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Chapter 6: Agustín Jerónimo’s Bizarre Adventure – Imperial Blood
And here be a new chapter, after being too busy with personal things. The good thing is that the other chapters may be ready in less time than usual. Though, I'm a bit exhausted, and I think a few typos escaped my eagle-vision. I hope you enjoy it.
Portrait of Crown Prince Agustín Jerónimo. Do notice that he looks like a carbon copy of his father.
Soon after signing the Treaty of Friendship between the Republic of Gran Colombia and the Mexican Empire in 1824, HIH Agustín I decided that it was necessary to send his son in a goodwill tour to Europe, to secure international recognition to the Imperial regime. However, those plans had to be momentarily derailed. The rebellious provinces of Central America were to blame.
Central America. The southern end of the Empire.
Central America had joined the Empire right off the end of the Independence War and the signing of the Treaty of Córdoba, but the local elites refused to go along with the status quo, and they revolted against the Empire by declaring unilaterally the independence of the Provinces of Central America in September 16, 1825, echoing the Grito de Dolores done by Miguel Hidalgo fifteen years ago. But this time, it was done in San Salvador, in the province of El Salvador. The main purpose of this was to split away from the Empire… and that’s about it. Nobody had any idea what they were going to do afterwards, or what kind of government would they have.
A scene of the battle of Comayagua. Obvious rebel defeat.
On the side of this self-proclaimed “United Provinces of Central America” was Manuel José de Arce y Fagoaga, a politician from the province of El Salvador, who attempted to rally the rest of the provinces of Central America under his command, to achieve independence from the Mexican Empire, as he had rejected the union with the Empire and wanted more power to the local Criollo elites. And we also have Francisco Morazán, a liberal who formed a faction dedicated to achieve independence from the Mexican Empire and establish a "Liberal Republic of Central America" (Though, to be fair to this one, he aimed to improve the living standard of the Central American peasantry). These two were always at odds, and fought amongst themselves more than they fought the Empire, which was the main reason for their failure to stop the Imperial onslaught. There were plenty of other commanders on the rebel side, but none of them were of actual relevance within the bigger picture of the Central American uprisings. And no palpable ideological differences between all factions. You can facepalm now.
On the side of the Empire, we had Vicente Filísola, an Italian-born officer that fought in the Indepencence Wars alongside His Imperial Majesty, and often called “The Father of the Imperial Army”. We also had Crown Prince Agustín Jerónimo, who served as representative of His Imperial Higness, and lastly, we had Guadalupe Victoria, a military commander that would later become governor of California.
The campaign was short lived. As said above, the enemies of the Empire were vanquished due to their incompetence and infighting. Even at one point, during a skirmish against the Imperial Army, a force from El Salvador and another from Honduras kept on throwing pot-shots at each other, while they were under fire from the Imperials. To be fair to them, their movement was fractured due to their lack of having a goal aside from gaining independence for Central America, with some of the rebels wanting a republic, some others wanted to import a king from Europe, some others wanted to split their own province off from the republic and even some of them came forth with the horrifying idea (and in hindsight, fractally wrong and jaw-droppingly stupid) of joining the United States.
The disunion between the Centro American forces meant that the Imperial Army just waltzed into any area to shoot at anyone shooting at them, sustaining minimal casualties, and heaps of dead rebels. Soon, after a nine-month campaign that ended in June of 1826, everyone considered the job done, and left a few garrison to keep these rebels under a lid. Over the years, nationalist and separatist feelings began to die out, and the people of the Central American provinces began to view themselves as Mexican. It took some time and effort to achieve this, which was possible when the Empire established its first constitution in 1830. [2]
As for Arce y Fagoaga, he fled to the United States, with whatever enemy of the Empire he could get, and attempted to secure support for a filibuster expedition, which eventually came true when the Republican Uprising took place, arriving in Veracruz just a few days before Agustín Jerónimo came back from his European tour, with results that will be viewable after the next chapter. [2] As a punitive measure, the province of El Salvador was renamed to Cuzcatlán.
His rival, Morazán, was thrown into jail, after negotiating with the Imperial forces for parlaying his men and prison time for him. In the long term, it served him well, as he had plenty of time to sort out his ideas. And after being released, he was elected as governor of Honduras in 1835, and later on would get more involved in local politics, becoming one of the main exponents of liberalism within the Empire. It's a long story how did this came to happen, so I won't bother with the details right now.
While the military campaigns were successful, General Guadalupe Victoria got the top prize of… getting sent to Alta California, at the time seen as the ass-end of the Empire and the farthest one could go in Mexico without leaving the country. And what once was thought as a Mexican’s grave, only inhabited by rough-necked ranchers, conscripted tax dodgers that were used as settlers, and Chinese settlers [1] was to become one of the wealthiest provinces of the Empire, and a key theater in the war against the United States that came by more than a decade later, [2] including a key battle between his forces and an American incursion force in Río Porcíncula [3].
Vicente Filísola kept on looking for more Centro American rebels to dispatch, and kept his forces in Central America in order to discourage any further attempts at rebellion. His experience was useful many years later, when the Anglo settlers in Texas revolted a few years later. [2]
Crown Prince Agustín Jerónimo then was sent on his new adventure to Europe in September 29, 1826. Accompanied by his father’s loyal bodyguard and companion, Karol Bieniewski, [4] who would serve as an aide and interpreter for the young prince. It was a risky assignment, especially with the political instability that we had been speaking of in the previous chapter, just to arrive in time to see that there was a new king in Spain, and many things were beginning to change in the Old World.
Next Chapter: The Prince goes to Europe. Stuff happens.
=================================
[1] The original plans of OTL Mexican Republic involved settling California with lots of Chinese settlers and debtors.
[2] Spoilers.
[3] Kern River, near OTL Bakersfield, CA.
[4] A Polish officer that was once aide to Agustín I, and OTL ended up serving Mexico during the Texan Revolution. TTL, he’ll have a larger role. Some people write his name as "Carlos Beneski".
Chapter 6: Agustín Jerónimo’s Bizarre Adventure – Rebel Blood
And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
Portrait of Crown Prince Agustín Jerónimo. Do notice that he looks like a carbon copy of his father.
Soon after signing the Treaty of Friendship between the Republic of Gran Colombia and the Mexican Empire in 1824, HIH Agustín I decided that it was necessary to send his son in a goodwill tour to Europe, to secure international recognition to the Imperial regime. However, those plans had to be momentarily derailed. The rebellious provinces of Central America were to blame.
Central America. The southern end of the Empire.
Central America had joined the Empire right off the end of the Independence War and the signing of the Treaty of Córdoba, but the local elites refused to go along with the status quo, and they revolted against the Empire by declaring unilaterally the independence of the Provinces of Central America in September 16, 1825, echoing the Grito de Dolores done by Miguel Hidalgo fifteen years ago. But this time, it was done in San Salvador, in the province of El Salvador. The main purpose of this was to split away from the Empire… and that’s about it. Nobody had any idea what they were going to do afterwards, or what kind of government would they have.
A scene of the battle of Comayagua. Obvious rebel defeat.
On the side of this self-proclaimed “United Provinces of Central America” was Manuel José de Arce y Fagoaga, a politician from the province of El Salvador, who attempted to rally the rest of the provinces of Central America under his command, to achieve independence from the Mexican Empire, as he had rejected the union with the Empire and wanted more power to the local Criollo elites. And we also have Francisco Morazán, a liberal who formed a faction dedicated to achieve independence from the Mexican Empire and establish a "Liberal Republic of Central America" (Though, to be fair to this one, he aimed to improve the living standard of the Central American peasantry). These two were always at odds, and fought amongst themselves more than they fought the Empire, which was the main reason for their failure to stop the Imperial onslaught. There were plenty of other commanders on the rebel side, but none of them were of actual relevance within the bigger picture of the Central American uprisings. And no palpable ideological differences between all factions. You can facepalm now.
On the side of the Empire, we had Vicente Filísola, an Italian-born officer that fought in the Indepencence Wars alongside His Imperial Majesty, and often called “The Father of the Imperial Army”. We also had Crown Prince Agustín Jerónimo, who served as representative of His Imperial Higness, and lastly, we had Guadalupe Victoria, a military commander that would later become governor of California.
The campaign was short lived. As said above, the enemies of the Empire were vanquished due to their incompetence and infighting. Even at one point, during a skirmish against the Imperial Army, a force from El Salvador and another from Honduras kept on throwing pot-shots at each other, while they were under fire from the Imperials. To be fair to them, their movement was fractured due to their lack of having a goal aside from gaining independence for Central America, with some of the rebels wanting a republic, some others wanted to import a king from Europe, some others wanted to split their own province off from the republic and even some of them came forth with the horrifying idea (and in hindsight, fractally wrong and jaw-droppingly stupid) of joining the United States.
The disunion between the Centro American forces meant that the Imperial Army just waltzed into any area to shoot at anyone shooting at them, sustaining minimal casualties, and heaps of dead rebels. Soon, after a nine-month campaign that ended in June of 1826, everyone considered the job done, and left a few garrison to keep these rebels under a lid. Over the years, nationalist and separatist feelings began to die out, and the people of the Central American provinces began to view themselves as Mexican. It took some time and effort to achieve this, which was possible when the Empire established its first constitution in 1830. [2]
As for Arce y Fagoaga, he fled to the United States, with whatever enemy of the Empire he could get, and attempted to secure support for a filibuster expedition, which eventually came true when the Republican Uprising took place, arriving in Veracruz just a few days before Agustín Jerónimo came back from his European tour, with results that will be viewable after the next chapter. [2] As a punitive measure, the province of El Salvador was renamed to Cuzcatlán.
His rival, Morazán, was thrown into jail, after negotiating with the Imperial forces for parlaying his men and prison time for him. In the long term, it served him well, as he had plenty of time to sort out his ideas. And after being released, he was elected as governor of Honduras in 1835, and later on would get more involved in local politics, becoming one of the main exponents of liberalism within the Empire. It's a long story how did this came to happen, so I won't bother with the details right now.
While the military campaigns were successful, General Guadalupe Victoria got the top prize of… getting sent to Alta California, at the time seen as the ass-end of the Empire and the farthest one could go in Mexico without leaving the country. And what once was thought as a Mexican’s grave, only inhabited by rough-necked ranchers, conscripted tax dodgers that were used as settlers, and Chinese settlers [1] was to become one of the wealthiest provinces of the Empire, and a key theater in the war against the United States that came by more than a decade later, [2] including a key battle between his forces and an American incursion force in Río Porcíncula [3].
Vicente Filísola kept on looking for more Centro American rebels to dispatch, and kept his forces in Central America in order to discourage any further attempts at rebellion. His experience was useful many years later, when the Anglo settlers in Texas revolted a few years later. [2]
Crown Prince Agustín Jerónimo then was sent on his new adventure to Europe in September 29, 1826. Accompanied by his father’s loyal bodyguard and companion, Karol Bieniewski, [4] who would serve as an aide and interpreter for the young prince. It was a risky assignment, especially with the political instability that we had been speaking of in the previous chapter, just to arrive in time to see that there was a new king in Spain, and many things were beginning to change in the Old World.
Next Chapter: The Prince goes to Europe. Stuff happens.
=================================
[1] The original plans of OTL Mexican Republic involved settling California with lots of Chinese settlers and debtors.
[2] Spoilers.
[3] Kern River, near OTL Bakersfield, CA.
[4] A Polish officer that was once aide to Agustín I, and OTL ended up serving Mexico during the Texan Revolution. TTL, he’ll have a larger role. Some people write his name as "Carlos Beneski".
- Vault boy
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