Can you hear the drums Giuseppe? - Las camisas rojas en México

Prelude

Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
Teaser for TL I may write when I'm back from mis vacaciones. BTW trigger warnings on all kinds of racism



Oscar Wilde, commenting on "The Death of General Lee", a poem by T.F Dixon.

Those poor confederates, they were so far from God, and so close to Garibaldi. It would take a heart of stone not to laugh.

John Campbell, address at fundraising meeting in aid of the American League for White Neighbourliness, July 1871, Chicago.

A spectre stalks the Americas. Ragged, ill-shod, hungry, it walks with stumbling yet implacable gait. In hands made rough from the tools of rightful labour - the hoe, pick and shovel - are clasped those fearsome implements of destruction, the rifle and the pamphlet. In a pitch-black face, bloodied teeth grin horribly through thick negro lips, while the cunning eyes of the zambo flicker to-and-fro in search of that which may be defiled; order, law, property or womanhood. The apparition wears torn and sullied breeches, and a blouse dyed scarlet not with carmine, but with the ichor of the white race. It is the spectre of servile insurrection, a promethean Toussaint Louverture raised by those mad necromancers Garibaldi and Engels, who have already loosed its horror upon their erstwhile masters.

[...]

In these Americas, what white Michael will cast down the Satan of equalism? Whence the Columbian George to slay the dragon of Communism? He shall come from here, from these United American States. He shall ride a pale horse, and his name, his name shall be Custer.


Antenor Firmin-Memoire de la guerre mexicaine.

MuralIglesiaIxmiqui.jpg

San Miguel de Ixmiquilpan

It was in Ixmiquilpan, in the January of 1868, that we first crossed paths with the Confederados. The town seemed to us Haitians, already nostalgic for the verdant countryside of our homeland, to be in a desert so arid as to make human civilisation impossible. Only later we would learn the true meaning of the word "desert". Ixmiquilpan lies a mere 150km north of the city of Mexico, but most of the country thereabouts remained under the control of the "djab blan". The town had been host to a small infantry garrison at the time of the invasion, which had refused to surrender the plaza to the troops of General Forrest. Given the time and losses which would be required to dislodge an entrenched enemy, and the city's isolated geographical position, the decision was taken to let sleeping dogs lie. Forrest did not foresee that the city would become a focal point in the resistance of the Guerrilla, and so a year later Lee had made the decision to take the town. In this he was successful, but for the ancient church of St Michel, which the Mexicans had made strong and, by the time we arrived, valiantly defended for three months.

We were operating in a combined Brigade, under Engels, with the English and West Indian volunteers and some Colombians and Venezuelans, alongside 60 or so Guerrilla scouts lent to us by Diaz. From these hard and cunning little men, we knew we out-numbered the djab by at least 4 to 1, but that they were in the process setting up 3 artillery pieces that would surely breach the strong walls of the old Spanish mission. Colonel Hippolyte and Engels, who spoke excellent French, quickly discussed our options, and it was agreed that a surprise attack would allow us the best opportunity of taking the guns with minimal losses. We left the infantry behind, and advanced briskly towards the foe. Engels, in those early days, followed Hippolyte's advice on matters of tactics to the word. A cynic might say that once again it is from the black man's genius and labour that the white man's fame is made. But it is also true that it was Engels' energy that raised our troops, and the profits, and eventually the sale, of his factories that armed us.

What a sight we must have seemed to the confederados, black men in the colours of the Negro Republic charging them from behind with swords raised in terrible determination. To be just I must also recognise the white horsemen and the Spaniards showed as much righteous fury against the slave-drivers as we did. They had not the time even to surrender before we were among them slashing, and we would not have wished that they had.

Afterwards the Mexicans came out of the mission, thin and grateful, almost unbelieving. They took our Colonel Hippolyte, a mulatto, and showed him an old mural inside the church. It was the archangel Michael, they said, but he was dressed in the skin of a jaguar, and held the weapons of an Indian brave. His foes, who were at once white men and devils, fell before this coffee-skinned warrior. The resemblance of saint and soldier was truly striking. Around the picture were dozens of candles, one, I later found, for every man in the church. The men were crying. "Te llamamos, y viniste", we called you and you came.

It was that day, I think, that I began to love this America.



Firmin-antenor.gif

Firmin c. 1900
 
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Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
Let me guess: the CSA won the ACW, the Union went red and Mexico stayed Imperial... France helped Dixie as POD?

Not quite, the POD is confederate victory, due to French aid. But this is actually a spin off of the confederate invasion of Mexico thread. The confederates invade Mexico in the mid-late 1860's, and there is a mobilisation of "progressive" forces in defence of Mexico due to, well, the evil. The union is not red, neither is Mexico, but the reds are in Mexico.
 
(CSA) Extract 1: The Siege of Sumter and the French

Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
Extract from 'A visit to Fort Sumter' by Giuse Blenkinsop. An article in the Manchester Guardian history section, 1993.

The stalemate in Charleston continued throughout the Spring of 1861, until Lincoln was faced with a stark choice: either Fort Sumter would be resupplied or it would fall. On the 14th of April he advised Governor Pickens of South Carolina that an attempt to resupply the fort would be made, and that should it be allowed unmolested, no further effort to resupply with men or arms would be made. The Governor, without consulting Jeff Davis, gave written assurances that, if resupply were “restricted to vitals and such” then he had no objection to the landing. General Beauregard, confederate commander in Charleston, was furious at this development, but Pickens was adamant that he had given his word and Davis felt that he lacked authority and political support to countermand the order.


The resupply on the 20th of April was uneventful, but Confederate military observers noted what looked suspiciously like barrels of blackpowder and shot being unloaded from the Northron sloop. When challenged on the question in a letter dated the 22nd, Lincoln replied that Pickens had specified “vitals” not “victuals”, and therefore minimal military supplies were covered in the agreement. Lincoln would ever more be known as Dishonest Abe.


It was now clear that no further resupply of Fort Sumter would be possible, as Beauregard had vowed he would “fire or be damned” on any ship attempting to reach Sumter. By late June, conditions on the island fort were again becoming uncomfortable, with rations reduced and no end to the siege in sight. Major Robertson declared that, unless resupply was permitted, he would fire on any ship attempting to enter Charleston. On the morning of the 27th, a French steamer, the Medeah, attempted to enter the bay carrying a cargo of Moroccan leather, the fort fired two warning shots. Medeah’s captain, with impressive sang-froid, signalled “understood”, turned tail, and sailed for Savannah.


The French government’s reaction was swift and unambiguous. The ambassador to Washington, Monsieur Mercier travelled immediately to Richmond to present his credentials to Jefferson Davis, leaving his deputy to hand a telegram from France to William Seward, Lincoln’s Secretary of State. The telegram declared that any further aggression against French property would result in the Empire of France declaring war on the United States of America. It further stated that, given France’s economic and cultural ties with the sovereign state of Louisiana, France’s interests required that the port of New Orleans remain open to all shipping. Therefore, his majesty’s government advised, the Gulf of Mexico, from Cape Sable onwards, was now closed to the US navy. This blockade would be enforced by His Majesty's Navy, with whatever force necessary. Any attempt on New Orleans would be considered a declaration of war on the Empire of France.


While histories of the Confederate States focus on Lee’s victory at Fairfax as the foundational act of the Slaver Nation, this telegram did much more to break the Union resolve than that bloody day in August 1861.
 
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Art

Monthly Donor
I'm a Garibaldi admirer, have been since I was 14 or so. This is a man who took 1,000 men up against 25,000, in Sicily alone, and 50,000 more is Southern Italy. A cavalry commander on the level of a Bedford Forrest. He could also fight guerrilla style and at sea. A Black Republic declared? Glorious!
 

Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
I'm a Garibaldi admirer, have been since I was 14 or so. This is a man who took 1,000 men up against 25,000, in Sicily alone, and 50,000 more is Southern Italy. A cavalry commander on the level of a Bedford Forrest. He could also fight guerrilla style and at sea. A Black Republic declared? Glorious!

Agreed, Garibaldi is amazing, and also an incredibly moral man. The Negro Republic referred to in Firmin's extract is actually Haiti, but let's just say there will be something you will like on that score.
 
(CSA) Extract 2: The Lincoln/Davis Peace

Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
Extract from 'El reñidero mejicano: Guerra y lucha civil en México, 1866-1885', by Espartaco Lopez Garcia. Chapter one 'Construyendo la hoguera: El contexto panamericano.'

As outlined above, the revisionist tendency to view the War of Resistance and the Social War as part of some epic Great War of the Americas, pitting the forces of progress against those of reaction, is entirely specious. However it is necessary at this juncture to examine in some detail the settlement established between the Northamerican states at the end of their brief Civil War. It is the contradictions within the resolution of this conflict which created a new dialectic leading inevitably to the Mexican wars.

While General Lee's startling victory at Fairfax on the 23rd of August 1861 made it inevitable there would be a partition in some form, the borders and nature of the new entities were far from settled. The resistance of the northern states to conscription, the presence of a Southern army in the vicinity of Washington, and the British recognition of the Confederate state in early September, not only strengthened the Southern negotiating position but emboldened the pro-slavery elements in Maryland, Delaware and Missouri. During the month long peace negotiations in Martinsburg, Virginia, the state legislatures of tiny Delaware and Maryland both declared themselves to be States in Free Association and hastily passed new constitutions. Both stated that "the inalienable rights to Liberty and Property" of the citizens of the states were "outside of the jurisdiction of the United States Government", further stating that US military deployment in the states was forbidden without the consent of the legislatures. This effectively prohibited the abolition of slavery by central government without creating another constitutional crisis.

The situation in Missouri was very different, the population of this vast state was divided between pro-southern and pro-northern elements, with the former in the majority by 3 to 1. However, large parts of the state were, by late 1861, under the effective control of the US Army or, in border areas, militias from neighbouring Kansas known as Jayhawkers. The state government had not seceded but was now under pressure to do so from pro-southern elements. This situation had led to much violence between the various factions during the Spring and Summer of 1861, with notable massacres of civilians occurring at Adrian, Lowry City and Ozark. Complicating the situation, bands of escaped slaves were participating in this internecine violence, leading to much panic amongst whites, southerners and northerners alike. This is the first appearance of that figure which even today haunts the darkest corners of the Northamerican white's imagination; the rebel slave in arms.

Lincoln's determination to keep Missouri is shown by his quiet build up of troops in the area during the negotiations, only noticed and half-heartedly denounced by the Confederates towards the end of proceedings. By that time, Lincoln had ceded all of Virginia, despite the union army controlling 7 or so of its pro-Union western Counties, and Indian territory, as well as promising to respect the pro-slavery status of Delaware and Maryland. In exchange, he refused absolutely to countenance any partition or surrender of New Mexico, with the exception of the towns of Mesilla and Las Cruces and a small barely inhabited area around them, or to give any guarantee whatsoever on Missouri, which would remain a full member of the Union. The Southern delegation accepted this settlement as the best deal that could be obtained without a return to war, though one member, James Seddon, refused to sign the treaty as he viewed it as a betrayal both of the Missourians and the Confederate national interest. The Virginian lawyer gave his opinion as if summarising for a backwoods jury: This peace boxes us in, robs us today of space to grow, tomorrow of space to breathe. That country which does not expand, shall suffer inevitable decay. He who is not busy being born, is busy dying.

There was some merit in Seddon's view. Without Missouri, the confederacy could not expand westwards into the fertile Great Plains, nor could there be any expansion into the Mexican territory taken by the USA in 1848. Upon the signing of the peace treaty, prior to his resignation on Halloween 1861, Lincoln joked 'I will go down in history as the man who lost the south and found the west'. This, of course, meant the Confederacy would have to look elsewhere if it wished to fulfil this perceived imperative to expand, and increasingly it would cast its eyes towards Mexico.

The other result of the Northamerican schism relevant to the Mexican wars is the inflow of French commerce and capital to Louisiana. After the slavers had somewhat dishonestly appealed to the concept of 'States Rights' to justify their secession, several states would push at the bounds of this theoretical autonomy, none more so than...

The Springfield Daily Democrat - 11th November 1861

Lieutenant Clemens horribly Murdered in Jayhawk outrage
Liuetenant Samuel Langhorne Clemens, of the Democratic Militia who has so often graced our pages these last months with his
musings on the state of Missouri and the strange and tragic times in which we live, was horribly murdered last week at Dry Wood
Creek near Liberal. It seems Lieutenant Clemens became separated from his men when a patrol was set on by Jayhawkers. His
mortal remains, we are sad to report, had been outraged in various ways, with a savagery more proper of the heathen Komansh
than so-called
Christians. Our correspondent reliably informs us that these despicable Kansas savages, negroes and sons of
negroes went so far as to unman Lieutenant Clemens, though whether this were done when he were alive...
 
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Extract 3: Engels and Missouri

Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
Letter from August Willich to Friedrich Engels

August_Willich.jpg

17th of July 1862

Olathe, Kansas


Dear Friedrich,

My old comrade and friend, I write to you in the most profound delusion at the blow to the cause of freedom which has occurred in the state of Missouri. I have not felt such desperation at that which could have been since we were in arms together in those heady days of 1848, when the tyrants of Europe reasserted their dominion, writing the terms of our surrender in the blood of the proletariat.

For the last year I have led a band of our countrymen, both born here and in the German lands, in the cause of liberty and the end to that most primal and pure form of capitalist exploitation, chattel slavery. We have ridden the length and breadth of Missouri, fighting against the militias seeking to cause the secession of the state and its incorporation into the slavers’ Confederacy. We have fought bravely, and freed many a slave, some of whom we took back to freedom in Kansas, others choosing to continue the fight as members of our band. While my own motivations in the struggle are to further the goal of Communism, many of my men felt they were doing the work of the American Republic.

My comrades have learned a bitter lesson in the perfidy of the bourgeois. This February, their swinish president, Hamblin the Accidental, ordered the army of the United States of America to ensure the “property rights” of Missouri citizens, in order to placate the very men who would have handed the state to the Confederacy! The property he speaks of is that which no man may own, the lives and labour of free men called slaves, and the land itself, which must be held in common. We are now as bandits, at war with all but the proletariat, striking and burning in the night, we eat what we find, if we find it, we lie down to sleep with the wolves in the wilderness. And yet we fight on…



The Springfield Daily Democrat - 1st September 1862

Three Squarehead Jayhawkers Lynched at Roscoe

Three murdering Jayhawkers of German origin, including the infamous negro-lover Augie Willich, have been
hanged by enraged civilians, after their capture by the Auxiliary Missouri Militia. Now integrated into the
US Army of Missouri under General Grant, the militia….



Pamphlet entitled ‘Slave and Proletarian’, by Friedrich Engels, dedicated to August Willich - 1862

…it is therefore now clear that the slave is not a primitive proletarian in potential but is actually the purest form of proletarian. Slavery and wage labour are not separate historical stages but simultaneously evolve as part of the inevitable development of capitalism, indeed, the slave-driving sugar planters of the Atlantic Islands flourished just as the manufacturers of England began to appropriate surplus value through wage-slavery. The logic of capitalist production means that, wherever sufficient labour can not be attained from free workers who have no means of self-sufficiency, the capitalist will seek to impose slavery. We should not be surprised to see slavery, declared or de facto, expand as the new goldfields, cotton-fields and tea and rubber plantations that will open up as Africa, Asia and South America are integrated into the capitalist mode of production.

The slave is not merely a wretch awaiting manumission, he, or she, is a revolutionary subject, confronted daily by the naked fact of capitalist exploitation and violence. We must place or hopes not just in the factories of Europe, but in the plantations of the Americas for the genesis of world revolution, our movement shall look not merely to the European barricades of 1848, but to the burning plantations of Haiti in 1791. Of course, the slave, like all proletarians, must gain political consciousness; not of the fact of his exploitation, as the social relations of production mean he could not ignore this even if he should be foolish enough to wish so, but of its nature…
 
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Timeline 1: 1861-1863

Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
POD Early April, 1861.

Abraham Lincoln postpones his attempt to resupply Fort Sumter by 10 days, and his more conciliatory tone catches Governor Pickens of South Carolina in a more receptive frame of mind, in the evening after a few drinks.

20th April, 1861

A resupply of Sumter occurs, but Lincoln breaks the agreement not to bring in military material.

20th April to 22 June, 1861

Sumter holds out. Lincoln mobilises a volunteer army to defend the union, in a deeply controversial move. The confederates continue to raise troops and militia confrontations occur in Missouri and Kansas. Virginia secedes from the union in late May.

22nd June- 6th July - The Medeah Incident

The commander of Sumter, with provisions running low, announces he will fire on any ship attempting to reach Charleston, a promise he makes good on by firing at the French steamer, Medeah. The French government recognises the confederacy and declares it will prevent any attack on New Orleans by refusing US Naval access to the Gulf of Mexico.

July and August 1861

Lincoln becomes exceptionally unpopular, with strong secessionist parties in the Delaware and Maryland state legislatures. Missouri is by now in open warfare, with the US Army increasingly deployed alongside Kansas Jayhawkers allied with pro-Union Missourians who are fighting against the pro-Southern majority.

23rd of August 1861 Battle of Fairfax

General Lee's forces met those of Union general McClellan in Fairfax county Virginia, in the only major battle of the Union's abortive invasion of Virginia. Fairfax was a clash between two badly trained armies with insufficient officers. However, Lee's aggressive leadership, and his use of shock cavalry under Nathan Bedford Forrest, carried the day for the Confederacy. The Union army was routed, and the Confederates had a clear path to Washington.

24th of August 1861

The British ambassador advises Lincoln that his government would recognise the Confederacy.

Late August, 1861

It becomes clear there is no stomach or support for further conflict in Washington. Jefferson Davis' overtures for peace are accepted, and the army of Virginia holds 10 miles from Washington.

5th September

Peace negotiations begin in Martinsburg, VA.

17th September

Delaware passes a constitution which declares it to be "in free association" with the United States, and which prohibits the abolition of slavery.

21st September

Maryland passes a constitution with near identical wording to Delaware.

Late September-December, 1861

Pro-slavery elements in Missouri denounce military rule in the state, massacres of pro-southern forces and civilians are common. The Union commander, General grant, is accused of turning a blind eye or even colluding with the Jayhawkers.

9th October, 1861

A peace treaty is signed by Davis and Lincoln, along with their respective vice-presidents and chief justices. The US cedes most of Indian Territory, all of Virginia and Kentucky to the Confederacy, but retains all of New Mexico and Missouri. Lincoln resigns, and leaves Hamlin as President.

December, 1861- February, 1862

Grant, under the orders of Hamlin, reassembles a representative Missouri government in Springfield, taking a much more conciliatory position to the pro-southern faction. A deal is agreed by which the state is allowed to retain slavery on a similar basis to Delaware and Maryland in exchange for full loyalty to the USA. State elections in February are won by the Missouri Democrats.

February, 1862 onwards

Grant conducts a brutal campaign to clear the state of anti-slavery diehards. Much of the black population is killed or re-enslaved. German communist leader Augie Willich is murdered by Grant's troops in August. By late 1863, most rebels and surviving freed slaves have fled the state for Kansas.

December, 1862

In Manchester, inspired by the death of his friend Willich, Frederick Engels writes his legendary pamphlet, Slave and Proletarian, which has instant success. In a significant rupture with Marx, he redefines Marxist thinking on slavery and defends the aspects of anti-capitalist class struggle in the Haitian revolution. This work is soon translated into French.
 
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Extract 4: Interbellum Louisiana

Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
Extract from 'An Englishwoman’s travels amongst the Confederate slavers'. Miss Isabella Bird (1831-1901), published 1866 (Relating her journey through the Confederacy of 1864-1865).


On my first Sunday in New Orleans, I partook in Communion at an Episcopal church, the service much reminding me of that found in the more traditional kind of Anglican parish in England. It had been a somewhat uncomfortable walk of nearly a mile from my lodgings to the Church, as the residents of the better parts of the city are almost entirely Roman Catholic. This is especially true, I am told, since the ‘flight’ of those elements of the populace unreconciled to Confederate independence and the influx of Frenchmen subsequent to it. Whatever the case, even my lightest summer attire left me uncomfortable in the stifling heat of Louisiana, and I resolved to privately interrogate a Creole lady on matters of sartorial practicality as soon as an opportunity presented itself.


Upon retiring to my hotel, I was pleased to find that Mr Du Bois was a man of his word, arriving for our appointment with the customary fifteen minute delay which constitutes punctuality in Louisiana. I was very much interested to observe the festivities at Congo Square, the famous revels of the New Orleans slave on his day of rest. I was also keen to avail myself of the services of Mr Du Bois as an interpreter to converse with these most unfortunate individuals and glean an idea of the conditions of their bondage.


On our journey, we were the recipients of a number of unfriendly glances and even outright stares. This unwelcome attention, I was assured, was intended to ascertain whether Mr Du Bois was a white, or a coloured gentleman. For an unmarried white gentlewoman to be seen strolling with a free man of colour is frowned upon in the respectable parts of New Orleans, though not treated with the same degree of violence as might attend such an occurrence further up the mighty Mississippi. Mr Du Bois is of exceptionally fair complexion, so despite his wavy hair, none could be precisely sure of his ancestry. It is a most arresting thought that, although he might easily pass for a Welshman, I have myself witnessed slaves some degree whiter than Mr Du Bois. It is thus that the slavers compound their evil with absurdity.


We arrived in Congo Square at around four, and I must admit to some apprehension as it was the first time I had seen so many of the African race in one place. The slaves of New Orleans, by custom and law, are free to spend the afternoon of the Lord’s day in whichsoever manner they please. And the manner they please most of all is to dance their sets of quadrille to the tune of their drumming and pipes, as well as their indigenous version of the Spanish guitar, the “banjo”. These dances, or so I had heard, frequently gave way to the African rituals known in Louisiana as “Voudun”. The dancing had not yet started in earnest, but there were many musicians playing “breakdowns”, in which a skilled dancer performs his most accomplished steps upon a wooden board to the accompaniment of fife, fiddle or even jews’ harp. The skill of some of these dancers was a wonder to behold, though there were others who seemed to rely more on the spectators’ Christian charity than their admiration to attract their centimes.


Among the milling crowd of negroes, I was amazed to see a change come over Mr Du Bois. I do not mean to suggest any coarsening of his manner or much less his comportment, for throughout my acquaintance with him, Mr Du Bois remained a perfect gentleman, rather he skilfully altered his gesture, language and expression to mimic those of the black men who surrounded us. Those who pondered whether or not the blood of Africa coursed in his veins should have had no such doubt had they seen him clap a bare-foot slave on the shoulder and speak to him in the Patois of the Louisiana negro and Indian. As we wandered through the square we passed preachers, dancers and musicians, trestle table taverns, meat roasting on spits, drum makers and knife sharpeners, bowl carvers, the makers of gourd-lutes, and all manner of fortune teller with their magical fetishes laid out on blankets on the dusty floor.


Du Bois seemed to stop to greet a friend or acquaintance at intervals of 5 yards, and it was during one such interval that I spied a coloured gentIeman, whom I first took for a preacher, giving an address in the creole tongue. He was surrounded by a knot of well-dressed gentlemen who for the most part, like him, tended to fair-skin, although a couple were dark black and one young white man was among them. Around these acolytes, a group of slaves listened to his harangue, some affirming their support at appropriate intervals. As I approached so as to apprehend more of his meaning, an elegant man wearing pince-nez blocked my path, looking at me square in the eyes in challenge. I returned his gaze and after a time he shrugged, handed me a leaf of paper, and stepped out of my way. I looked down at the paper and read these words: Neg, mound couley, vouzout pa esclave e lib, vouzout tout travayer. Travayer nan mond dwe uni! I felt a presence at my shoulder and looked up to see a smiling Mr Du Bois. He explained that these were anti-slavery radicals, devotees of our own Mr Engels, known in Lousiana as “Manchester Men”, for the place of origin of their books, which were quite illegal in the Confederacy.


I resolved to find more about this group, but at that moment we were distracted by the grand entrance of Marie Laveau, voudoun queen…


Extract from 'Une breve histoire de la Louisiane', Amadie Du Bois, 1978.

Therefore, by 1860, New Orleans was a bilingual city, in which southern and northern anglophones, creole and immigrant francophones and the Irish and Germans competed for political power. There were more than 10,000 French born individuals in a population of 130,000, without counting the even more substantial francophone population born in the West Indies or Louisiana itself. It is also worth noting that the several thousand Spanish immigrants could be replied upon to support the creoles politically. Despite this, as we have seen, from 1848 onwards every mayor of New Orleans had been an anglo, reflecting the increasing power of the immigrant communities. In view of this, it is possible to view the riots and expulsions of northerners in 1861-1862 as not merely a symptom of the wider conflict over slavery, but as a coup d’etat by the francophone groups, supported by the anglophone southern planters and slave-dealing “kantock” elements of the population. The riot of 17th June 1861…

French capital did not wait long to replace the yankees. By late 1861, the representatives of Chemins de Fer de l’Ouest were already negotiating with the Louisiana government to construct railways and an integrated steamboat system connecting to riverport railheads. An influx of of French entrepreneurs, adventurers and companies drastically increased the francophone population. Between 1861 and 1865, sixteen new banks…

The New Orleans merchant banking houses, both local and metropolitan in origin, were ideally situated for dealing with the credit needs of the young unstable republics of Central America. Several million francs worth of loans were made to the Mexican Empire in 1864 with another….
 
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I'm a Garibaldi admirer, have been since I was 14 or so. This is a man who took 1,000 men up against 25,000, in Sicily alone, and 50,000 more is Southern Italy. A cavalry commander on the level of a Bedford Forrest. He could also fight guerrilla style and at sea. A Black Republic declared? Glorious!
Agreed, Garibaldi is amazing, and also an incredibly moral man. The Negro Republic referred to in Firmin's extract is actually Haiti, but let's just say there will be something you will like on that score.

To be honest, Garibaldi couldn't have done what he did without external support (mainly that of Great Britain), the help of the Camorra, and the dismal state of the Neapolitan army and bureaucracy. And even though he was anti-clerical to the core and a firm believer in republicanism, he had some unpleasant authoritarian tendencies when governing the areas conquered by his armies.
 

Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
To be honest, Garibaldi couldn't have done what he did without external support (mainly that of Great Britain), the help of the Camorra, and the dismal state of the Neapolitan army and bureaucracy. And even though he was anti-clerical to the core and a firm believer in republicanism, he had some unpleasant authoritarian tendencies when governing the areas conquered by his armies.

To talk of the Camorra as a factor in Garibaldi's victory is a little off point. They were relevant only in the city of Napoli at this point, and while they played a role in maintaining order in the city in the early reunification period, the welcome given by De Crescenzo when G entered Napoli was a sign of the city's rendition rather than "help" from the Camorra. Garibaldi had help but his achievements were still remarkable.
 
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