Fenians, Brits, Mexicans, Canucks and Frenchies....OH, MY! An alternate American Civil War

[Alt History Buff]

April, 1869

Badakhshan, Central Asia

For centuries, the control over the Badakhshan region of central Asia had been hotly contested between the Persians, Afghans and other parties.

In early1869, the Russia managed to wrestle control from a series of contenders and suddenly had an avenue into Afghanistan. And Afghanistan was the avenue into India.

By mid-1869, the British would be in a panic and began demanding that the Emir of Afghanistan sign a treaty of alliance (to which he would refuse).

By late-1869, the Viceroy would be ordered to establish a relationship, no matter what, even if this required dispatching envoys to Kabul regardless of the Emir's threats.

London

"Samoa?" Disraeli's eyes raised.

The First Lord prided himself on having an encyclopedic memory regarding geography but the name escaped him.

"It is one of the flyspeck islands of the Pacific, I believe, somewhere between Hawaii and Australia", his secretary estimated.

Rumors had already abounded that an American squadron had politely turned about a French flotilla bound for Tahiti to enforce their will over what passed for a local chief....or King.....or God-Emperor.....or what have you. Now, they were after this......this......Samoa?

In truth, Disraeli was not terribly surprised nor overly worried that the Americans were inclined to assume some petty islands in the middle of the Pacific. Despite the recent war between the two nations (and Disraeli had roundly put THAT at the feet of Palmerston), Disraeli doubted that the United States and Great Britain had any particular inclination to assault British possessions. He wasn't losing any sleep that America was planning to invade India....or Ireland.....or even the West Indies.

If anything, many Americans wanted to ship THEIR Africans to the West Indies, not assume control over others. Americans seemed content with trade and the rest of the world benefited from her massive merchant marine, even Britain.

"Very well, I will inquire with the American Ambassador the next time I see him."

In the meantime and much more importantly, Gladstone was transparently attempting to introduce controversial legislation in Parliament in hopes of splitting the Tories. Disraeli had done this to great effect over the years and now apparently the opposition was trying to return the favor. But the First Lord was more than ready for him. The government had survived a less than wholly successful war. He was quite sure it would survive the peace.

Spain

Queen Isabella rarely concerned herself with figures but the constant whining of her Ministers caused her to confront the facts that the Hispaniolan War was getting expensive. With most of the land being apportioned to the victorious conquerors and probably years away from regaining any sense of cultivation, there seemed to be no real prospect for a financial return for all the expenditure.

Even approving turning "captive" Haitians into "servants" would not return the coffee and sugar plantations to profitability for years. Apparently, there were so many dead that the labor force was non-existent. No real census had been taken since before Haiti overthrew France's domination during the Revolution but the estimates of a pre-Spanish invasion of 600-800,000 souls could be reduced to closer to 280,000 (a 33% to 60% reduction). Historians would later debate this endlessly but it would be generally accepted that at least a 50% reduction had occurred with a heavy emphasis on male dead.

The Catholic Church had been quite helpful in regaining control over the former Haiti. Their priests had been evicted from the nation after the Revolution and the people fallen into living in sin. The priests would take personal charge of the young woman (who they feared would be turned over to brothels) and instead organized a series of mass marriages between the soldiers and their typically unwilling wives.

Desiring to avoid a fully black or mulatto nation, the Queen's government offered further incentives for first Spaniards, then ANY Catholic, to settle on Hispaniola. The orphanages of Spain, Cuba and Puerto Rico were emptied and the healthy children were shipped abroad (and off the government dole). The Church typically opposed this sort of thing as many orphan girls ended up serving as nuns but the Queen's support for the Church in Hispaniola was enough to get them to accept the situation.

In all, over 40,000 Spanish, Cuban and Puerto Rican Orphans (and very young criminal offenders) were transported to Hispaniola from 1865 to 1875.

Beyond this, nearly 106,000 Spanish and 70,000 other Catholic Europeans would migrate from the start of the invasion in the early 1860's to 1875 (excluding the soldiers themselves). As most of these (perhaps 80%) were men, this would lead to further demand for young Haitian women.

Still, the conquest of Haiti was popular among the everyday Spaniard as it lent the impression that the nation was still a world power. The Queen was respected for this and perhaps received a bit of slack on her other, less popular decisions.

Her growing antipathy to France, which had attempted to conquer Morocco, a long-cherished Spanish ideal, would ensure that the Queen would want no part of a French alliance.

 

[Alt History Buff]

July, 1869

Western Hungary

Finally managing to summon an army, the Austrians marched across the border into the Kingdom of Hungary to put down the uppity Hungarians. It had irritated many in Vienna from Emperor Franz Joseph I down that the Hungarians had turned down the opportunity of reaching equality with Austria in a Dual-Monarchy.

What more could be offered?

Evidently, the answer was a lot. Having been turned down by even his own German allies for aid (Bavaria, for instance, did not want to weaken her northern borders with Prussia), the Emperor ordered the Austrians forward. A second offensive was intended to be launched from Bohemia in the north.

Nothing went to plan.

The Austrian assault on Hungary was ambushed near the border as hundreds of thousands of Hungarian patriots, having seized the arsenals, bled the Austrians dry for every foot of ground in the forests and mountains of Western Hungary.

To make matters worse, the Bohemians, who had suffered badly during the "German War" of a few years prior, would promptly mutiny and refuse to advance into Hungary at all.

Seeking to pile on, the King of Italy, who remained on very poor terms with Austria, would open support the Hungarian and later Bohemian revolts and move a large army to the Austrian border, forcing the Emperor to dispatch badly needed troops to the south.

Finally, in a final death blow, the Czar would announce his support for the Hungarian rebels and offered to "mediate" a separate crowned head for these peoples.

The Emperor would cry out for help to all corners of Europe including his enemies Prussia and France. While this elicited a great deal of laughter in Berlin and Paris, it did not result in any result beyond a demand from the Emperor of France and King of Prussia that Russia not assume ANY new territory out of this situation (which the Czar had no intention of doing).

In the end, no one would or could lift a finger to forestall the Czar from dismembering a second powerful ancient rival in less than 10 years.

His heart broken, Franz Joseph would beg his Austrian ministers to find a way to turn the tide. However, all returned the same answer:

Make the best deal the Emperor could.

By August, even Vienna was enduring riots and the Emperor himself forced to flee to his country home.

By the end of Summer, the Emperor would announce that he would cede two of his various crowns, Hungary and Bohemia, to his brothers, Maximillian and Karl Ludwig.

The Czar found this acceptable and agreed to "ensure the safety" of the new Kings, a thinly veiled warning to any who would dispute the decision.

The Hague, Kingdom of the Netherlands

King William III occasionally had problems with his sons. This was not surprising as the King was considered by many to be insane, at least on occasion. Physically large and vigorous, in his rages, he could be terrifying.

However, the King was still popular with the common Dutch people despite his open debauchery, capriciousness, mercuriality and obviously autocratic preferences. He'd been forced to accept the Constitution of 1848, approved by his father, though he often spoke of abdicating in favor of his son.

Over the years, he'd engaged in a series of disputes with Britain. Queen Victoria called him an "uneducated farmer". The King would also be offended when Princess Alice of Britain would utterly reject his eldest son's courtship (in truth, the Prince of Orange was not interested in HER as well).

Witnessing great nations battle about him as if the feelings of the Dutch mattered little (it didn't) and the vast new metal navies swatting another across the waves filled William III with dread (despite none of the local powers having any interest in conquering the Netherlands).

In 1867, Napoleon III of France would offer 5,000,000 guilders for the Duchy of Luxembourg. Decades ago, William III had written a reactionary constitution for the Duchy so he may rule that autocratically as he wished he could in the Netherlands. As the King/Duke was in dismal financial condition, William agreed to sell, much to the horror of the Luxembourgers themselves and the Northwest German Confederation to which Luxembourg belonged.

Napoleon III would briefly consider the gains of annexing Luxembourg, which had one of the finest defensive fortifications in Europe and would be key to defending France's northeastern border, versus alienating the Northwest German Confederation led by Hanover.

In the end, he deemed a tangible possession better than "goodwill" of his neighbors. The sale was announced and Luxembourg handed over in 1869 despite riots throughout the Duchy. Napoleon III had agreed to keep the Duchy "autonomous"....for now. He would wait until the continent's attention was focused elsewhere and quietly annex Luxembourg directly to France.

The cost of this was high. Within months, the Northwestern Confederation would formally dissolve most of her forms of alliance with France and, led by the King of Hanover, engage with the King of Prussia and Emperor of Austria to renew the previous "German Confederation" customs Union and series of alliances.

With Prussia suitably chastised and Austria humbled, there seemed no possibility than any of the three major powers in Germany (Austria, Prussia and Hanover) were likely to assume the same authority which Austria and Prussia once held during their own rivalry for domination of Germany. Religion would no longer be a dividing line. Secondary powers like Hesse, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Bavaria, Saxony, Baden, Wurttanberg, Oldenburg, etc would instead ally together to ensure their own autonomy and political rights. In time, these smaller nations would learn to skillfully play the game and keep the balance of power between the three larger German states.

Having outraged his own subjects (Luxembourgish and Dutch) and earned the scorn of the monarchs of Europe for selling his people like chattel, the King would delve even deeper into madness. His eldest (legitimate) son would soon depart for Paris where he would drink himself to death in a few years. His second son died in childhood, leaving only this third son to carry on the line.

All of this was reported in America courtesy of New York Times reporter Henry Stanley, who echoed previous Times' articles referring to the 6 foot 5 inch giant of a monarch the "greatest debauchee of the age", a reasonable accusation given his literal dozens of illegitimate children.

Reading this in Washington, President Seward would quietly have the Ambassador to the Hague inquire again if the Dutch West Indies were up for sale. Unfortunately, these possessions were the property of the Netherlands, not the King (who had ruled the Duchy of Luxembourg in Personal Union with the Netherlands and technically do what he pleased with it). But the Dutch Government was also in financial trouble and probably could use a boost in capital by selling off possessions that had never paid their own way.

It was worth a try. Besides, Seward was working on a larger game for which he needed collateral possessions. The British had rejected Seward's proposal to trade the Virgin Islands for the Bahamas. Perhaps he simply needed to sweeten the deal with the Dutch West Indies as well?

Seward also regretted not taking swifter steps to assume paramountcy in Hawaii. Now the British were well entrenched there. Perhaps, a deal may be arranged in which America could trade some of these other claims (via "trading treaties") in Samoa, Tahiti, Vanuatu and the Marianas for Britain's "agreement" with the King of Hawaii.

Would this not benefit BOTH nations?

America would have the islands nearest their shores on the Pacific (Hawaii) and Caribbean (Bahamas) borders and Britain would gain more security in their own collections of archipeligos?

He could only ask.

 

[A Random Man]

Nice series, just finished reading it to the current chapter

 

[edgeworthy]

The effect of the Purchase System can be over-estimated.

It only applied to the Cavalry and Infantry, not the Gunners, Engineers or Presidency Armies. And it was possible to gain a commission without purchase, and move up to the highest ranks without it. Both Field Marshal Frederick Roberts and Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley were commissioned without purchase. Positions created by deaths in action or appointments to the Staff were not subject to purchase. And an Officer might be promoted outside Regimental rank in recognition of meritorious service or bravery, or given a brevet rank. Several officers slipped in via transfer from the Militia.

Armies without it, the French, Prussian Austrian and Russian, could be even more socially exclusive.

 

[Alt History Buff]

Nice series, just finished reading it to the current chapter

Much appreciated.

 

[Alt History Buff]

The effect of the Purchase System can be over-estimated.

It only applied to the Cavalry and Infantry, not the Gunners, Engineers or Presidency Armies. And it was possible to gain a commission without purchase, and move up to the highest ranks without it. Both Field Marshal Frederick Roberts and Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley were commissioned without purchase. Positions created by deaths in action or appointments to the Staff were not subject to purchase. And an Officer might be promoted outside Regimental rank in recognition of meritorious service or bravery, or given a brevet rank. Several officers slipped in via transfer from the Militia.

Armies without it, the French, Prussian Austrian and Russian, could be even more socially exclusive.

While the engineers and artillery were graduates from an actual military college, they were also not considered "true gentlemen" for it.

They were also a minority.

While there were the occasional "gentlemen volunteer" who basically acted as a staff officer in times of war or particularly skilled non-coms who got a battlefield promotion to Ensign when someone died, they still had to buy their way up the ranks from there.

The commission purchase system was still a fairly closed book.

I think that the French, at least for a time, walked away from the commission system.

And note that few people considered the Austrian or Russian officer systems particularly impressive.

But I get your point. I'm just saying that MOST of the Commission Purchase system was exclusive and had its detractors for decades. The Duke of Cambridge had been the foremost opponent of change in the army and would remain so for the rest of his career.

 

[Hugh Third of Five]

Hence why I argued for returning all the residential areas to Virginia and Maryland so the residents can have representation. Then the White House, Congress, the National Mall, all the museums etc, remain a smaller federal territory.

In any case there are territories other than DC with no representation. Guam and Puerto Rico among others but that's beside the point. Statehood for a federal capital is something that just doesn't make sense to me and if the US electoral system is so rigid that it can't allow DC to vote without being a state, I really have no words.

In danger of derailing and getting reported for politics( please don't guys only making a suggestion) I think Westminster style does this better because federal territories have their own representation in the national legislature and it's not limited to states. My own country Malaysia for example, the federal territories have members of parliament representing them while remaining federal territories. This is the solution I propose for Washington DC in this story. This being said it is OP's story but I still think the clash between federal and state authority in DC would undermine the capital.

Giving DC voting representation without statehood would require a constitutional amendment, but it could be done (two thirds of Congress proposed it in the 1970s but it didn't get ratified by 3/4 of the states). You're right about the reasons DC was a federal district rather than a state. Also since this was before both the Great Migration and White Flight, DC was not as heavily black then as it is now, and DC statehood or lack thereof was not seen as a racial issue in the 19th century.

 

[WinRar Archivist]

As pertaining to the Habsburg Empire, I believe that a rebellion of the Hungarians would result in counterinsurgency from the Slavs and Romanians in hope that if Vienna wins they'll get national autonomy.

An independent Kingdom of Hungary, which will most assuredly try to advance Magyarisation and deny political rights to the other nationalities, will face sooner than later internal opposition that will result in insurrection. If the Russians are otherwise busy there is a big chance than in the next 10 - 20 years it goes KABOOM, especially if Russia encourages Panslavism .

 

[Alt History Buff]

October, 1869

Vienna

Despite attempts over the fall and winter of 1869 to garner support to maintain his Empire, there was nothing the Emperor could do to preserve it. The Hungarians and Bohemians, supported by the mere THREAT of Russian intervention, would form their own Parliaments and commence writing their Constitutions.

By New Years, their new "Kings" would be "invited" to their coronation, the obvious implication was if they failed to show, their Crowns were forfeit.

Maximilian would be offered the Crown of Hungary. He was considered much more willing to compromise than his reactionary brother. However, he and his Belgian wife Carlota were childless.

Karl Ludwig, the next brother, was to gain the Bohemian Crown. After years of attempting to gain some level of authority governing minor realms of his brother's Kingdoms and Duchies, Karl Ludwig had given up and retired from government. Bohemia would be his second chance.

For his part, Franz Joseph was never to set foot in these new countries again. He turned his thoughts to Germany, feeling almost physically ill whenever his mind drifted to Hungary and his other lost Kingdoms.

Of course, Hungary and Bohemia would soon be facing their own internal troubles as Moravia, Transylvania and other regions began to agitate for their own independence.

November, 1869

Washington

With more than a few misgivings, President Seward would allow several former Confederate states including Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi and Arkansas to vote to reform their legislatures....with the obvious provision that the Freedmen were allowed to vote without any hindrances.

Lincoln's wise decision to include Federal control over the voter registration system had ensured that few citizens had trouble registering to vote. Seward had taken the next step and simply largely hired from the relatively limited number of literate Freedmen to staff that department.

There were relatively few incidents of registration fraud after that. Unfortunately, one particularly foolish black employee (originally from Massachusetts) had jokingly demanded that a former Confederate Major pass a literacy exam before being allowed to vote. The man pulled out a gun and shot the fellow dead at his desk. While the murderer was arrested by the Union cavalry, he bureaucrat's replacement was of a less jocular sort.

Unfortunately, almost immediately, there were cases of intimidation and assault upon thousands of black voters. Seward was forced to annul the results of both North Carolina and Arkansas' votes. Naturally, the Democrats would throw a fit.

The President was surprised that the "Deep South" state of Mississippi had few problems. Part of the issue may be the extremely high black presence in western Mississippi near the Mississippi River (where most of the great plantations had been) which put the Freedmen solidly in the majority. In Mississippi, the "Raiders" had been particularly harshly suppressed as still-powerful units of Union troops and well-organized Freedmen groups cooperated to hunt them down.

Sedate Virginia, with the capital's eye firmly placed upon it from nearby, would also have relatively few incidents of intimidation.

Both Mississippi and Virginia would have their Legislatures approved by the President and the formal process of being returned in good standing to the Union in the 1870 election.

South Carolina, Georgia, Florida (the remaining northern portion), Alabama (the southern portion) and Louisiana were not even close to being readmitted as none had yet to show any sign of being truly ready to accept the 15th Amendment in all its complexities.

Afghanistan

As he'd already promised, the Emir of Afghanistan would refuse entry of the British diplomatic delegation to his country.

The Viceroy of India would take this as justification for war and prepare a 50,000 man army to invade.

What he didn't realize was that the Emir had already.....hesitantly.....contacted the Russians for aid. 26,000 Russian troops were already entering the country to solidify the southern border.

 

[Alt History Buff]

December, 1869

Southern Afghanistan

General Hugh Rose, commander-in-chief of the forces in British India, would gaze across the Khyber Pass and see Russian forces entrenched deeply in the cliffs. Rose had served the Crimea and seen the carnage resultant in marching head-first into such fortified defenses. He'd also interviewed many officers and common soldiers who'd done the same in Siam and Canada against the new repeating rifles. Russia had reportedly switched over all the rifles of this field force to French Chassepots (this was not entirely accurate as some of the old models remained in use).

A forward assault upon the defenses was simply not feasible.

Despite his orders to invade, Rose refused to lead his men into a slaughter against Russian forces, especially as he DID NOT have orders to start a war with Russia. He stood his forces down and referred the matter to Earl Mayo, the new Viceroy of India. Mayo seemed reasonable enough.

However, the international situation had rapidly deteriorated in the past few months.

The Suez Canal had briefly opened in the summer...until an engineering problem closed it for several months. In November, the Canal was repaired and open again for business.

Immediately, the international tensions rose when a joint French and Russia fleet sailed through the Canal bound for Asia. Having not been informed of the sailing, the British establishment panicked. They had just learned that Russian troops had entered Afghanistan and were at the gates of India itself (though only because the Emir feared British invasion of Afghanistan).

What the British did NOT know was that the combined fleet was actually bound for eastern Asia to reinforce the French Vietnamese and Chinese ports and the Russian forces to the Russian concession in China and to Vladivostok (just founded in 1860), the new base of the Russian Pacific fleet.

In March, 1870, Lord Mayo and General Rose would be given ambiguous orders to "secure" Afghanistan. Again, there was no official order to initiate an act of war upon Russia. Lord Mayo and General Rose replied that these orders must be made much more specific.

In the meantime, another Russian and French squadron passed through the Suez with transports and supply vessels. Again, this was actually intended to reinforce their Pacific possession and to further pressure the Joseon Kingdom.

January, 1870

Washington

The Legislature of Mississippi would elect two Freedmen as Senators (both Republican) while Virginia would select two Democrats.

This was hardly a surprise and did little to affect the balance of power in the Senate. Three quarters of the Virginia and Mississippi Congressmen, though, would be Democrats.

Still, the Republicans maintained a large majority in both Houses of Congress and Seward was not particularly concerned about passing his legislation.

February

The Rio Plata

By 1870, the alliance between Brazil, Argentina (minus Buenos Aires) and Uruguay had already collapsed despite French attempts to maintain it as a hegemon against Buenos Aires and Great Britain.

The best the French "mediators" could do was keep Argentina and Brazil from war over the scraps of Paraguay. Paraguay and Uruguay would drift into alliance with Brazil while Argentina remained aloof from further alliances.

March

Mexico City

President Juarez would be surprised to find his friend Ignacio Zaragoza inquiring for an appointment with him. Juarez immediately had the retired soldier shown in and warmly received the nation's most respected warrior. Zaragoza had kept a low profile in recent years, only voicing opposition to the occasional call for rebellion by holdout Imperials.

Juarez owed Zaragoza much and the soldier deserved an audience. The conversation would not go well.

Zaragoza had heard of Juarez' intention to run for another four year term despite the Constitution of 1857 forbidding this. The President's interrupted term by French invasion was deemed an acceptable reason to allow him to serve again from 1867 to 1870.

However, Juarez' intent to serve another term was seen even among his allies as a step towards his own form of dictatorship (Juarez had been granted extraordinary powers by Congress for years due to crisis and never really returned them).

"Perhaps, Mr. President," Zaragoza began, "respecting the Constitution by stepping aside voluntarily will be the finest example you can set for the nation now."

"But there is so much more to accomplish....." Juarez replied in anger. "And the damned Imperials and Conservatives....the army and the Church...."

"Will always be a problem, Mr. President," the General returned gently. "The nation is not.....it CANNOT....be the responsibility of one man. Do assume so would make you no less a dictator than the French Emperor or that idiot Santa Anna?"

Juarez saw the wisdom, even if he didn't like it. "Are you planning on running, General?"

Zaragoza laughed out loud, "Good lord, NO! I shall be happy to leave the cares of dealing with Congress to others with a more patient temperament. May I point out that you have had many loyal subordinates of the years every bit as dedicated to you?"

"What is more important, Mr. President? A few more years of office....or truly setting the stage for our country to transition into an actual democracy?"

Juarez could not look at Zaragoza and pretend that the nation would collapse without his own leadership. And the President HAD been hearing many rumblings of discontent even among his allies at his refusal to return wartime powers and his intent to violate the Constitution he'd sworn to uphold.

"Perhaps....." The president offered weakly, "our Supreme Court Justice, Sebastian Lerdo, may be ready to lead the party into the fall elections."

"I have no doubt, Mr. President, that he is."

 

[agenericusername]

At this point, could we see an American protectorate over Morocco ITTL?

 

[Alt History Buff]

At this point, could we see an American protectorate over Morocco ITTL?

I'm not leaning in that direction but there'll be a different take on the "Scramble for Africa".

 

[Alt History Buff]

 

[Alt History Buff]

March, 1870

Southern Afghanistan, Kurran Valley, Peiwar Kotal pass (north of the Kyber Pass)

While awaiting instructions from their government, the British forces outsite the Kyber Pass had been ordered to investigate of alternate routes had been equally heavily fortified. Among these were the Peiwar Kotal pass in the Kurran Valley.

A 300 man party marched in silence through the wooden hills and mountains during a particularly cold, moonless night, seeking if an army may manage to slip through with minimal resistance. In the dead of night, they received their answer as a Russian battalion opened fired at the British-Indian force. For two hours, the lonely Russian outpost and the British scouts exchanged fire until both began to run low on ammunition.

The British retreated, taking as many of their dead and wounded as possible. However, the British officer failed to heed the sounds of cavalry approaching from behind as nearly two thousands Afghan horsemen swept into their ranks and dawn. The British and Indian forces broke and fled through the valley, harassed all the way. By the following evening, over 200 of Her Majesty's troops lay sprawled across a path ten miles in length into British India.

By happenstance, a similar incident occurred along a trail south of the Kyber Pass as well. Here Russian artillery had been set up on a convenient ridge and, the Russian commander viewing the approaching British unit, did not hesitate to fire. What the officer did NOT know was that his unit had been emplaced upon British Indian soil. He had asked the local Afghan officer for the best defensive point in the local Afghan lands and was directed to this point. However, the Afghan still considered this particular spot to be Afghan land, having never accepted it being yielded to Britain.

What was a trifle to him would have grave consequences to the world when reports on the situation on the subcontinent spoke to the Russians invading and killing soldiers on TWO locations of British Indian soil.

Madrid

Though Isabella II regretted the decision as soon as she made it, she allowed her twelve year old son to school in France. In truth, the schools of Spain were dismal and he could get a far better education in France, Switzerland and Austria (he would eventually study in all three).

The Queen would be happy to know her son was out of the country a few weeks later when Generals Prim and Serrano formed a conspiracy to overthrow the Queen's erratic government. Fortunately for Her Majesty, a servant in Prim's service reveal the plans to a Loyalist officer who raided the meeting.

Prim and Serrano managed to escape but most of their allies were caught. With sufficient evidence on hand, the Queen didn't hesitate to see these men hanged.

Taking the hint, Prim and Serrano managed to flee across the border to France. Prim would later sail for America and Mexico. The General had championed the Union cause during the American War Between the States and sympathized with the Mexicans during Spain's short-lived part of the French Intervention.

 

[A Random Man]

Nice chapter, will a major war be breaking out in Europe again? When looking at the US map, Canada and Quebec will be absorbed within a few decades. As long as the US remains kind and friendly to the two countries for the most part, annexation will come. I wonder if the US will sponsor American citizens to live in Canada and Quebec to make the populace more pro American as time goes by, will have take decades of very smart planning. Keep up the good work.

 

[Joseph890]

Nice chapter, will a major war be breaking out in Europe again? When looking at the US map, Canada and Quebec will be absorbed within a few decades. As long as the US remains kind and friendly to the two countries for the most part, annexation will come. I wonder if the US will sponsor American citizens to live in Canada and Quebec to make the populace more pro American as time goes by, will have take decades of very smart planning. Keep up the good work.

The war will not be happening in mainland Europe it will be happening in the Mediterranean and in Asia because there isn’t a land border between Britain and Russia so the only way they can fight is at sea and throughout the wonderfully hospitable lands of Afghanistan. I’m joking about it being hospitable it’s probably one of the worst places to have a large scale wars even today. So I am assuming the death toll for people dying of disease or exposure is going to be higher than the battlefield casualties.

 

[Tertius711]

Nice chapter, will a major war be breaking out in Europe again? When looking at the US map, Canada and Quebec will be absorbed within a few decades. As long as the US remains kind and friendly to the two countries for the most part, annexation will come. I wonder if the US will sponsor American citizens to live in Canada and Quebec to make the populace more pro American as time goes by, will have take decades of very smart planning. Keep up the good work.

Agreed, I honestly see the US peacefully annexing Canada at least, if not Quebec as well, forcefully annexing the Maritimes and forcefully buying Greenland.

 

[farmerted555]

Also, I'd personally rename Nickajack "Franklin", because 1) it makes one hell of a statement to the old South and 2) because of the possibility of mispronunciation.

 

[Alt History Buff]

May, 1870

Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary

King Maximilian of Hungary would be moderately well received when he took the throne after his brother's abdication of his non-German realms. The Hungarians just seemed happy to finally sever the link to Austria in which they were always a second class citizen.

Unfortunately, the third class citizens of Slovaks, Transylvanians, Slovenes and Croats were just as resentful of Hungarian overlordship as the Hungarians were of Austrian.

London

First Lord Benjamin Disraeli would receive the news that Russian (and Afghan) forces had assaulted (on Indian soil) British forces.

The last thing the First Lord wanted was another war with Russia. At least this time, there was a more tangible reason for war than "honor".

But Disraeli would still make an attempt at diplomacy.

What he did not realize was that the Egyptians, pressured by the Russians and French, would ban British ships from the Suez Canal. This was viewed as a conspiracy by the British and evidence of a further and deeper alliance against them than actually existed.

Between control over the Suez and the telegraph lines leading to Paris and Moscow, the communication lines were dominated by the enemy.

Between convoys dispatched along the Cape and.....secret dispatches....shipped through neutral parties passing through the canal.

Paris

Though the alliance had frayed over the past two years, the Emperor could not resist tweaking the British nose by helping the Russians close the Suez Canal. Without France agreement, that would never have happened....and no doubt the British knew it.

Napoleon III was quite certain his actions put knock Victoria's little island down a peg.

Hanover

The Northwest German Confederation was formally become the German Confederation as Prussia and Austria joined. The old Customs Union was extended between North and South, between East and West.

There remained a sense of bitter resentment against France for the purchase of Luxembourg, still only nominally a member of the German Confederation.

By 1870, the alliance between the "Northwest German Confederation" and France had largely collapsed.

Madras

Admiral Sir James Hope, knighted after his services in the American War, had been placed in command of the Indian Station. He could not comprehend that yet another war was on the verge of breaking out despite the dismal expense and outcome of the last.

Now, he was to prepare for war once again with Russia...and possible France. He knew that both Russian and French forces had been reinforced in the Pacific....but never believed that even combined they were a threat to India. For all their posturing, neither France nor Russia possessed the naval bases in the east to match the British.

However, there was a great deal of risk that France and/or Russia MAY acquire such bases....by seizing the Dutch East Indies and/or the Spanish Philippines. The fading European powers could not hope to withstand an attack by ANY of the Great Powers now sitting astride the Continent like a colossus.

Great Britain would....protect....these lands from conquest....even if they had to conquer them for the Queen herself.

Washington

Seward, oblivious of the implied threat to war, would concentrate on local issues.

For example, the proposal for a St. Laurence River fully navigable canal system from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic. He would have to entice the Canadians and Quebecois to assist in paying. Besides, the projected Seaway would also partially go through both neighboring nations and their active support would be necessary.

 

[Tertius711]

Looks like Germany is still gonna unite this time, likely under the Habsburgs as Emperors with a balance of power with Hanover and Prussia to prevent total domination.