Err... He was in Portugal for ~3 months a year or two ago. That was the impetus for his conversion. He's not likely to go back any time in the immediate future.
Of course, a couple of years from now, he might, depending on what else happens.
Canada Wank (YACW)
- Thread starter Dathi THorfinnsson
- Start date
- Status
Of course, a couple of years from now, he might, depending on what else happens.
the wedding
The Wedding
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]As already mentioned, the British delegation of Prince Consort Leopold and a government minister arrived in Canada in the spring of '41 to talk William, and see how things were to progress from there. Between talking to William, installing him as Duke of Montreal (with the preparations needed there), and talking to the local governments (provincial and federal), it's the summer of '41 before the delegation returns to Britain. After that, the tentative negotiations with the Portuguese need to be firmed up, which, since communications only travel at the speed of ships, takes a few more months. Finally, preparations have to be made for a royal (or semi-royal) wedding, and that takes some time, too. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Still, once Antonia has finished up 18 months with the deaconesses, she spends a month or so preparing for the wedding (ordering a wedding dress in London, for instance). Then, that winter, she sails for Canada. She then has to deal with the local arrangements, that are already under way. But at least she and William get to see each other on a semi-regular basis (since he is now working in the Montreal HQ directing Quartermaster affairs). The wedding is set for early June, and both of them are very eager for the ceremony to finally take place.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Obviously, the Queen of England and the King of Portugal aren't going to be able to afford the time to travel the Atlantic both ways, so suitable representatives are selected. Queen Charlotte sends Princess Sophia with her husband Peter, and King Francisco of Portugal sends his eldest son, the crown prince João. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Sophia and her family arrive at the beginning of spring, and spend a couple of months travelling around various parts of British North America, starting in Halifax, and reaching as far as St. Louis. Fortunately, the Americans have NOT gone to war in the spring of '42, as was initially feared (the royal party was escorted across the Atlantic by a couple of 1st rate ships of the line, just in case), so the extended expedition was deemed safe enough – and might be their last chance for a while.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Since this is the first official 'royal' visit to Canada (William was doing his stint of service, and was semi-incognito), crowds gather and cheer at every stop. Sophia and Peter find themselves the focus of a massive pro-British wave of patriotic enthusiasm. In fact, they are popular enough that the new future cathedrals abuilding in Winchester (until recently London), have their names changed. The Anglican one is relabelled “Holy Wisdom” (“Saint Sophia” was felt to be a little … obvious), and the Roman one is relabelled “St. Peter's”.[1][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]João, being here primarily for the wedding, only travels from Québec City as far as Kingston. In one of the last instances of the Canadian Parliament sitting in Kingston, João asks for permission to make William a Royal Duke of Portugal, which is granted. (Obviously, the arrangements were made long beforehand, it's just the ceremonial request and formal granting of that happens at this time.[2]) Following that permission, Parliament adjourns for the day, and, in the presence of the Members of both houses of Parliament, João invests William as “Guilherme, Duque de Damão e Nagar-Aveli”. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]João, too, is cheered as crown prince of 'one of our main allies'. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The wedding takes place in June, with full pomp and ceremony, and with all the various royals present, and even the New England Secretary of State attending. (He gets to kill two birds with one stone, being able to talk face to face to the British and Portuguese royals and the Canadian political leaders, as well as attending the wedding.)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]After the wedding, William and Antonia have a brief honeymoon, and then it's back to work for William. [/FONT]
–
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]1 since these are new-build cathedrals in waiting, not new buildings for pre-existing parishes, and since the buildings are neither finished nor consecrated, they don't technically have names yet. So, 'renaming' them at this point is not terribly hard. The Romans were thinking of naming theirs “Notre Dame de la Sagesse”, but the Anglicans got the name first. Besides “St.Peter's/St.Pierre” works better bilingually than “Notre Dame de la Sagesse/Our Lady of Wisdom”. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]2 Britain is still really, really leery of any perception of British royalness for William. Obviously, permissions have been sought and granted at the very highest levels in England/Britain, but it was decided to have the FORMAL permission be asked of and granted by the Canadian Parliament, partly since William is now a Canadian peer. This is a seen as a big boost in status for the Canadian Parliament, and the British Parliament in London may later regret giving them that much self-confidence. As part of the British disassociation with the project, Sophia and Peter do not attend this ceremony, although the Viceroy does provide Royal assent. [/FONT]
The Wedding
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]As already mentioned, the British delegation of Prince Consort Leopold and a government minister arrived in Canada in the spring of '41 to talk William, and see how things were to progress from there. Between talking to William, installing him as Duke of Montreal (with the preparations needed there), and talking to the local governments (provincial and federal), it's the summer of '41 before the delegation returns to Britain. After that, the tentative negotiations with the Portuguese need to be firmed up, which, since communications only travel at the speed of ships, takes a few more months. Finally, preparations have to be made for a royal (or semi-royal) wedding, and that takes some time, too. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Still, once Antonia has finished up 18 months with the deaconesses, she spends a month or so preparing for the wedding (ordering a wedding dress in London, for instance). Then, that winter, she sails for Canada. She then has to deal with the local arrangements, that are already under way. But at least she and William get to see each other on a semi-regular basis (since he is now working in the Montreal HQ directing Quartermaster affairs). The wedding is set for early June, and both of them are very eager for the ceremony to finally take place.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Obviously, the Queen of England and the King of Portugal aren't going to be able to afford the time to travel the Atlantic both ways, so suitable representatives are selected. Queen Charlotte sends Princess Sophia with her husband Peter, and King Francisco of Portugal sends his eldest son, the crown prince João. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Sophia and her family arrive at the beginning of spring, and spend a couple of months travelling around various parts of British North America, starting in Halifax, and reaching as far as St. Louis. Fortunately, the Americans have NOT gone to war in the spring of '42, as was initially feared (the royal party was escorted across the Atlantic by a couple of 1st rate ships of the line, just in case), so the extended expedition was deemed safe enough – and might be their last chance for a while.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Since this is the first official 'royal' visit to Canada (William was doing his stint of service, and was semi-incognito), crowds gather and cheer at every stop. Sophia and Peter find themselves the focus of a massive pro-British wave of patriotic enthusiasm. In fact, they are popular enough that the new future cathedrals abuilding in Winchester (until recently London), have their names changed. The Anglican one is relabelled “Holy Wisdom” (“Saint Sophia” was felt to be a little … obvious), and the Roman one is relabelled “St. Peter's”.[1][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]João, being here primarily for the wedding, only travels from Québec City as far as Kingston. In one of the last instances of the Canadian Parliament sitting in Kingston, João asks for permission to make William a Royal Duke of Portugal, which is granted. (Obviously, the arrangements were made long beforehand, it's just the ceremonial request and formal granting of that happens at this time.[2]) Following that permission, Parliament adjourns for the day, and, in the presence of the Members of both houses of Parliament, João invests William as “Guilherme, Duque de Damão e Nagar-Aveli”. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]João, too, is cheered as crown prince of 'one of our main allies'. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The wedding takes place in June, with full pomp and ceremony, and with all the various royals present, and even the New England Secretary of State attending. (He gets to kill two birds with one stone, being able to talk face to face to the British and Portuguese royals and the Canadian political leaders, as well as attending the wedding.)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]After the wedding, William and Antonia have a brief honeymoon, and then it's back to work for William. [/FONT]
–
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]1 since these are new-build cathedrals in waiting, not new buildings for pre-existing parishes, and since the buildings are neither finished nor consecrated, they don't technically have names yet. So, 'renaming' them at this point is not terribly hard. The Romans were thinking of naming theirs “Notre Dame de la Sagesse”, but the Anglicans got the name first. Besides “St.Peter's/St.Pierre” works better bilingually than “Notre Dame de la Sagesse/Our Lady of Wisdom”. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]2 Britain is still really, really leery of any perception of British royalness for William. Obviously, permissions have been sought and granted at the very highest levels in England/Britain, but it was decided to have the FORMAL permission be asked of and granted by the Canadian Parliament, partly since William is now a Canadian peer. This is a seen as a big boost in status for the Canadian Parliament, and the British Parliament in London may later regret giving them that much self-confidence. As part of the British disassociation with the project, Sophia and Peter do not attend this ceremony, although the Viceroy does provide Royal assent. [/FONT]
Dan
Could be just a case of taking the opportunity to do some 'networking' with important contacts while at the wedding. Also, with it fairly obvious that the US is building up for a war New England may well be seeking reassurances that if they get attacked they will get help. Or possibly sorting out what their stance would be, presumably working on some form of neutrality favourable to Britain/Canada.
Steve
Ja, basically. In those days you didn't necessarily get to meet people face to face much in that kind of position, so it was a great opportunity. Lets New England be present at this historic occasion, meet face to face with the future king of Portugal, etc.
possible hiatus?
My computer is acting up badly, and until I can get it fixed/figure out what's wrong/replace it I might not have as much time on line as I'd like. If I suddenly disappear for a couple of days, that's probably will have happened...
My computer is acting up badly, and until I can get it fixed/figure out what's wrong/replace it I might not have as much time on line as I'd like. If I suddenly disappear for a couple of days, that's probably will have happened...
Hope you can solve the problem quickly, Dathi!
Regarding William, he would formally be "D. Guilherme de Hanover, Duque de Damão e Nagar-Aveli".
OK. Turns out it was a power brick problem (it's a laptop). It was obviously something flaky, and we weren't sure what, so we bought a new laptop. Which I am currently typing on.Dathi
Hope you get the problem sorted soon, both for your sake and because I'm already getting withdrawal symptoms.
Steve
Actually the new power brick with the old computer works (sort of - it takes forever to boot, so there are probably other problems). Will get the next bit posted 'soon', for some value of 'soon'.
Mining
A slight digression
Mining
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Following the fabulous strikes of iron in 1827 and silver in 1830, prospectors fan over the countryside and NWC traders forward any interesting looking minerals. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Copper is found in northern Wisconsin (OTL UP Michigan) on the south shore of Lake Superior, and iron is found near there, too. Then iron is found in the Vermillion range in (OTL Minnesota). Gold is also found in the area, but is never economical. Still, thousands of people flood into northern Wisconsin. (Some come for the gold and end up in other mines.)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Much of the best copper comes from the Keweenaw Peninsula in (OTL UP Michigan) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keweenaw_Peninsula[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Wisconsin quickly becomes renowned for its mines, and even if the bulk of the population is actually in the southern portion engaged in agriculture, why that's normal – almost ALL of the population of other provinces are farmers. It is mining that makes Wisconsin famous iTTL. The provincial animal is the badger, and the capital of the Province is named Brockville [OTL's Wilwaukee] (pun on the General, and on badger=brock). The usual eponym for people from Wisconsin is 'digger'.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]As Chicago is part of Wisconsin, iTTL, not only is most of the ore mined in the province, but it is also refined there, too. (Certainly there are some significant foundries elsewhere on the Great Lakes, but Chicago has ready access to coal without it having to be transshipped, they have a major advantage. The only serious disadvantage to Chicago is that it is a huge boom town and qualified workers can almost name their own price, with the number of foundries and mills seeming to double every year. (In many ways, Chicago isn't really considered 'proper' Wisconsin, it's 'Chicago'. It's off on the little shore strip that should have been part of the Indian Protectorate, and its industry and lifestyle differs greatly.)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Note that there is a significant amount of silver found in some of the copper veins, and also in the lead ores of southwest Wisconsin and the north west of the Protectorate. While the ores aren't nearly rich enough in silver to consider the mines 'silver mines' they do add a nice bit of extra profit to the mining business in the province.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Other mineral deposits are also found around this time in northern Ontario (actually, most are in modern Ontario – southern Rupertsland at that time). These deposits are not currently being exploited for several reasons – 1) the economically useful mines in Wisconsin are eating up most of the skilled miners available, 2) these mines are far enough away from the main waterways that it would be very expensive to bring in miners, mining supplies and bring the finished ore out, and 3) they are mostly in HBC lands, and, unlike the NWC, the HBC hasn't really pushed the mineral exploration, nor has it moved into mining or other industrial pursuits. [/FONT]
A slight digression
Mining
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Following the fabulous strikes of iron in 1827 and silver in 1830, prospectors fan over the countryside and NWC traders forward any interesting looking minerals. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Copper is found in northern Wisconsin (OTL UP Michigan) on the south shore of Lake Superior, and iron is found near there, too. Then iron is found in the Vermillion range in (OTL Minnesota). Gold is also found in the area, but is never economical. Still, thousands of people flood into northern Wisconsin. (Some come for the gold and end up in other mines.)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Much of the best copper comes from the Keweenaw Peninsula in (OTL UP Michigan) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keweenaw_Peninsula[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Wisconsin quickly becomes renowned for its mines, and even if the bulk of the population is actually in the southern portion engaged in agriculture, why that's normal – almost ALL of the population of other provinces are farmers. It is mining that makes Wisconsin famous iTTL. The provincial animal is the badger, and the capital of the Province is named Brockville [OTL's Wilwaukee] (pun on the General, and on badger=brock). The usual eponym for people from Wisconsin is 'digger'.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]As Chicago is part of Wisconsin, iTTL, not only is most of the ore mined in the province, but it is also refined there, too. (Certainly there are some significant foundries elsewhere on the Great Lakes, but Chicago has ready access to coal without it having to be transshipped, they have a major advantage. The only serious disadvantage to Chicago is that it is a huge boom town and qualified workers can almost name their own price, with the number of foundries and mills seeming to double every year. (In many ways, Chicago isn't really considered 'proper' Wisconsin, it's 'Chicago'. It's off on the little shore strip that should have been part of the Indian Protectorate, and its industry and lifestyle differs greatly.)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Note that there is a significant amount of silver found in some of the copper veins, and also in the lead ores of southwest Wisconsin and the north west of the Protectorate. While the ores aren't nearly rich enough in silver to consider the mines 'silver mines' they do add a nice bit of extra profit to the mining business in the province.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Other mineral deposits are also found around this time in northern Ontario (actually, most are in modern Ontario – southern Rupertsland at that time). These deposits are not currently being exploited for several reasons – 1) the economically useful mines in Wisconsin are eating up most of the skilled miners available, 2) these mines are far enough away from the main waterways that it would be very expensive to bring in miners, mining supplies and bring the finished ore out, and 3) they are mostly in HBC lands, and, unlike the NWC, the HBC hasn't really pushed the mineral exploration, nor has it moved into mining or other industrial pursuits. [/FONT]
US preparations for War
OK, this was closer to ready to go than I thought.
US preparations for War.
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In 1841, when Clay is elected, he sees a clear chance to regain 'America's rightful land', the British army is in disarray, the Canadian rail network not complete. He moves forward with raising the number of troops and building military capability, promising his supporters a great victory.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]By the end of '41, beginning of '42, the American position isn't looking quite as rosy as had been expected – bottlenecks of all sorts have appeared and the militia isn't as well trained as it's supposed to be. Still, the US will have a massive numerical advantage over the British, and they still have every hope of making huge gains, so planning continues. Also, by now, Clay has painted himself into a corner. He was elected on a platform of recovering those lands, and spent the first year war-mongering. It would be political suicide to stop now.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]One of those bottlenecks is the production of Hall Rifles. It was initially hoped that every every man in the attack force, at least, could be equipped with one (which would mean producing some 100,000 or more over the course of 2 years, or better yet, twice that). Given that Hall had invented a whole range of machines to help manufacture the rifle at Harper's Ferry arsenal, it simply wasn't possible for a random gunsmith to produce nearly as many. Between upping production at Harper's Ferry, and having regular gunsmiths duplicate the work by hand, they managed to produce 30,000 Halls in those two years, but even that stretched the limits of what could be produced.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Another bottleneck is percussion caps. While it was possible to hand make handfuls of caps with highly refined mercury fulminate, making the millions necessary turned out to be far more difficult than had been anticipated. Given that a Hall rifle can fire up to 10 rounds a minute, an hour of fighting for 20k rifles could use up 10*60*20k = 12 million caps. Of course, a gunpowder weapon can't fire 600 rounds in an hour – the barrel would be fouled solid, and probably be glowing red hot – but that gives you a taste of the production quantities involved[1]. In fact, the percussion cap bottleneck was bad enough that some of the cap weapons were converted BACK to flintlock, which was a bit tricky because the existing conversion kits went the other way.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Millions of caps requires a large supply of mercury, which is not available in the United States[2]. Spain is happy to supply US needs, but the increase in demand caught them by surprise and they can't increase production in their mines fast enough to supply the US with all they want, yet.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Gunpowder is not, currently, a bottleneck, as the US has built up their gunpowder factories, and has managed (at great difficulty and cost) to stockpile some saltpetre (the limiting ingredient) ahead of time. They have also prospected bat caves, and are mining them for the nitrates in bat guano. They have reason to believe they have this problem well under control. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Maceroni[3] rockets are another problem, too. While each individual rocket doesn't require much metal, and they can be built by a skilled smith, the nozzles are tricky and require particularly skilled workers. Putting together 10 of them is (relatively) trivial. Hundreds isn't hard. Thousands is trickier, and 10s of thousands starts being really difficult. Still, they started work early enough that they worked out some of the kinks in the production, letting semi-skilled workers work on the bodies, while the most skilled smiths dealt with the most finicky work. Each team can produce about 2 dozen a day or a gross in a week. Of course, this rate is after they figured out the dies and tools needed and after that team had couple of months practise...[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Reactionary Spain and Republican America are a bit of an odd strategic pair, but Spain figures that if she sells the US her stocks of saltpetre (at a healthy profit), and what mercury is available, that the US will stay friendly and not attack Florida. Britain keeps warning Spain of the dangers involved, but the Spanish Crown figures a) that the Brits have ulterior motives, and b) the US wouldn't be stupid enough to attack BOTH Spain and Britain at the same time. Keeping the US happy should keep them aimed at Britain, with any luck.[4] So Spain sells the US strategic materials and does not increase the defensive levels in the Floridas. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Another piece of war preparation that did go as planned is that the US manages to complete a rail line all the way to Pinckney Georgia (OTL Jacksonville, Florida)[5]. To do this they had to build rail not only south from the existing rail lines at Savannah, but north from Pinckney and heading both directions from the crossings of the Altamaha and Satilla Rivers.[/FONT]
–
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]1 Not that the US realizes that they need that many yet. OTL, in the First Opium War, the Brits shipped 400 percussion muskets with 50,000 caps. That works out to 125 caps / musket for an entire campaign. That's only ~30minutes worth... OTOH, that wasn't the kind of intense warfare that the coming war would involve, but still the US is likely to underestimate the number of caps needed. [The Opium War, Peter Ward Fay, p.313][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]2 There is, of course, mercury in California, but it hasn't been discovered yet AFAIK, it's certainly not being exploited, and California isn't in the United States (even iOTL, yet).[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]3 You KNOW the British are going to sing a filked version of Yankee Doodle 'Stuck a rocket in his cap and called it Maceroni'....[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]4 Note the similarity in reasoning to Stalin's before Barbarossa. [hint, hint][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]5 Note that rail isn't actually going to St. Augustine, the jumping off point for that invasion. From Pinckney they can ferry supplies down the St. John's River to St. Augustine, and that's a chunk of rail they don't have to build then.[/FONT]
OK, this was closer to ready to go than I thought.
US preparations for War.
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In 1841, when Clay is elected, he sees a clear chance to regain 'America's rightful land', the British army is in disarray, the Canadian rail network not complete. He moves forward with raising the number of troops and building military capability, promising his supporters a great victory.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]By the end of '41, beginning of '42, the American position isn't looking quite as rosy as had been expected – bottlenecks of all sorts have appeared and the militia isn't as well trained as it's supposed to be. Still, the US will have a massive numerical advantage over the British, and they still have every hope of making huge gains, so planning continues. Also, by now, Clay has painted himself into a corner. He was elected on a platform of recovering those lands, and spent the first year war-mongering. It would be political suicide to stop now.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]One of those bottlenecks is the production of Hall Rifles. It was initially hoped that every every man in the attack force, at least, could be equipped with one (which would mean producing some 100,000 or more over the course of 2 years, or better yet, twice that). Given that Hall had invented a whole range of machines to help manufacture the rifle at Harper's Ferry arsenal, it simply wasn't possible for a random gunsmith to produce nearly as many. Between upping production at Harper's Ferry, and having regular gunsmiths duplicate the work by hand, they managed to produce 30,000 Halls in those two years, but even that stretched the limits of what could be produced.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Another bottleneck is percussion caps. While it was possible to hand make handfuls of caps with highly refined mercury fulminate, making the millions necessary turned out to be far more difficult than had been anticipated. Given that a Hall rifle can fire up to 10 rounds a minute, an hour of fighting for 20k rifles could use up 10*60*20k = 12 million caps. Of course, a gunpowder weapon can't fire 600 rounds in an hour – the barrel would be fouled solid, and probably be glowing red hot – but that gives you a taste of the production quantities involved[1]. In fact, the percussion cap bottleneck was bad enough that some of the cap weapons were converted BACK to flintlock, which was a bit tricky because the existing conversion kits went the other way.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Millions of caps requires a large supply of mercury, which is not available in the United States[2]. Spain is happy to supply US needs, but the increase in demand caught them by surprise and they can't increase production in their mines fast enough to supply the US with all they want, yet.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Gunpowder is not, currently, a bottleneck, as the US has built up their gunpowder factories, and has managed (at great difficulty and cost) to stockpile some saltpetre (the limiting ingredient) ahead of time. They have also prospected bat caves, and are mining them for the nitrates in bat guano. They have reason to believe they have this problem well under control. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Maceroni[3] rockets are another problem, too. While each individual rocket doesn't require much metal, and they can be built by a skilled smith, the nozzles are tricky and require particularly skilled workers. Putting together 10 of them is (relatively) trivial. Hundreds isn't hard. Thousands is trickier, and 10s of thousands starts being really difficult. Still, they started work early enough that they worked out some of the kinks in the production, letting semi-skilled workers work on the bodies, while the most skilled smiths dealt with the most finicky work. Each team can produce about 2 dozen a day or a gross in a week. Of course, this rate is after they figured out the dies and tools needed and after that team had couple of months practise...[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Reactionary Spain and Republican America are a bit of an odd strategic pair, but Spain figures that if she sells the US her stocks of saltpetre (at a healthy profit), and what mercury is available, that the US will stay friendly and not attack Florida. Britain keeps warning Spain of the dangers involved, but the Spanish Crown figures a) that the Brits have ulterior motives, and b) the US wouldn't be stupid enough to attack BOTH Spain and Britain at the same time. Keeping the US happy should keep them aimed at Britain, with any luck.[4] So Spain sells the US strategic materials and does not increase the defensive levels in the Floridas. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Another piece of war preparation that did go as planned is that the US manages to complete a rail line all the way to Pinckney Georgia (OTL Jacksonville, Florida)[5]. To do this they had to build rail not only south from the existing rail lines at Savannah, but north from Pinckney and heading both directions from the crossings of the Altamaha and Satilla Rivers.[/FONT]
–
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]1 Not that the US realizes that they need that many yet. OTL, in the First Opium War, the Brits shipped 400 percussion muskets with 50,000 caps. That works out to 125 caps / musket for an entire campaign. That's only ~30minutes worth... OTOH, that wasn't the kind of intense warfare that the coming war would involve, but still the US is likely to underestimate the number of caps needed. [The Opium War, Peter Ward Fay, p.313][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]2 There is, of course, mercury in California, but it hasn't been discovered yet AFAIK, it's certainly not being exploited, and California isn't in the United States (even iOTL, yet).[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]3 You KNOW the British are going to sing a filked version of Yankee Doodle 'Stuck a rocket in his cap and called it Maceroni'....[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]4 Note the similarity in reasoning to Stalin's before Barbarossa. [hint, hint][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]5 Note that rail isn't actually going to St. Augustine, the jumping off point for that invasion. From Pinckney they can ferry supplies down the St. John's River to St. Augustine, and that's a chunk of rail they don't have to build then.[/FONT]
Tempting, really tempting, but the 'provinces' of TTL are going to be pretty huge (thanks to Nugax
), so I doubt it.Dathi
Like the alternative meaning of digger in TTL. What are we going to end up calling the Aussies?
The Spanish are being reckless and stupid. They should know that if the Americans will they will be looking to make gains elsewhere. In which case Florida is an obvious target and having angered a defeated Britain we're not likely to come to their rescue. Not to mention by such substantial aid to someone obviously planning a war against Britain they are fouling their pitch there.
At the same time your hinting that the US will attack Florida at the same time as Canada [and possibly therefore NE as well?] In which case their even more stupid, especially given the problems their already running into equipping the huge army their building up. It does give something easier than an attack into Louisiana for the southern states to do but its likely to distract forces and make another enemy that they can ill-afford at this point in time.
I think the manure is about to hit the air-transporter big time, for a lot of people. Going to be interesting, very much in the Chinese sense.
Steve
Like the alternative meaning of digger in TTL. What are we going to end up calling the Aussies?
The Spanish are being reckless and stupid. They should know that if the Americans will they will be looking to make gains elsewhere. In which case Florida is an obvious target and having angered a defeated Britain we're not likely to come to their rescue. Not to mention by such substantial aid to someone obviously planning a war against Britain they are fouling their pitch there.
At the same time your hinting that the US will attack Florida at the same time as Canada [and possibly therefore NE as well?] In which case their even more stupid, especially given the problems their already running into equipping the huge army their building up. It does give something easier than an attack into Louisiana for the southern states to do but its likely to distract forces and make another enemy that they can ill-afford at this point in time.
I think the manure is about to hit the air-transporter big time, for a lot of people. Going to be interesting, very much in the Chinese sense.
Steve
Ja, well one of Clay's problems is that his slogan [FONT=Arial, sans-serif]"regain 'America's rightful land" means very different things to different people. The Kentuckians and Ohians hear it as the Protectorate; New Yorkers hear it as Plattsburgh and New England; Georgians hear it as Florida, and Mississippians hear it as Louisiana...[/FONT]Dathi
Like the alternative meaning of digger in TTL. What are we going to end up calling the Aussies?
The Spanish are being reckless and stupid. They should know that if the Americans will they will be looking to make gains elsewhere. In which case Florida is an obvious target and having angered a defeated Britain we're not likely to come to their rescue. Not to mention by such substantial aid to someone obviously planning a war against Britain they are fouling their pitch there.
At the same time your hinting that the US will attack Florida at the same time as Canada [and possibly therefore NE as well?] In which case their even more stupid, especially given the problems their already running into equipping the huge army their building up. It does give something easier than an attack into Louisiana for the southern states to do but its likely to distract forces and make another enemy that they can ill-afford at this point in time.
I think the manure is about to hit the air-transporter big time, for a lot of people. Going to be interesting, very much in the Chinese sense.
Steve
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]He CAN'T go full-bore everywhere, but he has to at least try in multiple places.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Also, getting troops and supplies from e.g. Georgia to e.g. Cincinnati would be so difficult given the current state of transportation that they would essentially be unusable. So the push into especially Eastern Florida hardly uses any men or materiel that could be used elsewhere - so it's not as much of a waste as it seems.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]PO'ing another Power, well that may be stupid alright, but the US views the Spanish empire as breathing its last anyway - they've already lost all their mainland possessions in America. Possibly with reason. I haven't decided how the Spanish will react to an actual invasion. And CAN they react in time?
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I really hope America gets her butt whooped like it did in 1812. They said they would take Canada by marching and look how that turned out.
Dathi
Regain as in lands we want to rule.
The Georgians can reach Florida fairly easily but I think the US will quickly find plenty of other places they could use the men and equipment.
Possibly less important in Florida the Spanish reaction as the reaction of the population living there. Especially those with black or red skin. Could see Spain losing the region but it being another British/Canadian protectorate, possibly boosted by a lot of escaped slaves freed during fighting in the south.
If they do attack the Americans also need to make sure they win quickly or that they no longer need the mercury and any other items their getting from Spain. Or is that something else where wishful thinking means potential problems get 'overlooked'.
Steve
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