America - Albion's Orphan - A history of the conquest of Britain - 1760

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March ,1889

Southern Africa

Doctor Arthur Doyle, after graduating from Edinburgh, had spent several years working as a ship's surgeon on assorted scientific expeditions, two dispatched from Scotland to the Arctic and one by America to West Africa. A short-lived partnership with an old classmate in Edinburgh ended badly and Doyle determined to find green pastures. Naturally, the East India Company was always looking for skilled doctors and Doyle would see his wages tripled beyond what he had been living on for the past several years.

With the war settling down given the ceasefire between France and the East India Company, Doyle sailed to Southern Africa on a German ship. Within months, he arrived in the EIC territory without incident (the French did not harry the German ship at all and deposited the Doctor in the port town of Salm. Here the Doctor was placed in command of a Regimental Hospital shared between two Regular Regiments, one of Javans and one of Topasses. Naturally, the Jewish militia was welcomed in the hospital and Doyle found his new position quite taxing. He'd hoped that the posting would give him more time to hone his favorite hobby, writing. Several short stories over the years had been published in assorted magazines...though Doyle was hardly well compensated for this. The Doctor had another few dozens stories he hadn't had time to publish but had hopes of doing so in the future. His detective novel "A Study in Scarlet" was somewhat promising, for example.

Doyle was well-liked by his new colleagues and managed to enjoy his busy days.

It was at that point, shortly after the final peace in January of 1889 that the French completely withdrew from Southern Africa....and the Jews promptly revolted.

Madrid

King Miguel I would inaugurate the opening of several "Imperial Colleges" throughout Spain from 1887 to 1889 intended to educate promising men from the Viceroyalties in desirable fields like Medicine, Engineering, Navigation, etc. Over the centuries, these positions were restricted to Peninsulares and high-ranking colonial Criollos. But Miguel wanted to vastly expand the ties between Spain and her former colonies and a unified war college system (army and navy), University System, would greatly improve these links.

Thousands of ambitious and intelligent colonials on Royal Scholarship would study at these Military Colleges and Universities over the next few years and many would move on to high positions over the decades to come.

Havana

Carlos VI had abdicated after a series of minor strokes in the first half of the decade. He stated he left the Metropolis in order to "take the waters" of Havana. However, in truth, the "King in Retirement" was just eager to get away from Madrid for two reasons:

1. He wanted his son to get on with business without any fear that Carlos would be approached by courtiers to countermand or influence Miguel's decisions.
2. Carlos really, REALLY wanted to get the hell away from the nest of vipers that was Madrid. He'd reigned for decades. That was enough for any man.

In truth, the King enjoyed his "retirement" and made a number of excuses to avoid going home. The provincial capital would find hosting a former monarch overawing at first but soon Carlos' presence would become an accustomed sight. The King moved into a villa in the nearby hills and typically rode into Havana during the day. Within a few years, it seemed Carlos knew the name of every citizen.

The former King's requirements were few and King Miguel dispatched funds for Miguel to do whatever he wanted. Not requiring even a fraction of this money, the King donated enough capital to expand the orphanages, churches, poorhouses, hospitals of Cuba's main cities. When those had been seen too....he moved to building schoolhouses in smaller towns. He even had enough leftover to provide a naval and army veteran's hospital in Havana and a University in Santiago.

Initially the gentry of Havana fell over themselves to host balls, galas, parties, etc, etc, but the King eventually politely told them to stop inviting him due to his "health". In all reality, Carlos simply got tired of them and the gentry proved grateful to save themselves the expense of feting a monarch. Great merchants would bankrupt themselves throwing a lavish event at which the King would drop by for 15 minutes. Pleading ill-health, the King spent more and more time in seclusion in the countryside, taking daily constitutionals and riding about on his horses.

Carlos VI hadn't felt this good in ten years and quietly vowed to avoid ever leaving the island of Cuba again unless he could help it.

 

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1889, March

Manhattan

King Alfred of British North America was having a banner year as would see the birth of yet another daughter in 1889, the formal annexation of dozens of Pacific Islands (he still was unclear what the nation WANTED with them) and the petition of Noricum for dominionhood. Rumor had it that the territory renamed its capital Alexandrina for the intent of buttering up the King to support their elevation to Parliamentary voting. The King found this somewhat amusing as HIS opinion hardly mattered.

Oh, well. He supposed he'd have to travel out the following year to inaugurate the first Parliamentary votes in....Alexandrina, Noricum. In truth, the King enjoyed his processions greatly and usually eagerly looked forward to them. But the thought of having to travel to the ass-end of the nation in November was somewhat daunting. At least a railroad spur now reached "Alexandrina". He wouldn't have to ride hundreds of miles by coach or horseback (the King's posterior had been giving him trouble lately).

The Foreign Secretary, Benjamin D'Israeli, was positively giddy with "His Acquisitions", though every learned opinion the King heard stated that these islands were so remote as to be useless as naval bases and probably cost 10x their worth to administer. But D'Israeli had made expansion, apparently without any rhyme or reason, a cornerstone of his long tenure as Foreign Secretary.

With the armistice in the Indian Ocean holding by all parties and the "official" peace just signed by China and the Maratha Empire, only a few minor detail remained to be settled between the East India Company and France. Indeed, France had already withdrawn from Africa and the EIC was already welcoming French merchant ships to port. Apparently, the latter didn't hold grudges. It was unprofitable.

Rumor had it that the Company's problems were not over. Apparently, there was some sort of protest in process by the Jews of Southern Africa.

Beyond that, the King didn't know or care.

Salm, Southern Africa

By the end of the French War, as it was locally called, the Jews of Southern Africa dominated the western provinces of Southern Africa (at least 80% of the population) and an equal amount of the military forces. It had been the Jews who allowed Custer and Von Moltke to crush the French and retake the coastal towns.

However, there were long-standing grievances against the Company by the newly confident Jews. The Company, while not directly taxing income or land for any purpose but the cost of administering the colony, DID routinely make a profit by setting the value of all gold and diamonds produced and enforcing the deposit into Company banks.

While many Jews, well ALL of them really, recognized that the great Jewish nation birthed to the far southern latitude owed its existence to the Company, this did not extend to long-term frustrations of being unable to select their own leaders (or a King, if they so desired), being driven to irritation to lack of EIC attention to the education or care of the inhabitants beyond protecting the borders, etc, etc.

With the Jewish Regulars and Militia fully formed and witnessing the French sail off into the sunset to the west, the leading Jewish military and civilian leaders would launch an astonishing coup. Custer, Von Moltke and the rest of the high-ranking Company officers were seized. Most of the army munitions and supplies fell without a shot and the handful of non-Jewish Company regiments were immediately surrounded in their barracks.

In less than a week, the western 2/3rds of Southern Africa had fallen, all while suffering less than 200 casualties. So sudden and successful was the insurgency that, when accomplished, there was a great debate as to what to do about the matter. During a shouting match in Salm between opposing viewpoints, an elderly Rabbi fell and struck his head. Senseless, the old man was carried out. As it so happened, the most skilled doctor in town happened to be Arthur Doyle, the Surgeon for the Topass and Javan regiments currently surrounded in their barracks. Doyle did not hesitate to depart the dubious protection of the walls to tend to the old man under a flag of truce. While doing so (the injury was more cosmetic than it appeared as even minor head wounds tended to bleed profusely), the Doctor took it upon himself to negotiate terms on behalf of the two regiments. It was agreed that the Javans and Topasses would only be disarmed (except for a few dozen weapons intended to keep INTERNAL discipline) and would be given limited freedom to range through the city in reasonable numbers, though they must be back in the barracks by evening.

This seemed reasonable to Doyle and the lower ranking officers in nominal command were more than happy to accept this compromise. When the final peace was made, the soldiers may depart by ship in peace. Of course each man must sign a parole which guaranteed their good conduct else risk immediate execution. A few officers refused and were marched into comfortable quarters away from their men. But, by this point, there was little will among the Company Regulars to fight. Most had served abroad for years and just wanted to go home, not fight another war. Thus the agreement was struck and, for the most part, both parties abided by this.

But the EIC was NOT done. While the coastal cities of Salm and Godoy remained under Jewish control, Jews made a small minority (about 12%) in the eastern port town of Freeport. Thus the company, no longer under threat from China, would dispatch four thousands regulars to Freeport with the intent of forging an army of the miners to the north. However, relatively few of the non-Jewish irregulars expressed any interest in attacking the Jews to the west and only about 3500 volunteered. The Director of Freeport, Cecil Rhodes, openly threatened to draft all able-bodied men to the war but that only got his house burned down around him and resulted in hundreds of volunteers departing.

By Summer, an army of 7,500 men (regulars and militia) had been formed and was preparing to march upon Godoy by land. However, the party waited weeks to see if King Mahesh Wesley of Nepal would arrive to assume control over the army. It turned that that, after years of battle in Malaya, the King had no interest in this conflict and happily sailed for the Maratha Empire and his home in the remote north, vowing never again to serve in uniform, even for the Peshwa.

In the end, the Company was forced to settle for the American adventurer Henry McIvor as commander of their forces. McIvor was Virginia born but spent most of his adult life in the service of the East India Company or the Peshwa. He'd ably served as third in command of the Peshwa's army in Malaya under King Mahesh and eagerly jumped at the opportunity to fight another war. However, McIvor knew next to nothing of Africa despite his experience on the Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The wide open plains were new to him and McIvor readily took up the services of one of his countrymen, a young scout by the name of Francis Burnham. Burnham had been in Africa for three years helping to set up the scouting department tasked with keeping an eye on the tribes which had been forced off Company lands.

However, keeping any eye on bow and spear wielding Zhosa hardly prepared him for fighting a large-scale modern battle and the Company forces were suckered into a trap about halfway between Freeport and Godoy. In less than two hours, the Company forces were routed. Over 2000 were captured and the militia contingent were given parole and allowed to return home. The regulars captured joined their fellows in Godoy and Salm.

Frustrated, the Company had no further ideas beyond bombarding the port towns from the sea. This proved to be a rather large mistake when two Russian trading vessels anchored in Salm for supplies were struck repeatedly by shells. Neither sank but dozens of sailors were killed. The Jews were considerate enough to arrange for the Russian consul in the town to communicate with a trio of Russian ships sailing by to inform them of the incident. While the two fleets did not come to blows, the EIC commander wisely apologized and agreed to carry the Russian protest directly to Batavia and assured the Russian Admiral that the Company would negotiate restitution. Thus Salm was opened to the worlds once more.

By Winter of 1889, the East India Company Directors decided to negotiate.

 

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1890 - May

Batavia

For months, the East India Company Directors would debate internally regarding the proposed peace. In previous generations, prior to the advent of steam travel and the telegraph, communication to end a war could take months, even years for such far flung regions. However, the Declaration of Independence of the Jewish districts of Southern Africa had taken but two weeks to reach Batavia and, over a year later, the Directors STILL remained in chaos as to what to do.

With the EIC's fraying relationship with the Maratha Empire, recent hostilities with France, America, China, the Dutch Republic (a generation prior) and now an incident at sea with Russia, the EIC was feeling enormously isolated. Years of war had buried trade and left the Company laden with debt. While it was POSSIBLE that the EIC could continue the war, there was always the chance that the another power, maybe France, might take advantage of the situation again. France resented her loss to the EIC/Jews a few years prior and, had it known of the impending Jewish Revolt, France may have held off on making peace.

After intense discussion, the Directors realized that the Company had been greatly overextended for years and it was only a matter of time that it broke. If the war continued, it could spell the end of the Company one way or another, either by bankruptcy or further defeat. These powerful men took a step back and determined that the loss of the "Jewish" state was not a short or medium term issue. Indeed, most of the gold, diamonds and other valuable metals of Southern Africa were located in the regions STILL dominated by the EIC (only about 15-20% were Jews in the eastern territories). Yes, the "Big Hole" diamond mine in north-western Southern Africa (a tortured description and many of the local Jews were already pining for a name change) was in the Jewish territory but the Company felt there may be room to negotiate.

Thus the formal armistice was signed in lieu of yet another invasion (the Russians were already rattling that an attempt to blockade the Southern African coast would not be well received) and negotiators went to work. The Directors felt that a swift peace made more sense than grubbing for every last favor. Trade MUST return in force in order for the Company to crawl out from under its debt.

Thus the EIC would offer surprisingly lenient terms, effectively offering full independence to the Jewish State with only a few stipulations including continued free port privileges for the EIC (which the Jews would have planned anyway), "ownership" of the Big Hole remained with the Company (though the region would be governed by the new state and continued most favored nation status between the EIC and Jews. In truth, the Jews didn't care much about trade. They simply wanted their own nation after a few thousands of years of wandering.

The Company would find that the loss of these particular lands were not crippling at all. Initially, the EIC was drawn to the region to control the trade lanes. But new developments in technology - steam-ships, the Suez and Isthmus Canals, the telegraph and others - would make owning a couple of ports less important. Tax revenues were never terribly high in the area and only the location along the trade lanes mattered. Thus governing some farmland in Southern Africa was not a priority, especially when the ACTUAL valuable mining regions remained in EIC hands.

It was not a perfect peace, but one that the Company was willing to live with given the political upheaval of the Indian Ocean.

Salm, Southern Africa

Over the course of several months, the tensions eased to the point that the Jews of Southern Africa effectively restarted trade with the rest of the world. Granted, the agricultural exports were modest by global standards and there were sufficient open ports along Southern Africa that Salm and Godoy were hardly overwhelming but the victory in the war gave the Jewish settlers something they'd lacked in countless generations: a homeland.

Diamond and gold revenues were nothing compared to this.

Peace, though, would prove far easier than the formation of a government. Arguments promptly raged as to what type of government they wanted: a clerical state? A Republic? Select a King and form a monarchy?

While the new state promised to respect property laws and allow long-term non-Jewish residents to remain as citizens, nearly 25% of the 200,000 non-Jews in these districts opted to leave, some to the Dutch Cape Colony, some to the remaining EIC lands to the east, others....wherever they wanted.

Among these was Doctor Arthur Doyle, a Doctor in the EIC Army in Southern Africa, who opted to give up his EIC employment and assume a teaching position in Mumbai in one of the Peshwa's Universities. While he spoke no Marathi, Doyle was a natural adventurer and threw himself into learning the local language and the Devanagari script (11 vowels and 36 consonants) with the aid of several Maratha servants and aides generously provided to him by the University of Mumbai.

During this exciting time, Doyle would rethink his "Sherlock Holmes" character. Instead of residing in Britain, Doyle began to wonder if he and his friend, Doctor Watson, may live in a more exotic region. Doyle would promptly begin rewriting parts of the "Study in Scarlet" with this in mind, perhaps as a former servant of the EIC who now called this huge city of Mumbai home. "Watson" was reimagined as a Maratha Doctor, shaken by years of war in Malaya who meets Holmes after returning home to Mumbai.

 

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1890 - November

Manhattan

One of the worst kept secrets in Manhattan was the impending retirement of John Abbott. As expected in the summer of 1890, Abbott pronounced that he would not be seeking reelection to his Parliamentary seat in Mississauga. This, naturally, produced a free-for-all among the powerful men prior to the 1890 November election as they sought to influence Parliamentary votes for the inevitable "recommendation" to the King for First Lord of the Treasury over the next five years.

Adlai Stevenson of Chicago had served as Postmaster General in the previous years under Abbott until he was discovered effectively firing Postal employees not supporting Abbott's government. While Abbott naturally desired to reward followers, he was also adamantly in favor of the concept that the overwhelming number of public positions should not be patronage posts for any given political group, liable to be fired to hire loyal supporters. This had been one of the few great scandals of the Abbott ministry despite John Abbott being cleared by all of having any involvement.

But Stevenson's sacking did not mean he was any less popular in Chicago and was easily reelected in 1890. A keen observer of political winds, Stevenson had his own following and was considered one of the Dark Horses of the coming election.

Of course, by 1890, EVERY Candidate appeared to be a Dark Horse as this might have been one of the few Parliamentary Elections where a clear favorite or limited number of favorites existed.

Stevenson was a proponent of "Free Silver", expanding the money supply to help debtors and agriculturalists in the west.

Grover Cleveland of New Jersey carried many of Stevenson's politics...except he was in favor of a strong Gold standard and low tariffs (popular among consumers)

Benjamin Harrison of Miami was in favor of higher tariffs to support the growing manufacturing industry of the nation. Harrison was also the grandson of the celebrated Indian fighter, William Henry Harrison.

James G. Blaine of Sagadahock (Eastern Maine) would support a strong American LB. backed by gold as well as expansion of the American Navy, currently rapidly rebuilding after the Krakatoa disaster. He also was more interested in foreign affairs than most candidates and encouraged total political neutrality with no alliances other than protecting the "territorial integrity" of their smaller neighbors to the west (in an obvious message to Spain, the only other likely aggressor beyond America itself in the region).

Political parties had been forming for generations but the election of 1890 would widely be held as the first since the formation of the country where effectively every candidate received an endorsement of one party or another, often multiple parties at once. Sometimes these party recommendations came from factions utterly mutually exclusive to one another. For example, a candidate in Boston was selected as the Candidate for the "Free Silver" party AND the "Gold Standard" party.

There were parties ranging from "Labor", "Radical" (which, conversely, had few "radical" ideas), "Loyalist" (whatever this meant), "National" (which focused on effective Empire building abroad), "American" (which was anti-Catholic), "Free Silver", "Gold Standard", "Trade Protections", "Anti-Trade Protections", "Women's Rights", etc, etc, etc.

However, there was a growing belief that eventually, the Parties would merge into two or three factions, but this had not yet come to pass, largely due to the complexity and size of the nation which provided a heterogenous political spectrum. But it was obvious that this was coming, Eventually, the "Gold Standard" faction would align with the Manufacturing sector. The "Free Silver" naturally coincided with the Agricultural movement but also the "Labor" group, which was odd as most farmers were self-employed.

In the end, the political parties were merging in manners which seemed incongruous and illogical other than these other interest groups being WILLING to support their interest group, regardless of whether or not it mattered to their own.

Politics truly did make strange bedfellows.

New Caanan (formerly Western Southern Africa)

By 1890, the Jewish rebels of Southern Africa knew their cause was won against the East India Company...but were already fighting among themselves to win the peace. Debates were waged about the nature of the new government. Would it be a monarchy, a pure democracy, an oligarchy, a religious theocracy?

Divisions between German and Pole, Russian and Austria struck the community. Ashkenazi faced Sephardic, Rabbinical versus Reformed. It seemed that the Jewish State was already facing eventual extinction.

In hopes of unifying the nation, the hastily convened Diet would seek a symbol which all could rally around. In the 19th century, this meant a King.

But who?

There were a few battlefield heroes but one or two battles won did not make a great King. We were hardly talking about King David here.

Eventually, the infighting became so bitter than any local candidate was viewed as anathema to the rest. A "foreign" King must be selected. But, unlike the Christians or Muslims or even Buddhists, there were no Jewish monarchies from which to borrow a second son. No, the Jews must seek their own monarch among the best of their kind.

Throughout the past twenty years, the Russian tea magnate Kalman Wissotsky had sponsored countless Jews to migrate from Poland, Russia, the German states, the Habsburg Empire, etc, to Southern Africa and Palestine. Few Jews had such a good reputation among the Jewish world without any significant feuds. Hardly a Southern African Jew could be found that HAD NOT benefited from the generosity of Wissotsky. It seemed this was the only real candidate.

But would he come if called?

Wissotsky had only supported Southern African migration as Israel or "Zion", the ancient land of the Jews, was perhaps not interested in hundreds of thousands or even millions of Jewish immigrants. While many were taken by Palestine, there seemed to be no will to give the Jews their own homeland in the Levant. Instead, Russians, Balkan Muslims, Copts, Egyptian Shi'as and others had been encouraged to migrate to this region (by now vastly outnumbering the native Arabs) more than the Jews, who were more accepted than welcomed.

But Southern Africa, under the East India Company, desired to take ALL Europeans regardless of creed (as was the EIC's wont) and eventually Wissotsky would sponsor uncounted thousands of European Jews to migrate AND provide interest free loans for land acquisition beyond that offered for free by the EIC. While this strategy had eventually backfired upon the Company, the Jews had certainly obtained their long-time desire for a homeland dominated demographically by Jews.

Over the course of the past two years, over fifty thousand of the region's 200,000 non-Jews had migrated out voluntarily...and another 25,000 native Africans forced north and east into tribal or EIC lands by the Jewish militias. Indeed, by 1890, there were fewer black faces by percentage in the Jewish State than in the still-Dutch Cape Colony, which was actively seeking to expel many of the native Africans still within her borders and entice as many Dutch (or at least Protestants, preferably Lutherans) to the colony as possible. Almost 90% of the Jewish State was now actually Jewish. Similar to the Dutch, the Jewish State would encourage FURTHER Jewish immigration from Europe where over 2,500,000 Jews still resided, mostly in Poland. Perhaps 50,000 per year (a large number but only about 2% of the Jewish European population) arrived by boat from 1890 to 1920, well below the demographic increase of Jewish Europeans in general.

Though shocked by the call to the throne, Kalman Wissotsky would agree to migrate himself as he understood better than most the ethnic and sectional divisions of the Jewish people. In truth, "King Kalman I", now in his mid-sixties, suspected the "Kingdom" would be overthrown sooner rather than later and only agreed to the throne in hopes of unifying the people somehow.

King Kalman would agree only to accept the throne upon the condition that ALL resident males, including non-Jews, be granted the franchise (the third country in the world to due so after Anahuac and the country of Iceland now granted "Home Rule" by the King of Denmark) to grant universal male suffrage). He stated that he lacked the wisdom to govern the concerns dear to the hearts of ALL subjects and required the advice and council of ALL the peoples of his realm. He also stated that he would immediately abdicate if ANY man, be he Christian European or African, Jew or Heathen, be stripped of this privilege (he later amended this to exclude convicted felons).

Kalman pointed out that Jews had been accepted as equal citizens in Palestine, France, America and, at least legally, in many German states, the Berber Kingdom and the assorted British states and therefore he would never accept to rule a nation which refused to return the compliment to non-Jews in his own realm.

This was accepted with only moderate resistance (many Jews preferred to withdraw at least POLITICAL rights to non-Jews) and King Kalman I of....well, it took some more time to determine a name.

The term "Zionism", named after Jerusalem, had been thrown out a bit over the years meaning that Jews should return/find sactuary in their ancient homeland of Palestine. While many received succor there, it was obvious that none of the ethnic groups of the region desired to be home to four million Jews. Eventually, Kalman himself would spend more of his fabulous wealth aiding his people to migrate to Southern Africa.

Thus, "Zionism" was no longer an ideal and the concept of "New Zion" replaced. But what then to call the nation?

Eventually, names were suggested and discarded such as Israel and "Zion" as they were geographically too directed towards the Levant. But "Canaan" had not been used for millennia. Almost out of exhaustion over the debate, the "Knesset" (the Canaanite version of Parliament or Diet) would choose "New Canaan" as the name of the new Jewish State. This seemed reasonable as much of the old Jewish state had resulted in the conquest of the Old Canaan. Here, the modern Jews had conquered the African state from her fore-bearers of African or EIC extraction.

King Kalman I, himself exhausted with the matter, accepted "New Canaan" without reservation.

To his surprise (he still expected a Coup or major rebellion to his presence within a year or two), the first few years of Jewish rule were mild. Kalman surprisingly found an ally to the west in the Dutch Cape Colony. For years, the Cape Colony had sought to encourage Dutch (or at least Protestant, preferably Lutheran, migration to the Cape in hopes of demographically challenging the EIC and later "New Canaan") immigration and succeeded to increase the Dutch (i.e. WHITE though not all "WHITE" were "Dutch") population to 300,000 but still faced several challenges from African tribes to the north. An alliance was struck, perhaps believed by BOTH sides to be temporary given the years of distrust, and the Cape Colony (by this point more and more self-sufficient and self-governing) worked together with New Canaan against any tribal cultures which encroached upon their borders.

Both New Canaan and the Cape Colony, both of which once desired large numbers of African laborers to do the work the Dutch and Jews abhorred, would launch wars of aggression against neighboring tribes with the intent of pushing them further and further north.

Indeed, by 1890, the Cape Colony political classes were already considering the idea of "Home Rule" without further Dutch Republic interference.

 

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1891 - May

Manhattan

Though it took many votes in Parliament, eventually the Parliamentarian from Sagadahock, James Blaine, would be selected by Parliament for "recommendation" to the King as First Lord. Naturally, Alfred I hardly wasted a moment in accepting. Blaine was a good enough fellow and was unlikely to overstep his bounds into Royal Affairs just as Alfred had learned to avoid overly dealing with political matters.

The relationships appeared likely to be mutually supportive.

Of course, Blaine and his Ministers (a collection of allies) would begin expanding their agenda. Under Abbott, the nation had already worked actively to rebuild and expand the Navy so the large numbers of ships in various stages of construction or planning was impressive. Naturally, the American Army remained relatively small as was the nation's long time preference. However, there were some upgrades in armaments. The latest service rifle was held as good as anyone's but the artillery department's weapons had fallen behind in recent years. The War Department would determine a new model for both the heavy guns and a good mix of lighter, more mobile artillery to be expanded in the cavalry (the utility of small, mobile guns had been proven against the French in Southern Africa).

Parliament, however, was proving more contentious and less gentlemanly than before. The great debates over the money supply issue (free silver) as well as tariff levels (currently high enough to make most mass-produced foreign goods prohibitively expensive). But unemployment was low and the balance between city and country, region to region and class to class seemed to have been adequately struck. Men adamantly opposed to higher tariffs existed....but this was seldom a major issue. After all, goods purchased by consumers which MAY have come from a foreign source only accounted for a small portion of the average family's discretionary income (most household funds went to housing, food, clothing, heat from coal or oil, etc, etc). Paying an extra 10% for foreign goods like rum, exotic clothing, manufactured items, etc didn't hurt most households as these items typically made up less than 5% of the total household expenses (in other words, it was estimated that the ACTUAL cost of these tariffs only amounted to .5%) and the tariffs not only encouraged local industry but gained significant funds for the treasury.

One of Blaine's first duties was attending the Knighting of his predecessor, John Abbott, who had served as First Lord for two terms. Blaine merely hoped that his tenure in the position would be appreciated as much.

Madrid

Over the past few years, really the past few decades, the link between Spain and France had become more and more tenuous. This was not due to lack of trade between the two. Indeed, the rapid improvement in transportation over the past century would result in vast quantities of assorted goods exchanged over the border. In the age of sail, most goods imported from abroad tended to be limited to items that COULD NOT be procured locally - iron, coffee, silk, tea, tobacco, sugar - etc. Actual manufactured goods had long been protected by high tariffs in most countries lest an imbalance of trade wipe out the gold and silver supply of a nation. The most common mass-produced consumer good of prior centuries, textiles, were notorious for encouraging governments to higher levels of tariff protection. If cheaper clothing from abroad could be had, then the money supply would be wiped out in short order.

But the transportation would prove vital in the modern world and nations became interconnected in ways, both physical (via roads, railways, etc) and cultural, that brought the day to day experiences of foreigners even to the common lower classes which were becoming better educated and politically minded.

Political unrest, common in other part of Europe, particularly Germany against the handful of German Crowns utterly intent on maintaining absolutist power, was starting to reach even Spain. Democracy had long been considered a "Protestant Problem but with the political reforms in Spanish America exceeding in virtually every case that of the homeland it would seem that reform was required even in Madrid.

Miguel I was already prepared for this and had given hints over the years of his support for reform but wasn't ready to challenge the aristocrats of the Cortes.

Perhaps now was the time to do so.

 

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1891 - July

Cape Town, Cape Colony

Governor-General James Loudon of the Dutch Cape Colony had been hearing grumbling for years now regarding the Cape Colony's demand for more political autonomy. For the life of him, he hardly understood WHY. After all, the Dutch Republic handled most of the military cost of defending the colony, didn't they?

And Loudon and his predecessors had long made a policy of appeasing the locals on strictly colonial matters which didn't contradict Dutch policy. Granted, the last dispatch from the Hague had been effectively telling those petitioners for autonomy "No! Now shut up about it!"

But still, life WAS pretty good on the Cape. Oh, there were complaints that the Dutch Republic had drastically failed to defend the Cape's once larger territory against the EIC, losing on both land and sea. Others were openly disgusted that the Republic couldn't even summon the spine to ally with France against the EIC less than a decade prior. In truth, Loudon quietly agreed on that point, the subsequent French defeat not withstanding. But unlike the colonials, the Governor-General knew the political climate of the Hague and realized that, while France had not made any aggressive moves against the Dutch in generations, there remained a long-standing fear of French expansion and were unwilling to give up even the pretense of a Dutch Empire.

Thus, Loudon attempted to mollify the colonials as best he could by listening to their concerns and acting on them when possible but quietly refuted any further attempts by the Burghers to form anything other than an "advisory council" which the Governor-General was not even obligated to recognize, much less obey.

In truth, Loudon considered his long tenure as Governor a prosperous one for the people he "served". Despite brays for war against the EIC or Jews, the colony remained financially solvent and grew with regular migration from the crowded Dutch Republic. Indeed, as with the former colonies of Spain or Britain, the Cape Colony bore higher levels of land-ownership and perceived prosperity than the home country.

Why all the complaints? Did the Dutch prefer to be a French or Spanish colony?

Loudon rather doubted it.

Instead, the Governor went about the reports from the expeditions north along the coast. The Dutch had been expanding northward towards the Namib desert, pushing out the relatively lightly populated African tribes present and even reached Walvisch Bay (Whale Bay) where the fine harbor made for a potential long-term refueling/rewatering/reprovisioning site for global shipping. Indeed, Loudon was surprised the EIC hadn't seized it by this point.

With now over 300,000 colonists under his wing, Loudon was happy to have done such a good job in supporting their interests.

Thus, he was VERY surprised when an armed group entered his office and proclaimed the Dutch Colonial Government overthrown and a new nation formed. Given that only about 500 Dutch Republic troops were stationed in the entire colony (and only about 100 in Cape Town, half of which were in the invalided hospital), there proved to be relatively little he could do about the matter.

The Jordan River, Kingdom of Palestine

Over the course of the past century, waves of immigration from the Balkans (Muslim exiles), Russia, Poland (mostly Jews), Egypt (Copts and Shia's expelled by a former Khedive) and other locations had utterly changed the demographic face of Palestine. The Arabs, once the huge majority, were marginalized more and more and eventually just forced eastward past the Jordan River into the remote and desolate region.

It was here that the Arabs began to hear the words of the Mahdi, where he condemned the failures of modern Islam (certainly the Arabs had no love for the Muslim migrants to Palestine), declared himself the "Redeemer" in the model of Jesus and vowed to purify the wayward Muslim peoples from the decadence to which they had plummeted. He had threatened, and failed to achieve, the conquest of Egypt, the Holy Cities, the Ottoman and any other wayward Muslim region.

Seeking any kind of hope that their fortunes could be regained, the Arabs began to convert to this new sect despite cries from Sunni preachers that the Mahdi was nothing but a heretic. Indeed, the movement even started to expand further into the Arabian Peninsula where the local tribes of the Najd and other open areas began to view their more sedentary Muslims in the Hijaz as turning their backs upon their Arab upbringing. In reality, this was an exaggeration as MANY peoples on the peninsula had been settled for millennia, even well before the coming of the Prophet himself.

But, arguably for the first time, a "Pan-Arab" political consciousness was being formed (arguably, even the 7th century Arab conquests did not truly resemble a united culture).

Various region Kings, like those in Mesopotamia, the Hejaz, Assyria (the Christian Assyrian King doing so with the explicit SUPPORT of local Muslims) and Kurdistan, would simply arrest, eject or, in some cases, execute those who supported the Mahdi. This would result in the sect effectively banned from the more developed lands of the north, even Arab lands like Mesopotamia.

But the faith would spread like wildfire among the nomadic peoples and those oppressed like the Palestinian Arabs.

In 1891, the King of Palestine (a Russian prince placed in command) would dispatch an army, ironically mostly of Muslims, against the Arabs arming themselves east of the Jordan River. In the previous decades since the severing of Palestine from Syria, the King would inaugurate a new policy of maintain guaranteed representation of ALL major religious groups (except the Arabs) on his ruling council. Of the three highest positions, one must be of the European Muslim (or, rather, their descendants who made up about 39% of the nation's population), one must be a Christian (roughly 44% including Europeans, Levantine Christians and Copts, mainly) and one must be a Jew (roughly 10% and considered to be "neutral" in political matters between Christian and Muslim). The rest of the high-ranking politicians were also split ethnically among the Greek Muslim, Albanian Muslim, Bulgarian Muslim, Romanian Muslim, Turk, Egyptian Muslim, Jews, Russian, Copt, assorted European and various other groups residing in the region.

A series of clashes would take place resulting in large numbers of deaths on both sides. Eventually, the King of Palestine (which now had a small Christian plurality), would not only dispatch more forces but actively asked for help from Russia, Syria and Egypt, always attempting to maintain a perception of even-handedness.

Except to the Arabs who where more trouble than they were worth.

While none of these other Crowns acted swiftly to support the Palestinian King, another event would lead to more interest in the regional revolt and eventually pull every major faction of the region into the war.

Mecca

In 1891, the Holy City of Mecca would, preparing for the annual Hajj, would see the city besieged by Mahdists condemning the apostate Sunnis controlling the Holy City. At the same time, Arab Mahdists would size the administrative capital of Medina, slaughtering thousands and, in support of their austere views, destroyed large numbers of "ostentatious" dwellings and other items which they felt offended Allah.

Among these invaders were the House of Saud, long rivals of the House of Qatada from which the "Caliph" (not recognized by any major Muslim power) reigned.

While the House of Saud had long been attached to Wahhabism, an already harsh and unforgiving Islamic Sect. However, the apparently speed of the Mahdist expansion in Arabia would lead several Saudi Chieftains to eagerly convert to the new sect with hopes of evicting the House of Qatada from the Holy Cities.

As the Caliph himself was executed along with many of his sons, brothers, nephews, etc, the Sunni clerics protested and condemned the Mahdists. This only resulted in the slaughter of hundreds of Sunni clerics.

If the Palestinian Arab revolt didn't gain much attention in the region, THIS most certainly DID.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1891 - December

The Hague

The Dutch Republic's decentralized government would spend months attempting to determine what to do regarding the rebellion in the Cape Town (an almost bloodless one at that). At length, the Dutch would determine to approach their "ally", France. However, the King of France practically spat out his tea when he learned of this. Where were the Dutch when France battled the East India Company in Southern Africa?

To hell with them!

Having failed to entice France to do their work for them....the Dutch Republic Parliament would....debate some more. It would be nearly four months AFTER the fact that the Dutch government would determine to actually dispatch forces to the Cape. Of course, during all this time, they hadn' t actually done ANYTHING! So the Dutch would only in December commence gathering forces. Volunteers were called for....a call which largely went unanswered. Mercenary Regiments were sought....only to find that the German Confederation which had once supplied these mercenaries over previous centuries no longer desired to sell their citizens' flesh.

Six months after the word of rebellion reached the Hague, the Dutch had only managed to dispatch a small force of ships southwards with the intent of doing....something. Perhaps some sort of blockade. The Dutch commander was given discretion.

In all, it was not a promising start for the Dutch war effort.

When the Dutch ships (about five midsized steamships with a few supply vessels) arrived on the Cape, they were appalled to learn that the colonists had not only written their own constitution....but had actually summoned a King from the Continent.

Where would the Cape Colony look for a Crowned Head?

Why, the House of Orange, of course. A younger prince might be just what the Cape needed for underline their formal dissolution of ties to the Republic. What could be more horrific, more offensive...than summoning a new monarch from the ranks of the hated House of Orange which, for generations since the Stadtholder was expelled from the Republic to a handful of small German Principalities united as the "Kingdom of Orange", had long desired to regain control over the Netherlands.

The Prince summoned by the Cape "Kingdom" was Maurice, the nephew of the current King of Orange. Maurice was a thirty-year-old, bespectacled, soft-spoken academic with a keen interest in general sciences from astronomy, taxonomy, entomology and stamp collecting. A more unlikely monarch could not be found the breadth of Europe. But this was exactly what the Cape "Kingdom" wanted for a Crown.

In truth, Maurice desired to decline the Crown but his uncle insisted it be accepted. With a heavy heart, the new King would sail for Africa. By happenstance, the ship would arrive in Cape Town without any hindrance from the Dutch fleet. Apparently, the Dutch Admiral (by 1892, there were more Admirals in the Dutch Navy than actual ships) saw what he thought were cannon being placed on bluffs outside of town and opted to retreat to a safe anchor down the cast. In truth, it was only a few logs being laid down for an observation post, not cannon. King Maurice I arrived in Cape Town on a German ships without incident and was met with great courtesy, being escorted to the old Governor-General's residence.

In short order, Maurice was eagerly take to this role, not because he enjoyed his modest duties as a purely titular King....but because the Cape Kingdom granted him enormous opportunities to collect insects, scour the deserts for meteorites and the southern latitude granted ample new opportunities to scan the night sky for comets, meteors and potentially even new planets.

As for the "war" with the Dutch, the King really wasn't consulted much on that.


Java

EIC general Gotfried van Daalen had served for years in the Company Army, siring a small brood of children with his Indo-European wife. He eldest, Gotfried van Daalen II, was already a Captain in the army in Java. The elder van Daalen had commanded the garrison in Java for nearly a decade, something of an accomplishment given his ability to irritate the EIC Directors in Batavia.

But when the first Javanese rebellion erupted in 1892, van Daalen was prepared to crush it. Dozens of villages were torched and thousands effectively butchered. Years of repression and exploitation would swiftly erupt in even greater violence as the Javanese commenced a protracted war.

Fortunately for van Daalen and the company, there remained a loyal legion of European, Topass, African and other mercenary soldiers remained faithful to their employers.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1892

Habsburg Lands

Over the course of the past decade, a series of reforms would be initiated, only to be pushed back by contrarians or nationalists throughout the Empire. Some were forced to be withdrawn, others managed to remain.

By 1892, the demand for an expansion of Democracy would rise to an unprecedented height. By this point, the Emperor was joined by the reactionary Diets who desired to retain THEIR prerogatives, not those of the people. A series of strikes, riots and general ill-will against the Crown and patricians who dominated political life despite the moderately good economic times (after decades of peace) proved the volatility of the climate.

The Italians, Hungarians and Germans (Austria and Bavaria) had long possessed "first among equals" rights for generations but later reforms would grant the Bohemians, Moravians, Croats, Slovenes and others of the Empire equal rights. Despite the Emperor's desire to treat all fairly and generally modernize the nation, the ethnic tensions and lack of affiliated political reform ensured that both nobles and commoners alike often opposed even the most well-intentioned reform.

Perhaps the only comfort for the Emperor and his high-ranking government officials was that Austria in the 1880's and 1890's actually possessed relatively GOOD relations with their powerful neighbors of Russia, Poland, France and the German Confederation. Indeed, many of the larger powers of Europe would begin to view the divided Habsburg realms as the "Sick Man" of Europe and were more concerned about other nations gaining influence over the Habsburgs, not the other way around.

German Confederation

With the relative peace in Central Europe over the past years, the German Confederation Crowned Heads, who had banded together against potential aggression by the Habsburgs (and maybe France), felt more and more secure and therefore were less interested in further integration among themselves. Indeed, while common tariffs, a postal system and infrastructure (railroads) remained in place, the assorted Kings, many of which counted among the most autocratic in Europe, would attempt to counter the political reforms now taking place in, of all nations, Catholic nations like France and Spain.

Some of the German states still held regulations where the King must be consulted for any citizen to marry or travel abroad. These nations were often among the most backward (Mecklenburg being a prime example). Even Brandenburg and Saxony were falling being the German states of the north (those under the Danish crown) and the Rhineland.

Portugal

As had been case for the past 130 years, there seemed to be no actual press for reform in Portugal and the little nation continued to stagnate and fall further and further behind the rest of Europe.

Romania

As had been the case since it was unified, Romania also did next to nothing modernize and was largely ignored economically by the rest of Europe.

The Ottoman Empire

For years, the Sublime Porte had encouraged modernization including dramatic changes to the school system including a heavy focus on engineering and other technical arts. Universities were established with a focus on practical applications, not the old European University standbys of Greek, Latin, Rhetoric and other "gentlemanly" arts which did little more than give further pedigrees to the nobility.

As such, the Ottoman would see an upsurge in manufacturing and other changes which, a century prior, would be called as part of the "Age of Enlightenment".

But 1892 would see a shocking development, one unprecedented in Muslim countries. The Porte would create the first Parliament in an Islamic Country, granting the first major semblance of democracy in a Muslim majority country in memory. All men over the age of 30 in good standing with the community (excluding criminals, vagrants and assorted unseemly groups) would be granted the vote.

Even more astonishing, the relatively small non-Sunni Muslim community were not excluded from the franchise.

Mecca and Medina

Over the course of the past year, allied forces of Russia, Palestine, Syria, the Ottoman, Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, Egypt, etc would slowly gather and assault the homeland of the Mahdist Arab tribes in Eastern Palestine and Northern Arabia.

The Hejaz had been decimated by the Arab invasion, dozens of towns destroyed by fanatics now convinced that "nomadic life" was the true will of God. The previous King of Hejaz had been killed and one of his surviving sons now marched with the allied armies invading region. Large groups of well-armed horsemen included Kurds and Cossacks, Sunni Arab and a host of other peoples would not only drive the bedouins from the Hejaz but actively invaded the Najd and other "nomadic" regions destroying entire communities. Urged on not only by governments but by Sunni holy men eager to wipe out the heretic Mahdists, the war turned into outright slaughter as men, women and children of the Najd were being wiped out without discrimination.

By 1893, the Arabs of eastern Palestine, Mahdist or otherwise, were swept from their ancestral home and pushed further and further south into the Najd, where they faced not only war but a nomadic existence they had never prepared for. Others were effectively taken as "captives" to Mesopotamia, their nominal ethnic brethren, where they were ushered into camps and the women and children dispatched throughout the country as servants to those who would "reeducate them" in their households as a community service.

Eventually, this policy would continue even with the nomads of Arabia. The nomadic Arabs would only cling more tightly to their Mahdist faith and strike as often as they could in all directions from their ever-shrinking stronghold in the deserts of Arabia. Only the isolation and the unfamiliarity of the desert by the allied armies would prevent wholesale slaughter of every Arab forced ever closer to the "Empty Quarter" south of the Najd.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1892

Cape Kingdom

Though it took nearly a year for the Dutch Republic to get off its collective ass and do something about the rebellion in the Cape Colony (now internally called the "Cape Kingdom" or "Kingdom of the Cape" depending on who you ask), a dozen warships were scraped up to escort 3500 Dutch troops (and 500 German hired from one of the last petty princes willing to lease his regiments to another power for cash) to the Cape with plans to regain the city.

The Dutch fleet was considered, at best, second tier (probably third tier if they were being honest) in Europe due to the obsolete steamships they possessed but no one expected a major battle at sea as it was assumed (correctly) that the rebels had no naval capability.

Thus, the entire strategy revolved around Dutch naval power ensuring an easy conquest of Cape Town via naval artillery and then allowing the Dutch land forces to engage, hopefully sparking a large amount of loyalist support the Republic hoped actually existed to conquer the rest of the colony.

It turned out that this was something of a false hope as the Cape forces traded artillery at range from fortified redoubts with the Dutch navy. Two of the rickety old Dutch ships were struck and forced to retreat. Eventually, the larger Dutch guns won out but the colonials merely retreated inland a bit and waited.

Almost with resignation, the Dutch commander led his forces into the city. Immediately, the colonials counterattacked on the vulnerable invaders, pinning them in the beaches and in street to street warfare in the city. Desperate pleas for aid to the Navy resulted in some half-hearted shelling which landed as much on the Dutch forces as the Cape.

After two days of attrition, the Dutch withdrew to the ships under heavy cover from the naval guns. Over 500 men were left dead, wounded or captured on the invader's side. Hoping to flank the Africans, the Dutch commander then sought to unload his infantry ten miles west of the city. This he did so in a small cove with relatively ease and alacrity but the colonials only regrouped and faced the Dutch inland a few miles. Bearing virtually no knowledge of the land or cavalry and limited artillery, the Dutch marched in standard formation, initially pushing back the Cape pickets. However, this soon proved to be a trap as the Dutch were caught in a desperate cross-fire between two large hills. They retreated in confusion only to find themselves assaulted by 1200 colonial cavalry. Almost immediately, the Dutch broke and ran for the coast. Six hundred made it but the little cove was not adequate for swift recovery even IF the navy had immediately dispatched large numbers of longboats to the shore (which it didn't). In the end, 400 of the six hundred Dutch and German troops to make it to the cove were eventually swept up by the colonials as they casually reassumed control.

Of the original 4000 soldiers, 500 had been lost in Cape Town and 2300 of the 2500 sent ashore in the second wave failed to return (most captured). That left 1200 utterly disheartened and defeated soldiers on board the ships. Almost immediately, mutinies rose aboard two of the ships and it took the threat of a nearby warship firing upon the transports to bring the soldiers to heel....after they'd thrown their weapons, powder, munitions and other goods overboard.

Both the Admiral in command the highest ranking Army officer still breathing and free would agree that the campaign was over. A short debate as to what to do next would take place as both hoped to save their careers by some act. They determined to sail north along the coast to Walvis Bay, an isolated town surrounded by desert which was nevertheless a potential merchant fleet resupplying destination.

This town of a few hundred souls fell without a fight (indeed, they had not even thrown their lot in with the Cape peoples as of yet, at least not officially). Two hundred soldiers were deposited as a garrison and a couple of vessels (including one of the damaged ships) were left to protect the harbor.

The Dutch then sailed for home bringing an end once and for all the remnant of ambition among the Dutch for Empire. Like Portugal, Courland, Sweden, Denmark and Britain before them, the Dutch Republic would have to accept its place in the world as a prosperous but largely unimportant little nation.

Over the remainder of 1892, Walvis Bay would be occupied by the Dutch but, in the Treaty of New York 1893, the last bit of the Dutch Empire was given up.

As it would turn out the expedition would not be a full waste of time. Stopping in the Ashanti Kingdom for water and firewood, the civilian leader of hired Dutch transport ships would not that the Ashanti were rapidly expanding their cocoa trees and, within a few years, the ensuing trade agreements would see a vast proliferation of cocoa across Europe, challenging even the cocoa production of the West Indies. The "Royal Ashanti" Company had a full monopoly on export (the company being owned 50% by the Ashanti King and 50% by Dutch investors) and made steady profits for the next half century before its de-chartering.

The Najd (Arabia)

Throughout 1892 and 1893, large armies of Europeans, Egyptians, Levantines, Turks, Mesopotamians and their proxies would ravage the central and eastern Arabian peninsula in a wave of shocking violence and cruelty. Women and children captured were, in effect, exported as house servants "under training" (i.e. slaves) to Mesopotamian gentry. Out of a relatively low population of 700,000, nearly 125,000 Arabian men, women and children were killed and another 120,000 were "exported" to Mesopotamia. This represented nearly 40% of the population of the the Najd. Many of the remaining nomads were forced to migrate to the Hejaz, Yemen, Oman and the coastal regions where nomadic life was no longer possible. Perhaps 200,000 would permanently resettle in those regions.

The slaughter was reported in western newspapers and labeled a "genocide" by reporters. Hearing word of the events, the Egyptian Khedive, though HIS nation had been attacked by Mahdists years prior, was so disgusted that he ordered his own forces to withdraw. The Turks, eager to maintain the good will of their neighbors, continued to offer troops in support of Russia, the Levantine nations and Mesopotamia.

Even after the discovery that less than half of the nomadic peoples of the Levant had ever even converted to Mahdism. Indeed, the Kings of Hejaz, Yemen and Oman would similarly refuse entry to any Mahdists and most of the Arabs swore that they never abandoned Sunnism.

But the remaining Najd tribals would continue to fight and draw the ire of the coalition of nations seeking to wipe them out. More raids were made upon Mecca and Medina, raising tempers to the point that even Persia offered troops to end the sacrilege, but Shia soldiers were politely declined.

As the Omani and Yemenese Kings worshiped unique types of Islam, their own acceptance of these Sunnis would soon wane and occasionally were evict those who did not conform to their own Muslim Dogma. Here, the death would not end until LONG after the war ended as persecution continued far from western eyes.

Eventually, within the decade, Mahdism was effectively stamped out as a large force and the Najd divided into three distinct Kingdoms centered around "reliable" appointed Kings who knew their place.

Palestine, East of the Jordan River

The Palestinian forces were no less vicious against their own Mahdist Arabs. Of the estimated 120,000 Arabs east of the Jordon, perhaps 22,000 were killed and 18,000 "relocated" to Mesopotamia. Another 10,000 fled for other nations (mostly non-Mahdists or Mahdists who wisely publicly gave up the faith). In an attempt at reconciliation, the King of Palestine would "invite" the remaining Arabs back west of the Jordan River in dozens of "planned communities". In reality, these places were purposefully divided throughout the country to dilute the Arab influence in any region and allow the state and other faiths to keep a close eye out for any hints of "Mahdism". Eventually, the plan worked and the "Arab identity" was laid more and more bare as Arabs tended to assimilate into the European Muslim communities.

By 1895, the Arab Mahdist revolt was considered effectively done beyond the occasional raid by extremists.

Qatar and Bahrain

Over the past centuries, various Arab houses had claimed dominion over the Qatar Peninsula and the island of Bahrain though neither were heavily populated. The ruling house of Qatar had unwisely thrown in with the Mahdists and paid the price as several tribes were effectively ejected from the region.

The Russian "advisor" to the allied coalition would be in charge of breaking up the spoils. While the Najd itself was divided into three nations formed around non-Mahdist tribes, the coastal regions were something else. As the war dragged on in the Najd, the allies, facing a long supply line, would gather supplies from an unlikely source, the recently aggressive and confident Maratha Empire. The Peshwa, who did not like this idea of radical Muslims challenging local authority, agreed to help but desired something in return: land on the Persian Gulf from which to trade.

This had been rejected at first but, as the war dragged down and allies retreated, the bills of the Maratha were left unpaid. The Russian "advisor", tasked with establishing a new order as well as keeping good relations with the Marathas, found himself without any funds to pay them. Thus, he deemed the largely vacant island of Bahrain and peninsula of Qatar adequate payment, something the rich Peshwa was willing to take in kind.

In short order, the Peshwa would order 50,000 Maratha citizens to these lands to settle and protect the acquisitions. Initially intended as naval bases, these lands would soon prove disappointing in that regard but trade alone with the Near East justified the existence of the colonies. It would be another half century, however, before the Marathas learned of the TRUE value of these lands lay in the natural gas below the sands.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1893

Bombay

Having fled the Kingdom of British North America to escape the prosecutors, the career criminal Adam Werth made it to Bombay in 1893. Within weeks, the fiftyish Jew had formed his own brigade of pickpockets, thieves and burglars. Soon he became known as the "King of Bombay's" criminal underworld and he commenced higher-scale robberies and branched out into other crimes.

By happenstance, the American Jew met the Scottish writer Arthur Doyle who proceeded to base the character "Professor Moriarty" upon the infamous citizen.

The Cameroes Territory, East India Company

The region north of the Congo River had largely been unexplored to any great extent beyond Terra de Liberes Christian preachers who sought to oppose the modest inroads being made by Islam in the interior.

However, the East India Company, seeing great profits in the Congo, would seek to expand the seemingly endless bounty brought by rubber, palm oil, cocoa and now bananas getting exported from tropical regions. The East India Company would effectively throw out most of the missionaries and expand as far inland as they could, forcing the native Bantu and Pygmies into servitude similar to the Congo.

However, the coming decade would prove less profitable than they thought as massive rubber production expansion in Malaya (another EIC realm now being repopulated partially by Marathas and Africans), Sumatra (another EIC region), the Maratha Empire and Brazil would cut margins steadily until the early years of the coming century when synthetic rubber was formulated.

Perhaps the long-lasting development of this expansion was that the Terra de Leberes Protectorate preachers would complain to their French "Protectors" about this treatment. Though France would hardly care overly much about some injured feelings, the French Government remained stung about the defeat to the EIC in Southern Africa. They began to consider expanding alliances along the old Gold, Slave, Pepper and Ivory Coast regions which were now being encroached upon by the EIC.

Black African anti-EIC feeling, French resentment and the Catholic Church would unite to rapidly expand the French Protectorate from Senegambia to Dahomy. Many of the African Kingdoms, seeing the EIC treating their southern neighbors like slaves (and worse, casting out the ruling classes), would agree to the same mild terms offered by the French Foreign office.

France did not particularly want to oversee such a huge expanse of land thus the "Great French Father" would allow local self-government and only interfered when internal wars were threatened or if the EIC dared attempt to "expand their influence".

Indeed, French aid in the form of remarkable gifts (really modern trinkets) would help the coastal Christian missionaries (mostly Catholic but some Protestant) to convert the inland Bamana Empire (southwestern Mali) and coastal Kaabu Empires (southern Senegambia) from ancestor worship. This would be pivotal in halting the rapid expansion of Islam into the region.

By 1900, most of the coastal regions of western African south of the Gambia River were rapidly converting to Christianity and this was expanding inland to those states who had once prospered in the slave trade only to find the regional economy completely changed.

Some French "Protectorates" like Senegambia would resent this bias treatment towards Christianity and organize an opposition.

Java

For the past two years, Gotfried "Fritz" Van Daalen had viciously repressed any insurrection against Company rule. Tens of thousands had been killed by his ruthless squad of soldiers and police. Entire villages wiped out. When a rebellion in the capital of Batavia arose in 1893, the reprisals cost the lives over over 10,000 Javans. Crops went uncollected and countless thousands more died of starvation and disease.

The unrest would continue for years.

Kingdom of Northumberland

After years of work, First Lord William Gladstone of Northumberland would expand the franchise in Northumberland to about 60% of adult males, now the highest ratio in Britain.

Kingdom of Wessex

For over a century, the former ruling house of the whole of Britain (and Ireland) had seen their realms reduced to southeast Britain in the Kingdom of Wessex. Over time, the assorted Kings would reestablish Parliament in the mode of the old British Parliament. But the same old problems were cropping up as only a small amount of the population had the vote. The most recent King, the oddly named Charles III (apparently his father had a sense of humor), would actively support the increase of the franchise, expanding this above 50% of adult males in 1893, oddly the same time as Northumberland was expanding the franchise.

The other Kingdoms of Britain would begin seeing agitation as well for greater participation in political life.

Isle of Mann

With the fall of Britain over a century prior, the ownership of the Isle of Mann went from the King of England to the King of France (not France itself). Having little use for the region after initial hopes of having a valuable naval base proved fruitless, the French Kings largely forgot about the area and left the natives to their own lives under a nominal French governor.

Since the 1850's, the governors had been a succession of family members of the Franco-Manx Brousseaux family, one of whose daughters married the famous Manx Giant, Arthur Caley, who had taken a job as a clerk in the administration.

The King of France, Louis XIX, would offer the island in permanent fief to his youngest son, Francis, a bookish and somewhat anxious youth who desired nothing more than to be removed from Paris where courtiers fawned over him. Desiring only to retreat to a safe place to write his bad poetry and poorly constructed historical epics, young Francis happily boarded the ship for the Isle of Mann.

Thomas Brousseaux, the current governor, feared the young man intended to assume direct power but nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, the French prince merely retreated to a remote castle (which was rapidly reconstructed) and the Prince allowed to return to his scholarly pursuits (his family sent him as many reading materials as he desired in hopes of keeping him out of Paris).

The "Prince of Mann" would nevertheless prove popular with the Manx peoples. He personally was given credit for saving the Manx Sheepdog when he took an interest in the fading beast and arranged for some two dozen local farmers to interbreed the animals who were left. Indeed, the Prince made the Manx Sheepdog the "national animal" much as he made the White-tailed Eagle the national bird and purposely build and paid for hundreds of roosts to be built for the great birds. He would also reintroduce red deer to the island.

Though he only slowly learned the Manx language which had, in the past 130 years, been reestablished as the sole official language of the Isle of Mann (though French and English were usually taught as second languages), he eventually DID learn it. This was another reason why only local men had served as Governor-General in recent decades.

The Prince also had interests in heraldry, history and assorted cultural avenues and would actively encourage the population to explore their Gaelic roots and established large numbers of parks and protected lands throughout the island, often paying for them from his "allowance" from France. It was primarily in these regions that the 60 red deer he introduced in 1895 took root and prospered (he would introduce dozens more in future years to keep the gene pool viable).

When the Prince died 70 years later at the venerable age of 94, he was considered among the most beloved monarchs in Europe...and almost completely forgotten by his French family, a state of affairs which suited him equally as well.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1894

Wuhan, China

Gustave Eiffel had spent years designing and engineering bridges, canals and buildings throughout the world. However, he would receive enormous authority by his new employer, the Mandarin Emperor, Tasked with producing dozens of bridges, etc, the engineer had spent years designing huge bridges across the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, something never before accomplished.

When the first major bridge was completed in 1894, Eiffel would proudly lead the Emperor himself across the only non-pontoon bridge ever build along the main expanse of the Yangtze River in history.

Though it was a windy day, the Emperor's delight was obvious. Having barely reached the other side, a series of great gusts would blow up and, to Eiffel's horror, he looked back as the middle of the bridge collapsed, killing thousands of revelers as they plunged to the waters below.

Eiffel effectively fainted from the scale of the disaster and only woke to see the twisted face of a Chinese courtier as he plunged a knife into Eiffel's chest. Two days later, Eiffel woke in a hospital. The wound itself was not fatal but infection nearly finished him. It would be explained by one of the French consulate employees who visited that the Chinese who stabbed him had watched his wife and children die in the collapse of the bridge. He'd already been executed.

The Mandarin had considered doing the same to Eiffel as well. Only the intervention of the French consulate had prevented this. Eiffel had been ordered out of the country the moment he could travel and the Consular ardently recommended that Eiffel depart that very night. Indeed, only hiding Eiffel in this remote hospital had kept a mob from tearing him apart.

With a heavy heart, Eiffel would be carried away by barge, knowing his name would go down in infamy for hubris.

Poland

Though the new King of Poland had withdrawn most of the Jewish suppressions, the exodus of Polish Jews continued as years of anti-Jewish feeling among the Poles would hardly die overnight. With safer alternatives now available in Southern Africa, Palestine, Syria, the Berber Kingdom, Mesopotamia and large swathes of the Americas now accepting (if not always welcoming) Jews, nearly 100,000 Jews per year would depart Poland (and adjacent lands), with emigration now exceeding the birthrate and the Jews, who once made up 10% of Poland's population, had dropped all the way to 5.9% in the past few decades and would continue to fall.

Kingdom of North America

With the rise of Unions, several large-scale strikes would occur throughout America. These included the Pullman strike in Chicago among overworked rail workers and 20,000 textile workers in Brooklyn.

Manchester, Northumbria

For years, the inland city of Manchester thrived despite its geographic isolation. Now, William Gladstone would inaugurate the Manchester Canal which gave the city an outlet to the Irish Sea. This would allow Manchester to continue its growth.

Having committed one last great act in service of the King of Northumbria, William Gladstone would retire from active politics. He would accept a Knighthood from the King of Northumbria and allow his son to assume the position of First Lord of the Treasury of the Kingdom of Northumbria.

By happenstance, Benjamin D'Israeli would resign on the same day from his own office. He barely managed to retain the Foreign Secretary-ship under the latest First Lord of British North America after Abbott retired in 1890 and managed to alienate the new Ministry as much as the last.

By happenstance, D'Israeli and Gladstone would meet in London in 1895 and strike up a "great friendship".

 

[Alt History Buff]

1895

Honolulu

In the years since America acquired title of Hawaii from her inadequate Russian ruler King Ivan (now dead leaving behind a litany of debts America was on the hook for), the struggle to stabilize American rule over the island chain. A series of Royal Governors and official administrators would attempt to placate the population even as they consolidates power.

There were plenty who resisted, particularly among the more remote Hawaiians who had been granted a great deal of autonomy under the Russians over the past century, but America also brought opportunity. American trade would vastly exceed Russian (or King Ivan's) within a few years. Exports flourished and, unlike the previous King (or Czar), the Americans authorized the formation of a "Governor's Council" in the mid 1880's followed by a Territorial Parliament in the 1890's. By this point, the population was expanding due to American immigration from the mainland along with lesser amounts of immigration from other American Pacific Islands, Tikhookeaskoya, Bourbonia and, surprisingly, even some Asiatics, mainly Chinese, Maratha and Filipino. The latter would find resentment among both the Russian and Hawaiian communities and Asiatic immigration was effectively banned by the 1890's.

1895 would see the arrival of a new governor. The American Parliamentarian Theodore Roosevelt, having spent several years earlier as Territorial governor of Pannonia and was personally requested by the First Lord James Blaine to assume the Governorship of a group of Islands....thousands and thousands of miles away from Manhattan where Roosevelt made himself such a annoyance. Bringing his second wife and five children (his youngest would be born in Hawaii), Roosevelt would actually enjoy his political exile.

The influx of American migration allowed the formation of the territorial Parliament as it assured the territorial governor of at least a modicum of support. But, in truth, there was little violent resistance as the Russian traders which dominated the cities found greater opportunities and the Hawaiians who controlled most of the hinterlands would find the growing export market for tropical goods like bananas, coconut and pineapple quite lucrative. Attempts would be made to expand the sugar industry but these would fail once the Asiatic immigration slowed and reversed by government policy, thus depriving the labor-intensive industry of willing workers.

Theodore Roosevelt's eleven-year-old daughter Alice became fast friends with Edmund Cook, the great-great grandson of James Cook, an English sailor who had settled on the island a hundred years prior.

French Spice Islands, East Indies

The French acquisition of the Spice Islands east of Java had taken years to consolidate but swiftly enough the islands returned to normalcy. These were a diverse group: Bali remained Hindu, Lombok and Sumbawa were predominantly Muslim while Timor and the majority of the eastern Islands were mainly Christian.

The French governors would attempt to assert control over the region by encouraging migration of Polynesian settlers from Bourbonia, some minor French immigration and contract laborers from the Maratha Empire (mostly Hindu as the French wanted to balance out the Muslim influence in Sumbawa and Lombok).

The Spice Islands would be steadily profitable under the French as they had under previous Portuguese, Dutch and EIC control but would hardly become a vital part of the French economy.

Malay Peninsula

Having been partially depopulated during the previous war, the EIC assumed control over the Malay Peninsula with the intent of massively improving the agricultural exports of rubber and palm oil as well as rapidly developing the mining industry (tin being the most vital).

However, the native Malays were hardly considered overly industrious and ill-suited for hard labor. Thus the EIC brought in huge numbers of Africans, Marathas, Sumatrans, Burmese, Siamese, Viets and Chinese to work the fields and mines, to provide skilled labor in the towns (doctors, craftsmen, etc) and effectively became the new merchant class. There was a small European contingent as well, mostly in administration, banking and the military, but would remain almost invisible.

Malaya would swiftly exceed any profits the EIC had lost in the Spice Islands and surpassed Sumatra and Java.

As it would happen, Java remained a dire problem.

Java

Over the course of the past years, the Javan rebellion had been suppressed, smashed...only to rise again and again. The casualties among the Javans would rise from hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands eventually to hundreds of thousands and Company forces, frustrated with the ongoing revolt, resorted to harsher and harsher methods.

The economy continued to struggle as crops were not collected and the rubber and palm oil plantations proved active recruiting grounds for the rebellion.

With increasing savagery, General Van Daalen would let loose his gangs of soldiers, police and thugs upon suspected rebel villages. Soon want and disease would begin claiming more Javans than direct battle.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1896

March

Manhattan

Against all expectations, James Blaine would NOT be recommended for a second term of office as First Lord. Blaine had suffered a modest recession in which he was lambasted by BOTH ends of the political spectrum. Exhausted with it all, Blaine would resign from Parliament entirely and return to Sagahatock.

A first brawl emerged for leadership of the nation. William Jennings Bryan of Lusitania became the darling of the "Free Silver" movement but that was getting to be a dead issue as the money supply had been consistently expanded over the years. William McKinley of Ohio was a staunch protectionist. Labor had its own candidates.

Finally, out of compromise, Parliament settled upon a "Dark Horse", Charles Tupper of Nova Scotia who offended no one. The King shrugged and accepted the "recommendation" and called Tupper to office.

April

Athens

Having invited the world to Athens, the King of Greece inaugurated the first modern Olympic Games. Over 45 nations dispatched athletes to Athens where over 24 traditional sports which would be familiar to the ancient Greeks were played along with modern games. A sparkling success, the Games would reoccur in 1900. There was some debate if the games should be held in different cities in the future but, as the King of Greece had convinced the government to fund proper venues for the games (some in remnants of arenas build some thousands of years prior), there seemed no reason to change the tradition of the games in Athens.

Indeed, dozens of new hotels would be built for the games with the expectation that they would be abandoned shortly thereafter. However, the Games provided a gateway to the world which would make Athens an epicenter of world tourism and many of these hotels would actually remain viable businesses in the coming years.

By the early 20th century, only Paris and Rome would see more foreign tourists than Athens.

August

Manila

Andres Bonifacio had spent his entire life under the flag of the Mandarin Emperor. Given a moderately good education, Bonifacio would learn Mandarin, English and German while working for various trading companies allowed to operate in Luzon.

The middle level trading clerk would become politically active, joining other Filipinos in their agitation for independence. Rebellions had been tried before, particularly among the Muslim population of Mindanao, all to no avail. Indeed, the Chinese were so vicious in suppression the Mindanao revolts that hundreds of thousands were killed and then replaced by forced emigration of Catholic Luzonite Filipinos and, of course, Chinese) to the southern island.

By 1896, people of Chinese extraction made up nearly 25% of the islands' population (mostly on the two largest islands of Luzon and Mindanao) and overwhelmingly dominated commerce and government. These Chinese-Filipinos were mainly the Mestizos of Chinese and Filipino parentage (about 3/4's of the "Chinese Filipino" population) as, during the Spanish Period, most Chinese immigrants to the nation were male and intermarried with native women. Only when China assumed control did Chinese women arrive in any great numbers. A disproportionate number of the migrants during the Mandarin Period went to either Mindanao or the environs of the city of Manila on Luzon.

The latest census revealed that the island chain comprised of roughly 71% Christian Filipinos, 4% Muslim Filipinos (mostly on Mindanao), 19% Chinese-Filipino Mestizos and 6% "Pure" Chinese (again, mainly on Mindanao and the city of Manila). A not-insignificant number of the Chinese-Filipino Mestizos were willing to support the call for independence or autonomy.

Bonifacio and his comrades were furious as the Chinese colonial arrogance and sought his nation's liberation. The secret society would gather weapons and finally declare a revolution, seizing several key munition depots and fortifications. As the Chinese garrisons had largely been withdrawn over the years on Luzon due to the continued peace, the initial success shocked virtually everyone. The city of Manila fell quickly.

However, old resentments soon cropped up and the victors commenced plundering the homes of the Chinese civilians and those of the Mestizos, the latter outraging a key community Bonifacio was counting upon for support. Thousands were murdered in the streets as Bonifacio's rebellion turned to carnage despite the leader's ardent calls for order.

Bonifacio knew it was only a matter of time before the Chinese retaliate.

September

Territory of Southern Africa, City of Witwatersrand

Now years in retirement, former General George Custer spent much of his time hunting in the northern wastes (ignoring the hostile African tribes at the fringe of EIC territories), attending the horse-races now famous in Southern Africa and, of course, gambling in Witwatersrand with his old friends the Earp, James, Nietzsche and Smith families.

All four families had been well-represented in the early "American" regiments hired by the East India Company and had prospered for it. Rather than mining, the Earps had gained a fortune in saloons, gambling dens and whorehouses. The James' would actually enter the banking business, making a fortune in effective predatory lending. The Nietzsches would become close friends with the James' and partake in the banking business as well. The Smiths, Henry Smith and Princess Tara of British North America, were in business with Cecil Rhodes and the de Rothchild interests in forming a near monopoly on diamond mining.

Of course, some members of this "Extended Family" would go their separate ways:

Libby Custer finally left George after his "second family" with his African mistresses were made public and the mulatto children adopted the Custer name. It was bad enough when Thomas Custer married a Mongrol Asian-Portuguese mix and Boston Custer married a "lapsed Jew" but the shame of seeing her husband's bastard mulatto children strutting around Witwatersrand was too much and Libby retreated to their country estate, rarely leaving for the rest of her life. George was NOT invited to visit.

Frederick Nietzsche's sister and her husband cut ties with Frederick as she positively loathed Jews and associated Frederick's banking with "Jewish" work.

Poor John Holiday died of consumption several years prior.

In truth the old "gang" was getting older by the day. But the East India Company had been good to this family, making them wealthy and powerful. Indeed, having retired a full General, Custer was honored by having the main street of Witwatersrand named after him.

But, as later generations would sing out, "mo money.....mo problems". The assorted families were constantly being sued in the EIC courts and finally had to resort to hiring solicitors. They chose some recent arrivals in Southern Africa, a pair of Maratha brothers named Laxmidas and Mohandes Gandhi. Both had an oddly international education. Laxmidas worked for several years in Batavia for the East India Company, settling internal disputes. He managed to get his younger brother Mohandes into the University of Batavia and Mohandes was called to the EIC bar shortly before the troubles arrived in Java.

Not particularly interested in going back to the Subcontinent where the old laws had hardly been updated in centuries, the brothers accepted an offer to practice in Southern Africa by the Custer family, who were in the middle of several property, civil and legal disputes. Unlike Africans or Jews (both VERY unpopular in Southern Africa these days), the Marathas were usually welcomed as traders, skilled workers or laborers, all high in demand in Southern Africa. Unlike the brothers' perception of the Maratha Empire, the EIC actually attempted to dictate laws for the betterment of the people and Marathas were held in legal equality to the other denizens of Southern Africa.

Both men would swiftly find a great deal of work and Custer, who enjoyed "foreign peoples" greatly, accepted the turban-capped Marathas into his circle of friends. Within a few years, the Gandhi brothers would become famous litigators and partners in what would be considered the best Vegan restaurant in Witwatersrand.

By 1895, the brothers had summoned their wives across the Indian Ocean (the entire family being excommunicated from their caste for doing so) and settled in Southern Africa permanently.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1897

Manhattan

The "Franklin Polymath Society" which had been named after the famous Benjamin Franklin and included luminaries such as Joel Poinsett, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, Elijah Gray, Alexander Graham Bell and (inducted in 1896) George Washington Carver. In 1897, they would welcome the writer, mathematician and inventor Lewis Carroll of Northumbria. Carroll emigrated to America a decade earlier to work in Edison's shop in Detroit only to walk away after a few years tired of the man's antics.

He moved to Brooklyn, then on to East Florida where had wrote, invented and taught at East Florida University.

Detroit

1897 would see the transformation of both the Ford Company and Jellinek Motors from low-volume suppliers of racing cars into volume manufacturers producing hundreds of vehicles. Jellinek, with is investor friends the Maxim Brothers, Hiram Walker and George Westinghouse, would purchase the Olds Company while Ford would (with the Dodge Brothers and Thomas Edison) extend his own operations in Detroit.

Ford, over the next decade, would take the early lead in manufacturing efficiency while Jellinek would stake his reputation on attractive vehicles.

Java

By 1897, the rebellion in Java was so widespread that even the most vicious of reprisals seemed to fail to stamp it out. Thousands died just of direct battle each month while ten times that would expire of disease or want. Running short of funds, the East India Company began to offer plunder to the foreign soldiers they hired in Java. Women were "free for the taking" while the soldiers were allowed to carry off whatever pitiful possessions they could take.

Manila

The Chinese reaction to the Filipino revolt was slow in coming but not weak in resolve. 10,000 Chinese soldiers arrived in 1897. After a few brief battles, the outgunned Filipino rebels were forced to abandon the city. However, conquering the entire island of Luzon would not be possible with the forces at hand. Instead, the Chinese garrisoned Manila and appeared satisfied for the moment for the revolt to burn itself out.

Honolulu

Young Writer Jack London would arrive in Honolulu where he sought out inspiration for his future stories. Several books would be written over the next few years as London became friends with Governor-General Roosevelt and the famous Cook family (a few of which were learning English after a century of speaking Russian).

London would be among the first to translate the Hawaiian language into English (oddly, no one had bothered before) and enjoy the people immensely.

Eventually, London would move on to Bourbonia, where he was certain more adventure awaited.

Boston

While the overall American public tolerated the arrival of Catholics in America, New England remained staunchly anti-Catholic. Several cities, including Boston, effectively banned Catholics of living in large parts of the city by indirectly allowing property owners to refuse sale or rent of residences to the Irish and other Catholics. An expression went around Boston "A Negro before a Chinaman, a Chinaman before a Jew, a Jew before the Devil and the Devil incarnate before an Irishman".

South Boston soon proved to be the only open destination for the Irish in the city and even here street gangs aligned by Faith waged almost permanent war.

Patrick Kennedy, a son of Irish immigrants, would attempt to sow an understanding between Protestant and Catholic after being elected to the Boston City Council from his South Boston neighborhood. For his efforts, all three of his taverns in South Boston were burned to the ground. Lacking insurance and receiving multiple threats to his family, the Irishman moved his family to East Florida, which had a reputation as being more tolerant to Catholics.

Over the following generation, the Kennedys would become known in the city of Fort Myers as prosperous tavern keepers as Patrick Kennedy was forced to put his son Joseph to work early as a bartender rather than send him to college as he'd one day dreamed. However, the family would gain local fame when Patrick's grandson was elected mayor of Fort Myers in 1945.

In the meantime, the religious discord would grow to such an extent that South Boston applied to be broken off from the rest of the city into its own polity. While there was support among the Protestant north and Catholic south, the government of Massachusetts forbade this.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1898

Manhattan

In 1898, the territories of Raetia and Pannonia would seek Dominion status, these northwestern territories among the last in the nation likely to ever achieve Dominion-hood (the far northern territories would likely never bear significant populations or be capable of governing themselves).

King Alfred I would happily accept Parliamentary recommendation that the Territories be approved and they would hold special elections in the fall of 1898.

Of course, this would cause a commotion over yet another territory with the necessary population to attain Dominion-hood. Hawaii actually exceeded both Raetia and Pannonia in population but was so recently acquired that only a third of the population was "anglo", the others being Russian or Hawaiian (mainly). The political situation was so tense that it was a miracle that Hawaii even reached a consensus to have a territorial Parliament.

Governor-General Theodore Roosevelt, between surfing lessons, would encourage the Russians and Hawaiians to cooperate towards Dominion status as it would serve their interests quite well.

Saint Frantsisk, Tikhookeaskoya

After years of ruling via "Royal Council's", the King of Tikhookeaskoya would finally accept the need for a Duma. With all the neighboring Kingdoms possessing some form of Parliament (even the Viceroyalities of Spain!), the Tikhooeaskoya King summoned a Duma in which nearly half the adult men of the realm could vote.

Among the new Duma representatives was Sam Clemons, now aging and among the most famous men in the Kingdom. In truth, Clemons would hate being a politician so much that he resigned within a year to allow his son Ivan to take his place. Clemons called accepting the election results the worst mistake of his life.