazil (and from Brazil to the American territory of Cayenne) until the 1850s, when Amphictyonic and Moroccan countries started having their warships search Brazilian ships for illegal slaves (a PR nightmare for the British government when news reached the isles).
The British and Dutch governments also sought to arrange a marriage between Princess Sophie of the Netherlands (King William II’s sister and Queen Victoria’s sister-in-law) and Pedro II, despite her being a Calvinist and him being a Catholic. Pressured by their respective governments, the two agreed to the match.
Empress Sophie if Brazil
The marriage happened twice, a Calvinist ceremony by proxy in Amsterdam on 5 March 1848 and a public Catholic ceremony in Rio de Janeiro on 17 August 1848. Domestic life was often strained between the two, but they did succeed in having four children, Prince Afonso on 31 July 1849, Princess Isabel on 20 January 1854, Princess Maria on 29 January 1856, and Prince Pedro on 28 February 1859.
Foreign policy in relation to the other South American countries was much more complicated, however. Brazil and the Kingdom of Argentina were backing different sides in the Uruguayan Civil War. Argentina supported the Colorados in the hopes that they would enter Uruguay into the wider Amphictyonic League and act as a buffer between Brazil and Argentina, while the Brazilians supported the Blancos in the hopes that their more protectionist policies would include neutrality and thus prevent the Amphictyons from completely surrounding them. Any victory against the Amphictyons was badly needed after Paraguay joined in 1844, following the new Paraguayan constitution and ascension of Carlos Antonio López to the presidency-dictatorship.
Brazil (and Britain through Brazil) also supported rebel factions in Peru following the collapse of Gamarra’s regime in 1848 and until the solidification of President Ramón Castilla y Marquesado’s rule in 1853 and Argentina against the federal republicans. The Amphictyons, for their part, financed the Praieira Revolt of 1848-9.
Overtly, the Brazilians couldn’t attack any of the Amphictyons without going to war with almost all of North and South America, but the Amphictyons couldn’t attack Brazil without getting the United Kingdom involved.
Domestically, Brazil was doing well for itself,railroads, telegraphs, and steamships were expanding and uniting the country, and the warm relations with Britain meant that their capitalists were able to expand these and other industries, including rubber and coffee.
Hawaii: The Other American Monarchy
King Kamehameha III of Hawaii sent his sons, Crown Prince Alexander and Prince Lot, to France to negotiate an end to certain diplomatic hostilities stemming from the expulsion of French Catholic missionaries, regulation of Catholic schools,high taxes on French brandy, and the use of French in transactions with the French consul and citizens.
Prince Alexander of Hawaii
Moreover, the king and his advisors figured that travel would be good for the princes, the two left for Acapulco in September 1849. Once in Acapulco, the two Hawaiian princes were greeted by Prince José of the Union, his wife Princess Hildegard, and his sister Princess Maria of Mexico, among other Mexican diplomats and officials. The 15-year-old Prince Alexander and 14-year-old Princess Maria, under the supervision of adults of course, spent a fair amount of time together between Acapulco and Veracruz. On 19 June 1856, Prince Alexander, by then King Kamehameha IV, would marry Princess Maria.
The Hawaiian princes stayed three months in Paris, but their delegation failed to settle any issues, so instead they spent a few months in Rabat, Lisbon, Rome, and London before heading to New York City and Washington DC. It was during this visit that Prince Alexander, already slightly prejudiced against Yankees because of their puritanical ministers (some went so far as to object to Christmas because they thought it was a pagan celebration), experienced American racism. While dining in New York with a friend, the butler, adverse to serving “blacks,” gave Prince Alexander and his brother baby bibs, which they naively put on. The big incident, however, was when a conductor on a train ride to Washington DC almost kicked the prince off of the train for being a “ni**er.”
Disgusted, the Hawaiian princes returned to their homeland via the Veracruz-to-Acapulco line to get to the Pacific Ocean.
During the last few years of Kamehameha III’s reign and the beginning of his own rein, the Hawaiian government joined the Amphictyonic League and tried to lessen American influence in Hawaii by negotiating trade deals with the other Amphictyons on the Pacific, Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Colombia.
When Kamehameha IV (Prince Alexander) died of chronic asthma on 30 November 1863, his three-year-old son succeeded him as Kamehameha V, and the Queen Dowager Maria maneuvered her way to head of the regency council and continued the process of diversifying Hawaii’s trade, albeit with a more pro-Mexican angle than her husband would have wanted.
Denmark: Pushed into Bonapartist Arms
Denmark had two problems. The first was that the kingdom had two duchies, Schleswig and Holstein, that were majority German and rival Danish and German nationalism had been in the making since Emperor Napoleon’s wars. The second was that King Christian VIII only had one legitimate son and said son had no sons of his own. Before he died in 1848, Christian tried to make sure that the two duchies would remain in Danish hands by changing their succession laws to allow succession through the female line. The legality of this was questionable.
Moreover, when Frederick VII ascended to the throne, he was met with demands for a Danish constitution, which he accepted in March 1849 and issued a constitution in June of that year.
Frederick VII of Denmark
The Schleswig-Holsteiners, inspired by the Dominican Revolution of 1850 and Irish Ultimatum, sent a delegation to Copenhagen to demand that Frederick recognize a joint state of Schleswig-Holstein with a different succession than Denmark. Frederick refused, and several Schleswig-Holstein military regiments declared for the hypothetical state and a provisional government was established in April 1851.
When Prussia and Hanover threatened to join the war on the side of the rebels after the provisional government was declared, Frederick called on Czar Nicholas I of Russia, President Jean-de-Dieu Soult of France (1846-1851), and King Napoleon of Rome to help him defend the territorial integrity of his state. The three allies then demanded that Prussia and Hanover pull out of “lands held by the sovereign King Frederick VII of Denmark” or face war. The two North German states appealed to Great Britain for recognition, but Britain refused, seeing them as too aggressive. If war with the Bonapartists was coming, Great Britain wanted the Hegemons to be victims to counter any potential sympathy that the Amphictyons (“the Hydra across the Atlantic”) had for the Bonapartists. Prussia and Hanover withdrew by mid-May.
Without external support and with external opposition, the Prussians and Hanoverians retreated, leaving the Schleswig-Holsteiners to their fate and defeat. Wary of continued North German aggression and the continued casus belli of Schleswig-Holstein, King Frederick VII joined the Bonapartist League with a formal defensive pact in June 1852.
Egypt: Bonapartist Ambition Accepted By the Bonapartist
The Ottoman Albanian commander Muhammad Ali was made viceroy of Egypt in 1805, but his subordination to the Ottoman Sultan was nominal. This is best seen in the fact that he annexed Northern Sudan, Syria, and parts of Arabia and Anatolia until the Ottomans called in British and Dutch forces in the mid-1840s. Muhammad Ali was forced to give up his conquests, except for Sudan, in exchange for having his title to Egypt made hereditary.
So Egypt, a rising power with reasons to dislike the Hegemonic League, was courted by the Bonapartists as soon as Muhammad Ali’s position become hereditary and, thus, stable. The treaties between Egypt and the other Bonapartists were informal and secret due to the nominal allegiance to the Ottomans, but Muhammad Ali’s successors to the Khedivate of Egypt (the title of khedive only being recognized by the Bonapartists) all maintained the ties to the Bonapartists.
In 1854, Sa’id of Egypt entered negotiations with Portuguese, French, and Roman investors to build the Suez Canal, but the British refused to allow the Bonapartists to control such a canal and demanded that the Ottomans refuse permission as Egypt’s liege-lord. Some historians view this as the moment that firmly secured Egypt in the Bonapartist camp.
Sa'id of Egypt
Baden: Pro-Bavaria Neutral
On 22 February 1854, Princess Julia Carlota of Mexico, eldest daughter of Empress Zenaida, married Prince Frederick of Baden., who was acting as regent for his mentally ill brother Grand Duke Louis II. When Grand Duke Louis II died on 22 January 1858, Frederick was crowned Grand Duke of Baden. Of note is that Grand Duke Frederick was a Lutheran and the vast majority of Baden was Catholic, and they welcomed the Catholic Grand Duchess Julia warmly, hoping that she would ease the tension between the state and the church. In the developing tradition of Mexican princesses, she did interfere in state affairs to attempt to convince her husband’s government to relax restrictions on the church, but she knew when to stop pushing.
Diplomatically, Grand Duke Frederick started aligning with King Ludwig of Austro-Bavaria, alongside King William I of Württemberg, King John of Saxony, and other German states in opposition to Prussian hegemony. The nations formed a new customs union in 1855 and entered negotiations for ambitious projects like railroad lines to link cities, a common passport, guarantees of religious freedom, and a common currency. The seeds of a united South Germany had begun.
Sweden-Norway: Nepotism & Neutrality
King Oscar of Sweden and Norway was Empress Zenaida’s cousin through their mothers’ side (his mother was Zenaida’s maternal aunt), but his father, Charles XIV and III, was on King Napoleon’s shit-list for his supposed betrayal of the Emperor upon taking the Swedish throne and there was no blood relations between the two kings. Moreover, he was afraid that Russia would demand territory along the Varanger Fjord as part of Russian-held Finland.
It was thought that he would that he would join the Hegemonic League for defense, but he was pessimistic about Prussian or British ability to send troops and their chance of winning a prolonged war against the Bonapartists. So, Sweden-Norway made a move that is equal parts genius, crazy, and hilarious.
He tried to join the Amphictyonic League. He did have the support of his Mexican cousin and the plan sort of made sense because the Amphictyons were a defensive league that would be neutral in European affairs, but the logistical difficulties of helping defend Sweden-Norway and Russian influence made the plan impossible to accept for the other members. Still, he found sympathy in the Americas.
Oscar I of Sweden and Norway, El Primo Afortunado
Fortunately, Empress Zenaida loved her late mother and her mother loved Oscar’s mother. On 16 August 1857, Princess Carlota Josefina of Mexico married Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia to secure Russo-Mexican relations (the grand duke was even made ambassador to Mexico because Zenaida hated “auctioning off” her daughters to leave Mexico), and Mexico and Sweden-Norway signed the most geographically absurd defensive pact in history later that year. Still, Swedish neutrality would have failed if it weren’t for the fact that Czar Alexander II of Russia was more interested in fighting the Ottomans in the South and having good relations in North America and Frederick VII of Denmark didn’t want to be completely surrounded by Hegemons. Rome and Great Britain were united in their displeasure, both wanted Sweden-Norway on the Hegemonic side.
King Charles XV and IV, who took the thrones on 8 July 1859, would continue to push for good relations with the Amphictyons, achieving honorary member status in the late 1860s.
Andalusia: The Linchpin of Gibraltar
The Andalusian Republic was seen as strategically important to both sides. With it, the Bonapartists could besiege Gibraltar and take control of the Strait of Gibraltar. As large as the British Navy was, it couldn’t pass through the Strait all at once, and the right defenses could effectively prevent the British Navy from entering the Mediterranean.
Andalusia knew this. It also knew that it was close to three major Bonapartist powers in Portugal, France, and Morocco who could overrun his country with more ease than the British could. Prime Minister Isidro de Alaix Fábregas entered negotiations with the three neighboring Bonapartists to improve the country’s trade and finances, securing investment for military, railroad, and telegraph initiatives. He also secured promises of Castilian and Aragonese lands if the two joined the Hegemons, which they did.
Castile & Aragon: Revenge Quest
Queen Isabella II of Castile was a rebound for the Hegemons after failing to secure the allegiance of Andalusia. If nothing else, they could distract the Bonapartists from taking Gibraltar right away and possibly annex Andalusia if everything went well. Plus Hegemonic loans did help the country develop after several liberal intellectuals, businessmen, craftsmen, and military officers emigrated to either Mexico or Andalusia, and Hegemonic armies could keep peace in a country still divided over the legacy of Ferdinand VII and the partition of Spain and its Empire.
Queen Isabella II of Castile
King Carlos V of Aragon joined the Hegemons to receive funding for Catalonian resistance fighters in France-held Catalonia. While the French were successful in pacifying larger cities and towns like Barcelona, the countryside, especially in the border region, were proving to be a moderate sinkhole for manpower and resources for most of the 1840s and 1850s. It took President Louis-Eugène Cavaignac of France (1852-7) threatening to burn everything to the ground, recognition of Catalan as a language “equal to French in the affairs of government,” promises of representation in the Chamber and presidential elections, and a few million francs to establish a secure network of railways, telegraphs, and fortifications to make Catalonia peaceful.
Summation of Additions
Even before the War of the Eighth Coalition, the three great alliances of the world were beginning to take shape as two European factions seemed poised to fight each other over the balance of power in Europe, and the countries of the Americas tried to focus on internal matters and not fighting each other. Following the War of the Eighth Coalition, the alliances stood as follows:
- Amphictyonic League
- Full Members
- Mexico
- Colombia
- United States
- Haiti
- Peru
- Bolivia
- Chile
- Argentina
- Paraguay (1842)
- Honorary Members and Observers
- Russia (Alaska)
- Morocco
- Parliament of Belize
- Full Members
- Bonapartist League
- Rome-Illyria (PU between Rome and Illyria during the lifetime of Napoleon of Rome)
- France
- Austro-Bavaria (PU between Bavaria and Austria during the lifetime of Ludwig I)
- Morocco
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- Hegemonic League / Allied Powers
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- Prussia
- The Ottomans
- The Netherlands
- Hanover
- Neutral Powers & Buffer States (by treaty between the Great Powers required to be neutral)
- Hungary
- Poland
- Belgium
The two European alliances expanded during the 1840s and 1850s, either out of strategic interests or due to the tense situation leaving other nations to feel like it was best to side with one or the other. It was the era of the Great Game, and the alliances were counting cards on the blackjack table/ drafting players/ choosing their party.
The Empire of Brazil: Black Sheep of the New World
Brazil was in an awkward state for most of its early history. Emperor Pedro I abdicated in 1831 in order to support his daughter’s claim to the Portuguese throne and left a 5-year-old as emperor. Government instability followed.
Thankfully, the country survived long enough for Pedro II to reach his maturity and take control of government, expel the courtiers who abused their influence of him, and appoint a new conservative cabinet.
Moreover, the British, looking for a way to offset Bonapartist influence in South America, began looking for an alliance with Brazil. This meant that British didn’t enforce a treaty with Brazil that was meant to eliminate the slave trade, and the illegal importation of slaves into Brazil (and from Brazil to the American territory of Cayenne) until the 1850s, when Amphictyonic and Moroccan countries started having their warships search Brazilian ships for illegal slaves (a PR nightmare for the British government when news reached the isles).
The British and Dutch governments also sought to arrange a marriage between Princess Sophie of the Netherlands (King William II’s sister and Queen Victoria’s sister-in-law) and Pedro II, despite her being a Calvinist and him being a Catholic. Pressured by their respective governments, the two agreed to the match.
Empress Sophie if Brazil
The marriage happened twice, a Calvinist ceremony by proxy in Amsterdam on 5 March 1848 and a public Catholic ceremony in Rio de Janeiro on 17 August 1848. Domestic life was often strained between the two, but they did succeed in having four children, Prince Afonso on 31 July 1849, Princess Isabel on 20 January 1854, Princess Maria on 29 January 1856, and Prince Pedro on 28 February 1859.
Foreign policy in relation to the other South American countries was much more complicated, however. Brazil and the Kingdom of Argentina were backing different sides in the Uruguayan Civil War. Argentina supported the Colorados in the hopes that they would enter Uruguay into the wider Amphictyonic League and act as a buffer between Brazil and Argentina, while the Brazilians supported the Blancos in the hopes that their more protectionist policies would include neutrality and thus prevent the Amphictyons from completely surrounding them. Any victory against the Amphictyons was badly needed after Paraguay joined in 1844, following the new Paraguayan constitution and ascension of Carlos Antonio López to the presidency-dictatorship.
Brazil (and Britain through Brazil) also supported rebel factions in Peru following the collapse of Gamarra’s regime in 1848 and until the solidification of President Ramón Castilla y Marquesado’s rule in 1853 and Argentina against the federal republicans. The Amphictyons, for their part, financed the Praieira Revolt of 1848-9.
Overtly, the Brazilians couldn’t attack any of the Amphictyons without going to war with almost all of North and South America, but the Amphictyons couldn’t attack Brazil without getting the United Kingdom involved.
Domestically, Brazil was doing well for itself,railroads, telegraphs, and steamships were expanding and uniting the country, and the warm relations with Britain meant that their capitalists were able to expand these and other industries, including rubber and coffee.
Hawaii: The Other American Monarchy
King Kamehameha III of Hawaii sent his sons, Crown Prince Alexander and Prince Lot, to France to negotiate an end to certain diplomatic hostilities stemming from the expulsion of French Catholic missionaries, regulation of Catholic schools,high taxes on French brandy, and the use of French in transactions with the French consul and citizens.
Prince Alexander of Hawaii
Moreover, the king and his advisors figured that travel would be good for the princes, the two left for Acapulco in September 1849. Once in Acapulco, the two Hawaiian princes were greeted by Prince José of the Union, his wife Princess Hildegard, and his sister Princess Maria of Mexico, among other Mexican diplomats and officials. The 15-year-old Prince Alexander and 14-year-old Princess Maria, under the supervision of adults of course, spent a fair amount of time together between Acapulco and Veracruz. On 19 June 1856, Prince Alexander, by then King Kamehameha IV, would marry Princess Maria.
The Hawaiian princes stayed three months in Paris, but their delegation failed to settle any issues, so instead they spent a few months in Rabat, Lisbon, Rome, and London before heading to New York City and Washington DC. It was during this visit that Prince Alexander, already slightly prejudiced against Yankees because of their puritanical ministers (some went so far as to object to Christmas because they thought it was a pagan celebration), experienced American racism. While dining in New York with a friend, the butler, adverse to serving “blacks,” gave Prince Alexander and his brother baby bibs, which they naively put on. The big incident, however, was when a conductor on a train ride to Washington DC almost kicked the prince off of the train for being a “ni**er.”
Disgusted, the Hawaiian princes returned to their homeland via the Veracruz-to-Acapulco line to get to the Pacific Ocean.
During the last few years of Kamehameha III’s reign and the beginning of his own rein, the Hawaiian government joined the Amphictyonic League and tried to lessen American influence in Hawaii by negotiating trade deals with the other Amphictyons on the Pacific, Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Colombia.
When Kamehameha IV (Prince Alexander) died of chronic asthma on 30 November 1863, his three-year-old son succeeded him as Kamehameha V, and the Queen Dowager Maria maneuvered her way to head of the regency council and continued the process of diversifying Hawaii’s trade, albeit with a more pro-Mexican angle than her husband would have wanted.
Denmark: Pushed into Bonapartist Arms
Denmark had two problems. The first was that the kingdom had two duchies, Schleswig and Holstein, that were majority German and rival Danish and German nationalism had been in the making since Emperor Napoleon’s wars. The second was that King Christian VIII only had one legitimate son and said son had no sons of his own. Before he died in 1848, Christian tried to make sure that the two duchies would remain in Danish hands by changing their succession laws to allow succession through the female line. The legality of this was questionable.
Moreover, when Frederick VII ascended to the throne, he was met with demands for a Danish constitution, which he accepted in March 1849 and issued a constitution in June of that year.
Frederick VII of Denmark
The Schleswig-Holsteiners, inspired by the Dominican Revolution of 1850 and Irish Ultimatum, sent a delegation to Copenhagen to demand that Frederick recognize a joint state of Schleswig-Holstein with a different succession than Denmark. Frederick refused, and several Schleswig-Holstein military regiments declared for the hypothetical state and a provisional government was established in April 1851.
When Prussia and Hanover threatened to join the war on the side of the rebels after the provisional government was declared, Frederick called on Czar Nicholas I of Russia, President Jean-de-Dieu Soult of France (1846-1851), and King Napoleon of Rome to help him defend the territorial integrity of his state. The three allies then demanded that Prussia and Hanover pull out of “lands held by the sovereign King Frederick VII of Denmark” or face war. The two North German states appealed to Great Britain for recognition, but Britain refused, seeing them as too aggressive. If war with the Bonapartists was coming, Great Britain wanted the Hegemons to be victims to counter any potential sympathy that the Amphictyons (“the Hydra across the Atlantic”) had for the Bonapartists. Prussia and Hanover withdrew by mid-May.
Without external support and with external opposition, the Prussians and Hanoverians retreated, leaving the Schleswig-Holsteiners to their fate and defeat. Wary of continued North German aggression and the continued casus belli of Schleswig-Holstein, King Frederick VII joined the Bonapartist League with a formal defensive pact in June 1852.
Egypt: Bonapartist Ambition Accepted By the Bonapartist
The Ottoman Albanian commander Muhammad Ali was made viceroy of Egypt in 1805, but his subordination to the Ottoman Sultan was nominal. This is best seen in the fact that he annexed Northern Sudan, Syria, and parts of Arabia and Anatolia until the Ottomans called in British and Dutch forces in the mid-1840s. Muhammad Ali was forced to give up his conquests, except for Sudan, in exchange for having his title to Egypt made hereditary.
So Egypt, a rising power with reasons to dislike the Hegemonic League, was courted by the Bonapartists as soon as Muhammad Ali’s position become hereditary and, thus, stable. The treaties between Egypt and the other Bonapartists were informal and secret due to the nominal allegiance to the Ottomans, but Muhammad Ali’s successors to the Khedivate of Egypt (the title of khedive only being recognized by the Bonapartists) all maintained the ties to the Bonapartists.
In 1854, Sa’id of Egypt entered negotiations with Portuguese, French, and Roman investors to build the Suez Canal, but the British refused to allow the Bonapartists to control such a canal and demanded that the Ottomans refuse permission as Egypt’s liege-lord. Some historians view this as the moment that firmly secured Egypt in the Bonapartist camp.
Sa'id of Egypt
Baden: Pro-Bavaria Neutral
On 22 February 1854, Princess Julia Carlota of Mexico, eldest daughter of Empress Zenaida, married Prince Frederick of Baden., who was acting as regent for his mentally ill brother Grand Duke Louis II. When Grand Duke Louis II died on 22 January 1858, Frederick was crowned Grand Duke of Baden. Of note is that Grand Duke Frederick was a Lutheran and the vast majority of Baden was Catholic, and they welcomed the Catholic Grand Duchess Julia warmly, hoping that she would ease the tension between the state and the church. In the developing tradition of Mexican princesses, she did interfere in state affairs to attempt to convince her husband’s government to relax restrictions on the church, but she knew when to stop pushing.
Diplomatically, Grand Duke Frederick started aligning with King Ludwig of Austro-Bavaria, alongside King William I of Württemberg, King John of Saxony, and other German states in opposition to Prussian hegemony. The nations formed a new customs union in 1855 and entered negotiations for ambitious projects like railroad lines to link cities, a common passport, guarantees of religious freedom, and a common currency. The seeds of a united South Germany had begun.
Sweden-Norway: Nepotism & Neutrality
King Oscar of Sweden and Norway was Empress Zenaida’s cousin through their mothers’ side (his mother was Zenaida’s maternal aunt), but his father, Charles XIV and III, was on King Napoleon’s shit-list for his supposed betrayal of the Emperor upon taking the Swedish throne and there was no blood relations between the two kings. Moreover, he was afraid that Russia would demand territory along the Varanger Fjord as part of Russian-held Finland.
It was thought that he would that he would join the Hegemonic League for defense, but he was pessimistic about Prussian or British ability to send troops and their chance of winning a prolonged war against the Bonapartists. So, Sweden-Norway made a move that is equal parts genius, crazy, and hilarious.
He tried to join the Amphictyonic League. He did have the support of his Mexican cousin and the plan sort of made sense because the Amphictyons were a defensive league that would be neutral in European affairs, but the logistical difficulties of helping defend Sweden-Norway and Russian influence made the plan impossible to accept for the other members. Still, he found sympathy in the Americas.
Oscar I of Sweden and Norway, El Primo Afortunado
Fortunately, Empress Zenaida loved her late mother and her mother loved Oscar’s mother. On 16 August 1857, Princess Carlota Josefina of Mexico married Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia to secure Russo-Mexican relations (the grand duke was even made ambassador to Mexico because Zenaida hated “auctioning off” her daughters to leave Mexico), and Mexico and Sweden-Norway signed the most geographically absurd defensive pact in history later that year. Still, Swedish neutrality would have failed if it weren’t for the fact that Czar Alexander II of Russia was more interested in fighting the Ottomans in the South and having good relations in North America and Frederick VII of Denmark didn’t want to be completely surrounded by Hegemons. Rome and Great Britain were united in their displeasure, both wanted Sweden-Norway on the Hegemonic side.
King Charles XV and IV, who took the thrones on 8 July 1859, would continue to push for good relations with the Amphictyons, achieving honorary member status in the late 1860s.
Andalusia: The Linchpin of Gibraltar
The Andalusian Republic was seen as strategically important to both sides. With it, the Bonapartists could besiege Gibraltar and take control of the Strait of Gibraltar. As large as the British Navy was, it couldn’t pass through the Strait all at once, and the right defenses could effectively prevent the British Navy from entering the Mediterranean.
Andalusia knew this. It also knew that it was close to three major Bonapartist powers in Portugal, France, and Morocco who could overrun his country with more ease than the British could. Prime Minister Isidro de Alaix Fábregas entered negotiations with the three neighboring Bonapartists to improve the country’s trade and finances, securing investment for military, railroad, and telegraph initiatives. He also secured promises of Castilian and Aragonese lands if the two joined the Hegemons, which they did.
Castile & Aragon: Revenge Quest
Queen Isabella II of Castile was a rebound for the Hegemons after failing to secure the allegiance of Andalusia. If nothing else, they could distract the Bonapartists from taking Gibraltar right away and possibly annex Andalusia if everything went well. Plus Hegemonic loans did help the country develop after several liberal intellectuals, businessmen, craftsmen, and military officers emigrated to either Mexico or Andalusia, and Hegemonic armies could keep peace in a country still divided over the legacy of Ferdinand VII and the partition of Spain and its Empire.
Queen Isabella II of Castile
King Carlos V of Aragon joined the Hegemons to receive funding for Catalonian resistance fighters in France-held Catalonia. While the French were successful in pacifying larger cities and towns like Barcelona, the countryside, especially in the border region, were proving to be a moderate sinkhole for manpower and resources for most of the 1840s and 1850s. It took President Louis-Eugène Cavaignac of France (1852-7) threatening to burn everything to the ground, recognition of Catalan as a language “equal to French in the affairs of government,” promises of representation in the Chamber and presidential elections, and a few million francs to establish a secure network of railways, telegraphs, and fortifications to make Catalonia peaceful.
Summation of Additions
- Amphictyonic League
- Hawaii
- Sweden-Norway
- Bonapartist League
- Denmark
- Egypt
- Andalusia
- Hegemonic League
- Brazil
- Castile
- Aragon
So, is it correct to say the Bonapartists and Amphicytons are separate but close allliances?
It all depends on relations with Britain. They've successfully negotiated with Mexico, the United States, and Colombia to end conlicting claims, but if they support Brazil over the Amphictyons then they'll find themselves facing the end of the barrel.
Empress Zenaida is less interested in the old Bonapartist cause than Joseph and is open to peace.
The Amphictyons are basically an alliance of pre-WWI&II America, neutral but with a bias towards the special relations (Bonapartists).
I wonder how annoyed the rest of the Amphicytons were with the US regarding the incident with Hawaii. Meanwhile, oh Brazil... why do you always tend to do this?
For some reason, I can see Andalusia and Morocco get into a personal union... meanwhile, I have a feeling Morocco and Egypt would bond because of their pride over their pre-Islamic cultures (in the same way Mexico and Peru have special relationships over their pre-Columbian civilizations.)
Looks like Castile and Aragorn have still learned nothing. Meanwhile, Sweden joining the League is pretty interesting.
Overall, a very fascinating update. Hawaii as a sovereign nation is itneresting and I could see them lasting longer with Mexican support.
For some reason, I can see Andalusia and Morocco get into a personal union... meanwhile, I have a feeling Morocco and Egypt would bond because of their pride over their pre-Islamic cultures (in the same way Mexico and Peru have special relationships over their pre-Columbian civilizations.)
Looks like Castile and Aragorn have still learned nothing. Meanwhile, Sweden joining the League is pretty interesting.
Overall, a very fascinating update. Hawaii as a sovereign nation is itneresting and I could see them lasting longer with Mexican support.
- Status