Nice, so far nice work in spain, nice update
Did a crisis later on asked the Monarch to disolve the legislative but failed or something?
Cinco de Mayo
- Thread starter KingSweden24
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Electoral History of the United States 1850-1900
"...1870 would be a disaster for the Republicans, the only saving grace being that the Panic of 1870 had occurred late enough in the year that many of the Great Depression's effects had yet to set in. The Democrats won 46 seats in the House of Representatives and flipped a number of state legislatures, particularly in the West and Midwest, including in Chase's native Ohio and all three of the quarter of Oregon, California and Nevada, in the latter state seeing nearly the entire legislature's Republican caucus wiped out, reduced to one member in the State Senate and two in the House of Representatives (silver mining being the major industry of the state at that time). The Republican majority in the Senate was likewise substantially, though residual elections from the 1868 class of legislatures blunted their losses temporarily, and governors around the country who could have been successors to Chase - who had already begun to doubt the efficacy of reelection despite his ambitions to pursue - losing, nearly 7 in all. If 1868 was the high water mark of the young Republican Party, 1870 would be the beginning of the long process in which a party formed to combat slavery's westward expansion and later its existence slowly unraveled and eventually wound up in history's dustbin alongside their Whiggish predecessors..."
- Electoral History of the United States 1850-1900
- Electoral History of the United States 1850-1900
That would more or less be a potential issue, but I haven't decided what yet. Just throwing in some previews/easter eggs to foreshadow things for now.
The Early Years of the Gentleman's Game: Rugby in the 19th Century
"...two important events occurred in 1871 that would forever change the history of the sport. The first was on a slick, snowy New Years Day in New Jersey, where Rutgers University and Princeton University (then known simply as the College of New Jersey) played the first intercollegiate match of rugby football in American history [1]. Brought to America by administrators who had observed the game played between Oxford and Cambridge the year before, it began to spread decisively across the colleges of the country through the 1870s, soon rivalling baseball in popularity despite being an entirely amateur sport. By the end of the decade, rugby's rules had largely been standardized in the British mold and Walter Camp had founded the Rugby Collegiate Union, with contests almost entirely between the famed Northeastern private schools in what would later be known as the Ivy League.
Across the Atlantic, the first international rugby game was held that same year, with Scotland defeating England 1-0..."
- The Early Years of the Gentleman's Game: Rugby in the 19th Century
[1] Who's excited for this butterfly?
Across the Atlantic, the first international rugby game was held that same year, with Scotland defeating England 1-0..."
- The Early Years of the Gentleman's Game: Rugby in the 19th Century
[1] Who's excited for this butterfly?
Not me, i hate rugby, is boring, baseball is the superior sport anyway
The Wizard of the Saddle: The Life of Nathan Forrest
"...the funeral of Robert E Lee in March of 1871 [1] was a somber affair that yet still had the feeling, in modern terms, of the "band getting back together" one last time. At Lee Chapel on the campus of then-Washington University in Lexington, where Lee had served a quiet life as the university's president since 1865, much of the leadership of his Army of Northern Virginia gathered to pay their respects. Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens were in the same room as one another for the first time in years, the former at the start of a legal battle over a plantation inheritance and bankruptcy that would expend most of his financial resources and consume the remainder of his life, and the latter now a justice on the Confederate Supreme Court by appointment of President Forrest, who was also there. The most prominent speaker there was of course the great Confederate hero Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson in what was effectively his first major public appearance since the war. Lee's right hand had effectively retired to the same city, Lexington, where he oversaw the Virginia Military Institute, taught Sunday school and dined with Lee several times a week. Unlike many of his fellow veterans of the war, Jackson chose not to enter the political arena ever again, and in Lexington he was as popular a figure among the black community as the whites who revered his war exploits [2]. "And now my friend, my brother, sleeps," Jackson concluded his address. Others who would give eulogies would include James Longstreet, who had irritated some of the other ANV veterans with a "funeral banquet" for the Society of Confederate Veterans at the VMI the night before the service, and Jubal Early, now a Senator for Virginia aligned closely with the Forrest faction in Congress [3].
The President would speak last. Having served largely in the West, Lee's men did not know Forrest well and those who did disliked his brusque ways intensely. Lee's funeral would mark a turning point for Forrest, who had grown increasingly bored and irritated with the office of the Presidency. In later years, it would be revealed that his Tennessee Clique and Klan organization had run patronage schemes in Richmond that would make Northerners like Roscoe Conkling or William Tweed blush - every customs house was headed by a Klansmen, essentially, and the money all flowed upstream to a man who was already among the Confederacy's richest. But Forrest, who seldom drank and did not smoke and was a self-made man, was not well at home among the aristocratic Confederate Congress, where his Kuklos Klan candidates had made little penetration outside of Kentucky or native Tennessee. Hosting parties at the Gray House (the new nickname for the Confederacy's executive residence, due to its color and the color of the Confederate uniform) tired him, and legislation in the Confederate Congress was rare and far between. The fiscal situation had only somewhat improved by the halfway point of his Presidency, and the Panic of 1870 had dried up much of the capital for what limited internal improvements the Confederacy would see from overseas for a few years [4]. Despite this, the Confederate economy at the midpoint of the six-year term was decent - cotton and other agricultural goods were selling in Europe and the United States despite a fairly punitive tariff in the North passed by the Republican Congress, improvements had been made to ports in New Orleans and Savannah, and expansion westwards into the wild, untamed lands of Texas was continuing slowly apace despite the lack of rail infrastructure. Forrest was intrigued by a proposal to build the Confederacy its own transcontinental railroad, but several proposals were competing and it would have required passing through Mexico to the port of Guaymas, which several "circlers [5]" with Forrest's ear began proposing the Confederacy purchase or even conquer, which Secretary of State Harris sharply warned Forrest was unlikely to be accepted by the court in Mexico City.
It was in this time, in the spring of 1871, frustrated and seeking a new challenge, that news arrived in Richmond from their envoys in Madrid that the Spanish government was preparing to take the step of abolishing slavery in their three Caribbean colonies forever and find a policy of rapprochement with rebels in Cuba and Santo Domingo..."
- The Wizard of the Saddle: The Life of Nathan Forrest
[1] War ending earlier, and not as bad of a result, gives Lee a few more months of life
[2] Essentially Jackson goes back to his prewar life. He was a fairly meek figure off the battlefield, by all accounts
[3] And yes these two still hate each other
[4] My theory is that the Long Depression would have had a much more muted effect in the Confederacy (while still being pretty bad) since the CSA is already poor and ag/export reliant and the markets they export to haven't stopped needing those exports, whereas it was the industries being furnished in the United States that were the direct cause and victims of the crash. Also, due to the lack of protectionist lobby in the CSA, they don't limit themselves economically with tariffs and thus remain fairly open to cheap industrial goods
[5] Knights of the Golden Circle nickname
The President would speak last. Having served largely in the West, Lee's men did not know Forrest well and those who did disliked his brusque ways intensely. Lee's funeral would mark a turning point for Forrest, who had grown increasingly bored and irritated with the office of the Presidency. In later years, it would be revealed that his Tennessee Clique and Klan organization had run patronage schemes in Richmond that would make Northerners like Roscoe Conkling or William Tweed blush - every customs house was headed by a Klansmen, essentially, and the money all flowed upstream to a man who was already among the Confederacy's richest. But Forrest, who seldom drank and did not smoke and was a self-made man, was not well at home among the aristocratic Confederate Congress, where his Kuklos Klan candidates had made little penetration outside of Kentucky or native Tennessee. Hosting parties at the Gray House (the new nickname for the Confederacy's executive residence, due to its color and the color of the Confederate uniform) tired him, and legislation in the Confederate Congress was rare and far between. The fiscal situation had only somewhat improved by the halfway point of his Presidency, and the Panic of 1870 had dried up much of the capital for what limited internal improvements the Confederacy would see from overseas for a few years [4]. Despite this, the Confederate economy at the midpoint of the six-year term was decent - cotton and other agricultural goods were selling in Europe and the United States despite a fairly punitive tariff in the North passed by the Republican Congress, improvements had been made to ports in New Orleans and Savannah, and expansion westwards into the wild, untamed lands of Texas was continuing slowly apace despite the lack of rail infrastructure. Forrest was intrigued by a proposal to build the Confederacy its own transcontinental railroad, but several proposals were competing and it would have required passing through Mexico to the port of Guaymas, which several "circlers [5]" with Forrest's ear began proposing the Confederacy purchase or even conquer, which Secretary of State Harris sharply warned Forrest was unlikely to be accepted by the court in Mexico City.
It was in this time, in the spring of 1871, frustrated and seeking a new challenge, that news arrived in Richmond from their envoys in Madrid that the Spanish government was preparing to take the step of abolishing slavery in their three Caribbean colonies forever and find a policy of rapprochement with rebels in Cuba and Santo Domingo..."
- The Wizard of the Saddle: The Life of Nathan Forrest
[1] War ending earlier, and not as bad of a result, gives Lee a few more months of life
[2] Essentially Jackson goes back to his prewar life. He was a fairly meek figure off the battlefield, by all accounts
[3] And yes these two still hate each other
[4] My theory is that the Long Depression would have had a much more muted effect in the Confederacy (while still being pretty bad) since the CSA is already poor and ag/export reliant and the markets they export to haven't stopped needing those exports, whereas it was the industries being furnished in the United States that were the direct cause and victims of the crash. Also, due to the lack of protectionist lobby in the CSA, they don't limit themselves economically with tariffs and thus remain fairly open to cheap industrial goods
[5] Knights of the Golden Circle nickname
I think the Dixies will get a little hit of reality if i've an idea what they're planning...that will be fun
The Land of Plenty: Southern Africa in the 19th Century
"...the complicated and volatile situation in South Africa was exacerbated in the spring of 1871 when the area previously known as Grikualand West was awarded to Boer interests in the mediation of the Natal Governor. Britain's Colonial Secretary, the Earl of Carnarvon, was furious and came close to recalling the Governor of Cape Colony, Sir Henry Barkly, who had been there no more than a few months. The Kimberley Diamond fields were absorbed by the Orange Free State [1], which set its western frontier at the more naturally defensible confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers, and the Grikualand, still under Nicholas Waterboer, became known as the Trans-Orange Territory by the Britain, which still had interests in the region. To calm the escalating tensions, Jan Brand - the Boer President of the Free State relatively positively disposed to Britain and who sought to calm tensions with the world hegemon - struck an agreement with Barkly to keep the Grikuas in power over the Trans-Orange Territory and to make the lands north of the Orange, south of the Molopo and west of the Hygap a neutral territory for the Grikuas and Tswana people (note in mind that this land was largely the Kalahari Desert, unsuitable for European habitation). This pact was meant to help keep the peace, in Brand's view, and temper the more stridently anti-British attitudes in the South Africa Republic, also known as the Transvaal, whose Presidency he turned down to avoid further angering Britain [2].
While his immediate goals were met, the events of 1871 were not soon forgotten in London, certainly not by the increasingly powerful Carnarvon at the Colonial Office..."
- The Land of Plenty: Southern Africa in the 19th Century
[1] Of course, IOTL, this decision went the other way and Britain controlled the diamond fields
[2] Same moderate course Brand took IOTL as well, and he was generally making efforts to chart a middle course to fulfill Boer goals while not angering Britain
While his immediate goals were met, the events of 1871 were not soon forgotten in London, certainly not by the increasingly powerful Carnarvon at the Colonial Office..."
- The Land of Plenty: Southern Africa in the 19th Century
[1] Of course, IOTL, this decision went the other way and Britain controlled the diamond fields
[2] Same moderate course Brand took IOTL as well, and he was generally making efforts to chart a middle course to fulfill Boer goals while not angering Britain
So the Boer keep peace and those diamonds...for now...wonder what would come next... some people argue the boer wars that the start of the overstreching.
A History of Victorian Britain: 1870-1879
"...events in Great Britain had eventually caught up to Lord Stanley, though. Upon Chancellor Hunt's proposal of a small tariff to help secure Britain's struggling industry, the moderate and relatively liberal Stanley angrily refused. It was the moment that Salisbury and Carnarvon had sought for close to a year - the difficult and irritable Stanley had finally lost the Cabinet and revealed his liberal sympathies, and was cornered [1]. On the night of April 2nd, 1871, Stanley travelled to Buckingham Palace to meet with Queen Victoria and advised her that he no longer held the confidence of Parliament and would resign. The Queen accepted his resignation and, to the surprise of the instigators who had toppled Stanley, sent for longtime Home Secretary Spencer Horatio Walpole to the palace to kiss hands and form a government. Walpole had been the driving force of the Telegraph Act which nationalized the telegram services of Britain under the Post Office, and as a longtime Cabinet minister was viewed as the most senior man in government neither as a friend or opponent of Stanley directly. It was for this reason that Stanley had suggested Walpole [2], telling Victoria that he was the most broadly acceptable man to the two factions - modernist and reformist against aristocratic and reactionary - forming within the Conservative Party. Salisbury was broadly satisfied with the arrangement, having a fine relationship with Walpole, though Carnarvon - who had ambitions for Downing Street himself - was outraged and viewed Walpole's recommendation by his predecessor with suspicion. Walpole inaugurated his government on April 5th and made few changes to the Cabinet, other than naming Gathorne Hardy, a fellow man of the Commons, as his successor at the Home Office [3]..."
- A History of Victorian Britain: 1870-1879
[1] There's probably a reason this guy never made it to Downing Street IOTL, besides Dizzy's dominant position
[2] It is my understanding that this was the customary process for forming a government at this time
[3] A position he held in the Disraeli ministry in the 1860s
- A History of Victorian Britain: 1870-1879
[1] There's probably a reason this guy never made it to Downing Street IOTL, besides Dizzy's dominant position
[2] It is my understanding that this was the customary process for forming a government at this time
[3] A position he held in the Disraeli ministry in the 1860s
This is one of my weak suits in terms of knowledge (so it's been interesting to learn about) and one where I invite the most feedback from my readers
The Orange Sunset: The Expiry of the Netherlands' First Royal House
"...well documented that Lord Salisbury, like much of the European diplomatic corps, despised William III [1] and did not particularly look forward to his visit to the Hague to meet with a king who had already managed to squander the money that France had paid him for Luxembourg and whose kingdom was sliding once again into debt. Like Belgium, the Netherlands was at the time seen as a foothold for Britain on the continent, a liberal and free-trading Protestant-majority nation with close connections across the Channel over the centuries. The fear at the Foreign Office, one which Salisbury was skeptical of personally, was that an increasingly indebted Netherlands could enter the German orbit after the Exchequer, and Parliament at its direction, had passed the Hunt Tariff [2] - so-named for George Ward Hunt, the Chancellor - under the Walpole Cabinet. Salisbury, who had abstained from voting upon the tariff so as to keep his future political prospects open, had set off for the continent specifically to discuss a reciprocal agreement with the Netherlands to exempt Britain's important trade partner from the levy, as well as continuing to build on the two Anglo-Dutch treaties of 1870 that had settled matters in Siak. Of particular importance to the Foreign Office was completing negotiations to purchase the Dutch Gold Coast [3].
The meeting with William III at Het Loo Palace, the summer residence of the Dutch nobility, did not go well, though it had little to do with the tariff. King William made his usual mutterings about liberals and angrily mocked both Bismarck and France's Le Trois regime, suggesting that Napoleon III was slowly dying of venereal disease. Salisbury demurred politely and, by all accounts, attempted to steer the lunch back to the matter of his visit.
It was at that moment that a barking dog on the veranda outside caught the agitated William's attention and the king went out to kick it, which resulted in the dog biting him in the leg. As the King bent down to dislodge the dog, the dog angrily snapped at his throat, catching its canines upon the king's jugular [4], before the stunned William was able to thrust it off. The king bled out within moments despite horrified staff trying to stanch the gushing bleeding. The dog, from all accounts, fled from the property.
The sudden freak death of King William, mauled by one of his hunting dogs, threw the Netherlands into chaos. The King was not much liked and had an unhappy marriage with his wife, Sophie. His eldest son, William, immediately became the King William IV of the Netherlands, a move which led to be an even more disastrous reign than that of his father's. The younger William was undisciplined, lazy and an inveterate debauchee, with a famously strained relationship with his conservative father. Though under the constitutional system of government in the Netherlands he wielded little power, his frequent partying, a habit learned from the Prince of Wales [5] across the Channel, continued to burn through the Dutch monarchy's allowance..."
- The Orange Sunset: The Expiry of the Netherlands' First Royal House
[1] The man was not only an asshole but apparently completely nuts
[2] Big move for Britain, one that Gladstone certainly wouldn't have made exceptttt he's in opposition
[3] Completion of this treaty has just been delayed a bit by butterflies in which government in the UK is in charge
[4] Willem III was infamous for his cruelty to animals and, well, we haven't had anything truly bizarre happen in this TL yet
[5] Imagine what these two got up to IOTL
The meeting with William III at Het Loo Palace, the summer residence of the Dutch nobility, did not go well, though it had little to do with the tariff. King William made his usual mutterings about liberals and angrily mocked both Bismarck and France's Le Trois regime, suggesting that Napoleon III was slowly dying of venereal disease. Salisbury demurred politely and, by all accounts, attempted to steer the lunch back to the matter of his visit.
It was at that moment that a barking dog on the veranda outside caught the agitated William's attention and the king went out to kick it, which resulted in the dog biting him in the leg. As the King bent down to dislodge the dog, the dog angrily snapped at his throat, catching its canines upon the king's jugular [4], before the stunned William was able to thrust it off. The king bled out within moments despite horrified staff trying to stanch the gushing bleeding. The dog, from all accounts, fled from the property.
The sudden freak death of King William, mauled by one of his hunting dogs, threw the Netherlands into chaos. The King was not much liked and had an unhappy marriage with his wife, Sophie. His eldest son, William, immediately became the King William IV of the Netherlands, a move which led to be an even more disastrous reign than that of his father's. The younger William was undisciplined, lazy and an inveterate debauchee, with a famously strained relationship with his conservative father. Though under the constitutional system of government in the Netherlands he wielded little power, his frequent partying, a habit learned from the Prince of Wales [5] across the Channel, continued to burn through the Dutch monarchy's allowance..."
- The Orange Sunset: The Expiry of the Netherlands' First Royal House
[1] The man was not only an asshole but apparently completely nuts
[2] Big move for Britain, one that Gladstone certainly wouldn't have made exceptttt he's in opposition
[3] Completion of this treaty has just been delayed a bit by butterflies in which government in the UK is in charge
[4] Willem III was infamous for his cruelty to animals and, well, we haven't had anything truly bizarre happen in this TL yet
[5] Imagine what these two got up to IOTL
Seems the Orange house would be ending soon...who will remplaced them?(if a german one the french will have even more kittens now)
The Iron Marshal: France in the Age of Bazaine
"...in the wake of the Unification Wars and in the shadow of the Panic of 1873, the dance of the Great Powers on the continent began in earnest. Bismarck's first priority was to contain France and his second to eliminate serious threats to Germany's position. As he remarked to Russia's Gorchakov in that memorable summer at Potsdam, "We are the central power [1] in Europe now - the great peaceful empire at her center. It is us who hold and must maintain the balance." To this effect, Bismarck renewed the reinsurance treaty Russia had enjoyed with Germany's predecessor for a full decade, exclusively against Austria. A solely defensive treaty, it agreed that in the event that Vienna attacked either party - a not unlikely proposition considering that the Balkans were the sole theater of expansion of influence Austria and Russia now enjoyed, not to mention bad blood over the Second Unification War - the other would come to their help. Germany next signed a similar reinsurance treaty with Italy, this one guaranteeing the same benefits in event of a war with Austria or France, and Bismarck began negotiations for a similar treaty with Spain, where a Hohenzollern was now in power and France was poorly regarded, though this effort would not bear fruit. With her two rivals contained by Russia and Italy, Germany turned its attention to a protectionist tariff and to continue to manage its rapidly growing industry.
The response in France was similar. Having returned from Mexico with his Mexican wife only after the end of the Third Unification War and thus being one of the few officers of repute without any "responsibility" for France's embarrassment at German hands, Bazaine had consolidated his position by the middle of 1871 as the true power of France. MacMahon remained responsible for the overhaul of the French Army, Canrobert had the same duties vis a vis the Foreign Legion, Rouher managed the increasingly frosty relationship between the National Assembly and the Crown, and former general Ernest Courtor de Cissey had been appointed Prime Minister via Bazaine's machinations, with the friendly Pierre Magne holding the Finance portfolio and Louis Decazes the Foreign Ministry [2]. It was with Decazes at his side that Bazaine created what he called the "Triangle of Containment," finding an amicable conclusion to France and Austria's rivalry and signing a treaty that defended both against Germany and Italy in the event of war. Next, Decazes took the initiative to establish a similar reinsurance treaty with Denmark, thus creating the "triangle" between Paris, Copenhagen and Vienna to pincer Germany on three sides. Though these treaties were all officially secret, they were widely understood to exist in diplomatic circles.
The economic strategy of Bazaine, however, differed from much of the other Great Powers though in that France, partially at the urging of the ailing Emperor Napoleon III, continued her commitment to free trade, angering many industrialists but in the end giving her flexibility in response to the crisis. Though initially hard hit, France's deepening trade with her colonies in Indochina and her protectorate in Korea opened new markets for French goods and deepened the economic ties between Paris and Richmond at a time when both countries saw value in it. By the mid-1870s, Parisian banks lent more to Confederate infrastructure than British ones, and the final years of Napoleon III's reign would mark the 'Bazainaise,' the lengthy era of autocratic rule by the Iron Marshal and France's continued turn towards Asia..."
- The Iron Marshal: France in the Age of Bazaine
[1]
[2] Positions these men all held in conservative Third Republic governments IOTL, only here they've been subsumed by the Bonapartist faction headed by Bazaine (who I'm really enjoying turning into sort of a French Bismarck in terms of how he's just running the government now)
The response in France was similar. Having returned from Mexico with his Mexican wife only after the end of the Third Unification War and thus being one of the few officers of repute without any "responsibility" for France's embarrassment at German hands, Bazaine had consolidated his position by the middle of 1871 as the true power of France. MacMahon remained responsible for the overhaul of the French Army, Canrobert had the same duties vis a vis the Foreign Legion, Rouher managed the increasingly frosty relationship between the National Assembly and the Crown, and former general Ernest Courtor de Cissey had been appointed Prime Minister via Bazaine's machinations, with the friendly Pierre Magne holding the Finance portfolio and Louis Decazes the Foreign Ministry [2]. It was with Decazes at his side that Bazaine created what he called the "Triangle of Containment," finding an amicable conclusion to France and Austria's rivalry and signing a treaty that defended both against Germany and Italy in the event of war. Next, Decazes took the initiative to establish a similar reinsurance treaty with Denmark, thus creating the "triangle" between Paris, Copenhagen and Vienna to pincer Germany on three sides. Though these treaties were all officially secret, they were widely understood to exist in diplomatic circles.
The economic strategy of Bazaine, however, differed from much of the other Great Powers though in that France, partially at the urging of the ailing Emperor Napoleon III, continued her commitment to free trade, angering many industrialists but in the end giving her flexibility in response to the crisis. Though initially hard hit, France's deepening trade with her colonies in Indochina and her protectorate in Korea opened new markets for French goods and deepened the economic ties between Paris and Richmond at a time when both countries saw value in it. By the mid-1870s, Parisian banks lent more to Confederate infrastructure than British ones, and the final years of Napoleon III's reign would mark the 'Bazainaise,' the lengthy era of autocratic rule by the Iron Marshal and France's continued turn towards Asia..."
- The Iron Marshal: France in the Age of Bazaine
[1]
[2] Positions these men all held in conservative Third Republic governments IOTL, only here they've been subsumed by the Bonapartist faction headed by Bazaine (who I'm really enjoying turning into sort of a French Bismarck in terms of how he's just running the government now)
I'm gaming out a few different things of where I want to go next, so in the meantime, I'll do a quick around-the-world update on some of the countries that haven't seen huge butterflies and thus aren't super interesting to examine (yet):
- Japan's Iwakura Mission has begun at orders of Emperor Meiji, to try to eliminate some of the unequal treaties
- The Ottomans are still in the nascent Tanzimat Reform period, unchanged
- Paraguay still got absolutely creamed in their war with Brazil and Argentina
- Russia is still the sleeping bear, with little foreign policy priorities other than being an asshole to the Poles (where they and Prussia see eye to eye). To their southwest, though, Pan-Slavism begins to stir...
- In China, it is the last, unstable years of the Tangzhi Emperor's rule
Anything I haven't touched on anybody is curious about?
- Japan's Iwakura Mission has begun at orders of Emperor Meiji, to try to eliminate some of the unequal treaties
- The Ottomans are still in the nascent Tanzimat Reform period, unchanged
- Paraguay still got absolutely creamed in their war with Brazil and Argentina
- Russia is still the sleeping bear, with little foreign policy priorities other than being an asshole to the Poles (where they and Prussia see eye to eye). To their southwest, though, Pan-Slavism begins to stir...
- In China, it is the last, unstable years of the Tangzhi Emperor's rule
Anything I haven't touched on anybody is curious about?
The only one remain is india but that come with british update anyway, thanks for the info
The history of the Raj, especially during this time period, is a bit opaque to me - we're about 15 years into direct rule under the Crown after all (Lord Mayo would be assassinated in 1872 but that didn't seem to have a huge impact on India at the time). My sense is that Liberal and Conservative India Offices adhered to fairly similar policies, so having Carnarvon in charge instead of Granville at this time doesn't have a big impact on India
The Cuban Revolt at 100
"...the abolition of slavery by the Cortes was a move that stunned much of the world and reenergized the global liberal movement (and global socialism, still in its infancy). The institution had become despised in most European courts, and it came on the heels of formal abolition in the United States (where it had been practiced in only two small states by the time of the 13th Amendment's passage). It left, in practice, only two "Western" states that conformed to the practice - the Confederate States of America, and the Empire of Brazil.
In Brazil, the tide was seeming to turn against slavery as well. 1871 was a great year for liberalism in that the Emperor of Brazil, Pedro II, had seemed to turn public opinion somewhat against slavery seemingly just by his own volition and immense personal popularity as a symbol of the nation and that year the Parliament of Brazil passed the Law of Free Birth, which settled that all slaves born after it came into effect in 1872 would be born free [1]. Despite having few distinctive immediate effects and serving as little more than a loophole - the plantation economy of thriving, emerging Brazil was otherwise supreme - the tandem of the Cortes' action and Brazil's "soft abolition" sent shockwaves through the political establishment of Richmond.
The "Circlers" were up in arms, seeing the rise of a great slaveholding empire crumbling before them. Even Confederate-sympathetic Britain and France, ruled by reactionary governments beholden to a landed gentry, had refused to countenance early Confederate moves to reestablish the Atlantic slave trade, and efforts to re-enslave all freedmen within CSA borders had faltered three times in the Confederate Congress (some states, most prominently South Carolina and Georgia, had created restrictions on freedmen rights so severe that free blacks were all but expelled from those states). And so, in the late summer of 1871, even President Forrest, a man who had always been personally skeptical of Circler ambitions and was well aware of the Confederacy's precarious finances and debts, was persuaded that the survival of slave power and states' rights depended on a turning of the tide against the "Godless armies and Parliaments of the world," as he called it in his address to Congress, the first time a President had personally traveled to the Capitol to speak from its tribune. News had just arrived in Richmond that a counter-revolution had just emerged in Cuba, a small but substantial revolt of the landed aristocracy in the island's slave-labor dependent west. Forrest's plan, quickly put together and unusually poorly thought out for the otherwise bright and talented former cavalry officer, was to intervene in support of Cuban independence - favoring the new "western regime" that had risen against colonial administrators in Havana. His call for a war of support in Cuba met loud, raucous cheers in the Confederate Congress, and the resolution of support to the "legitimate government of Cuba, in the principles of self-determination within this Hemisphere" even mentioned the Monroe Doctrine [2], challenging Spain's attempts to hold its colonies as a violation of the long-standing non-interference of Europe in the Americas (an irony lost on few, most decidedly the United States).
Forrest's decision to tie the Confederacy to the fate of a small and relatively young insurrection in Cuba, rather than the larger, albeit abolitionist one in the island's east, would prove to add another strange angle to the fluid, complicated situation on the ground in Cuba..."
- The Cuban Revolt at 100
[1] ITTL as in OTL
[2] Once again - the slavocracy had no consistent position, ever, beyond the defense and expansion of slavery. If massive violation of the Monroe Doctrine by France, Mexico and the UK gets it done as ITTL? Great. If intervening against Spain to "defend" the Monroe Doctrine less than ten years later gets it done? Also great!
In Brazil, the tide was seeming to turn against slavery as well. 1871 was a great year for liberalism in that the Emperor of Brazil, Pedro II, had seemed to turn public opinion somewhat against slavery seemingly just by his own volition and immense personal popularity as a symbol of the nation and that year the Parliament of Brazil passed the Law of Free Birth, which settled that all slaves born after it came into effect in 1872 would be born free [1]. Despite having few distinctive immediate effects and serving as little more than a loophole - the plantation economy of thriving, emerging Brazil was otherwise supreme - the tandem of the Cortes' action and Brazil's "soft abolition" sent shockwaves through the political establishment of Richmond.
The "Circlers" were up in arms, seeing the rise of a great slaveholding empire crumbling before them. Even Confederate-sympathetic Britain and France, ruled by reactionary governments beholden to a landed gentry, had refused to countenance early Confederate moves to reestablish the Atlantic slave trade, and efforts to re-enslave all freedmen within CSA borders had faltered three times in the Confederate Congress (some states, most prominently South Carolina and Georgia, had created restrictions on freedmen rights so severe that free blacks were all but expelled from those states). And so, in the late summer of 1871, even President Forrest, a man who had always been personally skeptical of Circler ambitions and was well aware of the Confederacy's precarious finances and debts, was persuaded that the survival of slave power and states' rights depended on a turning of the tide against the "Godless armies and Parliaments of the world," as he called it in his address to Congress, the first time a President had personally traveled to the Capitol to speak from its tribune. News had just arrived in Richmond that a counter-revolution had just emerged in Cuba, a small but substantial revolt of the landed aristocracy in the island's slave-labor dependent west. Forrest's plan, quickly put together and unusually poorly thought out for the otherwise bright and talented former cavalry officer, was to intervene in support of Cuban independence - favoring the new "western regime" that had risen against colonial administrators in Havana. His call for a war of support in Cuba met loud, raucous cheers in the Confederate Congress, and the resolution of support to the "legitimate government of Cuba, in the principles of self-determination within this Hemisphere" even mentioned the Monroe Doctrine [2], challenging Spain's attempts to hold its colonies as a violation of the long-standing non-interference of Europe in the Americas (an irony lost on few, most decidedly the United States).
Forrest's decision to tie the Confederacy to the fate of a small and relatively young insurrection in Cuba, rather than the larger, albeit abolitionist one in the island's east, would prove to add another strange angle to the fluid, complicated situation on the ground in Cuba..."
- The Cuban Revolt at 100
[1] ITTL as in OTL
[2] Once again - the slavocracy had no consistent position, ever, beyond the defense and expansion of slavery. If massive violation of the Monroe Doctrine by France, Mexico and the UK gets it done as ITTL? Great. If intervening against Spain to "defend" the Monroe Doctrine less than ten years later gets it done? Also great!
- Status