Chapter Twelve: The Road to The Ten Years War
The Union of American Commonwealths was a successful prototype for similar future experiments. The biggest of what became known as “Dominion Systems” was courtesy of Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea, the 10th Count Aranda of Spain. This could be traced back to 1783 as the Count anticipated the expansionist ambitions of the Anglo-Americans He hoped that this “Spanish Commonwealth” would challenge the British in North America. As minister of King Charles III, he presented to him a proposal that would divide the Spanish Americas into three Dominions comparable to the British UAC: Mexico (Mexico and Louisiana), Peru (Peru and Rio de la Plata), and Costa Firme (Granada and Venezuela). Like the UAC, each of these three dominions would be semi-autonomous and have their own kings, with the King of Spain serving as the unifying Emperor of all three kingdoms. Only the Caribbean would be directly ruled by Spain. For nine years, the plan was rejected and shelved. It was brought back in 1792 when the COunt became the Prime Minister of Spain under King Charles IV. With a narrow approval in the Cortes Generales, Abarca de Bolea got his wish. This left Russia and, more so, Britain, in anger. The Territory of Nutca, part of Mexico, was claimed by Russia and Britain alongside Spain, while the British were considering taking the empty southern half of Rio de la Plata, known as Patagonia.
In neighboring France, the transition into a Constitutional Monarchy began in 1793 following the Convening of the Estates-General. The surmounting debt of the French nation, the harsh winter of 1788, and peasant revolts left King Louis with no choice. But not everyone was happy with the decisions at Versailles. From the First Estate, the noble Bishops were not sympathetic to the commoners and feared that this would usurp the position of the Catholic Church in France. In the Second Estate, you had some nobles who believed that they did not get enough power from this meeting in a short enough time. The Third Estate still had the double representation issue where, despite having twice as many representatives as the other two Estates, each Estate had one vote and the first two could collectively outvote the Third. This says nothing of the peasants who were angry at no representation at all at Versailles despite being the majority of the country. The days of July 27-28, 1794 marked the height of liberal and monarchist mobs clashing with each other in the streets, with some republicans and anarchists even trying to overthrow the French government. This flared on and off until Prussia recognized the new government on April 5, 1795, and the Spanish recognition of it on July 22 followed by other European countries soon after. All riots and insurrection were put down by the King’s troops by the end of August 1795.
In Eastern-Central Europe was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was once the most prosperous state in the region, but by 1793 it looked like it would cease to be. The First Partition of Poland had taken place in 1772. This was engineered by King Frederick the Great of Prussia to prevent Austria from going to war with Russia, the former jealous of the latter having military success against the Ottoman Empire and to restore the balance of power in Central Europe. Austria, under statesman Wenzel Anton Graf Kaunitz, gained the Duchies of Zator and Oświęcim as well as parts of Little Poland. Austrian Empress Maria Theresa herself criticized the partitions, with Frederick the Great testifying that she cried when she took more land from the Poles, and the more she cried, the more she took. Austria refused to partake in the Second Partitioning of Poland (occurring between Prussia and Russia) in 1793, which was caused by the aftermath of the Polish-Russian War of 1792 and the May Constitution, which itself was inspired by the English Bill of Rights and the Constitution Act of 1777. Austria realized that Russian collusion with Prussia over Poland was dangerous and forged an alliance with the Poles (alongside France) to guarantee their remaining territories.
There were two sparks to the Ten Years War. The first was the Treaty of San Ildefonso, signed on August 19, 1796, between the Spanish Empire and the French Kingdom. It called for the renewal of the Franco-Spanish alliance and essentially declare war on the British. On January 29, 1797, Portugal received an ultimatum from France and Spain that it abandon its traditional alliance with Great Britain forged in the Treaty of Windsor, close its ports to the British and open them to the Spanish and French, surrender at least one of its provinces in exchange for Spanish territories held by the British, and pay war indemnities to France and Spain. If the Portuguese denied the ultimatum, they would be invaded. They refused to sever its alliance with Britain and declared war on France and Spain that February. The second spark occurred on January 26, 1797. Like the French and Spanish did with the Portuguese, the Prussians and Russians gave an ultimatum to Austria to abandon its alliance with Poland in exchange for Polish land or else face the threat of invasion. Austria refused and, also itching for the return of Silesia, declared war on Prussia on the Polish and Silesian fronts and Russia on the Polish front. The system of alliances had tied Austria, France, Spain, and Poland onto one side and Britain, Portugal, Prussia, and Russia on the other. This war would affect not only Europe but the Americas and the rest of the colonial world.
A/N: So this was sooner than I anticipated in all honesty despite having some school work to attend to. But, I'd like to thank all of you readers for supporting this timeline, as would not be possible without you guys. Special mentions go to @Leonidas and @GenghisKhanfan for helping me with this particular chapter.
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