The Growing Mouse: A Collaborative TL

DTF955Baseballfan

1870 - St. Thomas and St. John, American islands for the last couple years thanks to Seward, become not only a "great vacatin home" for wealthy Americans, but also - briefly - a place to smuggle guns into Cuba to help the revolutionaries, since the Spanish are looking at Florida if any Ameircans choose to try.

This keeps Thomas Jordan - who won a significant victory at Guantanomo but who would have left a month or two later, being so short on supplies - in Cuba a while longer as a mercenary, though the U.S. government officially denies anyone is helping the Cubans revolt. The Spanish are still being very brutal, though, as JOrdan smuggles out letters telling the extent of Spanish brutality in Cuba in response tot he revolt.
 
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DTF955Baseballfan

August, 1870 - Former Confederate general Thomas Jordan is shot and killed immediately after being captured by Spanish forces. This is part of their policy of shooting on sight any Rebels or those connected with them, or even those who are not on their plantations as they are supposed to be.

The Spanish government issues a tersely worded letter to America's President Grant regarding Jordan's actions, has Jordan remaining had provided the rebels with some good training and victories. Grant takes the high road after some thought, remarking that Jordan had also rebelled against his own country and that he had not seen it proper to make Confederate martyrs, because it would only continue the Rebellion. With this statement, he hopes to imply to the Spanish that their own actions are not winning them any friends in Cuba and will ultimately lead to their undoing.

The Spanish accept this as an apology and let the matter drop, but they do not take the hint. Meanwhile, the news has caused a small uptick in Sympathy for the Cuban Rebels, and while it will not lead to lots of American assistance it is perceived that– in a close fight - it may be enough to tip the balance oh, at least to keep America from supplying Spain, even if they don't supply the rebels either..
 

DTF955Baseballfan

1870 - With the Spanish struggling in Cuba, before the capture and executionof Jordan, Belgium's king ups his offer for thePhilippines. This is based on both reason - the Spanish may be desperate to sell, like France with Louisiana, and if Liechtenstein, of all place, has a colony he'd better be ableto have one!

Meanwhule, a lifetime member of Denmark's Parliament, in his 90s, who would have voted against the sale to America had it been close, offers the suggestion that - with Denmark's economy a little better now since they don't have the money drain - perhaps they can invest in something in Africa. The idea is only an idea for now, of course.

(Note - Okay, that's all the time I have for a bit, but I've given us some good small butterflies to begin flapping their wings.)
 

Roland Rmoutil

Banned
1871: Thirty-three whaling ships of American, Russian and Austrian heritage are trapped in ice, freezing (get the pun) the whaling industry. With its main industry halted, and the Alaskan frontier looking unprospective, Freiherr von Hausen suggests to Johann II that he sell the territory for a profit.
 

DTF955Baseballfan

April, 1872: With money from the sale of the Philippines having helped to raise more Spanish soldiers leading to even more brutality) Spain has finally pushed back the rebels from most of the gains they had Made when General Jordan was active in 1870, and achieved a stalemate with the guerillas in Cuba. However, the third carlist war will mean that the Cuban revolt will last for at least several more years. Cubans, meanwhile, continued to hope that someday Jordan will be remembered as their Lafayette as they continued fighting.

Leopold II, with his own money, has had the Philippine Islands totally mapped, or at least as well as can be done with 1870s technology. Though he gets some troubling reports from those who explored the area as they present their findings to hi he promises that he will not allow any insurgency to stop him from exploiting the region. However, he readily admits that he has no more money to even consider anything in Africa.
 
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Samsara123

Banned
Wendell said:
Are the Philippines here Leopold's personal fiefdom, or is the Belgian state on board with the purchase?
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Unlike the congo, he literally cannot treat them as slaves or his and troops will be driven to the sea,the population especially the upper class are highly educated and know european tactics and politics he needs to actually negotiate terms with each republic, not unless he brings overwhelming firepower and manpower like the americans did and I seriously doubt Belgium has the resources to ship thousands of men and equipment all the way to asia just because their king has a colonial boner, Philippines is not a place to draw cheap labour from and dismemberment and mutilation of the locals will just piss off people further, they have been fighting the spanish successfully for years Leopold is walking into a boiling cauldron he thinks he can dominate with a few mercs is a huge mistake, not even taking to account that Japan has a interest in the Philippines being a free nation and Belgium doesn’t have the same military power to make Japan back down from supporting the first republic
 
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DTF955Baseballfan

Wendell said:
Are the Philippines here Leopold's personal fiefdom, or is the Belgian state on board with the purchase?
Click to expand...
Because of the price involved, which admittedly probably went down a little because Spain was more needy, the parliament probably had a little bit to say about it but it is still Leopold's personal playground but with some parliamentary oversight.

This doesn't mean that Leopold will tell the parliament exactly what is happening of course, and that will cause problems. So will the rebels and the Japanese... it will be a mess in the coming years.
 

Samsara123

Banned
DTF955Baseballfan said:
Because of the price involved, which admittedly probably went down a little because Spain was more needy, the parliament probably had a little bit to say about it but it is still Leopold's personal playground but with some parliamentary oversight.

This doesn't mean that Leopold will tell the parliament exactly what is happening of course, and that will cause problems. So will the rebels and the Japanese... it will be a mess in the coming years.
Click to expand...
Not telling his people the shit he is dragging his small country is the biggest mistake he will ever make, Philippines is not the Congo, it isn’t a whole lot of tribes who ignorantly signed treaties they didn’t understand, this is the Philippines with western ideas and culture near comparable to Europe, with armies that are near parity with European armies with more and weapons shipments from both America and Japan sending weapons and ammunition to aid the rebels and any attempts to make them stop will make both laugh in their ambassadors faces.
 
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DTF955Baseballfan

Oh, yes, this could go up like a mushroom cloud in a number of ways.
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Dec., 1872: with a healthy heir in Prince Baudouin, and with the possibility of even having a son himself, Leopold II besides that, from what he has heard about the more European understandings of the upper class in the Philippines, he will dispatch his brother, Prince Philippe, on a Goodwill tour to leave Christmas Day and two later arrived in the Philippines, where Leopold hopes that the Prince, who will arrive with the governor general, can soothe the nerves of any with European backgrounds while he himself deals with the "rabble," as he termed them. He suggests the count of Flanders wife goes with him because maybe they could sire an heir in the Philippines. Their three children can be raised as royalty back in Belgium. His last words before the voyage or a suggestion to Philip that he remind them that "we are all Spanish at heart because Belgium used to be the Spanish Netherlands."
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And yes, I know this is about Liechtenstein having Alaska but things will go a little slower there oh, for a while, just as we posted the year at first and might not always pinpoint a month for a while yet. Things moved slower in those days.
 
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Samsara123

Banned
Yeah he can’t just take over the Philippines like that, they just managed to drive off the spanish, there won’t be many people that will tolerate being under another monarch unless he actually gives all the citizens equal rights he is not making any headway, he actually needs to treat them with respect and dignity and actually make improvements for people to cooperate along with a actual promise of eventually freedom, speaking of, in Aquinaldo’s government there are already some Ishin Shishi(some even advocating direct military support for the Philippines) acting as advisors to the government with many spanish defectors within their ranks.

Also Leopold actually doesn’t even need to torture people into compliance, there is already well established industries in the country to tax he simply needs to treat the people with the proper amount of respect they deserve.

If he’s gonna try to use the spanish heritage angle he had better treat them as such
 
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DTF955Baseballfan

Jan. 1873 - Having failed to get pregnant again, despite Lepold II's attempts to woo her, the Queen of Belgium moves out and the couple live separately the rest of her life. While King Leopold believes has a nephew he is training to be his heir, he also sends a dispatch to Philippe hoping he can "sire an heir with the best possible place being our glorious colony, the PHilippines."

However, he hears also of possible rebels, and so creates the PUblic Force, preparing to train them to "defeat rebels and keep the peace." Leopold hopes he only has to send a few dozen such soldiers, but is going to await word of what Philippes finds when he is in the Philippines.

A political cartoon later, poking fun at Leopold and he lack of common sense in dealing witht he colony, shows the king telling Philippe, "I wish you the success of Magellan," since Magellan - while his crew finished circumnavigating the world - died in the Philippines.
 
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