Extra stuff.

This thread is meant as a repository of short articles related to my ongoing time line a history of Alyska in modern times.https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/a-history-of-alyska-in-modern-times.387667/
Basically while I was writing the time line I noticed that some of the stuff I wanted to talk about did not quite fit into the general flow of the piece. And so this is my solution. In this thread I will write articles which will have an impact on the TL but not be vital to understanding it. Like how if I were writing a TL set in New York during an alternate American war of independence it might help to know what was going on back in London but it is not vital to understanding the story.
I will post here whenever I come up with an article.
 
Dauntless`s 1826 southern Expedition.

Daunstless.jpg

The Dauntless in a sketch by Timothy Thatcher about 1826 soon after he had been appointed to command the ship on her historic voyage.

One of the 56 gun Frigates of the 1818 act the Dauntless was the third ship in her class. She was laid down in the Fredricksburg (At that time the town was still known as Nova Stockholm) naval yard on March fifth 1819. She was launched in May of 1821 and commissioned on the 11th of October of the same year. For the first four months of her service the ship sailed as a training ship for officers and crew to acquaint them with the basics of gunnery, navigation, as well as the finer points of sailing. During this time she was commanded by Captain first class Edward Cowper, the first of many Welshmen to command her.
After her crew was trained to a common standard the vessel was then dispatched alongside the 56 gun Fearless, the flagship of Commodore Icenhour, she served in the second fleet during the second war with China. She took no part in any of the atrocities committed by the navy at the time and was quite busy acting to seek and destroy the powerful French Pirate ship the Soleil, which she did in a furious action which took place off of the southern Japanese island of Kuyshu on June 19th 1824. She then escorted the damaged Volk and Avrora back to Posadka after they suffered a collision in the Yangtze river during the latter stages of the offensive along its shores.
Following the peace 1825 with China, and the middle Kingdoms withdrawl into nearly thirty years of isolationism, the Dauntless returned to Alyskan waters and the ship was paid off and officers and crew dismissed as it was intended to place the ship in Ordinary (Storage) along with the Fearless and Courageous as large Frigates were judged to be to expensive in the era of peace which was expected by the newly elected Trent government.

However before she could rot forgotten along the dock President Trent found a use for the ship which would take her very far from home. Trent wished to establish Alyska as a colonial power in the Pacific and wished to send the Dauntless out to chart any and all landmasses in the ocean. She was to also fully chart the western coast of the Americas and fully map New Zealand (Atoria).
To command the ship during her expedition Trent chose the former RN lieutenant Timothy Thatcher (The future Timothy I) as captain. Thatcher had only recently enlisted in the navy after a number of years on half pay in London following the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1816.
The Dauntless, with a totally new crew, set sail for the south Pacific on August 9th 1826. She spent much of the remainder of the year cruising the coast of North and South America, making the first detailed charts of the coast in English. She then spent some months off of Antarctica charting its peninsula in detail. She then headed for New Zealand and spent almost nine months off its coast, occasionally attacked by the fierce natives Thatcher nonetheless made numerous landings along the coast and observed such creatures as the Stewart Eagle OTL Haast eagle. As well as the massive Richards Ostrich OTL Moa Moa birds. Following her extensive stay along New Zealand the Dauntless spent nearly a month in british claimed Australia making large lists of the creatures found there. Including a sketch by Thatcher of the now presumed extinct Tasmanian Tiger. Many specimens were also collected. So many in fact that they would not all fit aboard the Dauntless and Thatcher was forced to hire a schooner to bring the collection to Posadka.
Dauntless would depart Australia in January 1827 and head for the east Indies were she would spend several months amongst the many islands and reefs once more filling the ship nearly to the brim with specimens of new and exotic creatures.

The ships trip was cut short however when a passing British Indiamen hailed Dauntless and informed them that war had broken out between Alyska and the crumbling Spanish empire.
Thatcher hastily set a course for Posadka, choosing to head clear back to the Americas to avoid any Spanish vessels along the way.
 
Last edited:
Loss of Empire. 1812-1825.

By 1812, when the first Spanish constitution was signed into effect, Spain was in turmoil. Years of brutal French occupation and guerrilla warfare against their oppressive regime had destroyed Spanish society and torn the government apart. But perhaps even more disconcerting for many was the state of the many and far flung Spanish colonies.
None of the colonies had accepted the Bonaparte’s as the true rulers of Spain and all established governments in exile which ruled the colony in the name of Spain, but in reality were for all intents and purposes independent of the true Spanish government in Cadiz. When Ferdinand the seventh became king of Spain once more he expected all that to change and sent armies to retake the colonies from what he viewed as revolutionary control.
His armies had managed to defeat the majority of the rebellions by 1816 but before peace could be appreciated a second wave of revolts, even more destructive than before, swept the empire. Unlike previously when the colonies had simply asked for greater representation in the Spanish government, the colonies now sought outright independence from the empire.
Part of the reason for this move was the king Ferdinand who soon after his coronation had dissolved the 1812 constitution and had reinstated autocratic rule in Spain. Rather than treating his colonial subject, who had contributed many men, guns and much money to his supporters during the occupation, he treated them as children in need of punishment. Thinking that his power was given by God himself he believed that he knew what was best and refused to entertain the notion that anyone else could ever be right. That was especially true of his colonies who he thought of as stupid.
Thus the governments of the colonies began a series of revolts which by the end of the year had practically caused the end of the Spanish empire. That is not to say that Spain did not try to keep ahold of their colonies, in fact up until the eighteen seventies there was serious talk in Madrid of launching attempts to regain their empire.
However their attempts were all in vain and it was not until Ferdinand was killed in 1819 that change would come about. Ferdinand’s brother Carlos had had his brother assassinated to ensure that he could claim the throne by killing his brother before he could father a child. This accomplished Carlos proclaimed himself king and attempted to exile Ferdinand’s wife Maria Christina.]
At this point Spain broke out into a civil war which pitted troops loyal to either Maria of Carlos against eachother. Carlos`s main support came from the northern regions of Spain while Maria held control of most major centres of trade and population along the coast and to the south. Despite her larger armies and greater public support it was not until 1822 that she was able to defeat Carlos and send him into exile in Portugal.
Soon afterwards Maria decided to cut her losses and in a series of treaties granted independence to Mexico under the first empire, Gran Columbia, Argentina and Chile. Spain would continue to rule over Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, and the Philippines and Guam in the Pacific.
Although she was the monarch who would grant independence to a large part of Spain’s colonial empire she never intended it to be permanent and until the day she died in 1854 she planned to retake her lost colonies. All that was lacking was the gold to fund such a move.
 
Top