Chapter 45 Treaty of Lisbon
"Vive le Quebec! Vive le Quebec!"- chants of Quebecois upon confirmation of end of the war 1847
"We've fought a two year war and have lost thousands of lives for this land. It would be a disgrace to the memory of the fallen if we doe not start the admission of Oregon today."- President Daniel Webster 1852
"For the third time we had lost against our colonial children. Another chunk of the Empire was taken and Britain once again looked weak on the world stage. Did we ever try to address the problems that caused the war's loss or maybe run the Empire better? No. Those damn nobles just could not accept the fact that our military was weaker than America's or that their ignorance of the people had caused the Corn Riots. They would learn in due time though. I had personally seen to it."- Lord Protector Oliver Mosley 1938
After the British were pushed back from the coasts of the United States, there was really little else that would change on the battlefield for the rest of the war. The Navies continued their cat and mouse game as the United States would continue to perform raids on certain British cities and colonies while Britain would try and pick off America's remaining Navy. Due to the reduced size of ships available, all plans by the Department of War to commence amphibious operations such as an invasion of Jamaica were promptly scratched. The only place on the entire continent were fighting still took place was on the peninsula of Nova Scotia as the American/Quebecois armies tried to push further against the British stationed there. This happened with little change in territory as while many battles were fought, the British had evacuated all of their remaining North American forces there and they had received minor amounts of reinforcements every month. Making a virtual stalemate that the United States only kept up in order to wear down Britain. Across the Union there were multiple fears of a second invasion as many thought that the British would once again try and protect their claim by sending more of their men west, this time with even more troops. The American Army constantly trained, civilians retreated from the coast, and volunteers renewed their contracts in order to face the British again. It turns out that they would not need to do so as while the war continued for the rest of the year it would not reach American soil once again. Britain would by the beginning of summer become involved in the First War of German Unification, sending hundreds and thousands of men and much of their Royal Navy to Central Europe and the Balkans. With this any ideas of invading America again were put to the sideline as the British fought to retain their ally and keep the Russian behemoth from expanding, much to the frustrations of the Royal War department. The Oregon War would've continued after the end of the German conflict but there is one factor that the British never expected to fight, it's own people.
At first the British public was mostly for the American War as its people sought to take revenge against America who had humiliated them so many times in the past. There was some opposition to the conflict, most notably among the factor workers and the Irish, but the ruling class had chosen war and like sheep to a flock most jumped on with them. As Canada fell the British still kept their war fervor on. Why? Because in their minds it was the backwards Canadians who had lost the fight, surely the might of the British regulars would finish the job. So as 1846 ended the British public were still behind the war, a factor that may have helped with initial stability by providing a common enemy to focus on when the ideas of the '46 Revolutions spread to London. As Summer came the British still had their hopes high even when they would be forced to go into another war against Russia as in their minds, Washington would fall by the end of the year and Canada would be liberated. All of these hopes fell with the capture of the Quebec expedition and the conclusion of the Battle of Washington on July 4 which had knocked the British off the two most important theaters of the war. The situation got worse as the British were pushed out of the continent entirely with the failure of the gulf campaign in October. Were it not for the victories against the Russians it is likely that a revolution might have happened then and there. But Britain would still face unrest come December with the nationwide famine and the Corn Riots.
In 1815 the Importation Act, or the Corn Laws as they were often called, were passed by the British Parliment as a series of tariffs designed to keep the Industrial British economy growing against any industrial growth that took place in Europe. One of the most important clauses of the Act was that extremely high tariffs were put around any foreign agricultural products, mostly corn, to support British farmers and keep the island independent. Its negative effects were already shown in the first five years after the eruption of Mount Tambora caused a massive famine within Britain and for several riots to take place. Still Parliment held firm on their decision and kept to the tariff. For the next 25 years the food input of Britain would remain stable as all British and Irish crops were immediately shipped to the markets of London and other cities on the island. A problem soon arose though as the effects of the Second Revolution caused a massive population boom which required some amount of importing from Europe, and most prominently America. In early 1846 the Irish Potato Famine began which caused the people of Ireland to starve and for the Potato to be near eliminated from the British diet. Still Parliment kept the laws in place as it was only the Irish who were being affected and they could contain any unrest with local forces. Then the Oregon War commenced and Britain lost its highest source of wheat, causing some starvation to set about in the British population. What made matters worse was that Britain could no longer import from the continent as it was virtually filled with wars and revolutionary unrest which made any exportation of crops from Europe near impossible. As months went by the situation got worse as American ships plundered British vessels with food from Asia and South America, Russia came into war with Britain which prevented any grain import from Ukraine, the Irish started getting rebellious, and India had gone under bad harvests. Virtually the only nations that Britain still had a somewhat stable trading relationship with was Texas, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, and Portugal. The worse effects were kept form the public however as it could still rely on domestic crops to feed its people. Then the famine of 1847 came. Winter came early to Britain as the temperatures reached a record low of around 8 degrees Fahrenheit in October, when the harvests were collected by the farmers they had only produced half of the previous years output. With the onset of these conditions Britain virtually starved within weeks as there were little new sources of food for the common people while the nobles and the upper class took a great deal of the rest by maintaining their high lifestyle diet. What ultimately caused the situation to go down the toilet was when Queen Victoria hosted a Advent Banquet on December 1st. While the banquet was meant as a charity event to help the starving people of Britain through donations, the event involved near a ton of food to be put on display for the around 5,000 guests. Word had spread from servants at Buckingham Palace of the event and soon thousands of people swarmed the palace on the night of the event to demand food. The guards refused to budge and went the protestors got angsty, the used brute force to keep them away from the palace. Ultimately the people were not able to gain access to the palace because of the royal guard, but when they were pushed back they instead decided to take their anger on the Upper/Middle class of London while also targeting bakeries, butcher shops, and farmer's market. By the time the banquet was supposed to start the whole city of London was in chaos as fires spread from accident, stores were being robbed by looters, rioters took to the streets and targeted the Anglican Church and public officials such as the police and the city government. When word of the riots spread other cities such as Norfolk, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, etc., started to commence riots of their own. By the end of the week the unrest had even spread to Ireland. In order to quell these riots Queen Victoria had to recall troops some troops from Europe and the totality of Canada, causing the American Army to march into Nova Scotia successfully on January 11th. The total unrest was officially declared to be over on March 2nd with the repeal of the Corn Laws, but by then the United Kingdom had lost millions of Pounds in property damage, over 7,000 people killed from the riots with another 10,000 who had been wounded, and a still hungry British population to feed. While the German War was gaining momentum as Germany was preparing to counterattack and drive the Russians all the way back their borders, it was clear that the war with America was lost by now. An official armistice was declared on January 29th and a peace conference arranged in Lisbon on March 15th.
The Corn Riots of 1847 in London (Right) An Irish family during the Potato Famine (Left)
When the Americans and Quebecois walked into the meeting of Lisbon they knew that they were in a position of strength by occupying all of North America. Secretary of State Francis Granger was sent to represent both parties along with a handful of American diplomats. Their objectives were to not walk away without the Oregon territory in entirety or an independent Quebec. They were also to push for as many concessions that they could possibly strangle out of the British as Harrison knew that while America's trade had faltered during the war, Britain was on the more serious issue of collapse with the need for food imports, allowing for any tactics of delay to be highly effective. It took two weeks for any sort of agreement to be reached as the British were apprehensive about giving in totally to the American's demands and there was no way for the United States to enforce a total conquest of Canada. Finally compromises were reached and the Treaty was signed on April 1st. The following terms were this:
- The entirety of the Oregon Territory is to be given to the United States.
- Quebec is to be given independence as the Republic of Quebec and its sovereignty shall be recognized by the United Kingdom. Quebec will include the lands of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia with a $3 Million dollar debt to be paid by 1856.
- The Untied Kingdom acknowledges that it was responsible for the start of the war with the border incident.
- All sailors shall be returned to their respective nations within 120 days of the ratification of the treaty.
- The Great Lakes is to be demilitarized by both sides.
- The Untied States shall annex the Bahamas with a $1 Million dollar price.
- A free trade agreement concerning agriculture shall be in effect between both nations for the next ten years.
The treaty was then later sent to both Washington and London within the next few weeks. Come May peace once again came to the two nations.
North America after the Oregon War in 1848
The end of the Oregon War produced great effects for both nations. For Britain it was a serious embarrassment and blunder that they had lost to the United States again. This caused some military reforms to pass within the next two decades that would be further supplemented by the outcome of the Crimea War. Britain also took steps away from protectionism to establish a free trade economy to keep the British people afloat. After the Corn Riots stopped and peace one again appeared for both nations, millions of British and Irish people would scramble to immigrate to the United States and Texas which would cause the great Immigration Boom of the 1850's. Finally with most of Canada lost, Britain would mostly abandon direct control of the western hemisphere and instead try to dominate by proxy, while opening up new missions and expeditions to colonize Africa or Asia. In Quebec the people cheered all throughout the nation as they were now free from the British forever and could practice their religion and language in peace. A diaspora of English citizens appeared where most Englishmen of Quebec and the Maritime would either migrate west to the remaining Canadian territories or to Britain. For the rest of the 19th century, Quebec would form a national identity of Quasi-French culture and would within years become a stable regional supplier of agriculture, lumber, fish, and shipbuilding. Quebec would also become the United States first permanent ally and they both maintain a close relationship to this day. In the United States the whole country erupted in celebration as they had once more beaten the British and had claimed what was rightfully theirs while liberating oppressed brethren across the border. In the next decade permanent settlement and development of the Oregon territory would begin with Oregon becoming a state in 1852 and the creation of America's pacific trade to begin in the 1850's, the area would later receive an immense amount of migration with the gold rushes of the 1860's and the Alaskan gold rush of 1897. President William Henry Harrison became a national hero and was the most popular president at the time who had an equal amount of love comparable to George Washington, with most American historians today ranking him in the Top 10 of American Presidents. If he wanted to, Harrison could've run for a third term and won a landslide, but the 75 year old man was tired of politics and didn't want to ruin his legacy with any negative actions that might've come in the future, so instead he decided to throw his support behind Daniel Webster for the next election. Webster won in a large electoral landslide but had come close in the popular vote against Democrat John Tyler. For the next decade the United States would come to focus on industrialization, immigration, increasing trade, and settlement of the rest of the west. The war would also play a huge impact in the American Civil War as many of the generals on both sides had gained massive experience in the conflict, while the United States implemented several military reforms for a larger and more professional army. The more immediate concern of the war that would cause the Civil War to come about was the one question that all Americans had been conveniently trying to keep from their minds, slavery.
Flag of the Republic of Quebec (Right) President Daniel Webster (Center) The Oregon Trail (Left)
