Cinco de Mayo

[KingSweden24]

"...the Republicans were effectively a non-factor other than in siphoning votes away from the Liberals in crucial states. Despite high unemployment and disquiet in the centennial year, and Tilden running on his career as an aggressive opponent of gross patronage and public corruption, the declining Republican Party still kept him from capitalizing on the unpopularity of the incumbent Hoffman administration. Though Hendricks won the popular vote by only 0.1%, he won a comfortable majority in the electoral college thanks to a strong base in the Midwest and West. The conservatives, locked out of power since before the War of Southern Independence, were back in power..."

- Hendricks: America's 20th President

 

[KingSweden24]

As a side note, yes, Samuel Tilden is getting screwed out of the Presidency in every universe it appears and I enjoy the irony of him losing this time to his OTL running mate

 

[KingSweden24]

"...the Great Powers had hoped to impose some semblance of enforceable requirements of reform upon the Ottomans at the Constantinople Conference, but the Ottomans summarily rejected the push for autonomous provinces. In the eyes of Istanbul, and later historians, it was a remarkable overreach by the Concert of Europe, to attempt to dictate special privileges within Turkish borders and carve out exclusively and uniquely governed provinces for (invariably Christian) ethnic minorities. To Huseyin Pasha [1], the grizzled Defense Minister who angrily rejected the terms of the Conference, it was clearly a pretext to an eventual stripping of the most valuable and industrialized territories of the Empire. The machinations were complex - Salisbury of Britain led the charge, his skepticism of Turkish intentions overwhelming the longstanding British skepticism about Russian intentions about the Dardanelles and accessing the Mediterranean. In that sense, the Conference devolved into an effort for Britain and Russia to hash out their differences in Central Asia as well as their mutual suspicion of increasing French influence in Istanbul and Paris's control of Suez... while all the while, Germany sat on the sidelines as a "neutral" arbiter weighing how best to flex her muscle and Austria watched Russia suspiciously, particularly worried about Moscow's intentions regarding all Slavic subjects in the Balkans and a potential loss of influence in the Ottoman border suzerainties.

It was all for naught, though, as Abdulhamid revealed the new Ottoman Constitution, modelling the country on Western constitutional monarchies with the soft help of France. While France and Britain were resolved not to start a general war in Europe over the Balkan Crisis, it was clear that the two nations would not be joining to defend Istanbul this time around. Even Marshal Bazaine of France, the most important man in the room at Constantinople, made clear to Grand Vizier Midhat Pasha that fundamental reform and further economic integration was the price of France refusing to demand adherence to the Conference's terms, and that beyond that there was to be no expectation of "ships flying the tricolor" appearing in case Russia had other plans. While peace was made with Serbia at that table, the stubborn rejection of the Conference's demands shocked and angered many European diplomats. France was the only power satisfied with the religious equality clause of the Ottoman Constitution - Austria moved to quickly sign its Reichstadt Agreement with Russia that it would remain benevolently neutral in any coming conflict, Britain (where the Carnarvon Cabinet was embarrassed by Salisbury's failure, contentious politics at home and were soon to be badly humiliated in Southern Africa) made clear through diplomatic channels that it would abandon its support of the Ottomans and that control of the Dardanelles was its only red line, essentially leaving Russia a free hand to defend the Orthodox faith in Southeast Europe. When Russia announced that the Ottoman rejection of diplomacy voided the Peace of Paris and - most crucially - the ban on a militarized Black Sea, few objected and Germany even offered her vocal support of Moscow's position as leverage for its Scandinavian project [2]. Most crucially, London sat silent. Turkey had officially run out of friends in Europe as she careened towards war with Russia..."

- The Eastern Question

[1] It is really important that this man did not die as in OTL
[2] Okay I've procrastinated this enough I swear this will be the next update

 

[Nivek]

Scandinavian project [2]

what thing? the worst thing the germans would do would waste political capital for scandinavia when the true prize is eastern europe

 

[KingSweden24]

"...Bismarck was no stranger to patching together culturally similar yet independent nations into a larger entity, and for his next project after unifying Germany he saw a relatively blank slate that also served him a critical strategic advantage. Sweden and Norway already had the same King - Oscar II of the House of Bernadotte - and though they deployed separate consular services and merchant marines, Europe treated them largely as one entity. Before the First Unification War, it had indeed seemed as if Scandinavism could unite the three Nordic kingdoms under one parliament; dismay in Denmark over Sweden-Norway not coming to her defense against Germany seemed to kill that dream, and by the time of the late 1870s indeed it seemed more likely that Sweden and Norway would drift apart, perhaps even under separate crowns. Oscar II, for his part, was a staunch neutralist and not a man who cared much for the intrigues of the continent. Bismarck, of course, had other plans for him, particularly with an eye towards the potential combined weight of Sweden and Norway's navies under one flag directly to the north of Denmark, which all of Europe understood to be part of the "Iron Triangle" organized by Paris against Germany. Though Denmark alone was no particular threat against the Reich on her own and European cabinets lacked enthusiasm for a general war, Bismarck's gambling days were over. Removing a corner of Bazaine's famed Triangle was something the Iron Chancellor was determined to do to one-up the rival who had somehow not allowed France to go quietly into the night despite her loss on land to Germany's armies..."

- Scandinavia: The Birth of Union

 

[KingSweden24]

what thing? the worst thing the germans would do would waste political capital for scandinavia when the true prize is eastern europe

Their allies are Russia and Italy under reinsurance treaties - unless they want to let Austria attack them first and hope Moscow keeps her promises, which is suicidal for Vienna now, Drang Nach Osten is foreclosed to Berlin in the immediate future

 

[KingSweden24]

"...the Satsuma Rebellion's beginning represented the final gasp of the privileged samurai class that had ruled Japan as a feudal state and the nation's emergence under Emperor Meiji as a world power. The crushing of Saigo Takamori's rebellion in 1877 effectively eliminated the samurai forever, though many former samurai would find their way to the top of the zaibatsu syndicates that would soon dominate Japan's industrial economy..."

- The Sun Rises: Japan in the Meiji Era (University of Nanking, 1944)

 

[KingSweden24]

"...the marriage of King Alexander to Princess Thyra of Denmark was greeted with aplomb across the continent, especially in the two countries most responsible for helping nudge along the negotiations for the match - Britain, which had worked as hard as possible to hold a veto over any match that might pair Alexander to a Prussian or Protestant German match that would drag the indebted Netherlands even further into German influence, and France, a staunch ally of Denmark which also feared an Alexander influenced by Germany. The royal wedding in Amsterdam was a grand affair, visited by some of the most prominent dignitaries in Europe, including Napoleon IV himself, who was close in age to the young King of the Netherlands, and Prince Arthur, the Duke of Edinburgh, well understood to be representing his mother's interests and who shared the grief of Alexander of having both lost their close elder brothers to the same typhoid outbreak five years prior. Secret diplomacy occurred at the wedding, too - Crown Prince Friedrich of Germany met with Arthur and Napoleon surreptitiously to confer with them about the gathering war clouds in Southeast Europe after the Ottoman Empire had thumbed her nose at the Concert of Europe in withdrawing from the Constantinople Conference, and discussions about issues in Africa and Asia were had then too, out of concerns by Germany's client state Cambodia and pseudo-ally Siam about French encroachment in the Laos Highlands and further British expansion in Burma to her west..."

- The Orange Sunset: The Expiry of the Netherlands' First Royal House

 

[Nivek]

- The Orange Sunset: The Expiry of the Netherlands' First Royal House

So netherlands remain a monarchy, ashame, i thought they would become a republic

 

[KingSweden24]

So netherlands remain a monarchy, ashame, i thought they would become a republic

I considered that, but having done some research it turns out there’s a pretty straightforward successor house already in place (getting ahead of myself though)

 

[KingSweden24]

"...but when the cannons rang out in Europe, Britain's attention suddenly turned south - for the collapsing relationship between Molteno and Frere had set the tinderbox for a conflagration in the south of Africa. The Confederation Scheme - at first meant to consolidate the Cape, Natal, and the remaining African kingdoms under British dominion, for even Frere had come to believe that the Free Republics would need to wait - collapsed under protests from the Xhosa who lived in the eastern frontier and would make or break connections between Port Elizabeth and Durban. As the frontier war began to escalate, without British troops, another incident occurred. A misunderstanding on the frontier with Basutoland, resulting in three dead British surveyors and one dead native patrolman, caused Frere to envoke Britain's "protectorate rights" over Basutoland, which he as Governor "controlled" under a treaty from 1868.

The Free Republics, which had signed secret agreements insuring the independence of the "kaffir kingdoms" [1] to keep Britain off its immediate borders, raised small platoons of men to defend Basutoland and maintain her independence. Though the Zulus and Swatis were not directly involved in this conflict, their kings raised armies as well in case a general war broke out across South Africa.

Meanwhile, in London, as news of the burgeoning crisis reached Whitehall, plans were drawn up for the British Army's deployment to the Cape immediately and for the Navy to route further reinforcements to Inhaca Island, despite being aware that Portugal would not receive this news well..."

- The Land of Plenty: Southern Africa in the 19th Century

[1] This word is used in its historical context

 

[KingSweden24]

"...inaugurated on the heels of the centennial of the Declaration of Independence, and as the 20th man to hold the office, the new President was already thinking legacy and symbolism even before he placed his hand on the Washington Bible. The three living former Presidents - Lincoln, Seymour and his immediate predecessor and rival Hoffman - were all in attendance, and by all accounts the carriage ride to the Capitol with Hoffman was courteous but stiff. In his 2,314 word inaugural address, he spoke of the promise of the new day and of America's achievements in a century of independence, and most markedly, "today's break with the rapacious greed and centralized corruption of yesteryear, of a new Constitutional covenant enshrining self-governance and trust in the people, rather than trust in an insular capital that views the co-equal fraternity of states the way the Old World's empires view their colonies." Hendricks had, even before his inauguration, sketched out an ambitious plan - an immediate suspension of homesteading and railroad grants, a cancellation of a quarter of the Navy's ordered vessels under the 1869 Naval Act, and expanding the Silver Purchase Act's terms from a gold ratio of 4:1 to 8:1, which was still a more moderate course than that demanded by the free silver wing of the party and the Greenbackers, who wanted an entirely fiat currency. Hendricks, in his early days in office, was both a break from the past 16 years of administrative style in accordance with his Midwestern conservatism and an effort at continuity to appease various Democratic constituencies. As Attorney General he elevated esteemed Vermont Democrat Edward J. Phelps, regarded to this day as one of the 19th century's finest legal minds; in an effort to bury the hatchet with Hoffman he made former Vice President Cox the Secretary of State (lost on none that Cox's maneuvering at the convention had resulted in Hendricks' nomination and now Presidency); to replace Vice President Church on the Supreme Court, he appointed his political ally Melville Fuller, a prominent Illinois railroad attorney who had read his nominating address at the 1876 convention, and when Justice Clifford resigned in failing health later in the year, conservative Ohio Senator Allen G. Thurman was elevated in his stead. In somewhat of a break from previous Democratic administrations, however, Hendricks stepped back from executive prerogatives - though he held Jacksonian views on banks and racial matters, he was leery of executive power, a holdover from his opposition to the Lincoln administration's endeavors during the 1860s and his own experience as Governor of Indiana, and so he left many matters to the trusted and battle-hardened Speaker Sam Marshall of Illinois, and he and wife Eliza kept a fairly modest social schedule in the executive mansion. Jeffersonianism was what truly inspired Hendricks, and it seemed in the early days of his Presidency to be making a moderate comeback in Washington..."

- Hendricks: America's 20th President

 

[LordVorKon]

What's the rationale behind suspending homesteading? I get the rest, but...? Is that just pressure from the cattle barons who don't want to see fences all over their 'free range'?

 

[KingSweden24]

What's the rationale behind suspending homesteading? I get the rest, but...? Is that just pressure from the cattle barons who don't want to see fences all over their 'free range'?

Just small government shenanigans from a really conservative President. It’s tough coming up with government policy for the alt-US here since the 1870s were so dominated by Reconstruction OTL and the federal government did so much less back then

 

[KingSweden24]

"...the funeral of Santiago Vidaurri in Nuevo Leon's capital of Monterrey was not unlike that of a king, emphasizing not only the deep respect Mexico had for its fair and competent First Minister but also the might of the local caudillos even after Vidaurri and Maximilian's efforts to centralize authority in the capital. Particularly in northern departments, Vidaurri's death was both a reminder and a warning to Mexico City that there were other forces that had been kept at bay largely through the strength of a growing economy, fifteen years of internal peace (both politically and literally), and the force of personality of El Indio Viejo.

The death of the First Minister set off the scramble at Chapultepec to designate his successor, timed almost exactly with the "expiry" of the aspirational Plan Nacional. In two senses, the plan had been a spectacular success under Vidaurri's concurrent ten years as the Emperor's hand. Mexico's railroad capacity had nearly quadrupled in size, particularly in the central Altiplano, and immigration combined with foreign trade had buffeted the Mexican economy, along with lack of civil conflict, expanding the country's urban middle class, establishing formal banking, bringing many Maya natives into mainstream society through improved and regulated labor, and connecting Mexican institutions to other nations in the Americas and Europe to bind it more fully into the burgeoning, nascent globalist trade network. It had fallen well short of the Emperor's original goals in terms of education - perhaps a quarter of the gymnasium-style schools Maximilian had dreamed of had been built, almost none of them outside of the core central Mexican region - and the Church, still under the guiding hand of reactionary ultramontanist Labastida, still held considerable sway in the day to day life of much of rural Mexico. Nevertheless, the coinciding years of Vidaurri's ministry and the Plan Nacional had been one of the most peaceful and successful in the history of Mexico, years that the Emperor would in effect have to "bank" as storm clouds rose on the horizon, for Vidaurri was one of a kind, a centrifugal force in Mexican politics able to balance centralism against provincialism, liberalism against conservatism, and national interest against the personal ambitions of a growing cadre of figures at Court..."

- Maximilian of Mexico

 

[KingSweden24]

"...the Budapest Convention effectively sealed Russia's mobilization. Austria agreed to benevolent neutrality, but that it could occupy Bosnia at any time of its choosing (of course, this would occur only if the war went in Russia's favor, which all of Europe suspected it would). Russia agreed to establish a network of sovereign states in the Balkans rather than any large Slavic state that could disrupt the balance of power. In return for this, all stipulations heavily skewed towards Vienna, Greece would be expanded and it was even thought that there was a path towards a Neo-Byzantine restoration not unlike Catherine the Great's Greek Plan [1]. Skeptical of the Ottomans and wary of growing French influence in the Near East, the British Foreign Office under Salisbury was made aware of this arrangement by Russia and gave its silent, secret acquiescence, but warned Russia not to advance any more than within 100 miles of the Turkish Straits or the Royal Navy would respond. The stage was set, and so on April 27th, Russia declared war on behalf of the persecuted Slavic peoples of the Balkans and Orthodox Christendom, also citing Istanbul's difficulties in the Constantinople Conference as a cassus belli [2]. In mid-April, Romania gave permission for Russian troops to advance through Romanian territory to attack the Ottomans and in that same moment declared its independence from Ottoman suzerainty. The response was Ottoman bombardment of Romanian border towns, the destruction of vessels on the Danube that could be used to cross it and the immediate mining of the river and destruction of bridges to buy Istanbul time [3], with Istanbul gambling that Russia would try to circumvent its more heavily fortified roads near Kostence. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877 had begun."

- The Eastern Question

[1] There is some indication Alexander II hoped for something along these lines.
[2] Three days later than OTL
[3] This was undertaken by Russia and Romania in OTL - here, a more aggressive Ottoman Empire thanks to experienced Defense Minister Huseyin Pasha (see told you he was important) surviving makes this move first, correctly taking into account the possibility Russia doesn't attempt to thrust through Dobruja

 

[KingSweden24]

"...Cape commandos were generally held in reserve by the Molteno government as the feud between he and Frere deepened, and the High Commissioner decided to put down the restive Basutoland via Natal instead, deploying the Natal Field Force from Durban in late April. The advantages lay almost entirely with the Basutos and their Boer advisors; King Cetshwayo, who had zero interest in the British confederation plans, had dispatched a force of 5,000 of his rifle-armed impis to Basutoland to assist, the British had to attack into the Drakensberg Mountains which held geographic and familiarity advantages for the locals, and the British were internally divided, with the war being largely an endeavor of London rather than the Cape government, which was leery of her Boer neighbors. Further complicating matters was Portugal's staunch neutrality in the matter and stubborn refusal to allow Britain use of Lourenco Marques to launch potential attacks into the Transvaal..."

- The Land of Plenty: Southern Africa in the 19th Century

 

[Gendarmerie]

How likely that Maximilian and his government can stay in power or will they end up like the porfiriato of OTL fighting rebels all over the country ?

 

[Nivek]

How likely that Maximilian and his government can stay in power or will they end up like the porfiriato of OTL fighting rebels all over the country ?

For now seems they keep the whole monopoly of power and violence and seems organize, the issues might not be Max but his sucessors

 

[KingSweden24]

"...Hoffman's early retirement was spent in Ossining practicing law, an endeavor which made him profoundly wealthy and until his sudden death [1] led to suggestions that the former President potentially have a swansong as a Justice - perhaps even the Chief Justice - of the Supreme Court. In his spare time he wrote several books on the law, the Constitution, the history of the United States and also published one of the most thorough autobiographies of any President until that time, a primary source document used heavily both for this text and countless others.

It is the vast annals of writing from Hoffman himself and his contemporaries that shed so much light on his Presidency and his led to its evaluation and re-evaluation throughout history. For decades he was known mostly as the "young President" and tainted by his association with Tammany Hall, leading to the still-prevalent view that he was personally corrupt. Later historians elevated his standing in the pantheon of Presidents due to his efforts to create a civil service office, his peaceful foreign policy with all of the United States' neighbors, and his early moves towards accepting and legalizing laborism, three policies that all survived him into his successor's administration despite their strongly different backgrounds and worldviews. Of course, in recent years, Hoffman has been reassessed for the worse again - not due to Tammany, but due to the years of his Presidency coinciding with the genocide of the Plains Indians, easily the most brutal and atrocity-filled half-decade period of any of the wars between Washington and the indigenous peoples of the lands. Though it was the future President Custer [2] who has truly had his legacy reframed as Native rights groups in recent years have demanded apologies and recognition for their treatment at the hands of the Indian Office, a Lakota chief in 1965 said succintly: 'it was Hoffman who took the leash off the Wolverine...'"

- Youth and Vigor: The Presidency of John T. Hoffman

[1] IRL Hoffman died at age 60 in 1888
[2] I'm still pretty excited about this