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Hi, I'm new to the Alt History site and want to get my feet wet in TL writing by writing a TL about an obscure event and time that I feel would have... interesting effects on the history of North America, if not the world. All constructive criticism is welcome, and I hope I don't make a complete fool of myself. So.... sing in me Muse the story of silver, opportunism, and anger. The story of Don Guillén de Lamport (or, to go by his birthname, William Lamport).


The Beginning of a New Age


The streets were quiet, yet if something were to go amiss Captain Mendez wouldn't have heard it anyway: He was too busy fuming. He had gone to the Audiencia as a loyal citizen of Spain, in the hopes of exposing a radical and being rewarded for it, but he was ignored. The Inquisition would surely pay more attention and maybe they would recognize his greatness.

Or so he thought. One man in the Audiencia paid close attention to what he had to say and that man was a friend of the radical who Mendez was after and had alerted said radical to the leak.

As Mendez fumed through the streets, he didn't pay much attention to the man walking towards him. Walking was no crime in Mexico City. Grabbing a man and forcing him into a backalley might be considered a crime. Stabbing the man multiple times is surely a crime. Whispering "Viva la independencia, pinche esclavo" into his ear is definitely a capital crime.

In a room in the house of the friend, three people plotted. One was the snitch-who-snitched-on-a-snitch, he was the chief clerk of the government in Mexico city, a creole elite by the name of Fernando Carrillo, and a man who already protested Spanish tax and revenue schemes. The other was an indigenous man known as Don Ignacio, a nobleman among his people who came to Mexico City to petition the city against a Spanish official who abused the Indian laborers in the silver mines of Taxco. The other, the radical himself, was a well-educated Irishman who had originally gone to Spain to request Spanish aid to help liberate Ireland from England and was now planning to liberate New Spain from Spain. The man earned his fame under the name Gullén de Lamport, a translation of his birthname, William Lamport.

The three knew the depth of Spanish injustice in the colony, and they believed in Don Guillén's ideas about political sovereignty, reform, and equality. According to legend, Don Ignacio and Señor Carrillo were to first to recite the battle cry that would rock New Spain "Viva Don Guillén, nuestro emperador, nuestro rey, y nuestro libertador! Viva!"

Mexico City had seen a riot as recently as 1624. What surprised the authorities was the organization and the number of people involved. What a crowd they must have been: creoles, Indians, and mestizos who had had enough of Spanish rule and injustice. The next surprise must have been the direction the mob was going: towards the silver mines of Taxco. The Mexican War of Independence had begun.
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