Pax Brittanica Aeterna or how the death of a traitor saved an empire

[kasumigenx]

Pax Brittanica Aeterna

On April 25, the Spanish–American War began. While the war mostly focused on Cuba, the United States Navy's Asiatic Squadron was in Hong Kong, and commanded by Commodore George Dewey, it sailed for the Philippines. On May 1, 1898, in the Battle of Manila Bay, the squadron engaged attacked and destroyed the Spanish army & navy's Pacific Squadron and proceeded to blockade Manila. Several days later, Dewey agreed to transport Aguinaldo from Hong Kong to the Philippines aboard the USS McCulloch, which left Hong Kong with Aguinaldo on 16 May. On his arrival, Aguinaldo was arrested by the forces loyal to Bonifacio and the Bonfacio loyalists would tell Francisco Makabulos to execute Aguinaldo as a traitor, this would reinvigorate the revolt which would mean that the Americans would not consider the Philippines to be annexable as the forces of the Katagalugan Republic would be united against the Spanish under the rule of President Francisco Makabulos which would cause the Spanish to lose control of Luzon completely.

The Treaty of Paris of 1898 was a treaty signed by Spain and the United States on December 10, 1898, that ended the Spanish–American War. In the treaty, Spain relinquished all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba and Luzon, and ceded Puerto Rico, Guam to the United States. The Treaty of Paris came into effect on April 11, 1899, when the documents of ratification were exchanged.

The Treaty of Paris provided that Cuba would become independent from Spain but the U.S. Congress made sure it would be under indirect U.S. control through the Platt Amendment. Specifically, Spain relinquished all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba. Upon Spain's departure from Cuba, it was to be occupied by the United States, and the United States would assume and discharge any obligations that under international law could result from the fact of its occupation.

The Treaty also assured that Spain would cede to the United States the island of Puerto Rico and other islands then under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies, as well as the island of Guam in the Marianas Islands.

In accordance with the treaty, Spain:

Gave up all rights to Cuba

Gave up all rights to Luzon(Katagalugan/Tagalog Republic)

Surrendered Puerto Rico and gave up its possessions in the West Indies.

Surrendered the island of Guam to the United States and other Spanish Pacific Possesions.

 

[kasumigenx]

Guangxu

In 1898, shortly after the collapse of the Hundred Days' Reform, the Guangxu Emperor's health began to decline, prompting Cixi to name Pujun, a son of the emperor's cousin, the reactionary Prince Duan, as heir presumptive. Pujun and his father were removed from their positions after the Boxer Rebellion. He was examined by a physician at the French Legation and diagnosed with chronic nephritis; he was also discovered to be impotent at the time.

During the Boxer Rebellion, Emperor Guangxu fiercely opposed the idea of using usurpers as a means to counter foreign invasion. His letter to then United States president Theodore Roosevelt is still preserved in U.S. government archives. On 14 August 1900, the Guangxu Emperor, along with Cixi, Empress Longyu and some other court officials, fled from Beijing as the forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance marched on the capital to relieve the legations that had been besieged during the Boxer Rebellion during that time, Cixi would perish.

Zaitian, Emperor Guangxu would escape from Beijing and into Hongkong wherein he would be able to get the help from the British and restore his own power as Emperor by Edward VIII on 1903 and started the reforms on his own which would mean the Han would be treated as equals to the Chinese and made Sun Yat Sen as his Prime Minister on 1904 and made China into a constitutional monarchy which would give the monarch a limited role in the government, the hairstyle of the Manchu Queue would start to be unfashionable and the rule would be completely abolished on 1910.

 

[kasumigenx]

Aftermath of the treaty

On 1899, Queen Victoria would laugh at the result of the Spanish-American war and the fact that only Luzon was ceded by the Spanish, she would tell her ministers that they should strengthen their own rule in Borneo and Malaya Peninsula and she would send a letter to Queen Isabella of Spain regarding the treaty, telling her that the Americans technically lost in the war due to the Spanish still holding the 2/3 of the Philippines and now ruled via Iloilo.

Queen Victoria would be happy due to the Spanish retaining their own hold in part of the archipelago not all of it as the Americans would not have the monopoly of Power in the Archipelago.

The British would help the Spanish in destroying the Federal Republic of Visayas and Republic of Zamboanga which are an independentist movement, this would be easy as there are still many loyalists of Spain in that area of the Archipelago, during that time majority of the Spanish and the Chinese Population would be expelled from the Tagalog republic led by Makabulos at that time destroying all the Spanish influence in the Archipelago.

The Criolos, Insulares and Chinese that were expelled by the Tagalog republic would settle in Iloilo and Sugbu which would help in the Spanish in suppressing the Visayan and Mindanao revolts as they would be loyal to the Spanish.

During the 19th century, the Spanish Empire lost most of its colonies to independence movements. Then came the Spanish–American War in 1898, in which Spain lost most of its remaining colonies. Cuba and the Tagalog republic became independent while the United States took possession of Puerto Rico along with Guam and its other possessions from the Spanish East Indies (Spain's Pacific Ocean colonies). This left Spain with only its African possessions and 2/3s of the Philippines. Germany lobbied the Spanish government to facilitate the sale of the remaining Philippines to Germany.

The Spanish Prime Minister Francisco Silvela signed the treaty on February 12, 1899. It transferred Mindanao, Sulu, Palawan to Germany, was also occupied and during the following years the Germans started up mining there to Germany, which then placed them under the jurisdiction of German New Guinea.

In October 1914, during World War I, China invaded and conquered many of these German possessions. After the war, they became in 1919 the South Pacific Mandate of the League of Nations, under the control of the Chinese Empire. During and after World War II the British would acquire Mindanao, Palawan and Sulu.

 

[Some Bloke]

A reformed Chinese Empire setting itself up on the world stage after the Great War?
I'd be interested to see how things went from constitutional reform at the turn of the century to having a naval force sufficient to press a claim in the Philippines,
or are they divided 3 ways between China, the US & Japan?

 

[kasumigenx]

A reformed Chinese Empire setting itself up on the world stage after the Great War?
I'd be interested to see how things went from constitutional reform at the turn of the century to having a naval force sufficient to press a claim in the Philippines,
or are they divided 3 ways between China, the US & Japan?

The Philippines would be divided into three, Tagalog republic(an ally of the US), Spain and Germany/China/Britain/Malaysia, yeah and China takes place of Japan in being dropped by Atomic Bomb by Britain and Japan ends up in a revolt after WWI due to allying with central power and US ends up as a second rate power.

 

[kasumigenx]

This TL is still active..I just have some writers block and i updated the latest post.

 

[kasumigenx]

Ysidra and Antonio Luna

On 1900, Ysidra Cojuangco would marry Antonio Luna who had already bore two children with her, the two existing Children would be Felicidad Luna(1896) and Antonio Luna jr.(1898), Antonio Luna jr. they would be expelled in the pogrom against the Spanish and Chinese related populations and settled in the remaining Spanish East Indies.