I find this line delightfully hilarious. Good timeline, even if Michigan has not reached her natural borders.
America - Albion's Orphan - A history of the conquest of Britain - 1760
- Thread starter Alt History Buff
- Start date
I find this line delightfully hilarious. Good timeline, even if Michigan has not reached her natural borders.
Chapter 290
1850
Alyeska, Russian America
While the coastal gold strikes of Alyeska played out within a few years, the inland strike would continue. Thousands of miners arrived in the far north to trek hundreds of miles inland to mine the inland creeks. Most would never find gold and only a minority of these became rich...but the lure was unstoppable. Thousands would die of exposure, starvation or drowning on overloaded vessels but they continued to come.
By 1850, nearly 20,000 Russians a year arrived in Russian America, including a large bump in prospectors though the actual gender imbalance was starting to reach an equilibrium. The population of Russian America reached 400,000 in 1850 and 500,000 by 1855.
Given that virtually migrants to Russian America, including the miners, arrived via ship at various ports, it proved easy to maintain a Russian-only society. Only a handful of foreigners were given leave to reside in Russia, usually for business purposes. None were ever given licenses to mine.
Among those granted residency was an American named Orion Clemons and his younger brother Sam. Orion set up a foundry effectively recycling any scrap metal they could find (usually ships) into shovels and other mining equipment. Though much would, of course, be of poor quality, the business outfitted thousands of miners and therefore the Clemons' were tolerated.
Orion and Sam would use their initial gains to enter the horse, donkey and mule breeding business. Finding any breeding stock they could get their hands on, they brothers would spend the early 1850's shipping hundreds of animals per year north at ridiculous prices...prices that would somehow always be paid.
Many of the Russian migrants, having spent six months at sea, would be taken aback arriving in Paulgrad to find that the actual gold fields were a thousand miles or more north. Russian authorities would further demand that any miner partaking in the gold rush must arrive in Alyeska with a years' worth of food (as much as a thousand pounds). It would take multiple pack animals just to carry this inland, not to mention other equipment and provisions.
Thus many men arriving to make their fortune found getting to Aleyska a step too far. Fortunately, there was a huge demand for labor in Paulgrad to supply the rushes and salaries were high in construction, agriculture, etc. Land was easy to obtain even at this late period in Russian American history in the southern regions and many Russian men opted to settle locally. Many thousands would marry Inuit and Indian women, fearing that Russian women would not arrive in adequate numbers.
The Clemons' would be introduced to the family of the local Russian Military Doctor, Mykhailo Dostoevsky, and would become quite close to the noble family. Mykhailo was a respected doctor who took the posting only at the direct request of the Czar (who also provided a large land grant for the doctor to remain in Russian America for a decade or two). Their youngest daughter, Aleksandra, was Sam's age and he became quite taken with her (even more so once he understood the language well enough).
The pack animals the Clemons brothers would raise were largely housed on the Dostoevsky estate outside of Paulgrad and the two families would remain close for the ensuing years.
Egypt
The new Khedive of Egypt, having ousted his aggressive brother (now in a Berber prison) would receive visitors from abroad including France, Russia and the Maratha Empire. With but a narrow crossing from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, the Suez/Sinai area was considered ideal for a future waterway. But Egypt lacked the technical expertise or capital. There was also the somewhat vague border between Egypt and the Russian-controlled Sinai Peninsula.
But the Khedive was willing to talk. If the French and Marathas (who cared mostly about trade) and the Russians (who cared more and more about a quick route to the Pacific given their problems in China) were willing to foot the bill for the project, the Khedive was willing to work with infidels.
The treaty was written up for a 99 year company lease upon completion in which the governments of France, Russia, the Maratha Empire and Egypt would be equal partners. After that 99 years, the canal would return to 50% Egyptian and 50% whoever controlled the Sinai (the Russians assumed it would still be them in 99 years). The Sinai was populated largely by Jews evicted from Poland, the Russian Empire (during the late Alexander I's pograms) and other regions as well as Muslim Europeans exiled from the Balkans (Bosniaks, Albanians, etc) and a modest population of Copts and Sh'ia Egyptians exiled from the Nile.
The Canal had been discussed for decades, indeed centuries, but had always been dismissed for political or technical reasons. One long-held fallacy was that the sea-level between the Mediterranean and Red Sea were different by 24 feet, thus needing a system of locks (in truth, the difference was negligible).
With rapid progress, the Canal was constructed and opened in 1857. While a few technical glitches would cause trouble, for the most part, the canal would be an immediate success.
Unfortunately it would come years too late to help Russia against China.
Siberia/Mongolia
For years, the Russian forces mustered in Central Asia. Finally, they marched east.....and marched.....and marched. Nearly 40,000 strong the experienced Russian army plodded eastwards until reaching Lake Baikal.
What the exhausted Russians found besides hunger and spoiled powder was a Chinese-Mongolian Army of 100,000, including over 40,000 horsemen. The Russians were swiftly encircled in the open plains west of the Lake and crushed. With no shelter, the discovery of the spoiled powder stores (really, it was carried a thousand miles in the open across harsh terrain, how much WOULD be good to use after that?) would cripple the army.
The Russians braced themselves for attack after attack, fending off the enemy with their rapidly diminishing supply of GOOD powder and their bayonets. The Cossack cavalry galloped out and engaged the enemy by sword only to be forced back by superior numbers. The lack of supplies began to tell and the Russian generals realized they could not feed their army for much longer.
They called an armistice. Surprisingly, the Chinese obliged. If the Russians would withdraw leaving only their artillery, they may do so with no hindrance. This was probably as good a deal as they were going to get and the Russian immediately march westwards with what was left of their supplies. The supplies didn't last long and the Russians pillaged the Siberian countryside but the sparse settlements could hardly support so many men. Their pack animals were eaten, the carts left behind. And still they starved. When winter set in, their boots rotted off their feet, men lay frozen where they fell at the side of the road. Less than have the original 40,000 soldiers would reach the western Siberian cities of Omsk or Tomsk or even onto the Central Asia plains.
By spring the following year, word arrived in Moscow with detail of the defeat.
Alyeska, Russian America
While the coastal gold strikes of Alyeska played out within a few years, the inland strike would continue. Thousands of miners arrived in the far north to trek hundreds of miles inland to mine the inland creeks. Most would never find gold and only a minority of these became rich...but the lure was unstoppable. Thousands would die of exposure, starvation or drowning on overloaded vessels but they continued to come.
By 1850, nearly 20,000 Russians a year arrived in Russian America, including a large bump in prospectors though the actual gender imbalance was starting to reach an equilibrium. The population of Russian America reached 400,000 in 1850 and 500,000 by 1855.
Given that virtually migrants to Russian America, including the miners, arrived via ship at various ports, it proved easy to maintain a Russian-only society. Only a handful of foreigners were given leave to reside in Russia, usually for business purposes. None were ever given licenses to mine.
Among those granted residency was an American named Orion Clemons and his younger brother Sam. Orion set up a foundry effectively recycling any scrap metal they could find (usually ships) into shovels and other mining equipment. Though much would, of course, be of poor quality, the business outfitted thousands of miners and therefore the Clemons' were tolerated.
Orion and Sam would use their initial gains to enter the horse, donkey and mule breeding business. Finding any breeding stock they could get their hands on, they brothers would spend the early 1850's shipping hundreds of animals per year north at ridiculous prices...prices that would somehow always be paid.
Many of the Russian migrants, having spent six months at sea, would be taken aback arriving in Paulgrad to find that the actual gold fields were a thousand miles or more north. Russian authorities would further demand that any miner partaking in the gold rush must arrive in Alyeska with a years' worth of food (as much as a thousand pounds). It would take multiple pack animals just to carry this inland, not to mention other equipment and provisions.
Thus many men arriving to make their fortune found getting to Aleyska a step too far. Fortunately, there was a huge demand for labor in Paulgrad to supply the rushes and salaries were high in construction, agriculture, etc. Land was easy to obtain even at this late period in Russian American history in the southern regions and many Russian men opted to settle locally. Many thousands would marry Inuit and Indian women, fearing that Russian women would not arrive in adequate numbers.
The Clemons' would be introduced to the family of the local Russian Military Doctor, Mykhailo Dostoevsky, and would become quite close to the noble family. Mykhailo was a respected doctor who took the posting only at the direct request of the Czar (who also provided a large land grant for the doctor to remain in Russian America for a decade or two). Their youngest daughter, Aleksandra, was Sam's age and he became quite taken with her (even more so once he understood the language well enough).
The pack animals the Clemons brothers would raise were largely housed on the Dostoevsky estate outside of Paulgrad and the two families would remain close for the ensuing years.
Egypt
The new Khedive of Egypt, having ousted his aggressive brother (now in a Berber prison) would receive visitors from abroad including France, Russia and the Maratha Empire. With but a narrow crossing from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, the Suez/Sinai area was considered ideal for a future waterway. But Egypt lacked the technical expertise or capital. There was also the somewhat vague border between Egypt and the Russian-controlled Sinai Peninsula.
But the Khedive was willing to talk. If the French and Marathas (who cared mostly about trade) and the Russians (who cared more and more about a quick route to the Pacific given their problems in China) were willing to foot the bill for the project, the Khedive was willing to work with infidels.
The treaty was written up for a 99 year company lease upon completion in which the governments of France, Russia, the Maratha Empire and Egypt would be equal partners. After that 99 years, the canal would return to 50% Egyptian and 50% whoever controlled the Sinai (the Russians assumed it would still be them in 99 years). The Sinai was populated largely by Jews evicted from Poland, the Russian Empire (during the late Alexander I's pograms) and other regions as well as Muslim Europeans exiled from the Balkans (Bosniaks, Albanians, etc) and a modest population of Copts and Sh'ia Egyptians exiled from the Nile.
The Canal had been discussed for decades, indeed centuries, but had always been dismissed for political or technical reasons. One long-held fallacy was that the sea-level between the Mediterranean and Red Sea were different by 24 feet, thus needing a system of locks (in truth, the difference was negligible).
With rapid progress, the Canal was constructed and opened in 1857. While a few technical glitches would cause trouble, for the most part, the canal would be an immediate success.
Unfortunately it would come years too late to help Russia against China.
Siberia/Mongolia
For years, the Russian forces mustered in Central Asia. Finally, they marched east.....and marched.....and marched. Nearly 40,000 strong the experienced Russian army plodded eastwards until reaching Lake Baikal.
What the exhausted Russians found besides hunger and spoiled powder was a Chinese-Mongolian Army of 100,000, including over 40,000 horsemen. The Russians were swiftly encircled in the open plains west of the Lake and crushed. With no shelter, the discovery of the spoiled powder stores (really, it was carried a thousand miles in the open across harsh terrain, how much WOULD be good to use after that?) would cripple the army.
The Russians braced themselves for attack after attack, fending off the enemy with their rapidly diminishing supply of GOOD powder and their bayonets. The Cossack cavalry galloped out and engaged the enemy by sword only to be forced back by superior numbers. The lack of supplies began to tell and the Russian generals realized they could not feed their army for much longer.
They called an armistice. Surprisingly, the Chinese obliged. If the Russians would withdraw leaving only their artillery, they may do so with no hindrance. This was probably as good a deal as they were going to get and the Russian immediately march westwards with what was left of their supplies. The supplies didn't last long and the Russians pillaged the Siberian countryside but the sparse settlements could hardly support so many men. Their pack animals were eaten, the carts left behind. And still they starved. When winter set in, their boots rotted off their feet, men lay frozen where they fell at the side of the road. Less than have the original 40,000 soldiers would reach the western Siberian cities of Omsk or Tomsk or even onto the Central Asia plains.
By spring the following year, word arrived in Moscow with detail of the defeat.
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Ha, Russia expanded it's influence in North America down the west coast but now it doesn't have a decent Pacific port in Asia.
How are the other European powers taking Russia's losses against the Chinese? Granted this is the first half of the 19th century and China hasn't started to suffer from the "Century of Humiliation" as they call it, so there's might be less of a view that Asian people are "inferior" to Europeans.
How are the other European powers taking Russia's losses against the Chinese? Granted this is the first half of the 19th century and China hasn't started to suffer from the "Century of Humiliation" as they call it, so there's might be less of a view that Asian people are "inferior" to Europeans.
Chapter 291
1851
Manhattan
The 1850 Election was something of a mixed bag for First Lord Joel Poinsett. He would find that electoral alliances springing up against Catholic immigration (and Jewish and Orthodox to an extent as well) as well as regional factions demanding investment (particularly the inland Dominions).
While Poinsett was confident that he COULD and WOULD be selected by Parliament to "recommend" that the King give him another 5 year term, in truth Poinsett was exhausted and happy to announce his retirement from politics. The first "Southern" First Lord would retire with all due honors, Knighted by the King (rather than a Baronetcy which the King hadn't granted in his reign as of yet anyway) and allowed to return to Charleston with his sovereign's blessing. Poinsett had no legitimate issue (beyond a couple of mulatto bastards alleged by his housekeeper) and there seemed no need to grant a hereditary honor like a Baronetcy.
Of course, the former First Lord's replacement became the prominent political issue of the year in America. There were no shortfall of candidates but none seemed overwhelming. Poinsett's cabinet included William Seward of New York, who often led the government's faction in Parliament. Other options included that grasping Stephan Douglas of Chicago, Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, James Buchanan of Pennsylvania and a few others.
King Henry II of America was less than enthused about any of these men, particularly Seward and Douglas. However, Kings were not to directly influence elections and the monarch calmly awaited Parliament's "recommendation".
For months, it had been obvious that the 70 year old Poinsett would retire at the end of his term and ambitious men would happily commence climbing over one another in search of ambition. Powerful men would take the almost unprecedented step of campaigning directly to the public for support despite the First Lordship "Recommendation" coming directly from Parliament. It was hoped that the public may bring their own candidates to the respective banners. Many found this unseemly and ungentlemanly....but politics was politics.
In April, when the new Parliament was called into session, the King gave his address and requested assistance in choosing a First Lord. This prompted the inevitable formal campaign for votes in the backroom. Over a dozen candidates received votes the first pass through. Over the course of three weeks, the finalists were winnowed to a handful.
Zachary Taylor was a respected soldier but was only a first time Parliamentarian (who didn't even like Manhattan) representing Virginia. As America had fought few major wars in recent years, soldiers like Taylor were not considered major contenders. The pretenders were winnowed out and the inevitable candidates of Seward, Douglas, Buchanan and Pierce were left standing.
In short order, Douglas (who wanted the job but suspected he lacked the support) and Buchanan (who didn't really want the job) would throw their support to Pierce with the obvious agreement that high-level positions would be granted to them in return. Pierce agreed to the devil's bargain and was elected by a 2 to 1 margin.
Seward sulked from the sidelines but would soon realize he may have gotten the better of the deal for the domineering Douglas and the cunning Buchanan would crush the fragile Franklin Pierce to their collective will and be the real power in the government.
Moscow
Word of the humiliating defeat to the Chinese reached Moscow in 1851. The Czar would receive an embassy (sent via sea) only weeks later from the Mandarin. Though he'd grown to loathe the easterners, the Czar treated them with no less courtesy than the other Ambassadors. Translators proved difficult but, fortunately, two of the Chinese party had learned a bit of Russian.
The florally worded praise aside, one could not imagine a more stark message: Russia was losing the war. End it now else it may be worse.
The less-than-hidden message was that China permanently block Russia from lands east of Lake Baikal and may even reenter the Central Asian Steppe, risking the Russian domination over the Turkic peoples they'd pushed into the southern mountains (of Persia and the Kush).
Alexander II, though not eager to extend the war (and generally believing that making the Amur the permanent border was reasonable), could not be dictated to in this way. He would order the Russian Army east again as well as new forces dispatched south to ensure the Turkic peoples remained in the hills where they belonged.
Though unnoticed at the time, Alexander II would make a proclamation which would serve as precedent in the future: he would announce that those Serfs who desired to depart their nobles' land may do so without hindrance. In truth, the Czars had been lightening the weight of serfdom for decades. Alexander I had granted extensive freedoms over the years. But the Proclamation of 1850 would be the most direct in that it utterly ignored the sensibilities of the nobility and even promised land to any settler to Central Asia.
As Russia was experiencing a population boom for which the urban manufacturing centers could only partially match, the promise of free land would bring an almost unprecedented migration. Nearly 2,000,000 Russians (and related peoples like White Russians and Ruthenians) would migrate in only a handful of years, most in less than a decade. This was a strategic move as it was deemed necessary for the Czar to have a large local population to call upon in case of war against the Turkic peoples.
But the effective abolition of serfdom in this region and the obvious prosperity of Central Asia in future years would prove without a doubt to the Czar and his Ministers that feudalism's last bastion, Russia, was falling ever more behind the west. The Czar would continue reforms abolishing key remnants of feudalism until finally manumitting all vestiges a few years later.
Manhattan
The 1850 Election was something of a mixed bag for First Lord Joel Poinsett. He would find that electoral alliances springing up against Catholic immigration (and Jewish and Orthodox to an extent as well) as well as regional factions demanding investment (particularly the inland Dominions).
While Poinsett was confident that he COULD and WOULD be selected by Parliament to "recommend" that the King give him another 5 year term, in truth Poinsett was exhausted and happy to announce his retirement from politics. The first "Southern" First Lord would retire with all due honors, Knighted by the King (rather than a Baronetcy which the King hadn't granted in his reign as of yet anyway) and allowed to return to Charleston with his sovereign's blessing. Poinsett had no legitimate issue (beyond a couple of mulatto bastards alleged by his housekeeper) and there seemed no need to grant a hereditary honor like a Baronetcy.
Of course, the former First Lord's replacement became the prominent political issue of the year in America. There were no shortfall of candidates but none seemed overwhelming. Poinsett's cabinet included William Seward of New York, who often led the government's faction in Parliament. Other options included that grasping Stephan Douglas of Chicago, Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, James Buchanan of Pennsylvania and a few others.
King Henry II of America was less than enthused about any of these men, particularly Seward and Douglas. However, Kings were not to directly influence elections and the monarch calmly awaited Parliament's "recommendation".
For months, it had been obvious that the 70 year old Poinsett would retire at the end of his term and ambitious men would happily commence climbing over one another in search of ambition. Powerful men would take the almost unprecedented step of campaigning directly to the public for support despite the First Lordship "Recommendation" coming directly from Parliament. It was hoped that the public may bring their own candidates to the respective banners. Many found this unseemly and ungentlemanly....but politics was politics.
In April, when the new Parliament was called into session, the King gave his address and requested assistance in choosing a First Lord. This prompted the inevitable formal campaign for votes in the backroom. Over a dozen candidates received votes the first pass through. Over the course of three weeks, the finalists were winnowed to a handful.
Zachary Taylor was a respected soldier but was only a first time Parliamentarian (who didn't even like Manhattan) representing Virginia. As America had fought few major wars in recent years, soldiers like Taylor were not considered major contenders. The pretenders were winnowed out and the inevitable candidates of Seward, Douglas, Buchanan and Pierce were left standing.
In short order, Douglas (who wanted the job but suspected he lacked the support) and Buchanan (who didn't really want the job) would throw their support to Pierce with the obvious agreement that high-level positions would be granted to them in return. Pierce agreed to the devil's bargain and was elected by a 2 to 1 margin.
Seward sulked from the sidelines but would soon realize he may have gotten the better of the deal for the domineering Douglas and the cunning Buchanan would crush the fragile Franklin Pierce to their collective will and be the real power in the government.
Moscow
Word of the humiliating defeat to the Chinese reached Moscow in 1851. The Czar would receive an embassy (sent via sea) only weeks later from the Mandarin. Though he'd grown to loathe the easterners, the Czar treated them with no less courtesy than the other Ambassadors. Translators proved difficult but, fortunately, two of the Chinese party had learned a bit of Russian.
The florally worded praise aside, one could not imagine a more stark message: Russia was losing the war. End it now else it may be worse.
The less-than-hidden message was that China permanently block Russia from lands east of Lake Baikal and may even reenter the Central Asian Steppe, risking the Russian domination over the Turkic peoples they'd pushed into the southern mountains (of Persia and the Kush).
Alexander II, though not eager to extend the war (and generally believing that making the Amur the permanent border was reasonable), could not be dictated to in this way. He would order the Russian Army east again as well as new forces dispatched south to ensure the Turkic peoples remained in the hills where they belonged.
Though unnoticed at the time, Alexander II would make a proclamation which would serve as precedent in the future: he would announce that those Serfs who desired to depart their nobles' land may do so without hindrance. In truth, the Czars had been lightening the weight of serfdom for decades. Alexander I had granted extensive freedoms over the years. But the Proclamation of 1850 would be the most direct in that it utterly ignored the sensibilities of the nobility and even promised land to any settler to Central Asia.
As Russia was experiencing a population boom for which the urban manufacturing centers could only partially match, the promise of free land would bring an almost unprecedented migration. Nearly 2,000,000 Russians (and related peoples like White Russians and Ruthenians) would migrate in only a handful of years, most in less than a decade. This was a strategic move as it was deemed necessary for the Czar to have a large local population to call upon in case of war against the Turkic peoples.
But the effective abolition of serfdom in this region and the obvious prosperity of Central Asia in future years would prove without a doubt to the Czar and his Ministers that feudalism's last bastion, Russia, was falling ever more behind the west. The Czar would continue reforms abolishing key remnants of feudalism until finally manumitting all vestiges a few years later.
I think that one thing that the King of California realizes is that in the long term, there is no way that his Kingdom will remain viable without closely aligning with the Kingdom of America - its quite possibly the only method that it survives as an independent state. They have no other export market as the Spanish colonies are determined to blockade them, and Russian America is apparently banning all foreigners except for Mark Twain from doing any sort of business. The Kingdom of America doesn't need to invade either to de-facto acquire the Kingdom of California, since over time it'll essentially fall into the KoA's orbit economically, socially and culturally, especially as railroads and the other technologies of the Industrial Age come to the fore. By 1900, I think that the Kingdom of California will essentially become a dominion of the Kingdom of America in all but name.
The Russian colony I think has a much more precarious future. First, I can buy that the Russians have a lot more success in their colonial efforts, precisely because there is no Britain that countered their efforts in the Great Game in the 19th century, and also potentially setting up a colony in northern California with a fortuitous discovery of the gold fields. However, relying solely upon gold discovery and extracting it is a bad way to set up a long term economy - that works so long as there are gold rushes, but when there aren't, the economy will crash, and they are eventually going to need to find new markets and to diversify, especially since Russia's far east is now cut off and that it'll now take an expensive half a year trip to get anything to and from Russia. When it comes to foreigners, their policy seems to be sending any American that stumbles into their land to be killed by Native Americans, get lost in the wilderness, etc, and rely solely upon immigration from Russia - which will get harder now that Russia has lost the far east, and it ensures that they'll have bad foreign relations with the KoA. That's a disaster for long term survival, especially since Russia is literally on the other side of the globe.
The Russian colony I think has a much more precarious future. First, I can buy that the Russians have a lot more success in their colonial efforts, precisely because there is no Britain that countered their efforts in the Great Game in the 19th century, and also potentially setting up a colony in northern California with a fortuitous discovery of the gold fields. However, relying solely upon gold discovery and extracting it is a bad way to set up a long term economy - that works so long as there are gold rushes, but when there aren't, the economy will crash, and they are eventually going to need to find new markets and to diversify, especially since Russia's far east is now cut off and that it'll now take an expensive half a year trip to get anything to and from Russia. When it comes to foreigners, their policy seems to be sending any American that stumbles into their land to be killed by Native Americans, get lost in the wilderness, etc, and rely solely upon immigration from Russia - which will get harder now that Russia has lost the far east, and it ensures that they'll have bad foreign relations with the KoA. That's a disaster for long term survival, especially since Russia is literally on the other side of the globe.
You make some good points. Thank you for reading. I believe I recall some of your comments from previous posts and Tl's I've written.
I agree that perhaps the Kingdom of California, more than Mexico of OTL, would become more of a client state to British North America based upon their lower population and strategic location.
I foresee that eventually, given the potential of San Diego as an ideal naval base for America (superior to Guaymas or any of the Gulf of California ports), may eventually agree to lease the port to America (though only in a military capacity) while leaving the civilian aspects of trade to the Kingdom of California. Of course, this means that any misunderstanding or disagreement may bring the two nations to blows. It would be a balancing act for both nations.
But any attempt by America to annex California (or Russian America) would see a resentful religious-racial minority controlling the region's demographics as America attempted to maintain power by virtue of a very, very long supply line. Even in 1850 OTL, there was no continent-wide railroad. Attempting to maintain any sort of occupation by force would be almost impossible (akin to America attempting to annex all of Mexico after the Mexican War. They could win the war but the peace could only be lost).
While is is easy for us to say "Oh, there are only 400,000 people in this TL's Kingdom of California? Well, just conquer it and move 500,000 Americans there to assume demographic command," would be very difficult to implement at this level of technology and transportation. This TL's California has a much larger population than OTL and would be much harder to control by force.
I agree that there is a boom-bust cycle to the Russian North American Colony. However, even in times of "Bust", the demographics wouldn't change much as it would be prohibitively expensive to transport overly many people back to a Russia still controlled by an autocrat. Instead, I suspect most Russian North Americans to be engaged in business other than resource extraction, like all nations of this era. The Pacific Northwest (from an America and Canadian perspective) is a lush and fertile region where small farmers can prosper with enough diversity in economics to get through recessions.
I have an idea of how I'm going to take Russian North America in future chapters. Of course, it would be tied closely to the fortunes of Russian Siberia.
What is the main route of the Russians reaching the west coast in particular areas like Alaska if the Russians have no presence in the Western Pacific?
Chapter 292
1852
Eastern Siberia
For two years, the Russian Army had consolidated and reorganized. The long-standing weakness of the Russian military, logistics (both due to the expanses of Russia and the dismal organization of the Russian Army), would be addressed as best it could. Finally, an army of 60,000 was formed with the intent of regaining the southeastern Siberian cities lost to the Chinese and their Mongolian dogs.
For months, the Russians moved stolidly forward. For months, the Chinese and Mongolians would quietly watch.
Finally, long before they reached Lake Baikal, the Russians faced the Chinese forces on the open plain. Weeks passed as both sides attempted to gain the high ground but neither was willing to attack the other on anything but their own terms. Unlike the Chinese, the Russian commander knew that time was NOT on his side. He must win or retreat with the winter. Not willing to do the latter without a fight, the Russian commander opted to attack.
On the marginal "high ground", the Chinese infantry awaiting the attack. The large Chinese and Mongolian cavalry would greatly outnumber the Russian Cossacks and keep any cavalry charges to minor irritations than crushing defeats. Eventually, the Russians knew they must attack and charged the center of the Chinese formation. Armed with far better artillery, the Russians won the first engagement...only to see that the Chinese Army retreated to even better land a dozen miles to the east.
The Russians attacked again, their artillery less effective this time, their powder and other supplies running low. Three charges later, the Russians took the hills....but the Chinese infantry, retreated in good order, covering by the cavalry. Again, they took high ground covered at the flanks by huge amounts of Chinese and Mongolian cavalry.
The Russians realized that this could not possibly go on for months, weeks...or even days. Supplies were running low and they hadn't even come close to approaching Lake Baikal. Indeed, if the Chinese Army disappeared, even REACHING Lake Baikal in time to construct winter lodgings would be almost impossible.
Strategic victory was lost. The Russian General wondered if he may save face by achieving some sort of tactical victory....before he retreated for the winter....was honorable.
In the end, he opted to retreat.
China had won...without winning a major battle.
Madrid
By 1851, the King of Spain, Carlos V, was exhausted. He was exhausted fighting the colonials. He was exhausted fighting his own Cortes. He was exhausted overall. Now in his sixties, the man didn't want to fight anymore. He didn't want to fight the Cortes. He didn't want to fight the colonials. He didn't want to fight anyone.
Carlos V forced through a series of reforms effectively giving the local governments of the Americas what they wanted: more autonomy and more power. Certain matters like trade (ironically the only part of government the colonies were happy with) and foreign affairs were left to the King.
In one decade, Carlos V had given up more power than all his predecessors and ancestors had done in centuries. When Carlos V died in 1855, he felt like an abject failure but would be remembered as the man who preserved the Empire for generations.
Vienna
Though the Habsburg Empire under Francis III had arguably reached heights of population and wealth never before seen, the Emperor knew that his power was more delicate than most assumed. His ancestors had attempted to maintain power by centralization. This the Emperor did not object to. However, they attempted to force this via "Germanization" or destruction of the Diets. Unlike his predecessors, the Emperor chose to unite his people in a novel way...by delegating power to them.
But not the regional Diets.
If the people were unhappy about internal tariffs....he gave up power to an Empire-wide Diet which controlled...and reduced....these tariffs, not the local Diets.
If the people where unhappy about harsh penal laws....then he surrendered power to a Empire-wide body which reduced these penalties.
If the people wanted free education....then he surrender funds to an Empire-wide body which funded schools in the regional language....but followed a common curriculum.
The 19th century would see many men like Francis III, be they Czars or Kings or Emperors, realize that their personal ability (and that of a few chosen favorites) could not possibly control such a complex assemblage of people in the modern age.
Eastern Siberia
For two years, the Russian Army had consolidated and reorganized. The long-standing weakness of the Russian military, logistics (both due to the expanses of Russia and the dismal organization of the Russian Army), would be addressed as best it could. Finally, an army of 60,000 was formed with the intent of regaining the southeastern Siberian cities lost to the Chinese and their Mongolian dogs.
For months, the Russians moved stolidly forward. For months, the Chinese and Mongolians would quietly watch.
Finally, long before they reached Lake Baikal, the Russians faced the Chinese forces on the open plain. Weeks passed as both sides attempted to gain the high ground but neither was willing to attack the other on anything but their own terms. Unlike the Chinese, the Russian commander knew that time was NOT on his side. He must win or retreat with the winter. Not willing to do the latter without a fight, the Russian commander opted to attack.
On the marginal "high ground", the Chinese infantry awaiting the attack. The large Chinese and Mongolian cavalry would greatly outnumber the Russian Cossacks and keep any cavalry charges to minor irritations than crushing defeats. Eventually, the Russians knew they must attack and charged the center of the Chinese formation. Armed with far better artillery, the Russians won the first engagement...only to see that the Chinese Army retreated to even better land a dozen miles to the east.
The Russians attacked again, their artillery less effective this time, their powder and other supplies running low. Three charges later, the Russians took the hills....but the Chinese infantry, retreated in good order, covering by the cavalry. Again, they took high ground covered at the flanks by huge amounts of Chinese and Mongolian cavalry.
The Russians realized that this could not possibly go on for months, weeks...or even days. Supplies were running low and they hadn't even come close to approaching Lake Baikal. Indeed, if the Chinese Army disappeared, even REACHING Lake Baikal in time to construct winter lodgings would be almost impossible.
Strategic victory was lost. The Russian General wondered if he may save face by achieving some sort of tactical victory....before he retreated for the winter....was honorable.
In the end, he opted to retreat.
China had won...without winning a major battle.
Madrid
By 1851, the King of Spain, Carlos V, was exhausted. He was exhausted fighting the colonials. He was exhausted fighting his own Cortes. He was exhausted overall. Now in his sixties, the man didn't want to fight anymore. He didn't want to fight the Cortes. He didn't want to fight the colonials. He didn't want to fight anyone.
Carlos V forced through a series of reforms effectively giving the local governments of the Americas what they wanted: more autonomy and more power. Certain matters like trade (ironically the only part of government the colonies were happy with) and foreign affairs were left to the King.
In one decade, Carlos V had given up more power than all his predecessors and ancestors had done in centuries. When Carlos V died in 1855, he felt like an abject failure but would be remembered as the man who preserved the Empire for generations.
Vienna
Though the Habsburg Empire under Francis III had arguably reached heights of population and wealth never before seen, the Emperor knew that his power was more delicate than most assumed. His ancestors had attempted to maintain power by centralization. This the Emperor did not object to. However, they attempted to force this via "Germanization" or destruction of the Diets. Unlike his predecessors, the Emperor chose to unite his people in a novel way...by delegating power to them.
But not the regional Diets.
If the people were unhappy about internal tariffs....he gave up power to an Empire-wide Diet which controlled...and reduced....these tariffs, not the local Diets.
If the people where unhappy about harsh penal laws....then he surrendered power to a Empire-wide body which reduced these penalties.
If the people wanted free education....then he surrender funds to an Empire-wide body which funded schools in the regional language....but followed a common curriculum.
The 19th century would see many men like Francis III, be they Czars or Kings or Emperors, realize that their personal ability (and that of a few chosen favorites) could not possibly control such a complex assemblage of people in the modern age.
The main route in previous decades had been from Siberia directly to America or along the southern sea-lanes past Africa and Asia (a very long trip). In recent chapters, I alluded to most Russian settlers passing through Panama as relations between Spain and Russia improved.
Before the canal, going through Panama on foot (via the Spanish Silver Train I'd imagine) would have been a jungle-bourne, yellow-fever nightmare - especially for Russians who had never experienced that type of climate before. However, I could definitely see Spain and Russia forming some sort of alliance, for the purpose of protecting their American colonial empires and that would obviously be targeted as a way to mutually protect themselves against the KoA.
Chapter 293
1853
Tarim Basin, Northwestern China
Having been defeated twice by the Chinese in Siberia, the Russian Generals would consider a different tact. The northwestern corner of China included the Tarim Basin, once the homeland of the Uyghur and other Muslim Turkic peoples. These tribes had been expelled a few generations prior to the Asian Steppe, now referred to as the "Russian Steppe" on internal Russian maps. Years of defeat led some to believe these maps would have to be redrawn again to account for the loss of Siberia.
But the Tarim Basin was an easier target in the opinion of the Russian Generals than Siberia, certainly more accessible. Some whispered if the Czar could gain the Tarim Basin, it may be traded for Eastern Siberia....or just be an improvement over what many in Moscow thought of Siberia as a waste of resources.
The Tarim Basin had only partially been resettled. There had long been a plan to repopulated with Han Chinese and Mongolians but the Han migration had barely begun and the Mongolians only possessed a moderate population.
However, the Mongolian tribes which moved into the region in their hundreds of thousands would take to the land and eagerly join the Mongolian Bannermen.
Disputes between the Mongolian and Han Generals would lead to the Han (who was senior) ordering the Mongolians from the field and opting to attack the Russians alone. 30,000 Russians opposed 40,000 of the best Han soldiers armed with the latest weapons from France (Chinese factories were now producing duplicates). However, the Russian Cossack Cavalry would significantly outmaneuver the Chinese cavalry, allowing the Russian army to turn the Chinese flank and seize much of their artillery and supply train. In desperation, the Chinese counterattacked, hoping to regain the initiative. However, a mass attack, though the Chinese broke through in a few areas, would be broken and a subsequent Cossack charge would put the Chinese to flight.
Elated (but exhausted and low on supplies), the Russians moved east intent on seizing the region. However, 40,000 Mongolian Bannermen augmented by another 25,000 Mongolian tribal warriors, almost entirely cavalry, would wait for weeks as the Russians struggled east. Finally, when the Russians were crossing a great plain, the Mongolians attacked from four directions. The Russians, alarmed at the danger, formed a circular formation and managed to see the Mongolians off. However, the Mongolians reformed and struck again and again as the Russian supplies swiftly exhausted.
The Mongolians would pursue a tactic used by the Parthians against Roman invaders thousands of years before. They would ride up to within arrow range (Mongolian bows had GREAT range), fire a few bolts into the massed Russian formation and then retreat. For days, the Mongolians pursued this tactic, striking without Russian response. As the Russians could not afford to fire artillery at a handful of tribesmen and the Russian muskets were long considered inferior to the standard European models in both dependability and range, thus they could not match the arrows of the Mongolians. Morale dropped as powder was exhausted.
The Russians attempted to form pickets against these cavalry attacks but these small units were immediately beset and cut apart by larger Mongolian raiders. Supplies desperately low, the Russian commander ordered the Cossacks to break the Mongolians with a cavalry charge. The Cossack commander, knowing he was outnumbered by the Mongolians by at least 8 to 1, refused. Only threats of being shot for insubordination would bring the Cossack to the saddle.
The famed horsemen massed for a single charge against the Mongolian western flank....and promptly rode around them and fled towards the Steppe, abandoning the Russian infantry altogether.
Within days, the Mongolians would wear down the Russians will to fight. The Russian commander requested a parlay...which was refused. In one great charge, the makeshift Russian lines collapsed and soldiers threw aside their weapons and fled into the plains. Virtually none escaped the merciless Mongolian horsemen.
The Russian army effectively had ceased to exist.
When the Mandarin Emperor received word of the initial Chinese defeat, he was livid and strongly considered executing the commander. However, shame turned to elation when the Mongolian victory became evident. In appreciation, the Emperor pronounced that the Han settlement of the Tarim Basin would be halted and the lands turned over to the Mongolian peoples.
Manhattan
First Lord Franklin Pierce's first few years in office had been dismal. Not only had his nominal subordinates Stephan Douglas and James Buchanan effectively taken over the administration but they pushed their own appointees into high office, including putting that country bumpkin Abraham Lincoln into the office of Lord High Chancellor.
In truth, Pierce had no personal vendetta against Lincoln but certainly could not stand the fact that HE did not choose him. Douglas in particular was insufferable and Pierce was reaching the end of his tether. He went to the King and demanded that His Majesty remove these men from office.
Henry II, who received the request to appoint them FROM Pierce himself, was exasperated. When Pierce stated that, if His Majesty did not agree to remove these other officers, then HE would resign.
Pierce wasn't prepared for the King to accept his resignation.
Tarim Basin, Northwestern China
Having been defeated twice by the Chinese in Siberia, the Russian Generals would consider a different tact. The northwestern corner of China included the Tarim Basin, once the homeland of the Uyghur and other Muslim Turkic peoples. These tribes had been expelled a few generations prior to the Asian Steppe, now referred to as the "Russian Steppe" on internal Russian maps. Years of defeat led some to believe these maps would have to be redrawn again to account for the loss of Siberia.
But the Tarim Basin was an easier target in the opinion of the Russian Generals than Siberia, certainly more accessible. Some whispered if the Czar could gain the Tarim Basin, it may be traded for Eastern Siberia....or just be an improvement over what many in Moscow thought of Siberia as a waste of resources.
The Tarim Basin had only partially been resettled. There had long been a plan to repopulated with Han Chinese and Mongolians but the Han migration had barely begun and the Mongolians only possessed a moderate population.
However, the Mongolian tribes which moved into the region in their hundreds of thousands would take to the land and eagerly join the Mongolian Bannermen.
Disputes between the Mongolian and Han Generals would lead to the Han (who was senior) ordering the Mongolians from the field and opting to attack the Russians alone. 30,000 Russians opposed 40,000 of the best Han soldiers armed with the latest weapons from France (Chinese factories were now producing duplicates). However, the Russian Cossack Cavalry would significantly outmaneuver the Chinese cavalry, allowing the Russian army to turn the Chinese flank and seize much of their artillery and supply train. In desperation, the Chinese counterattacked, hoping to regain the initiative. However, a mass attack, though the Chinese broke through in a few areas, would be broken and a subsequent Cossack charge would put the Chinese to flight.
Elated (but exhausted and low on supplies), the Russians moved east intent on seizing the region. However, 40,000 Mongolian Bannermen augmented by another 25,000 Mongolian tribal warriors, almost entirely cavalry, would wait for weeks as the Russians struggled east. Finally, when the Russians were crossing a great plain, the Mongolians attacked from four directions. The Russians, alarmed at the danger, formed a circular formation and managed to see the Mongolians off. However, the Mongolians reformed and struck again and again as the Russian supplies swiftly exhausted.
The Mongolians would pursue a tactic used by the Parthians against Roman invaders thousands of years before. They would ride up to within arrow range (Mongolian bows had GREAT range), fire a few bolts into the massed Russian formation and then retreat. For days, the Mongolians pursued this tactic, striking without Russian response. As the Russians could not afford to fire artillery at a handful of tribesmen and the Russian muskets were long considered inferior to the standard European models in both dependability and range, thus they could not match the arrows of the Mongolians. Morale dropped as powder was exhausted.
The Russians attempted to form pickets against these cavalry attacks but these small units were immediately beset and cut apart by larger Mongolian raiders. Supplies desperately low, the Russian commander ordered the Cossacks to break the Mongolians with a cavalry charge. The Cossack commander, knowing he was outnumbered by the Mongolians by at least 8 to 1, refused. Only threats of being shot for insubordination would bring the Cossack to the saddle.
The famed horsemen massed for a single charge against the Mongolian western flank....and promptly rode around them and fled towards the Steppe, abandoning the Russian infantry altogether.
Within days, the Mongolians would wear down the Russians will to fight. The Russian commander requested a parlay...which was refused. In one great charge, the makeshift Russian lines collapsed and soldiers threw aside their weapons and fled into the plains. Virtually none escaped the merciless Mongolian horsemen.
The Russian army effectively had ceased to exist.
When the Mandarin Emperor received word of the initial Chinese defeat, he was livid and strongly considered executing the commander. However, shame turned to elation when the Mongolian victory became evident. In appreciation, the Emperor pronounced that the Han settlement of the Tarim Basin would be halted and the lands turned over to the Mongolian peoples.
Manhattan
First Lord Franklin Pierce's first few years in office had been dismal. Not only had his nominal subordinates Stephan Douglas and James Buchanan effectively taken over the administration but they pushed their own appointees into high office, including putting that country bumpkin Abraham Lincoln into the office of Lord High Chancellor.
In truth, Pierce had no personal vendetta against Lincoln but certainly could not stand the fact that HE did not choose him. Douglas in particular was insufferable and Pierce was reaching the end of his tether. He went to the King and demanded that His Majesty remove these men from office.
Henry II, who received the request to appoint them FROM Pierce himself, was exasperated. When Pierce stated that, if His Majesty did not agree to remove these other officers, then HE would resign.
Pierce wasn't prepared for the King to accept his resignation.
That is simply wonderful
I am thoroughly enjoying reading this, but the long drawn out torture of "Smith" is one of my favorite parts
Chapter 294
1854
Manhattan
King Henry II of America would look on in amusement as Parliament fought over itself for the vacant position of First Lord. While Stephan Douglas was expected to ascend to power, he found that James Buchanan had quite efficiently garnered a base of support as well. The two would contest the position for weeks before the first official vote. Other candidates like William Seward, who had been in the running in 1851, threw their hats back in the ring seeing that the Pierce-Buchanan-Douglas faction was permanently broken. As typical, dozens of candidates (serious or not) would receive votes as the negotiations in back rooms commenced.
Little by little, the contenders were weeded out.
Eventually, James Buchanan's personal popularity would win out as both Douglas and Seward had managed to offend dozens of Parliamentarians over the years with their abrasive personalities. Buchanan was officially proposed by Parliament to serve out the rest of the term as First Lord (through the 1855 election cycle).
The Pennsylvania assumed that this year and a half in office would precursor a longer term in 1856. Unfortunately for him, a perfect storm of private bank foreclosures mixed with a collapse in the speculative real estate market at the same time that technological changes in textile making and agriculture were reducing the need for labor. Unemployment rose amid another round of increasing immigration from Europe (Scandinavia and Germany in particular to the northern and northeastern Dominions while Irish, Coptic, Jewish, Roma and other peoples trended towards the south and the west).
Already bearing a weak base of support, the First Lord was routinely attacked in Parliament by Douglas and Seward as the cause of the problems. The Eastern regions from which Buchanan had gained most of his support suffered the worst effects, while the western Dominions and Territories largely went untouched by the problems.
Brazil
Despite the Spanish concessions on many reforms to local government, the cries for greater and greater autonomy continued to grow. The Mixed Spanish and Portuguese language emerging from the region (often called Brazilian Creole) would become the language taught in public schools, hastening the demise of either Spanish or Portuguese as an official tongue.
Large scale Gaelic, Italian, German and other Catholic migration to Brazil had long been in process, muddling the ethnic mix of Spanish, Portuguese, African and Mulatto to such an extent that a fixed ethnic identity could not be determined in many cases. Jewish, Roma and Coptic migration had also become common, particularly in the coastal cities.
Even odd combinations like Russians, Maronite Christians of the Levant and French arrived in modest numbers.
Spain
After years of repeated disappointments, Carlos V died in late 1854, a bitter and broken man. In this lifetime, he'd seen the loss of Italy, Sicily, Malta and much of Spain's authority over the colonies. Certain he'd failed his ancestors, Carlos V seemed almost relieved to face death.
His son, Carlos VI, was crowned two months later. Perhaps less willful than his father but a bit more pragmatic, Carlos VI would spend his early years attempting to reorganize his empire. He'd travelled to New Spain in his youth and seen the discontent among the people towards Spanish Imperial leadership and knew that there were other regions even more opposed (most of Brazil, the elites of Rio Plata and the Indians/Mestizos of Peru).
More importantly, he witnessed the abject humiliation and ineptitude of the Spanish Army in attempting to suppress the rebellion and feared what would happen if a foreign power, be it America or France, decided to put an end to the Spanish Empire. The then-Infante became convinced that only an enthusiastic colonial people could prop up the Empire. Thus, the Infante would support more regionalization of the lower political offices, the creation of more powerful colonial Cortes and Viceroys as well as enacting legislation intended to benefit the colonies rather than just the metropolis (reducing trade restrictions further, full freedom of movement, acts to increase the quantity of currency in colonial economies, etc).
After years of resistance under Carlos V, the new King seemed a breath of fresh air.
As a symbol of his high regard for the colonies, the King would eventually send his younger brothers, Ferdinand and John, to govern some of the colonies as Viceroys, assuming that meriting a Prince of the Blood as Viceroy would placate some resentment towards Spain itself.
Manhattan
King Henry II of America would look on in amusement as Parliament fought over itself for the vacant position of First Lord. While Stephan Douglas was expected to ascend to power, he found that James Buchanan had quite efficiently garnered a base of support as well. The two would contest the position for weeks before the first official vote. Other candidates like William Seward, who had been in the running in 1851, threw their hats back in the ring seeing that the Pierce-Buchanan-Douglas faction was permanently broken. As typical, dozens of candidates (serious or not) would receive votes as the negotiations in back rooms commenced.
Little by little, the contenders were weeded out.
Eventually, James Buchanan's personal popularity would win out as both Douglas and Seward had managed to offend dozens of Parliamentarians over the years with their abrasive personalities. Buchanan was officially proposed by Parliament to serve out the rest of the term as First Lord (through the 1855 election cycle).
The Pennsylvania assumed that this year and a half in office would precursor a longer term in 1856. Unfortunately for him, a perfect storm of private bank foreclosures mixed with a collapse in the speculative real estate market at the same time that technological changes in textile making and agriculture were reducing the need for labor. Unemployment rose amid another round of increasing immigration from Europe (Scandinavia and Germany in particular to the northern and northeastern Dominions while Irish, Coptic, Jewish, Roma and other peoples trended towards the south and the west).
Already bearing a weak base of support, the First Lord was routinely attacked in Parliament by Douglas and Seward as the cause of the problems. The Eastern regions from which Buchanan had gained most of his support suffered the worst effects, while the western Dominions and Territories largely went untouched by the problems.
Brazil
Despite the Spanish concessions on many reforms to local government, the cries for greater and greater autonomy continued to grow. The Mixed Spanish and Portuguese language emerging from the region (often called Brazilian Creole) would become the language taught in public schools, hastening the demise of either Spanish or Portuguese as an official tongue.
Large scale Gaelic, Italian, German and other Catholic migration to Brazil had long been in process, muddling the ethnic mix of Spanish, Portuguese, African and Mulatto to such an extent that a fixed ethnic identity could not be determined in many cases. Jewish, Roma and Coptic migration had also become common, particularly in the coastal cities.
Even odd combinations like Russians, Maronite Christians of the Levant and French arrived in modest numbers.
Spain
After years of repeated disappointments, Carlos V died in late 1854, a bitter and broken man. In this lifetime, he'd seen the loss of Italy, Sicily, Malta and much of Spain's authority over the colonies. Certain he'd failed his ancestors, Carlos V seemed almost relieved to face death.
His son, Carlos VI, was crowned two months later. Perhaps less willful than his father but a bit more pragmatic, Carlos VI would spend his early years attempting to reorganize his empire. He'd travelled to New Spain in his youth and seen the discontent among the people towards Spanish Imperial leadership and knew that there were other regions even more opposed (most of Brazil, the elites of Rio Plata and the Indians/Mestizos of Peru).
More importantly, he witnessed the abject humiliation and ineptitude of the Spanish Army in attempting to suppress the rebellion and feared what would happen if a foreign power, be it America or France, decided to put an end to the Spanish Empire. The then-Infante became convinced that only an enthusiastic colonial people could prop up the Empire. Thus, the Infante would support more regionalization of the lower political offices, the creation of more powerful colonial Cortes and Viceroys as well as enacting legislation intended to benefit the colonies rather than just the metropolis (reducing trade restrictions further, full freedom of movement, acts to increase the quantity of currency in colonial economies, etc).
After years of resistance under Carlos V, the new King seemed a breath of fresh air.
As a symbol of his high regard for the colonies, the King would eventually send his younger brothers, Ferdinand and John, to govern some of the colonies as Viceroys, assuming that meriting a Prince of the Blood as Viceroy would placate some resentment towards Spain itself.
Hah, the king called Pierce out on his bluff. Poor Buchanan, it's seems like he's destined to be president at the worst moment.
Regarding Carlos VI sending his brothers to be Viceroys, that would alleviate some of the empire's issues but I could definitely see them getting big for their britches. At least one of them might be tempted with the thought of being king of a new kingdom.
Regarding Carlos VI sending his brothers to be Viceroys, that would alleviate some of the empire's issues but I could definitely see them getting big for their britches. At least one of them might be tempted with the thought of being king of a new kingdom.
Chapter 295
1855
Moscow
Czar Alexander II could not comprehend how a mob of Orientals had crushed the same army which conquered the Asian Steppe. The idea seemed ludicrous but it appeared to have happened on three separate occasions in the past three years. Alexander would demand that his advisors form another army and invade China. By this point, the Czar had already replaced his previous military advisors and Generals with new ones which were more inclined to caution. After years of huge costs associated with fighting very, very distant frontier war, the Generals were unanimous that invading China was be futile and Russia had far more to LOSE by further conflict than gain.
The Czar in 1854 had reluctantly agreed to the initial Chinese offer of making the Amur (once again) the dividing line between the two Empires. But word arrived by 1855 that the Mandarin was no longer willing to cede so much. Instead the Mandarin INFORMED the Czar that the northern shore of Lake Baikal was the new border, everything south, including the now-deserted cities of Chita and Irkutsk were to remain under Chinese jurisdiction. Anything north of that....well, it would be virtually impossible for Russian to form settlements and therefore a supply line to the Pacific at all. The tundra was too imposing, the distances too great. While the land of the far, far north may remain under nominal Russian authority, it was effectively worthless and impassible.
For all intents and purposes, the Czar had lost half of Siberia.
Worse, the Economics advisors were even more pessimistic than the Generals. They pointed out the huge expenses VASTLY outweighed the any immediate revenue source of regaining Eastern Siberia. Indeed, many internal projects, including linking several of the eastern cities by the new national rail system, completion of several canals and roads to the mining regions of the Urals and rebuilding of several border fortresses in the Transcaucasus and North Sea area. Even the Navy was complaining about the French refusing to ship two new armored steamships for lack of payment. Reportedly, the French shipbuilders sold them to Habsburg Italy instead.
There was also discontent with the levies over the past years in which peasants were selected for "the Czar's service" and never heard from again. With unemployment in the cities rising, they begged the Czar to stay his hand.
In the end, Alexander II relented and agreed to the peace treaty with China. But he would not soon forget this and demanded that his Interior Minister send millions of Russians over the next decade to the Western Siberian Plain, the Central Siberia Plateau and the Asian Steppe to settle. He did not want such a humiliating to occur again in his lifetime and therefore deemed having a large-enough population to defend the region a priority.
This would, indirectly, lead to massive changes in Russia's social order. Many of the western lands of Russia was populated by Serfs barely surviving on exhausted, undercapitalized and marginal lands under noble "protection". While many hindrances on freedom of movement had been withdrawn over the past decades, the nobles still had ways to discourage migration from their lands.
The Czar deemed this selfish and counter-productive and would move, over the next two years, to formally manumit the last major vestiges of serfdom even as he forcibly repressed any restriction on peasant migration. He would place the military in command of enticing families of peasants east with promises of large swathes of free land. Serfdom, in truth, only existed in certain parts of Russia and east of the Urals it had never taken hold. Many Russians over the past centuries would no doubt have willingly trekked east if given the opportunity.
Now, they were encouraged by gifts from the Czar of transportation, land, farming implements, animals and other enticements beyond mere manumission.
After so many complaints erupted from the nobility, the Czar would formally pronounce the manumission of ALL serfs in 1857, formally bringing that era to a close. So livid were many of the nobles that several of the Czar's ministers warned of a possible coup d'etat. However, this would never take place and the gentry's resistance was limited to passive aggressive attempts to undermine peasant mobility like debt peonage and other quasi-legal methods.
For a time, this movement of people east of the Urals would slow the structural problems of western Russia by hiding the worst of the inefficiencies. But the Russian population continued to grow and unemployment reared its ugly head once again.
Manhattan
With the improvement in rail engines in recent years, the long-forecasted capacity for a trans-continental railroad finally existed. For years, military and civilian engineers and surveyors had mapped out a series of "preferred" routes in anticipation of this day. A spider-web of track was to blanket the nation, reaching the most remote reaches of America.
Unfortunately, an act of pettiness on the part of James Buchanan would put this in jeopardy. Knowing that Stephan Douglas wanted nothing more than to put a major rail hub in Chicago, the First Lord would deliberately omit the entire northern portion of the Dominion of Chicago in the plans, blandly stating that a "regional line" may be responsible for attacking the City of Chicago and the Dominion of Marquette to the line.
Infuriated, Douglas retaliated by fighting every conceivable piece of legislation Buchanan offered to Parliament...even ones HE long supported.
The petty rivalry proved poisonous and more than a little scandalous, perhaps hearkening back to early 18th century Britain personality-based Parliamentary politics than the more reserved American brand of politics (more dignified to American eyes).
By the election of 1855, the King himself was tired of all the nonsense and hoped for an improvement (meaning seeing the back of James Buchanan). While an overall national election was not mandated, there was a mandatory Parliamentary "recommendation" for First Lord. Between the economic recession and the divisive nature of Parliament's personalities, Buchanan was demonized in some segments of society. Exhausted, the amiable First Lord may have been happy to announce his retirement and allow a new First Lord to take these problems. Unfortunately, that person would most likely be Stephan Douglas.
And THAT Buchanan could not abide. He fought for a continuance of his tenure as First Lord.
As this was not a general public election, the Parliamentary vote did not take place until April, 1856. Both Douglas and Buchanan would find votes harder and harder to come by. Douglas had offended many over the years and support for his candidacy was less than overwhelming. And few Parliamentarians wanted to go home and explain to their constituents why they voted for another five years of the unpopular James Buchanan. While Douglas and Buchanan were the initial leaders in the race for the next five year term, it soon became apparent that neither would receive a majority.
Other men like Salmon Chase of Ohio, William Seward of New York, George Brown of Manhattan, John MacDonald of Mississauga and many others smelled blood and threw their hats in the ring. Even men like Governor Sam Houston of Hibernia received votes.
By May, the bargaining back and forth had whittled this down even further. Buchanan, sensing that three quarters of Parliament hated him and would select virtually ANYONE other than him, would elect to withdraw his name. This briefly allowed Douglas to believe he now had the fast track to the First Lord position but effectively none of Buchanan's supporters were willing to vote for him and sought some of his allies, like Chase.
Eventually, Douglas' allies quietly informed him that there was no chance that he would be recommended to the King as First Lord. In a pout, Douglas would go to the country for a week in hopes that the other powerbrokers of Parliament would change their minds. But this proved a grave error as most of his supporters would throw their own support to Douglas' ally, Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln had served as Lord Chancellor under Pierce and even stayed for a few months in office under Buchanan to complete several pieces of legal reform legislation he'd been working on. Eventually he resigned and joined his ally Douglas in opposition. Seeing Buchanan and Douglas' supporters fracture, a new race emerged between Chase, Seward and Lincoln.
Lincoln, in Douglas' absence, would approach Seward, Chase and MacDonald to form a broad coalition. Seward would be given the Home Secretary position, Chase the Exchequer and the Scotland-born MacDonald Lincoln's former post as Lord Chancellor.
By this point, only Chase was considered a likely winner and was willing to compromise. The four men gathered their supporters (not all of which voted for the new arrangement but enough did) and Lincoln received over half the votes in Parliament before the stunned (and feeling betrayed) Stephan Douglas.
Lincoln and his new Ministers formally took the Seals of Office in May from His Majesty, who was happy to see the back of James Buchanan (though the two had gotten along personally, it was obvious that Buchanan could no longer command Parliament) and that he wouldn't have to deal with that grasping Stephen Douglas.
Douglas, of course, demanded a high office in the Lincoln administration but his friend and ally had long promised the major ones in backroom deals. Douglas was almost offered the Foreign Secretary position just to shut him up but Lincoln eventually offered this to George Brown. Douglas was offered the largely ceremonial position of Lord Privy Seal but refused, deeming that he preferred to be in opposition than be sidelines from power by this.
Exasperated, the new First Lord accepted that Douglas would enter opposition. However, much of Douglas' support came from those western interests whose issues Douglas had championed....as had Lincoln and he continued to do so. As long as Lincoln supported these pieces of legislation, the western Parliamentarians were hardly interested in what Douglas had to say. Other members of Douglas' support faded away once they realized that he would not take power and therefore could not reward them for their loyalty. It would turn out that fears of Douglas' revenge would prove overstated and Lincoln entered office largely indifferent to his formal ally and friend's rage.
Moscow
Czar Alexander II could not comprehend how a mob of Orientals had crushed the same army which conquered the Asian Steppe. The idea seemed ludicrous but it appeared to have happened on three separate occasions in the past three years. Alexander would demand that his advisors form another army and invade China. By this point, the Czar had already replaced his previous military advisors and Generals with new ones which were more inclined to caution. After years of huge costs associated with fighting very, very distant frontier war, the Generals were unanimous that invading China was be futile and Russia had far more to LOSE by further conflict than gain.
The Czar in 1854 had reluctantly agreed to the initial Chinese offer of making the Amur (once again) the dividing line between the two Empires. But word arrived by 1855 that the Mandarin was no longer willing to cede so much. Instead the Mandarin INFORMED the Czar that the northern shore of Lake Baikal was the new border, everything south, including the now-deserted cities of Chita and Irkutsk were to remain under Chinese jurisdiction. Anything north of that....well, it would be virtually impossible for Russian to form settlements and therefore a supply line to the Pacific at all. The tundra was too imposing, the distances too great. While the land of the far, far north may remain under nominal Russian authority, it was effectively worthless and impassible.
For all intents and purposes, the Czar had lost half of Siberia.
Worse, the Economics advisors were even more pessimistic than the Generals. They pointed out the huge expenses VASTLY outweighed the any immediate revenue source of regaining Eastern Siberia. Indeed, many internal projects, including linking several of the eastern cities by the new national rail system, completion of several canals and roads to the mining regions of the Urals and rebuilding of several border fortresses in the Transcaucasus and North Sea area. Even the Navy was complaining about the French refusing to ship two new armored steamships for lack of payment. Reportedly, the French shipbuilders sold them to Habsburg Italy instead.
There was also discontent with the levies over the past years in which peasants were selected for "the Czar's service" and never heard from again. With unemployment in the cities rising, they begged the Czar to stay his hand.
In the end, Alexander II relented and agreed to the peace treaty with China. But he would not soon forget this and demanded that his Interior Minister send millions of Russians over the next decade to the Western Siberian Plain, the Central Siberia Plateau and the Asian Steppe to settle. He did not want such a humiliating to occur again in his lifetime and therefore deemed having a large-enough population to defend the region a priority.
This would, indirectly, lead to massive changes in Russia's social order. Many of the western lands of Russia was populated by Serfs barely surviving on exhausted, undercapitalized and marginal lands under noble "protection". While many hindrances on freedom of movement had been withdrawn over the past decades, the nobles still had ways to discourage migration from their lands.
The Czar deemed this selfish and counter-productive and would move, over the next two years, to formally manumit the last major vestiges of serfdom even as he forcibly repressed any restriction on peasant migration. He would place the military in command of enticing families of peasants east with promises of large swathes of free land. Serfdom, in truth, only existed in certain parts of Russia and east of the Urals it had never taken hold. Many Russians over the past centuries would no doubt have willingly trekked east if given the opportunity.
Now, they were encouraged by gifts from the Czar of transportation, land, farming implements, animals and other enticements beyond mere manumission.
After so many complaints erupted from the nobility, the Czar would formally pronounce the manumission of ALL serfs in 1857, formally bringing that era to a close. So livid were many of the nobles that several of the Czar's ministers warned of a possible coup d'etat. However, this would never take place and the gentry's resistance was limited to passive aggressive attempts to undermine peasant mobility like debt peonage and other quasi-legal methods.
For a time, this movement of people east of the Urals would slow the structural problems of western Russia by hiding the worst of the inefficiencies. But the Russian population continued to grow and unemployment reared its ugly head once again.
Manhattan
With the improvement in rail engines in recent years, the long-forecasted capacity for a trans-continental railroad finally existed. For years, military and civilian engineers and surveyors had mapped out a series of "preferred" routes in anticipation of this day. A spider-web of track was to blanket the nation, reaching the most remote reaches of America.
Unfortunately, an act of pettiness on the part of James Buchanan would put this in jeopardy. Knowing that Stephan Douglas wanted nothing more than to put a major rail hub in Chicago, the First Lord would deliberately omit the entire northern portion of the Dominion of Chicago in the plans, blandly stating that a "regional line" may be responsible for attacking the City of Chicago and the Dominion of Marquette to the line.
Infuriated, Douglas retaliated by fighting every conceivable piece of legislation Buchanan offered to Parliament...even ones HE long supported.
The petty rivalry proved poisonous and more than a little scandalous, perhaps hearkening back to early 18th century Britain personality-based Parliamentary politics than the more reserved American brand of politics (more dignified to American eyes).
By the election of 1855, the King himself was tired of all the nonsense and hoped for an improvement (meaning seeing the back of James Buchanan). While an overall national election was not mandated, there was a mandatory Parliamentary "recommendation" for First Lord. Between the economic recession and the divisive nature of Parliament's personalities, Buchanan was demonized in some segments of society. Exhausted, the amiable First Lord may have been happy to announce his retirement and allow a new First Lord to take these problems. Unfortunately, that person would most likely be Stephan Douglas.
And THAT Buchanan could not abide. He fought for a continuance of his tenure as First Lord.
As this was not a general public election, the Parliamentary vote did not take place until April, 1856. Both Douglas and Buchanan would find votes harder and harder to come by. Douglas had offended many over the years and support for his candidacy was less than overwhelming. And few Parliamentarians wanted to go home and explain to their constituents why they voted for another five years of the unpopular James Buchanan. While Douglas and Buchanan were the initial leaders in the race for the next five year term, it soon became apparent that neither would receive a majority.
Other men like Salmon Chase of Ohio, William Seward of New York, George Brown of Manhattan, John MacDonald of Mississauga and many others smelled blood and threw their hats in the ring. Even men like Governor Sam Houston of Hibernia received votes.
By May, the bargaining back and forth had whittled this down even further. Buchanan, sensing that three quarters of Parliament hated him and would select virtually ANYONE other than him, would elect to withdraw his name. This briefly allowed Douglas to believe he now had the fast track to the First Lord position but effectively none of Buchanan's supporters were willing to vote for him and sought some of his allies, like Chase.
Eventually, Douglas' allies quietly informed him that there was no chance that he would be recommended to the King as First Lord. In a pout, Douglas would go to the country for a week in hopes that the other powerbrokers of Parliament would change their minds. But this proved a grave error as most of his supporters would throw their own support to Douglas' ally, Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln had served as Lord Chancellor under Pierce and even stayed for a few months in office under Buchanan to complete several pieces of legal reform legislation he'd been working on. Eventually he resigned and joined his ally Douglas in opposition. Seeing Buchanan and Douglas' supporters fracture, a new race emerged between Chase, Seward and Lincoln.
Lincoln, in Douglas' absence, would approach Seward, Chase and MacDonald to form a broad coalition. Seward would be given the Home Secretary position, Chase the Exchequer and the Scotland-born MacDonald Lincoln's former post as Lord Chancellor.
By this point, only Chase was considered a likely winner and was willing to compromise. The four men gathered their supporters (not all of which voted for the new arrangement but enough did) and Lincoln received over half the votes in Parliament before the stunned (and feeling betrayed) Stephan Douglas.
Lincoln and his new Ministers formally took the Seals of Office in May from His Majesty, who was happy to see the back of James Buchanan (though the two had gotten along personally, it was obvious that Buchanan could no longer command Parliament) and that he wouldn't have to deal with that grasping Stephen Douglas.
Douglas, of course, demanded a high office in the Lincoln administration but his friend and ally had long promised the major ones in backroom deals. Douglas was almost offered the Foreign Secretary position just to shut him up but Lincoln eventually offered this to George Brown. Douglas was offered the largely ceremonial position of Lord Privy Seal but refused, deeming that he preferred to be in opposition than be sidelines from power by this.
Exasperated, the new First Lord accepted that Douglas would enter opposition. However, much of Douglas' support came from those western interests whose issues Douglas had championed....as had Lincoln and he continued to do so. As long as Lincoln supported these pieces of legislation, the western Parliamentarians were hardly interested in what Douglas had to say. Other members of Douglas' support faded away once they realized that he would not take power and therefore could not reward them for their loyalty. It would turn out that fears of Douglas' revenge would prove overstated and Lincoln entered office largely indifferent to his formal ally and friend's rage.
If the Czar is demanding such massive migration in Central Asia, is there going to be any capacity left for migration to North America?
I can imagine Russian North America being left to wither for a bit as a result of these policies
I can imagine Russian North America being left to wither for a bit as a result of these policies
Finally caught up. Excellent job sir.
I especially enjoyed the various historical filibusters in OTL Texas meeting similar fates, the misadventures of "Smith" and poor Britain and its troubles.
Although Communism by that name seems to have died in a tropical hell I am sure something will replace it as a mass movement in reaction to late 19th Century and early 20th Century industrialism.
I especially enjoyed the various historical filibusters in OTL Texas meeting similar fates, the misadventures of "Smith" and poor Britain and its troubles.
Although Communism by that name seems to have died in a tropical hell I am sure something will replace it as a mass movement in reaction to late 19th Century and early 20th Century industrialism.
I don't believe that would be an issue. Russia's OTL population in this time frame was about 68 million and going up an average of 1.25 million per year every year for the next century.
Even at the absolute height of the gold rushes, fewer than 20,000 per year were sailing for Russian America in my TL (and even I admit, this number is probably insupportable for long.