alternatehistory.com

24 Mar

One of the transport ships containing troops from the California Campaign stops off at Hong Kong, ready in case the Namagumi Incident becomes a larger deal than it currently is.

27 Mar

Last Union troops march out of the Washington DC area. They have taken everything that is considered Federal property, or private property of people relocating north, and set at least one fort on fire (though this was not official policy).


28 Mar

The Treaty of Havana officially activates.
Within hours, a major legal wrangle has begun over the city of Cairo, southern Illinois - the matter turns on the precise definition of the US-CS border and the precise position of the city.
The text of the treaty states:
The border will be the Ohio River from this point to the confluence with the Mississippi, which will then be the border downriver until the 37th Parallel.
The border shall then continue westwards from this point to the 114th line of longitude, at which point the border will follow this line until the 36th Parallel, which shall be the border from here to the Pacific.

Causing the problem is that the confluence between the Mississippi and the Ohio is one and a half miles south of the 37th Parallel - as such, the southern section of the city of Cairo, as well as Fort Defiance, are below the 37th Parallel and in what can be reasonably termed a legal grey area.
The Confederate interpretation is that the border should be taken as the 37th Parallel from the point the Ohio intersects it; the Union interpretation is that the border should travel down the Ohio and then upriver along the Mississippi to the 37th Parallel. Needless to say, neither precisely matches the text of the treaty, a matter firmly complicated by some prominent public figures from the area of Southern Illinois choosing now to advance their opinion that - due to the cultural similarity between the Confederate States and the area of Illinois known as 'Little Egypt' -the whole southern third of the state should secede and join the Confederacy.

There is much suing.


31 Mar

Palmerston explains his interpretation of the course of events to Cabinet, explaining why he wishes to take the matter of the Spirit of Carolina to the Admiralty courts - if the case is strong there will be legal precedent, while if the case is weak then the Government can disavow Bythesea's actions in seizing the Spirit based on the timing of the event... while neither returning the freed slaves, nor abandoning the principle that the Confederacy is bound by Right of Search in actuality, nor even punishing the now-popular Bythesea.


4 April

Somewhat disorganized elections held in Poland, forming something resembling a Sejm with two broad and ill-defined parties (essentially Whites and Reds). The members are agreed on the need to avoid resurrecting the Liberum Veto - perhaps ironically, this is unanimous - but not much else.
One proposal floated by a faction of the Reds, and which begins to gain traction, is to at one and the same time confirm that "only Szlachta (nobles) may vote" and that "peasants will be granted the land they work" - due to the slightly odd traditions of Polish nobility, this would essentially ennoble the entire peasantry without actually diverting from the historical way the Polish government operated.

At this point Lithuanians are not holding elections for a government so much as for who is to lead their particular rebel band.