That’s a terrible idea, he has no sons yet and if he died his marshals would struggle for the throne. Do you want to risk Bellegarde as ruler of Half of Europe ?
Empire of Freedom: The History of the American Empire
- Thread starter Kaiser of Brazil
- Start date
Bellegarde is a old buffoon who’s head will paraded like every other French dog.
Balkanized French Empire undergoing a warlord era akin to China? Now that would be something to see, and a bloodbath, but that goes without saying...
last admiral
Banned
What? No love Andalusia?!
Depend on how clusterfuck Iberia is, probably Morocco or Tunisia might tried to pull second Tariq bin Ziad. I think......
Napoleon II would have successors in the form of cousins and uncles but they would be half brained dimwits except for otl Napoleon III who still couldn’t live up to the title of emperor.
You can put whoever you want on the throne of France, they will be dead in my eyes. Long live the coalition!!!
XLV: THE AGE OF JACKSON
THE AGE OF JACKSON
The war hero and head of the People’s Party, Andrew Jackson, would have one of the longest terms in American History. From 1824 until his death in 1845, under two different Monarchs, he would oversee the death of the first Party system in America, with the eventual decline of the Federalists in the coming years, would come an age of prosperity and peace not seen ever since Emperor Washington. He would inaugurate the “Populist” tradition in Imperial politics, being called “The Great Commoner” and being the first low-born person to rule the Empire gave him a popularity no Prime Ministers ever had before. He would oversee the westward expansion into the Louisiana territory, with several new commonwealths added and the Empire extending from Quebec to Oregon, while the Northern lands in Canada continued a frozen wasteland, with colonization efforts going slow in the area. Jackson’s era would shape America and would prepare the country for its Great status after his death.
The People’s party ran over a anti-Federalist platform while not associating themselves with the Whigs. Running a platform of isolationism and neutrality on European affairs (differently from the more Pro-French elements of the Federalists), promoting the expansion of suffrage, decentralization of the Government power (while not opposing the power of the Emperor), opposition to “corporate power” and other “corrupt institutions”, and a supremacy of the people’s will against establishment. That was a radical set of reforms that separated the party from the ones before it, while also adopting some Federalists ideas in regards of the Monarchy and Tariffs. These proposals won over the vote, with the smashing majority of the votes coming from the middle class as opposed to the elitist Federalists.
Jackson’s first action was to declare a “War on Corrupt Crooks”, ordering investigations inside the Congress and Senate, later including the ministries. It was discovered that several public servants, including senators, were secretly using money from the public coffers to their own personal gain. Upon receiving the results of the investigation, Jackson would make a speech denouncing a “Nest of Snakes” inside the Empire’s institutions, and when challenged to give names by Congressman Henry Clay, one of the most outspoken critics of Jackson, he boldly read the names of every accused who attacked Jackson for such “outrage”. After that session, Jackson would suffer the first assassination attempt on a PM in American history, with an unknown hitman shooting him in the chest, and Jackson grabbed his cane and personally beat that man close to death. Luckily the shot wasn’t fatal and the hitman would later be interrogated and reveal to be connected with one of the names of the list. Jackson would then hand over the names to the Emperor, who ordered the arrest of all those accused and stripped them of their offices, and that first act in Jackson’s “reign” would skyrocket his popularity and gave him political capital for his reforms.
Jackson’s first major reform was to be the First Nation in the world to adopt Universal suffrage for all men over 25 years old. He would pass a constitutional amendment abolishing the voting requirements for Parliamentary elections in all commonwealths, including the dreaded poll taxes. While that proposal was criticized by many as an attack against “Local” rights, Jackson would reply “A Commonwealth where only 1% of its population can vote doesn’t have the People’s mandate to its laws. When they allowed only the rich to vote, did they ask the rest of the people ? No ? Then the law was never valid in the first place !” That quote would be a symbol of Jacksonian politics and the People’s party in general.
But one of Jackson’s greatest fights would be against the Imperial Bank of America, the institution personified his enemy: Dominated by “Federalist Crooks”, centralizing the monetary policy of the Empire, and serving only elitist corporations (accordingly to Jackson). His first attempt to close down the bank would be in 1828, when he tried to pass an Act, giving the power over monetary policy to the banks of each commonwealth. He would fight an uphill battle to get enough votes, only for it to be passed and then immediately struck down by the Supreme Court. The case “Jackson v Imperial Bank of America” was one of the most memorable in the history of the Empire, in a great conflict between the Central Government vs the Commonwealths to be decided by 9 judges. In a 6-3 decision, the Bank was considered an overreach of the Central Power and was ordered to be disbanded, Jackson would celebrate only to wake up on the next day with the news: Emperor Thomas vetoed the Supreme Court Decision.
That was a power the American monarchs rarely used, Thomas not only was a supporter of the bank, but he also wanted to put a halt to Jackson’s meteoric rise. Thomas saw him and his populism as a threat, even fearing for a possible coup where Jackson would turn against the Monarchy itself and manipulate the masses for a revolution, using that to become a “American Bonaparte”. Thomas and Jackson would break their relationship over the issue of the bank, a tense period of gridlock followed where Jackson’s bills attempted to reduce the Monarch’s power, only to be vetoed by the Emperor. That followed until the Christmas of that same year, when both sides came to the annual celebration in the palace, eventually discovering both had several common interests, with the meeting become more casual and both sides agreeing to end their bickering for the greater good of the nation. In return of keeping the bank, Jackson would remain Prime Minister and the Emperor promised to support his next proposals, but that wouldn’t last long, as the Emperor would die a year later on the 25th of October of 1829, victim of a Brain hemorrhage.
The death of the “People’s Monarch” would bring the nation to mourning, some old veterans of the Independence War had already lived under 3 different Monarchs of 2 different Houses, and America had greatly changed during their reigns, especially under Thomas. He would be buried in the Mausoleum of the Marshall family together with his father, and his son John would be Emperor John II Marshall, but he was still 12 years old, instead a regency had to be made, led by John’s uncle James Marshall, who governed the country until the 4th of July of 1838, when John became 20 years old, but James would continue to influence the young Emperor as his Chief Advisor. James and Jackson had quite a good relationship, allowing Jackson to keep his position, with the 1832 elections bringing him a comfortable majority in the house and in the senate.
In external affairs, Jackson abstained from involvement, even with his desire of reconquest of the south, he knew the US Army was not in shape of fighting after the general demobilization of the military made by Thomas. He also didn’t want to risk angering either Britannia or the French, keeping a neutral stance over the Great European War (even if some War Hawks wanted to finish the conquest of Canada). But after Thomas’ death, Jackson started to influence John II into a more militarist stance, but by the time he took the throne, the opening given by the GEW was closed and Britannia emerged even stronger to protect the UAR. John II would grow up disgusted at his father’s pacifism, instead he would be more down to his mother’s family side: The Bonapartes, even traveling to the court of Napoleon I where he would be fascinated by the Grand Army of his Great-Uncle, meeting with his marshals and showing a prodigy talent in military tactics and strategies that even impressed the old “Eagle of Europe”. During his time there, he also entered in contact with Napoleon’s Marshals, especially one called Bellegarde...
John II’s rise would start the second part of Jackson’s government, inaugurated in 1838 when the news of America finally paying off its national debt would spread a new wave of optimism. The industrial revolution was arriving in America, while the GEW would cause a massive influx of immigrants that would soon adapt to the American way while bringing in their own contributions, especially Irish and German immigrants fleeing the persecution and the destruction of the war. The majority of the Irish immigrants avoided the Protestant East coast (which was becoming increasingly dominated by the Americanist Church) and instead went to the Catholic areas of Quebec and the St. Laurent River, with the Grand Duchy becoming a safe heaven for Catholics who wanted to avoid the nativists and anti-catholic phobia in places like New York and Boston.
Between 1838 and 1845, Jackson would grow older, while the People’s party dominance was finally ending, there was already a whole new generation born that knew no other Prime Minister other than Jackson, soon they would be arriving at voting age, and what was once the voice of the masses started losing its momentum. New Political parties would come, with the People’s party still remaining strong, while the Federalist Party was dissolved officially in 1839. The new focus of Jackson was to prepare America to achieve its God-given Manifest Destiny, expanding the funds for the military, modernizing the navy with new Iron Frigates, expanding the army numbers and adopting new technologies and tactics from observations of the GEW. In 1845, Jackson would finally give in to Heart Failure at the age of 78, with hundreds of thousands going to Columbia to bide him a last farewell, his last wish was that his body was to be buried in his hometown, but the problem was that it was now part of another country. Emperor John II would make a speech at his funeral, assuring the people that “Soon, Andrew Jackson’s last wish shall be fulfilled !” And everyone knew what that meant.
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We shall have a few more chapters settling down the things in Turkey, the Americas, and maybe one about Asia, and then we shall see the final showdown between the Empire of Freedom and the Republic of Slavery.
And little of value was lost, if I am right about it involving the UAR.
What ? Don’t you think those slave owners deserve the “Bellegarde” treatment ? The UAR is the Confederacy but without the good bits and with even more corruption and Kleptocracy.
Indeed. Also, I take it the fact the UAR is worse than the Confederacy is largely because of how they treat non-slaveholding middle class and yeoman whites?
I mean, the UAR at least has the redeeming feature of having a noble intention, even if that totally failed. They do suck, but...
I wouldn't wish the, "Bellegarde" treatment on my worst enemy.
I think you might want to reconsider that once the UAR starts fighting John Brown’s slave uprising, and if not, then Charles Marx’s Britannia will deserve it if only to put them out of their misery.