alternatehistory.com
Chapter 19 Disunited States of Central America
Chapter 19 Disunited States of Central America
"One People, One Nation!- Rallying Cry of Pan-Mayan Movement 1838
"Do those people really believe they can last on their own as a country?"- Emperor Augustin de Iturbide 1822
"Well at least the world now knows there is only one United States."- President Richard Mentor Johnson 1838
One of the greatest tragedies of Latin America is its virtual self destruction in the post-colonial period. Originally under Spanish rule there were 4 separate main colonies throughout the America that had provided Europe for years with gold, raw materials, sugar, wood, and tons of other products. Since the Napoleonic Wars, all but Cuba have been successful at kicking out their Iberian masters. This came at an heavy price though as what was originally envisioned by Miranda to be one united region that would become the eye of the world, quickly devolved into anarchy, civil warfare, ideological conflict, ethnic strife, and a load of other problems that would not be solved until the dawn of the next century. With Mexico being the latest case of latinization (balkanization), many thought that the region would once more return to a time of peace, they would be proven wrong when in 1838, Central America would erupt into large scale regional warfare over sovereignty. You see since 1823 the Central American region of New Spain had broken off to form their own country after the collapse of the short lived Mexican Empire. This region would come to form the Federal Republic of Central America, or as its known by its more popular name, The United States of Central America. The USCA was founded by Central American liberals who had placed high hopes for the nation becoming a bastion of democracy in Latin America that would become a regional power due to its strong trade ties to the Pacific. Indeed as shown in the alternate history novel "The US of CA" written by popular author Henry Garrett, had the USCA survived then it could have taken place of Yucatan to become one of the leading states of the Western hemisphere. Sadly this was not meant to be as the nation was full of internal rebellions every year as multiple revolutionaries sought to defy federal rule and establish their own nations. The penultimate event that may have accelerated the process of the USCA's collapse may be attributed to the Mexican Civil War, as the virtual collapse of one of the West's most powerful nations and the independence of 3 new nations (including the fillibuster-esque Rio Grande), encouraged the rebels to accelerate their efforts and fight to gain freedom from Guatemala. The battles reminiscent of this time were in many ways different from those of the Mexican Civil War, this type of warfare was often dominated by guerilla campaigns where local militias and federal forces would exchange fire for a few hours, then retreat and declare victory based on attrition. The collapse of the nation was finalized when on April 30th, 1838, the nation of Nicaragua declared its independence. This would later be followed by Costa Rica and Honduras, and the federal congress would meet on May 31st to officially declare that the people of Central America were free to choose their own nations. The USCA was no more. These nations would soon be joined by El Salvador and Los Altos, with the remainder of the nation forming the country of Guatemala. This would've been the end of our chapter as the region would've possibly collapsed into instability and infighting for the next several decades, were it not for the actions of an ambitious Yucatan and the Mayan people.
View attachment 287869View attachment 287870
Flag of USCA and map of new nations in dissolution
In the aftermath of the Mexican Civil War, Yucatan had been doing pretty good so far. While it had been invaded during the war, the infrastructure was left mostly intact and the gains of Tabasco and Chiapas more than made up for any losses. Trade had been established within the Gulf, farmers were having good harvests, strong ties were being established with Texas and France, everything was good. One main issue though remained in the Yucatan from gaining true peace, the Mayan Question. During the revolution, the Mayans had played a pivotal role by supplying thousands of troops as well as rallying support with their native brethren in the conquered territories to drive out the Mexican armies. Due to this, the Mayan people had expected to gain a right as equals within the Republic with some extremists wanting their people to take control of the country. While President Barbachano was sympathetic to their cause, he could not risks openly defying Conservatives and oust him from power. So Barbachano made several compromises between both groups where the Mayans would gain equal rights as well as property, but there would be no land restructuring in favor of the natives and the Creole culture would still be dominant with Spanish being enforced as the premier language and Catholicism imposed over native paganism. While this agreement satisfied many, there will still several powerful groups on both sides who called for total victory in their goals. In order to appease both sides and strengthen the nation. Barbachano rallied the people of the Yucatan towards one goal that would satisfy nationalists desires in both parties as well as launch the Yucatan into the realm of great nations, the Yucatan would conquer northern Central America.
While this desire would seem outright aggressive to several neutral observers, the local conditions proved that the casus belli was more than justified as the northern halve of the USCA had in the last two years experienced a new movement within its borders that was different from the Creole independence movements, the Pan-Mayan movement. Similar to the Italian and German nationalists that would appear in the next decade, the Pan-Mayans were a group of people within Central America who wanted to cast off the chains of oppression from their creole masters and live together as one nation. While this idea was a pipe dream in many natives in the colonial and early independence years, the Yucatan revolution proved their dreams could become reality as a new nation formed that had an equal division of Creoles and Mayans and had successfully "liberated" their brethren from Mexico City. Thus, overnight new native rebellions would spring up overnight calling not for complete independence, but for unification with the Republic of the Yucatan. These movements would largely be unorganized until the emergence of Dr. Diego Cortes, a Mayan mestizo intellectual who wrote "Our History (1836)", a largely comprehensive book that detailed Mayan culture and traditions and similar to Paine's Common sense, called for the complete independence of the Mayans in order for their people to live in peace with their unalienable rights. When literate Native priests read the book at villages, the movement was spread even further and in 1837 Dr. Cortes would be chosen to lead the People's Unification Army. Even after the breakup of the USCA, or maybe because of it, the movements numbers only grew as support in firearms and volunteers arrived from the Yucatan (with French aid) in droves. Yucatan statesman Andres Quitana Roo, was sent to meet with Cortes in June of 1838 where they discussed the next course of action. Roo proclaimed that Cortes's cause had the backing of Barbachano and the Yucatan congress and that all that was needed was for a decisive revolt to commence so that the Yucatan would march in to "liberate" the entirety of the Mayan region, which would include Guatemala, parts of Honduras, and El Salvador. Aid was also being promised from the French in terms of material arms while negotiations were present with Texas in order to secure the support of the Texan Navy as well as the possibility of volunteer regiments. With support from his soon to be home country secure, Cortes formed a plan for a large revolution with his native cells, and on July 2nd, revolts suddenly sprung up all across Guatemala, El Belize, Los Altosand Honduras, with Mayan militias attacking local barracks and national capitols with newly procured French rifles. On July 4th on the 2 year anniversary of Yucatan independence, the Yucatan Congress declared war on the Republics of Los Altos, El Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. The Guatemala War and the beginning of Yucatan power had officially begun.
View attachment 287871
View attachment 287875
"Rise to Power" depicting the Mayan rebellion, Mayan Mesoamerica, Doctor Diego Cortes
"One People, One Nation!- Rallying Cry of Pan-Mayan Movement 1838
"Do those people really believe they can last on their own as a country?"- Emperor Augustin de Iturbide 1822
"Well at least the world now knows there is only one United States."- President Richard Mentor Johnson 1838
One of the greatest tragedies of Latin America is its virtual self destruction in the post-colonial period. Originally under Spanish rule there were 4 separate main colonies throughout the America that had provided Europe for years with gold, raw materials, sugar, wood, and tons of other products. Since the Napoleonic Wars, all but Cuba have been successful at kicking out their Iberian masters. This came at an heavy price though as what was originally envisioned by Miranda to be one united region that would become the eye of the world, quickly devolved into anarchy, civil warfare, ideological conflict, ethnic strife, and a load of other problems that would not be solved until the dawn of the next century. With Mexico being the latest case of latinization (balkanization), many thought that the region would once more return to a time of peace, they would be proven wrong when in 1838, Central America would erupt into large scale regional warfare over sovereignty. You see since 1823 the Central American region of New Spain had broken off to form their own country after the collapse of the short lived Mexican Empire. This region would come to form the Federal Republic of Central America, or as its known by its more popular name, The United States of Central America. The USCA was founded by Central American liberals who had placed high hopes for the nation becoming a bastion of democracy in Latin America that would become a regional power due to its strong trade ties to the Pacific. Indeed as shown in the alternate history novel "The US of CA" written by popular author Henry Garrett, had the USCA survived then it could have taken place of Yucatan to become one of the leading states of the Western hemisphere. Sadly this was not meant to be as the nation was full of internal rebellions every year as multiple revolutionaries sought to defy federal rule and establish their own nations. The penultimate event that may have accelerated the process of the USCA's collapse may be attributed to the Mexican Civil War, as the virtual collapse of one of the West's most powerful nations and the independence of 3 new nations (including the fillibuster-esque Rio Grande), encouraged the rebels to accelerate their efforts and fight to gain freedom from Guatemala. The battles reminiscent of this time were in many ways different from those of the Mexican Civil War, this type of warfare was often dominated by guerilla campaigns where local militias and federal forces would exchange fire for a few hours, then retreat and declare victory based on attrition. The collapse of the nation was finalized when on April 30th, 1838, the nation of Nicaragua declared its independence. This would later be followed by Costa Rica and Honduras, and the federal congress would meet on May 31st to officially declare that the people of Central America were free to choose their own nations. The USCA was no more. These nations would soon be joined by El Salvador and Los Altos, with the remainder of the nation forming the country of Guatemala. This would've been the end of our chapter as the region would've possibly collapsed into instability and infighting for the next several decades, were it not for the actions of an ambitious Yucatan and the Mayan people.
View attachment 287869View attachment 287870
Flag of USCA and map of new nations in dissolution
In the aftermath of the Mexican Civil War, Yucatan had been doing pretty good so far. While it had been invaded during the war, the infrastructure was left mostly intact and the gains of Tabasco and Chiapas more than made up for any losses. Trade had been established within the Gulf, farmers were having good harvests, strong ties were being established with Texas and France, everything was good. One main issue though remained in the Yucatan from gaining true peace, the Mayan Question. During the revolution, the Mayans had played a pivotal role by supplying thousands of troops as well as rallying support with their native brethren in the conquered territories to drive out the Mexican armies. Due to this, the Mayan people had expected to gain a right as equals within the Republic with some extremists wanting their people to take control of the country. While President Barbachano was sympathetic to their cause, he could not risks openly defying Conservatives and oust him from power. So Barbachano made several compromises between both groups where the Mayans would gain equal rights as well as property, but there would be no land restructuring in favor of the natives and the Creole culture would still be dominant with Spanish being enforced as the premier language and Catholicism imposed over native paganism. While this agreement satisfied many, there will still several powerful groups on both sides who called for total victory in their goals. In order to appease both sides and strengthen the nation. Barbachano rallied the people of the Yucatan towards one goal that would satisfy nationalists desires in both parties as well as launch the Yucatan into the realm of great nations, the Yucatan would conquer northern Central America.
While this desire would seem outright aggressive to several neutral observers, the local conditions proved that the casus belli was more than justified as the northern halve of the USCA had in the last two years experienced a new movement within its borders that was different from the Creole independence movements, the Pan-Mayan movement. Similar to the Italian and German nationalists that would appear in the next decade, the Pan-Mayans were a group of people within Central America who wanted to cast off the chains of oppression from their creole masters and live together as one nation. While this idea was a pipe dream in many natives in the colonial and early independence years, the Yucatan revolution proved their dreams could become reality as a new nation formed that had an equal division of Creoles and Mayans and had successfully "liberated" their brethren from Mexico City. Thus, overnight new native rebellions would spring up overnight calling not for complete independence, but for unification with the Republic of the Yucatan. These movements would largely be unorganized until the emergence of Dr. Diego Cortes, a Mayan mestizo intellectual who wrote "Our History (1836)", a largely comprehensive book that detailed Mayan culture and traditions and similar to Paine's Common sense, called for the complete independence of the Mayans in order for their people to live in peace with their unalienable rights. When literate Native priests read the book at villages, the movement was spread even further and in 1837 Dr. Cortes would be chosen to lead the People's Unification Army. Even after the breakup of the USCA, or maybe because of it, the movements numbers only grew as support in firearms and volunteers arrived from the Yucatan (with French aid) in droves. Yucatan statesman Andres Quitana Roo, was sent to meet with Cortes in June of 1838 where they discussed the next course of action. Roo proclaimed that Cortes's cause had the backing of Barbachano and the Yucatan congress and that all that was needed was for a decisive revolt to commence so that the Yucatan would march in to "liberate" the entirety of the Mayan region, which would include Guatemala, parts of Honduras, and El Salvador. Aid was also being promised from the French in terms of material arms while negotiations were present with Texas in order to secure the support of the Texan Navy as well as the possibility of volunteer regiments. With support from his soon to be home country secure, Cortes formed a plan for a large revolution with his native cells, and on July 2nd, revolts suddenly sprung up all across Guatemala, El Belize, Los Altosand Honduras, with Mayan militias attacking local barracks and national capitols with newly procured French rifles. On July 4th on the 2 year anniversary of Yucatan independence, the Yucatan Congress declared war on the Republics of Los Altos, El Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. The Guatemala War and the beginning of Yucatan power had officially begun.
View attachment 287871
View attachment 287875"Rise to Power" depicting the Mayan rebellion, Mayan Mesoamerica, Doctor Diego Cortes
- Kaiser Chris
- Word Count: 1.4k